Nothing but mist

The mere fact that we're alive is a veil between us and being able to understand our existence...

Everything we know about life, we’ve learned thanks to the collective experience of humanity throughout history, recorded in books, and to the experiences of the people around us. We all know at least the basic things of the deep mysteries of existence: why we were born, what’s the point of life, why do we have to die, how you never know how close death is to you, how people say that we should live as though each day were our last, etc. Concerning death, everyone has different beliefs about what happens beyond and how to deal with it….in my case, I know that if you love God, you will go to heaven after you die, once your soul is purified for it. I know that heaven is paradise, it’s the place of ultimate joy and beauty; so do millions of other people: we are certain about it. But it’s curious how we know….but we’ve NEVER been there. No one has ever come back from the death to tell us what it’s exactly like. And we’ll NEVER know, neither farther on in the future …not until we die. I sometimes think about how the dead see us, the living, from where they are. They have such a larger scope and dimension added to their understanding of existence…and I understand then more clearly how our vision here is so LIMITED. It’s only once we die that we will have a direct connection to what we should know, to what really matters, the sense our life had…it’s absolutely true what they say in The Secret of Kells:

 “Oh, there's nothing in this life but mist”

-Brother Aidan

"There is nothing in this life/world but mist,

And we will only be alive

For a short time.”

--Aisling’s Song

Yo Nezahualcóyotl lo pregunto:

¿Acaso de veras se vive con raíz en la tierra?

Nada es para siempre en la tierra:

Sólo un poco aquí.

Aunque sea de jade se quiebra,

Aunque sea de oro se rompe,

Aunque sea plumaje de quetzal se desgarra.

No para siempre en la tierra:

Sólo un poco aquí.
--Yo lo pregunto
(Nezahualcóyotl)

Café Tibio

Hay algo que me es irritante. La cuestión de la que me expreso es un poco más que irritante, es terriblemente irritante. A pesar de esta situación ser irritante para mí, para otros no lo es. No obstante, para mí lo es; y esto es suficiente para que sea una problemática real, inaudita e inaceptable.

            La situación por la que apelo solución, se trata de que he comprado un café a través de servicarro; cuando luego de irme, noto que estaba tibio. Entiendanme cuando les digo que es una situación seria.  El café tibio es un serio problema y les expresaré porqué.

Un café frío no tiene porqué causarte malestares. Ya está frío. Perdida ya está su función. No hay porqué perder la cabeza; se siente desagradable cuando lo bebes. No hablo de Frappuccinos, esos son otros veintes ya que, si fuese ese el caso, lo habrías pedido así porque así lo deseas. Piensa, además, en qué otros motivos el café se te pondría frío:

Despertaste tú, estudiante, a terminar una presentación a la prisa, ya que el informe es en dos horas y un cuarto; el café se quedó muriéndose de la risa.
 Estas peleando con tus hijos para que se levanten y preparen para llevarlos a la escuela, cuando Anita te dice que tiene que llevar cartulina y crayones a la escuela… bueno, el café… olvídate de eso. 
Tuviste tremendo party la noche antes; te acostaste a dormir hacen tres horas y te levantaste hacen quince minutos. Estas mirando el café… Mirándolo… Mirándolo… Mirando el café por media hora. No tomaste ni un sorbo, pero lo miraste.

El café tibio, sin embargo, te llena de ilusiones. Al tomar un sorbo esperas a que todavía le quede esa calidez que abraza tu interior. Ese calor de café que alegra el alma. Esa temperatura que te llena de esperanzas. Te hace creer que todavía estas a tiempo para recibir el consuelo que tanto necesitas para proseguir con tu día...

Sin embargo, al probarlo notas que todas tus expectativas estaban erradas. No tan solo al café le resta su grandeza, sino que se sigue encaminando a su perdición.  

