Transitions

One possible reason for reading “The Guest” right after Fromm is the way the story shows a different way to look at life, or starting from small to big when trying to tackle our personal outlooks when it comes to life. With the reading from Fromm, we worked more on the feeling of love, and started to take a closer look at the events that are happening around us. For me, Fromm got me to stop and really see what goes on around me. Over time, a lot of the details get lost on us, and we have to pause, and see things without the blinders that we normally look through. The reading from Fromm’s book The Art of Loving got me to pay attention to what is happening now, where “The Guest” seems more focused on morals, and the consequences of our choices. After reading the story, I started to wonder why the story was ended the way it was. Going from focusing on our views/morals, to looking into how we might use them in a situation where our responsibility and personal views are at odds with one another. Not only that, but we are reminded that reality tends to change our original view of life or plans. There are so many different elements that change and influence our decisions at different times. Love and the way we interpret it is very personal, a reflection of what we see now, and in an ideal world in a way. Ideal, as in focused on one person, without really having to factor in reality, or the hardships that we might have to face in the ‘real world’ or the future.

Another way of looking at it, is going from analyzing only one perspective, to having to take into account the outside factors that come into play. In The Guest, I feel that the way Daru feels, and what he would prefer to act with the prisoner is changed, because of his job. Watching as he tries to justify his actions and decisions, before letting the prisoner choose for himself. Showing us, that we have to think through our choices, because they all have consequences, we just have to choose the one that seems best for us. A really good way to remind us to think further down the line when it comes to any choices we make in life. The story seems to start at a point that is really similar to the ‘third act’ in Shakespeare’s plays. Because almost much all of the important decisions have already been made; nothing the character does during the story can change the ending (another way to put this, doomed from the beginning).

We transition from talking about our personal views through Fromm and developing them further, to acknowledging that there are different influences that come up when we make our decisions through Daru.

Practicing Love...

While I was thinking of what to write about for the last blog, this one came to mind, but I was not sure it really fits in with the prompt. Since it keeps coming up, and I wanted to get it out.

This past week, I have been hearing a lot about a special event called 311 Love Beyond Borders that took place in Hong Kong for the Japanese people. It was interesting to watch clips of the events, and the responses of the actors and actresses had as they were planning the event. One reason why this kept coming to mind is the theme music that was chosen. The music and video has been playing in my mind for a few days now. Over the break, I remember hearing one of the artists being interviewed about the song. The song itself was already written, and was selected to be translated into Japanese for the event, and checked to be sure that it makes sense. Because the people singing the song do not speak Japanese, they found teachers to ensure that the pronunciation is correct. They chose to have images of folded paper cranes in the event because of the Japanese belief of folding a thousand cranes would help a person’s wish come true. It is interesting to see how many details are in the plans for the event.

Multiple voices and people taking part in the event, reinforces the clo

sing comment on the video, that they are not alone. Having different people singing different parts of the song before coming together as a larger group for the chorus adds to the appeal. It brings to mind a song that I used to listen to as a child. The words can be roughly translated to ‘one stick of bamboo can be bent easily, but it is hard to bend several bamboo sticks at once. Having so many people working together behind and in front of the scene shows how important this is to the people in the production. Being able to recognize most of the people in the video shows me how many of these actors, actresses, and singers care for the people this quake effected. A lot of the people shown are people who are well known and famous, yet they get together to do what they can for the people in Japan. Knowing that they probably took time out from their schedule to work on the song and video makes me want to go out and do what I can to help.

