Choices

[N]o demos al dolor más territorio:
     let's not give grief an even greater field.
no hay extensión como la que vivimos.
     No expanse is greater than where we live.

—from Sonnet XCII of Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets

The last iteration of "Amor... amor...", which closes Neruda Songs, had just faded when I reached my stop coming home tonight. I stepped out of the subway and found myself in a throng of protesters decrying our government's decision to escalate the war—against reasonable argument, against the clearly voiced desires of the electorate, against the wishes of those we claim to be helping, against common sense.

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's voice singing her husband's music made me consider how hard these two people fought to hold onto the joy in their life, openly and honestly celebrating their love, delighting in living, caressing and savoring the limited time together that fate had offered them. Together, two people created in the Neruda Songs an artifact of beauty, of universal poetry.

Even though the piece had ended, I didn't take my earbuds out when I came out of the station. I didn't want to let the sharp shouts of the protesters remind me that somehow we have given power to a deluded, callous man who is completely comfortable allowing other people to die for a vain cause. For pride. For ideology.

Two people chose to create in the face of a death they could not avoid; one person chooses to chase destruction when given the opportunity to prevent death and suffering. No demos al dolor más territorio.

Comments

[patrick vaz]

You're going to have me crying in my cubicle again. Nicely put. I bought several copies the day the CD was released and handed them out as Christmas gifts but I just haven't been able to bring myself to listen to mine yet.
Though I do wonder if it's ideology that actually motivates the "president" or if it's just ego and lack of imagination. Or his daddy issues -- I've always thought of this as the war of Oedipus Rex.

[manprano]

M.C-

This is a lovely post. Thanks for letting us in this way. I was just out with a guy two nights ago who was lucky enough to see LHL perform these songs at Symphony Center. He said that after the concert, Ms. Hunt Lieberson invited her husband on stage to share the applause and he swept her up into the most heart-felt and publicly intimate kiss my friend had ever seen.

The only way to combat the darkness is with honesty with authenticity, and with perfect, blinding love.

[Alex Shapiro]

..Two people chose to create in the face of a death they could not avoid; one person chooses to chase destruction when given the opportunity to prevent death and suffering. No demos al dolor más territorio.

Outstanding. Perfect.
And so painfully true.

Thank you for this post.

[?]

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