tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725587578508195552024-03-13T06:24:23.558-07:00bhakti yoga caveCommunity with those who sense that bhakti yoga is: Strong Spirit, Calm Mind, Love, and the release of what no longer serves you. Landscape photo is from a special town on the coast of Sicily.Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-8053501183365582992019-11-13T13:45:00.000-08:002019-11-13T18:10:13.506-08:00C'est tout...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
...ce que je voulais dire.<br />
C'est que...<br />
j'adore écrire...<br />
j'aime traduire,<br />
et peut-être qu'il faut que le fasse un peu plus,<br />
et pour quelque chose de vrai.<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aMkA3wn30Tk/Xcx41MmVR2I/AAAAAAAAB7I/Cme4XG7QFJ8PS2ay_joFX0ThIwQhFz0eACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/academic%2Bediting%2Band%2Btranslation%2Bout%2Bof%2Bfrench.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aMkA3wn30Tk/Xcx41MmVR2I/AAAAAAAAB7I/Cme4XG7QFJ8PS2ay_joFX0ThIwQhFz0eACK4BGAYYCw/s320/academic%2Bediting%2Band%2Btranslation%2Bout%2Bof%2Bfrench.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-55808341450759507412019-09-18T19:20:00.004-07:002019-12-21T12:42:20.250-08:00Where did all the good hippies go? Raising consciousness.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">"I want more. </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">This isn't it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">This isn't it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">Fame is not the goal. </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">Money [is not the goal.] </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">It's not the answer." </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #ffe599; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><i>Where did all the really good hippies go when they all dropped out?</i></span></span></div>
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Lately, I have been thinking a lot about stilling the mind and how to do that. Who doesn't want to stop the wheels from going round and round from time to time? This concept is the first of the sutras that <a href="https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/who-was-patanjali" target="_blank">Pantanjali</a> writes:<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jXqwD-IGSQA/XYLnJXJ69yI/AAAAAAAAB6Y/SvHpCiPicKk8PYKE386TUoMwB0LC5qG4gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/mantra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="112" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jXqwD-IGSQA/XYLnJXJ69yI/AAAAAAAAB6Y/SvHpCiPicKk8PYKE386TUoMwB0LC5qG4gCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/mantra.jpg" width="200" /></a>The answer is tried and true, especially when you hear an authority on this type of thing: Stilling the mind can happen thanks to <i>mantra</i>. The notion of mantra that I have, from various simple sources, is this: it gives the mind words to resonate in the mouth... ear.... heart.... and mind. And though it can feel like one is doing nothing at times... that is kind of the point too. There is silence and sound in the mantra.<br />
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<span style="color: #76a5af;">"Transcendental is beyond the senses, beyond the intellect,"</span> as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_2bcbLtMKc" target="_blank">George Harrison says</a>. <span style="color: #76a5af;">"Everybody is so limited and so really useless when you think of it about the limitations on yourself and the whole thing is to change, try to make everything better and better; that's what the physical world is about is change, but the change that happens through meditation is a gradual sort of thing but the more you realize with anything, with just growing old, the more you realize: it helps you in some way. With meditation you are able to understand that there is this unity lying beneath everything; there's something there within every atom that holds it all together and the actual fact that it really is one, but on the intellectual level to say, "We are one," then I mean, again, you missed the point. It's an experience. You have to really have that perception that it is one."</span><br />
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If one adds a devotional aspect to one's mantra, for example with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqk_blhpHRI" target="_blank">maha mantra</a>, then the heart can be more engaged in the practice of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqk_blhpHRI" target="_blank">japa</a>.<br />
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And, following Rumi, if one thinks of the moment </div>
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as the now, or consciousness, </div>
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or the awareness of reality that the seer within sees and hears... </div>
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and goodness, kindness, creation, love, and greater wisdom to its source,</div>
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then there can be sweet nectar.</div>
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I like what George Harrison says:<br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #76a5af;">"How to get peace of mind and how to be happy? That's really what we are supposed to be here and the difficult thing is we all go through our lives and our days and we don't experience <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80nanda_(Hindu_philosophy)" target="_blank">bliss</a>. It's a very subtle thing to experience that, to be able to know how to do that is something you don't just stumble across. You gotta search for it."</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UAfsXj-M9FI/XYLoeZ0FU9I/AAAAAAAAB6k/wn6LcDE3Fj8-M7Nzo9Q6dAy1U9mb6wbrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/door%2Bopened.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1425" data-original-width="1338" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UAfsXj-M9FI/XYLoeZ0FU9I/AAAAAAAAB6k/wn6LcDE3Fj8-M7Nzo9Q6dAy1U9mb6wbrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/door%2Bopened.png" width="187" /></a></div>
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VHI interviewer: "Did you experience bliss on stage or in the studio? In a way did performing put you in touch with that bliss?"<br />
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<span style="color: #76a5af;">"We had happiness at times but not the kind of bliss that I mean where, like, every atom of your body is just buzzing, you know, because again, it's <i>beyond the mind</i>. It's when there's no thought involved. It's a pretty tricky thing to try to get to that stage because it means controlling the mind and being able to transcend the relative states of consciousness: waking, sleeping, dreaming, which is all we really know. But there is another state that goes beyond all that and that state is where the bliss and the knowledge are available."</span><br />
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Also teaching people to be healthy, rather than focusing on disease. Teaching consciousness.<br />
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There is a generation of kids now open to consciousness and vegetarianism. So, can we be positive about today's society? <span style="color: #76a5af;">"It is getting better *and* worse because that's the nature of relativity: good and bad, good and bad, but if the individual gets on that consciousness, you can retain the balance between the good and the bad. Because really, good and bad are the same thing."</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oSOfnah64V4/XYLly0gu1_I/AAAAAAAAB6M/TfqWyhkRK1M5-V9l298rD94okzlYbKZtQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/citta%2Bvritti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="251" data-original-width="201" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oSOfnah64V4/XYLly0gu1_I/AAAAAAAAB6M/TfqWyhkRK1M5-V9l298rD94okzlYbKZtQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/citta%2Bvritti.jpg" /></a>Personally speaking, I don't get how good and bad are part of the same thing; how can they be the sap from the same tree? [Especially] when one is acknowledging real evil in the world--Lord, protect the innocence of children--how can awful cruelty and selfishness be any bit related to the good we have in mind through devotional practice--how is such darkness the same as the goodness we have seen in the world?<br />
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***</div>
Harrison: <span style="color: #76a5af;">"Put your own house in order. Until I'm straight, then I'm in no position to criticize others."</span><br />
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Like Harrison's teacher said: <i><span style="color: #6aa84f;">For a forest to be green, every tree has to be green.</span></i><br />
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Let us be green, then, and silent.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LtnYH6haVD0/XYLdFBSft3I/AAAAAAAAB5Y/EPU1bg1qKRM4IyYEGrfCkH5Ypt2jkCsDQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Antarctic%2Bbeech.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="650" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LtnYH6haVD0/XYLdFBSft3I/AAAAAAAAB5Y/EPU1bg1qKRM4IyYEGrfCkH5Ypt2jkCsDQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Antarctic%2Bbeech.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Antarctic Beech, Northwestern US </td></tr>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-16513844079803472712019-08-18T12:35:00.000-07:002019-12-21T12:43:13.135-08:00Reading Geeta Iyengar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="color: #f4cccc; font-size: x-large;">Aimer savoir est humain. </i></div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-size: medium;"><i>Savoir aimer est divin</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-size: medium;">~Joseph Roux</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-size: large;">To love to know is human. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-size: large;">To know how to love is divine.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;">"To be on the proper disciplined path is important </span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;">because it is through that process that compassion can bring softness.” </span></div>
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~Geeta Iyengar, in an interview with<span style="color: #fff2cc;"> <i><a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jun-08-cl-8045-story.html" target="_blank">Los Angeles times</a></i></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PBMvzH2Uzy8/XVmk76ecv9I/AAAAAAAAB5A/lel43Aie4OgjcTaI2D_5HwneK78LQ-m2QCLcBGAs/s1600/Patanjali_Statue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="800" height="216" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PBMvzH2Uzy8/XVmk76ecv9I/AAAAAAAAB5A/lel43Aie4OgjcTaI2D_5HwneK78LQ-m2QCLcBGAs/s320/Patanjali_Statue.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patanjali, modern art rendering in Patanjali Yogpeeth</td></tr>
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I am delighted to read <i style="text-align: center;">Yoga: A Gem for Woman</i><span style="text-align: center;">, </span><span style="text-align: center;">by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geeta_Iyengar" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Geeta S. Iyengar</a>. Amongst several passages I would like to keep in mind, I was</span> very grateful for this section of the following book, which is quite clear about a key concept of devoting oneself to one's bhakti yoga practice.<br />
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<i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Women-Geeta-S-Iyengar/dp/8170237157/ref=asc_df_8170237157/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312069250960&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11449858378692815102&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004989&hvtargid=pla-355969204941&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=61316180599&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312069250960&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11449858378692815102&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004989&hvtargid=pla-355969204941" target="_blank">Yoga: A Gem for Woman</a></i>, </div>
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by Geeta S. Iyengar</div>
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"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C4%81dhan%C4%81" target="_blank">Sadhana</a> has three stages, namely Sravana (listening), Manana (thinking), and Nididhyasana (putting into practice and experiencing). <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patanjali" target="_blank">Patanjali</a> explains these three aspects using a different terminology, namely Japa (repetition), Artha (understanding), and Bhavana (realisation).<br />
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In Yoga-sadhana all the three processes have to be followed for one's practice to bear fruit. For example, asana has to be repeated again and again, day after day, year after year; this is Sravana or Japa. It is Karma Marga.<br />
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This repetition leads one to the mental process of thinking, where one penetrates deeper and deeper from Annamaya Kosa to Anandamaya Kosa. This is called Manana, which gives meaning and understanding of the action which is being performed by the sadhaka. This is Jnana Marga in sadhana.<br />
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This repeated (Japa) and well-thought-over (artha) action gives a new experience to the sadhaka. It is a form of worship in which one offers every asana as a flower to God. The sadhaka becomes one with the action and remains absorbed in it (Bhavana). This enlightened state of Self-realisation is Bhakti Marga. Then Karma, Jnana, and Bhakti all merge into One. This is Nididhyasana.<br />
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This type of sadhana alone brings completion to the practice."<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TotyX8Utycg/XVmm8FfvcaI/AAAAAAAAB5M/W2wvah9Dsfwy3oxUrcWPaAhC258FbH0HgCLcBGAs/s1600/Geeta%2Biyengar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TotyX8Utycg/XVmm8FfvcaI/AAAAAAAAB5M/W2wvah9Dsfwy3oxUrcWPaAhC258FbH0HgCLcBGAs/s640/Geeta%2Biyengar.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Thank you, Geeta Iyengar, for living as a wonderful yogi, writer, and teacher!<br />
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And though I may be "young" to some, I can really appreciate and relate to what Iyengar is saying when she says the following (in the same interview with <i>LA Times</i> as linked above):<br />
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[She] finds that her daily yoga practice has become a gift for old age. “Yoga is an inner journey that helps to keep oneself healthy, not just on a physical level, but it gives inner mental peace and maturity.” While she sees yoga as a valuable tool to for coping with daily living, she rejects popular trends to use it as a quick fix-solution for various ailments and aches. Instead, she says, “I feel there are so many things to learn from yoga that can help old age become pleasant.” She’s quick to add that she is “not talking in terms of Western ideas about beauty that demands one to remain and look young, even in old age.” Rather, she is prepared “to accept a mature mind that has experienced many things, and from that yogic experience I can find a better way.”<br />
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And so, wishing the world peace as we all age here together, frightened by silly world politics and policies and senseless shootings. Here's to getting old! Some people don't get that chance. Let us embrace all the time we have to inch our way towards Krishna consciousness, <i>Krishna-bhakti-rasa-bhavita</i>, or whatever guiding light and truth we may have discovered.<br />
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<i><span style="color: #fce5cd; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Om shanti Om</b></span></i></div>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-47320616030806771512019-06-02T18:19:00.000-07:002019-06-12T06:55:00.253-07:00A Beatle and his song, "Here Comes the Sun"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I recently learned something really quite lovely about a popular Beatles song, thanks to Vrindavan Diaries, a beautiful entity to follow on instagram as they post nuggets of wisdom regarding Krishna consciousness, mostly stemming from the teachings of <a href="https://prabhupadabooks.com/" target="_blank">Srila Prabhupada</a>. Many of us have heard the Beatles' song, "Here Comes the Sun" (from the <i>Abbey Road </i>album, 1969), but I was literally - well, quite almost - electrified in learning that <a href="https://krishnatube.com/video/841/gerorge-harrison-son-of-hari-new-interview-/" target="_blank">George Harrison</a> wrote it about Krishna coming into his life - but, as he wrote to Srila Prabhupada, he felt the need to disguise the inspiration of his Isvara somewhat. One might ask: Disguise or universalize? At any rate, he sent it to Prabhupada, asking the spiritual master and saint from whom he had learned so much about humility and wisdom, his thoughts. Prabhupada was delighted. I myself feel delighted to have a new song to think about God in such a global and fitting way. And what a fitting time of year.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-395Cz93z-Ec/XPR4XzhjKeI/AAAAAAAAB3Y/ARAh-Kyw0XsI_uAJaAFJfUxqMmqv_5tGQCLcBGAs/s1600/George%2BHarrison%2Bson-of-hari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="352" data-original-width="535" height="130" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-395Cz93z-Ec/XPR4XzhjKeI/AAAAAAAAB3Y/ARAh-Kyw0XsI_uAJaAFJfUxqMmqv_5tGQCLcBGAs/s200/George%2BHarrison%2Bson-of-hari.jpg" width="200" /></a>Speaking on Prabhupada, George Harrison said: "Even though he was at the time seventy-nine years old, working practically all through the night, day after day, with very little sleep, he still didn't come through to me as though he was a very highly educated intellectual being, because he had a sort of childlike simplicity. Which is great, fantastic. Even though he was the greatest Sanskrit scholar and a saint, I appreciated the fact that he never made me feel uncomfortable. In fact, he always went out of his way to make me feel comfortable. I always thought of him as sort of a lovely friend, really, and now he's still a lovely friend."<br />
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"That was the thing about Prabhupada, you see. He didn't just talk about loving Krishna and getting out of this place, but he was the perfect example. He talked about always chanting, and he was always chanting. I think that in itself was perhaps the most encouraging thing for me. It was enough to make me try harder, to be just a little bit better."<br />
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Srila Prabhupada to George Harrison: "You are George Harrison, in a famous band, you are famous throughout all the world, but how long will you be George Harrison? So, as long as you are George Harrison, you should talk about Krishna consciousness."</div>
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I also love the story of the <i>lila</i> -- the big bright-eyed kiss on the cheek -- unfolding before all the serious <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/sannyasi" target="_blank">sannyasis</a>' eyes as George Harrison greeted <a href="https://iskconnews.org/iskcon-pioneer-and-award-winning-author-yamuna-devi-passes-away,3033/" target="_blank">Yamuna Devi</a>.<br />
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And last, but certainly not least, here is a supremely lovely, less disguised song of George Harrison, chanting the names of God. What a beautiful voice for the topic.</div>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-70452601521390845802019-05-16T13:05:00.001-07:002019-07-05T12:35:51.912-07:00Wishing you cuteness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-3411938575350450122019-05-04T16:28:00.002-07:002019-05-05T06:14:12.929-07:00Reincarnation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Part One</div>