I do not know if it is the video, music, or a combination of both that really catches my attention. Seeing so many people working together to do what they can to remind the people in Japan that they are not alone, leaves a really big impact on my mind. While I do not know exactly what the song is about (until I looked up the English lyrics), it still gave me a feeling that I am not alone in the world. This video reminds me not to make judgments about a person because of what they do, and to pay attention to the events that are happening around me now. Focusing more on the present than the past or future, because you never know what can happen in a split second. Not only that, but to concentrate on using what I have and what is available to accomplish tasks, instead of what wishing for something that I do not have. I really like how the event shows everyone that love truly has no boarders. While writing this, the quote about if you truly love someone/something let them/it go, and if it was meant t

o be, they will come back to you. Sometimes, we have to step away from what we have before we realize how lucky we are to have what is around us. From this, I am going to try to take notice of the people around me, and help who I can with what I have. I will give the concept of working with various people in a group setting another chance while keeping an open-mind, because a group of people working on one thing is better than one (depending on what it is….).

When it comes to love, I feel that it is different for me at different points in life. Drawing from some lyrics (with a rough translation) “What is love? You want to know, and I want to know the answer, and in the end we will go crazy thinking about the answer.” combining that idea with something I read recently, where someone states 'Romance is not an idea, but a state of mind,’ seems to describe the way I think about love.

The Horrors of High School

For this experience, I will be going back to my senior year of high school. That year, my friend and I kept up with all the clubs and activities because of how much fun we had the year before. Student government that changed so much, that it became overwhelming for a small group of us (four of us who ended up with everything). Planning events turned out to be more of a chore than anything else. It was as if there was an invisible checklist for the planning process. A of people (mainly the president and her friends[for this group I’m just going refer to them as *president*] ) come up with the script and plays the main roles in the assembly, while a smaller group (me and my friends) gets stuck running around for supplies, making posters, and filling in the details. What kind of details you ask? Getting supplies, running the sound system, checking dates with the moderators, and cleaning up. Don’t get me wrong here, I don’t mind cleaning up after the school events (ripping up the posters is a great stress reliever) but doing so with a small group of people, while others are sitting around doing nothing.... That is a different story.

(I know that this will turn out to be a rant, so feel free to skip this paragraph, maybe skim the next and really start reading the paragraph after that). For the annual Christmas school assembly someone (who only goes to the meeting once a month), came up with the idea to throw ‘snow’ off of the catwalk (up high, over the audience section) to make it seem like it is snowing in the theater… So, the week before, my friends and I went around the school emptying out the hole-punchers for snow while the *president* stays in the office, and ‘iron out the details’ on the script of the assembly. The morning of the assembly, no one in *president* was there to help set things up, instead they stayed in the office to work on the details some more. So, my friends and I ended up setting everything up with the help of the moderators. The actual assembly turned out pretty good for the most part. The people sitting near the front loved the snow, while the people in the back wondered why they did not have any snow…. Little technical difficulties that came up as the plans were put into motion. Other than that, everything else went smoothly. Once the theater emptied out, my friends and I cleaned up what we set up that morning and went to lunch (we had lunch time right after the assembly and class afterwards). We were done…. right?

About ten minutes into our lunch, the student body president marches up to our table, demanding to know what my friends and I were doing, eating lunch instead of cleaning up the theater. The clean up details for this event got left out of the planning stage (AGAIN!!), so she has to walk around and get people back to help clean up the mess in the theater. We thought we already did, turns out she meant cleaning up all the snow from the seats, because another school was coming in at the end of the day to use our theater… Most of us assumed that the rest of clean up will take place after school, when we would have more time clean. Nope, we had to go clean up right this moment. So my friends and I left our lunch with some other friends and went to work. Half way through the lunch period, the president had to stop because she was getting sick from the dust. So she and her friends go to the office to ‘clean up’. That left the five of us (me, three friends and the moderator) to clean up the mess while sneezing our heads off (turns out 3 people are like me, we sneeze a lot when it gets dusty). We were not really done when we decided to stop cleaning. Our teacher (my friends and I have the same class after lunch) was waiting for us, before he wanted to start teaching because of how important the lesson was. The moderator decided to give all of us a break, and stop there. When we get to the office to pick up our stuff, turns out when we were cleaning, the *president* were busy having a party in the office, and made a bigger mess out of the stuff than was there originally.

