Third lap, the podcast with Alejandro Gaviria and Ricardo Silva Romero, a podcast
from the locutorio arroba la locutorio de that gratitude Ricardo for waking up and knowing
that we are alive. It seems to me perhaps the most essential form of
prayer. He told another poet and I think I' ve already said it
in some previous third- round episodes, that poetry is that last religion that
is left to men. An idea about praying that interested me a lot,
if not bad, is in St Augustine, and it is the idea that
it is one who is listening to his prayers, his prayers. One.
In other words, he could never complain that his prayers were not heard,
because it is one who is listening to them first and the one who is
repeating them again and again hello Ricardo we meet again for our weekly conversation in
third round. This time again we have to resort to the audio exchange of
Whatsapp as a result of the emergencies and contingencies of the beginning of the week
Santa Te. I propose that we talk about a subject that we have not
touched upon, the act of praying, how we prayed in our past life,
how we do it now, and a connection. I want to know
what you think about prayer, the act of prayer, and the poetry of
prayer. In my opinion, it' s a conversation with a presence,
connections, a universe, something or someone who doesn' t respond, we
imagine, who listens to us, who imagines that he pays some attention to
us. In that conversation we often make requests and sometimes simply express gratitude.
I am particularly interested, as I said Ricardo, in that kind of prayer
I am going to call it idiosyncratic, built by those skeptical priests who are
poets. And I want to start with a Spanish poet, Juan Vicente Piqueras,
and a book published a few years ago by the publishing house Angosta in
Pandemia, called La SED de las Palmeras. And with this poem, until
tomorrow he tells us Good night, prefers until tomorrow. Until tomorrow it is
clear, bright, full of ace that shines with the light of one more
day. A man in the dark night prefers tomorrow morning, not him,
not the night, if he does of the day goodbye father. Good night
until tomorrow he answers and that is an act of faith his prayers. There
is another poem by Piquera that sums up well this part, This first part
of the conversation roots of heaven is called, says the office of God is
to silence ours, to speak temptfully. We' re praying ants. We
are roots of the sky, that maybe we are Ricardo ants who pray.
I do not know if it is for religious education, which in my case
was very particular, because I studied in a very liberal school and yet had
a church. It was not said whether it was by those images of the
people crossing the sea divided into two and the commandments and movies from Venur until
the day Christ died. But it seems to me that praying is somehow a
possibility for me. I have no fixed ideas about transcendence or about what or
who or how God is, but I do have the suspicion that the world
was well done. Societies may already be counter- made, but the world
of nature is at least a spectacle and then it seems to me that there
is one after the scenes, a way of having done everything that may be
aware of their creation. Let' s say then the temptation to pray is
within me for that education, so I see there is a tic even in
my way of expressing, which includes good- bye my God is an expression
that can come out to me constantly. I don' t know if it
' s Ricardo' s day, I don' t know if it'
s true I' ve been messing with politics, but now that I'
m recording these audios and we' re exchanging impressions, I' m in
that mood more prone to poetry. Poetry seems to me to be how music
works at times, not at all. The connection with poetry our panente and
that is why I want to continue with these forms of prayer and god-
incráticos I called them And now I am going to read a poem by an
Anti- Oqueño poet, The King Restrepo has been a Medellín director for many
years of the magazine of the University of Antioquia, and this poem, which
is a conversation of those who express gratitude, who thank the Universe, some
God, something perhaps with that idea that there is hidden some moral order in
the Universe. This poem of whom Restrepo is called in witch. No desire
better than life itself, no dream more appropriate than reality itself, no event
greater than a day in which nothing happens. A party, the most trivial
of acts, the most distracted of kisses. Fable to wake up and know
we' re alive. That thanks Richard for waking up and knowing we'
re alive. It seems to me perhaps the most essential form of prayers.
Te Rezar said another poet and I think I' ve already said it in
some previous third- round episodes, that poetry is that last religion that men
are left with. I also have a custom that I do not know if
custom is the word, because so far it is inevitable. It seems like
a better fate said and it is the mania of being the last to sleep
in the house, that is, until they are not all asleep, breathing
in peace and dreaming at best, good things. I can' t sleep
It' s hard to sleep when the others are awake. It' s
been quite a difference in my life to have a child that' s bigger
than a late night. And all this I' m saying because the moment
everyone' s asleep and there' s a silence that' s between moving
and bordering anxiety, everyone' s asleep and all the lights are off and
you feel like there' s only a few windows on in the neighborhood.
To me comes that temptation to pray me, comes the temptation to ask God
or God to exist or whatever he is watching for us or interested in us
being well. It gives me the temptation to ask just for these people who
fell asleep, for my wife, for my children, for my mother,
who does not live with us, but is a presence for a long time.
