Antonio Gallo's Blog: MEDIUM, page 141
March 5, 2017
Do you dialog with yourself?
There are many reasons for speaking to myself during the day. I know that I can do it, but I can’t tell you why I do it. The nature of these dialogues is always different, being these talks often diverse and contrasting.
It may be either complimentary or motivational, sometimes a sort of outer dialogue, often goal-setting. Whether I am alone or with others, I feel I’m always living with myself. So I try not to leave myself out of the situation.
I believe that talking with yourself not only relieves the loneliness, it may also make you smarter. It helps you clarify your thoughts, it tends you to do what’s important and firms up any decisions you’re contemplating.
There’s just one condition: you become smarter only if you speak sincerely to yourself. Converse, chatter, communicate respectfully with yourself. It’s not a sign of insanity. It’s a sign of good health. I think …
It may be either complimentary or motivational, sometimes a sort of outer dialogue, often goal-setting. Whether I am alone or with others, I feel I’m always living with myself. So I try not to leave myself out of the situation.
I believe that talking with yourself not only relieves the loneliness, it may also make you smarter. It helps you clarify your thoughts, it tends you to do what’s important and firms up any decisions you’re contemplating.
There’s just one condition: you become smarter only if you speak sincerely to yourself. Converse, chatter, communicate respectfully with yourself. It’s not a sign of insanity. It’s a sign of good health. I think …
Why value privacy?
Any person needs to be able to rest from scrutiny and presence of others and the world at large. This person needs to be able to relax, be wholly himself, breathe freely, shut out the demands and prying of others so that he can refresh and restore himself in a private space of his personal, intimate life and his own thoughts. One form of torture and a highly damaging one from a psychological point of view is to keep a person under a constant scrutiny and exposure. A large part of the importance of privacy as a human need, or better, right, is that helps people keep at least some control over how to appear to the world. Most people seek to be acceptable to society, for obvious psychological and practical reasons. It could be awkward and even disabling to have certain of one’s sentiments and personal habits publicly known, especially any that are conventionally unacceptable. A degree of privacy is fundamental for autonomy and psychological health. Yet, at the same time, most people are intensely curious about other people’s lives and doings. This explains the relish people have for gossip. There seems to be a contradiction between our voyeuristic interest in others and our need for privacy for ourselves. The question is: are people dishonest in desiring to know about others what they themselves seek to conceal?
The world's oldest profession ...
I don’t think prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. For most part of human history men have lived as hunter-gatherers. No instances of prostitution are seen in societies organised in this manner. It is a fact, however, that a similar phrase is found in the morality play “The Fall of Rightness” (c. 1340). Cain, having been exiled, is wandering in the wilderness when he is visited by Lilith, an agent of Satan. Her function is to explain to him the nature of the post-Fall society he is to encounter and, during her description of the world of sin, she says:” Whoredom is the original busines of woman”. This is a statement that, of course, can be taken as an example of medieval misogeny rather than a statement of fact!
Reading paper books and e-books
What do you like most about reading paper books and e-books?
Once upon a time bones, bronze ware, stones, bamboo, silk and paper were used to be the ingredients for pages of traditional books. Nowadays, papers have become the common ingredient for reading around the world. With the fast development of Information Technology, traditional print-on-paper books are being challenged by the growing popularity of online reading.
What is more enjoyable, reading a traditional book or scanning pages on the Internet? Experts and readers have different opinions. I believe that online reading, or e-reading, will become a major trend but it will not destroy the old book. Digital reading includes online reading of news, blogs, Twitter messages, e-books and e-zines. In addition to words and pictures, digital reading also enriches content with audio and video features, making reading more entertaining.
What’s more, digital devices can be quicker to obtain and use. To find a traditional book involves spending time and money buying it in a bookstore, or ordering it online and waiting for its arrival by traditional delivery services. For digital reading material, just type in the search engine words for the title, author or other related information about the book to find it in minutes on the Internet. Sometimes one can even read the full content of an e-book free of charge and instantly discuss the book in an online forum.
Nowadays, people spend more time sitting in front of computers, but less time reading books. Also, since the price of traditional books is increasing, digital reading often is the cheapest alternative for readers. Reading on the Internet, one can rapidly scan or carefully read the contents, and a lot of information such as explanations of terms, book reviews, and audios and videos can be easily obtained on the Internet to help you read thoroughly.
