Lila Ortega

“Una idea absurda me persigue: jamás el universo producirá otro Daniel.
Siempre vendrá quien me diga que nos queda la memoria, que nuestro hijo vive de una manera distinta dentro de nosotros, que nos consolemos con los recuerdos felices, que dejó una obra... Pero la verdadera vida es física, y lo que la muerte se lleva es un cuerpo y un rostro irrepetibles: el alma que es el cuerpo.”
― Piedad Bonnett, Lo que no tiene nombre

“Sé también que podemos permanecer serenos ante la fotografía del ser que hemos perdido y unos minutos más tarde echarnos a llorar con el sabor de un plato que nos lo recuerda, o simplemente con el zumbido de una sierra en mitad de una tarde silenciosa. Que tememos olvidar la voz, el olor, quién sabe si el rostro.

Y que no hay un dolor más solitario. Escondo mis lágrimas, no por vergüenza de llorar en público, sino porque no quiero traspasar a mis padres, a mis hijas, a mi marido mis raptos dolorosos. Y porque ninguna palabra expresará verdaderamente el sentimiento.”
― Piedad Bonnett, Lo que no tiene nombre

“You told me," I said, "that I should turn this house into a boardinghouse for students. Well, there are better things I could do with it. I could turn it into a haven for beggars. I could run a soup kitchen and a dormitory. But I don't. Why not? Because the spirit of charity has perished in this country. Because those who accept charity despise it, while those who give give with a despairing heart. What is the point of charity when it does not go from heart to heart? What do you think charity is? Soup? Money? Charity: from the Latin word for the heart. It is as hard to receive as to give. it takes as much effort. I wish you would learn that. I wish you would learn something instead of just lying around."

A lie: charity, caritas, has nothing to do with the heart. But what does it matter if my sermons rest on false etymologies? He barely listens when i speak to him. Perhaps, despite those keen bird-eyes, he is more befuddled with drink than I know. Or perhaps, finally, he does not care. Care: the true root of charity. I look for him to care, and he does not. Because he is beyond caring. Beyond caring and beyond care”
― J.M. Coetzee, Age of Iron

“There is no lie that does not have at its core some truth. One must only know how to listen.”
― J.M. Coetzee, Age of Iron