The True Story of the Birth of Jesus Christ

Were I to introduce a Christmas sermon with this outstanding video, there is no question that I'd be rocking many a Christian's romantic Christmas sensibilities. However, it should be shown in churches all over for several reasons:

1. It's hilarious! The more I see it, the funnier it becomes. Watch it more than once. You'll see what I mean.

2. Someone finally had the creativity, the guts (pun intended) and the knowledge of what births entail to put this together. Granted, the video producer/director took some liberties with the Nativity story in terms of the chronology of events, but this is real in spite of a very comical protrayal. This baby Jesus I can identify with!

3. What is best as far as I'm concerned, the video is theologically solid! The point of Christmas is that God became human. In other words, He became *flesh*. A pretty scandalous Christian claim, mind you. But not only is the Incarnation the Christian claim par excellence, the virgin birth was a bloody mess. Like all births, a beautiful, but bloody mess. I mean, who would have thought of putting the placenta as a character in the Nativity story? A genius probably or a Christian Ob/Gyn with some video making chops! Maybe it was just a mom who's thought about this particular birth for a bit and about what Mary must have felt or gone through. Moms know what it's like.

4. The cast, oh my! The pianist deserves an honorable mention for his enthusiasm! The best outstanding couple, Mary "You did this to me!" and Joseph "No, I didn't. He did!" What's not to like! And my favorite, Melchior "Now we cut the umbilical cord of our Lord and Savior." Said with such charm and naturalness!

Yes, amigos, it's that simple and yet, so extraordinary! It's Christmas. It's the Incarnation. And it's all good 'cause it's all Good News!

Love Warrior: A Review

My review of Love Warrior by
Glennon Doyle Melton

This past November I read the book Love Warrior, a memoir by author Glennon Doyle Melton. I was so impressed with her story that I decided to give it a second read. Halfway through this second reading, I learned online that the author had recently divorced her husband and was now dating soccer superstar Amy Wambach. I was saddened to hear the news. I cannot pretend to know what ultimately happened or led her to that decision. I can only take a guess.

I say I was saddened because one of the most important episodes in Melton’s book is the courageous story she narrates about how she and her husband did everything they could to save their marriage after struggling with their respective addictions and embarking on the path to recovery. By the grace of God, they literally pulled their relationship back from the dead and it seemed by the end of the book that the worst chapter of their life together had been, against all odds, almost completely overcome. That second half of my second reading of the book felt different for several reasons, but that fact doesn’t take away from the impactful story of the Love Warrior.

Melton’s story will threaten the reader in a good way. She appropriately begins her story with a quote by 13th century Muslim poet Rumi, “You’ve seen my descent. Now watch my rising.” From that moment on the author goes on a relentless and unashamed journey of redemption that takes us from painful deep valleys while making repeated and necessary stops at the wells of grace and on to peaks of surrender and restoration.

Melton seems to have a natural ability to connect with her readers effortlessly. Her words and images, her story, her experiences are painfully real. She doesn’t spare us the good, the bad and the ugly. Rather, she dishes them for us in all their blunt realness. When I finished reading the book the first time around, I thought to myself, “This woman has an extraordinary brand of courage.” Her vulnerability is brutal and leaps off the page in such a way that you can almost grasp it. If there was a book that would let you read or, better yet ,see the author’s soul, this would be it.

There is a chapter in which the author finds herself at one of her lowest moments and she goes to see a priest. The conversation between them has an eviscerating effect. It is without a shred of exaggeration one of the saddest encounters ever written about. The Virgin Mary also plays an important role in the Love Warrior. The author’s reflections on Mary are powerful and insightful.

In Love Warrior you will read the real story of a broken woman and the broken man who loves her, and in sharing it, Melton lets you find out that her story is also the story of broken people at large and the perfect God who loves each one of them unconditionally. You will find out that the book is about parenthood, but also about friendship. Love Warrior is about need and longing, but also about how to quench them. It is about addiction and the road to recovery. The story will threaten you with its intimacy and will challenge you to consider, evaluate and cherish your most precious relationships. It places logistics under connection and puts meaningfulness over superficiality.

