Let’s weave stories that make life with dignity possible.

Relational and Social Constructionist Consortium of Ecuador (IRYSE)

Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M.A.

Be with dignity 

Have the purpose of meeting the other, in a dialogue built with curiosity, love, and respect. Asking ourselves from the connections that create shared wisdom to move in the world, to transform the worlds that need to be transformed, to be with dignity.

To fulfill ourselves, it is time to start doing something for each other and others. It is choosing other languages, because the conventional ones, which support and cover up the status quo, have long expired; they impoverish and degrade, they are dry, empty of meaning.

Find your own place to learn to respect the times understand, and integrate contradictions. Is there something, a moment, a gesture, a word, a response that I have given, something concrete that I have done in favor of generating the full exercise of human rights, that is liberating and contributes to building futures?

Because by choosing to converse I become part of those conversations, I embody my philosophy in those dialogues with otherness, I commit myself with passion and at the same time, I invite that other interlocutor to question each other, without the prejudices of the comfortable, silly and vulgar truths of the common places.

Do we have interlocutors for these transformative dialogues? I don’t know. We do not know. We continue in the incessant search for these new possibilities, which are resistance, culture, serenity, temperance, and good humor.

There is a conventional majority, among psychologists, therapists, and the wide range of the “psi” field and, also, among the rest of the people who, between thinking critically and opening themselves to dialogue, prefer not to do so, they choose to continue domesticating subjectivities, submitting or covering up a relational context, which multiplies this culture of mistreatment, violence, abuse, misery of all kinds and systemic injustices.

The years and the times are different, and continuing to postpone is a waste. Creativity and imagination nourish each authentic dialogue because it means the possibility of giving power to this life of scraps, fragments, ruptures, defeats, frustrations, and endless losses; reconciling ourselves with the best in ourselves and others.

The life of memory is not for tomorrow, nor for now, if it is not accompanied by transformations of meanings; the life that is generated with dialogues, that dialogues generate connects us with the ability to weave stories of solidarity, that make life with dignity possible.

Listen to stories to connect, understand stories to connect, respond to connect, and connect through dialogue to jointly create new meanings. This continuous reflection in a permanent metamorphosis of meaning, with a complexity that makes us intertwine in intelligent social practices, with languages that invite a rhizomatic wonder, this being responsible for the world of transcendent languages and meanings that we care to bequeath.

In order not to be or continue as sleepwalkers, it is necessary to recover the understanding of relational, dialogic processes and contexts, and the resources they mobilize; by feeling enthusiasm, we generate hope and by acting with passion we connect with what is alive. For this to happen, we must not fear being authentically vulnerable (weaving deep bonds while being vulnerable with dignity) to generate connections based on trust, creating common well-being.

There are many years of continuing to weave articulating questions that give rise to many more years to come for the beings we love, respect, and care for, whether close or far, in memory and new projects; with a radical presence and with a relational ethic, which exercises the right to say yes and to say no and to be joyful to affirm life, to be free with others, to enjoy life.

If tomorrow is the question, the answer is: with you.

English translation by Bruno Tapia Naranjo.