Scattered Ashes

Cuando era niño, la Luna era para mí el equivalente del Ángel de la Guarda. En las noches le cantaba antes de dormir como una plegaria para que me acompañara desde lo alto y cuidara de mi sueño. Mi Luna lunera, la cascabelera. Fue con gran desilusión que aprendí con los años que realmente Ella no me seguía como pensaba, cuando en las noches, recostado en el asiento trasero del carro viéndola aparecer por la ventana en cada esquina por la que girábamos, yo sentía su compañía y veía su afán por estar siempre conmigo.

Ahora, en mis años de madurez, me aferro más que nunca a estos mitos que alguna vez infundieron mi imaginación de magia y misticismo. Y aunque ya no le canto a la Luna, en las noches cuando camino sólo por la calle, me gusta pensar que la Luna recorre el camino conmigo, prestándome la misma compañía que me prestó alguna vez en mi niñez.

Luna lunera, mi dulce compañía, no me desampares ni de noche ni de día.

Yesterday on my way home after work I thought about Descartes for some reason. I was remembering the story about how he shut himself up in his apartment for days and questioned everything. The story goes, his questioning led him to doubt the Sun would rise again the next day. He nearly lost his mind.

I then thought about Michael Polanyi and the distinction he makes between propositional and dispositional knowledge. To me, dispositional knowledge comes from the flesh, from experience; it really is inseparable from our body. In this manner, psyche and soma come together in the experience of knowing.

These two reflections might seem incongruent at first, but it seems to me the reason Descartes did not loose his mind is precisely because of dispositional knowledge. A purely rational questioning of things will inevitably lead us to doubt everything, which in turn will lead us to fear everything: if we can predict absolutely nothing, then we must clearly be vulnerable to the caprices of chaos. And the point here, is that there actually is a rational basis for us to be afraid. It is thus that we fall into a pattern of thinking that leads us to fear fear itself. And this is precisely what a panic attack is: fear of fear. Descartes knew from experience the Sun would rise the next day, and it was only when he stopped thinking rationally that he recovered his mind.

Now, I'm not personally worried about whether the Sun will rise or not tomorrow. No, I worry that pigeons might crash against me as the fly next to me. Weird, huh? However, it is the result of a similar line of thought: it occurred to me one day that pigeons are not infallible, and thus, that there exists the possibility that they might crash against a passer by. In strict rational terms this is quite possible. However, there is no experiential basis for this fear as I've never seen a pigeon crash against anybody's head. It is thus that I've developed an irrational fear of flying pigeons (although I would argue it is a very rational one). I know this probably sounds quite humorous, but it's true.

The moral of this story is, I need to get back in touch with soma, the sentient part of me. What I require are "spiritual exercises", as Pierre Hadot would call them. Yes, that, and go fly a kite in the park.

I was glued to my TV all weekend watching the Live 8 concerts. Putting that together must have been a titanic undertaking; Bob Geldof deserves a great deal of recognition for his work.

Today should be an important day for the MTV/Internet generation. I must admit I watched with great excitement as all those artists and people raised their voice to demand an end to poverty. Watching Pink Floyd together on stage I though the world would come to an end. But it didn't, and today is an essential day for determining its future.

Personally, it worries me that all this effort might not be enough. Aid and debt relief should help a great deal, there's no doubt about that. However, it is important to take into account a few things: The majority of the African States have either a very young population or a very old one. Indeed, the majority of its inhabitants are either 15 years old or 65 years old. That means that Africa's labor force is extremely limited. If we take into account the fact that in some regions of Africa 5 out of every 10 people have AIDS, we may predict that in about ten years, when the majority of Africans come to age, many of them will be dead or dying of AIDS. What this means is that Africa's already limited labor force will shrink, or at best, remain at its current levels. Part of the problem is that many of these people suffering from AIDS are not aware of it, and so, the virus keeps spreading.

What would help a great deal is if the generic medications produced in India (which anger so much the US drug companies) are allowed to distribute their treatment in Africa for little or no price. At its current price, it will simply be impossible to administer a mass treatment for AIDS in Africa.

Fanon would have been heart broken if he could see Africa in its current state. Let's hope those 8 men in that 1 room manage to agree to do something to help. For my part, I'll contribute my two cents by adding the makepovertyhistory.org banner to this blog.