Otro Día en "Paradiso" - Another Day in “Paradiso”

Mindless Thinking - Edil Rentas Casiano How often do you find yourself with your thoughts wandering, going in every direction, without you necessarily thinking about what you are thinking?  I must confess that this happens to me quite often, almost daily, and even multiple times a day.  In a way, I think (here we go thinking again) that thinking is an operation, a function, that we do effortlessly and without necessarily knowing that we are thinking. Even when we say to someone, hey, you know what I was thinking?, or I was thinking this, you did the thinking, but you didn't not actually thought about the fact that you were actually thinking. In reality, you just thought or remember something, but you did not actually thought about it. It just happens naturally. It makes you wonder: if we can observe our own thoughts, who is the one doing the observing? It implies there are two different entities living inside our heads. There is the quiet 'generator' in the background that ...

The Penelope Story A Memory from Sunset Harbor Road, Summerfield, Florida By Edil Rentas Casiano There is a corner near Sunset Harbor Road in Summerfield, Florida, that I know the way you know a place you've driven through a thousand times without ever stopping — not a destination, but a passage. A place you move through on the way to somewhere else. For nearly three years, we drove that road every day to visit our son. And every day, she was there. She sat at the corner with the particular stillness of someone who has decided, without explanation, that this is where she belongs. It didn't matter the weather. On mornings when the Florida heat pressed down like a hand on the back of your neck, she was there. On afternoons when summer rain swept across the road in silver curtains, she was there. On the occasional cold mornings that catch you off guard in Central Florida, when people dig out jackets they'd forgotten they owned — she was there. She was not homeless. You ...

  Cuatro Pecados Por Edil Rentas Casiano Recientemente pasé junto a mi esposa frente a un negocio en Ponce, Puerto Rico, llamado “Cuatro Pecados”. Apenas lo vio, mi esposa exclamó con cierta mezcla de asombro y diversión: “¡Cuatro Pecados—qué nombre el de ese negocio!” Y ahí se quedó la pregunta, flotando entre nosotros como la neblina mañanera de las montañas —presente, difusa, sin bordes claros—: ¿por qué cuatro? ¿No tres? ¿No cinco? ¿Por qué pecados y no vicios, o caprichos, o simplemente placeres? El nombre era una trampa filosófica disfrazada de rótulo comercial, y yo ya había caído en ella. Lo que añade otra capa al asunto es que el negocio no solo sirve bebidas — también sirve comida. O sea, que los cuatro pecados no son metáfora pura: son un menú. Probablemente algo gloriosamente excesivo, alguna combinación de alcohol, carne, fritura y azúcar. El lugar no te invita a reflexionar sobre tus transgresiones — te invita a sentarte, pedir, y cometerlas ahí mismo, con cubiertos e...