For all DUers who are feeling a bit raw

[LadyVT]

Hello! (waving wildly) This is a little break. No candidate shall be named in my post! (relief)

This is a link to a passage from Italo Calvino, which speaks to me tonight, as I lately feel alone here in my values, and a bit lost as to my place in the political landscape. It's an excerpt from "Invisible Cities," and begins with Marco Polo, during his explorations of new lands, conversing with Kublai Khan:

http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/calvino/callast.html

Enjoy.

~ :)

[Der Blaue Engel]

1. Wow

Thanks for that. I'm in a very introspective mood this evening myself, and that really hit me.

" ... the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together ...."

[LadyVT]

2. I'm glad... I think many of us are feeling this way... and I love your cats, please

tell them 'hi' from Lila (she's a fluffy white Persian with green eyes, who has recently fallen in love with the squirrel who visits our birdfeeder).

[emilyg]

5. You're not alone.

KR

[Der Blaue Engel]

7. Thanks

:pals:

That's funny; I have a cockatiel who's in love with my calico. :D

[rodeodance]

3. bookmarked for tomorrow--looks good by almost zzzzz time:-) thanks

[anamandujano]

4. "of signals one sends out, not knowing who receives them"

The whole thing is really lovely. I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read any Calvino except this.

I bookmarked the main site and hope to get back there. I'm a bookmark freak.

[Der Blaue Engel]

6. It *is* lovely...I bookmarked it too

:) I know what you mean about hoping to get back there. Sigh.

[Bongo Prophet]

8. What a change of pace you are offering! It moves within a far different place than the battles here

I find this part especially apt:

"There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space."


We need to find this second way to escape this inferno that ends up as wasted energy better used elsewhere, and to much better effect.
May we give space to those who seek to not be engulfed in the mad fire, but to see beyond the blinding flames of unhinged desire.

Thank you LadyVT.
thank you.

[The Doctor.]

9. That was lovely.

Too late to comment thoughtfully other than to say it was very interesting.

[Andromeda]

10. I bookmarked your link...

Will read it later. Thanks!

[LadyVT]

11. Thank you, everybody... and you're welcome :)

Having just been personally bashed (again) and therefore putting yet another person on ignore (sigh), I'm glad others are enjoying this quote. I've turned to it during many challenging times!

(My cat is now, from inside, flicking her tail in imitation of squirrel, outside. They seem entranced with each other. World peace?)