Basilica da Estrela in my neighborhood.
The 22nd Northern Winter Solstice Epistle
December 2019
In a dark time, the eye begins to see.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
Basilica da Estrela in my neighborhood.
In a dark time, the eye begins to see.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
left Street entrance to flat - centre Living room - right View of Rio Tejo from bathroom
Including getting older (now 70 and slowing down) and moving house yet again, not much has happened differently this year from last. I could almost repost last year's epistle except this was the year of Spain where i made three trips, visiting Madrid, Valencia and Andalucia.
left Stairs to attic flat (difficulty breathing) - centre Bedroom - right Kitchen
Jardim da Estrela, one of Lisbon's nicest parks, is literaly around the corner from my flat. Had to take refuge there in the summer heat.
left Goya monument at El Prado Museum - centre Church of San Manuel y San Benito, near Jardines del Buen Retiro - right Estanque Grande del Retiro, Madrid.
The Madrid trip was made possible through the grace of my yogin friend, Arjuna, who was taking a course at the Sivananda Center there, so we drove. I spent almost an entire day in the Prado Museum absorbing the masterpieces i had only read about. We stopped at El Escorial on the way back home.
left San Lorenzo de El Escorial centre Under the dome of San Lorenzo de El Escorial right Painted ceiling
Hours spent in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, near Madrid, where Iberian history came home to me in an immediate and tangible way. This was further reinforced by the sweeping vistas and rugged landscape on the drive back to Portugal by way of Salamanca. El Escorial began as a monastery, then also as a royal estate for the Habsburg and Burgundy dynasties. After the Prado, El Escorial has the largest and most significant collection of Spanish and European art in Spain.
left Roundabout monument in Alicante centre Plaza de la Catedral de Santa Cruz de Cadiz right Costa Tropical near Malaga looking toward Africa
On another trip, toured through the Anadalucian region, courtesy of my then flatmate, Francisco, who is from there. We began at Huelva near the Portuguese border (there is no immigration control, open highway, once you are already within the Schengen area), then on to Bolonia where we spent the night at a hostel right on the beach, a night in Cadiz, then on to Seville, Granada and Cordoba. We stayed with Francisco's parents in Jaén which we used as our base so i got see the countryside and small towns as well.
My visit to Valencia was a solo adventure, so i flew direct from Lisbon and stayed in 2 B&Bs found on Mister B&B, the gay site. The main purpose was to scope it out for a possible next residence as Valencia is warmer and dryer than Lisbon. While i loved it and could probably settle there, i've been following the weather online and discover it is not so much different than Lisboa. We'll see how that works out.
left Traditional Valencian drink, orxata/horchata, made from chufa, tigernuts, tuber of Cyperus esculentus known as nutgrass centre Valencia Cathedral right Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Valencia
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While at the Monstery of El Escorial, i came across a saint of whom i had never heard, Saint Ildefonsus, in a portrait by El Greco. A few months after back in Lisbon, i moved into a street named after him, translated as the Way of Saint Ildefonsus. How is that for synchronicity? Maybe there is a pattern to the Universe after all. While still at the flat in Penha de França, was happy to host Namon Armstrong and partner Stephen Woloshin. Namon and i go back a long way to 2002 in Washington DC where we were housemates on Varnum Street. |
 Namon, Stephen, Francisco, me at Rua Cesario Verde |
My writing has been limited to maintaining Facebook groups and pages, and work with Jamaican language, contributing to the Jumiekan Wikipedia. Have not done much on long ongoing projects that include novel, memoirs and philosophical essay. Besides being thoroughly demoralized and set back when i lost files in a hard drive meltdown, i am suffering from diminished ego which is necessary to write. I write primarily for myself and when that self becomes diffused, then the incentive is reduced. Besides, there is less and less prospect that there will be any posterity, however niche, left to address the work.
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At this time of global crisis and climate change, there is not much else i can say, nor much you or i can do. Even Greta Thunberg admits as much, though it is necessary for her and other young people to sound the alarm as they will be the ones to suffer the consequences. |
Still, i try to live lightly on the earth, simplifying as much as i can, like Rob Greenfield in this video. While not as extreme as he is, i have practised much of what he advocates for many years. For more internal preparation i suggest you read this interview with Joanna Macy, a Buddhist eco-philosopher. Despite the unlikeliness of it happening, i continue to float the idea of a Planetary Index that will take hold in time and at scale to salvage what is worthy of what remains our brief civilization. I am cognizant that we are all too invested and embedded in moneytheism to allow even the inkling of an alternative way of managing resources to emerge. There are a few positive impulses like proposals for a universal basic income in selected jurisdictions, providing the homeless with homes, universal health care in developed countries, but these are not enough to turn the tide. Nothing short of a systemic shift away fungible units which are manipulated and accumulated, which limit and constrain every worthwhile effort, which corrupt and corrode every transaction, will succeed. The hype around Bitcoin will dissipate as it proves to be nothing more than a digital version of fool's gold. Fungible units and their pursuit appeal to the worst in human nature, vesting power in a few, and condemning the rest of humanity and indeed the biosphere to certain decline. |
When you are totally alive and cannot be trapped or caged, only then do you have some independence.
Then you can be in the ordinary world all day long without it affecting you.
~ Mi-An ~
I have come to the conclusion that there is not much that any one of us can do to turn the tide. We are too puny against the forces of nature which we collectively have set in motion. We have not the collective will do better. Despite our supposed evolution, the behavior of our men is still at the level of male animals, dictated by testosterone-modulated drives for power, sex and dominance. Every crisis presents an opportunity, perhaps to finally transcend the basic human to the next evolutionary level, becoming more altruistic, compassionate and universal.
Do not let yourself be disturbed by what is to come;
rather, be in that which is still around you and which enters with
an immeasurable past into the present that is yours.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~
It's a very short trip. While alive, live.
~ Malcolm S. Forbes ~
Awareness is all. Know that you are. Bliss. Joy. Here. Now.
Lisboa, Portugal, Year-end 2019
These annual epistles have been archived for ready retrieval:
1998,
1999,
2000,
2001,
2002,
2003,
2004,
2005,
2006,
2007,
2008,
2009,
2010,
2011,
2012,
2013,
2014,
2015,
2016,
2017,
2018
Quotations from Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing except where otherwise noted.
Images my own unless otherwise credited.
This work is licensed under a Creative
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