OPINION: We must free our tenderness

OPINION: We must free our tenderness
Fecha de publicación: 
31 August 2022
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The final verses of Subversiva se ha vuelto la ternura are a call from poet Waldo Leyva to a shipwrecked planet: “Two hands men have /—for God's sake, don't forget! / that can be shaken and still build a wall / and they can touch, knead, and strike together. / His hands are the essence / his only capacity for the embrace.”

 

These words converge with those written by Frei Betto in Un mundo a la deriva (Granma, March 3, 2022): “It’s convenient to listen to the wise: The time has come, we don’t have to wait any longer. Let’s listen to the human being who lives in each one of us and cries out for our humanity, who insists on speaking to us and making us see the other who gives meaning to our existence and is our reason for being, without whom we are not and will never be human in the future.” (Rubem Alves. A escalutória).

 

Betto reflects in prefixed paragraphs: “Until the mid-twentieth century (...) people maintained closer community ties... They related with relatives, friends over the course of their lives. Grandparents, parents and siblings lived, almost all, close to each other. This fact reinforced community ties, self-identity, the sense of cohesion.” It all fell apart: “All this collapsed with the geographical mobility that came along with postmodernity. The boat that led the family clan went to meet the rocks of the consumerist society and failed. They were all adrift."

 

Then, he adds: "To the above is added a new factor that aggravates anxiety, loneliness, narcissistic attitudes: the digital village."

 

Wonderful creation that is badly used: “Hence, the hate factory, fake news, and everything that makes it stand out above the rest. Emotion prevails over reason. And the imposition over dialogue. Millions of petty dictators post their truth about the world, even if it is a blatant lie, and thus shoot virtually everyone who opposes them.” There is so much animosity in these actions, even fascism against those fighting for a better world. It is the old battle of wickedness against goodness.

 

There are not a few who, having someone they love by their side, prefer to stay by the PC’s side, without even looking at the person next to him or her. There are professionals who, having the target of their interview several blocks away, send him a questionnaire and wait for the answer via PC without caring about the physical features, voice, movements, home, contributors, and start a conversation, even discrepant in some aspects. That distance lacerates human and professionally.

 

Fidel said that the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution are the neighborhood best friend. Their vigilance exists precisely to not undermine the human: their leadership must be steel against the corrupting and destroying enemy; and forging tenderness, saving the majority, from the example and the convincing words. Serious wounds suffer people with the imprisonment of tenderness. He warned about it a long time ago —at that time I did not fully understand it—, the singer Pedro Calvo with his “No one loves anyone. Loving is over...”

 

And this is happening here where we are building a society based on love to escape the tentacles of resentment of an old society. Those hits have developed inside and outside. And spiritual misery is the worst of all miseries. The initial verses of Subversiva…are an anguished cry:

 

“The human is dying in men. / As days pass by, you see less love, less laughter. / Tenderness has become subversive. Childhood is lost. There are no more sunsets, / nor the sea violet in the twilight. / It is rare to find someone who falls in love, who is left speechless / to name the scare that unravels their chest, / that fills their throat with traps.”

 

There are many who keep that mystery chained, that scare called love. And without that feeling, very little can be done. Let's nurture the ability to embrace, let's listen to the human being who lives in us and cries out for our humanity, our solidarity, to lead them into existence from everyday life. It is paramount to free our tenderness to beat those enemies of kindness.

 

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff

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