The Eskimos have 99 words to describe what we call snow; from this we can deduce that they have a much deeper knowledge of it than we Westerners. The word " amore" in Italian has 11 meanings; from this we can deduce that it is a word that describes a concept that is not entirely clear. Igor Sibaldi in his essay "Eros and Love" helps us clear up this fog . First of all, we should acknowledge that the word "amore" in the West is used like "x" in mathematics, that is, "an unresolved unknown, in a society like ours where, from childhood, everyone hears about love from people who seem to know it better and more clearly, and by imitating them we have learned to have that same air ourselves . "
As Nanni Moretti said in the film Palombella Rossa, "He who speaks badly, thinks badly and lives badly. You have to find the right words: words are important ." This is why Sibaldi explains the origins of the terms.
At the origins of Eros
Amor derives from the Latin and in turn from the Sanskrit kama , and expresses sexual desire, the excitement aroused in one body by another body and the pleasure that one calculates to derive from it.
Leubh , Germanic, from which derive Love, Liebe, Ljubov and which in Latin became lubere (to please) and libere (to be free), which we can translate as to have dear, whose deepest meaning is "I want you to feel free and at ease".
The first to narrate Eros was the Greek poet Hesiod , who places him among the primordial deities. In anthropology, Eros is placed in the category of tricksters or deceivers, who appear in the myths of all peoples and are creators of culture; in fact, they represent the principle of chaos, of disorder, but also the force that frees from taboos and limits. In Jewish culture, Eros, 'RWT, means both attention and nudity. 'RWT is seeing and wanting to see, the desire to undress, which we can understand both in the most concrete sense and in a metaphorical sense, as a stripping of the intellect of whatever limits its vision. Socrates, starting from this concept, gives his definition: " The erastes desires to see more and more of the person who has inflamed him with passion, he wants his nudity, the 'erwat; but the authentic exercise of Eros consists in exciting not desire, but a superior attention, an Erot, which perceives divine dimensions beyond physical beauty, as if stripping the image of what is corporeal in it.
The Taboos of the West
Sibaldi invites us to reflect: if Eros is this powerful deity who liberates from taboos and limitations, who incites discovery, curiosity, and a deeper understanding of oneself, others, and all that is beautiful, why has the West always considered this god's values obscene or dangerous ? And why haven't love and love suffered the same fate as Eros? Because both are rational loves: the first is the identification of a goal (i.e., the desired person) and the means to achieve it; the second is pleasing the beloved.
The irrational, linked to Eros, grounds thought, and thought asks "why?" What for? Thought brings forth demands for authenticity and truth. Who are those who ask the why of everything? Children , the true followers of Eros, with their "whys," with their pleasure in physical and mental discoveries, who think constantly and irrationally, that is, without a specific goal in sight that limits the horizon of their desire for knowledge. As Sibaldi writes: "They open themselves confidently to everything they don't yet understand and rejoice in the fact that the quantity of things they don't understand is limitless, because they derive intense pleasure from knowing. For them, discovery is beautiful. Eros guides them, as he guides all philosophers. The child enjoys observing, holding, smelling, touching, listening, caressing, licking anything; all their senses are engaged in discovering truth in anyone and everything." But the rationalized Western adult world, stuck between amor and love , is frightened by the child's "whys" and the physical pleasure of learning. Parents, in turn, have learned from their own parents to consider their own erotic impulses ugly, and therefore transmit the same message to their children. Blocks to eros are created that produce suffering and hemorrhages of energy, called traumas . It must be added that parents will teach the child to rationalize his needs and desires and to direct them toward specific goals, in exchange for rewards for obedience. And so the reward replaces the "why" of the rules.
In this essay, Igor Sibaldi draws from a distant past to guide us into our inner selves, drawing on history, philology, philosophy, anthropology, art, and literature. It brings to mind Picasso's famous quote, " It took me twenty years to learn to paint like an artist; a lifetime to learn to paint like a child ."
Cinzia Candela