I believe people will still benefit from the vast array of traditional reading choices. Many of the latest published books and academic books usually can’t be found on the Internet because of the protection of intellectual property right. Thus, the books you really need might not be available in digital formats. But the Internet also has some limitations for users. For example, older people have difficulty learning about and using computers and children sometimes are restricted from using the Internet to stop them from accessing adult content. In remote and impoverished regions, computers and the Internet are less popular, making online reading less available.
Another drawback of online reading is that people reading on the Internet might not have the patience to immerse themselves if they easily distracted by videos, audios and pictures. When so much information floods the eyes and ears, a reader might lose focus on the text and just scan pages, instead. There are always two sides to what people like and don’t like. As a quick, convenient reference tool, online reading is considered useful. To deeply appreciate a poem or a novel, the traditional reading of printed books might be the better choice.
When you read a beautifully designed and bound traditional book, you can feel the softness of the paper and smell the fragrance of the printing ink, which is a pleasurable experience not possible with digital reading. I don’t think reading traditional books will be replaced by online reading. I believe the paper book and the “bits & bytes” book will proceed side by side towards a new way of thinking and living.
I am a 76 year-old-son of an old post Gutenberg printer. My father did not just print books. He “composed” them letter by letter, printed the sheet, inked and pressed it, folded and sewed the pages, glued them and sold them. But he was also a book collector. This is called “evolution” …
Once upon a time bones, bronze ware, stones, bamboo, silk and paper were used to be the ingredients for pages of traditional books. Nowadays, papers have become the common ingredient for reading around the world. With the fast development of Information Technology, traditional print-on-paper books are being challenged by the growing popularity of online reading.
What is more enjoyable, reading a traditional book or scanning pages on the Internet? Experts and readers have different opinions. I believe that online reading, or e-reading, will become a major trend but it will not destroy the old book. Digital reading includes online reading of news, blogs, Twitter messages, e-books and e-zines. In addition to words and pictures, digital reading also enriches content with audio and video features, making reading more entertaining.
What’s more, digital devices can be quicker to obtain and use. To find a traditional book involves spending time and money buying it in a bookstore, or ordering it online and waiting for its arrival by traditional delivery services. For digital reading material, just type in the search engine words for the title, author or other related information about the book to find it in minutes on the Internet. Sometimes one can even read the full content of an e-book free of charge and instantly discuss the book in an online forum.
Nowadays, people spend more time sitting in front of computers, but less time reading books. Also, since the price of traditional books is increasing, digital reading often is the cheapest alternative for readers. Reading on the Internet, one can rapidly scan or carefully read the contents, and a lot of information such as explanations of terms, book reviews, and audios and videos can be easily obtained on the Internet to help you read thoroughly.
I believe people will still benefit from the vast array of traditional reading choices. Many of the latest published books and academic books usually can’t be found on the Internet because of the protection of intellectual property right. Thus, the books you really need might not be available in digital formats. But the Internet also has some limitations for users. For example, older people have difficulty learning about and using computers and children sometimes are restricted from using the Internet to stop them from accessing adult content. In remote and impoverished regions, computers and the Internet are less popular, making online reading less available.
Another drawback of online reading is that people reading on the Internet might not have the patience to immerse themselves if they easily distracted by videos, audios and pictures. When so much information floods the eyes and ears, a reader might lose focus on the text and just scan pages, instead. There are always two sides to what people like and don’t like. As a quick, convenient reference tool, online reading is considered useful. To deeply appreciate a poem or a novel, the traditional reading of printed books might be the better choice.
When you read a beautifully designed and bound traditional book, you can feel the softness of the paper and smell the fragrance of the printing ink, which is a pleasurable experience not possible with digital reading. I don’t think reading traditional books will be replaced by online reading. I believe the paper book and the “bits & bytes” book will proceed side by side towards a new way of thinking and living.
I am a 76 year-old-son of an old post Gutenberg printer. My father did not just print books. He “composed” them letter by letter, printed the sheet, inked and pressed it, folded and sewed the pages, glued them and sold them. But he was also a book collector. This is called “evolution” …
The way we read ...
How exactly does the technology we use to read change the way we read?
