Dante's Inferno

I was sorting through some photos when I came across this.

All I could think was Dante’s inferno.

It struck me a little odd that I’d never given this piece of Italian literature the attention it deserved.
It was an extremely difficult read but well worth the while. The visual images, symbolism and ideas presented came back to me as I reflected.
I’m not feeling very articulate and so a list of interesting points will have to suffice.

- The notion of active vs. passive sins. While most religious people do not fall in the actively sinful category I find it extremely interesting to think that they more than often fall in the passive category.

- From my understanding, those who committed sins against art were punished. In a world where art is often the expression of nonconformist or suppressed urges the idea of punishing someone for not appreciating art as it should be strikes me as somewhat revolutionary.

- The concept of purgatory and the cleansing of oneself by a punishment fit for the sin struck symbolic chords. Pride absolved by having to carry a heavy weight that does not allow the sinner to stand tall, proud or straight. Envy absolved by having the sinner’s eyes sewn shut unable to see admire which they had for their own someone else’s fortune. Avarice, by facing the ground unable to turn away from worldly possessions. My personal favorite sin, sloth, is absolved by being zealous and continually running up a hill.

- I particularly enjoyed the ideas associated with the rivers Lethe and Eunoe. The former makes the soul forget any previous sins while a sip of the later renews memories of good deeds. Sounds a little like our version prozac or booz.

- Dante makes mention of the fact that how he sees heaven as is limited by his capacity to see. He is thus incapable of having a greater experience than his mind soul or being will allow him to have. To each their own version of heaven. This reminds me of a scene from ‘What dreams may come’. The painter’s version of heaven is made beautiful colors all round. Having committed suicide she is unable to see past her sadness and thus the beauty around her is of no relevance. I am also reminded of Alanis Morrisette’s character in Dogma requiring an intermediary to communicate with the world. People and most angels are ill equipped to hear the overpowering voice of “God” and so it is presented to them in a form they can withstand.

- Though not profound I also found it interesting that hell was imagined to lie at the center of the earth right below Jerusalem. That then makes Jerusalem to some extent the stage of purgatory. With all its inhabitants in a constant state of struggle. Not heaven and not hell they are in turmoil.

sunday bloody sunday

Bono's raspy voice is my one consolation for sunday evenings.

Philematology

Of all the ‘ologys I’ve run into these days Philematology seems to keep resurfacing everywhere. On a scientific level wikipedia, I know not much of a resource but a quick reference none the less, has it listed as “The science of kissing”. Being equipped with nifty little neurotransmitters called oxytocin that are released when we kiss allows for splendid results in both sexes. It is involved in social recognition and bonding, and might be involved in the formation of trust between people. The release of this feel good hormone is then what causes one kiss to prompt another. This gesture that originally mimicked the sound of breast feeding children has come a long way in today’s world. Its diverse existence ranges from a peck on the cheek to an all encompassing amorous exchange between lovers.

Some of my favorite Bacios:

Another glorious niche addeded to Massachusetts’s bed post.

Home to many greats like the bruins, the mighty mighty bostones, Harvard law and cheers, the good folks at Massachusetts General Hospital are now proudly proclaiming that they’ve managed to tamper with the switch on the immune system’s T cells that triggers the inhibitory programmed death-1 pathway. HIV is apparently quite sneaky that way. It turns off the switch and the cells basically throw their arms up in the air and go I’m outty… Much like the lights in a room, On means functional and up and running while Off means out of business. Though they’re not claiming to have found a cure for the disease yet they’re extremely excited by the discovery. Finding the switch that makes the immune system self destruct is half the struggle. I’m a little irked by these self riotous bastards. Don’t get me wrong I’m not undermining the importance for a cure for HIV but really I can do that. I don’t need some big shot scientist in a lab coat to tell me how to solve the AIDS problem. It is quite simple really. STOP SLEEPING AROUND WITH RANDOM PEOPLE. Quit it with the anal sex ala Greek, Keep your legs shut and your pants on… and above all refrain from the recreation of requiem for a dream… Needles aren’t meant to be shared! If you’re going to be a bad ass do it right and buy your own syringes…. And voila… sans the PHD or Dr. by my name I have single handedly cut down the worlds HIV problem to less than half of what it used to be…

Now can someone please ask these people to quit pissing around pull their heads out of their asses and focus on bigger things like stuff we can’t control?