Selfie- Pilot Episode Review

Selfie's main cast can be seen right now on Hulu

On September 30^th, ABC will premiere it’s new comedy, Selfie.  It stars Karen Gilligan (Amy in Doctor Who, Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy) as Eliza Doolie, a social media obsessed young woman who is obsessed over her online fame and attention.  After an embarrassing viral stint, she enlists her coworker Henry Higgs, a talented marketing expert played by John Cho (Hikaru Sulu in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films, Harold in the Harold and Kumar films) to help her clean up her act.  

Literally.

The whole first act of the pilot has Eliza set up as an incorrigible, annoying, promiscuous person who, upon learning that her new love interest was married the whole time, proceeds to throw up in the plane she was flying in with the rest of her coworkers.  The whole thing is kind of crude, and the dialouge all feels very forced and kind of pretentious, not honest at all.  Both of our main characters are pretty unlikable as we see them meet and try to form an unlikely partnership.

Then something really good happened.

Henry notices that every morning that Eliza is greeted by the nice lady at the lobby of their pharmaceutical company, and their conversations basically consist of Eliza ranting incoherently about her own interests, and then storming off.  Henry then takes the lady’s nameplate and turns it around.

“Do you even know her name?”  he asks.

 

And in that moment I finally made a connection with the show.  I can honestly say that I can relate with the fact that I’m so absent minded sometimes I don’t even remember the names of the people I see every day.  Throughout the rest of the episode the pair proceeds to take part in various exercises that help Eliza deal with her lack of true social skills.  While the overall plot is very predictable and the ending extremely obvious and corny, the actual moments of cool stuff come when the show pauses for a moment to point out that things are never quite as they seem.  

Eliza’s sexy appearance depends heavily on extra padding around her curves.  Her supposedly holier-than-thou bookworm of a neighbor is actually quite the fashion expert herself.  And having casual conversations can be meaningful and rewarding once you forget about yourself.  

But the biggest impact the episode had on me was how, at least in Eliza’s eyes, healthy, normal social conventions were foreign and uncomfortable throughout the show.  And this is a trend that I notice in myself and some of the people around me.  Simple details and social cues can be genuine and loving, without having an ulterior motive or sexual connotations.  And I think it’s very important that we don’t forget that.

While the series itself will probably never be anything spectacular, the fact that it even exists and that it covers such a specific range of themes really puts things in perspective for me.  While most people out there still probably know how to talk to each other like they are people, there is a significant number of us who have to re-learn the basic rules human interaction.  And I can definitely attest that “the struggle” is quite real.

Selfies? Herm....

OMG selfies! Suddenly, I noticed, especially at the start of this year, that they were the rage! More than anything, the concept in itself of the selfie boomed in all sorts of media: t-shirts showing cute animals taking selfies were everywhere, and even a selfie song came out! The idea existed long ago already, but its start may be marked by two things: smart phones with two sided cameras that allowed you to photograph yourself, and later on the emerging of the word “selfie”, whose existence I became aware of only by the end of last year.

            I believe it makes perfect sense that people take so many selfies (or groupies). Once you start taking a picture of yourself, you can’t stop. You just can’t take one, there has to be more, especially because it’s hard to be satisfied with how your picture turned out. Then you start having ideas of funny faces or cool looks. When you’re with more people, this symptom is multiplied, and you end up with a whole bunch of pictures on your camera storage. Yes, I find it understandable, but personally, I don’t like the idea and try to avoid taking selfies. The thing is, you tend to waste time AND camera space taking all those pictures. I’m okay with just a few selfie “shoots”, that’s it. But, you know, it’s not that I find it repulsive, it’s not that I cringe every time I see people taking them, it’s more like I don’t see much point to it. Now, there’s something else I really don’t like related to selfies, and it’s when people post random selfies on Facebook and add hashtags with very lame words or phrases. Now that’s what I really don’t like: hashtags. But that’s another subject that should be tackled on a separate entry.

            That’s all I have to say about selfies.