Melton has drawn a huge following among women readers. It is after all a gal telling her story, which deeply resonates with other gals. At face value, it might seem easy for guys to dismiss this book. But interestingly, Love Warrior is also a story for men. That’s one of the great things about the book and it will take guys by surprise. In telling us about her past relationships, she deals superbly with the unavoidable question of the meaning of manhood. What makes a man? Who decides that? The author doesn’t get into sociological diatribes. She instead skillfully deconstructs our cultural perception of manhood and the toxicity that it impinges upon both men and women alike from very early on in life. She cuts right thru it like a hot knife cuts through butter. Hers is not a feminist indictment against men, but a critique of what we socially encourage and promote as accepted norms for men.

Melton doesn’t hide from us the ugly struggle with addiction that her husband deals with and that almost brought them to the point of no return. And in her story, he doesn’t hide his fear of losing the woman he imperfectly loves. He doesn’t take the easy way out. He decides to go the way of the Love Warrior and learns little by little, and with a lot of help, how to love his woman the way she must be loved. If you’re a guy reading this and decide to give the Love Warrior a try, you’ll be in for a pretty good lesson, one worth having.

Finally, Love Warrior will let you in on the triumph of grace and love. Yes, those gifts without which there are no stories to tell, no redemption to speak of and no forgiveness to give and to receive. There’s a phrase Melton uses a few times in her story as her surrender takes her to embrace the fact that the path to recovery is impossible without reliance on God’s love and the love of others, “I was born for this.” It sounds like a self-help mantra, a sort of mind-over-matter axiom, and there's a degree of that in her memoir, but Melton does not fool herself and us. We were made for this love that we cannot receive on our own because it’s a gift of heavenly grace.

La locura armada de los Estados Unidos de América

Dos Votos para la Historia y una Paz para Colombia

El domingo, 2 de octubre del 2016 fue un día muy triste para el mundo, pero en particular para Colombia. El plebiscito que ratificaría el Acuerdo de Paz entre el gobierno colombiano y las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército Popular (FARC-EP) sería rechazado por los votantes por una diferencia de medio punto (.5) entre el no y el sí. Luego de cuatro años de ardua negociación entre las partes en La Habana, Cuba, el referendo terminó en un aparente callejón sin salida. Fue una gran sorpresa y un duro golpe para todos los que seguimos con interés el proceso y anhelamos de corazón la paz para Colombia. No fue menos duro para millones de colombianos que habiendo podido no salieron a votar ese día. Las FARC y el gobierno de Colombia llevaban más de medio siglo enfrascados en una guerra que según los mejores estimados ha desplazado a más de 7 millones de personas y matado a sobre 225,000.

El Presidente Juan Manuel Santos había declarado de cara al plebiscito que no había “Plan B” de fracasar la votación. Irónicamente, el Presidente Santos obtuvo el Premio Nobel de la Paz este año a sólo unos días luego de la derrota del plebiscito por la paz en su país. De hecho, esto sirvió como un mayor incentivo para redoblar los esfuerzos por la paz y renegociar el acuerdo ya pactado en septiembre con mayor ímpetu.

La semana pasada, el jueves 24 de noviembre para ser exacto, el gobierno colombiano y las FARC nuevamente se reunieron para concretar, con las firmas del Presidente Santos y el Comandante de las FARC Rodrigo Londoño, el pacto de paz renegociado. Estos dos líderes demostraron integridad al continuar comprometidos con la causa por la paz de la nación. El proceso muy fácilmente pudo haber tomado otro rumbo cuyo fin ya sabemos cuál sería- la reanudación de hostilidades en el país.

En esta ocasión, y a diferencia de la refrendación del 2 de octubre, el Acuerdo de Paz sería ratificado por el Congreso colombiano solamente. En esta ratificación se encuentra lo significativo de la segunda vuelta por la paz colombiana. La ratificación de la paz sucedió en dos votaciones, una por cada cámara del Congreso. La Cámara Alta compuesta por el Senado consiste de 102 senadores. La Cámara Baja está compuesta por 166 representantes. El Senado de Colombia ratificó la paz con una votación de 75-0. La Cámara de Representantes con una votación de 130-0. La diferencia en ambas cámaras la formaron en su mayoría las abstenciones del partido de extrema derecha Centro Democrático cuyo portavoz es el senador Álvaro Uribe. Uribe fue la voz cantante en la campaña de desinformación que en gran parte obtuvo la victoria del no el 2 de octubre.

