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Quote of the day
Read more: Quote of the day“Thus, it is precisely the uniqueness of our existence in the world, the irretrievability of our lifetime, and the irrevocability of everything with which we fill it – or fail to fill it – that give significance to our existence. But it is not only the uniqueness of an individual life as a whole that…
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Quote of the day
Read more: Quote of the day“What remained was the individual person, the human being – and nothing else. Everything had fallen away from him during those years: money, power, fame; nothing was certain for him anymore: not life, not health, not happiness; all had been called into question for him: vanity, ambition, relationships. Everything was reduced to bare existence. Burnt…
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Women, mothers and really old ladies
Read more: Women, mothers and really old ladiesNow that March 8 is behind us (a day also known as Woman’s Day or Mother’s Day in Romania and, yes, flowers are expected!), it is time to introduce you to another Romanian tradition. This time, we’re talking about a really old one, dating all the way back to the Romans: the Days of the…
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Dragobete, Mărțișor and beyond
Read more: Dragobete, Mărțișor and beyond“Dragobetele pupă fetele.” Romanian folk saying (Dragobete kisses the girls) How many of you know that Romania has its very own early-Christian Valentine’s tradition? It’s a spring fertility ritual called Dragobete, which takes place on February 24, and it dates back to the Early Middle Ages. Not only this, but since the addition of Valentine’s…
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Letter to Santa
Read more: Letter to SantaDear Santa, How strong must a desire be for it to finally come true? When people fail to hear each other’s needs, I’ve the solution: I shall turn to you. Please give us will to do what’s right and patience to endure pain when we must meet it; strength to fight off meanness; boldness to…
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My daughter wants flip-flops
Read more: My daughter wants flip-flopsSuch is the patriarchy. Had God been Goddess for sure there’d have been a ‘Fiat calceamenta!’ in there somewhere, right after ‘Let there be light.’ Somewhere in-between crocodiles & farm animals and lone Adam begging for more cuddle time. ‘Let there be purses and handbags,’ but, above all, ‘let there be shoes,’ in all colors…
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Quote of the day
Read more: Quote of the day“We are faced with the curiously appalling trend of modern thought, in which the absolute which was once a means of entering into communion with the divine, has now become an instrument used by those who profit from it, to distort, pervert, and conceal the meaning of the present.“ Karl Mannheim – Ideology and Utopia…
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Quote of the day
Read more: Quote of the day“(…) The simple good-and-evil constructions in mythology, fiction, and storytelling are there because they offer clear orientation, but possibly at the cost of moral and social justice. The polarizing overdetermination of good and evil and related dichotomies make stories enjoyable. But at the same time social divisions are deepened and entrenched, which can lead to…
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On Fortress street
Read more: On Fortress streetToday, Liternet has published another one of my short poems in Romanian, called On Fortress St. The inspiration for this poem was my trip to the 2022 International Theater Festival in Sibiu (Transylvania); it took a week for my elutriated impressions of this particular evening to settle into words, and here they are. You can…
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Is there still…?
Read more: Is there still…?Is there still…? Is there still time? Is there still time to be human? Everywhere, every-fucking-where this storm of separation, this vertigo, this howling and this yelping, this moaning, this plea to end the pain, this trumpet of the angel of death, of the angel of bleakness, this abandon to isolation, this anguish, this torment!…