"Decency" has vanished from the dictionary.

„I don't understand one thing: when there is so much beauty in the entire world, how can I go and look at crumbs, when I have the complete joy of beauty? And, if we fragment beauty, how will we be able to make the journey back?
Since Freud, a mutation has occurred: sex has been put in the place of the head. This is the greatest sadness. You see, among us Romanians, there was a sense of decorum. Certain words were not pronounced – they weren't taboos, but there was a modesty. Now decorum, this word, has disappeared from the dictionary. I have no prejudices of any kind, but the way we behave kills beauty”.

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„For me, great poetry has always been the bath of beauty in which I immersed myself when I needed to enter another dimension. Poetry, in my opinion, belongs to the most hidden, most intimate part of our being. Poetry almost equates to a prayer. In poetry, you immerse yourself to return with beauty. In prayer, you enter to integrate yourself with the absolute.
In general, truths are rather sad, and that's why the world doesn't love them.
Do you think that from 'manele' we will still be able to return to Johann Sebastian Bach?”.

Zoe Dumitrescu-Bușulenga (Mother Benedicta)

Photograph by Ion Predoșanu: Zoe Dumitrescu-Bușulenga in 1975