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Nosce Te Ipsum – An Interview with Chary Panés
Chary is the reason behind this series of interviews. She interviewed me for European Irish, the website for all the Irish expats and Hibernophiles living in on the Continent. So I thought I would turn tables and get to know her. She lives in Chiclana, Cádiz, a very special paradise with its own guardian, the Wind from the East (like the witch in the Wizard of Oz) that protects the area from overcrowding.
She studied Philosophy in Salamanca because she wanted to know EVERYTHING about this world, she really wanted to fully understand it, and she thought Philosophers would give her the answers she needed. Funny enough, they just had more and more questions. As one friend of hers says: we’re still at the beginning, but not as we were at the start. And I suppose that’s the important thing.
She got an Erasmus grant, and headed to Galway for a year. Not being able to stand the crazy climate in that country, she decided to come back to Spain, where the light of the sun makes life so much easier. But she brought a nice Irish fellow from Sligo who was delighted to get out of the rain. And since then, they’ve been living in Chiclana. they have two lovely children (one of them says about himself that he’s a miracle! And that he wants to be like the guys in The Beatles, have a band, become famous, but the most important thing, have long hair; and the other one says she’ll dance for her brother’s band, she just loves performing).
What is love for you?
Often answers depend on who is asking… I suppose love is what makes us BE. This is just a guess. So much has been said about this topic! I don’t exactly know what love is, but I’m aware of its effects. Love must be shown, or it is not love. Love is also irrational. And so are humans, even though it has been said they are rational animals… Nonsense. Computers experts try hard to make computers think like humans by getting them to be logical. The truth is that a computer will never be like a human being… because the essential part of humans is irrationality.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Coincidence. This might be difficult to accept, but I don’t think there’s a reason beyond this.
What is the biggest problem facing the human race at the moment?
How to cope with intolerance, how to accept that difference is part of our lives. Multiculturalism is a challenge for us.
If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?
I wouldn’t change a single thing. Not at all. Everything in life is so weaved that it is very difficult to change one thing without changing the others.
Do you read poetry? Why? Why not?
I think there might be a difference between poetry and poems. While poetry is felt, poems are written down. How many poems do you know that have a lack of poetry? And yet, sometimes, one single word could be full of poetry… Anyway, I used to read poems, yes… There was a time when I could read in loud voice. Poetry has to be read in loud voice; otherwise we just have loose words on a piece of paper. Life is made of different stages: you do exercise for a while, and then you suddenly stop. The same thing happened to me with poetry. Sometimes you have to leave the land fallow, and give time a chance. From time to time, someone delivers a poem for me on a tray –in the inbox of Outlook . And I’m starting to recite them… again.
What is your mission in life?
Mission? Missions have to do with heroes. And I don’t like heroes. Jesus was one of them. They all have a tendency to die because of a real necessity of stating that his ideas are worth a life, their own life, and sometimes their follower’s life. Therefore, I do not have a mission. I might have little goals…
Have you ever felt hate? If so, tell me about it.
No.
Is optimism a strength or a weakness? Explain your answer
Optimism is, without any doubts, strength. I’m not talking about some sort of naïve optimism for which everything is fine. As I understand it, optimism means being aware of reality and its faults and it entails a great effort in order to make it better.
What is your favourite recipe?
Shepperd’s Pie… but the way we’d cook it in Andalucía: white wine, onions, garlic…
If you had a motto, what would it be?
I wouldn’t have a motto. Humans are too changeable to have just one single motto in life. But“Nosce te ipsum”could be a good motto. However, Simone de Beauvoir said that “you cannot get to know yourself, all you can do is narrate yourself”. Isn’t it what I’m doing know? J
Add and answer two more questions that you would like to be asked!!!!
Ok. Why am I answering this questionnaire?
Because it seems to be a challenge.
