Desarmamento e fraternidade no último sorriso de Francisco
O Papa que se despede enfrentou tsunamis de ódio, e deixou lições amorosas. Seus conselhos foram breves e profundos.
Tempo previsto
22/4/2025
Personal thoughts unveil calm pessimism, courage facing longing, and a quest for self-knowledge in a drab year.
In 2022, I experienced the most delicious monotony. It's as if. Precisely. The "as if" of literature. It's as if I had applied color filters, noise reduction, lowered the lights, and decreased the contrast. It was a deliciously normal year, which, for me, means that I learned many new skills, and I could say: if we haven't seen each other in a long time, it's possible I've changed a lot.
I occupied myself primarily with politics, to which I dedicated two dissertations (one worse than the other). I also settled into what I call "serene pessimism". I find it amusing how much we, being human, are capable of erring through sheer stupidity (less through ignorance, more through stupidity). Not even a talking cat could be funnier.
I disagreed with practically everything I read on Instagram. Taken to their ultimate consequences, those pieces of advice can destroy years of civilizing progress. The world, at least in my view, needs more people talking, more people taking risks, more people saying yes or no without fear. It's quite the opposite of the narcissistic life.
There is no culture or civilization in lives lived for themselves. They are still in the omnipotence of animal thought. Sometimes, they are our colleagues, sometimes a lover, a family member, what a shame for all of us. The simplification of memes almost always reminds me of the laughter of the gallows.
Ultimately, what matters is a certain courage in the face of one's own desire. I don't know a single soul who has achieved success without confessing to themselves that they can do little and know even less. There's enormous power in this conversion to oneself. "But there's no revolt, no, I just want you to find yourself". I met the man who helped Peninha write that lyric. We sat on a wooden bench, remembering that life is also love, if it isn't only love.
Before God and his angels, before Satan and his demons, before the Church and the Great Cloud of Witnesses, before the most perfidious alley of a neighborhood overtaken by drug trafficking, before the prostitutes of Visconde de Guarapuava, before the priests of all religions, before the world without faith and the Holy See, before Our Lady and Saint Joseph, and all the apostles living or dead, before the cars on the highway, the stones of Passeio Público, before the Bolsonaro supporters in front of the barracks, before the Bolsonaro supporters with the wrong sign at the universities, before Patryck's photo printed on PVC, before the worst collection of books a house can have — Tag's —, before myself, I confess: I cannot change the world by shouting (although I am an excellent shouter).
I know in the depths and on the surface of my spirit that we can be very happy before we die. That human life can be worthwhile when we have our first kiss or when we make eternal plans. The message is: "You know what happens when greed takes over: the more you have, the less you are. Wisdom goes out into the street and shouts, and in the middle of the city, makes its speech".
The infinite help I receive hasn't stopped with me; abundant as it is, it has flowed through glamorous rivers and threads of life in rotten gutters. The life that resists battery acid, space travel in a vacuum, and the salty, oxygen-deprived depths of the oceans also shows up in therapy sessions. The more I find resources to destroy the ideas of others, the more I take hold of the mercy that is recurrently offered to me.
Whoever eventually thinks that I am part of a grand scheme is completely mistaken. Whoever eventually thinks of involving me in some grand trafficking is wasting their time. My life is truly indifferent to human things that are not connected to the greatness of our divinity. If I were to die now, and the final judgment were a single question, which would be "were you happy?", my approval would come from the answer "well, despite the Lord not having been exactly clear most of the time, I did everything I knew". And that's it. You could print my photos along with the "Novena of Saint Sgarbe". From the first to the last day of my Holy Novena, you will have to pray: "I am not Bono Vox, nor Madonna, I am an essential person for the people around me. For me to achieve [insert your intention here], I need to wake up early and sleep early, have an organized schedule, and avoid psychological games as much as possible. Through the intercession of Saint Sgarbe, may God cease to be an authoritarian and vengeful father, and become someone I make happy. Amen".
Little can resist a certain insistence. If the door doesn't open at all, not with prayer, not with spells, not with all the playful and special effects, our path is not there. "God's blessing enriches and does not bring sorrow". If that gentleman changed his mind about keeping his own word, it is a matter for him to review his own principles.
I know less and less about God, but this I know: he gives preference to those who surrender. It's better to say "I won't go" and go, than to be the first in line and not show up for work. The other day, I said to him, "and You are the most hypocritical of all". As usual, I was wrong. But I think he got the message.
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O Papa que se despede enfrentou tsunamis de ódio, e deixou lições amorosas. Seus conselhos foram breves e profundos.
Francisco foi um excelente pai para a Igreja. Chamo-o assim, pelo primeiro e único nome, porque deixou em seu testamento que deveria ser a inscrição em seu túmulo: “Franciscus”.
Escrito na metade de 2022, o texto oferece o “sofrimento que esteve presente na última parte” da vida do Papa ao “Senhor, pela paz no mundo e pela fraternidade entre os povos”. Infere‑se que, desde então, a despedida esteve em suas preocupações.
É coerente sentir estranheza diante de um líder que telefonava para o pároco de Gaza, e que não se esquivou de pedir o desarmamento e o fim da guerra. Naquilo que chamava de “globalização da indiferença”, os homens passaram a consumir os horrores da natureza violenta sem tomar qualquer providência.
Certamente ele foi atingido pelos tsunamis de ódio que cobriram a comunidade humana nos últimos anos. Nesse sentido, nunca vi tanto descompasso entre católicos. Porém, não me surpreende em nada. Afinal, quem não está perdido?