In another apartment where I lived, there was a huge tree that reached
the floor where I lived, which was the tenth floor, and somehow,
whenever I walked through that apartment at night, I saw that tree, it
seemed to me that it could be a good place to pray, even an
image to which to pray to and I would have ever fallen into that trap,
without perhaps not cheating, but in that as I said at the beginning,
in that temptation, I have prayed very rarely in the traditional form,
in the way of repeating the most common prayers of the Catholic Church, which
has been the predominant religion, the one that has predominated in our culture,
and I always did it as a child. After the confession, by indication
of the father or priest at the time. I' ve confessed three or
four times, no more. The last one was more than fifty years ago
that the father always told me the same thing happened Well, pray two of
our parents so that that invisible presence with which we talked forgives him. It
seemed to me since then I return and, I repeat, being still a
child, a treatment too easy, a sort of almost utilitarian exchange, that,
to pray without involving the soul, two our parents and to be at
peace with the world. It seemed to me a sort of shortcut with which
I was not calm, so much so that rc as indicated by the priest
or father, that remorse for any venial sin I had committed at that time
never disappeared. That' s not my favorite way to pray just repeat one
of those common prayers. I' d rather do it this other way,
with poetry, as I' ve been saying, Ricardo. On the other
hand, my favorite word, among all words is prayer and I like the
way it sounds, but I also like the idea of folding. I like
the idea of recognizing that one cannot alone, the idea of asking for help,
and the idea that one is, in some way, going to fiction
to be okay. I mean, I see a direct link between prayer and
poetry, between prayer and longing, and prayer and beauty. And then it
is a word in which I also believe as well as we pray to make
petitions or express gratitude with that presence that we believe listens to us, but
it never answers us. Thus there are also ways to pray quieter contemplation or
some meditation. I think of a person with his eyes closed in a church
temple. He' s always caused me some admiration. That connection to divinity
that I find hard work tending to have richard, an anxious mind, always
anticipating future events difficult to quiet down. About four years ago, three years
ago, the beginning of the pandemic. I' m the rector of the
University of the Andes. I had to say so, a communion with a
psychedelic substance guided by a wise priest. I' m going to say it
this way too and then I could have an episode of contemplation, observe the
world with amazement similar to that of those people I admire silent meditations in a
temple connected with divinity. What I had left of that episode I summed up
once with a phrase by Octavio Paz, not Christian piety, but that feeling
of universal sympathy with everything that exists, that fraternity in impermanence with men,
animals and plants, which is the best, which is the best that Buddhism
has given us, a sort of instant viatitude that does not exclude irony or
mean closing our eyes to the world and its horrors, the contemplation that does
not deny the worst of reality, but that has some cosmic gratitude. There
I see rich also a way, I do not know how to say it,
an attractive way to pray the act of prayer. I recently found an
idea about praying that interested me a lot. If I am not bad,
it is in St Augustine and it is the idea that it is one who
is listening to his prayers, his prayers. One, in other words,
could never complain that his prayers were not heard, for it is one who
is first listening to them and one who is repeating them over and over again
to somehow mentalize, counsel one' s hope and counsel one' s life.
That idea seemed very satisfying to me, especially for people like me who
believe in everything I can easily believe in God, I repeat, not as
a figure, not as a person, but I can believe. I am
made educated to expect things to make sense and to go through something and for
something, but also when one doubts, for it is not bad the idea
that one is addressing oneself to his prayers, to the part of one who
can accompany, who can find the strength, which can dust off, can
be the desire to live and the desire to correct and the desire to overcome.
That idea of those who are addressed to the prayers and who start by
being yourself, I think, seems to me a relief. I' m
going to finish Ricardo, this podcast, a, this episode is probably going
to be a little shorter than the others in the midst of the affluences of
these days, but it' s been for me a moment of concentration,
also of connecting with poetry. And I' m going to end up in
that tone with a prayer of prayer, a prayer of gratitude. I appeal
to the Spanish poet Juan Vicente Piqueras. This poem is called Thank you and
with the term Oh, Gods, deep, Gods, High Gods? Whether
or not you are, it doesn' t matter. You saw us for
a moment in this life, a brief day, on fire, blind,
luminous to embrace, the air burns with love, enjoy, suffer, sing,
know, say, learn to tell you. Simply, thank you.
This poem Ricardo seems to me a prayer of gratitude and with that I would
like to finish my part of this conversation. I send you a hug and
more holy teelice. I remember praying on different occasions. I have never been
very religious in the sense of going to Masses and believing in those solutions,
or assuming Catholicism, even though it has been, because my education at school,
my parents were very Catholic at one time met in Catholic groups and yet,
when I came to the film of that family, they were no longer
in those groups and had a very personal relationship with the spiritual. They were
no longer to go to Mass, they were no longer to go to groups,
they were no longer to walk with religious people, even though they had
both studied, he in the Saint Bartholomew and she in the Sanfason, that
is, in religious schools. But when I came to the film, that
had already been overcome and they had their relationship with God, which they did
not broadcast or comment on or ever. None of my parents told me to
believe or not to believe. Many times, even my dad was physical,
he had his own theories about what God could do, and my mom even
came many times to question existence in front of us, that is, I
have never had the pressure to believe. And yet, there is something beyond
that I remember from a very young age that makes me feel, for example,
when everyone is asleep or, for example, when I' m alone
there' s a kind of veil, there' s a kind of climate
that' s in favor or that' s there watching what happens. And
so, since I was a child, I have gone to pray not the
prayers taught us by our Father, which, in any case, seems to
me a very touching prayer. The sound of it, the mere fact that
it is called our Father, moves me into a word that usually appears to
me because it is also a word followed by a father of ours, a
single word, but I asked whatever or whatever God was, that everyone be
well. I remember, praying my parents were okay. Then, pray,
at a very curious moment, full of love with my dad, pray that
I would never be taller than him, because I was ashamed to be taller
than the person I adored. Then pray for my dad to live many years
when he got sick and he' s always praying for distressing moments, asking
that especially the people I have around me stay well. Always choose a good
time, always choose a good conversation. Third, turn the podcast subscribe now
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