(I would not add a number 13th question, sorry)
Besarkada – An Interview with Simone Hadder
I had arranged to make a Skype video call to conduct this interview and what came alive on the screen was a white well-lit room. On the wall hung a cheerful painting – ‘Children of the World’- and sitting in front of it was Simone, dressed in white and smiling angelically. It was like phoning Heaven. She has a smile like spring water.
What is love for you?
Love is everything for me. Love is what I need to live. Love is what I want to give to my nearest and favourite people. And for me love is God. I’m a very religious person and I know what love is in a spiritual way and of course in a human way.
If love comes from God, why do we suffer from love?
Because we are just human beings. I studied theology in Germany and I know that we’re so little that we’re just thinking and feeling like human beings. Love can not mean for us what it means for God. So we’re suffering from a love that is not the real love that I know is the love of God. I loved my ex-husband but I loved him in a very small way compared to my love of God. I’m still on way to understanding my love for human beings and transcendental love.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
I’ll speak personally now. That’s my talent…to be personal. I am a good person and bad things have happened to me like my car accident in Preston, England on 1995 when I was almost dead. This was my essential experience. This influences me every day. I broke my pelvis in ten places and the pain was terrible. I asked myself a lot of times ‘why did this happen to me?’ I had to fight a lot and I’m still fighting against my pain but I have good faith although I have chronic pain. I hate having pain. You can’t imagine what it is. It’s like I am a bull in a bullfight and the matador is killing me. But I am still fighting and l am still living. This is my destiny. This is my drama.
What is the biggest problem facing the human race at the moment?
I have a great fear of terrorism. And I want to maintain nature. People are destroying themselves and that’s a fact and so we are destroying in our little relationships and in general. When I watch the German news I am very worried about what’s happening in the small things and the big. We need the economic crisis, I think, to be more responsible and show more solidarity. But terrorism and stupid religious mess this is what I worry about.
If you could change one thing in your life what would it be?
I’ve been thinking about it but I wouldn’t change anything in my little life. But I would go with my daughter to a poor country to help and I would change my little emotions against my ex-husband and seek mediation with him. This a complex question. I can’t answer it in two sentences.
Do you read poetry?
Sometimes. It depends on my mood. I have a lot of poetry in my room. And yesterday I read a little bit of poetry – ‘Pasión’! Love poems. We have a lot of great German poetry – not Shakespeare we have Goethe and Schiller, and I like it and I have in the other room more poetry. Ask me which poetry is my favourite.
I don’t have any favourite poems but I have one motto. In Latin it’s ‘carpe diem’. That my favourite poetry for my life. I saw it in ‘Dead Poets society’. This is pure poetry. I saw that film when I was a student nurse in Germany in 1991 I think. I and I have it in my DVD library. I love it. I am a teacher and I wanted to be a teacher when I was 6 years old. This is my passion.
What’s your mission in life?
My mission in life is to be still alive and to make this life full of life and full of love. I need people to love and be loved by. This is quite religious but it is what I am for. And also to be a good mother. My daughter is the best thing I ever did. I hope I can love to be a hundred. My new decade – I am now 40 – and I think every decade has its own energy and in 2010 I am 40 and very happy to be!
Is optimism a strength or a weakness? Explain your answer
Both. I think I’m optimistic but I know how hard it is to be optimistic if you’ve got in your surroundings pessimists and people who cannot use their intelligence because they are jealous and selfish. When you are optimistic and in a very good mood and you have success, and then because…oh, how to explain it in English?! I’m optimistic but sometimes I feel quite weak. Or it could be because…no I’m not pessimistic..but I am sometimes weak because I have all the constructs in my head that I am not good enough and I don’t do what society expects me to do.
What’s your favourite recipe?
I don’t have any favourite food like children but my Mum is a good cook and so when you ask me this I am thinking of her to ask her for a good recipe. Yesterday I cooked something with potatoes and mushrooms and it was good. And I like pasta and Italian food bit this is not my favourite recipe.
You have already told us that your favourite motto is ‘carpe diem’…
My motto is ‘carpe diem’ and in Facebook I put a motto one and half years ago – ‘I love to live and I love to love’ . I put it in German and it’s a nice wordplay.” Ich liebe mein Leben und lebe, um zu lieben…!”
