Il pullulare di lotte e di violenze aveva spinto la popolazione ad espedienti caratteristici: ciascuna famiglia cercò di proteggersi con lo stringersi alla propria consorteria, e ciascuna consorteria so alleò ad altre in società. I più ricchi rafforzarono le mura dei loro palazzi ed eressero torri; torri eressero a comune difesa anche minori famiglie, piccole fortezze intorno a cui si combatterono furiose lotte intestine; e, mentre tutti i nobili si collegavano in alleanza tra loro (Società dei militi), tra la borghesia so formavano associazioni di mestiere che andavano crescendo di numero e di potenzia.[1]
Certo no, Cara, there is always more to be said and done – even if it is only to say and to experience of what had been said and done …
Actually with every additional step I make in my “religious studies” I am wondering if we sometimes shouldn’t simply accept that at least many things had been said and done: There are some of these church intellectuals simply not in a position to accept crusades having been and being undertaken in their name and …. – and are we all so limited in tolerating that we failed. In this respect Francis is surely a good example, admitting that he had failed ….
… but then he waits for people praying for him.
I am not sure about all this – and one of the problems is that it is so difficult to get sufficient information for something that one can justifiably suggest to be a “complete picture”.
The pope driving in a Panda … – isn’t that also a wonder? or is it a wonder that we (or some of us) think it is a wonder. I heard the other day about people who went to Argentina – some time ago – and asked to see the cardinal – apparently it had been granted, with something like: yes, just go there, at the side of the church…that door … – and they stepped in, seeing the cardinal preparing his meal: two (scrambled?) eggs.
And I also heard about today’s procedures of the inquisition. And I read the many articles about the Changes of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione, the changes of the Vatican policies …, and the fear that nothing happens, and the knowledge that in some what nothing can change as long as certain foundations are not touched – but that will then still to be elaborated for the little essay to come on the Vatican Spring, [2]and the presentation I will have to give in two weeks.
For me it is always somewhat a wonder how people are, how they are seen and how they are made seen, i.e. are presented: kind of “made of and built on sand”, formed by people, but also the kind of sand from which they are made and bey the wind and …, and the image we make of them – and so we read at CCC2427:
Il lavoro provieni immediatamente da persone create a immagine di Dio …
Leaving aside that this image making is according to other sources a sin …. – well, it is “work”, the way in which we all create …. prejudices.
There is a not so funny story. 10 people, one has to look at a painting, tell somebody else what s/he saw, who tells somebody else what s/he saw … – At the end a gentle man with black skin, saving a woman who is attacked and would have been raped by a furious man with white skin turns out to be a f… nigger who rapes a woman while having a knife between his teeth … – the reality “re-written” by the racist real society, the rally racist society, the societal racist reality … – and thus making reality as you many well know from the Song From The Capeman.
In this way, I am living personally in a somewhat interesting (as I did most of my life), living (another time) between worlds …, and though I think these rolling heads (well, in actually fact I think they just fell into the bucket) are not so nice, I think there head been some good reason for it; and apparently a missed opportunity here in Italy. – I told you about the student who is now here fro placement – she arrived during the week with her sister – just a couple of days for accommodation before work starts. I went fro dinner with them – and then the next evening we went again The local hero who wanted to join us on the first occasion missed it – and so … – … we ended up strolling a bit through town before sitting down in a nice restaurant: two somewhat old men, and two definitely young women. We passed the palace of the Borghese – sure, if you have a villa you have to have a palace. I knew the place but I did to know: “It is private. They are still living there.” …. Well, yes, there had not been a “real” revolution here. We walked further … turned left, into the entrance – few words by Marco and that gate opened intron of us: “but only to … “ we had been told where to stop. While some other people walked further, turned left, opened another door and we learned: There is a special room. the nobles can go there for having a meal. Still served in the “appropriate style”: servants in their uniform …
I could go on …
… and I could go on, add about this feeling yesterday when I went to the “village”, i.e. via Alexandria: “my village”, quartier …, : I passed a bar, a person standing in front …: Buona Pasqua – asking for money; I left the post office, next to the bar, turned right, seeing a woman sitting a few meter ahead on the ground, begging; I didn’t walk so far but had to cross the street, managing the way throughout he parking cars, directly confronted with a woman sitting on the ground, begging …. – I went into a small shop: cheap stuff for little money” – Pound shop they had been called in the country where I lived for a while … A young Chinese man, being there from earlyish in the morning until latish in the evening – I go frequently there: for some strange reason I am attracted by this kind of shop. When I went there the first time, I paid in the ordinary way, just handing the bank not over the counter. He took it carefully and respectfully with both hands, making a little bow …. – I am Chinese enough, i.e. lived long enough in the Chinese culture to know how to behave the next time … – and this day, after having nearly left the tiny premise I turned back:
E Buona Pasqua. –
– Buona Pasqua a lei!
He waved and made a bow, and he waved and made a bow, and left a me a bit disturbed … – yes, traditions can be kept and still a surely meaningless tradition of others: Easter which for him most likely does not have the meaning it has for the Westerner, gains an entirely new meaning, gains importance the importance of being accepted …
… Later I went to Trastevere …, sitting there, with the computer, making a lengthy Skype call with a Russian colleague, being occasionally approached by some people – morendo di fame …, something that happened also when I walked back to the scooter: the contrasts, walking pass the Vatican palace, adduct to Santa Maria in Trastevere, housing Caritas Internationalis, looking at Santa Maria, the building of the church, its beautiful top of the front (though a meagre shadow of its inside) – Buona Pasqua – morendo di fame. And finally I vespaed home, passing the front of the central train station: Termini. Termination in the front, on the little traffic island – perhaps you saw the two old women – I thought everybody would know them, would know there story – but nobody of those whom I asked, does … termination of a life, like being crucified … – I felt that day more appalled than other days. This society …, celebration of Easter may be by and large for the heads that had not been chopped off, and for the many others who should have been and should be more radical in their moves just a crusade in a different habit, crusades in general being a habit … – HE suffered for us? If so, he surely did it not for us but for one percent of humankind only.
… Still, I wish you a very happy Easter – Buona Pasqua, independent of your beliefs …
bisou
[1] Foligno, Cesare, [without date; 1921]: Dante. Con 186 illustrazioni e 3 tavole; Bergamo: Istituto Italiano d’Arti Grafiche: 3
[2] to be published in Tausch et altera: “El Papa – ¿Cuántas divisiones tine?”
COMMEDIA DELLA VITA OR PÁNTA RÊI'S FIRM GROUND 