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Aug 9Liked by Joel D. Aguilar Ramírez

What are the desires that divide you from within?

Good question. I remember at a young age wondering if people would love me for me in the future or if they would tolerate me for what they could get out of me like a farmed friendship. It compelled me to apply myself to my studies but eventually collapsed when I met my wife who actively (and thankfully) retrained my brain to disconnect my thinking process from the authoritative voices.

Who are the people who help you recenter your desires?

Meeting my wife was my first exposure to a wild theologian--her discernment is through the roof when it comes to certain things, but doesn't tolerate abstract conversations for very long. Every conversation has multiple ties to reality and it helps me to ask better questions about my desires.

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I too have been wrestling through my desires as it pertains to mimesis. Very often the sacrifices asked of me are sacrifices of the primary interface for the sake of the secondary interface. Christians can't be friends with non-Christians, shouldn't be involved in Sunday Sports, shouldn't participate in social gatherings like dances, shouldn't rest with non-believers in body, soul, and spirit through the consumption of alcohol or mind altering substances. All of these sacrifices ensure we have no excuse to skip out on church to engage in primary interfacial activities. I carry those and other categories in my body and they very often dictate what I do and don't do in the presence of people I don't know. I recentre but most importantly I carry them in me like any bad idea and hold them captive, not allowing them to escape to my children. If my children bring home any of these infections of the Anthrohead I help them as best I can to take captive the disease within themselves and be their go-to to recentre.

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