Who am I?
Where do I come from?
Why am I here?
Where do I go?
The tree asks
Author: vbpadmin
With or Without God
If I’ve already written about this subject in one way or another — sorry — “Vagabond” becomes too big to keep track of every chink.
The young German Pastor killed by the Nazis, Bonhoeffer I think, said: “With or without God, we live without God.” Why is this obvious?
Usually we are situated between what we do and what happens to us. What we do involves our know-how rather than philosophy, while what happens to us can be wrapped in mystery open to all interpretations, including God. In daily life, … Read More
In Memoriam
Two texts came to my memory, far distant from each other in time and demography, still united by their magical beauty. First I quote “Testament” by oustanding Polish poet Konstanty Idelfons Galczynski:
“When my little heart one day cracks
Remember me sometimes nicely
That there was such a guy from the Moon
My pen to the Vistula
My ashes to the four winds
My heart to the postal box” (for communication)
The second one is an inscription from a Viking’s gravestone in a style strangely “cool” and modern:
“He is … Read More
Who, What and for Whom?
In the parking lot I overheard some interview on NPR radio. What stayed in my memory were the words: “This is a global war … not a matter of giving a little more water to the Palestinian farmers.”
Who has to give what and for whom? As if the world were somebody’s colonial property to distribute or give away, water, blood, air, life, death … Who was this ghoul from the eighteenth century who woke up just now, and uses lingo from another epoch?
Open Bouquet issue 94 July August … Read More
Time Messenger
Facing time and reality, what can we do with our instants and our dreams?
Extracts of Existence
‘Soul Transmutation’
“Do you see that guy over there near the milky way? — I dated him in New York.”
“Quirks” VP 6/96
Life is …
Life is the persistence to keep and spread life in all circumstances; only structures highly deterministic and highly armed to challenge adversity can be considered alive. Nutrients for life come from outside, determinism seems to reside inside. The unbelievable variations in all fields, with the goal of keeping the flame of life against all odds, show that life is not a passive secretion of nature. Determinism exists only in life, which makes it a unique phenomenon in the universe.
From “What Triggered the Stream of Life?” 2006
I’m Red Riding … Read More
Moment of Light
One Christmas evening I was strolling with my girlfriend and a man friend on the street of a town near Paris. A small man in a beret was walking toward us, looking slightly drunk and like a street person even if not particularly unkempt. Seeing us he screamed “Joyeux Noel!” (Merry Christmas). I made a sudden decision and, when we passed each other, saying “Joyeux Noel!” I kissed him on the cheek. His skin was slippery and cold, like plastic material. He stopped, stunned, and we … Read More
Bread and Circuses
As far as I know the Roman empire didn’t have state police like the Gestapo or the KGB, nor even the FBI or CIA. Maybe that’s why Spartacus was able to instigate his uprising. Rome had its working formula: bread and circuses, and the civus romanus kept quiet while the Legions abroad did whatever the caesars wanted. The NWO seems to have rediscovered Rome’s formula: today we have Bread — so far so good — and Circuses, like the media and disneylands. As long as those two ‘mamelles’ of society … Read More
Another Autumn …
I look with melancholy as the particles of my participation in the world’s structure fall like petals from a flower, and what remains with me is observation (painting), analysis (writing), and, from time to time, sausage with beer (my preferred). Perhaps the world forces me to be a solitary aquarium but I’m not made to be a hermit, but to march in the cavalcade of humanity, in my place, even if I have to live only a moment.
Extracts of Existence