Sunday, March 20, 2011

AWAY


well

within

always




not

in front




never

on top




even

close




meanwhile




no

more

now




less

afterwards




only

then

when


________________________________

Image: Monta Adentro by José Bedia http://www.openart.com/obras/jose-bedia-monte-adentro

Thursday, February 3, 2011

HAVING 60 IN THE XXI CENTURY


If we look carefully we can detect the emergence of a social sector that did not exist before: people that today are over sixty years old.

THE SEXALESCENCE:
It is a generation that has kicked out of language the word 'sixties', because it simply has no current plans in getting older.
This is an actual demographic innovation, similar to the appearance at their time, of the 'adolescence', which was also a new social sector that emerged in the mid-twentieth Century to give identity to an overwhelmed mass of children, in grown up bodies, which previously did not know where to go or how to dress. This new group of people that today is around sixty, had has a reasonably successful life.
They are independent men and women who work for long time and have managed to change the grim meaning that for decades a lot of literature gave to the concept of working.
Far from the sad offices of J.C. Onetti or Roberto Arlt, these people long sought and found the activity he loved and earn their life with it.
Presumably it must be because they feel full ... some do not dream of retirement. Those who have already retired, enjoy in full each one of their days without fear of leisure or loneliness, growing in one and the other.
They enjoy being the 'divine button, because after years of work, parenting, deprivation, sleeplessness and chance events, it worth watching with peace of mind the sea or the flight of a dove from their 5th floor apartment.
Within this universe of healthy, curious and active people, women have a brilliant roll.
She brings decades of experience doing her will, when her mother could only obey, and occupying places in society that her mother could never even dream of.
This sexalescent woman could survive the power drunkenness that feminism gave her in the 60 ', at those times of her youth in which the changes were so many, might pause to think over what she really wanted.
Some went to live alone, others studied careers that had always been exclusively for males, others chose to have children, others chose not to have them, they were journalists, athletes or created their own “MY SELF,S.A. "
But each one did her will. We should recognize that there wasn’t an easy matter and it still is being designed daily.
But we can take some things already for granted, for example, they are people who are not frozen in time, people in their sixties, men and women, use their PCs as if they had done it all their lives.
They write to and see their children, who are away, and forget the old phone to contact their friends and write them an e-mail with their ideas and experiences.
Are generally satisfied with their marital status, and, if they don’t, they don’t resign themselves and try to change it. They rarely melt into sentimental tears.
Unlike young people, the sexalescents know and weigh all the risks. When they lose, they don’t use to mourn, only think about it, take notes, at most .... and go to the next issue.
Grownups share the devotion to youth and their superlative forms, almost insolent beauty, but they don’t feel in retreat. Otherwise, they compete, and cultivate their own style ...

Sexalescent men do not envy the appearance of young sports stars, or those who wear an Armani suit; neither women dream of having the shapely figure of a showgirl.
Instead, they know the importance of a connoisseur gaze, a clever phrase or a smile lit up by the experience.
Today, people of 60, as is their habit, is starting an age that still has no name. Before, those of such age were old and today they are not. They are now physically and intellectually full, they remember their youth, but without nostalgia, because youth is also full of falls and sorrow and they know it.
Today, people of 60 celebrate the sun every morning and smile to their selves very often ... Maybe, for some secret reason that only they know and continue knowing in the XXI century.
Franco Trapani
From:
http://www.vidapositiva.com/Tener-60-en-el-Siglo-XXI.html?sec=21
(Translation, OGR)
Sent by my friend Annia Suarez

Friday, January 28, 2011

DRINK PRECIOUS WINE WITH MOSQUITOES IN IT


Saxon mosquitoes of refined sips,

dandruff of the tastiest two-liter jugs,

since the flame has its butterflies,

you wish the must to have winoflies;


flying garnishes, wretched atoms,

drunken motes, vinaceous birds,

wine-envying fluff,

bees of the honey of bacon;


nits of the vintage, I'll allow you

into my gullet, since your rope is

the grandson of the vine, blessed liquor.

Set to rowing toward my Adam's apple;

and, drinking you all down, I'll take back

the wine you drank and that drowns you.


Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas

Translation from Swallowing Mosquitoes, Wine,and Supplement with Quevedo by John GardnerRose-Hulman Institute of Technology http://rmmla.wsu.edu/ereview/60.1/articles/gardner.asp (The Title was translated by me)