or the values we have lost
By Eduardo N. Cordovi Hernández
HAVANA TIMES – Many people think that “having the use of reason” or saying “since I have had the use of reason” is something that happened at a very early age. Of course, I am not going to elucidate this dichotomy. But in my case, it is not so. I do not deny that I remember some events from my childhood and that I keep a few memories of experiences and events of notable relevance to me from that time, which turned out to be irrelevant to other people who witnessed them.
For example, the image of feeling myself lying on the dewy grass in front of my house, just before dawn on Three Kings’ Day, is etched in my memory as something super spectacular, impressed by the wonder of that red disc of spinning sparks when I pulled the trigger of my machine gun. I can feel the cold, the darkness, the smell of earth. It was not happiness or contentment; it was the surprise of noticing so many sensations at once.
Also, the first time I held a jewel in my hands. It was noon, and it felt as if time had stopped while I gazed at that luminous little stone set in a gold-plated brass ring that I discovered on a finger of my cousin…
None of this has to do with reason or thinking. It is part of a finer framework that responds to emotions and feelings. It has to do with moments under the impact of “for the first time,” the encounter with the unknown. Reasoning is more about when we make comparisons with what we have already seen.
That’s why I remember that, as a child, in my neighborhood there were two bus stops and that, during peak hours, a bus ran on each route every five minutes. I remember that although there were official stops every three blocks, you could board any bus rou