Second day in the mountains of Catalonia. Today we visited an amazing labyrinth of rock sculptures called ROCAVIVA near the town of Músser. All of the rocks were carved by the artist-hermit Kliment Olm who lived there, at the top of the mountain, for 27 years until a prolonged and harsh dispute with his brother made him leave. The place is run by a lovely woman called Esther who gave us a two-hour tour, leading us through many paths along the mountain-side, where at each spot a different rock was carved out in the shape of a face, a geometrical shape, a word or phrase, or a mixture of these. Most of the sculptures exhibited a strong duality, the closed vs. the open eye, the raw stone vs. the polished one, the baby vs. the skull etc. Everything had spiritual significance and advocated for humanity to wake up from its slumber and reunite with nature and with itself. In the end, when we reached the house of Kliment, we were given a book of his prose and asked to intuitively open it at some page. The quote from the page we chose reads as follows:
EDUCAR NO ÉS ADOCTRINAR
manipular, ni suprimir singularitats,
SINÓ POTENCIAR EL MILLOR DE CADESCÚ
Educar és ensenyar a ser, pensar i actuar,
de manera intel·ligent i racional…
lliure, sensible, responsable i coherent.
És aprendre a conviure en harmonia,
a tenir i a donar salut, pau i felicitat.
EDUCAR ÉS ESTIMAR
Generalment no ens han instruït aixi,
però som a temps de practicar
—
TO EDUCATE IS NOT TO INDOCTRINATE
manipulate, or suppress singularities,
BUT IT IS TO EMPOWER THE BEST IN EVERYONE
To educate is to teach how to be, to think and to act,
in an intelligent and rational…
free, sensible, responsible and coherent way.
It is a way of learning to live in harmony,
to have and give health, peace and happiness.
TO EDUCATE IS TO LOVE
In general we haven’t been taught in this way,
but we still have time to practice.
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