And Life Goes On

"Now that death had resumed its normal rhythm, it's tempo accelerated only by certain raw winds, the planters have themselves over t drinking and card-playing, demoralized by their forced association with the soldiery..."

The Kingdom of this World a Novel

-Alejo Carpentier

This excerpt makes me think about death in our own lives and how it is extremely tragic at the time, but life continues to move forward.  Often we feel as though life should stop altogether because of the tragedy that happens in our life-the unexpected death of a parent, the grief at the loss of a sibling or even a child that is taken from this life far too soon for our liking. 

The world seems to pause for a moment, everyone giving out condolences and offering you time to come to terms, but all too soon life picks up again and one is expected to get back into the swing of things. 

Other people seem to forget what is forever branded upon our hearts and don't understand why we are continuing to live in the past.  Why is it that we cannot understand each other's pain beyond a certain point?

I love how Kenny Chesney expresses it in his song "Who You'd be Today".  He talks about how it isn't fair that this person died too young, how he can't forget the memories and the pain and is always thinking about what that person would be like today if they were still alive.

Why is the pain so bitter?  Esecially as members when we know that we will see them again, that they are free from the pains and afflications of this world?

I don't think that there is an easy answer to these questions.  While death is something that will eventually happen to all of us, it seems that it is something we are rarely prepared for.  It's like we all know that we are going to die, but we don't really believe it.  Why do you think think it is such a hard concept to grasp?  Is it because our minds naturally shy away from unpleasant thoughts or things that we cannot control?  Or does it go along with the mindset that most people have, that they are an exception to the rule?  That mindset tells a person that: I can text while I drive because nothing will happen, I can ride a motorcycle without a helmet because I won't crash, I can go hiking or spelunking by myselve because I won't get lost, or I can go running alone at night because there is no way I would ever get raped...right???  

What are your thoughts on this?  Do you agree with my theory or do you have a different one?  Have you noticed these things in other people?  Have you experienced it yourself? 

The Foreigness of Time

"I know that of all problems, none disquieted him more, and none concerned him more than the profound one of time."

"The Garden of Forking Paths"-Jorge Luis Borges

What is it about time that makes it seem so strange and foreign to us?  When we are kids it seems to have little meaning, we don't count the day out in hours and minutes but rather in seasons and daylight-time when we can play.  For a bullrider 8 seconds may very well seem to last for an eternity, to an employee on a lunch break 30 minutes can seem like 5 because it goes so quickly.  I know whey I was on my mission some days felt like they would never end; whereas at other times it felt like I merely blinked and two months flew past!

Yet, with all of this we use time for everyhing, we base our lives around being on time, workin, going to meetings-everything is based around a time schedule.

We have been studying a lot of different movements in class and how time can change many things.  We've been watching the way that art changes over time, how relationships can change over time and just the effect that time can have on a culture and civilization and it is crazy what can happen in a relatively short amount of time.  In my Port 355 class on Brazilian history and culture we are currently studying the 1800's and everything that happened there.  They went from a monarchy to political back to monarchy, freedom of the African slaves on to get indentured servants out of immigrants, all sorts of wars and revolts, changes in the economy...!  It is amazing how much can change with time.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we could go back in time and change things, what that would affect.

How can time be so elusive to us and why does it seem

to move faster the older we get?  I don't know if it is ever something that we will be able to grasp in this life, but what do you think?

"Mira, como lloran sus ojos"  

-O Padre 'Maria Candelaria'

We've talked quite a bit in this class about religion coming in, the Virgin Guadelupe and how the people accept it, with a little variation of their own.  The people are obviously religions in this movie as it is mentioned what the priest talked about on Sunday, or how they all go to the church to get a blessing on their animals.  When the priest says the above quote to Maria Candelaria she immediately regrets what she said and talks about how she is sorry and didn't mean to make the Virgin cry.

Even with all of this religion is not enough to make the people move past their traditions and accept Maria Candelaria, no matter how much the priest preaches at them, condemns them, scolds them. 

This would be a really good time to go off on how we need to heed the council of our church leaders because if they keep talking about the same things it means we are obviously still doing them...but instead I want to focus on the first part of this, the part where Maria Candelaria realizes what she is saying and asks for forgiveness.

I love BYU classes because we can always tie our material back into the Savior, like we talked about how Maria Candelaria is a representation in ways in the film of the Virgin Mary and her fiancé represents Christ,

But anyway, forgiveness is always an option, we are never too far off track to come back and repent.  Wether we are behaving like Maria Candelaria and blaming them for never helping us, or if we find ourselves acting like Cortez and his men and using our religion as a way to control and have dominion over another people (or rather in our time it might be abusing our callings), we can repent and move forward with a clean slate.

