22
‘Who am I?’ by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equally, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (March 4,1946)
Written one month before he was executed.
21
‘Coolness’ by Thierry Geoffroy
COOLNESS
Coolness is a state.
A smoothie.
A piece of luxury.
A feeling-proof jacket.
Une aureole.
Coolness is being not affected by anything.
Of a state of not being exposed to shakings.
Of a state of not sweating.
Or freezing.
But comfort.
To be in a constant state of self satisfaction.
Regardless of what ever happens.
Regardless of what ever appears.
Coolness is a state of indifference.
Coolness is a protection from suicide.
Coolness is an aggressive form of apathy.
Coolness is a form of scorn
against any form of passion.
Coolness is the opposition of any form of involvement.
Like a vibration without any radiation.
Like a shaking without any waves.
A distance.
Coolness sounds positive.
And looks good.
Feels quick and sharp.
Like a cliché.
Coolness is an invention of the power.
Coolness is the affirmation of power as an active state of apathy.
Une culture d’apathy.
Fertile.
Contagious.
Coolness is the opposite of being offended.
Coolness is the opposite of being affected.
Coolness is the opposite of being devastated.
Coolness is a suppression of the horror we all know about.
Coolness is the feeling of survival as self-maintainance.
Coolness is the maintainance of the power.
Of apathy.
For the price of compassion.
Coolness is in opposite of insomnia.
Coolness is a dreaming state.
Of feel-good.
For the price of sorrows.
Coolness is a luxury state.
Coolness is an attitude.
Coolness is almost a kind of yoga.
Coolness shields from torture and torment.
Coolness shields from horror and terror.
Coolness is so soft and flexible,
elastic, that
Coolness cannot be cracked.
Coolness is so self-confident.
So self-self
So auto-erotic
So alembic
So slippery
So flashy
That:
Coolness is the perfect form of an artistic attitude.
Coolness reproduces itself in itself
Because it is so cool.
Like a bubble bath.
Like shampoo.
Like soap.
Like buzz words.
Emergency Room is suspicious about coolness.
Emergency Room sees that it looks too good on photos.
Emergency Room suspects that coolness constitute the muzak of the
contemporary mind.
When your kids are sick
You suffer with them
You don’t use gloves to touch them.
From ‘The Emergency Room Dictionary’ written by French format artist Thierry Geoffroy.
http://www.emergencyrooms.org/dictionary/words/coolness.html
11
The Multi-Layered Story of Our Salvation (John Calvin)
John Calvin says that being a Christian is all about Jesus: ‘our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ.’ In other words, when we become part of the story of Jesus we enter into the multi-layered story of our salvation:
- our salvation— in his very name
- our untroubled expectation of judgment—in the power given to him to judge
- our protection, security, abundant supply of all blessings—in his Kingdom;
- our gifts of the Spirit—in his anointing
- our strength—in his dominion
- our purity—in his conception
- our gentleness—in his birth
- our redemption—in his passion
- our acquittal—in his condemnation
- our remission from the curse—in his cross
- our satisfaction—in his sacrifice
- our purification—in his blood
- our reconciliation—in his descent into hell;
- our mortification of flesh—in his tomb
- our newness of life—in his resurrection
- our immortality—in the same
- our inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom—in his entrance into heaven
Calvin concludes, ‘In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other.’[1]
[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (ed. John T. McNeill; trans. Ford Lewis Battles; 2 vols.; Library of Christian Classics 20–21; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960 [1559]), 527-28.