Like many of my contemporaries— is to understand deeply: art, science, politics, and social phenomena. It is a duty for me to be curious and to take an interest in the entire world of things and beings. Language is so beautiful that one must cultivate linguistic sensitivity, a careful attention to stylistic detail, to nourish an emotional relationship with it. My love for my language also expresses my love for my homeland—my nation, Québec— for my next-door neighbors, the Canadians, and for my cousins to the south, the Democrats. Like many of my contemporaries, I need order, clarity, and coherence. In the turning points of my life, I cling to symbols, to the value of gestures and words, and to personal metaphor. I question myself passionately— not for self-satisfaction, but to draw from it a psychological or existential truth. I must travel, move forward, with a fine awareness of self, in a constant inner dialogue, often lucid, at the risk of melancholy. Ah yes, I uphold a form of critical humanism when I observe and analyze injustices, wars, and all that violates human dignity, spiritual truth, and public health. I maintain a constant ethical concern, for I wish to preserve inner harmony and intellectual order. It is demanding to stand at the crossroads of reason and compassion, yet I do so as an engaged observer, non-dogmatic, seeking to understand rather than to judge. I need to maintain structure in the face of the world’s dispersion. I am sensitive to cycles, to the passing of time, and to continuity. I refuse ease and complacency in my search for a personal ethical order. I do not hesitate to express my desire to unite intellect and emotion, while keeping a compassionate yet lucid gaze on the moral decay and crisis of the world, which lead to injustice and war. I am an advocate of deep, yet selective, listening. In general, I strive to be a generous interlocutor. My attachment to those close to me is deep, enduring, and thoughtful. I believe in loyalty at its core. I confess that my friendship is almost philosophical, as befits an intellectual: it seeks shared truth, not mere diversion. I have kept friends for sixty-five years. It is important to refine mutual understanding through quiet clarity within the density of thought. My purpose in life is to understand better. My existential drive is faithfulness to truth and justice. The meaning of my personal quest is to reconcile lucidity and kindness. I believe it is my duty to be a bearer of meaning— and I have been a teacher. We must be lucid witnesses of our time. And in that realm, it is essential to purify experience through speech. I constantly strive for inner peace between knowledge and sensitivity. I must be an alchemist, for I try to transform lucidity into light, to become a builder of light. What transmutes lead into gold is found in the words of Jesus in Matthew, chapter twenty-two, verses thirty-four to forty: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” These two commandments sum up the entire Law, the Prophets, and all the books of the Bible. Jesus looks upon each of us as persons above all. Persons.