How reading on screens differs from reading on paper is relevant to just about everyone who reads, to anyone who day by day switches between working long hours in front of a computer at the office and leisurely reading paper magazines and books at home; to people who have embraced e-readers for their convenience and portability, but admit that for some reason they still prefer reading on paper. As digital texts and technologies become more prevalent, we gain new and more mobile ways of reading, but are we still reading as attentively and thoroughly? How do our brains respond differently to onscreen text than to words on paper? Should we be worried about dividing our attention between pixels and ink or is the validity of such concerns paper-thin? One last question: how much does the new technology we use make us change the view of the world?
How reading on screens differs from reading on paper is relevant to just about everyone who reads, to anyone who day by day switches between working long hours in front of a computer at the office and leisurely reading paper magazines and books at home; to people who have embraced e-readers for their convenience and portability, but admit that for some reason they still prefer reading on paper. As digital texts and technologies become more prevalent, we gain new and more mobile ways of reading, but are we still reading as attentively and thoroughly? How do our brains respond differently to onscreen text than to words on paper? Should we be worried about dividing our attention between pixels and ink or is the validity of such concerns paper-thin? One last question: how much does the new technology we use make us change the view of the world?
Life before birth ...
Is there any possibility of life before birth? Is there any correlation to life after death?
The key words in these questions are “birth” and “death”. I believe only poets are able to give answers to these questions. Poetry and true poets are born to give man “un-reasonable” answers in form of poems. The English poet Louis MacNeice (1907-1963) in his poem “Prayer Before Birth” tried a plea from an unborn child to a divine power. He foresees for him death after birth. The poem suggests all the horrors that the world may inflict on him, in contrast with the wonders of nature. He will be powerless to stop himself from being used in some way for evil, for which he asks forgiveness. He prays for strength not to be made into a part of a machine, which clearly represents an army and war. If this happens, he would rather die.The poem highlights the horrors of war by juxtaposing them with the innocence of an unborn child. Although every soldier began in this way, it is somehow much more horrific to imagine them in the context of a baby.
I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
club-footed ghoul come near me.
I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.
I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.
I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,
my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
my life when they murder by means of my
hands, my death when they live me.
I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
waves call me to folly and the desert calls
me to doom and the beggar refuses
my gift and my children curse me.
I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
come near me.
I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the hands would spill me.
Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.
Some centuries earlier, another English poet, John Donne (1572-1631) answered the second question with another poem, “Death Be Not Proud” that is among the most beloved poems in English literature. Its popularity lies in its message of hope couched in eloquent, quotable language. Donne’s theme tells the reader that death has no right to be proud, since human beings do not die but live eternally after “one short sleep.”
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
We may assume that “birth” and “death” are both just an “accident” we call “life”. I’m afraid Science can’t fully explain the meaning of life and death. Yet …
The key words in these questions are “birth” and “death”. I believe only poets are able to give answers to these questions. Poetry and true poets are born to give man “un-reasonable” answers in form of poems. The English poet Louis MacNeice (1907-1963) in his poem “Prayer Before Birth” tried a plea from an unborn child to a divine power. He foresees for him death after birth. The poem suggests all the horrors that the world may inflict on him, in contrast with the wonders of nature. He will be powerless to stop himself from being used in some way for evil, for which he asks forgiveness. He prays for strength not to be made into a part of a machine, which clearly represents an army and war. If this happens, he would rather die.The poem highlights the horrors of war by juxtaposing them with the innocence of an unborn child. Although every soldier began in this way, it is somehow much more horrific to imagine them in the context of a baby.
I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
club-footed ghoul come near me.
I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.
I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.
I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,
my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
my life when they murder by means of my
hands, my death when they live me.
I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
waves call me to folly and the desert calls
me to doom and the beggar refuses
my gift and my children curse me.
I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
come near me.
I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the hands would spill me.
Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.
Some centuries earlier, another English poet, John Donne (1572-1631) answered the second question with another poem, “Death Be Not Proud” that is among the most beloved poems in English literature. Its popularity lies in its message of hope couched in eloquent, quotable language. Donne’s theme tells the reader that death has no right to be proud, since human beings do not die but live eternally after “one short sleep.”
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
We may assume that “birth” and “death” are both just an “accident” we call “life”. I’m afraid Science can’t fully explain the meaning of life and death. Yet …
Giving away
Does giving away your possessions entail giving away yourself?
