CHE with an AK
10th November 2010, 02:21
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1876175702.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Some of my favorite passages ...
"This isn't a tale of derring-do, nor is it merely some kind of 'cynical account'; it isn't meant to be, at least. It's a chunk of two lives running parallel for a while, with common aspirations and similar dreams. In nine months a man can think a lot of thoughts, from the height of philosophical conjecture to the most abject longing for a bowl of soup in perfect harmony with the state of his stomach. And if, at the same time, he's a bit of an adventurer, he could have experiences which might interest other people and his random account would read something like this diary."
Guevara's diary introduction
"We are looking for the bottom part of the town. We talk to many beggars. Our noses inhale attentively the misery."
Guevara's entry on Valparaiso, Chile
"At night, after the exhausting games of canasta, we would look out over the immense sea, full of white-flecked and green reflections, the two of us leaning side by side on the railing, each of us far away, flying his own aircraft to the stratospheric regions of his own dreams. There we understood that our vocation, our true vocation, was to move for eternity along the roads and seas of the world. Always curious, looking into everything that came before our eyes, sniffing out each corner but only very faintly not setting down roots in any land or staying long enough to see the substratum of things; the outer limits would suffice."
Guevara aboard a ship in the Pacific Ocean
"The stars streaked the night sky with light in that little mountain town and the silence and the cold dematerialised the darkness. It was as if all solid substances were spirited away in the ethereal space around us, denying our individuality and submerging us, rigid, in the immense blackness."
Guevara describing his emerging consciousness
"It is at times like this, when a doctor is conscious of his complete powerlessness, that he longs for change: A change to prevent the injustice of a system in which only a month ago this poor woman was still earning her living as a waitress, wheezing and panting but facing life with dignity. In circumstances like this, individuals in poor families who cant pay their way become surrounded by an atmosphere of barely disguised acrimony; they stop being father, mother, sister or brother and become a purely negative factor in the struggle for life and, consequently, a source of bitterness for the healthy members of the community who resent their illness as if it were a personal insult to those who have to support them."
Guevara, while treating a peasant woman dying of tuberculosis
"All the love and caring just consist on coming to them without gloves and medical attire, shaking their hands as any other neighbor and sitting together for a chat about anything or playing football with them."
Guevara, on caring for lepers in the colony
"I knew that when the great guiding spirit cleaves humanity into two antagonistic halves, I will be with the people."
Guevara's diary conclusion
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/CheOnRaft1952.jpg
Some of my favorite passages ...
"This isn't a tale of derring-do, nor is it merely some kind of 'cynical account'; it isn't meant to be, at least. It's a chunk of two lives running parallel for a while, with common aspirations and similar dreams. In nine months a man can think a lot of thoughts, from the height of philosophical conjecture to the most abject longing for a bowl of soup in perfect harmony with the state of his stomach. And if, at the same time, he's a bit of an adventurer, he could have experiences which might interest other people and his random account would read something like this diary."
Guevara's diary introduction
"We are looking for the bottom part of the town. We talk to many beggars. Our noses inhale attentively the misery."
Guevara's entry on Valparaiso, Chile
"At night, after the exhausting games of canasta, we would look out over the immense sea, full of white-flecked and green reflections, the two of us leaning side by side on the railing, each of us far away, flying his own aircraft to the stratospheric regions of his own dreams. There we understood that our vocation, our true vocation, was to move for eternity along the roads and seas of the world. Always curious, looking into everything that came before our eyes, sniffing out each corner but only very faintly not setting down roots in any land or staying long enough to see the substratum of things; the outer limits would suffice."
Guevara aboard a ship in the Pacific Ocean
"The stars streaked the night sky with light in that little mountain town and the silence and the cold dematerialised the darkness. It was as if all solid substances were spirited away in the ethereal space around us, denying our individuality and submerging us, rigid, in the immense blackness."
Guevara describing his emerging consciousness
"It is at times like this, when a doctor is conscious of his complete powerlessness, that he longs for change: A change to prevent the injustice of a system in which only a month ago this poor woman was still earning her living as a waitress, wheezing and panting but facing life with dignity. In circumstances like this, individuals in poor families who cant pay their way become surrounded by an atmosphere of barely disguised acrimony; they stop being father, mother, sister or brother and become a purely negative factor in the struggle for life and, consequently, a source of bitterness for the healthy members of the community who resent their illness as if it were a personal insult to those who have to support them."
Guevara, while treating a peasant woman dying of tuberculosis
"All the love and caring just consist on coming to them without gloves and medical attire, shaking their hands as any other neighbor and sitting together for a chat about anything or playing football with them."
Guevara, on caring for lepers in the colony
"I knew that when the great guiding spirit cleaves humanity into two antagonistic halves, I will be with the people."
Guevara's diary conclusion
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/CheOnRaft1952.jpg