No debemos ni podemos ignorar el peso y la fuerza social de estos dos votos del Congreso colombiano. Rara vez se hallan en cuerpos legislativos votaciones que resultan en completa unanimidad política, pero los senadores y representantes colombianos sabían que la responsabilidad moral a favor de la paz era de repercusiones históricas para un futuro seguro y próspero en Colombia. Un voto en contra de la paz colombiana era un ejercicio inmoral y una abdicación del deber patrio por el bienestar del país. Dos votos para la historia y una paz para Colombia.

Es muy posible que Colombia no vuelva a ver tal grado de unanimidad política en sus cámaras legislativas, pero como aquí se trataba de una paz estable y duradera para esta y las generaciones futuras del pueblo colombiano había que dejar un mensaje claro. Por supuesto, un voto en contra hubiese sido igual de claro. Por eso no hubieron tales votos. Obviamente, las abstenciones fueron símbolos de protesta contra el acuerdo de paz por parte de una minoría de legisladores. Fue un conveniente cálculo político para solapar su antagonismo contra el curso de la historia. Colombia, por medio de la mayoría sus legisladores, dijo claramente, “¡Ya no más guerra!”

Sí, gracias a Dios, Colombia ya tiene un Acuerdo de Paz firmado por las partes en cuestión y ratificado por los políticos del país. Sus más altos funcionarios merecen nuestro encomio por su perseverancia y compromiso con la paz. Han hecho historia y eso no es poca cosa. Pero eso no fue lo más difícil de todo este proceso. Lo más difícil es lo que viene ahora.

Le resta al gobierno y las FARC trabajar juntos en la fase de implementación del Acuerdo de Paz por el que tan arduamente trabajaron. Es aquí donde la intención se convierte en acción y las palabras se hacen carne en vez de llevárselas el viento. Que Dios le de gracia al gobierno y al pueblo colombiano para trabajar por la paz y preservarla como protagonista en el nuevo capítulo que se proponen escribir de su historia. Y que el anhelo por la paz y la justicia nunca muera en el corazón de cada colombiano. #PazParaColombia

Serás como la lluvia

Serás como la lluvia que quiere caer y cae
Subirás por las venas de la tierra
A paso lento transformándote en los troncos,
En las ramas, en las hojas, en las flores
Las aves que se fueron escucharán tu voz
Y regresarán cantando la canción que siempre se ha cantado

Libre

"Good Samaritan"

The Washington Post recently published a news story in which a Lee County (Florida) sheriff deputy was violently attacked by a citizen who was in turn shot dead by another civilian who witnessed the altercation. I found the news story incredibly disturbing by the single fact that the Post decided to describe the shooter as a “Good Samaritan”, relaying the way that the Lee County Sheriff’s Office had used to refer to the man who intervened on the deputy’s behalf. The more I read the story, the more disturbing I found the description of the shooter as a “Good Samaritan”. I will give the Post credit for the exercise of journalistic integrity in their use of quotes in the headline and throughout their news story. It makes me wonder if the reporter was just as shocked to hear the phrase used so casually in this incident. Who knows. It may just be the opposite, which is precisely what I find disturbing.

Perhaps, you might remember the Parable of the Good Samaritan from the Bible, Luke 10:25-37. In it Jesus tells of a man who is assaulted by criminals and is left for dead. Two passersby see him and keep on their way. But a third one stops, picks him up, gives him shelter, cares for him and then departs not before providing for his safe and full recovery. Jesus tries to drive the point home to his hearers that our neighbor is whom we might least expect it to be. And he leaves us no wiggle room about what we are to do when confronted with the moment of decision. The man is as good as dead. What do we do? Sit on our asses or do something that would indicate we are familiar with the concept of “neighbor”. The action implies that we should always err on the side of life, protecting it, preserving it, cherishing it, because life is sacred.

