El pasado miércoles 18 de enero tuve la defensa de mi tesis doctoral, titulada Viktor Emil Frankl y Jean-Paul Sartre: la religión a pesar de Auschwitz y una libertad sin Dios. El sentido y sinsentido del sufrimiento de las víctimas, dirigida por mis queridos directores Manuel Fraijó Nieto y Carlos Gómez Sánchez.
Los miembros del tribunal (Noé Expósito –especialista en Husserl–, Concha Rondán –especialista en Leibniz– y José Lasaga –especialista en Ortega), todos ellos brillantes, fueron muy generosos y me dieron un Sobresaliente cum laude. Jamás olvidaré su amabilidad y su generosidad. Tampoco olvidaré el cariño, la dedicación y la paciencia de mis directores de tesis, y todo el apoyo y el amor de todos aquellos que me queréis incondicionalmente, con todas mis virtudes y todos mis defectos. Ya sabéis quiénes sois.
I never imagined that I would come to enjoy and love Tae Kwon Do so much. I started practicing with Master Park Hyeon Seo and Master Park Chan Mo a year ago just because my amazing three children are awesome taekwondists (Yael and Itay are black belts and Dalit is orange belt). If tomorrow I manage to perform the 4th Poomsae (Tae Geuk Sa-Jang) correctly, several steps with kicks, some self-defense (and attack) exercices, plus the Kibon Il (키본 1), Kibon Y (키본 2), Kibon Sam (키본 3), and Kibon Sa (키본 4) (with all the names of the positions said in Korean -so hard to memorise!), I will then be blue belt. For me this is a great challenge, because I suffer from fibromyalgia for ten years (I was officially diagnosed only 2 years ago) and I'm extremely proud of myself for doing Tae Kwon Do in spite of my chronic condition.
Here’s the 4th Poomsae (Tae Geuk Sa-Jang), masterly performed by Nam Yoon Hyun (Kipoom Taekwondo)
One can translate Tae by "foot or to kick", Kwon by "fist or to punch" and Do by "art, way, spirit, discipline, mentality, education". But as Yeon Hee Park, Yeon Hwan Park and Jon Gerrard say in their amazing book TAE KWON DO: "Tae Kwon Do is not just self-defense training or punching and kicking (...) "Do" in Korean implies a philosophical viewpoint or way of approaching life (...) the essence of Tae Kwon Do cannot be seen, touched, smelled, tasted or heard. It can only be experienced".
Tae Kwon Do "is a unique [Korean] martial art incorporating both the quick, straight-line movements that characterize the various Japanese systems and the flowing circular movements of most Chinese styles" (Park et al.) But TKD has the most powerful kicking techniques: fast and very impressive (quite difficult if you are a 47-year-old mother of three with fibromyalgia, but truly fun and exciting to learn and to practice): ahp cha-gi (front kick, my favorite one); neryo cha-gi (axe kick); yop cha-gi (side kick, extremely difficult but very powerful); dolryo cha-gi (round kick, very cool); dwi cha-gi (back kick); and some other spectacular kicks with jumps.
Now, a bit of history. TKD comes from Taek Kyon, a Korean martial art that existed in 50 BCE. In 57–18 BCE, Korea was divided into three kingdoms: Silla, Koguryo and Baekche. Although Taek Kyon "first appeared in the Koguryo kingdom, it is Silla's warrior nobility, the Hwarang, who are credited with the growth and spread of the art throughout Korea" (Park et al.). The Silla warriors learnt the art of Taek Kyon to fight Japanese pirates, and also studied Confucian philosophy and Buddhism. The codes of Taek Kyon reflected the 11 commandments of modern Tae Kwon Do, which are:
-Loyalty to your country
-Respect your parents
-Faithfulness to your spouse
-Respect your brothers and sisters
-Loyalty to your friends
-Respect your elders
-Respect your teachers
-Never take life unjustly
-Indomitable spirit
-Loyalty to your school
-Finish what you begin
(Park et al. xii)
It's important to remember that the central tenets of TKD are loyalty, respect, courtesy, perseverance, and justice (Park et al. 176).
In 935–1392 Taek Kyon was known as Subak, and from 1397 this martial art was learnt by the common population.
In 1909 Japan invaded Korea (until 1945) and prohibited the practice of Subak, but Subak grew clandestinely. In 1943 Judo, Karate and Kung-fu were introduced in Korea. After the end of WWII, there were many kwans (schools) with different styles. In 1953 the Korean war ended, and in 1955 the different styles were unified under the name of Tae Soo Do. Finally in 1957, the name was changed to Tae Kwon Do.
Now, dear taekwondists: practice, enjoy, sweat, grow and glow!
“Finally, I enter the world. A world I will never feel comfortable in, never understand, and never approve of or forgive (...) Actually, I was born on the thirtieth of November very close to midnight, and my parents pushed the date so I could start off on a day one" (Woody Allen, Apropos of Nothing).
