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.
Once someone asked me, "What do you want to be your epitaph?" So I said, "Paulo Coelho died when he was alive.
I always had a philosophy which I got from my father. He used to say, 'Listen. God gave to you the gift to play football. This is your gift from God. If you take care of your health, if you are in good shape all the time, with your gift from God no one will stop you, but you must be prepared.'
The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
A stand can be made against invasion by an army; no stand can be made against invasion by an idea.
The ministry of mercy, then, is the best advertising a church can have. It convinces a community that this church provides people with actions for their problems, not only talk. It shows the community that this church is compassionate.
Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul. The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.
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