The other two passersby gave the attacked man up for dead. Their assumption was that there was nothing left to do for him. The third man, the one we now know as the Good Samaritan, did not trust himself to assume anything. He made sure there was no place in him for that risk. He made sure he checked and found out there was still hope for this man whom most had given up for dead, as far as the story and possibly Jesus’ hearers were concerned. He interrupted and delayed his plans for the sake of one man in need.

I am so distraught about the story involving the Lee County Sheriff Deputy not so much because a man is dead. And that is awful enough. I want to state in no unmistakable terms that this man’s death could have been avoided. It was completely unnecessary, even senseless, to shoot him, much less three times. We may never know the complete details of the incident that gave us on one end a dead man and on the other a “Good Samaritan”. The deputy’s aggressor is dead. There is no question that he would have ended up in jail for assaulting an officer of the law had he lived to tell the story, but we’ll never know the full story. The shooter ended up killing him, intended or not, after a warning. I wonder how the shooter might be doing right now. He took another person’s life after all and that’s no small thing. It will always be with him. Was it absolutely necessary to use deadly force in this instance? Absolutely not.

Perhaps, this is what I find so heartbreaking about this shooting. It was precisely the use of deadly force that gained the shooter the description of “Good Samaritan”. That’s a lot of weight to carry on your shoulders because being a “Good Samaritan” implies that you are a lifesaver not a life taker. When you are a “Good Samaritan”, at least according to the Bible, you don’t pit one life against another. Both are equally valuable and deserving in God’s eyes. There’s no way in God’s wide earth to call yourself a neighbor, particularly a good neighbor, when you end up taking somebody else’s life at the expense of another, regardless of how justifiable the circumstances may have seemed at face value. The argument is that he saved the life of an officer from great bodily and even deadly harm, but no one will be able to do away with the fact that he did it at the expense of another life and that both lives could have been spared not just one. Are you sure you are OK with being called a “Good Samaritan” in these circumstances? Puzzled and hurt at the remark, the dead man’s brother’s reply was, “Was my brother armed?” It is as if he’s saying “‘Good Samaritan’ my ass! My brother’s dead! How dare they call the shooter that!” I know I’m not the only one thinking this way.

If I am reading the parable correctly, Good Samaritans will go to great lengths to preserve their enemy’s life. They’ll do it even at their own personal expense. We need to take into account that in the story of the Bible, the real Good Samaritan was willing to risk his own life exposing himself to the same fate of the victim he stopped to tend to. The victim was caught up alone in a dangerous and isolated passage. It could have easily been two victims instead of one. You might be thinking right now “precisely my point”, but I would say the difference that Christ is actually pointing us to through his story is that there could have been two lives saved, not just one. Most people would be prone to think here that the life that mattered was saved. Most people would be wrong.

Perhaps the Sheriff’s Office and the community of Lee County wanted to commend the shooter for his “good” deed. “Good Samaritan” sounds just about right, but in this particular instance it is simply wrong. Its use just shows how twisted our values have become (besides showing how biblically illiterate we are). Nothing new here. Our values have been twisted for a long time, regardless of a pro second amendment stance or not. For some, my life is a good as the concealed gun permit they carry. For others, their gun is as good as God. I doubt this case, as horrible and frightening in some respects as it is, will contribute to further the discussion of gun law reform we sorely need. More than likely, it will reaffirm the mindset of the need for a robust pro second amendment approach to guns, which only means the less gun control there is the better. I don’t know if the shooter has been able to sleep well at night since the incident, but the Sheriff’s Office, and everyone else with it, did him wrong by calling him a “Good Samaritan”. Of course, it’s all out of good intentions. Had they just known a bit about what Jesus meant in his story, they would have used a non-biblical descriptor or none at all.

Am I really a “Good Samaritan” for taking a life while saving another? What would this man have done if he hadn’t been armed? Would he had intervened? Would the Sheriff’s Office still consider him a “Good Samaritan” if the attacker had lived? Are we living in the wild, wild west? Maybe most will consider the question preposterous, but there is something eerily wrong with celebrating actions that take life instead of preserving and protecting it. It is preposterous to call those actions good and it is preposterous to call anyone who does them “Good Samaritan”.