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Part Two</div>
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Another Story</div>
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When people in the East hear young children speaking of past lives, this is not usual. In other societies where reincarnation is an expectation, it is quite different--and this certainly changes the case. The story at the end of Mary is particularly touching.</div>
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The story of the Dalai Lama and Elijah/Tenzin is interesting. Again, the story of Mary/Jenny is terrifying/touching:</div>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-83283064824190107872019-04-30T10:26:00.002-07:002019-05-01T06:38:09.221-07:00Feelin' Foxy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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How beautiful are foxes!</div>
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I wonder if THIS is my spirit animal?!<br />
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The fox is a lovely animal to hold in one's mind, due to its <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/59739/14-fascinating-facts-about-foxes" target="_blank">fascinating qualities</a>.<br />
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-53339506115231546752019-04-20T15:07:00.000-07:002019-12-21T18:50:21.028-08:00Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I walked out of the<i> <a href="https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/frida_kahlo" target="_blank">Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving</a></i> exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum today thinking Frida Kahlo was beyond what I could conceive of as an amazing woman. I was not the only one who was blown away. Everyone seemed immersed in the life that the artifacts, photographs, and clothing seemed to resurrect before us. Everyone seemed moved and enthralled at this very personal exhibit of Frida Kahlo. People in the crowds were visibly focused on perceiving her life and expression, a task rendered easier thanks to the multimedia exhibit. There were posts reminding the viewer throughout the exhibit that Frida fashioned herself in many ways: for example, through the colors and woven fabrics inspired by the indigenous people of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, who were greatly revered by artists like Diego and Frida, as well as the deep responsibility the artist felt towards the spirit of revolution in her country. This was due to a fierce passion for what Communism represented, at the time, and to Mexico especially.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-65IgPKrb8Ik/XLuIRMWktKI/AAAAAAAAByU/a13INOsjJFoLR3bnBQ-L3ureS1CxZpkaQCEwYBhgL/s1600/frida%2Bstatue%2Bof%2Bliberty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-65IgPKrb8Ik/XLuIRMWktKI/AAAAAAAAByU/a13INOsjJFoLR3bnBQ-L3ureS1CxZpkaQCEwYBhgL/s320/frida%2Bstatue%2Bof%2Bliberty.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<b><i><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are a bourbon biscuit. </span></i></b></div>
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Being in Brooklyn close to the Statue de la Liberté (as the French who gifted it to the US would say), I found it poignant to see her drawing of the statue, where, in place of the torch are an atomic bomb and money bag, labeled as such in Spanish by Frida’s hand. Nearby, a list of names like Hitler and the Pope, people who she alluded to with the rising fascist use of power by the US following WWII. Education and views on politics united her and Diego and even introduced them.<br />
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<span style="color: #e06666;"><i><b>The most important part of the body is the brain. </b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #e06666;"><i><b>Of my face, I like the eyebrows and eyes. </b></i></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uNB04KoxjbU/XLuKLnVW0DI/AAAAAAAAByo/qDXRtYZX7-oO2UwAhKcLrT3aON7_0RBzgCEwYBhgL/s1600/feature-frida.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="751" data-original-width="1550" height="155" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uNB04KoxjbU/XLuKLnVW0DI/AAAAAAAAByo/qDXRtYZX7-oO2UwAhKcLrT3aON7_0RBzgCEwYBhgL/s320/feature-frida.jpg" width="320" /></a>The exhibit also highlighted how she constructed her identity along the gender blur, something quite significant in her time, via the ever-present cigarette (as a liberated woman), her facial hair and face that she said are those of a man, and clothes at times. Her strength, which I heard female spectators around me commenting on, was everywhere demonstrated: in her writing, her education, her painting, her passion, her colors, and her disability. One section of the exhibit was called “Disability and Creativity” and you could see how her boots were altered to accommodate her slightly shorter leg: fashionable, practical, colorful and survivalist. The last room was called “Art and Dress,” featuring her amazing ensembles that she bought from indigenous Mexican vendors. (She never bartered, one vendor said.) For an amazing virtual peek at this exhibit visit this special <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/6gICPDLcNAzkJA" target="_blank">site on Frida Khalo's work</a>.<br />
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<i style="color: #76a5af;"><b>Pain, pleasure and death are no more than a process for existence. </b></i></div>
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<i style="color: #76a5af;"><b>The revolutionary struggle in this process is a doorway open to intelligence. </b></i></div>
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Photo by Nickolas Muray</td></tr>
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Born Magdalena Frida Carmen Kahlo y Calderón in the "Casa Azul" just south of Mexico City, Frida (1907-1954) chose to use the name given to her by her German immigrant father, though she identifies through clothing and in other ways with her mother’s indigenous people (her mother was half-Spanish and half-indigenous Mexican). There were some outstanding qualities to these clothes, one of which was the fact that they hid Frida’s leg that had deteriorated from the polio she contracted as a child, as well as the medical corsets she would wear to help support her deteriorating spine. The femininity seems to exude from her conscious and considered self-fashioning, and she was highly aware when she came to <i>Gringolandia</i>, as she nicknamed the US, that the gringos were dropping their jaws at her Tehuana dress and wanting to paint her. </div>
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The first city she came to in the US was San Francisco and she found its Chinatown particularly vibrant. She also loved New York city, especially Harlem. Detroit not so much, but the exhibit mentions that following her time in Detroit, where her husband was painting the industrial panels (there is a beautiful video of her sketching to herself and then by him as he paints the mural), her artistic expression grew remarkably. Later in the exhibit, we see a beautiful drawing of a woman whose fetus is there outside her body…. It represents her miscarriage as tears visibly go all down one of her legs at the same time that a third arm comes out of the tear-stricken Frida--and it is holding a painter’s palette. A mention is made that she suffered a complicated miscarriage in Detroit, and this reinforces the notion of her delving deeper into self-expression through art to help with her suffering---especially when you take a good look at the drawing below. Because her body had been pierced in the bus accident when she was age 19 (and one of the very few girls in the school; she was studying to be a doctor) from one side to the other, which left much shattered. Forever crippled in this way, she suffered through miscarriages—and expressed her grief in a rare way (rather than letting silence engulf it all).</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #a2c4c9;">I paint flowers so they will not die. </span></i></b></div>
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She was held in traction in bed often, her head in straps, the doctors thinking taking the weight of the head off the spine may help with her pain. She painted from her bed where she had to pass much of her time. She endured more than thirty surgeries and many treatments that did not work. There is no painting of the accident that nearly killed her and left her disabled, but there is a drawing, a photo of which was at the exhibit. <br />
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<b style="color: #d5a6bd;"><i>My painting carries with it the message of pain. </i></b></div>
<br />
In a stroke of beautiful symbolism, a man was traveling alongside Frida on the nearly fatal bus ride carrying gold leaf foil to bring to a cathedral, if I recall, and when the accident occurred <span style="color: #bf9000;">gold</span> flakes went all over Frida.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0lmdJV3pibY/XLuBbi7cgiI/AAAAAAAABxs/cwMKWTgP5owSZd0ORt5ADrUAvGzw3VAwwCEwYBhgL/s1600/fridaprostheticwithboot-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="712" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0lmdJV3pibY/XLuBbi7cgiI/AAAAAAAABxs/cwMKWTgP5owSZd0ORt5ADrUAvGzw3VAwwCEwYBhgL/s400/fridaprostheticwithboot-1.jpg" width="277" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frida's prosthetic leg,<br />
following her amputation<br />
later in her life (mid-1950s)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><i><b>I love you more than my own skin. </b></i></span></div>
<br />
No matter that he was a womanizer and known as such; I cannot believe that Diego her husband had an affair with her sister, Cristina. They divorced over that but remarried a year later. She seemed so very in love and affectionate with him. She said in her last years that she had the ignorance to think he needed her, as he had told her so and she believed him, but she says that she is suffering so. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Nothing is absolute. <br />Everything changes, <br />everything moves, </span></b></i></div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">everything revolves, <br />everything flies and goes away. </span></b></i></div>
<br />
Of the shawls, amazing green necklaces and colorful skirts and shirts, I am particularly struck by the medical corsets for her body. They were casts, and apparently for one body cast she was hung by her head alone for a couple hours and then stood on tiptoes for over an hour to make it. I try to imagine this but cannot. On one she has painted the Communist hammer and sickle across the chest and a beautiful fetus in the stomach area. In the next corset however, there is the symbolic hammer and sickle but there is a four to five-inch hole cut in the belly area, perhaps practical in nature, and perhaps also signifying the loss of her child(ren). </div>
<div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zy8eUr6QHg8/XLuHceyqCeI/AAAAAAAAByA/g6-WU5DdshEQkqGEBfZXqnYo0nu3BNWMwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Brooklyn-Museum-Frida-Kahlo-Exhibition-NYC-Untapped-Cities21-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zy8eUr6QHg8/XLuHceyqCeI/AAAAAAAAByA/g6-WU5DdshEQkqGEBfZXqnYo0nu3BNWMwCEwYBhgL/s400/Brooklyn-Museum-Frida-Kahlo-Exhibition-NYC-Untapped-Cities21-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ETh_wspUSfA/XLxfRCFdN8I/AAAAAAAAB0I/XaBXUe1NRDslWukJ8svC6aw8TtQdtLLwQCLcBGAs/s1600/Frida%2BKahlo%2Bpainting%2Bcorset.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="518" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ETh_wspUSfA/XLxfRCFdN8I/AAAAAAAAB0I/XaBXUe1NRDslWukJ8svC6aw8TtQdtLLwQCLcBGAs/s400/Frida%2BKahlo%2Bpainting%2Bcorset.png" width="381" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frida painting her medical corset</td></tr>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aDweeDnx9IE/XLuBaZg5ZAI/AAAAAAAABxg/cv5gZlwTK1EaSsCkqKIm2s9YCN3Ks7DtACEwYBhgL/s1600/Frida%2BKahlo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="629" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aDweeDnx9IE/XLuBaZg5ZAI/AAAAAAAABxg/cv5gZlwTK1EaSsCkqKIm2s9YCN3Ks7DtACEwYBhgL/s400/Frida%2BKahlo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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These were two of the corsets she wore, and thus the utter feel, intimacy, and significance of this exhibit are at a maximum. In fact, her husband Diego would order that her belongings be locked up in her Blue House for decades beyond her death. According to <a href="http://www.alejandradeargos.com/index.php/es/completas/8-arte/41589-frida-kahlo-apariencias" target="_blank">this article</a>, there were 22.105 documentos, 5.387 fotografías, 168 trajes, 11 corsés, 212 dibujos de Diego, 102 de Frida, 3.874 revistas y publicaciones, y 2.170 libros in the room.</div>
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<div>
<br />
<br />
This is the first time the exhibit has been shown in the US (it was unearthed in 2004), and it is a sold-out exhibit. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><b><span style="color: magenta;">They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. </span></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><b><span style="color: magenta;">I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality. </span></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="color: #741b47;"><b><br /></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Staring at photographs and videos of her face, I am willingly taken by her, marveling at how beautiful and serious and thoughtful she was. Seeing the videos of the Tehuana girls wearing the <i>resplandor</i> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/fashion/frida-kahlo-museum-london.html" target="_blank">headdresses</a>, I was taken by the special aspect of making the young women’s faces like flowers. I enjoyed seeing the couple that Diego and she were as they worked quietly side by side at the industrial panel and their affection in other media clips.<br />
<br />
Here is a modern clip on Tehuana women and their dress--made for a tourism outlet (not in the exhibit) and thus not nearly as interesting as the black-and-white video from the exhibit, but still an interesting glimpse of the <i>resplandor</i>:<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-70phRvsuQlU/XLvTZncVeYI/AAAAAAAABz0/MiZ-28VMb00lT5JK0lQ1Q5ZjZczu6Ed9gCLcBGAs/s1600/Frida%2BSelf-Portrait%2Bas%2Ba%2BTehuana.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="488" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-70phRvsuQlU/XLvTZncVeYI/AAAAAAAABz0/MiZ-28VMb00lT5JK0lQ1Q5ZjZczu6Ed9gCLcBGAs/s320/Frida%2BSelf-Portrait%2Bas%2Ba%2BTehuana.png" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Self-Portrait as a Tehuana" (1943)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As for her <a href="https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/uncovering-clues-in-frida-kahlos-private-wardrobe/" target="_blank">clothing</a>, I couldn’t help but visualize her alive and beautiful in them, having her being in her world in such uniqueness through dress, while also being extremely practical for her disabled and uncomfortable physical condition. This exhibit revealed the Frida we know of as a Frida to know even further. She seemed to come alive through her personal objects, family photos, and journal writing. She was bored in bed, disabled, and learned to paint, her parents finding her a special easel so she could paint from bed following her accident. She would say Diego got along okay as a boy painting but that she was the big artist. Her life is inexhaustible.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7X-13KgLH50/XLvQ4658LMI/AAAAAAAABzo/1Y1l2nkcmWIpRDpvqsxQGDdDe42okh6zgCLcBGAs/s1600/Frida%2B1938.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="707" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7X-13KgLH50/XLvQ4658LMI/AAAAAAAABzo/1Y1l2nkcmWIpRDpvqsxQGDdDe42okh6zgCLcBGAs/s320/Frida%2B1938.jpeg" width="220" /></a></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="color: #ead1dc;"><i>You deserve the best, the very best, </i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="color: #ead1dc;"><i>because you are one of the few people in this lousy world </i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="color: #ead1dc;"><i>who are honest to themselves, and that is the only thing that really counts. </i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="color: #ead1dc;"><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The intimacy of the photos taken by her lover, someone who had profound influence on Frida, Nickolas Muray, are really remarkable and are worth reading about in the article, "<a href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-intimate-iconic-photos-nickolas-muray-frida-kahlo" target="_blank">The Intimate and Iconic Photos Nickolas Muray took of Frida Kahlo</a>." </div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GaIVrSa48HQ/XLuJysyGvlI/AAAAAAAAByg/lIgxmne4i40ZmC-6J-h-YRYXjsWDA865ACEwYBhgL/s1600/Frida%2Bbiting%2Bnecklace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="648" height="256" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GaIVrSa48HQ/XLuJysyGvlI/AAAAAAAAByg/lIgxmne4i40ZmC-6J-h-YRYXjsWDA865ACEwYBhgL/s320/Frida%2Bbiting%2Bnecklace.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Living one’s life is so important, as I have learned during my trip to the city (and the words a chemo patient said to me in the waiting room at MSK). And also I see the deep, inner value in letting oneself be shaped by suffering—and letting the flowers come up out of the mud… this is all something Frida did so marvelously that, years after her death, some of her magic is still trickling down powerfully to those who lack the color and strength and passion she had. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vWBApr0JJGU/XLuBXC40FoI/AAAAAAAABxo/ct1qa5bPOfYiMthGEXqVlJk3C-kNI4ZugCEwYBhgL/s1600/Frida%2BBody%2BCast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="394" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vWBApr0JJGU/XLuBXC40FoI/AAAAAAAABxo/ct1qa5bPOfYiMthGEXqVlJk3C-kNI4ZugCEwYBhgL/s320/Frida%2BBody%2BCast.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="color: #783f04;"><i>I was a child who went about in a world of colors… </i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #783f04;"><b><i>My friends, my companions, became women slowly; I became old in instants. </i></b></span></div>
<span style="color: #783f04;">
</span>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JqWPCOlrODw/XLuT11-V7pI/AAAAAAAABy4/oeOA4mdVfEo0BdwsWDZCd-oRzFpGoCMFACLcBGAs/s1600/appearances%2Bcan%2Bbe%2Bdeceiving.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="263" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JqWPCOlrODw/XLuT11-V7pI/AAAAAAAABy4/oeOA4mdVfEo0BdwsWDZCd-oRzFpGoCMFACLcBGAs/s400/appearances%2Bcan%2Bbe%2Bdeceiving.png" width="235" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">"Appearances Can Be Deceiving"<br />
Drawing by Frida Kahlo</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
This drawing, uncovered in the locked room in 2004, reveals how the Tehuana dress allows her to choose whether to reveal her disabilities or not. From the outside one cannot see her leg or medical corsets. "<i>Las Apariencias Engañan.</i>"<br />
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Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
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<b><i><span style="color: #ffe599;">Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.</span></i></b></div>
<b><i><span style="color: #ffe599;"><br /></span></i></b>
