Words for Love and Time
Adapted slightly from December 2022 - Messages from the NY Diaspora
‘Wounding Time’ by Ooana Trien
Multimedia / Found Art ‘24
It’s weird. I’m beginning to realize that along with and despite the realities of NYC’s dangers - I was very lucky to be somewhere where the people were driven by a desire to accomplish something.
This made people more focused on that desire than their inner or outer fickle whims. It also made for an upfront directness that was both appreciated by one another and gave a sense of security. Im only now realizing the depth of how I miss and long for this coupling of want with action - very much.
Passive aggressiveness being a social grace I will never get use to.
It’s been a rough road so far finding my way here, or rather still trying to find it. Harder than I expected. “If I can make it there, I’ll make it…”
I’ll make it. I’ll make it. I’ll make it. It’s become a mantra that I sometimes have to will into existence. It was effortlessly once imbued into our being. This is something I think few outside the NYC area during a very particular time, but all within the NY Diaspora I think might understand.
Being around the men and women at the Brownstone conference last week [that was the 2022 conference in Miami] made me long for this difficult to describe thing all the more.
Lockdowns did more than keep us apart. It struck at the self reliance. And trust we had in one another. And real comradely/I dare say love we had for fellow NYers. We were / are different. I miss it more than I can say. I likely always will.
“Most people are in New York because they need evidence—in large quantities—of human expressiveness; and they need it not now and then, but every day. That is what they need. Those who go off to the manageable cities can do without; those who come to New York cannot.”—Vivian Gornick
“I love New York, even though it isn't mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.”―Truman Capote, writer “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1924-84)
Love. It’s a loaded word. More loaded because we reduced what the ancient Greeks had 6 different words (maybe more) to help describe and even coax out of and see in others; to only one.
The War on Memory has had many casualties
What a tragic thing we’ve done. Minimalism is a mechanized view of the universe plowing a forest in June.
“The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.”―F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
Eros: sexual desire (ἔρως)
Philia: soul connection (φιλία)
Storge: devoted love
(στοργή)
Pragma: mature love (πράγμα)
Ludus: playful love
(Παιχνίδια)
Mania: obsessive love (μανία)
also…
Meraki (modern greek): creative endeavors
derived from the Turkish “Merak” (μεράκι) means to do something with love, creativity, and devotion when you wholeheartedly put yourself into what you are doing.
Philautia: self-love The Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that self-love or Philautia (φιλαυτία) is a prerequisite to loving others. (We mess this one up a lot don’t we?)
But we really really struggle with…
Agape: unconditional love
Agape (ἀγάπη)
“No manner will ever serve no loving ever save when everyone is free to choose slavery.” - me.
Love the sculpture! Good piece, you are finding your way.