What does the future hold?
Well, I will have a man in my life but I don’t know if he will be German, Basque or Spanish. My mission is to help people, this is my energy. I have some photos of over sixty people who have stayed here in my place and I am saving up to buy a hostel. I have about 8 years to go. Everything I try, I do! I am Capricorn. I will call the hostel Besarkada , a Basque word, which means something like ‘hugs’ or ‘meetings’. So that will be the future; hugs and meetings in my house!
Predictions 2010
Listen to the PODCAST
From November 2002 to October 2009 I wrote weekly articles for the website www.weeklyletter.com and every Christmas I would make predictions about what the next twelve months had in store. I predicted, truly, the month and year of Pope John Paul II’s death, I predicted the name his successor would take and I predicted the assassination of Benzir Bhutto.
Here are my predictions for next year.
- The Queen of England will substantially curtail her public appearances after something, possible something very permanent, befalls her husband the Duke of Edinburgh. There will be talk of abdication but she will refuse.
- Manchester United will win the English Football Leage Championship and Chelsea will win the European Champions League.
- There will be a surprise General Election in England in late March and the ruling Labour party will win it but with a hung parliament.
- There will be an Irish presence at all the French games in the South African World Cup – which will be won by Spain after they beat England 3 -2 in the final.
- Penelope Cruz will marry Javier Bardem discreetly and something sad will happen to another famous Spanish actor.
- There will be a major development in battery technology that will rewrite the rules for laptops.
- Osama Bin Laden will be detained or killed by US soldiers in late April.
Let’s see.
Happy New Year.
God on a Summer Evening
As a child I would walk up the street in the snow at half-past eleven at night scouring the rooves for evidence of Santa Claus and his sleigh. This was on the way to Midnight Mass; a massively exciting event for a Catholic child allowed to stay up late on Christmas Eve. As the years went on I passed through the choir, became and grew out of being an altar boy and, as an adult, become God’s Bouncer. As Midnight Mass started with a carol concert at 11.30 pm, the Sacred Heart church in Tunstall often attracted drunks recently ejected from the pubs. My job was to distinguish genuine religious desire from maudling boozy tosh. Many a time, may God forgive me, I sent drunks down the road to the Methodists – who, I hasten to add, had no Midnight Mass.
After my father died Christmas became an intensely sad time and now, frankly, I dislike it. As a step-father I get to see it through children’s eyes and it does make sense. But it isn’t (what is?) what it was.
All our normal aesthetic sensibilities are put on hold at Christmas. Red and green (which should never be seen together) are forced together like reluctant admin staff under the office mistletoe. The music is ghastly. Bells should be rung on a sunny afternoon not jingled in the dark and anyone who has lived in England would take issue with ‘Let it snow/let it snow/Let it snow’. The Greedfest depresses the poor and just encourages the rich. There is often less Christ at Christmas.
I know I sound like Scrooge but I feel closer to God on a summer evening or on a spring hike. Even between the leaves of a book of poems next to a pint of Guinness. I find Christmas something to be endured. It’s cold.
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The Unaware Life is not Worth Living
The man in the photograph was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the direct descendant of the Inquisition) have said that this man’s writings could be dangerous. They are right.
Listen to one of his stories. ‘All questions at the public meeting that day were about life beyond the grave. The Master only laughed and did not give a single answer. To his disciples, who demanded to know the reason for his evasiveness, he later said, ‘Have you observed that it is precisely those who do not know what to do with this life who want another that will last forever?’ ‘But is there life after death or is there not?’ asked a disciple.’Is there life before death? that is the question!’ said the Master.’
You can imagine how that sort of story would upset people with rigid religious views. It is surprising then to discover that Antony De Mello was a Jesuit priest.
