Writer Between Worlds

Soulful writing about humans and places

Category: GERMAN

Revisiting the Stoics

Well, you know what they say, some things never change. Anxious, dissatisfied, relationship not going well? So what else is new? I’ve recently come across the following, from Epictetus: “There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power.” (…) “Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion,…
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Educația, între formare și informare

Recent am dat, la grădiniță, peste următorul poster care mi-a plăcut foarte mult și m-am gândit să nu îl țin numai pentru mine. E schema rezumată plastic a unui concept pedagogic preuniversitar (până la gimnaziu, după cum deduc). Iată-l: Ce-mi place la el? În primul rând îmi place la nebunie chestia cu rădăcinile. Faptul că…
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Ancient words of counsel?

“It may be said that every individual man and all men in common aim at a certain end which determines what they choose and what they avoid. This end, to sum it up briefly, is HAPPINESS AND ITS CONSTITUENTS. (…) We may define happiness as prosperity combined with virtue; or as independence of life; or…
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Sun gone missing

Pierdut soare. Declar vital. Dacă l-a văzut cineva, să-l trimită puțin și încoace, please. Până atunci, încălzesc în palmă imaginile astea încărcate de lumină, din noiembrie 2015.
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Despre “sfânta” ospitalitate

A fost odată ca niciodată…. literalmente. Petrecându-mi eu zilele în pitoreasca Bavarie și târându-mi țurloaiele pe strada mohorâtă de toamnă și de ploaie ca să-mi duc odrasla la grădiniță, unde nu-mi stă frate mintea-n loc când dau peste următoarea arătare: Ei bine, da, un wohnmobil. Un camper. Ce mare filosofie, ați zice voi, naivilor. Ce…
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No justification for mass murders

I have kept my mouth shut for the past week to process the terrifying and abhorrent events that unfolded in Germany and France. Trying to get to the facts. Trying to make sense of the senselessness. But as I keep browsing through (parts of) the press, I can keep quiet no longer. I have read too…
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Toni Erdmann – A Must See

Toni Erdmann, which has just opened in Germany, is a bizarre independent film that will make you embrace Romania with all you’ve got, and which also manages to lampoon the trappings of corporate life just the right amount. (The impossible loneliness, the ridiculous helplessness of wrestling with a dress that’s too tight amidst the barren luxury…
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Quote of the day

The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less. Vaclav Havel – Letters to Olga (1988), p. 237
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Romania – Primeval beauty

Romania, Europe’s tender wilderness. Here, the Cerna Valley and its surroundings, in the country’s southwest. The scenery, a soft primordial crescendo. The climate mild, the people welcoming. And the fragrances – whether wild flowers and acacia or the smell of home-cooked meals – irresistible. Rumänien, Europas sanfte Wildnis. Hier, das Cernatal und seine Umgebung im…
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Swiss wonders 2015

There are countries you can always count on. Countries that never let you down. Countries that make you walk on cloud nine. Literally. Switzerland is one of them. Jagged, proud mountain peaks as cathedrals of humility where human beings realize their smallness and settle in the eternal peace of their essential selves. All else is…
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The invisible pane

the sun is hanging in the fir trees by the collar of its wintry coat. old people have come out into the park to walk their dogs to its skirt. the dogs prance and snoop. the people themselves walk at an angle, slanted, like leaden-limbed mimes on a running belt that’s running in the opposite…
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SIENA – More than a color

Talk about serendipity. Over the long Ascension weekend my husband’s company gave him a car to test for a minimum stretch of 1000 km, and I had always dreamed of going to Tuscany. So we packed our finest clothes to go with the full-option BMW 5 series (amazing how sudden wealth changes people ;-) )…
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