The existence of the other

Creating a book is opening a space for an encounter between reader and author, with the goal of enhancing the awareness of those persons who explore the pages of the book. A book is one of the means through which ideas are disseminated in search for acceptance. When someone takes a book in his or her hands, the situation turns into magic as two individuals, the author and the reader, break away from the reality of time and space, live together in the same dimension, and share a common experience.

In this letter we are offering you an opportunity to reflect on some of the words and ideas that emerge from one of the essays of the Latin-American contemporary poet and philosopher, Armando Rojas Guardia.

El Dios de la intemperie is the result of Rojas Guardia’s in-depth and wise experience as an intellectual who ponders the meaning of the existence of «the other» and all others from within the limits and conditions of his own life. As noted by Juan Liscano in the prologue, reading this book is like finding a man who in each page invites us to reflect, based on his own experience, on a clear-sighted and perceptive evocation of the depth and richness of our existence and its possible meanings. In short, it is an invitation to take up the adventure and the opportune moment of living openly and transparently («a la intemperie», as the book states in its title in Spanish), while at the same time recognizing the deeply profound nature of the risk involved in living «in the open».  Indeed, this endeavor implies the emptying out of many preconceived ideas and finding the resonance of «the other» within our deepest inner self. It is a matter of discovering the others and the Other, «sweet and dramatic», who questions us.

This discernment process, however, is far from being a simple act of devout piety or sentimentalism when faced with the reality of «the Other». Instead, this book is a clear challenge to us to measure the depth of our own existence when faced with the sweet and violent eruption of «the other» and all others. We could very rightly say that Armando Rojas Guardia provokes us to go beyond everything that is basically dogmatic in order that we may experience the reality of an existential and concrete religious horizon that is possible in every person.

For this poet, the risk of one’s own existence is based in the experience of uncertainty (an issue that he explores in his second essay of this series: El principio de incertidumbre. In English: The Principle of Uncertainty), based on a reflection on the Ecclesiastes. Nevertheless, it is an uncertainty which is at the same time a wager and a responsibility in the face of life. In short, «this opening brings down the structure of our old habits in order that we may be fulfilled with a vastness that has no limits». The work of Armando Rojas Guardia opens a door through which we can explore our human reality and condition as we experience the complexity, the witticism, the sharpness of a life that cries out, and the mystical evocation that sounds as music within the depths of our own life histories as they are gracefully.

In closing our letter it is worth sharing with you a very special story that reflects the thought of Armando Rojas Guardia and enables us to be in contact with the profoundness of living and the loving center of love: