In praise of fragility

Abstract

Pain is part of life: it is one of the ontological roots and forms of human fragility. It is a disturbing presence for the radical and universal cipher of the life project of every human being; however, it is also a generative experience, which casts new light on our being in the world.

Exploring the path of pedagogical hermeneutics is a possible attempt to establish fragility in education as an important aspect of the process of existential evolution and to reflect on a pedagogy of the facial expression as a hermeneutic device to grasp the deep, communicable intimacy. This is where the language of words is interwoven with the silent language of faces and looks, and the language of tears becomes a symbolic and metaphorical device to rediscover the value of interiority and human feeling, amid suffering and revelation.

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