…Nothing can be grasped, destroyed, or burnt, except in a symbolic way, as one says, in effigy, in absentia.”
Jacques Lacan
Overcoming trauma takes years, decades even, especially generational trauma.
The horrifying history of Belene – a place of violence, injustice, and suffering. A place where those who cherished freedom and expression were locked and repressed. For Belene still lingers in collective memory as a forsaken territory of ghosts reminding us of an unspeakable history.
But if one constantly looks for shelter against the shame and trauma, that pulse within the core of such historic places, one only lends them the strength to continue their horrifying recurrence. It is why one must attempt the task of confronting trauma.
And it is a task of awakening the potentials of a place, of a memory. A renewal of energy and dynamic that trauma tries to bar their expressive force. Or to put it in other words, one’s duty to places of such dismal presence lays in the act of positive transformation, that is the creation of a dwelling, of a peaceful abode where being can bring forth again its natural creative beauty. And Belene’s vast wildlife, its lavish landscape are open precisely to such an endeavor. Thus, what a place like that needs in order to become a dwelling is one’s devotion and care for its environment, for its immanent regenerative abilities. It is through care and devotion that the traumatic past of violence can be turned into something other, something capable of healing and ameliorating one’s existential wounds.
And as Being is a constant source of awe and wonder, Belene’s generous natural environment turns out to be the ideal abode for bees and their sweet gift of honey. Not only that, but honey is also a perfect example of the combined effort, the synergy of man and bee that can transform a space into something special, something that can heal. For the healing properties of the sweet nectar are something that has been cherished for centuries by almost every known culture. It is why honey is not only a natural libation given to uss by the preserved nature of Belene, it is also a potent symbol of man’s laborious duty in transforming a troubled past into a meaningful horizon of hope.
Thus, the creation of honey, the devotion in the making of and collection of the sweet nectar; the building of a special bond and the reconnection of man and nature that come together to form a sacred effort of mending a wound that though not fully healed might be transformed in a dwelling of natural beauty and vision.