sexta-feira, 30 de outubro de 2015

O dragão que habita seu interior necessita escutar algumas palavras

O dragão que habita seu interior necessita escutar algumas palavras.


O dragão que habita seu interior necessita escutar algumas palavras.
Você vai viver como se fosse um viajante do tempo tendo sobre si a responsabilidade de salvar o universo algumas vezes. Essa frase está plagiando avultosamente certo seriado da BBC. Você vai perdoar e não se perdoará se deixar de perdoar. E vai reconsiderar a maldita afronta feita diante das sempre-presentes misérias de seu próprio obstinado coração.
Não vai considerar a dura ofensa maior que o bendito ofensor quando ele, finalmente,  suplicar com os olhos ao seu perdão.
Você não vai abandonar, ainda que deseje ardentemente, pessoas, por causa do ódio em chamas e nem pisá-las, lenta e repetidas vezes, por causa da dor. Você não pagará na mesma moeda e nem em moeda alguma, não estenderá a mão ossuda para destruir a víbora transitória, ainda que quem te afligiu esteja no lugar horrendo onde um dia você esteve, nu,  sem se importar com o que você sentia e sentia muito.
 Você não imaginará ter a luz das estrelas por cobertura e nem gloriosíssima honra que não possa ser atingida ou maculada. Você não usará da majestosa e inviolável dignidade de seu nome, por maior que ele tenha sido elevado um dia, mesmo que por cinco minutos, como razão para abater, por alguma razão cósmica, ao abatido.

Preste atenção, dragão.
Você não desejará e nem fará violência contra seu grande amor. Ainda que seu grande amor tenha perdido diante de seus olhos lacrimosos toda a rotunda consideração que um dia tivesse tido. Quando quem devia te abrigar e proteger te abandonar,  você não imporá nada além do que te é de direito. Você não deixará de amar quem te feriu, ainda que amando em meio a ira. Ainda que resistindo ao impulso de esganar a tal  criatura. Você não envenenará a água que ele te pedir para beber. Isso não significa ter que emprestar dinheiro e nem permitir que ele permaneça com a coleção de dvd´s emprestada.
Você não se sentará em silencio, como num drama interior de um shogun derrotado, mas ao mesmo tempo, não usará da sua língua afiada para fazer aquilo que só conseguiria fazer literalmente com uma espada desembainhada contra um adversário.
Você não espalhará “sempre-novas” e cada-vez-piores mentiras sobre quem quebrou laços que jurou aos pés da rude cruz que jamais se partiriam.  E sempre imaginará o melhor. Sempre esperará pela dignidade tardia.
Porque me olhas assim, querendo me devorar?
Nunca fechará as portas à reconciliação. E mesmo que ela não aconteça, por causa de atitudes indignas continuas, emolduradas por uma malevolência ímpar, você ainda assim, não alimentará a alma de amargura.  Você será poderoso em perdoar, rápido em abraçar e procurará viver em paz como quem procura água em meio do deserto.  
Você não se abrigará no ódio, não se esconderá debaixo do rancor e nem descontará no pássaro, no coveiro, na manicure, no pediatra e no trocador, nem no cachorrinho e nem no vendedor de seguros, a provocação injusta.
Não adianta. Essa fumaça negra saindo do canto de sua boca não me intimida.
Você não usará o PULPITO para humilhar quem te desconsiderou.  Você não vai amarrar aquela que roubou quem não lhe pertencia no barco-que-queima, previamente furado, em meio a noite tempestuosa daquele mar glacial cheio de orcas, embora talvez seja razoável umas palavras de pouca estima para a torpe atitude, seguida de alguns puxões de cabelo,  e um suave rasgo na roupa absolutamente nova da piriguete.  
Você lutará pelo amor que te conquistou. Até a ditosa velhice. Porém não permitirá que a raiva faça com que a balança da justiça em sua mão, sequer, trema.
Ainda não é sua hora dragão.
 Lutará contra o vulcão, contra as brasas, contra o inferno que queima e ruge, contra as fagulhas e o fogo e não permitirá que sua voz saia envolta no fogo de seu dragão interior. Seja com o filho rebelde, com a vizinha implicante; com a amiga provocadora, com o chefe inconsequente; com a vendedora mal-educada. Com o idiota dentro do trem, com o motorista bêbado-por-natureza. Não vai permitir que o fogo te saia pelas narinas para perseguir ao motoqueiro abusado, não vai permitir que aquilo que de ofende seja mais forte do que aquilo que de FERE.
Agora é sua hora, dragão.
O dragão de nosso interior, nossa ira, não é uma criatura inútil. E nem necessita estar trancado para sempre.
Não é necessário calar-se diante da injustiça, do direito ameaçado, do perigo, da ameaça a segurança própria ou alheia. Não é necessário calar-se ou resignar-se quando essa voz pode mudar uma situação juridica, trabalhista, até de relacionamento.
A IRA tem hora para acontecer, ela tem o lugar de sua aparição. Há momentos de legitimidade, onde ela é liberada para fazer você incandescer como uma tocha e te envolver com a força de mil leões para que você devore quem estiver no caminho da injustiça realizada.
Aquieta-te novamente, dragão.
Há porém ofensas que esse dragão não poderá te socorrer. São feridas de amizade, feridas de gente querida e amada, são atos que sua raiva não poderá mudar, onde a amargura não poderá consertar, onde o ódio não tem o poder de conceder força, só destrói o que ainda resta e que vale a pena continuar.   
Lute para que seu coração estabeleça um lugar de abundancia, de graça, de misericórdia, de ajuda, de benignidade, de justiça, de cortesia. Seja cortes, amável. Implique com os amigos, mas, respeite ao próximo. Contenha-se. Repense o que você diz, dispa suas palavras da essência da amargura, da acusação, do inoportuno. Ria, brinque, não permita que sua voz transmita revolta. A ira muda a entonação, o ritmo, a altura de sua voz. Parte do que transmitimos é verbal e parte, a maior parte, não pode ser contida nos gestos, na textura da pele, na força do toque, na expressão facial, na tonalidade, no ritmo das palavras.  Não temos como mentir para nós mesmos.  E a amargura é transmissível, ela é arremessada, lançada de nós, sai de nossos espíritos e penetra no espírito dos filhos, dos pais, dos amigos, dos conjugues. Junto de nossa voz.
Respire fundo e deixe o Espírito de Deus tornar sua voz um canto. Seu sorriso,
Luz.
 

