Friday, November 8, 2024

"No tengas miedo. Don't be afraid." How?

Still stunned by the election, I didn't feel up to the community-ed printmaking last night. But bink always goes to class, so I went along.
The class was beginning screen printing. I didn't have the oomph to do something new. I carved this lino instead.

"No tengas miedo. Don't be afraid."


(Ha, ha, don't be afraid ...to carve letters backwards.)

I'm reluctant to print too many simplistic "buck up" phrases. The question is more complex:  "Fine. HOW?"

But, I love this phrase because I first received it when I was a guest in a flamenco class that had brought in for one-time a teacher from Spain. (My sister was in the class. I sat on the sidelines.)

This guy was not an American idea of a dancer/athlete:
small (like Prince), scruffy, and chain smoking cigarettes! But just as intense as you'd expect for flamenco. I was a little frightened of him, but I loved his energy.
He didn't speak much English--he gave this instruction in both languages.
No tienga miedo!
Okay then!

The teacher was like the flamenco-dancing father (dancer and choreographer Antonio Vargas) in a favorite movie, Strictly Ballroom (1992, dir. Baz Luhrman).
The daughter, Fran, the movie's hero, says in Spanish
to the boy, Scott, "A life lived in fear is a life half-lived."

Still the question remains, How to do that?

Lot's of ideas and teachings. This one has been helpful to me:
If you can't hold your center, leave
.
--Saint Benedict said it in the 400s, and today I watched a video clip of  Asha Nayaswami saying the same thing:
When someone's power of negativity is far stronger than you...
"RUN AWAY... If you can't, then run away inwardly. Don't even pray for these people. You end up entangled. Don't make a link. Just say to Divine Mother, once, "Your problem. Too big for me."

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