A confession

Today’s post is related to something strangely unusual that happened to me. Last Monday, before starting to teach at the secondary school where I work, we had a short but concise conversation with the math teacher; the secretary was also present. I only see them once a week so we don’t have a very close relationship, but the atmosphere of the day contributed to talking about how he felt about teaching at a secondary school. It was rather surprising that this teacher openly stated his opinion as regards his profession. He was extremely disappointed about the students’ pessimistic behavior and attitude towards studying; he claimed that he only came to school because he was obliged to, but he didn’t feel the same energy he did when he was younger – and he is in his late forties!

It is m first experience as a secondary teacher and I can say that it hasn’t been all roses since I started last July. The time I started working coincided with the time they received their first computer ever, so I tried to make allowances for some of my students’ apparent lack of interest. I felt really sad to hear such a confession, because being a teacher might not have been his real vocation in life, which does not let him find a way to solve his problems in the classroom. Even though it made me feel a bit sorry for him, as soon as I went past the door, my class and the future ones did not look bleak. Surely there will be difficulties, but also rewarding moments.

Maybe those students are able to see this teacher’s negative point of view, and they just go with the flow and answer back with the same attitude, or at least, they turn passive and don’t feel much interest.  I think that his saying was due to his personality type, more than an actual educational problem. I hope that in ten years I don’t find myself in this poor teacher’s situation.

Thank You

   I often had the strange feeling about not liking poetry, or not understanding it quite enough – probably I was doing it wrong. The truth of the matter is that I do like reading poetry, but only when I feel the need to do it. I take advantage of that moment of inspiration and write, although the outcome is not what I meant in the first place. It  happened to me  after I read a poem related to the beauties of nature called Lily of the Nile, by Martha Hoffman (http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/2449/).

 

 

Thank You

Thanks I give for the time spent with me;

For the moments you shared with no regrets;

For those words uttered in the precise second

You knew I needed them.

 

Together with your warm arms around me

Thanks for each and every laughter and smile

Giving me full pleasure and completeness

With your calling me your modest lily of the Nile.

 

Respect, Care and Admiration Is the how

I can begin to comprise what I feel

For every time we made our love tangible

My loving you I cannot conceal.

 

 

 

 

 

                     

 

 

the cost of Loving

“They all broke the rules. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.” (The God of Small Things, Roy, A., p. 31)

In my life as a reader, I have come across many works and pieces of art, and as the saying goes, things happen for a reason. The God of Small Things has arrived to remind people, myself included, how the Big, Important Things “lurk unsaid inside”, as Roy brilliantly describes it. Love, and the laws that it is ruled by, is one of the big issues this novel brings to light, especially in a society where love relationships are forbidden if you belong to a different caste than your loved one.

The quotation above has been in my mind since I started reading the book. Are there any laws that lay down who and how we should love? Society rules seem to go that way. If not, Ammu and Velutha’s love story would have had a different outcome. Was Ammu in such a crisis that one only look at her future lover made her fall in love at first sight? Was Velutha in need of a kind female heart? Did he love her from the beginning without even knowing it?  Was that love worth all the pain they knew it would cause? I’m still trying to find the answer.

The reading of the novel has also made me wonder about what the nature of love is. Can somebody love without being loved? Is that real love? Who can say what is real and what is not? I think we all have experienced the feeling; but sometimes it turns out to be passing infatuation. I still haven’t found the answers to those questions. What I did find was a section of a book in a facebook account, which was directly connected to my topic. What it deals with is the “effect” love can produce. The section defines love in simple words:  Nothing is that bad, if it is good for you. Nothing is that good, if it is bad for you. Love is good, and it cannot be bad for you. If it is bad, then it is not love. Who can argue with that?

 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=632564516775513&set=a.268552099843425.69263.215324371832865&type=1&theater

 

 

 

Are we?

 

 



the truth is not hidden, it is filtered.

 

 



 

   I hardly ever watch a movie in full.  When I have the chance to do it, – when there is a gap between working, studying and raising two kids, and sleeping of course- I take advantage of time and really enjoy watching a good film. Last week I saw Thank You for Smoking (2006), the story of a spokesman who works for a tobacco company in the United States. Nick describes himself as a lobbyist, with a moral flexibility.

   The motto of the film comprises the overall idea of the function Nick fulfils: “he doesn’t hide the truth...He just filters it.” As a lobbyist and vice president of the Academy of Tobacco Studies, he has to stand up for and defend the cigarette industry in the hardest and bizarre situations. His talent consists in using argument, not negotiation. He really enjoys his occupation, and although he officially says he does it to pay the mortgage – “a legal agreement by which a bank lends you money to buy a house”, according to the Oxford dictionary – he confesses that his real motivation is population control.

   After watching the film my mind started wondering. To what extent can truth be manipulated to lobby some companies’ interests, and more specifically, some people’s personal benefit? How many times have we felt that something is not entirely true, as regards some candidate campaign, in the run for a political position during election time? We have come to regard what is said in the media as natural and logical, without realizing that we can doubt and even disagree with what we are told. Are we part of the population that people like Nick seek to control?

   I strongly advise you to see this film!

 

 

Movie trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBELC_vxqhI