I first learned this Portuguese word when Mev Puleo was working on translating her interviews with radical Brazilian Christians in the early 90s. A one-word English synonym she gave me was “availability.” In her book The Struggle Is One that was published in 1994, Mev defined the word this way: “a disposition of openness in which one is accessible, available and willing to be inconvenienced by the needs or requests of another person or event.”
Around the same time I was doing academic work on U.S. foreign policy, and wrote a letter with questions to Noam Chomsky, renowned MIT linguist and political dissident. Within a couple of weeks, he responded in a typed, single-spaced letter of five pages. I later read an interview he did with David Barsamian, and learned that Chomsky typically spent twenty hours a week writing letters throughout the 1980s and 90s.
During this evening we will share reflections on the people in our lives who have embodied disponibilidade.
Join us
Sunday 22 November
We will begin sharing at 7:00 p.m. Central Time
Via Zoom
Email Markjchmiel@gmail.com for URL
Mark I hope that this is the “Share the Wealth” for this Sunday. I searched through all the other posts and could only find this one for November 15th. Either way, I’ll just show up because; whatever it is it, it will be good
Thanks so much and see you on Sunday