terça-feira, 20 de outubro de 2015

ANCIENT CHINA’S “VIRTUOUS” WOMEN

sancongside

ANCIENT CHINA’S “VIRTUOUS” WOMEN

Tuesday, October 20, 2015 | BY: 
“Female virtue schools” have been known to make headlines in China’s media. In the name of spreading Chinese traditional culture, they promoted “virtues” like “never quarrel with your husband”, “be submissive” and “don’t get divorced”. Outrage erupted as soon as these principles were exposed, because for any Chinese individual, these codes sound very familiar. They were exactly the fetters that Chinese women spent thousands of years trying to escape from.
Being a good woman in the feudal society could be super hard given the strict standards of being “good”. The basic requirements were summarized as “Three Obediences and Four Virtues (三从四德)”. The “Three Obediences” were “obey your father before marriage (未嫁从父); obey your husband when married (既嫁从夫); and obey your sons in widowhood (夫死从子)”.  And the “Four Virtues” were “Female virtues (妇德)”, “Female words (妇言)”, “Female appearances (妇容)” and “Female work (妇功)”.

Obey your father before marriage
For unmarried women, obedience to their parents was the most important sign of filial piety. From their daily lives to decisions about marriage, free will was never encouraged. If a girl talked back to her  parents or left home without the parents knowing, she would be regarded as being of poor stock. As for marriage, “making a marital decision all by themselves (私定终身)” was even immoral. People, especially women, who did that, were considered shameless and humiliated the whole family.
Daughters also needed to take good care of their parents. If something happened to them, they were encouraged to step forward or even sacrifice themselves for their parents. Like Ti Ying, from the Han Dynasty, who saved her father by writing a persuasive treatise addressed to the emperor on the ethics of punishment, and Cao E, who committed suicide by jumping into the river after her father drowned there, were all set as good examples of filial daughters.
Image depicting Cao E, from 12371.cn
Image depicting Cao E [12371.cn]
Obey your husband in marriage
After getting married, the obedience was transferred to their husbands. Before the wedding, the mother of the bride would educate her daughter “not to defy your husband”.
It seemed that wives should be respectful all the time. Some clues could be found in the idiom “举案齐眉 (Holding the tray up to the eyebrows)”, which is used to describe the ideal relations between husband and wife.
The idiom originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty. A young scholar Liang Hong married a well-educated woman named Meng Guang. Every day when he came home, Meng Guang served him food with her head bowed and holding the tray up to her eyebrows to show respect for him.
Image depicting "Holding the tray to the eyebrow",from pingushi.cn
Image depicting “Holding the tray up to the eyebrow” [pingushi.cn]
Respect was just the first step. The “obedience to husband” also meant that the wife should be loyal to her husband, even after he died. Though a widow was allowed to get married again, people spoke highly of those who stay in widowhood. The value of chastity had huge influence on traditional women. “从一而终(be faithful to only one person until death)” was many people’s creed. Women who commit suicide after her husband died were praised as chaste women.
In the History of Song, there were 55 women recorded for not remarrying and “staying loyal” to their dead husbands. And the number raised to 178 in the History of Yuan and to 308 in the History of Ming. This kind of suicidal practice was regarded as honorable. In the Ming Dynasty, the government even regulated that if the woman became a widow before 30 and didn’t get married again, the servitude of the family could be exempted. So in many cases, even if the women themselves didn’t want to stay single, their family members would force them to. A particular piece of architecture called the “chastity memorial archway (贞节牌坊)” was sometimes built in honor of these dutiful women.
Image of a "chastity memorial archway", from gog.com.cn
Image of a “chastity memorial archway” [gog.com.cn]
Obey your son in widowhood
After her husband died, the person they should obey changed again. In the male-dominated society, after the father died, the son naturally became the master of the family. Though the traditional morals also required the son to respect his mother, as for making a decision, it was the son’s call.
You may have found that the “Three Obediences” went throughout the whole life of a woman. There was not even a minute they could take control of their own life, unless all her male relatives died. But obedience was not enough. There also some specific requirements, the “Four Virtues”.