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<i><span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><i>I think that little by little I’ll be able to solve my problems and survive. </i></span></i><i><span style="color: #ffe599;"><i><span style="color: #ffe599;"><br /></span></i></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #ffe599;"><i><span style="color: #ea9999;">I hope the exit is joyful. And I hope never to return. </span></i></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><i><br /></i></span></span></i></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h8vDnfpoxzY/XLuX8nbxeHI/AAAAAAAABzQ/jJCzRdYgDX8kV0GVzinlSF7FvMq_F8XdQCLcBGAs/s1600/Frida%2Band%2Byoga.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h8vDnfpoxzY/XLuX8nbxeHI/AAAAAAAABzQ/jJCzRdYgDX8kV0GVzinlSF7FvMq_F8XdQCLcBGAs/s320/Frida%2Band%2Byoga.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I am deeply inspired by Frida's words (some quoted in color throughout the post) and her massive strength, talent, and perseverance. It may very well be life-changing to come in proximity to her belongings and drawings as the aura speaks volumes about strength and resolve. I am in awe of nearly every aspect of her passion & life as the true woman and true artist she was. What she did while suffering is unforgettable. Here, I am not simply speaking of how prolific she was.</div>
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Many thanks to <a href="https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/" target="_blank">Brooklyn Museum</a> for this amazing exhibit.</div>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-5705995300893807592019-04-15T16:38:00.003-07:002019-04-16T10:58:35.431-07:00Notre Dame de Paris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EocLKUzsaoc/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EocLKUzsaoc?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<i></i><br />
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<i>
</i>
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<i><i><span style="color: #a2c4c9;">Il est venu le temps des cathédrales</span></i></i></div>
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Gringoire:</div>
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C'est une histoire qui a pour lieu</div>
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Paris la belle en l'an de Dieu</div>
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Mil quatre cent quatre vingt deux</div>
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Histoire d'amour et de désir</div>
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<br /></div>
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Nous les artistes anonymes</div>
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De la sculpture ou de la rime</div>
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Tenterons de vous la transcrire</div>
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Pour les siècles à venir</div>
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<br /></div>
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Refrain:</div>
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Il est venu le temps des cathédrales</div>
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Le monde est entré</div>
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Dans un nouveau millénaire</div>
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L'homme a voulu monter vers les étoiles</div>
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Écrire son histoire</div>
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Dans le verre ou dans la pierre</div>
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Pierre après pierre, jour après jour</div>
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De siècle en siècle avec amour</div>
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Il a vu s'élever les tours</div>
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Qu'il avait bâties de ses mains</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Les poètes et les troubadours</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Ont chanté des chansons d'amour</div>
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Qui promettaient au genre humain</div>
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De meilleurs lendemains</div>
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<br /></div>
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Refrain (x2)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Il est foutu le temps des cathédrales</div>
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La foule des barbares</div>
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Est aux portes de la ville</div>
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Laissez entrer ces païens, ces vandales</div>
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La fin de ce monde</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Est prévue pour l'an deux mille</div>
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Est prévue pour l'an deux mille</div>
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English version:</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">The Age of Cathedrals</span></i></i></div>
<i>
</i>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Gringoire:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
This is a story that takes place</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
In fair Paris in the year of our Lord</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Fourteen hundred eighty two</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
A story of love and of desire</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We, the anonymous artists</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Of sculpture and verse,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Will attempt to transcribe it for you</div>
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And for the centuries to come</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Refrain:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The age of cathedrals has come</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The world has entered</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
A new millennium</div>
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Man wanted to reach the stars</div>
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To write his story</div>
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In glass and in stone</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Stone after stone, day after day</div>
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From century to century with love</div>
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He saw the towers rise</div>
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That he had built with his hands</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The poets and the troubadours</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Sang songs of love</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
That promised the human race</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Better days to come</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Refrain x 2</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The age of cathedrals has gone</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The hoard of barbarians</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Storms the city gates</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Let them in, these pagans, these vandals</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The end of this world</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Is predicted for the year 2000</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Is predicted for the year 2000</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #e06666;"><i>La fin de ce monde est prévu pour l'an 2000</i>... </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #e06666;">The end of this world is foreseen in the year 2000....</span></div>
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</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #e06666;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #e06666;">Our hearts are in Paris.</span><br />
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-87035888369620335442019-04-10T17:10:00.000-07:002019-04-15T07:38:58.870-07:00Black hole visible today<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #ffe599;"><i>There is a crack, a crack in everything--that's how the light gets in.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #ffe599;"><i><a href="https://thejewishmuseum.org/index.php/exhibitions/leonard-cohen-a-crack-in-everything" target="_blank">~Leonard Cohen</a></i></span></div>
<br />
How to see something that is very dark in an atmosphere that is very dark? It is almost an impossible question, but today mathematical theory revealed itself in visceral reality.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yUObWEKyQ7s/XK6Ea8QRGVI/AAAAAAAABvo/uD-HwY51k_c3a3hn9d4lxbJlkINI812MgCLcBGAs/s1600/black%2Bhole.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="857" height="403" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yUObWEKyQ7s/XK6Ea8QRGVI/AAAAAAAABvo/uD-HwY51k_c3a3hn9d4lxbJlkINI812MgCLcBGAs/s640/black%2Bhole.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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One hundred years after Einstein, humanity had our first view ever of a Black hole. A Black hole has long been "invisible" because it swallows everything, including light. Nothing can escape it due to the force of gravity, neither light nor matter. Today's images reveal the black hole at the center of Messier 87, one of the biggest Black holes known, more than 55 million light-years away.<br />
<br />
To view it, astronomers collaborated around the world in the <a href="https://eventhorizontelescope.org/" target="_blank">Event Horizon Telescope</a> (EHT) to make direct imaging of the Black hole possible, thanks to eight telescopes around the globe--in Chile, Spain, Mexico, Hawaii, Arizona, and the South Pole in Antartica. Making them interact as one earth-sized telescope required amazing collaboration of more than 200 scientists around the world, with many obstacles to overcome.<br />
<br />
The direct visualizing of a Black hole is described as "émouvant," moving, and "presque magique" in its play of light and darkness: It reveals something very mysterious and enigmatic about the universe, as shared in a fascinating way by a astrophysicist<a href="https://www.franceculture.fr/sciences/la-premiere-image-dun-trou-noir-devoilee-par-la-nasa-0" target="_blank"> on France Culture</a> today.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
"Singularities do exist in our universe--as Black holes."</div>
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We see almost a halo of light around the obscure hole. To my amateur eye, it almost seems so simple at first sight, that is, its first capture, but its rarity attests to the phenomenal mathematical complexity and bending of space-time that went into such a sighting. But what do I know? Scientists say it is exciting because the images match the simulations. Something once thought to be impossible (to prove) became real today. Einstein's theory of relativity was <i>seen</i>.<br />
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NASA image:<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eF6xKOD0Gp4/XK6ErlaFIeI/AAAAAAAABvw/WhWnkDPmfRAKMpSiNc6PG58d0p_HT7fXwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8158.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="750" height="580" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eF6xKOD0Gp4/XK6ErlaFIeI/AAAAAAAABvw/WhWnkDPmfRAKMpSiNc6PG58d0p_HT7fXwCLcBGAs/s640/IMG_8158.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
The excitement naturally makes one think of Stephen Hawking, who I had the joy of meeting and seeing smile as he met Jacques Derrida at the University of California, Santa Cruz. It also makes me also think of my uncle Lance, who loved Hawking's book.<br />
<br />
What does a Black hole make you think of? The diverse network of possible responses is surely astronomical.<br />
<br />
Like the theory of the butterfly wings, the butterfly effect, I think it had implications all around the world from a more "spiritual" perspective as well, at least for me. Life has been a battle on every side, and today, I was able to tell God a few things in a way that was a bit like a watershed. Simple things like: I need you / I want to live for my son. And thus simple it will be: gratitude, hope, and a collaborative spirit to overcome future obstacles.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eWYsJfW_Ykg/XK6HInB91NI/AAAAAAAABv8/g__jh1PNc4IRR7b4oHmA4ijrzXS41od_gCLcBGAs/s1600/butterfly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eWYsJfW_Ykg/XK6HInB91NI/AAAAAAAABv8/g__jh1PNc4IRR7b4oHmA4ijrzXS41od_gCLcBGAs/s320/butterfly.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The breath is so important to releasing what no longer serves you.<br />
<br />
Kind of like the wonder within a Black hole.</div>
Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-60561035172225165432019-03-27T18:10:00.001-07:002019-03-27T18:48:09.030-07:00Buttons<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Fantasy of a Push-Button</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fDSc4chZGyY/XJwXKmzPVpI/AAAAAAAABtU/lpMv8dTB-iIJPuEKnzTQYe0xaXHea0IjQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_7740.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="750" height="307" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fDSc4chZGyY/XJwXKmzPVpI/AAAAAAAABtU/lpMv8dTB-iIJPuEKnzTQYe0xaXHea0IjQCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_7740.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><i><br /></i></i></div>
<i>We live in our world of buttons, </i><i style="text-align: center;">where if I press UP on the thermostat, I expect the heat to come instantaneously to warm me, but life and evolution have not categorically been instantaneous, though much has happened in an instant. We mere mortals live with the illusion that our ego is capable of producing phenomenal results, as I press the switch and a fireplace comes on, I turn a dial and the kettle begins warming water, I enter digits and hear a friend's voice, I click and receive a book in the mail. We try to use buttons resourcefully yet we neglect to think of their machinelike way of mediating our world. I didn't control time on the screen or calculate algebra or produce a moving picture with sound. The button did it all. I just pressed it. </i><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XzSjC8R8MBQ/XJwXLnYHPGI/AAAAAAAABtc/jcYwASuGU-IReg9vhfkftM8DJzszbm4-wCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_7743.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="750" height="185" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XzSjC8R8MBQ/XJwXLnYHPGI/AAAAAAAABtc/jcYwASuGU-IReg9vhfkftM8DJzszbm4-wCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_7743.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<i>Some could distort the use of buttons by making the hour false or the temperature extreme or the attendant too busy. Buttons can be abused. But more than that, the quarter-inch or half-centimeter press of a synthetic surface and poof, a change occurs, a door opens, a light turns on, a connection is made. Comparable to push-buttons are books, which when opened, allow our perspectives to shift along with the universe. Here, the button becomes a button, an intermediary that is not just an automatic gesture. It also becomes the fastener like the fabric button.</i></div>
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<i>A button can be worn or undone, pressed or dismantled, acknowledged or jammed. It can be all of these things and it remains a button, in service to man. Only a button could reveal the power we humans have--and the extreme dependency, frailty, and futility with which we seek to control the world. We are bound by age and form, electricity and matter. What was the world like before all these buttons? </i></div>
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<i>The energy we gain from the existence of buttons, may we use it to illuminate a smile or kindness around us. </i></div>
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<i>There is a voice beyond the button saying it's okay, it's okay...</i></div>
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<i>Because my memory is weaker than I would like, I pressed ON to video record the affection I shared with a little girl some summers ago... With a button I hoped to somehow capture the adorable cleverness of a little girl who wanted to tell me a tomato was not red (</i>rosso<i>) but yellow (</i>giallo<i>), all because she knew I'd kiss her if she did so one more time... And so buttons also have to do with the emotions and not just the drive we feel inside to do, accomplish, manipulate, build or destroy.</i></div>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-6358108464064245542019-03-23T10:53:00.002-07:002019-12-21T18:29:45.717-08:00World and Time perspective<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This post is inspired by the following images, which came from a previous post touching on Jean-Luc Godard's film, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contempt_(film)" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Contempt</a> (<i>Le Mépris</i>)<i>.</i> A creative and exemplary film of French New Wave, the film jumps to colored Classical statues, which stand out from the rest of the cinematography.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iXPkP7NkJdk/XJbPQ9QOL-I/AAAAAAAABsY/_df4CnXwBw4ZQ0hLHkmGbemxTmcgQ2bywCLcBGAs/s1600/Bardot%2BBrigitte.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="500" height="158" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iXPkP7NkJdk/XJbPQ9QOL-I/AAAAAAAABsY/_df4CnXwBw4ZQ0hLHkmGbemxTmcgQ2bywCLcBGAs/s200/Bardot%2BBrigitte.gif" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brigitte Bardot in <i>Contempt</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After listening to an interesting lecture on the
interiorization of self in modernity this morning, I began to realize a bit
more the relation between the coloring of ancient Greek statues in <i>Contempt</i> and
the content of the film, which is the story of a production of a film on
Odysseus and Penelope which, in its reinterpretation, parallels a tragic love
between the screenwriter character in the film and his wife, played by Brigitte
Bardot. As this film (1963) evokes the ancient Greek epic poem, Homer's <i>Odyssey</i>,
it draws on rich archetypes, smartly modernized in the trailer to the film: woman,
man, the kiss, the crazy man, the sea, tenderness, vengeance, sufferance. Then
the stairway, tragic love, betrayal, death, love, fatal beauty. All the themes
are there for <i>une tragique histoire d'amour</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JHnZk7MnfjU/XJZcwcDCzbI/AAAAAAAABrs/IHqk6MJhAzAgBJuicNjZQNlMhykp3l7egCLcBGAs/s1600/contempt%2Bgodard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="179" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JHnZk7MnfjU/XJZcwcDCzbI/AAAAAAAABrs/IHqk6MJhAzAgBJuicNjZQNlMhykp3l7egCLcBGAs/s320/contempt%2Bgodard.jpg" width="320" /></a>While I wondered what the greater picture was behind the unusual coloring of ancient Greek statues in <i>Contempt</i>, aesthetically and symbolically speaking, I didn't give it due thought until I listened to the <a href="https://www.franceculture.fr/conferences/universite-davignon-et-des-pays-de-vaucluse/intimite-et-emotions-sociales?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2zpQD3Nrls7bcMmEztUkKFg-xmDIESHVp3D05UKBwVgEQdpL57g0_te6s#Echobox=1553159560" target="_blank">lecture by Dr. Larry Norman</a> today. The talk was on<span style="color: #ffe599;"> the tragic passions and the interiorization of self as a mark of </span><span style="color: white;"><b>modernity</b></span>. I began to think that perhaps the coloring of the statues is Godard's modernizing or romanticizing of the ancient Greek statues--or rather, subjects--in this film-within-a-film. In the film, there is a German director, an American producer, and a French screenwriter and cultural incongruences in between. The producer and screenwriter agree on one thing only: the theory that perhaps Odysseus left on his voyages because of his wife's infidelities.... thus obliterating the essence of marital fidelity that the Classical Penelope came to incarnate and symbolize.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Penelope </i>(1896), Franklin Simmons</td></tr>