Happy 87th birthday, dear Woody! Thanks a lot for the great dose of philosophy, existentialism, poetry, laughter and meaning in your films in this meaningless universe. You're my hero!
Women who suffer from fibromyalgia (2% of the planet population) are not depressed! Not crazy, not imbalanced, not down. Nope. We can live a very fulfilling and happy life (like every other human being) in spite of our chronic condition.
But we live with fibromyalgia. Every day. Every hour. Every minute. Every second. And that really sucks.
Fibromyalgia is physical pain 24/7. Not psychological pain. Physical pain, in every inch of our body. For me, this pain lessens a bit only when I'm under water –that's why I love (and desperately need) swimming. Fibromyalgia is being tired all they long. Exhausted 24/7. Can you imagine that? We are tired not because we are depressed, nope, but because we have fibromyalgia.
Fibromyalgia is real. Very real. We only fake it when we say we are not in pain. We only fake it when we say we are not tired. We only fake it when we say we are OK.
If your mother has fibromyalgia: have compassion, have patience, try to understand her, don't judge her, help her, protect her, and, above all, love her with all your heart.
If your daughter has fibromyalgia: have compassion, have patience, try to understand her, don't judge her, help her, protect her, and, above all, love her with all your heart.
If your wife has fibromyalgia: have compassion, have patience, try to understand her, don't judge her, help her, protect her, and, above all, love her with all your heart.
If your friend has fibromyalgia: have compassion, have patience, try to understand her, don't judge her, help her, protect her, and, above all, love her with all your heart.
I would like to share with you this beautiful 8-minute video of women who live with fibromyalgia (I feel identify with every single one of them!), with the hope that, little by little, people understand better how it is for a woman to live with chronic pain and chronic fatigue, and there is less ignorance, less misunderstanding, and less tabus surrounding fibromyalgia, and more knowledge, more awareness, more compassion, more help, and more love.
Nuestro maravilloso Itay ganó hace dos semanas el Primer Premio del II Certamen de Microrrelatos Enid Blyton de Galapanoir (Galapagar). Su microrrelato se titula La máquina del tiempo y tiene un aire a Kafka y a Borges.
Mi abuelo, Juan Tejeda, fue periodista y escritor. Ni yo ni mis hijos lo conocimos (murió en 1972, a los 56 años), pero parece ser que hemos heredado de él su pasión por la literatura. Mi abuelo nació en Santiago de Chile, se licenció en Historia y escribió para diversos periódicos y revistas bajo el pseudónimo Máximo Severo. Publicó Arte de magia (1946), Fantasmas necesarios (1949), Sea breve (1952), Robar no cuesta nada (1952), Cuentos de mi escritorio y Cuentos de la selva (1957), Buen hombre (1957), Cuentos alcohólicos y burocráticos (1958) y Malversación del alma (1963). A su muerte dejó inconclusa una Historia de Chile para grandes y pequeños.
Mi padre, Juan Guillermo Tejeda Marshall, heredó de su padre (mi abuelo) la pasión por el arte, la literatura y el crear sin parar. Mi padre se define como artista de cosas diversas. Se licenció en Bellas Artes por la Universidad de Chile. Ha realizado numerosas exposiciones individuales en Santiago de Chile y Barcelona (Dibujos de época, No tengo nada que perder, Acércate más, Ferocitas) y ha participado en diversos proyectos de innovación relacionados con el diseño: el legendario iceberg del Pabellón de Chile en la Expo-Sevilla 92, La Máquina del Arte, Blauhaus y Supermerc’Art. Ha escrito e ilustrado para las revistas Hoy, Mundo, Por Favor, La Guía del Ocio y El Jueves, y para los diarios La Vanguardia, El Periódico y El Mercurio. Es autor de El dragón y su ira (1993), La gente no me gusta (1995), El Mundial del 72 (1996), Chile. Diseñando pero no mucho (1998), Diseño. La forma de lo cotidiano (1998), Allende, la señora Lucía y yo (2002), Diccionario crítico del diseño (2006), La fábrica (2008), Ámster (2011) y Trabajo inútil (2014). Ha recibido el Premio de Ensayo del Fondo Nacional del Libro y la Lectura. Durante muchos años fue profesor en las escuelas de diseño Elisava y Massana de Barcelona y en la Universidad de Chile y la Universidad Diego Portales.
Yo acabo de terminar mi Doctorado en Filosofía, del que estoy muy orgullosa. Mi tesis se titula:
"Viktor Emil Frankl y Jean-Paul Sartre: la religión a pesar de Auschwitz y una libertad sin Dios. El sentido y sinsentido del sufrimiento de las víctimas".
Y aunque mi hijo Itay quiera ser de mayor bioquímico, biólogo molecular o especialista en microorganismos, el talento por la escritura lo lleva dentro. Espero que nos siga deleitando con sus maravillosos relatos cortos. ¡Bravo, Itay!
Antonia Tejeda Barros 