Female Virtues
In ancient times, “virtue (德)” was raised to a height superior to anything else, and sometimes put on the opposite of the concept of “talent (才)”. The book Female Precepts (女诫) clearly wrote that “A good woman doesn’t need any special talents” and the folk saying “A woman without talents is virtuous (女子无才便是德)” is still widely known today. Ironically, the author of Women Precepts, Ban Zhao was a very talented woman herself.
As society developed, the standards became more and more detailed. As a daughter-in-law, the woman should be submissive to her in-laws; as a formal wife, she should accept the concubines of her husband without jealousy; as a mother she should teach her children in the “proper” way and if she was a stepmother, she should treat her stepchildren the same as her own kids. If the family was poor, she should stay with her husband without complaints; but if they became rich, she should remain thrifty and diligent.

Female words
To some extent, Chinese people don’t value eloquence. They instead stress that careless talk leads to misfortune. When it comes to women, eloquence was never a merit. A certain term “long-tongue woman (长舌妇)” was created to describe women who talk behind people and stir up enmity, but there is not a counterpart term for men.
In any book related to females and speaking, you find that the only requirement was “don’t talk too much” or “talk properly”. By “talking too much”, it sometimes meant that a woman judged or criticized other family members in front of her husband, which was definitely unacceptable because it would break the harmony of the family. If a woman is believed to be “talking too much”, it’s lawful for her husband to divorce her.

Female appearance
According to Confucian beliefs, a man should care about his wife’s virtue instead of her appearance. So a woman shouldn’t pay much attention to her appearance. She just needed to be clean, neat and average-looking. If a woman is too beautiful, chances were that they could be combined with misfortune and evil.
In many stories, a decent man who married an ugly but virtuous woman is highly complimented. But there was an unsurprisingly popular guideline for men: Marry a virtuous woman as your formal wife; and marry a beautiful woman as your concubine (娶妻娶德,纳妾纳色).

Female work
In China, a good wife is called “贤内助”, literally meaning “great domestic assistant”. According to the traditional social division of labor, it was the wife’s obligation to manage the home affairs, including looking after the family members, cleaning the house, treating guests and preparing for the sacrifice ceremonies.
Ban Zhao said a housewife didn’t need to be too capable, “focusing on working and no distraction” was enough. But actually if a housewife was not efficient enough, she would be accused of being stupid or lazy, which would affect her reputation badly.
Thousands of years have passed. But even today, when people compliment a good woman, the word “贤妻良母 (a good wife and mother)” is frequently used, denoting that women are still evaluated based on their identity as a wife or mother instead of themselves. Of course, a lot of changes have happened, but we are still looking forward to seeing more.

Cover Image from 天狼
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terça-feira, 13 de outubro de 2015

Extraordinary photos of Russian photographers - http://35photo.ru and divine call

As you see these beautiful pictures of extraordinary Russian photographers, that the Spirit of Him who made heaven and earth come to meet you.
 
Because God loved us so gone crazy.
Embracing he a crazy cause with courage inadmissible,
launching himself in a suicidal endeavor, under the aegis of risks
incalculable, supported on unusual way by the fragility of human hope, giving the man who owned the more absolute inside him, your life, your dreams, your essence, your beloved Son,
so precious for him as the only one of its kind,
For that everyone which would comes be born on earth
and believes in this act impossible, in the most absurd transcendental trip,
trip full of humiliation, torture, madness and trust,
not ever performed before, completed with indescribable success,
can  receive the inalienable right
of to live for all eternity.


Gospel of the Apostle John, Chapter Three, Sixteenth Verse.


Will be filled with the Spirit of God
Right now.  
Wherever you are.
That as you read these lines 
The Spirit of God surrounds you 
And recreate your heart 
Giving you dreams and revelations 
Transforming your soulSo that has thirst for God 
And receive the gifts and spiritual power 
For now, be healed of illnesses 
You are full of unrestrained joy 
You are inundated with angelic chants 
And a tremendous faith and powerful 
The Father waits to hear his spirit 
Listen to your pleas 
All that is around you is yours
Granted by the resurrection of Christ
Angels await to hear your voice
They long to hear your prayer
That you as you read these lines 
Become son or daughter of God
Receives divine unction 
Word of Wisdom
Gifts of healing
Gift of tongues 
Discerning of spirits
Spiritual chants
Working of miracles
That every addiction is destroyed 
Any power that distresses you
Be destroyed in the name of Jesus
 Receive by law and inheritance 
The authority of Jesus' name 
And that angelic chants 
Are part of your daily routine 
Until the day of your resurrection