Inhabiting the World with Tenderness

This episode of Inhabiting the World is dedicated to tenderness.
From Latin, Tèn-uem, from which derives tenuous as well, tenderness implies the quality of something that can be rolled out, that’s malleable and soft.
When we show, manifest, express tenderness, we feel a deep and soft affection for someone or something with compassion and love.
Tenderness is a quality which we generally associate with girls and ladies who are supposed to be the milder of the two sexes. The males on the other hand, are embodiments of physical strength and prowess. Females are meek, docile and soft-spoken. They are soft and tender in both touch and feel. What a cliché!

According to William James, father of American psychology, there is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness, and their companionship in the saintly life need in no way occasion surprise. Kids are also soft and we associate tenderness with them as well.
Anything that is smooth and soft is tender. In the words of Victor Hugo, “The most powerful symptom of love is a tenderness which becomes at times almost insupportable.”
Dostoevsky had a point when he said:
“It’s the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quite tender joy.”

Ada Merini, the great Italian poetess sang:

We are hungry for tenderness,
In a world where everything is abundant,
We are poor of such a sentiment
Like a caress
For our heart
We need tiny gestures
That makes us feel good,
Tenderness
Is a love disinterested and generous
That asks for nothing else,
But to be understood and appreciated.