Distance
Love aims to close all distance. Death achieves the same end. Yet whereas love celebrates the unique, the unrepeatable: death destroys them. ...Love aims to close all distances. Yet if separation and space were annihilated neither loved one nor lover would exist. Between space and love there is the first opposition--that opposition which is contained as energy within the original act of creation.
-John Berger, our faces my heart, brief as photographs, p. 90
Comments
Not sure, however, I agree that love aims to close all distance? Sounds like a statement to put forward what came later in the paragraph.
Posted by: Irina | August 13, 2006 09:33 PM
Irina: I'm not sure love aims to close all distance either. I think John Berger offers a provocation though to us. Later in the text he writes: All theories about origins are either naive or despairing, from Genesis to Darwin. Yet perhaps one misunderstands their purpose. All origins are unattainable..Theories of origin are attempts to explain our ongoing relation to the so-evident energy of the universe around us."
So for him, love is at least partly about explaining why we are even here, why we exist, and explaining "the experience of being here."
Posted by: faith wilding | August 18, 2006 04:08 PM
The company that Hosts subRosa's web space (and by extension, this blog) is clearly committed to Closing All Distance between the files we have stored there and our desire to make them available to you.
Redundancy
Cooling
Security
and
the Power Grid
are the buzzwords,
and there is a physical reality that accompanies our information and its doppelganger.
The hosting is excellent and the staff are some of the least condescending I've encountered.
But truthfully, the distance in virtual space is closed through the militarization of a nearly impenetrable local space, which is in turn connected-with talons-to a global reality.
Your words are safe with us.
The files that make up this blog are currently stored in the basement of the Gardener Building in downtown Los Angeles, nearly 2500 miles from where I type this.
Massive heating and cooling towers, a rooftop helipad, a security system and armed personnel are keeping our opinions safe.
Read some of the stats here, then ponder that this building has not proven adequate and many files will be moved to an even more secure building in El Segundo soon. You can read about and see photos of that facility here.
Posted by: Hyla Willis | August 28, 2006 09:14 PM
My favorite word now - distance.
Posted by: Irina Aristarkhova | September 8, 2006 10:20 PM