De Mello collected many stories from around the world ;stories that illustrated some point of awareness, of wisdom. He removed all the cultural references so the readers’ prejudices would not impede understanding. The book was called The Song of the Bird and was published to great acclaim. Other books followed including One Minute Wisdom , Sadhana and the vastly important Awareness
In “Awareness” we are invited to wake up and stop suffering. Reading the book is like attending one of De Mello’s Spirituality Workshops (which were famous for their effectiveness). But I warn you. The book is, as Cardinal Ratzinger , now Pope Benedict said, dangerous.
It could change your life.
For better. For ever.
As De Mello said… _“I challenge anyone to think of anything more practical than spirituality as I have defined it… not piety, not devotion, not religion, not worship, but spirituality…waking up, waking up! Look at the heartache everywhere, look at the loneliness, look at the fear, the confusion, the conflict in the hearts of people, inner conflict, outer conflict. Suppose somebody gave you a way of getting rid of all of that? Suppose somebody gave you a way to stop that tremendous drainage of energy, of health, of emotion that comes from these conflicts and confusion. Would you want that? Suppose somebody showed us a way whereby we would truly love one another, and be at peace, be at love. Can you think of anything more practical than that? But, instead, you have people thinking that big business is more practical, that politics is more practical, that science is more practical. What’s the earthly use of putting a man on the moon when we cannot live on the earth?’
My aunt gave me the book years and years ago. I am convinced I have avoided some terrible mistakes by reading it. Maybe. Maybe not. I promised myself that I would do what my aunt did – introduce Anthony De Mello to someone, someday. And maybe that person would benefit in the way I did.
Maybe that someday is today.
Maybe that someone is you.
The unaware life is not worth living.
Hearing Voices
Posted by admin on Jul 20, 2009 in Religion
Twiddle God
If you stick a metal rod in the right place in a radio, you hear voices or music or even believe that someone is telling you that England have beaten Australia at Lords. You can calibrate the rod to find its optimal length and you can experiment until you find exactly the right type of metal. Just because the voices aren’t audible without the rod, doesn’t mean they are not there anyway. The rod makes receiving possible.
Some people have had voices, not their own, coming from their mouths due to freak variables coinciding in metal fillings. The fillings have picked up radio waves and the oral cavity has acted as a sound chamber and amplified them.
So, heads up Clinical Psychologists!
Now I don’t know my arse from my medial orbitofrontal cortex but it strikes me that just because you can identify the parts of the brain that spark off when someone has a ‘mystical experience’, does not mean that the origin of those experiences are in the brain. Just as the origin of the Test Match Special is not in your radio aerial.
Now if weird shit happens. And it does. Or the world seems to behave as if it does. Where does that leave the Soul of Man? Why are we here? And where are we going to? And do we ever come back?
We talk about blind faith and rightly condemn it as unquestioning passivity. But we also talk about being blinded by science and maybe we sometimes substitute a priest’s garments for a scientist’s white coat with the same hope that reliable answers will be forthcoming.
Marconi, who invented the radio, once said
“I know all there is to know about how radio works. But I don’t know why it works.”
So, why?
A Branch of Catholicism
Posted by admin on Jul 10, 2009 in Religion
Barking
Every religion has its nutters. We of the Roman Catholic persuasion have shedloads of them. In Limerick in Eire a group of villagers swear they can see an image of the Virgin Mary in the grain of a tree stump. Talk about playing to stereotypes! It’s pure Father Ted.
Why would the Creator of All Things ….now that’s important that is…THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS…put an image of his/her/its mother in a willow tree trunk? Come along now. Be sensible.
And moving statues? And apparitions? What is it? Some sort of Spiritual Internet? This is medieval suspicion at its worst.
Why we are here and where we came from are genuine questions that I feel are profoundly important to consider. I do believe we have a purpose and I do believe we might be able to discover it. But not by means of some arboreal aberration.
Ironically the only one with any sense is Father Willie Russell, the parish priest, who said: “There’s nothing there, it’s just a tree. You can’t worship a tree. A tree is a tree. A person with imagination is a person with imagination.”
In the name of all that is holy, what a bunch of saps!