Rembrandt-Self Portrait, 1630 Etching

Puertorriqueña en la luna

I can tell you who my true love is. My true love does not regard a person, it regards a lot of people: The people of my past, my present, and my future. The people who forge the story of my land, mi isla preciosa…

              Mis ancestros indígenas, que al llegar el “Akani Yu” se les fueron arrebatados todos sus placeres y todos los sueños que pudieron haber tenido. Un cambio de vida, dirigiéndose a esclavitud y rotura de familia. ¿Qué mal habrían hecho, para que Yukiyú y Juracán los castigara así?¿Quiénes eran estos impostores blancos que se hacían pasar por Dioses?

Amo mi sangre indígena, amo mi sangre negra y amo mi sangre blanca. Amo el hecho de que de cuatro hermanos franceses exiliados de Francia, se hayan refugiado en mi isla. Amo el hecho de que yo sea fruto de la descendencia del el hermano menor, el que no estudió; ese pelirrojo del que no se nada, pero sé que uno de sus hermanos estuvo en la masacre de Ponce, sobreviviendo la misma.

Amo el hecho de que, da la casualidad, que hay otro apellido francés en mi familia. No sé la historia, pero sé que tengo un abuelo y una primita con ojos de color mezclado entre gris verdoso y azul. Me intriga el pelo extremadamente rizo de mi madre, y me siento de la misma manera con el pelo extremadamente lacio de mi padre. 

Amo al abuelo negro que nunca conocí, padre de mi bis abuela materna y las cualidades que estoy segura de que me son transmitidas; me llena de orgullo saber que las tengo. Me intriga haber ido al Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Tibes, y enterarme de que el taíno estereotípico es de color de piel cobrizo, frente achatada, estatura mediana, cabello lacio, cara ancha, mandíbula prominente, ojos oscuros y achinados, pómulos marcados; entonces cuando alzo la vista, veo una pintura de una india con la apariencia casi exacta de mi abuela paterna. El parecido era extraordinario, y mi abuela es la persona a la que más parecido tengo yo.

             
                Llevaba toda mi vida preguntándome cual será mi descendencia más fenotípica, sin acabar de entender que soy todo; negra, blanca, taína, producto de las islas canarias, americana, francesa, italiana, española…

Soy producto de todo tipo de situación que pudiese haber ocurrido en el pasado.

Soy exiliada.

Soy esclava.

Soy india.

Soy realeza.

Soy Boricua’… ( valiente de la casa sagrada)

My true love is Puerto Rico, and as much as I love it, I’d be Puertorrican even if I lived on the moon.

Bible Burns

I’ve recently been thinking that in the Bible there are actually many times where people get burned, figuratively speaking. Many of these occasions involve the Jewish people—those who’re angry at Jesus--confronting him but ending up with Jesus shutting their mouths with some answer.  I think it’s all pretty interesting because you get to see God’s knowledge and wisdom in action, resulting in adequate ‘burns’ for each particular occasion. Here are some examples:

                        There’s this moment when the Jewish authorities, who don’t want to believe in Jesus, ask him from whom did he get authority for his actions, and Jesus proposes them something (Mt 21, 23-27):

                        *Note: God had sent John the Baptist to “prepare the path of Christ” in advance, but not everyone believed in him.

                        In another example, Jesus tells an allegory that clearly referred to how the Jewish authorities were corrupt and refused to recognize the Son of God (Mt 21, 33-41). The message was so plain they realized who he was talking about. To top it off, Jesus mentions a foretelling passage from the Scriptures that directly refers to these guys’ conduct, one that they themselves knew well and couldn’t deny its meaning. That was a pretty big burn (Mt 21, 42-43).

                        Now for me, this example is the most epic, though it doesn’t involve a direct conversation with Jesus. He cures a blind man who is known to everybody in the place. When the Pharisees heard of it, they once again refused to believe such a miracle and began to inquire the former blind man and everyone around him again and again about the incident (Jn 9, 26-33).

                        Despite all of these burns and more, though, the Pharisees kept refusing to accept Jesus. I guess that if there’s anyone who can relate the most to the phrase “haters gonna hate”, it’s God.