On Fri, 8 Dec 1995, Kristina Westerberg wrote:
> Even if people are suffering from a war situation, manifestations of culture
> is essential, I think. This has also been referred to in stories from
> concentration camps. An orchestra, a painting, rituals that keeps us
> together as humans despite the circumstances.
Yes, I agree!
It seems that there's much more than what appears to be merely eating, or a
painting, or a song...
what keeps us going (even in difficult situations) may be a sense of
history, of one's cultural roots, or "meaning"; something that's often
embodied in some mundane cultural rituals or practices... or some
overlearned sayings in one's language...
...
I've come across this in "The Dialogues" (A collection of the
conversations between Confucius and his students/contemporaries or
between his students and others, circ. 500 B.C.): (my translations):
Ji-Louh spent the night at Sehk-Muhn. In the morning, the gate-keeper
of the city opened the city gate and asked him, "Where are you from?".
Ji-Louh replied, "From Confucius.". The gate-keeper said, "Oh, that
fellow who tries to do what he knows cannot be done?"
Well, in his time, Confucius was a laughing stock of his contemporaries:
someone who tried to do what they knew cannot be done... to persuade the
warlords to stop fighting each other, stop scrambling for territories,
start caring for the people... to preach peace, respect, love, ...
he had starved in some places on his journey to preach and to persuade to
those in power... he was laughed at as an idealist... all he had were
some 70 faithful disciples...
"Someone who does what she/he knows cannot be done"... a mundane saying
in our language that may pop up one day to help one to find meaning in
the most gloomy situations perhaps...
Angel