Broken

My son broke his right hand last Friday. He punched somebody in the face. A friend and teammate, no less. I was in the parking lot, asleep in my car, waiting for his soccer practice to end when he woke me up to tell me that the coach wanted to talk to me. I wasn't shocked, but surprised to learn of the incident. 

A couple days later the swelling in his hand hadn’t gone down so a visit to the ER was required. The diagnosis revealed a “closed nondisplaced fracture of neck of third metacarpal bone of right hand”. Quite a neat way to describe a broken bone. The fracture was hard to spot on the X Ray, but there it was regardless. We wouldn’t have known otherwise, but the swelling in his hand was a clear indication that something was wrong and parts of his palm were purple. Not only that. His hand was in pain, which is to say that he was in pain. A tiny, barely noticeable fracture was the root of all the symptoms manifesting in his right hand.

Interestingly, my son fought this visit to the ER quite emphatically. “I’m fine. I don’t need to go to the doctor! I’m fine!”, he repeated opening and clenching his fist to prove it. Proving it only went so far as my gently pressing his hand to see where it hurt the most. Ouch! Fine he was not.

At the end of the ER visit my son’s hand was in a splint. A day later and after a visit to the bone doctor, in a hard cast. He'll be carrying the extra weight for four weeks. The cast is not part of him, but without it he would not be well. He still claims he didn’t need any of it. The ER visit or the splint or the cast. He was fine. Funny kid. I can’t help to think that somewhere in there lies the story of humanity. Should I say a *broken* humanity?

Marvel's Doctor Strange

Last night, I took my family and a neighbor friend of my kids to the movies. We watched Marvel’s Dr. Strange. Somehow, it was fitting. The movie was pretty sick. It has an A-list cast, outstanding actors the bunch of them- McAdams, Cumberbatch, Ejiofor, Bratt. The dialogue was smart seeming to be at times part Star Trek, part The Matrix, part Star Wars. The action sequels were out of this world. No doubt somewhere next to “Hangar 52” they have another undisclosed location where they host the servers to run the computer graphics needed to make this movie. The visual EFX were on display in all their second-to-none Hollywood splendor. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a superhero or comic book fan, you should simply experience the awe inspiring visuals of this movie.

Are you feeling a tad weak on your comic prowess? Have you lost or, worst yet, never had your super hero credentials? Do yourself a favor and go see this movie. You’ll charge your account so full it’ll start collecting in 2051. No seriously, folks, this movie has some serious, mind boggling visual sorcery.

And yes, the movie is about sorcery. No joke here. Of course, it’s about the perennial struggle of good versus evil, light versus darkness of comic lore. All brought to you through some sophisticated eastern mystical witchcraft. It’s pretty involved folks and children (or adults for that matter) should not even pretend to try the stuff portrayed in the movie at home. Astral voyages, out of body transcendentalism, some new concept, for me at least, having to do with the “multiverse” (experiencing several parallel universes at once or something like that). It will all sound or look a bit innocent because it’s a comic superhero movie after all. Well, you’ve been warned. It is not. But it’s a pretty sick movie nonetheless. You will enjoy it and will come back to see the sequel. As for me, I will wait.

Let America Be America Again

I read this poem today. It made think of how far away from each other and different the Americas of Langston Hughes and Donald Trump are, whose motto is "Let's Make America Great Again".
A truly powerful and beautiful poem for our day.

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

Just finished reading this book and thought I'd share my thoughts.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl deals with a very painful issue in a very creative way. The creative rhetorical juices of the author are insane. However, for me the book was at times funny and mostly annoying. I was mainly annoyed at the needless, constant swearing and cussing throughout. I've always been annoyed at that type of language when used so prolifically for no apparent good reason, just because. It seems to be the default language of teenagers, sadly. I'm glad that I stuck with the book in spite of that.