During all of that, I know for sure I was not really open-minded, because I was so angry at some of the people. Now, looking back (thank you for letting me get that out of my system), I learned a lot from that experience, and from later events that stem from this original one. It has helped me develop being open-minded more. Not only reminding me that open-mindedness includes listening to other people’s views and opinion, but their interpretation on different events/directions. Now, when I ask other people to do things, I try to make sure to show them how much I appreciate it. Or, if it is something that needs a group of people, I try to stay and do the work with them. That year alone taught me how humble people in student government (or any one with some power) can be. No matter how hard one tries to plan things, the plans fall part, and how hard it is to please everyone in a group of people. While this experience is not one of my favorite moments in life so far, I feel that I have learned a lot from it. I have learned how I do not want to treat people, reminded how easily responsibilities can be forgotten, and how humility can help pull people together sometimes.

It is now a little easier for me to remember that the world does not revolve around me. Even before the clean up event, I do not think I was really self-centered but now, I feel that I am more aware of the people around me. To try to put the needs of the people around me before focusing too much on what I want/need. From this experience, I realized how important it is to consider how the people around me will see/think about my actions before actually acting.

The Subject Song

Having to pick through multiple songs to finally choose one song to represent a part of life is a lot harder than I first thought. One of my first obstacles I faced was to find the name of the (English) songs I liked listening to. Most of the songs I listen to are through the radio, so for most of time, I don’t know the singer or the name of the song (I only recognize the song itself). The second hurdle, was finalizing on ONE song to write on. With so many songs to choose from in the beginning, I wished to cut and paste certain parts of different songs into one to represent different parts of my life (that probably has something to do with listening to DJ Shadows recently). For this writing activity, quite a few different songs that came to mind at first, but since quite a few of them are sung in a different language, I was reluctant to use them. Music and song seem ‘relative’ to me; relative to the moment I choose it (kind of like cooking for me, when making one recipe, different amounts of different ingredients is used to match my expectation of the taste I am looking for at the time.) While I feel that they represent certain parts of my life. I finally decided on one of my favorite songs on the radio to describe my mode of life at this moment.

Wonderful World by Sam Cooke is one of my favorite ‘happy songs’. Hearing this song on the radio always brings a smile to my face. The song as a whole is really uplifting. Even listening to it now as I am writing, it is hard to describe exactly what it is that makes me smile. It is probably a combination of the music and the lyrics working together that makes this song so enjoyable. The beats seem to be at the correct tempo to make the song happy, but not fast enough to overcome the lyrics of the song. Somehow, just listening to the song seems to make everything feel better for me.

I remember hearing this song on the radio when I was younger. The lyrics of this song really caught my attention. Perhaps it can be the list of different school subjects that really made me pay more attention to this song than others. Having the different subjects in the song made it more relatable as a student (which lead to me unofficial name of the song to be ‘the subject song’). That and the fact that the lyrics admit that ‘I don’t claim to be an A student, but I’m tryin’ to be…’ got me to feel a little better about school as a whole. For the longest time, school was just something I had to go through because that is what is expected of me. So each school year, I would drag my way through all the subjects and do enough to just pass the class. After getting to meet some good teachers, knowing the reason behind school, and learning things that I had more interest in, got me liking my classes a lot more.

The focus of life for an individual is a reflection of different people’s (likes someone who they look up to) ideas of what is important in life. As a student, we have to get into certain classes and be able to pass with a certain grade. This song reminds me that grades are not the most important thing in life. Loving people, and having people love you back is really important too. Subjects are stressed too much sometimes in life. In high school, I took Spanish for my foreign language requirement (I was not really good at it, but did enough to pass the class with a descent grade). Now that I am in college, I can still remember some of the words and phrases I was taught, but most of it has been forgotten. As a student, a lot of the subjects and tool that are mentioned are important things to know (well, not a slide rule any more…), but as long as one has tried their best; and that should be the most important thing.

