Why did you choose the theme “Living better together”?
by Nicole Belaud, president Europa Forum Bordeaux 2024
We could also have said “dream together of a more inclusive society”, which would leave no one behind. It is important to know how to live together and accept each other’s differences.
And somehow it is consistent with the values of Lionism, because we try by our actions to allow everyone to live better together.
We know, and we see it every day, how important it is in our current society, which admits little or no differences, whatever they may be.
So let’s talk about geometry… to live better together, with PID Jean Oustrin:
“A cube and a sphere, two volumes that everything separates, very different from each other and that mathematicians themselves only know how to link by a number they call irrational. And yet, talented architects and designers know how to associate them in their works. The first stable, the second mobile; the first posed on one of its faces is perfectly stable, the second, if the surface is not perfectly horizontal, tends to move, to leave… One can lean on the first, even sit on it; it is more hazardous with the second… unless we hug the sphere against the cube.
In our human societies it is the same, we are very different, Each has its own defects and its own qualities.
The cube is stable, the sphere is mobile, the cube is initially a little rough: aggressive angles, sharp edges; the sphere is at first pleasant without asperities, equal to itself from wherever it is approached. So let’s ask our cubic friends to round the corners a little, let’s ask our spherical friends to stay a little more stable. And heat the sphere against the cube…
We will benefit from an association of different talents who, together, will be capable of great things. But above all do not let the defects hide the talents, accept the first to discover the second because a hidden talent is useless; a sundial placed in the shade is of no use.
This is the idea, to use the qualities of each in association with the other; this is the secret to make coexist in a structure two elements very different from each other, whether material or human; this is the secret of an effective whole, a club where it is good to live together.”