It's still an insightful read as far as teenagers dealing with real issues are concern. And when it comes to death it doesn't get any more real than that. It's a good peak into the teenage world and mindset. What is it that makes them tick and what makes them click. What is true friendship all about? Maybe the movie is just as good or better. I certainly hope it's funnier. We'll see, no pun intended.

What I liked the most about the book was the capacity for introspection the protagonist, Greg Gaines, has. While he can definitely be boring at times, he has an unusual way of putting his thoughts and observations together which sound entertainingly unique. The result is not as funny as one might have hoped, but it keeps you interested for the most part.

I think the last few chapters of the book bring home the fact that life will dish out some seriously nasty stuff at you and there's little you can do about it. This becomes a serious problem in the teenage years when there is so much turmoil in a kids life. Still the book ends in a hopeful note which was good. It's as if saying "death doesn't have the last word." We, the living, always do.


View all my reviews

Paco de Lucía

Escribí este pequeño poema como elegía al gran Paco de Lucía en ocasión de su muerte en el 2014, 25 de febrero. Espero que les guste y nuevamente, descansa en paz, Paco.

¡Adiós, Paco!
¿Te dejará descansar tu guitarra?
El alma en tus manos.
Flamenco en tus venas.
¡Adiós, Paco!
Descansa en paz.

A Question for the Next President

The man is not perfect, but he has been a remarkable president in many regards. If that is not evident yet for the majority of Americans regardless of party ideology, it will be sometime after he leaves office.

¿Quién soy? por Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Poema escrito en marzo de 1945

Dietrich Bonhöffer fue un prominente teólogo alemán asesinado por los Nazis por su participación en una conspiración contra la vida de Adolf Hitler.

¿Quién soy? Me dicen a menudo

Que salgo de mi celda

Calmado, alegre, firme,

Como un hacendado de su hacienda.

¿Quién soy? Me dicen a menudo

Que suelo hablar con mis carceleros

Libre y amigable y claramente,

Como si estuviera al mando.

¿Quién soy? También me dicen

Que sobrellevo los días de mi infortunio

Ecuánime, sonriente, orgulloso,

Como alguien acostumbrado a ganar.

¿Soy en realidad todo aquello que otros hombres dicen?

¿O soy sólo lo que sé de mí mismo?

¿Inquieto y anhelando y enfermo, como un ave en una jaula,

Luchando por aire, como si unas manos estuviesen apretando mi garganta,

Ansiando por colores, por flores, por las voces de las aves

Sediento de palabras amables, de amistad,

Agitado en espera de grandes eventos

Impotentemente temblando por amigos a una distancia infinita

Cansado y vacío en oración, en pensamiento, en acciones,

Débil, y listo para decirle adiós a todo.

¿Quién soy? ¿Este o el otro?

¿Soy una persona hoy y mañana otra?

¿Soy ambas a la vez? ¿Un hipócrita ante otros,

Y ante mí mismo un despreciable angustiado debilucho?

¿O hay aún algo dentro de mí como un ejército golpeado,

Huyendo en desorden de la victoria ya ganada?

¿Quién soy? Se burlan de mí, estas preguntas solitarias mías.

Quienquiera que sea yo, Tú lo sabes, oh Dios, ¡tuyo soy!

Who am I? by D. Bonhoeffer
Traducción de CSPellot

All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Masterfully and beautifully written historical fiction taking place in the early 1940s as the horrors of the 2nd World War unfold in Europe. This is a fairly long novel (500+ pp.) with short chapters that read very fast. Anthony Doerr is uncanny in his ability to sustain the initially parallel but increasingly interwoven life stories of the two main characters throughout the novel until its climactic moment.

As far as a literary work is concerned, I think that was the one, unique feature of Doerr's prose in All the Light We Cannot See. Coupled with an amazing writing style and powerful gift to create visually poetic images that will stick with you for a long time on the one hand,

"That first peach slithers down his throat like rapture. A sunrise in his mouth." (p. 471),

and viscerally unsettling ones on the other,

"...and disappears in a fountain of earth." (p. 484).

All the Light We Cannot See will break your heart and haunt you after you turn the last page. Two young lives, much too young, thrown into circumstances equally much beyond their control. Providence? Destiny? Luck? It doen't matter what you think of it in the end. The reality is that the effects of war linger far too long after it's over. Even today, if we pay a little attention we might actually get to see 'All the Light We Cannot See.'


