 Credit goes to the author, whose name I can't see clearly, but is the lady in the picture. |
When I was about 15 I got pretty overexcited when, through my combination of school subject choices, I came across the concept of duende.
It's a Spanish word with no English translation that could be loosely explained as as expression of the feeling we all have that life is both incredibly heavy and feather-light at the same time.
While my intense teenage attachment to duende as a concept has faded, there is something about discovering the word that sticks with me.
Whenever I think of it, I'm reminded that language governs thought. The lack of the word duende in English doesn't just connote a cultural reluctance to discuss the feeling it represents. Instead, the fact it's missing from our vocabulary actually prevents us from conceptualising the idea fully - without the word, we can only communicate a pale imitation of what it describes.
And now, as I try to find something useful to do about the parlous state of the world's most powerful - the unstable and dangerous Trump, and our Government's pandering to him - I run into a sort of similar problem with language.
The verbs that describe the actions within our reach - organise, protest, resist - they're tainted. I'm not sure how it happened, but in my mind those words have come to be associated with privileged people complaining en masse because they don't understand others' realities, rather than with legitimate community movements.
The fact that these words have been twisted like this seems to impede my ability to work out how we can best express our collective disgust at the actions of the people who now purport to lead us.
But whether we reclaim these particular words or assign others to do their job, we need to find a way to stand together and say this is not ok; to say that collectively we will step in to prevent people being hurt by small men with big power.
Language certainly governs thinking, but in this case we need to make sure its limitations don't prevent necessary actions.
These days we keep waking up to ridiculousness, every day more so than the previous day. It's like watching some really bad reality-TV show, except it's not -- this is our f-ing reality. The more I read, the less I want to write, the more I want to retreat. But running away, shutting the world out, isn't going to change anything. Although only tangentially related to what the passage is about, reading it reminds me that we all have a duty, a responsibility to speak up and participate in the current affairs, no matter where we are or what we do. Because the alternative - to just stand back as a by-stander, watching things unfold, or perhaps trusting that other people will step up and fight for what is right - is unacceptable. Now more so than ever.
Whatever it is that you care about, go do something about it. Un-spiral the spiralling chaos. Or make it harder for it to keep spiralling. Make your voice heard.
Peace.
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