Someone in class mentioned the fact that this made them think of the saying, "No good deed goes unpunished", what do you think about that?  And if this is true, is it even worth our time to try and repent and lead good lives, especially since we saw how it ended for Maria Candelaria?

Nationalism

"After about 1950, musical nationalism in Mexico declined rapidly when new aesthetics and their corresponding styles emerged"

-Leslie Bethell, A Cultural History of Latin American Music

It is interesting how this kind of trend transcends cultures and subjects and can be applied to many things.  Life has a way of just carrying us along and taking us to new and exciting places that cause us to forget some of the emotions that went along with the old stuff.  This made me think of the paintings that we have been looking at in class by various artists. Art, as a whole, has kind of evolved together.  You have the painters in Latin America immitating what is happening in Europe, then they kind of go off on their own nationalistic, cultural kind of paintings, and then we see it coming back to what is happening in the art world around them with impressionism and the more modern looking, make-you-think kind of painting.

There is nothing wrong with this, it is just an interesting observation.

A tie that I was able to come up with as far as people being super into the whole nationalism scene and getting way involved is what was happening right here in the United States after 9/11 happened.  I still can remember the surge of country music that was all geared towards nationalism, what it means to be an American, and how great America is.  I remember all of the American flags that I saw flying, some even attached to the windows in cars, and how everyone just seemed to pull together and find pride and courage in their nation and their country.  

Toby Keith demonstrates this in his song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" which was just one of the many songs that came out at this time.

Well, times are changing.  And while I am not saying that we do not have nationalism or that people do not care about their country, it has just moved in a different direction.  Song writers went back to writing about love and being cheated on, the American flags on the cars were replaced with BYU ones or other things, and we as a people have gone back to worry about ourselves and those closest to us and not focussing on the nation as a whole anymore.

I don't know if that came out right and I wasn't trying to offend anyone so I apologize if I did.  To me it seems like nationalism is mainly important when the country is faced with extreme difficulties, or when competing against another country in sports or the olympics!

What is your take on nationalism?  Has it declined like it did after the 1950's in Mexico's music, or like I am claiming it has here in the US in the last few years, or do people just show it differently? 

Boomerang

"This man had a serious defect: he could not stick to a job or trade.  He lacked stability; called it 'hard luck'"

-Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Father loves Mother

I find it fascinating in this story that a man who spends his entire life running away from situations that are unpleasant to him decides to make a living catching runaway slaves.  The story goes on to describe many of the jobs he tried and all the excuses he came up with to leave perfectly good jobs be it because they were too time consuming, too back breaking or too hard to learn. 

The story seems to come full circle in a couple of ways for me.  First off just this idea of the runaway turning on others who would runaway.  The second thing is that he finally gets something worth fighting for, a family.  He is willing to do whatever it takes to keep his wife and his child.  What he ends up doing in order to protect his own assets, is to catch and turn in a women who was doing the exact same thing that he was, she was running away and she was doing whatever she could to protect her child.

It is interesting to me that because of his own circumstances he was willing to turn a deaf ear on the women.  Even as he watched her miscarry her own child because of his treatment of her, he did not care at all. 

"You're the one to blame.  Who told you to go having babies and then go running away?" Is what he asks the pregnant, runaway slave when she tells him her master will whip her.

In a way this reminds me of "The Emperor's New Groove" when Eezma reprimands the peasant about his state of affairs and blames it on him.

I recently watched the film "The Official Story" which is about Argentina during the Dirty War.  The movie is about a family, the parents and their adopted little girl.  Throughout the movie the mom becomes suspicious that their daughter was stolen from one of the people who "dissappeared" during the war and that her husband is not the man she thought he was.  The husband does not care at all what happened to the mother of the child or how it happened, he knows exactly where their daughter came from but he turns a blind eye on it much like Candido Neves. 

At the very end of the movie he comes home from work and his wife is there but his daughter isn't.  He goes a little crazy and asks her where their daughter is.  She coolly responds by asking him how it feels to be the one that is missing a child, trying to drive home to him the emotion that these other people are feeling.

There is so much violence and hatred in the world and it is easy to put up our blinders to others pain, as long as we get what we want we are fine.  We need to take down those blinders and be aware of what is going on around us.  It is time for us to dust off the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you".

Be it ever so humble

-Não estou eu junto de ti?

-Aren't I here with you?

-Teu corpo está aqui; mas tua alma voa à terra de teus pais...

-Your body is here, but your sould flies to the land of your fathers...

Iracema chapter 28

Like I mentioned last week, this week's quote is about how we can be so attached to a place that we yearn for it.  Even when we have a lot of good things and are surrounded by good people our dreams long to sail us back there and our thoughts sometimes stray to fond memories.

