To pick a favorite

This is actually a very difficult task. I have never once taken a class where I thoroughly, sincerely enjoyed everything we read (perhaps “enjoy” is too strong a term for Kingdom of this World). But I think my favorite was watching the documentary “Tocar y Luchar” about the orchestra programs in Venezuela. I am a music minor, and find it hard to articulate why I love music, but this movie did it wonderfully! As I was watching it, I had a Word document up, and would constantly pause the movie to type a cool quote. I struggled finding the best one for the blog post. But here were some of the other quotes that might illuminate why this was my favorite:

“Whoever creates music… begins to understand from within what essential harmony is… human harmony”

“Only music can communicate with human beings … that revelation is what transforms, is sublime and develops from within the spirit of man…”

“I imagine that God must like music, because something so beautiful can only be the work of God”

“Art implies a sense of perfection.. therefore of excellence, a road to excellence. ..a sense of harmony, order, rhythm, a sense of the aesthetic, the beautiful, the universal, and the language of the invisible”

“Is rhythm a musical phenomenon? No. Rhythm is a spiritual phenomenon. It is the internal pulse of the soul. Music sublimates the interior pulse of the soul and expresses it in a harmonious way. Subtly, invisibly, and transmitted, without words, to other human beings. It is the art of making will, souls, and spirits agree to generate a message, and to generate vaules that profoundly transforms the spirit of the child who makes the orchestra. … people feel a revelation. God reveals something ineffable. Something that cannot be penetrated by rationality; that is only penetrable by intuition. It is that a young person … challenged by the musical impulse and the tasks of the orchestra, begins a psychological transformation”

“We must let ourselves be invaded by that art that brings us together through music, plastic arts, literature, cinema, and begin to recognize ourselves in our essence, in our identity through art, which is the only world where we can find the true revelation of our being, the authentic being is revealed through art”

To all the artists out there: to all of you musicians, writers, filmmakers, and humanities majors; you’re doing good work for humanity. Keep it up. 

I hate you but I love you more!

In this scene from the movie La Misma Luna, Carlitos and Enrique obviously have some heated feelings toward each other. In our class my professor Dr. Mack related this scene to John Bolby’s attachment theory, and how when people fight, it is actually (often) attachment-seeking behavior. Seems slightly counter-intuitive right?  That in battling against, one is actually trying to become close. 

Why is that?

So many famous scenes of fantastically heated arguments turning into passionate kisses, right?! (The Notebook, in the rain; Mr. and Mrs. Smith, as they're blowing up their house; who could forget the Single's Ward, in the kitchen) Gosh darn, they’re entertaining! (and I wanted to post more, but some get a little inappropriate, and I don't know how to cut youtube videos) 

So one of the classics, just to get the idea (from Cheers):

or if you're a disney channel fan: 

What is it about passion that brings people together?

A friend of mine is taking a psychology class online. He told me in this lecture, his professor said that if a married couple never fought, there was probably something really wrong. If neither party had enough belief or care in his or her own opinion to disagree, they will wander through life together, but ultimately wander apart. But marriages that fight, and then make up, are actually closer. They care enough about the situation/other person to get emotional, to become unrestrained, and to want to fight for it.

I think this is my theory: If someone doesn’t care, if they are completely apathetic, they won’t take the time/energy to argue with you. So it’s subconsciously comforting to us when we’re throwing around heated words, because WORDS are being thrown around. Not silence.

You might think, “I’ve definitely argued with people when I didn’t care about them” Like group projects, perhaps? Me too. For sure. But even there—both parties have a strong feeling about how things should run. You both care about the project, and because of that—you’re linked together.

In “La Misma Luna,” It seems the more angry and annoyed Enrique gets at this little kid following him around, the more attached the two become. In the end, Enrique sacrifices himself in a big way, so Carlitos can have even the chance to find his mother. What a sweet attachment. 

well, owl be!

"The owl was my spirit, my bond to the time and harmony of the universe... My work was to do good" (Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima. p, 260)

In this book, the character Ultima is a seemingly omniscient figure. An older woman who has all the answers, but is full of mystery herself.  Her soul is intricately connected to an owl, a symbol of wisdom and power. Another famous character symbolized by an owl is the Greek goddess Athena.

This character is repeated throughout history, so there must be something about this type of character that we are drawn to.

Athena is the goddess of wisdom. She is also associated with War, but she’s not the goddess of WAR, she is the goddess of JUST warfare. She is specifically a woman who only wages justified wars using intelligence. Athena is often depicted in ancient art with an owl nearby, or as an owl.

For the ancient Greeks, war and wisdom are interlinked. The two should not be separate. A leader in deciding the fate of other men should be incredibly wise, perhaps above all else. Both Athena and Ultima are these leaders.

These two women are linked by the way they use their power: Ultima wages a just war against a curse, against evil.  She defends Antonio’s family with sagacity, after they plead, just like Athena would use her powers for a good hero who called upon her for help.

These two characters are from wildly different cultures, across hundreds of years in time, and geographical locations, and yet repeated.  Something about the human spirit wants to connect to a character of perfect wisdom. We yearn for relatable, human characters on whom we can call rely for answers. There is a desperate desire, a hope, and maybe even a faith that our leaders be infinitely wiser than we. We make decisions based on our knowledge—which we know is limited and flawed—and maybe that scares us.

Both these women are powerful and strong, not because of their physical strength, but because of their wisdom. They use their knowledge to justly resolve conflict. What better characters to place our trust in to lead us at the forefront?