I do not want to idealize the “natural man”, but our civilization took away the graceful walk of an elegant hunter-gatherer, leaving us instead the limping of a wounded beast.
Is it too late for this realization?
At the individual level, aging poses a burden on us, making it more difficult, as time passes, to reconnect to our body, and with it, to the sensible aspects of our reality: shapes, colors, textures, smells, sensations, emotions, our sweat and that of others.
Our civilization, our education, train us, preferably, to be able to infer and deduce rather than perceive. Still, perceiving is indispensable to our survival. But to the organization of our “modernized” societies it matters less that we develop good taste than that we are capable of accurate accounting.
We are left on our own in matters of aesthetics.
If you do not care about beauty in your life, what are you? A hungry animal that is moved by primary necessities that urgently need to be satisfy: food, sex, shelter, instincts of self-preservation and protection of offspring.
The giant and complex machinery of our civilized modern societies is a great achievement of humankind, maximizing production, improving communications and supply chains, developing amazing urban conglomerates and enhancing security.
This is awesome!
What next?
Colonizing other worlds? Continue reading.
Real name: Sciorra, Rafael Miguel. Singer (23 July 1917 - 8 July 1999)
By Néstor Pinsón
It was 1991, somebody introduced him to me and time later I saw him again. It was in his working place, at the Escuela Técnica (Technical School), a branch of the Army located on Cabildo Avenue. There he worked as barber. Several generations of soldiers and non-commissioned officers had known about his scissors.A few years before he still sang in the neighborhood of La Paternal in an old club located on Fragata Sarmiento Street and San Martín Avenue when his retirement was near.
Some of his photographs, taken in the forties, had nothing to do with the present time. The features of that young handsome boy had completely disappeared. Some kind of pathology had spoiled his legs and he had to make an effort to walk with a cane.
It was by that time that I invited him to my program Siempre el tango (Always tango) on Radio Municipal. It took place in the early months of 1992, on occasion of celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of the tango “Malena”. Continue reading.
He is one of those men who, when they step on the track dancing sharply, go on being so witty and funny just like five minutes before, when they were sprinkling the dancers with hilarious epithets from a nearby table. He possesses a devil’s laughter and a strong voice that he likes to thunder above the music for the joy of his friends and which means a shock for foreigners and unwary people. This, not precisely at all, discreet personality exacerbates a kind of gift for ubiquity which he has. Continue reading.