We talked in class about what those who live outside of Utah think of this state.  There were many differing answers but the common theme throughout the enitre class period was an attachment to our homeland, a love for what we grew up with.  We also talked about a certain, almost tangible feeling that we get in certain places and I would definitely say that most everyone has such a feeling when they go home. 

Though Martin has a beautiful wife and a child, he still longs to go home, he longs for his birthplace, for his family and friends there. 

I love this song about Hawaii, I lived there for 8 months and this really brings back some good memories, but for the singers, this is their home, when they leave they get the same nostalgic feelings, the same desire to go back that we have been talking about. 

I have travelled to many different countries and seen some amazing things.  I can honestly say that the world has some amazing things to offer, ancient pyramids and lands full of history, volcanoes to climb, and jungles to explore.  You can go swim with the pink dolphins in the amazon, take an adventursome zipline through the jungles in Guatemala, feed the kangaroos and koalas in Australia or take a train ride through the beautiful countryside in Romania.  All of these adventures are breathtaking, exciting and really cool to talk about, yet I am just as excited if not more so, everytime I come home from one of those trips.  As I get closer to Salt Lake City and my family the excitement grows!  Knowing that they are so close and that I am almost home, wow, it makes me excited just thinking about it.  Another fun example to drive this home, just think of Christmas time and how excited almost all of your roomates and fellow students are to go home for the holidays.  There is something wonderful and magical about home.  While we are there we might take it for granted and even be excited to get away, but most everyone gets a little bit giddy when it is time to go home again.

I love the way that Lonestar says it,

 "I've traveled here and everywhere
Following my job
I've seen the paintings from the air
Brushed by the hand of God
The mountains and the canyons reach from sea to shining sea
But I can't wait to get back home
To the one he made for me
It's anywhere I'll ever go and everywhere I've been
Nothing takes my breath away
Like my front porch looking in"

Like the old saying goes "Home is where the heart is" and in this case it does not simply mean that home can be anywhere we make it, but it means that we leave a piece of our heart behind when we leave home and there is a part of us that will always long for the home that we remember. 

"Iracema" and Saudade

"The young warrior, leaning against the mast, raises his eyes, which are fixed upon the fleeting outline of the shadowy shore.  From time to time his sight becomes dim, and a tear fall upon the Giráo bnech, where frolic the two innocents, the companions of his misfortune.

But whilst thou sailest thus at the mercy of the winds, graceful barque, waft back to that white beach some of the yearning (saudade) that accompanies thee, but which may not leave the land to which it returns" (Iracema pg 7-8)

This part of the story, though at the very beginning, really spoke to me of some very strong emotions.  Not knowing exactly what the story was about when I read this I put my own experiences to it and translated those emotions as being: regret, a yearning to go back to happier days, a terrible longing, and admitted defeat-that going back is not possible and all that is left is for one to move on with the next stage in life.

This first took my mind to a poem that we recently read and discussed in my Portuguese literature class by Gonçalves Dia called, "Canção do Exílio".  He wrote it through the eyes of Dom Pedro II.  I am not going to include all of it (mainly because I don't think that most of you speak Portuguese, and it goes kind of long...) but here goes:

Minha terra tem palmeiras,

Onde canta o Sabiá;

As aves, que aqui gorjeiam,

Não gorjeiam como lá.

Não permita Deus que eu morra,

Sem que eu volte para lá;

Sem que desfrute of primores

Que não encontro por cá;

Sem qu'inda aviste as palmeiras,

Onde canta o Sabiá.

So this is the first and last of the poem, and basically it is just him comparing where he is now to where he used to be-which in this case is comparing the beautiful and wonderful Brazil, to Portugal.  The poem goes on to describe how the birds don't sing in Portugal like they do in Brazil, and that Brazil has more stars, more trees, more flowers and more love than Portugal.  In the end he is saying that God will not let him die without returning to his land, he land that has palm trees and where the Sabiá (the bird to the right) sings.

This is a video that records the sound that the Sabiá makes as it sings if you are interested in hearing what it sounds like.

The last thing that this quote makes me thing of is how we need to press forward and keep going in life.  Like I mentioned earlier, there is a sort of defeat admitted, the acknowledgement that you can't go back and so you need to press forward.  This reminded me the the song by Andy Grammar "Keep your Head up" because he mentions that no matter what life throws your way you need to keep going.  One line of his song says, "Only rainbows after rain, the sun will always come again," and that applies to life. 

 We will always have good times to look back on and to hold, but they are in the past and it does us no good to pine after them and long for them to come back.  Remembering and reminiscing are great, but do you want to miss the rainbows that have yet to come by dwelling in the past instead of paying attention to the future?