“Everyman carries darkness upon his back and embraces light.” (Laozi). When hit by bereavement –a relative’s impending death, his being missing, the ceremonies, memories, his absence- we all, whatever it may be worth, try to be in a “heart for living”, trying to rekindle the glowing embers of our innermost certitudes. Exit indeed, for most of us, the hope that death could be solved easily by the existence of a next world. Now does the conundrum of death become formidable again. We all feel at sea, disabled, bullied over the ordinary bulwarks. Like boats, we are left to drift with the current. It is for us to find an answer; for us to keep going, if we can, while we discreetly and silently remain in quest of a home-made “wisdom” about death. Unique and personal night/light. Simply lonely. Well, if sharing through words becomes an awkward thing to us, attitudes may offer us a new possibility of doing so : there is a way of inverting shadow and light, of carrying darkness upon one’s back while embracing light.

(Translated by Michèle Bustros)

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