What Does everlasting Mean
Sempiterno is a concept whose etymological root is found in the Latin word sempiternus . It is an adjective that allows us to qualify what had a beginning but will not have an end .
The everlasting, therefore, is perpetual since it will extend forever. It is important to differentiate between everlasting (it has a beginning but no end) and eternal (it has no beginning and no end). A father who experiences the death of his son will suffer an everlasting pain, since it can be said that it will have no end, although it began with the moment of the death of his descendant. On the other hand, according to the Catholic religion, God is eternal because a beginning is not recognized and there is no possibility of an end.
In general, the use of the concept of everlasting carries a subjective belief or expectation since it is impossible to know the future (and, therefore, to know if what qualifies as everlasting really will have no end). That is why it is usual to use the word in a symbolic way, without really believing that it qualifies something without end.
In this way, an international policy analyst can speak of an "everlasting confrontation" to refer to the conflict between Israel and Palestine . This does not mean that the dispute will never be resolved but that, due to its age, it seems that such resolution is impossible.
In a similar sense, someone could qualify the Cuban Revolution as everlasting: it began in 1959 and has been in power ever since .
Although religion is often associated with concepts that are beyond our understanding, such as the existence of one or more deities and the links they have with certain people who have passed through the Earth, the idea of the everlasting also forms part of many passages and teachings. Since the relationship that we establish with religion has a beginning but, in general, does not end, it can be said that it is everlasting, and in the same way we can qualify the union in marriage according to the Catholic Church.
From this point of view we can also analyze other unions that occur between living beings, which we often mistakenly call eternal, since they do have a beginning, and that makes them everlasting. Far from having less value than an eternal relationship , the everlasting one seems more typical of our reality, it is clearer and has a greater weight since we can understand it, we see its roots and its evolution step by step until it is consolidated. An eternal friendship seems as arbitrary as a marriage of convenience, while an everlasting bond is born on a day that we will always remember, and flourishes with mutual effort and love.
The writer Ginés S. Cutillas , born in Valencia in 1973, is the author of the book of short stories entitled " Los sempiternos ". In the words of the writer Carlos Marzal , his stories have a medicinal effect , since they show us how to overcome the mockery of the "supposed reality" in which we live the "real assumptions": to make fun of it and, why not, of ourselves.
Ana María Shua , who is also dedicated to literature and has published works of various genres since the late 1960s, ranging from poetry to short stories, through novels and short stories, believes that " Los sempiternos " brings together stories in which the author combines the wit, elegance and humor of a writer who knows how to find fun in his profession without neglecting commitment. For his part, the novelist and poet Alejandro Pedregosa praises the mastery with which Ginés has managed to assemble the stories, in which reality opens up to reveal the wonder.