The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings.
Interpretation
The quote explores the relationship between self-identity and powerful emotions.
Audre Lorde suggests that the erotic, or deep emotional and sensual experiences, serves as a bridge connecting our understanding of who we are with the tumultuous nature of our most intense feelings. This connection emphasizes the importance of embracing our desires and emotions as integral parts of our identity and experience, rather than merely chaotic forces to be controlled or suppressed.
In practice
In a discussion about emotional intelligence, this quote can highlight the significance of understanding our feelings in relation to self-identity.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
When you suffer and lose, that does not mean you are being disobedient to God. In fact, it might mean you're right in the center of His will. The path of obedience is often marked by times of suffering and loss.
Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers all that he wrought and endured.
I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
World War II proved a hypothesis that Alexis de Tocqueville advanced a century before: the war-fighting potential of a democracy is at its greatest when war is most intense; at its weakest when war is most limited. This is a lesson with enduring relevance to our own times - and our own wars.
Incens'd with indignation Satan stood Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war.
Every Night and every Morn Some to Misery are born. Every Morn and every Night Some are born to Sweet Delight, Some are born to Endless Night.
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