I often think of all the things, call them possessions or stuff, which have made up my life: where will all those things go, who will take care of them, why were they all so important to me? The answers are easy and painful: they’ll dissolve themselves, nobody will take care of them, they weren’t important, since I wasn’t importtant either … They are just memories of the past. The Italian poet Vincenzo Cardarelli, in this short poem on “memories”, says it well:
“Past”
Our memories, these exceedingly long shadows
of our brief body,
this tail of death
that we leave behind as we live,
the dreadful and lasting memories,
here they appear already:
melancholic and mute
ghosts agitated by a funereal wind.
And by now you are nothing more than a memory.
Your are well past and gone in my memory.
Yes, now I can say that
you belong to me
and something between us had happened
irrevocably.
All ended, taken away!
Precipitous and gentle
our time caught up with us.
Made of fleeting moments, it has woven
a circled and sad story.
We ought to have known that love
burns life and gives time flying wings.
Things, stuff, possessions, just like persons and people, disappear on “flying wings” … It’s not a question of being pessimistic, I call this reality, friends! …
I often think of all the things, call them possessions or stuff, which have made up my life: where will all those things go, who will take care of them, why were they all so important to me? The answers are easy and painful: they’ll dissolve themselves, nobody will take care of them, they weren’t important, since I wasn’t importtant either … They are just memories of the past. The Italian poet Vincenzo Cardarelli, in this short poem on “memories”, says it well:
“Past”
Our memories, these exceedingly long shadows
of our brief body,
this tail of death
that we leave behind as we live,
the dreadful and lasting memories,
here they appear already:
melancholic and mute
ghosts agitated by a funereal wind.
And by now you are nothing more than a memory.
Your are well past and gone in my memory.
Yes, now I can say that
you belong to me
and something between us had happened
irrevocably.
All ended, taken away!
Precipitous and gentle
our time caught up with us.
Made of fleeting moments, it has woven
a circled and sad story.
We ought to have known that love
burns life and gives time flying wings.
Things, stuff, possessions, just like persons and people, disappear on “flying wings” … It’s not a question of being pessimistic, I call this reality, friends! …
My favourite poem
“M’illumino/d’immenso” is my favourite sentence. It’s not a sentence, really, it’s a hermetic poem by the Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti. Perhaps the shortest poem ever written. To Italians, it’s perhaps the most famous poem of modern times: a tiny piece just seven syllables long. The title is “Mattino” (Morning), and you don’t need to know Italian to catch the beauty of its sound:
M’illumino
d’immenso
A rough translation would be “I flood myself with the light of the immense”, though the vagueness of that is alien to the poem’s terse musicality. The open vowels and the repeated ms and ns create a mood of wonder, evoking the light of a new day starting to flood the sky. The two lines capture something deep in consciousness that responds to this great but commonplace event out there in the external world.
M’illumino
d’immenso
A rough translation would be “I flood myself with the light of the immense”, though the vagueness of that is alien to the poem’s terse musicality. The open vowels and the repeated ms and ns create a mood of wonder, evoking the light of a new day starting to flood the sky. The two lines capture something deep in consciousness that responds to this great but commonplace event out there in the external world.
Book ownership ...
I own many books. Three, four thousands perhaps, even more, I don’t know. But this is not an important point. Few belonged to my father, others to my brother, some to my son, many to my wife, a large family library in any case. Three generations’ readings. Different books, different times, different interests. My father was a post Gutenberg printer, he was used to think that books were just tools to read the world. He used to say that even over two thousand years ago Qohelet said that there were too many books. Today I have about two hundred ebooks in my cloud waiting to be read besides the thousands in paper on the bookshelves. And you talk of ownership? I wonder what it does this mean …
Thoughts of death ...
Thoughts of death can produce different feelings depending on one’s own state of mind. Uneasyness, prejudice and violence are only some of those feeling. If one thinks and accepts the idea that life is just a journey, and like all journeys must have an end, there’s no problem. Different is when you think that you can change the world with your actions, and make it a different place. After 77 years of living I have come to think that we never do much enough to change the world, until we realize that the world has changed us ..
MEDIUM
Nessuno è stato mai me. Può darsi che io sia il primo. Nobody has been me before. Maybe I’m the first one.
- Antonio Gallo's profile
- 52 followers