Being on the receiving end of love makes the world wonderful is true. This song seemed perfect for me right now. Midterms and tests are being given almost left and right recently (the subjects), and while I cannot say how well I did in them right now, I know that I tried my best. Just as the lyrics from above match up with my mood right now. The stress of tests, quizzes, and homework seems to lessen by the end of the day, and dramatically decrease when talking to loved ones. Wonderful World reminds me that knowing everything in life is not the most important (although being knowledgeable helps in life). The title of ‘most important thing’ saved for loved ones.

Part of me knows that this is a rather simple and naive way of looking at things, but it counters the other ways I live my life. After saying all of that, it is just one of the ways I try to live life. Just like how difficult it is to pick one song to describe the mode of life, it is hard to live life through one mode. While some modes are more unique than others, it is the different ways we combine them that makes us the unique people we are.

The Time of Change-Midnight

Music is a good way to get people’s attention. If it is catchy enough, it is able to get people’s attention to other things that we might not really notice if otherwise. To tell the truth, at first I did not really like the first few songs on the disk. It was not until the end of the disk, that I found myself liking different parts of the song, and later really got to enjoy the way the different pieces came together for the later songs.

It is hard to decide between the last three songs, but I think I will go with ‘Midnight in a Perfect World.’ For quite a few songs, I liked the beginning section of the song as a whole. The beginning of this song gave off a nice and calm feeling. Beats in this song seem to really catch my attention a lot more than the others. Subtle changes in the beats keep things interesting, enough to keep one’s attention but not so much that would alter the mood of the song. When the voices come in, it adds a earthily feel, and adds to the feeling of being in a ‘perfect’ environment (or at least a semi-heaven like one). One thing I really liked about this is the ending. The way midnight is the last spoken word, and followed by the sound of a clock ticking, reminds listeners that time plays a part in the song as a whole.

This disk as a whole was quite a surprise because at first I did not expect to really like any of the songs. So, it was a nice surprise to find some of the later songs on the disk.

The Path & Cave

It takes a long time for Phil to make the full transaction. The most obvious observation of this path, is how long, and time consuming it can be. Even when Phil knows what will happen on that one day it still takes him quite a few tries before he really gets it right (and only after he starts paying attention of other people around him). I feel that his path to enlightenment is a lot shorter in the movie, than it would be in reality. Part of what speeds up the process is the knowledge he has of the day. Whereas for most people, we have to get things right the first time since there is no chance for people to try again. The path of enlightenment is really similar to Plato’s cave and a lot can be used when looking at the two analogies.

Taking a step back, the path of enlightenment is filled with little dead ends, or smaller caves that trap people until they realize they are going in the wrong direction, and head by over to the correct path. When Phil first finds out that he is living the same day over and over again; at first he is in denial, that the day is happening again. That seems to be the point where he starts to realize that he is stuck in a cave. After thinking that he knows, he starts acting reckless before realizing that it is not what he really wants to do, then starts to work on his relationships with women. When he tries a few different approaches (with varying results) he seems to realize that it is not what he really wants, and changes his actions the next day. The reckless actions and his attempts to work on relationships are the side caves and dead ends people encounter when working to the path of enlightenment.

By the end of the movie, when he works on improving himself, and taking note of the needs of others on that day, he reaches the end of the path. Working to improve himself as a person is like reaching the mouth of the cave, and observing the world in a new perspective. Using the knowledge he has on the happenings of the day, Phil goes around town to help people, and that is the final and ultimate step when on the path of enlightenment.

Groundhog's Day

As a whole, I really like watching Phil's character develop through out the movie. He goes from a shallow character who is focused on himself, to someone who actually looks around, and cares for other people. My favorite scene in the movie, is towards the end; when he starts to help the people in the city. Since he knows so much, it was nice of him to go through and help who he can. I really liked that scene, because it is what sets every thing up for the end of the play. While it does not really say what he did to get the day to stop repeating, and the auction was a funny switch from the beginning.