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It is easy to see the evacuation of meaning as we move (through the arts) from one worldview to another, Antiquity to Modernity. Everything in the strange age (<i>Kali yuga</i>) we are living in begins to make a bit more sense as one contemplates the times in which we live and their difference with ancient times, revealing not least of all the way that the individual's sense of the divine, the self, and the world is carved within the context of art and literature, as these communicative forms become the fossilized reflection of the individual's sense of self and place in the world. What became palpable is something we all seem to live with in modern day--the disconnection of the self from <i>x</i>, <i>y</i>, or <i>z</i>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: white;">Modernity</span></b> is the period beginning at the end of the Middle Ages (mid- to late 1400s) through present-day, although some French historians have said that modernity ended with the French Revolution--and that we are now in the Late Modern period. In the <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89poque_contemporaine" target="_blank">French Wikipedia source</a>, this new contemporary epoch is poignantly described as as a time in which "living people, in significant numbers, can testify to historical, political, economic, and social events and a time in which the trace of these events remains relatively alive in memories and oral transmission. This period corresponds to the atomic era and the computer era, as well as to decolonization and the Cold War." Exactly.<br />
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How was the Classical carried into the modern in arts and literature? At the start of modernity, the Renaissance (1500s) looked to Antiquity, or Classicism, for artistic and literary inspiration, as evidenced by the formalization of the Greco-Latin tradition in terms of its works of art, which also developed in interesting ways in what became known in France as the French Classical period (late 1600s). We are more concerned in this post with Romanticism, a literary and artistic movement that began in Europe in the mid-1700s, where artists and writers began to free themselves of the rules of thought and form associated with classicism. This was no small break with national tradition and took several decades to take root, but in fact the movement has everything to do with the modern psyche, as Professor Norman discusses in his lecture.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c3beP6eqlx0/XJZbXVqvJCI/AAAAAAAABrg/-UBTKiBDOsUHQifSAAttBdv8PwvYCMlyACEwYBhgL/s1600/Head_Odysseus_MAR_Sperlonga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="947" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c3beP6eqlx0/XJZbXVqvJCI/AAAAAAAABrg/-UBTKiBDOsUHQifSAAttBdv8PwvYCMlyACEwYBhgL/s200/Head_Odysseus_MAR_Sperlonga.jpg" width="168" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Odysseus, </i>Museo Archeologico <br />
Nazionale Sperlonga</td></tr>
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As Professor <a href="https://www.franceculture.fr/conferences/universite-davignon-et-des-pays-de-vaucluse/intimite-et-emotions-sociales?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2zpQD3Nrls7bcMmEztUkKFg-xmDIESHVp3D05UKBwVgEQdpL57g0_te6s#Echobox=1553159560" target="_blank">Larry Norman</a> (University of Chicago) points out, the literature and arts of Antiquity privileges <b><span style="color: #ffe599;">exteriority</span></b>, taking for its subject human action fully as it is engaged in the world, which can be observed in its exemplary images from physical nature and the human body. Inversely, Romantic literature and arts privilege <b><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">interiority</span></b>, taking for its subject <i>la conscience intime du sujet</i> (the intimate consciousness of the subject), preferring the <i>nuances of intention and feelings</i> to the brightness or loudness of action. However nice it is to celebrate the body, this penetrates the heart. [my translation, paraphrasing]<br />
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To support his argument, he refers to a beloved French tragedy by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Racine" target="_blank">Jean Racine</a>, which was inspired by the classical <i>Phaedra</i> of Euripides. Norman makes an excellent point: While in the Classical Greek tragedy, Phaedra is plagued by an outside force and divinity, Venus, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph%C3%A8dre" target="_blank">Racine's French version of <i>Phèdre</i></a> (1677), the torment stems more from her own psychological makeup and her awareness of the unstoppable tragic therein.<br />
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When I think of Racine's Phèdre, I think of the complexity of her psychological portrait and of her own self-condemnation, as she is hyper-aware of her psychology and how it imprisons her: she was pre-written by the infamous history of her mother, Pasiphaé, and the minotaur, as well as the scandals of her father, Minos. As Racine brilliantly indicates in his <i>Préface</i>, no one condemns Phèdre's criminal passion more than she: she is neither totally guilty nor totally innocent. Witness Phèdre’s declaration of love to her stepson, “<i>J’aime / Ne pense pas qu’au moment que je t’aime, / Innocente à mes yeux je m’approuve moi-même</i>” (v. 673-74) / "I love / Do not think in the moment that I love you that, innocent in my own eyes, I approve of myself." Racine is highly adept at handling the complexity of human emotions. Moreover, it is important to know why Racine's Phèdre loves her proudly chaste stepson: he is the purer version of her adulterous husband, Theseus.<br />
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In the first image, we see where the Phaedra of Antiquity is afflicted by incestuous love from an external source, the goddess of <i>eros</i>. In the second image, the modern Phèdre of Romanticism languishes in her own psychological world of demise.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the Classical tragedy, Phaedra is plagued by a winged Eros (350-340 B.C.)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Phèdre </i>(1880), Alexandre Cabanel's romantic rendition <br />
of the 1677 version of the tragedy, where the torment comes from within</td></tr>
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To return to Professor Norman and the broader strokes of Antiquity and Modernity that he sketches, he makes a very interesting claim: that the aesthetic polarity between <span style="color: #ffe599;">exteriority</span> and <span style="color: #b4a7d6;">interiority</span> indicates an even deeper schism between two radically different world views, signaling an anthropological break between Antiquity and Modernity---which is to say how the man of Antiquity conceived of self and the divine and his place in the universe <i>versus</i> how the modern individual does. To draw out this contrast, he explains: <span style="color: #f9cb9c;">"Classical art is an expression of paganism, seen as a materialist religion where divinity was perfectly incarnated in corporal form---while the Romantic connection expresses Christianity as a spiritualist religion, <i>where the individual profoundly feels the imperfection of his terrestrial life, sees himself alienated from the divinity, tormented by this separation, and haunted by the sharp conscience of self that results</i>" </span>[my translation].<br />
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To my mind, this is to realize that we all suffer from modernity and to appreciate how the arts and literature reflect on this deep sense of lost-ness or twistedness of self within the contemporary era, let alone man's confusion, dismissal, or manipulation of the divine. As Norman says of the two world views: "This dualistic paradigm of history has the great advantage of [hoping] to explain all the formal differences that distinguish works of art throughout time." One can note in a stroll through any great museum of art that the Harmony between spirit and body, form and content, is first and foremost in Classical art, while the grotesque, the irregularity and the sublime of some modern works of art can be quite jarring.<br />
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While in ancient tragedy, as Norman says, "the tragic forces were from external sources like the oracles, the will of God, the values of the city, in the <b><span style="color: white;"><i>modern</i></span></b> tragedy, <span style="color: #f9cb9c;">the tragic interest lies in the psychology of the characters, in their hesitations rather than in their actions, in their evaluation of their own behavior or of the impotency of their inaction</span>. So in Racine's <i>Phèdre</i>, one does not know if this tragedy, based on the original Greek tragedy, is truly Classical--or if it should be classified, despite Racine's homage to Euripides, as more romantic than classical. Any reader of this tragedy will ask themselves: Does the criminal passion of Phèdre for her stepson come from outside or from within? from Venus or from an interior impulse? Is the interest of [Racine's] tragedy in the passion--or more in the sharp consciousness that the character has of his/her passion (<i>la conscience aigu que le personnage a de cette passion</i>). Is it about mythology [divine play] or psychology?"<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1EKxfnuHKvA/XJbSz-dDE6I/AAAAAAAABsk/9J_AgiOpI7w1bvgDNm9jAYStNhlId7-9QCLcBGAs/s1600/mythe%2Bde%2Bsysiphe.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1EKxfnuHKvA/XJbSz-dDE6I/AAAAAAAABsk/9J_AgiOpI7w1bvgDNm9jAYStNhlId7-9QCLcBGAs/s200/mythe%2Bde%2Bsysiphe.png" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a>Or, as with Godard's 1963 film where the Greek statues are colored and the screenwriter and producer (within the film) want to empty Penelope of her reputed faithfulness: Are the interior forces exteriorized, while the interior is simply emptied out to the point of lost-ness? Thus the post World War themes such as alienation, irony, absurdity. And in all of this, where are we now? These questions can be terrifying if taken seriously, and that is precisely what theatre, particularly tragedy, helps us to <i>see</i> (see Antonin Artaud's modern work on the theatre of the absurd). Is the human situation of the Late Modern period one of radical absurdity, devoid of purpose, as philosophers like Albert Camus intimated during WW2 with <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Sisyphus" target="_blank">Le mythe de Sisyphe</a></i> (1942)? As Walter Benjamin wrote regarding the trauma of the first world war and the impact on storytelling it had, "Was it not noticeable after the war that men returned from the battlefield grown silent - not richer, but poorer in communicable experience?"<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FHdJcm3NHWc/XJZwXBOHXTI/AAAAAAAABsM/kfdsElVVMvMdJ1EzRm2EW6i3oGpynk1vACLcBGAs/s1600/racine%2Bphe%25CC%2580dre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="239" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FHdJcm3NHWc/XJZwXBOHXTI/AAAAAAAABsM/kfdsElVVMvMdJ1EzRm2EW6i3oGpynk1vACLcBGAs/s200/racine%2Bphe%25CC%2580dre.jpg" width="126" /></a>I was always struck by the alienation of self from language and its remarkable quality in Racine's 1677 spin on the ancient Greek tragedy. In many ways, Racine's Classical tragedy is a very postmodern one. To speak is to stumble upon self-awareness – or rather, to venture away from it – as Phèdre so aptly illustrates: “<i>Insensée, où suis-je? Et qu’ai-je dit? / Où laissée-je égarer mes vœux, et mon esprit?</i>” (v. 179-80) / "Insane, where am I? And what did I say? Where did I let my vows and my spirit wander?" Whether trailing off or making a declaration, whether intimately confiding or failing to suppress and letting something slip out, the questions of how one speaks – or does not speak – provides an emotional map by which the spectator gains intimate access to the character’s fears, obsessions, and desires. These qualities seem to mark modernity at every turn.<br />
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Does any of this give cause for painting the eyes, the mouth, and the hair of ancient Greek marble statues in blue, red, or black? I cannot say. But in the film, I can say I think it works <i>très, très bien</i>.<br />
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A wise man's thought: In broadening one's view of time and of the world, perhaps one can hope to not be so locked into modernity.*<br />
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*Thanks to K.M. for this Deleuze reference.<br />
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-11120181961000397122019-03-15T05:38:00.003-07:002019-03-16T08:23:02.815-07:00Paris Home Art Video - Take One!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scenes within scenes in Jean-Luc Godard's<i> Le Mépris</i></td></tr>
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As I filmed the following in Place Saint-Michel a few summers ago in Paris, it took on a life of its own and became what I dare say is an art video. If you appreciate the song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttEMYvpoR-k" target="_blank">"Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen</a> / Italian / French and youth cultures, you may also find it a bit tantalizing.<br />
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It became a multi-layered life video, with the threads intersecting and leaving the trace of a certain <i>je ne sais quoi</i>. I personally love the cigarette draw and kiss that unexpectedly occurs in the foreground. It evokes the tight rope between art / life / camera while also capturing a quintessential French stereotype, which is well-earned and born from a period of remarkable French innovations in film during the 1960s with the <i>Nouvelle Vague. </i>The cigarette & kiss is classic, representing a tradition that the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/New-Wave-film" target="_blank">French New Wave</a> film forever encapsulated and rendered <i><span style="color: blue;">un peu </span><span style="color: white;">trop</span><span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: red;">chic</span></i>.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rfn7RpHQzTk/XIumviulu3I/AAAAAAAABoQ/ailTBY9S0m8icPFQ18U7X3cJQf7EG3ZJwCLcBGAs/s1600/france.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rfn7RpHQzTk/XIumviulu3I/AAAAAAAABoQ/ailTBY9S0m8icPFQ18U7X3cJQf7EG3ZJwCLcBGAs/s200/france.jpg" width="200" /></a>(On a side note, I remember being oddly sad for the French when the law was passed to ban cigarette smoking on their café and restaurant <i>terrasses </i>in the early 2000s<i>--</i>I didn't think they would ever be able to resist. Anecdotally, when they passed the law that Parisiens needed to pick up the <i>crottes</i> left behind by their dogs--and thus everywhere on the streets--this was <i>not</i> abided by. It has been speculated that this is certainly because the policemen thought it much too beneath them to issue a ticket for dog poop. It was not enforced--thus the advent of the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motocrotte" target="_blank">motocrotte</a></i>, which is a perfect blend of the word for <i>motocyclette</i> and <i>crotte </i>and had the feature of a long vacuum.) </div>
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Even though cigarettes are disgusting (in my opinion), it is somehow gratifying to see that the French did not entirely shake the image of <i>chic</i> nicotine drags coupled with amorous arousal, long after the huge letters <b>FUMER TUE</b> appeared on the cigarette pack--as witnessed by the orality of attachment in a modern puff that ended with a young kiss in the art video above (which should be noted: is wrapped in the French flag,) the very transfer of semi-addiction! <span style="text-align: center;">O to be young and <i>Parisienne</i>!</span><i style="text-align: center;"> </i>I digress...<br />
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The coloring of the antiquated in</div>
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<i>Le Mépris </i></div>
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French New Wave films helped weave the inhale of the cigarette into trendy passion as it took filming to the streets in the '60s with natural lighting, unknown actors, jump cuts, and other expressionist breakthroughs --totally innovative for the time. Ultimately, the French New Wave turned established cinematic fabrication on its head. The rift between the old and the new is characterized by the mockery Godard makes of the cinema business in the film, this mockery being incarnated with the character of the American filmmaker who comes to meet the Parisian filmmaker at Cinecittà in Rome in <i>Le Mépris </i>(<i>Contempt</i>). He fits the American stereotype quite well. The film is an amazing <i>mise-en-abyme</i>, with the <i>tricolore </i>(blue, white, and red) shared by the flags of the two countries appearing throughout the film. <i>Par exemple:</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The film being made within the film is an adaptation<br />
of the story of Odysseus and Penelope</td></tr>
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I would be neglecting my history as French professor and teacher of French film if I did not pay homage to the work of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard" target="_blank">Jean-Luc Godard</a> with the following 1963 teaser, which, with its musical score, already gives a sense of the intellectual, meta-reflective, and creative aspects of New Wave film.<br />
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Trailer: <i>Le Mépris </i>(<i>Contempt</i>), by Jean-Luc Godard</div>
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Filmed in Rome and Capri, Italy<br />
<i>(La cinématographie est sublime)</i></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">Place Saint-Michel,</span> <span style="color: white;">Paris, France.</span> <span style="color: red;">On y va!</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Masculin Féminin </i>(1966), Jean-Luc Godard </td></tr>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-47844807694033119272019-03-04T13:38:00.001-08:002019-12-21T16:58:53.515-08:00How alive are we? Rethinking failure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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From a very early age, we are conditioned to see failure as something to avoid. This week, as I battle with reality and shortcomings, I am seriously interested in re-examining the experience of failure. Ultimately, failure is just a perception--it is like a plastic bottle that we can throw in the garbage where it will have a negative impact on our planet, or we can repurpose it and give it new life. <br />
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How does the world around us shape our notion of failure? How might it encourage our fears about failure? And how might we as individuals transcend the experience of failure (since it is a natural part of living) and view it as a pivotal learning point?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RqjAh9WKp-w/XH2c9isl9pI/AAAAAAAABk8/Ukk3RmV4F1gH-oVGBBGQn4EohjHbeBQoQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Pierrot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="198" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RqjAh9WKp-w/XH2c9isl9pI/AAAAAAAABk8/Ukk3RmV4F1gH-oVGBBGQn4EohjHbeBQoQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Pierrot.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pierrot</i>, Pablo Picasso, 1918</td></tr>