O riso de Francisco vai fazer muita falta. Seu jeito simples de oferecer conselhos, e de ensinar a dar conselhos. Para ele, um sermão não deveria passar de oito minutos. Que respeito aos ouvidos, e ao tempo dos outros! “O senso de humor é um certificado de sanidade”, defendeu.
Pergunta-se, com razoável preocupação, o quanto as lições de caridade ensinadas por ele estão aprendidas, quanto internalizadas. Para que nenhuma geada queime a lavoura de novos cristãos, os cardeais têm agora o trabalho de escolher um Papa que nos ame.
Uns dias antes de morrer, no fim do ano passado, meu avô Jorge ouviu Ravel comigo. Dedico essa memória.
A sleepless night, rambling reflections, and a dash of humor on the dissonances of modern life.
I repeatedly fail. Even now, I failed in my intention to go to bed at 9:30 pm. For some reason akin to “what the hell! I don't sleep more than four hours anyway,” I surrendered to the drift of darkness. I fear a stern authority will weep to discipline me: “it’s not time to go to the bathroom.” Activities in general. The late-night chats have ended, covered in sand, disintegrated by a shock, incinerated. It’s a little sad. All that chaotic literature that brought me so many friends has gone mad, and speaks to itself in Mark's posts.
The book Maku sent me is well-written, of course, but it's read in super slow motion. The character begins to reveal herself through a desire to die. You don't find such honest people easily. Like toast with cream cheese and red fruit jam. It was the box, the jar. I switched to whipped cream. Whipped cream is foolproof.
This fractal, then: death and life explaining themselves poorly, speaking quickly and loudly, like Brazilian tourists with red lipstick and crossbody bags enchanting the world with smiling rudeness. My analysis, which follows, is sophisticated.
There are life’s discordances that are, it must be repeated, forces of nature. Discordances, in this text, are metaphorically Meryl Streep portraying Florence Foster Jenkins in the cinema, or any instrument that should vibrate a sublime "ooowooowooow," but ends up materializing Grandma Jephinha venturing off-key, without melody.
I like water because it doesn't waste time with stones or walls; it deviates, accepts a good tunnel, but, if necessary, breaks through everything. Water takes for itself lands that didn't even have a vocation for a swimming pool, resting there as a calamitous flood.
The regions of the world that are about to disappear need intellectual support to resolve issues of property, repatriation, and the return of predictable bureaucracies. You cannot erect an island on top of a two-story house; not even Japanese drainage cathedrals make a difference in the ocean. Such dangers equate our intelligence to nothing. Nature is one of the three notable sources of displeasure in Freudian psychoanalysis.
“And from all this out-of-tune instrument I was never an apprentice.” There's this verse in a Gabrielle Seraine lyric. And in her music too, when she sings “[out-of-]tune,” when she sings exactly “deceased,” the harmony shatters for a moment, like a little shit blowing a plastic flute. It's the valley before the peak, the “dark before the dawn.”
When the out-of-tune individual — the "medium" (of media, not of speaking to the dead) — emits noise, communication becomes clearer. Let's use the word "communication" as a future synonym for "spirit," a beautiful conception of Flusser's.
In the religions that deal with "spirits," note the similarity in the conduct of intentions: doors are opened and closed, people are stimulated to move their psyches, and even banal requests that are nothing more than predictable bureaucracies. One asks, promises, thanks, expels, infuses — all through the conjuring of human and intelligible words.
Accepting Jesus, renouncing Freemasonry, declaring victory, taking possession of the blessing, doing macumba for Dona Ida to die (children are very inventive) — all this requires speaking. From the spell of the Greek Father to the Seven Knocks on the Door of Grace prayer chain from Janine's people. Communication. Speech. Listening.
In some evangelical cults, faced with unsatisfactory communication, someone is likely to take on the role of the demoniac for the benefit of the group. The Catholic mass has so many communication resources that part of the sermon ends up being saved.
"Spirits" are an ancient, primitive subject. It was a way of keeping the dead nearby. Later, these dead became demons. History records in anthropological terms; I have here an original Frazer that I received from Luca. My point is: if spirits "are born" from domestic dead, it is natural that, before committing to events outside the home — speaking of spiritualist meetings, making wind — they are available in the family inventory.
There is power in psychoanalysis, in Transactional Analysis, in Narcotics Anonymous. But these endeavors require much more time, specialization, and opportunities for mistakes than can be achieved in a family, when a family is available. Family, of course, should be understood broadly.
A family that has understood the permanence of love, that has left the struggles for recognition for community practices, has a better chance of success in invoking powerful spirits.
The powerful spirit of the creator, for those who believe thus, has to make some difference. Is God dead? Don't be fooled. I write about communication. About conjuring, invoking, good communication. In the last line of the noise, "taking possession of the blessing," as well observed by Nina.
In Portuguese, "spirits" have been communication at least since 1976, when Cartola composed: "From each dead person, one will inherit only cynicism." From my tensioning, Flusser offers us a simplification: it's a lot of "spiritual battle" for little "talking like people."
Let's return. The relationship of the out-of-tune, the deceased — properly the word in question, noise, this thing that disturbs sleep — with clarity is not only poetry. The physics and computer engineering that support image generation proceed from the use of two very basic stages that do not harm each other.
To improve someone's skin in a photograph, you first need the caress of blurring, like a hyperope without glasses. Then, you have to add noise, something like an old TV without a signal. And then you can see better.
Thus, my suggestion for the group — laughter — is an appreciation of noise, along with a careful observation of the content of the disturbances. When this battery runs out, with more clarity, let us be arrogant in our pretensions of dignity.
Only I was going to write about something completely different. I'll make another post.
