It's been a while since my last blog so in a way this is a resurrection.
February... a month full of reds (not communist though, sorry Marx) and chocolates (happy feast day to Ferrero and Kisses!). If ever the number of newborns on November will increase you'll know why... Well, traditionally, for better or worse, February has been known for two things: (1) it is the only month composed of 29 days and it only happens every leap year and (2) it's the month of hearts i.e. Valentine's day. So let me shatter your sweet clingy-wingy day with a philosophical reflection or rather a book review. A newly ordained Jesuit, Fr Patrick Vance S. Nogoy, SJ, has just published his book, Touching Love: Thoughts and Stories (Pasay: Paulines, 2016). Last Friday, February 10, 2014, I attended his public lecture in Xavier University Cagayan de Oro. So basically this essay is just a re-echo of what has been discussed (though not that comprehensive since I haven't finished the book yet). Fr Pat reflects on what is the place of love in this world characterized as a Post-truth society. But before anything else, what's Post-truth? "Post-truth" is Oxford Dictionary's 2016 word of the year; it simply means that facts and evidences no longer possess much influence over public opinion than emotions and feelings have. Well, we can easily see this. The "Brexit", Donald Trump's anti-immigrant stance, Marine Le Pen's nationalism, Mocha Uson's wisdom, Alvarez's Death penalty and so on. So, in a sense, Fr Pat's question is: where is love in this whirlwind of emotions? Fr Pat equates love not with sex or just mere feelings but with the Truth. Love is aletheia i.e. love is uncovering (yes, Heidegger's fans will like the book, as well as Jean-Luc Marion's and Emmanuel Levinas'). Love is opposed to totalization precisely because it is aletheia. Love is collaboration: "Collaboration is opposed to totalization - an aggressive and violent promotion of one's own plan" (p 17). In love, the lover lets the beloved strip herself and reveal who she really is (aletheia) yet in this stripping I still cannot own and dictate her she is forever an infinity enclosed in a finite being (of course the metaphor of stripping is mine not Fr Pat's, hehe). For Fr Pat the essential question is not "Why is there something rather than nothing?" but "Should I love or not?" "Yet despite its demands, it is almost impossible to not love" (p 70). Love creates possibilities and for Fr Pat possibilities are always more important than actualities (unlike Sartre's there is really no potentiality bu only actuality) because in love's promise possibilities become real. This is the reason why it hurts when promises are broken, when the beloved goes away or finds another. It hurts not because of the unfulfilled promises but because "of abandonment - I am left alone. It is the experience of being forsaken - the denial and rejection, especially by the one I love" (p 73) The choice to continue loving is left to me. Thus it no longer matters if love will go back what matters is that I love you... in this act of loving the I finds himself truly as he is: "Self-becoming is achieved ironically because of an Other, unique and mysterious, an Other that exerts an opposite or counter-force" (pp 46-47). In our society who loves emotions and feelings, love stands as wisdom's beacon. To love is to let the Other unfold - let her be - though this will take until forever since I will always be surprised of new things that I will discover about her. This is truly aletheia! Love then is not just an emotion or feeling such that define the Post-truth society, Love is a decision. Now the question is: will you love? Happy Valentines! (for those who want a copy of the book, it is available at all ST PAULS Libreria and Pauline Media Centers nationwide or just visit stpauls.ph) |
anonymous lenzJust a traveling someone in this reality we have fallen in love with... this we call our world... "What is essential is invisible to the eyes..." Tags
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"There is only one corner in the universe that you can be certain of improving and that's your own Self" |