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Besides viewing the play by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Exit"><i>Huis Clos</i></a> (<i>No Exit</i>), what can we do to face the crux of existence? As Sartre believed, existentialism precedes essence--we do not come prepackaged to fit in some essential category. We see his characters each condemn one another over the failure to live up to the image that, now dead and in hell all together, each one still maintains of him or herself. The message: We are not what we think we are, as we can change from day to day. Rather, our existence, i.e. how we live, will determine our essence. Nothing, in reality, is pre-given. We must take full responsibility for our actions. This means A) to not blame another for our situation and B) to care too much about what the "image" is that we have of ourselves. Are we really living our "image"? If the answer is no, there's no sense trying to convince ourselves or others of what we think we are. Yet everyone can think of something who demonstrates bad faith--i.e. one who thinks they are a great person or a connoisseur of this or that, when really they are talking from a place of ego, with very little knowledge and experience to go with.<br />
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<i>Muhammed said, Do not theorize</i></div>
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<i>about essence. All speculations</i></div>
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<i>are just more layers of coverings.</i></div>
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<i>Human beings love coverings.</i></div>
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~Rumi, "Body Intelligence"</div>
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We need to see try harder to things as they really are. This is cultivating awareness and perception. Then, we can see the question is not if we are living our image, but perhaps: How alive are we?<br />
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Turning the light on ourselves in all the deepest recesses and crevices of our heart is deep excavation work, but is the only way to eliminate <i>bad faith </i>and those coverings. This is an opportunity for true individual growth and development, where the audience is only the humble self who can be amazed by the grace that helps us to learn in life. It is possible to discovers the joys of surrender, vulnerability, acceptance, and tolerance even while suffering. <br />
<br />
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<span style="color: #ffe599;">“The nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #ffe599;">~Bhagavad Gita 2.14</span></div>
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Likewise, we should learn to tolerate success <i>and</i> failure. Thinking beyond this dichotomy, why not just pursue one's passion in life? And so, a thought to help us along is this: Allow failure to help you loosen your attachment to outcomes. <br />
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If you have had the chance to become acquainted with works like Patanjali's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali"><i>Yoga Sutras</i></a>, you may have been amazed by the revolutionary notion that we should not be attached to the fruits of our actions. Yes, do the action that is good, whether for the sake of duty and karma or of devotion. But do not expect a certain result from that action. This helps when thinking about any area of our life where we are hoping for "success." Act like a good x or y, and you will become that through <i>practice</i> and repetition.<br />
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We can learn to detach from the notion of failing by focusing on a certain area of our life and simply considering the way we express ourself in that area. After all, a musician who loves music is not a good musician if he does not practice. <br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zq6Yo6wfM_4/XH1zkFTK1GI/AAAAAAAABkc/-qYDeCnKNWsaSRflHzf1NiM--DGoIqqjgCEwYBhgL/s1600/failure-good-thing-fixed1.png"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zq6Yo6wfM_4/XH1zkFTK1GI/AAAAAAAABkc/-qYDeCnKNWsaSRflHzf1NiM--DGoIqqjgCEwYBhgL/s640/failure-good-thing-fixed1.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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They say that our actions are reinforced by a belief we hold. We can change our beliefs in order to align our actions in the right way if we are off the mark. How can I be a good parent, a good business person, a good friend? Reformatting your identity begins in your mind where you view yourself as someone who does something in a spectacular way--and then act accordingly. What does a successful business person do? What does a good parent do? What does a good friend do? Do that. That is good faith. That type of existence may one day lead to bonafide essence, but that is neither here or there. Focus on cultivating the way you live in the <i>now</i>.<br />
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Repetition means we are practicing and honing our skills. Sitting around theorizing what perfection is or looks like doesn't get us anywhere. "The only way to get past the failures is to go through the volume of work to begin with," says James Clear in <a href="https://unmistakablecreative.com/podcast/best-change-identity-change-habits-james-clear/">an interview with Srini Rao</a> of <a href="https://unmistakablecreative.com/" target="_blank"><i>The Unmistakable Creative</i></a>. Volume and repetition may entail lots of failures. But as Clear reminds us: we do not die from failure.<br />
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And when we gain comfort in competency after much effort, we should not become complacent with our practice. We can hone our skills further--in fact, for life. Look to the people with a 50-year career span and all the depth and interesting peaks of their work. Picasso was dedicated to art for 80 years and look at the diversity (and impact) of his work! One must do something for ten years before you gain a semblance of excellence. This is something millennials are said to struggle with... They have been so pumped up with the notion that they will make a difference that they get depressed when, in their first job (which they have only had for 8 months), they feel they aren't making an impact. Ask those who have the experience of age: life requires patience and perseverance; life is the true test.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hW4rQeBwARI/XH2dAKF0NwI/AAAAAAAABk4/WhmsDwAXzJEa4c3bA1-Vxc6iEiG-emH9QCLcBGAs/s1600/PICASSO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="1098" height="138" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hW4rQeBwARI/XH2dAKF0NwI/AAAAAAAABk4/WhmsDwAXzJEa4c3bA1-Vxc6iEiG-emH9QCLcBGAs/s400/PICASSO.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Various styles within Pablo Picasso's corpus</td></tr>
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"Most of the time we try to prevent failure," James Clear says. We do this by theorizing how we will succeed, coming up with the best plan, and writing down our best goals. Guilty as charged.<br />
<br />
What can we do to cultivate our awareness and perception? Sadhguru responds rather socratically: How long did you take to learn how to read and write? Consider that it took a few years to learn to make sentences; you give so much to learn how to use words.... <br />
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To quickly increase your awareness, there is the remedy of the realization of mortality--the fact is that many people will not live until tomorrow, yet we all think we are invincible. As Sadhguru says, "Only when you are conscious about your mortality will you want to truly know the nature of this life."<br />
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I believe this to be very true, from my experience of having a disease: "If you know you are mortal suddenly you will see that <span style="color: #ffe599;">you have no time to do any nonsense which doesn't mean anything to you. </span>You will do only what really matters to your life.You have no time to do any rubbish with anybody. You will have time to only to do the best things you want to do, what you truly care to do in your life, and nothing other than that; and that is what you should be doing because it's a very limited amount of time. I want you to know it's a very brief life, that is, if you're a joyful person. If you're miserable then of course it is a very long life." ~Sadhguru<br />
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So basically he seems to say: stop doing the nonsense you are doing (because you think you are immortal)! What a good man to remind us of this. </div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AQ136CngJzE/XGLuVgKKqiI/AAAAAAAABgA/PmaIpUtjI2InP_-_oEGatllFJ00JzI9IgCLcBGAs/s1600/800px-Paul_Legrand_by_Nadar_c1855.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AQ136CngJzE/XGLuVgKKqiI/AAAAAAAABgA/PmaIpUtjI2InP_-_oEGatllFJ00JzI9IgCLcBGAs/s320/800px-Paul_Legrand_by_Nadar_c1855.jpg" /></a>To be a human being is not easy. Here is a rather pathetic (<i>pathos</i>, related to "suffering") image to inspire us to embrace failure as we blossom, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot">Pierrot</a>, the fool, with "his physical insularity; his poignant lapses into mutism...; his white face and costume, suggesting not only innocence but the pallor of the dead; his often frustrated pursuit of Columbine, coupled with his never-to-be-vanquished unworldly naïveté—all conspir[ing] to lift him out of the circumscribed world of the <i>commedia dell'arte</i> and into the larger realm of myth: the 'sad clown' of the postmodern era".... [Wikipedia]<br />
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Perhaps, to be an artist, to make art, <br />
to be creative, to transcend, or to have a mythic quality,<br />
you must have played the fool and failed.</div>
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So how alive do you feel? </div>
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<br /></div>
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Being half-alive is torture, as Sadhguru says.</div>
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<span style="color: #ffe599;">Our ability to experience must be enlarged!</span></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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"Body Intelligence"</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>There are guides </i><i>who can show you the way. </i><i>Use them.</i></div>
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<i>But they will not satisfy your longing. </i></div>
<i></i><br />
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<i><i>Keep wanting the connection with presence <br />with all your pulsing energy.</i></i></div>
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</i>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>The throbbing vein will take you further than any thinking.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Muhammed said, <span style="text-align: center;">Do not theorize </span><span style="text-align: center;">about essence. <br />All speculations </span><span style="text-align: center;">are just more layers of coverings.</span></i></div>
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<i>Human beings love coverings.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>They think the designs on the curtains are what is being concealed.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Observe the wonders as they occur around you.</i></div>
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<i>Do not claim them. </i></div>
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<i>Feel the artistry moving through, <br />and be silent.</i></div>
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~Rumi</div>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-17748146083149753272019-02-25T18:08:00.003-08:002019-02-27T15:11:26.712-08:00Saturday bhakti sunset<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #ffe599;"><b>Love makes people perfect</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #ffe599;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #ffe599;"><b>Devotion makes people complete</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><b><br />Happiness is momentary</b></span></div>
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Video credit: Thanks to cousins, Gian Luca and Paolo</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">It doesn't matter the abandonment</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br />It doesn't matter the grief<br /><br />It doesn't matter the feeling you don't belong<br /><br />Selfless love mends</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">It softens, purifies, cleanses</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">It opens the eyes to dreams that billow from the belly</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">It doesn’t matter the smallness</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The past sheds its darkness when all that has value is offered </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Like a diamond in the rough</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">A metronome keeps time for ritual</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The sound of belonging is a drum from many distances away</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Weaknesses crack me open like a worn-out pot </span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">As my father hears me through his questions</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">And my family bids the rough edges to melt away</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">And to be even stronger than I have been yet</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Grace let the roots of the flower, wilting in grey, take root in beige at the foot of a silver blue</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Love connects hearts and slowly turns the world around again, opening the heart the way it needed for so long, to be lifted, expressed, heard</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Now creative devotion can come natural, free, with a smile </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Shadows fall away from the face as the light of love visits</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The heart is so delicate, like the skin</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">I flick my sins away like a stinky cigarette</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">I wobble as I dig deep, lifting my energy up to the supreme, my ultimate goal, the source of breath and heart</span></div>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-11494297868917641602019-02-16T08:54:00.000-08:002019-09-29T09:13:44.180-07:00David Bowie, incarnation of Pierrot<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Bowie, holding a book on Buster Keaton to his face <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1975)</span></td></tr>
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<br />Fans of David Bowie know he was a genius in his art and person, with his theatricality, his intelligence, his music and costumes. Fans of David Bowie know he was a genius in his art and person, with his theatricality, his intelligence, his music and costumes. If you like the song "<span style="color: #ffe599;">Ashes to Ashes</span>," the video is worth a revisit, and you may enjoy thoughts I share below. <br />
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I find David Bowie to be an easy hero because, as Fox writes in <a href="https://frieze.com/article/hang-on-to-yourself">David Bowie as art school</a>, he "shared his finds with anyone who would listen. <i>It’s the closet teacher in me</i>, he once said. <i>I love introducing people to new things</i>."<br />
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His artistry and literariness are admirable. He was experimental, thoughtful, and sublime; these qualities seeped into his words that how he lived his life on earth.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bowie on set of <i>The Man Who Fell to Earth</i></td></tr>
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Today I woke up and something inside of me wanted to connect with David Bowie, the dearly departed. On my drive this morning, these lyrics from 1980 popped in my head, <i>Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know <b><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Major Tom</span></b>'s a junkie, strung out in heaven's high, hitting an all-time low.</i> If you know Bowie's 1969 "Space Oddity," you'll catch the reappearance of <b>Major Tom</b> two decades later in Bowie's 1990 "Ashes to Ashes," though he seems to have had a bit of a bad go since we last heard of him.<br />
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Bowie reveals that self-referentiality in any body of work is always a place to contemplate the making of meaning. David Robert Jones, aka David Bowie, was an avid reader. In interviews, he would refer to Roland Barthes, the literary theorist par excellence. (The French lit PhD in me couldn't help but love David Bowie.) Then, he was alluding to French novelist, playwright, and essayist Jean Genet with his song title "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jean_Genie">The Jean Genie</a>" (both these literary stars, Barthes and Genet, were considered the most holy and cutting-edge in the French department at Emory University. Like I said, Bowie is my <span style="color: #ffe599;">easy hero</span>).<br />
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In terms of this <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_abyme">mise en abyme</a>--or self-referentiality--the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashes_to_Ashes_(David_Bowie_song)">Wikipedia entry on "Ashes to Ashes"</a> does a fantastic job of describing what's going on in the song, as there are so (too) many layers in each line of this song: <br />
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<i>"Instead of a </i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie" style="font-style: italic;">hippie</a><i> astronaut who casually slips the bonds of a crass and material world to journey beyond the stars, the song describes </i><b style="font-style: italic;">Major Tom</b><i> as a 'junkie, strung out in heaven's high, hitting an all-time low.' This lyric was interpreted as a play on the title of Bowie's 1977 album </i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_(David_Bowie_album)">Low</a><i>, which charted his withdrawal inwards following his drug excesses in America a short time before, another reversal of </i><b style="font-style: italic;">Major Tom</b><i>'s original withdrawal 'outwards' or towards space.</i><br />
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<i>The final lines, 'My mother said, to get things done, you'd better not mess with <b>Major Tom</b>,' have been compared to the verse from a nursery rhyme: 'My mother said / That I never should / Play with the gypsies in the wood.</i><br />
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<i>Bowie himself said in an interview with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NME">NME</a> shortly after the single's release, 'It really is an ode to childhood, if you like, a popular nursery rhyme. It's about space men becoming junkies (laughs).'"</i><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9wcOsRcquMg/XGg5c3n_U_I/AAAAAAAABi0/a_KmYVx3KaY-eGQ0DrEtx_FheS499-6JQCEwYBhgL/s1600/AshesToAshes3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9wcOsRcquMg/XGg5c3n_U_I/AAAAAAAABi0/a_KmYVx3KaY-eGQ0DrEtx_FheS499-6JQCEwYBhgL/s200/AshesToAshes3.jpg" width="197" /></a>The theatricality of Bowie made his career so wildly experimental and prolific; each phase can be likened to one of Picasso's. Here in the official video of "Ashes to Ashes," the Englishman beautifully, fantastically, incarnates <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot">Pierrot</a>, the stock character from the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i> of the 1500s who was appropriated and reappropriated in the French theatrical tradition--to the point that the mime is known (even by Italians) by the French version of the original Italian name, Pedrolino.<br />
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"I've never done good things</div>
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I've never done bad things</div>
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I've never done anything out of the blue"</div>