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Stupid Cavs!

The Firing of Coach David Blatt

Some of planet earth's biggest egos are found in pro sports and nowhere is this truer than American professional sports. It could be argued that that's why American pro athletes get paid the big bucks, to compensate for their outsized prima donna selves. Whether they are the super players the money is supposed to justify is beside the point. 

The authors of this article have done a great job describing what has been a sour and shocking news throughout the NBA community in the last 24 hours, dished out to us via the Cleveland Cavaliers - the firing of their latest coach, David Blatt. While the analysis is thorough spanning all the way back to the summer of 2014, Coach Blatt's firing MAKES NO SENSE. The Cavs went on a trip all the way to the NBA Finals last season against the Golden State Warriors and, boy, was that a series! Remember, they played without K. Love and Kyrie Irving due to injuries. The story might have been quite different had they been healthy. Oh, and it was Coach Blatt's FIRST season as an NBA coach. Not bad. 

This season so far? The Cavs are in the number 1 position of the Eastern Conference and are definitely the favorites in the east to make it all the way to the Finals again, now with K. Love and Kyrie Irving back in the roster. So yeah, let's fire Coach Blatt! 

Now, I understand that there are certain dynamics that may alter the end results the organization wants to achieve, in this case a championship, and it must ensure they have everything at their disposal from staff to players to coaches in order to do so. But scapegoating a coach with an impressive professional resume as Blatt's because the team players are upset just shows you the perennial and ironically, at the same time, perishable values governing professional sports organizations of which the Cleveland Cavaliers is nothing but one more example. I'm a basketball fan. A good chunk of my life has been taken up with watching NBA ball since the early 80s. I appreciate this beautiful game, but I'll tell you this- nothing is beautiful in this life without humility. 

I hope Lebron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers make it again to the NBA Finals. I even hope they win the championship under their new coach Tyronn Lue. He certainly seems to have a promising career ahead of him as an NBA head coach and should count himself fortunate to have such players as the ones he currently has. Unfortunately, his first game as the Cavs head coach, a home game no less, was a tough loss tonight against the Chicago Bulls. I'm not superstitious, but let's hope this is not an omen for the remainder of their season. 

Terminating Coach Blatt in such a manner has left me as a fan with a very bad taste in the mouth. It may be that the Cavs take a turn for the better or for the worse after this sudden change. Well just have to wait and see. Somewhere down the line there will be the GS Warriors or the San Antonio Spurs to be reckon with. And for the looks of it if they actually make it into the playoffs and then into the Finals, the Cavs will be in for a good lesson regardless of who's coaching them. 

Mi Pasado Presente

te fuiste
como todos los días de nuestro pasado
en un día lluvioso
que confundió nuestras lágrimas con su danza

ahora ese pasado es mi presente sin ti
y aunque ya no hay tantos días nublados
sigue lloviendo en mí

camino con tu sombra agarrada de mi mano
y me pregunto si mi alma te acompaña
mientras duermes, cuando ríes, cuando callas

convertida en la gran pregunta
dejaste atrás mi puerta abierta
anhelando escuchar la voz
de tu regreso, pero te fuiste

sin respuesta, sin aliento
me dejaste mi pasado presente

Contigo adentro

Lo siento, vida mía
ya se ha puesto un poco el sol
en su marcha cabizbaja y silenciosa
va cargando un gran dolor

Nunca temimos juntos sus caricias
cuando en su más exquisita dulzura
tomados de la mano, vida mía
le abrimos nuestra alma a la llanura

Pero ya se siente un poco el frío, vida mía
¿A dónde se habrá ido el fuego de mi aliento?
Y, ¿quién nos traerá esa larga luz de la mañana?
Si fue hace sólo un momento que nuestros ojos se abrieron

Abrázame, vida mía, tengo sueño
parece ser que mi corazón se ha cansado
tal vez tu sangre corriendo por mis venas me despierte 

y contigo nuevamente adentro me vea renovado