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With this lyric, one hears the back-up vocals, the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashes_to_Ashes_(David_Bowie_song)">dead-pan and chanted</a> background voices," of "whoa-oh" that follows and echoes the lead in a striking contrast that, to me, is almost ironic.<br />
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And now, for our listening & viewing pleasure:<br />
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"My mama said to get things done you better not mess with <b>Major Tom</b>."</div>
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I am just speculating but it seems that <b>Major Tom</b>, who turned junkie, could be taken as a reminder to not get involved in drugs. Although, when it comes to advising against doing drugs, I personally can't help chuckling thinking of one of my favorite lines from the British film, <i>Love Actually</i>, where Billy, the rock star-wannabe character who just had a break with a number one hit, gives the following advice to the camera and audiences at home. Brief pause for a comical interlude:</div>
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In all seriousness, and in self-reflection, Bowie captures the problem with drugs in "Ashes to Ashes"--a suggestive title no matter which theme you hear in the song lyrics: "Time and time again I tell myself, I'll stay clean tonight."<br />
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There is much one could say about the video of "Ashes to Ashes," the most expensive music video production at the time due to the solarized light and multiple locations. The threads that tie the fragments of identity one to the other, theatrical to real self (which is which?) are interesting. The unmasked Bowie is seen in a padded room of psychological interrogation, disturbance, and isolation, where he alternately sits in a solitary chair or curled up, huddling in the corner. Or how about the chair in the kitchen. Out and about with other characters, he is in costume, like most of us. The references to being a junkie are reflected in an alienistic connection through the video's images of him tied via tubes to a machine, which has taken the place of---or stands in for---one's connection to a womb, to drugs, to the guitar... basically, the connection to whatever one attaches to--life even--which could BREAK any second. <b>Major Tom</b> <i>is</i> the falsity of any of our attachments that help us to somehow "function" in life--but which are ultimately a horrifically artificial construction.<br />
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And as for this BREAK in connection, we go back to Space Oddity: "Planet earth is blue and there's nothing I can do"<br />
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Ground Control to Major Tom</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Your circuit's dead</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">There's something wrong</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Can ya hear me Major Tom</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Can ya hear me Major Tom</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Can ya hear me Major Tom</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Can you... hear/here am I floating on my tin can</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Far above the moon</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Planet earth is blue</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">and there's nothing I can do</span></div>
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Again, the work of artists who involve self-referentiality is so rich as their own <i>oeuvre</i> suggests a network of meaning and offers insight to one's own limitations (and hopes for transcendence). "That's the terror of knowing what this world about, watching some good friend scream 'Let me out!'" as he sings with Freddie Mercury (Queen) in "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDh_gHDvkk">Under Pressure</a>" (1982).<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y1bhmcKg4Dg/XGhBAH2S2cI/AAAAAAAABjs/6thVz5sx0N4T0b-ng2xLvDGWV2IBjPLwwCLcBGAs/s1600/Where%2Bare%2Bwe%2Bnow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="220" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y1bhmcKg4Dg/XGhBAH2S2cI/AAAAAAAABjs/6thVz5sx0N4T0b-ng2xLvDGWV2IBjPLwwCLcBGAs/s1600/Where%2Bare%2Bwe%2Bnow.jpg" /></a>Jumping forward to the new millennium now. Though I am no connoisseur of this album, and probably will never be, for various reasons, I find this <a href="https://www.blogger.com/Read%20more%20at%20https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/david-bowie-s-the-next-day-uncut-s-epic-definitive-review-14278#43GPmV4ZZOQebKRA.99">review of David Bowie's <i>The Next Day</i></a> super thoughtful, purely as a fan and someone who is wearing an earring of Ziggy Stardust's face today. <i>The Next Day</i> was his 24th and penultimate album, released in March 2013. The first single of the album, "Where Are We Now?", had been released on itunes on January 8th, 2013, his 66th birthday. David Bowie had been silent for over a decade (with some rumors of ill health). As Upcut writes so perfectly in this review: "January 8 was a Tuesday. We awoke to headlines that made us rub our sleepy eyes in disbelief. Bowie had stolen in like a thief in the night, uploading a new single on his 66th birthday (“Where Are We Now?”) and announcing the March release of an album (<i>The Next Day</i>) that had been recorded in conditions of Freemason-esque secrecy."<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZYBjs79RBC8/XGg6LLw-qCI/AAAAAAAABjM/F3YDGgsXWGwDhJhfPGNIodoM2bx7sU_8ACLcBGAs/s1600/Bowie%2Band%2Bguitar.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZYBjs79RBC8/XGg6LLw-qCI/AAAAAAAABjM/F3YDGgsXWGwDhJhfPGNIodoM2bx7sU_8ACLcBGAs/s320/Bowie%2Band%2Bguitar.jpg" /></a>The key terms used in the aforementioned article, whether by Bowie, Visconti (long-time producer of Bowie's work), or Upcut are worth isolating, suggesting a grander meaning and matrix to these themes, and at this moment of his life:<br />
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misdirection vulnerability "blistering rock" melancholia old haunts faded memories mortality honesty disclosure<br />
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"Bowie has a way of composing lyrics in non-linear fragments, but with manifest emotion within those fragments, so that the finished song seems to apply both to him and to mankind as a whole. He’s anxious. It’s an anxious world. He feels alone. The world is a lonely place."<br />
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Where are we without artists like Bowie? If you listen to lyrics on this 2013 album you'll hear Bowie critique the ersatz celebrity of reality TV. As Uncut writes of his perspective in this review, "This is Stepford Wives territory: celebrities with no lights on inside, menacing, robotic, inhuman. Bowie, losing patience with them, portrays them as a shamed, scared tribe huddling together in tight packs, bonded by paranoia, with radiant smiles but vacant eyes, and with – get this – 'child wives' in tow. 'We will never be rid of these stars, but I hope they live forever,' he concludes with derision."<br />
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-39296700811867511422019-01-22T08:02:00.003-08:002019-12-21T16:36:19.132-08:00Poetic lives and brushes <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Do you need a little darkness to get you going?<br />Let me be urgent as a knife, then...</i><br />
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As you may know, poet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Oliver" target="_blank">Mary Oliver</a> recently passed away, and while I did not know her work while she was alive, I am grateful to have read her verses as they have popped up in the media and on NPR. One is easily inspired to read more of her poetry, as her refreshing love for words and her in-tuneness with nature is refreshing and delightful, as sensed in poems like this:<br />
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The Summer Day<br />
by Mary Oliver<br />
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Who made the world?<br />
Who made the swan, and the black bear?<br />
Who made the grasshopper?<br />
This grasshopper, I mean-<br />
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,<br />
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, <br />
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down- <br />
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. <br />
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. <br />
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. <br />
I don't know exactly what a prayer is. <br />
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down <br />
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, <br />
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, <br />
which is what I have been doing all day. <br />
Tell me, what else should I have done? <br />
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? <br />
Tell me, what is it you plan to do <br />
with your one wild and precious life?<i>
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And then, the next poem, her four-poem series on her brush with death/cancer, strikes a nerve with me as I recently was at the Cancer Center and was told that they cannot tell me if I will have cancer or not--something I knew but only know the more I read. There has been a lot going on with the discovery of certain things that other FAP patients have had happen, things shared on our forum, and the growing concern over the polyps I actually have is... deafening at times. But then I read this poem, and I understand the overtones of grief AND hopefulness. </div>
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But still... cancer has taken many great people, one of which was my aunt, for a sole example. Mary Oliver beat lung cancer: "It feels like death has left its calling card" and though she survived she was "all the same, kind of shocked." Having had a similar experience in beating cancer, in a way, I appreciate her words. It's hard to speak of, and that is perhaps why it is so important that cancer patients share their story if they wish--first because it is therapeutic. </div>
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I would contend that the arts, literature, music--not to mention chanting <i>hare krishna hare krishna--</i>are the best for any patient, as it helps us look beyond the material, the terminal, the fatalism, the fear, and to hear something else. One can reflect on the end of life with writers and poets. With artists and musicians and good huggers. </div>
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You can also listen to an <a href="https://onbeing.org/blog/mary-olivers-cancer-poem/" target="_blank">interview with Mary Oliver</a> as she talks about her cancer episode and reads the following poems aloud:<br />
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<i>The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac</i></div>
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<i><i>by Mary Oliver</i></i></div>
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<i><i>1.</i></i><br />
<i><i>Why should I have been surprised?</i></i><br />
<i><i>Hunters walk the forest</i></i></div>
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<i><i>without a sound.</i></i></div>
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<i><i>The hunter, strapped to his rifle,</i></i></div>
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<i><i>the fox on his feet of silk,</i></i><br />
<i><i>the serpent on his empire of muscles—</i></i><br />
<i><i>all move in a stillness,</i></i><br />
<i><i>hungry, careful, intent.</i></i><i><br />Just as the cancer</i><br />
<i>entered the forest of my body,</i><br />
<i>without a sound.</i></div>
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<i><i>2.</i></i></div>
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<i><i>The question is,</i></i></div>
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<i><i>what will it be like</i></i></div>
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<i>after the last day?</i></div>
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<i>Will I float</i></div>
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<i>into the sky</i></div>
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<i>or will I fray</i></div>
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<i>within the earth or a river—</i></div>
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<i>remembering nothing?</i></div>
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<i>How desperate I would be</i></div>
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<i>if I couldn’t remember</i></div>
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<i>the sun rising, if I couldn’t</i></div>
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<i>remember trees, rivers; if I couldn’t</i></div>
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<i>even remember, beloved,</i></div>
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<i>your beloved name.</i></div>
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<i>3.</i></div>
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<i>I know, you never intended to be in this world.</i></div>
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<i>But you’re in it all the same.</i></div>
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<i>so why not get started immediately.</i></div>
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<i>I mean, belonging to it.</i></div>
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<i>There is so much to admire, to weep over.</i></div>
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<i>And to write music or poems about.</i></div>
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<i>Bless the feet that take you to and fro.</i></div>
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<i>Bless the eyes and the listening ears.</i></div>
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<i>Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.</i></div>
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<i>Bless touching.</i></div>
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<i>You could live a hundred years, it’s happened.</i></div>
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<i>Or not.</i></div>
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<i>I am speaking from the fortunate platform</i></div>
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<i>of many years,</i></div>
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<i>none of which, I think, I ever wasted.</i></div>
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<i>Do you need a prod?</i></div>
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<i>Do you need a little darkness to get you going?</i></div>
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<i>Let me be urgent as a knife, then,</i></div>
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<i>and remind you of Keats,</i></div>
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<i>so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,</i></div>
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<i>he had a lifetime.</i></div>
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<i>4.</i></div>
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<i>Late yesterday afternoon, in the heat,</i></div>
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<i>all the fragile blue flowers in bloom</i></div>
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<i>in the shrubs in the yard next door had</i></div>
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<i>tumbled from the shrubs and lay</i></div>
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<i>wrinkled and fading in the grass. But</i></div>
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<i>this morning the shrubs were full of</i></div>
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<i>the blue flowers again. There wasn’t</i></div>
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<i>a single one on the grass. How, I</i></div>
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<i>wondered, did they roll back up to</i></div>
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<i>the branches, that fiercely wanting,</i></div>
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<i>as we all do, just a little more of </i><i></i><br />
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<i><i>life?</i></i></div>
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The dash between the opening and closing dates of her life is a deeply poetic one. She seems to have gracefully lived up to her goal in life, a beautiful sentiment that she phrased so wonderfully: "When it's over, I want to say all my life/ I was a bride married to amazement." This quote is an invigorating source of inspiration, if recalled daily--and the world needs more of this perspective.<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
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<i>And to my dear aunt Robin, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your arm around my shoulder the other night. I thank you for the example of strength and the model of a courageous mother that you continue to be to me.</i></div>
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<i>Thank you for your shining love, a bright star listening in on it all.</i></div>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-12506712942011761372019-01-11T08:44:00.000-08:002019-01-14T10:04:58.413-08:00January is David Bowie month<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tkk_TQcjcFA/XDi9xIQQszI/AAAAAAAABbw/4CoWt--wjyUhD7uEQssDWk8EOxD43B7mQCLcBGAs/s1600/david%2Bbowie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="display: inline !important; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tkk_TQcjcFA/XDi9xIQQszI/AAAAAAAABbw/4CoWt--wjyUhD7uEQssDWk8EOxD43B7mQCLcBGAs/s320/david%2Bbowie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T1FZ2t6omnU/XDjALxYPvUI/AAAAAAAABcA/I-6x_fpcw3gnqnPxDVC1KxwCLtvykGavACEwYBhgL/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-11%2Bat%2B11.10.29%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="345" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T1FZ2t6omnU/XDjALxYPvUI/AAAAAAAABcA/I-6x_fpcw3gnqnPxDVC1KxwCLtvykGavACEwYBhgL/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-11%2Bat%2B11.10.29%2BAM.png" width="235" /></a>There is a lot I could say about David Bowie, and particularly on connecting with his song <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo" target="_blank">Space Oddity</a></i> before a scary eight-hour operation. (This was at a time when it was hard to connect to anything in the real world.) David Bowie was a unique outlet for many people. Imagine how much for his widow, Iman. I was recently touched in this month of his birthday (the 8th) and death (the 10th) to <a href="https://www.wmagazine.com/story/david-bowie-birthday-death-anniversary-iman-remembrance" target="_blank">read here</a> some of her beautiful sentiments about her late husband. They were a fantastic couple, and hearing either one talk about the other, the few times I have, was enough to be so glad that their stars aligned. It's moments like that make the world seem right, with all the quirky people and mess in it. </div>
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And if you're not Iman, you can still love <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Fell_to_Earth" target="_blank">the man who fell to earth</a>. Not as much, and not loving him for the man he actually was as she did, but as a fan for his mind and the clever moves, lyrical words, and surreal aspects he brought to us when he strutted into the music world. What a unique splash in the world of rock-n-roll.<br />
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He was a brilliant individual talking about duality and duplicity and fragmentation, and if you don't believe me listen to him predict what the internet would be and do ("nihilistic" being just one of the terms he uses)--and see how the journalist is just boggled by the insights Bowie shares in the following, profound interview from 1999 where he says: "I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable. I think we are actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying." Brilliant. "It's an alien life form," he said, twenty years ago.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bdL3NR9Yno0/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bdL3NR9Yno0?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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And now, this musical interlude....</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HivQqTtiHVw/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HivQqTtiHVw?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u_pXxeUold8/XDjAtmEbspI/AAAAAAAABcE/pHqg8QEMG2IE6vW4kFtWv5cjwBX8svTSQCEwYBhgL/s1600/domenica.%2Bdavid%2Bbowie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u_pXxeUold8/XDjAtmEbspI/AAAAAAAABcE/pHqg8QEMG2IE6vW4kFtWv5cjwBX8svTSQCEwYBhgL/s320/domenica.%2Bdavid%2Bbowie.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">If you have the chance, go see the <a href="https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/davidbowieis" target="_blank">David Bowie Is</a> exhibit if it comes near you.<br />I saw it at the Brooklyn museum, and it blew my mind to see just how prolific and creative he was.</span></td></tr>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-48411852206962842822019-01-04T11:37:00.000-08:002019-01-05T07:12:11.703-08:00Srila Prabhupada<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._C._Bhaktivedanta_Swami_Prabhupada" target="_blank">A. C. Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada</a><br />
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;">"We don't learn in 5 minutes, 10 minutes. It requires time."</span></div>
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Q: And can we really undo the karma of all our past lives in this one life? </div>
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A: <span style="color: #fff2cc;">"It takes one minute"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;">"What Krishna says to do?" <i>...quoting the Gita</i>...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;">Full surrender; then you come to me without any doubt. </span><br />
<span style="color: #fff2cc;">Everything is there. Krishna has given everything fully. </span><br />
<span style="color: #fff2cc;">If we accept it, it is very simple. There is no difficulty."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;">"A diseased man if he doesn't care for medicine, he dies, he suffers, that's all."</span></div>
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Lyrics: "<i>When I see his love I know <br />I have a long, long way to go<br />When will I taste the love he is feeling inside?"</i></div>
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The following text <i>en rose</i> is taken from a blog I stumbled onto called <i><a href="https://ajarvraja.blogspot.com/2018/02/nothing-other-than-love.html?showComment=1546629909679#c5104314100130080978" target="_blank">The Door Ajar to Vraja</a></i>, and is dated February 3, 2018: <span style="color: #f4cccc;">In the imaginary scene of the poem Krishna is speaking confidentially to a friend sometime after Kurukshetra, in a mixture of reminiscences and emotions, from Dwarka, to the rasa dance, to the meeting in Kurukshetra. In doing so Krishna reveals the secret depths of his love. Krishna never puts his devotees through something which He does not take also upon Himself.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f4cccc;">SD 32.21 "Even when I removed Myself from your sight by suddenly disappearing, <br />I never stopped loving you."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc;">GC 23.39 "O dearest Gopis! The first separation has been most difficult for me."</span></div>
<span style="color: #f4cccc;"><br /><i>My solitude nestled<br />in the recesses of the night,<br />and like shadows that come forth<br />with brighter light,<br />its agony too appeared,<br />by moonlit memories<br />of their love for Me.<br /><br />With the ardent desire<br />for a tidal wave<br />of this ocean of their love and my love,<br />to flood the hearts and the stars,<br />I disappeared,<br />causing their lamentation,<br />and thirstily I drank from the same (1)<br />chalice of longing emotions<br />welling up from purest love.<br /><br />Spying unseen<br />upon their absorption and tribulation<br />while they searched for Me,<br />with breathless glances,<br />in incessant meditation<br />unwavering, on Me only,<br />I also endured separation, (2)<br />and could wait no more<br />for their embraces (3)<br />as the tears of love,<br />furrowing their faces,<br />were gushing like ecstatic rivers<br />of their sweetest love.<br /><br />And impatient, <br />covetous of the mellows<br />flourishing in their hearts,<br />in that innermost hollow I stood,<br />a restless spectator of their total love,<br />incapable of repaying<br />the wealth of devotion<br />of my most beloveds.<br /><br />In the most famous and also infamous (4)<br />state of Godhood of being self-satisfied,<br />no one could fathom why I cried,<br />why my heart sighed,<br />breathless from feeling separation,<br />dragged and dependent on<br />their selfless adoration.<br /><br />I smiled anew<br />to soothe their hearts,<br />and hiding my anguish,<br />asked for forgiveness.<br />They offered their fragrant ghee of love, (5)<br />and the dense honey<br />of sulkiness,<br />thus plundering my love,<br />so that I, delighted, sold myself. (6)</i></span><br />
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Transcribed below is a salient quote from Prabhupada's lecture in the video just below:</div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;">"I, you, everyone of us, we have the trouble at the time of death and at the time of birth, birth and death. We are living entity, we are living soul. Birth and death take place of this body. The body takes birth and the body is vanquished. Death means sleeping for seven months, that’s all. That is death.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;">The soul is when this body is unfit for living, the soul gives up this body and, by superior arrangement, the soul is put again into the womb of a particular type of mother and the soul develops a particular type of body[.…] So, it is a great science: How the soul, the living soul, is in contact with this material body and how he’s transmigrating from one body to another. The example is given just like: We are just like when the garment or shirt or coat becomes too old, we give it up and we accept another shirt or coat. Similarly, I, you, every one of us, we are spirit-soul. We are given a type of body and shirt and coat by the arrangement of material nature. That particular body is given to us for our particular type of standard of living. Just like you: European, American, Australian… You have got a particular type, and you are given an opportunity, a particular standard of living.... So if an Indian comes [to your city--Melbourne, Australia--in this case], they will be surprised by this standard of living [....] </span><br />
<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><b>'I am suffering! Why you have to accept birth? Why you have to accept death? Why you have to accept disease? Why you have to accept old age?' </b>These are the problems. There are the problems and these problems can be solved in human form of life--not in the life of cats and dogs. They cannot. So our only request is that you make your life successful, come to the real understanding of your existence, and this is possible simply by chanting <i>Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare</i>”</span></div>
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This last video may produce an impression, a disclaimer for sensitive viewers. It is of Prabhupada preparing to depart, as devotees chant and give love.</div>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-24143772330390418572018-12-25T15:43:00.002-08:002018-12-25T18:03:08.049-08:00Noel, Noel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Nothing like Christmastime with lots of family--and four generations together--</div>
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to make one feel hopeful, grateful, expectant again. . .</div>
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Joy, peace and love to all: Life <i>is</i> beautiful!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w-e3DXkGB_Y/XCK_XxfggqI/AAAAAAAABa8/UVI3kZO43b4l13cZPOlnnVqTLL7r6sc0gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4068.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w-e3DXkGB_Y/XCK_XxfggqI/AAAAAAAABa8/UVI3kZO43b4l13cZPOlnnVqTLL7r6sc0gCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_4068.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feeling "greatful" for my mother, nana, and son</td></tr>
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Images of love from around the world to celebrate its unique forms and potential:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wuluk Bu kissing young cafe, just a few days old.<br />
In the Afghan Kyrgyz community, courtesy of National Geographic</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Congo, <br />
Courtesy of African Parks Network </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zebra love, courtesy of Safaridotcom<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Syrian artist Tammam Azzam projects Gustave Klimt's <i>The Kiss.</i><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">"I chose it as an icon of love, a way of looking for the stories of love </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">behind </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">this wall that was completely obliterated by the machinery of war."</span><br />
Courtesy of Thingsglobe</td></tr>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-30599657987026266442018-12-20T11:23:00.001-08:002018-12-21T13:38:42.006-08:00Emotions: Aklishta or Klishta?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Art by Estonian artist, Mirjam Siim, <br />
who lives in Porto, Portugal</td></tr>
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We might not think of it unless it is pointed out, but emotions, according to leading research on this "new" topic, help us prioritize and organize our strategy of behavior and inquiry within the complex web of human social life, as Dr. Ronald de Sousa (University of Toronto) says in an interview.<br />
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EMOTION. "At first blush, the things we ordinarily call emotions differ from one another along several dimensions. For example, some emotions are occurrences (e.g., panic), and others are dispositions (e.g., hostility); some are short-lived (e.g., anger) and others are long-lived (e.g., grief); some involve primitive cognitive processing (e.g., fear of a suddenly looming object), and others involve sophisticated cognitive processing (e.g., fear of losing a chess match); some are conscious (e.g., disgust about an insect in the mouth) and others are unconscious (e.g., unconscious fear of failing in life); some have prototypical facial expressions (e.g., surprise) and others lack them (e.g., regret). Some involve strong motivations to act (e.g., rage) and others do not (e.g., sadness). Some are present across species (e.g., fear) and others are exclusively human (e.g., schadenfreude). And so on." [<i>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</i>]<br />
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My mentor recently directed me to interdisciplinary research being done on <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotion/" target="_blank">emotion</a> and health at the <a href="http://emotionresearcher.com/" target="_blank">International Society for Research on Emotion</a> (ISRE). I was struck by the comments that seasoned scholar and author Ronald de Sousa makes while discussing his research on emotion and language, as well as the implications of the findings for perception, literature, and art. His thoughts provide insights to the way we actually live our lives: the relation of emotion to truth, a highly individualized experience. The validation of emotion coupled with the search of truths is what I hope to reflect on, as noted in my post from October 26, "Formality of a Punch Line," when I looked to ways of thinking about <i>aklishta</i> versus <i>klishta </i>in order to determine whether emotions are leading me on the right path: As I mused, "To detangle ourselves from our identification with mental thoughts, which are either <i>klishta</i> or <i>aklishta</i>, sounds very easy to say and I wonder how hard it is to do--especially when all areas of life seem to be bound up into one giant ball. But again, the next step is to observe whether our thoughts are colored or uncolored, useful or not useful, and it is said that this can be done as one goes about one's day." De Sousa's work certainly seems to take my question to a more informed level.<br />
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What a never-ending effort: sorting out illusions and emotional truths, sifting through them in an analytical way so as to make life decisions that are emotionally and rationally sound. This is essential to directing one's energies in the most efficient, healthy, authentic way, and so this interview is very thought-provoking for anyone looking to be more aware of the role feelings play in our lives.<br />
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Here is an excerpt from an interview with De Sousa, courtesy of ISRE. Keep reading for the fuller context, or see the full <a href="http://emotionresearcher.com/the-rationality-of-emotion-biology-ideology-and-emotional-truth/" target="_blank">interview</a>.<br />
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<i>To a considerable extent, our emotional life is conditioned by ideology, which in turn is shaped to some (but exactly how large?) extent by words. A leading question concerns the extent to which that ideology is dependent on and malleable on the basis of explicit norms. How, for example, can an experience of indignation, envy, love or jealousy be explicitly rationalized? Emotions are modulated by verbal expressions and descriptions. They also influence behaviour, both intentional and reflexive. The ways in which they do this raise a number of puzzles. One stems from our susceptibility to recalcitrant emotions, i.e. those that subsist despite the removal of their cognitive basis. Another is “imaginative resistance”, which is our inability, first noticed by David Hume, to imagine ourselves endorsing judgments that conflict with our current evaluative and moral commitments. Both raise the question of how our explicit reasons relate to our felt emotions. Yet another example stems from the difficulty of communicating aesthetic judgments by explicit verbal description of works of art, as well as the converse question of the ability of art and literature to influence our emotional repertoire. <br /><br /> Other issues concerning the relation of language to emotion pertain to the norms governing acceptable emotional responses and expressions, such as the quasi-moral demands for sincerity, spontaneity, and emotional authenticity; the culturally variable aesthetics of understatement; the contrary effects on erotic experience of explicit sexual language in different ‘registers’; the power of verbal information on the effects of drugs; the effects of ‘priming’ (subliminal exposure to certain words) on cognition and behaviour; and the surprising enhancement of well-being by sessions spent in writing about emotionally trying experiences demonstrated by some of the work of Jim Pennebaker. All of these phenomena call for a general theory of the way that our emotions relate to our capacity to reason explicitly about them, as well as to their verbal expressions.</i><br />
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This makes me want to delve into De Sousa's book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rationality-Emotion-Bradford-Books/dp/0262540576/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545317434&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Rationality+of+Emotion"><i>The Rationality of Emotion</i></a>, which is described as a<i> urbane and witty book </i>in which<i> Ronald de Sousa disputes the widespread notion that reason and emotion are natural antagonists. He argues that emotions are a kind of perception, that their roots in the paradigm scenarios in which they are learned give them an essentially dramatic structure, and that they have a crucial role to-play in rational beliefs, desires, and decisions by breaking the deadlocks of pure reason.</i></div>
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Here follows more of the interview with Ronald de Sousa, courtesy of ISRE.<br />
<b><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"> When did you first turn your attention to emotion? What was it that drew you to it?</span></b><br />
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<b><br /></b>It dawned on me that the topic of emotion would provide a pretense of specialization while inviting me to think, like a true dilettante, about just about everything: mind, language, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, and even life. So that’s when I started thinking about emotions. I wrote an article on “The Rationality of Emotions”, which was published in 1979. The central idea was that emotions have a narrative structure and tend to rehearse “paradigm scenarios” learned in early life. This remained the core idea of <i>The Rationality of Emotion</i>, much of which was written during a blissful sabbatical year spent at the University of British Columbia in 1984. The book was published in 1987 by Bradford Books, a wonderful small press...<br />
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<b><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Your book <i>The Rationality of Emotion </i>(1989) has been a reference point for philosophers working in emotion ever since it was published, and has inspired a great deal of further research. What do you think were the most influential ideas in the book? Is there anything you think was overlooked? Is there anything you’d change?</span></b><br />
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The <i>Rationality of Emotion</i> explored two simple ideas, with a few corollaries. First, emotions play too important a role in our life not to be linked to some biological function. Second, whatever function that might be affects our capacity to make intelligent decisions in complex situations, not just to respond reflexively to threats or affordances of daily life. Emotions, I suggested, solve the “Frame Problem”, which is essentially the problem of knowing what to ignore without wasting time examining every possible consequence of a decision, to make sure it can be ignored as irrelevant. Emotions do this by controlling the salience of information, lines of inquiry, and live practical options. They narrow the focus of attention to ranges of factors that we have “learned”, on both the evolutionary and the individual scale, are the most likely to be relevant in any given situation. Emotions therefore contribute to our capacity for rational decision, even though, as is all too obvious, they sometimes distort judgement and interfere with rational deliberation. Emotions can also be said to be “rational” – contrasting not with “irrational” but with “a-rational” – in a second sense, more or less corresponding to what we mean when we describe someone as “reasonable” or “unreasonable”.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Away from Near," Aida Nayeban</td></tr>
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Although the book is quite frequently cited, I’m not sure it has been particularly influential. One idea that has been picked up here and there is the idea of “paradigm scenarios.” Probably the reason this has been picked up his that it was not particularly original in the first place. The core idea goes back to Freud, if not to Aristotle. On the therapeutic side of psychology it has often, if not always, been regarded as obvious that emotional patterns first learned in early childhood can be difficult to shake – both for good and for ill. Several philosophers, notably Martha Nussbaum, have emphasized the role of art and literature in getting us to refine and modify our more primitive patterns of emotional response and the attitudes that go with them. But the idea was, and remains, underdeveloped. I myself explored some of the problems it raises myself in a paper on “Emotions, Education and Time” published in <i>Metaphilosophy</i> in 1990 [....] Paradigm scenarios raise questions about flexibility in personality and emotional temperament which are vital to educational practice: How is it possible to control one’s emotions, to mature emotionally? Much also remains to be done to understand how similarity among situations, triggering similar responses, is implemented in the brain. Recently I have been very interested in the extent to which we can “re-gestalt” situations in such a way as to refashion our emotional responses. This is a domain in which emotional constructionists have much to teach us. We need to be aware of the extent to which we ascribe emotions, not only to others but even to ourselves, in the light of half conscious assumptions about how we are supposed to respond. Our emotional repertoire is partly dependent on our ideology.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We don't see with our eyes and hear with our eyes: <br />
"We see and hear with our brains."<br />
Distinctions help us navigate the world; <br />
it's important that those things be identifiable.<br />
Source: "<a href="http://www.kut.org/post/gestalt-principles-and-why-we-search-whole" style="font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">Gestalt Principles</a> and Why Search for the Whole"</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #eeeeee;">One very influential idea in the book was that in some important ways, emotions are much closer to perception than judgement. In recent years, some philosophers have argued that emotion just is a form of perception. What’s your view of the way in which that idea has been developed since the book was published?</span></b><br />
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The leading contemporary exponent of the perceptual view is Christine Tappolet, who argues in her most recent book that emotions are essentially perceptions of values. They are therefore susceptible to being either correct or incorrect, depending on whether the value perceived in a given situation or state of affairs is warranted by that situation or state of affairs. This seems to me to be a very nice idea; but I am not convinced that it has any ontological implications. It may seem that if values are perceived, then they must be real and independent of our projections. But perhaps this may signal nothing more than a kind of grammatical fact about the relation between emotions and their “formal objects”.<br />
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I am inclined to emphasize the metaphorical character of the analogy between emotions and perception. Analogies are useful in getting us to notice both resemblances and differences. But they don’t really explain anything, and shouldn’t be taken to do more than they can.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Another important theme that has emerged in your writings on emotion is that of emotional truth, which you’ve explained in terms of ‘axiological holism’ Can you explain what you mean by that? And why has articulating a notion of emotional truth been important to you?</span></b><br />
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<b><br /></b>Insofar as I do agree with Tappolet that emotions are prima facie apprehensions of value, their rationality will be neither purely cognitive nor purely practical, but rather axiological. This raises the question of how our values can be appraised, reappraised, refined, or improved, when the material for doing so ultimately derives from emotions themselves. The thought behind the notion of axiological holism is that all our emotional responses, including all the reasoning and argument that we might bring to debates about their justification, are potentially relevant to our evaluative stance as we face the world. <b>Reflective equilibrium is the best we can hope for in the realm of values</b>, just as, if we give up on epistemic foundationalism and the naïve correspondence theory of truth, epistemic coherence is the best we can aspire to in science.<br />
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My thoughts about emotional truth embody a further parallel between emotion and cognition: just as coherence in beliefs guarantees (only) that they could all be true together, so axiological coherence requires that our emotions could all be “correct” together in a relevant sense of correctness. That correctness is what I choose to call emotional truth. The idea actually arose from some earlier work I published in <i>Mind</i> in 1974. Typical intentional states, notably including belief and desire, have both conditions of satisfaction (a correspondence between the representational content of the state and the objective situation they purport to refer to), and conditions of success (which depends on whether the state in question meets its own inherent point, or defining standard of correctness). For belief, both of these coincide: the truth of a proposition constitutes its satisfaction, and it is also sufficient for its success as a state of belief, because belief inherently aims at truth. Desire, by contrast, aims at goodness. So for desire, unlike belief, the two conditions diverge. If I desire something that is not good and get it, then my desire is satisfied, but it was not successful. A similar pattern, it seemed to me, holds for any typical emotion: its formal object both identifies the emotion in question and specifies its condition of success. Thus if “the dangerous” is the proper object of fear, fear will be successful in its own terms only if its target is indeed dangerous. My proposal was that we should focus on the notion of success, and hence extend talk of truth to an emotion in the light of is success or failure in its inherent point. In truth, this idea has gained little traction. In a very sensible article, Mikko Salmela pointed out that it would seem more natural to speak of “true emotions” if and only if they satisfied both satisfaction and success. Since this is to some extent a verbal issue I chose in my later book to dig my heels in. My reason was that I wanted to suggest that the important dimension in which we should evaluate emotions was the one that measured fittingness, not the one that measured their – much disputed – representational function.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Art by Mirjam Siim</td></tr>
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In closing this post, I'll add that further interviews and articles on the <a href="http://emotionresearcher.com/" target="_blank">ISRE site</a> offer a wealth of research on emotions, trustworthy sources for investigating these sneaky things that "make life worth living and sometimes worth ending"--to return to De Sousa's entry on EMOTION in the <i>Stanford</i> <i>Encyclopedia of Philosophy. . . </i><br />
<br />
"No aspect of our mental life is more important to the quality and meaning of our existence than the emotions."<br />
<br />
Alas!<br />
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-14824406126449256982018-12-19T15:03:00.004-08:002018-12-19T15:24:10.411-08:00Why one who seeks, seeks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W0OpiwcrolA/XBVA3pQkguI/AAAAAAAABYg/r5FnMOLxabY8PtiF0SoGfu6dP-Az9HwnwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5144.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="750" height="312" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W0OpiwcrolA/XBVA3pQkguI/AAAAAAAABYg/r5FnMOLxabY8PtiF0SoGfu6dP-Az9HwnwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_5144.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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While this is so true in this world, with all the losses and disappointments we have faced and will yet face, this is also not how is best useful to live life thinking. </div>
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Impermanence points to something that can be intuited and learned about, a devotion that is much more deeply fulfilling than what the world, bound up in time, karma, and violence as it is, offers. </div>
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And so that which is beyond and above those things, that's most likely what inspires devotion of the kind that is never disappointed. Faith is like a butterfly as it becomes rekindled and more deeply felt. Once the light is burning, there isn't much that could take its flame away. This is why many saints and holy men and women survived really crazy scenarios, even torture or death. Only love of the very most compelling, beautiful and true kind can make anyone do that.</div>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-82741749121835708372018-12-18T18:09:00.001-08:002018-12-18T18:09:30.215-08:00December 18th offerings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Love is an attribute of God wanting nothing<br />
repentance is an attribute of man, it is a worm<br />
to Love's dragon, absurd in Love's presence.<br />
Love for anything but Him is unreal<br />
for that which is not Him is a gilded object<br />
shining outside yet empty inside,<br />
light and golden on the outside yet dark within.<br />
The moment divine light disappears<br />
darkness is revealed and unreal love<br />
is extinguished like a candle,<br />
the body is discarded and beauty returns to its source.<br />
The moonlight goes back to the moon<br />
and its reflection disappears from the black wall.<br />
Divine Love is the Sun of Perfection<br />
the Divine Word is its Light<br />
and the creatures are its shadow.<br />
~Rumi<br />
<br />
You have been caught in the claws of a lion<br />
my friend, do not look for happiness.<br />
Only harshness can defeat the hidden enemy inside you.<br />
A man beating a rug with a stick does not<br />
aim at the rug but at the dust inside it.<br />
Your ego is covered with many dusty veils<br />
you cannot remove them at once.<br />
With each blow, little by little<br />
they will disappear from the face of your heart.<br />
But do not try to escape into sleep<br />
the Beloved's sharp claws will chase you in your dreams.<br />
A carpenter does not carve a piece of wood out of cruelty<br />
but in order to create a beautiful shape.<br />
The harsh hand of the Beloved is a blessing, my friend,<br />
it will refine you and make you pure in the end.<br />
~Rumi<br />
<br />
The lover's concern is passion and madness<br />
the charming game the Beloved plays is aloof detachment.<br />
Learn the dance of light from the atoms<br />
learn to jump into the fire like the moth.<br />
Learn to charge like a lion, not sneak like a fox.<br />
Learn to soar like a falcon, not flutter<br />
from flower to flower like a butterfly.<br />
Spring water tastes sweet but is incomparable<br />
to the majesty of the ocean.<br />
Your being is the cup that holds all secrets<br />
do not let them leak through your eyes and ears.<br />
~Rumi<br />
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-87116319553595535632018-12-17T11:20:00.001-08:002018-12-18T17:59:17.537-08:00Tree of Lights<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DHhAyXh4NQA/XBf1vNqhjPI/AAAAAAAABYs/U2uMLMkP6Uggw_OI3ikcDGRWJmzhvLfkgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6707.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DHhAyXh4NQA/XBf1vNqhjPI/AAAAAAAABYs/U2uMLMkP6Uggw_OI3ikcDGRWJmzhvLfkgCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_6707.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Feliz Natal</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xuLc64WpkcE/XBf1vkVji4I/AAAAAAAABYw/NQ9mCoFbv4cZFohLsnfxTZYAGu_tzBHyACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6714.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xuLc64WpkcE/XBf1vkVji4I/AAAAAAAABYw/NQ9mCoFbv4cZFohLsnfxTZYAGu_tzBHyACLcBGAs/s400/IMG_6714.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lovely reminder of family values. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">The warm time being shared by the people in the foreground was as bright as the tree. </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">I'm guessing these ladies are loving daughters, nieces, or friends of the older men in the wheelchairs who they so lovingly were making laugh. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Beautiful moments, wishes for all.</span>
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Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372558757850819555.post-61446077499025730142018-12-13T11:32:00.001-08:002019-12-21T16:35:16.705-08:00Poesia dentro e fora<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RxZfThnsRlk/XBKs5fR8KEI/AAAAAAAABWY/8GcoD65aLrUzssGRa2qDw0traEOIFulZwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6376.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RxZfThnsRlk/XBKs5fR8KEI/AAAAAAAABWY/8GcoD65aLrUzssGRa2qDw0traEOIFulZwCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_6376.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>La praia</i></div>
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I didn't need to touch it</div>
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because it got in my hair<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MGVZqnGrUSA/XBKs2vgl9zI/AAAAAAAABWM/lruX4YsXTzg_cJ65fmhoMOD77WFyCCdCwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6359.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MGVZqnGrUSA/XBKs2vgl9zI/AAAAAAAABWM/lruX4YsXTzg_cJ65fmhoMOD77WFyCCdCwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_6359.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>~</i>
<i><br /></i>
<i>O Palácio</i></div>
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In the silence, in the echoes</div>
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I pursue my path</div>
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Covert depression</div>
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and ripples of revelation<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RlOLpsqd8tU/XBKs5gq6d7I/AAAAAAAABWc/JzPOKse8MLg3crxpSDtNW8VPYyBTdqR-wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6580.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RlOLpsqd8tU/XBKs5gq6d7I/AAAAAAAABWc/JzPOKse8MLg3crxpSDtNW8VPYyBTdqR-wCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_6580.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Structures of power as in history</div>
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soon discoverable</div>
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with the voice</div>
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that arose</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-an2Cmv1-0iQ/XBLP-OLmjAI/AAAAAAAABXE/-asUpRL5Qxw5bKHVTbYiUs7FW4AEQY2dQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6632.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-an2Cmv1-0iQ/XBLP-OLmjAI/AAAAAAAABXE/-asUpRL5Qxw5bKHVTbYiUs7FW4AEQY2dQCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_6632.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
I discovered</div>
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the mechanisms at work</div>
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in the brutishness of time memorial</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
where pain grazed many days after</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1T9DMK5bIlw/XBLQBBD1QbI/AAAAAAAABXQ/W16eVa0HtLMvLbKMie6QdPY4lITrszeRACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6645.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1T9DMK5bIlw/XBLQBBD1QbI/AAAAAAAABXQ/W16eVa0HtLMvLbKMie6QdPY4lITrszeRACEwYBhgL/s400/IMG_6645.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
The start of fresh tears before the dawn</div>
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destinies entwined</div>
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in his small hand</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WuDPvdrSQKg/XBLP_ZRy2PI/AAAAAAAABXM/CB2saEyTgWcmQdsojqNus3CBFpaGLsLOgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6644.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WuDPvdrSQKg/XBLP_ZRy2PI/AAAAAAAABXM/CB2saEyTgWcmQdsojqNus3CBFpaGLsLOgCEwYBhgL/s400/IMG_6644.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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Time confined to a particle,</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
its reflection in a fun house mirror</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
at all hours of the night.<br />
I doggedly made haste</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FvoA5K0xrw8/XBLP-ek3XtI/AAAAAAAABXs/k6HcJ6R6o8gLJrcDfRhcgrElcpyNUsfYgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6635.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FvoA5K0xrw8/XBLP-ek3XtI/AAAAAAAABXs/k6HcJ6R6o8gLJrcDfRhcgrElcpyNUsfYgCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_6635.JPG" width="425" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Only through the camera lens</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
which fell on my body like drops over time<br />
could I comprehend the mark and spasm,<br />
see the soul and what happened to it</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jh-C66k4Rog/XBLP8IbSutI/AAAAAAAABXg/bFU8HyXqO8UX3EAQ4tUIosf7ADUY_UinQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6602.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jh-C66k4Rog/XBLP8IbSutI/AAAAAAAABXg/bFU8HyXqO8UX3EAQ4tUIosf7ADUY_UinQCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_6602.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Can you believe it?<br />
I ask myself.</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xaelPPKoHUs/XBLP4lHKvuI/AAAAAAAABXg/PBSUzPlAnH0IxJFTEUPYVZIaxUKyMKrrwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xaelPPKoHUs/XBLP4lHKvuI/AAAAAAAABXg/PBSUzPlAnH0IxJFTEUPYVZIaxUKyMKrrwCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_6579.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
In the process it was, I let go</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
and out of nowhere I'm ready to speak</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d0SFopt1sqQ/XBLP6N1-AcI/AAAAAAAABXs/U73-Ba-4K28Ym0JWKjfPIv0jNc9_fVNDQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6597.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d0SFopt1sqQ/XBLP6N1-AcI/AAAAAAAABXs/U73-Ba-4K28Ym0JWKjfPIv0jNc9_fVNDQCEwYBhgL/s400/IMG_6597.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Can you hear it?</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Silence waking up<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NpsAns0Li58/XBLVJCodGWI/AAAAAAAABX4/bvJd_lB0xfMvuYMCC_T5DVNY1JVd1BfqACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6574.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NpsAns0Li58/XBLVJCodGWI/AAAAAAAABX4/bvJd_lB0xfMvuYMCC_T5DVNY1JVd1BfqACLcBGAs/s640/IMG_6574.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I didn't know I had been waiting<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YGtR4jMY0A0/XBLVJLPAlLI/AAAAAAAABX0/hGXqCL08RXgDw00poUlF-l77TO5BpJbgQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6536.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YGtR4jMY0A0/XBLVJLPAlLI/AAAAAAAABX0/hGXqCL08RXgDw00poUlF-l77TO5BpJbgQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_6536.JPG" width="213" /></a> </div>
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Words seeking light within</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hafev0ZRrfA/XBMqmZRPOeI/AAAAAAAABYI/9OoMuf-FnV8ZaYSyprIYQaVy17VvNOnwQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6410.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="425" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hafev0ZRrfA/XBMqmZRPOeI/AAAAAAAABYI/9OoMuf-FnV8ZaYSyprIYQaVy17VvNOnwQCLcBGAs/s640/IMG_6410.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Unfolding as if for a friend</div>
<br /></div>
Domenicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511852919733385814noreply@blogger.com0