Cancer maslan? That’s a big one. It seems like everything causes it and people are dropping left right and centre like flies who decided to fly into the blue light. But perhaps that’s way more advanced that we can hope to muster the mitochondrion is after all a wicked piece of organ machinery. So let’s stick to something simpler perhaps?
like what like what?
hmmm oh I Don’t know… World hunger?!

Paint the picture

Hiding behind the ones and zeros "you paint yourself in blue, red, black and grey.... all the beautiful colors are very meaningful" It is now and here that grey becomes symbolic of all the bold domination and the key to willful submission. Spoonfuls of bedazzling tantalizing jargon at best, I am not hungry but will entertain the ideas I am fed. The humor in it all has me hooked. Let’s live in the world inside our heads where pink lemonade grows on trees and the rain pours without ever getting us wet. Let our imagination run wild and give us wings to fly. Let the straws of faith we’re trying to latch onto flutter in dance with the wind over lakes of purple bubbles… you create the delusion and I enlist to get drafted with nothing but a smile plastered from ear to ear.

Le Jour Viendra

Completely at a stand still with my writing and with dwindling inspiration to create anything of value this song has managed to make me feel like there’s something about pretty prose in a language I wish I was fluent at that make the words that much more prolific. I find comfort in the fact that I’m still able to sigh and smile once in a while.

Et la nuit tendait les bras pour y bercer le jour
Et les ombres de nos pas marchaient au pas de l'amour
Le feu jouait dans l'eau comme jouent des frères
Etait-ce vrai ou bien n'était-ce qu'un rêve ?
Oh... Le jour viendra

Les grands lions apaisés buvaient près des gazelles
Les tempêtes se levaient pour éteindre les braises
J'ai vu des fleurs au beau milieu d'un désert
La vérité ou juste une autre chimère ?
Mmm... Le jour viendra

J'ai vu l'été s'effacer en saluant septembre
Les instruments s'accorder pour inventer ensemble
Des arcs-en-ciel illuminer des orages
Etais-je endormi, n'était-ce qu'un mirage ?
Oh... Le jour viendra

Si Dieu nous a fait des mains ce n'est que pour caresser
S'Il a fait des bras c'est pour protéger
Nos cerveaux pour inventer et nos voix pour chanter
Changer les rêves en réalité
J'ai vu des cailloux plus doux que le plus doux des velours
Et des épines mourir au premier des mots d'amour
J'ai vu la paix bénir mon pays que j'aime
Etait-ce vrai ou bien n'était-ce qu'un rêve ?
Oh... Le jour viendraLe jour viendraLe jour viendraLe jour viendraLe jour viendraLe jour viendra...

The Day Will come And the night tightened its arms to rock the day
And the shades of our steps in step with that of love
Fire played in water like the play of the brothers
Was this true or was this only one dream?
Oh… The day will come

The large alleviated lions drank close to the gazelles
The storms rose to extinguish embers
I saw flowers in the beautiful medium of a desert
The truth or another dream?
Mmm… The day will come

I saw summer being erased by greeting September
Instruments agreeing to invent together
Rainbows to illuminate storms
was I sleeping and this only a mirage?
Oh… The day will come

If God made us hands aren't they to cherish
If he made arms it is to protect
Our brains to invent and our voices to sing
To actually change dreams
I saw the stones softer than softest of velvets
And of the spines to die in the first words of love
I saw peace blessing the country I love
Was this true or was this only one dream?
Oh… The day will come

The day will come
The day will come
The day will come
The day will come

Hieroglyphics of a hurried generation

My brother decided to do a little internet investigating about my sister and I this morning in an attempt to alleviate his boredom at work he calls me up and casually goes. Did you know that there is another Sand-e who went to your university at around the same you did? Intrigued by this “other” mystery Sand-e I set out to find her. I stumbled upon this and realized I’d found her.
Being an 80’s baby I can not begin to fathom life with out computers. So they weren’t as powerful or as visually stimulating as today’s games but they got the job done. Any kid on the block who had an Atari was a necessity if not a valuable member of your play group. They were a mechanism for transcendence from childhood into adulthood, a right of passage. I remember being obsessed with the colorful stick figures that lit up the TV screen during a game of Pac-Man or tennis. Looking around me today, I’ve come to realize that times are changing and that the newest coolest and most basic commodity has become MSN. Its popularity compares to that of bill gates in the computer world, the king of pop during the 80’s and Crayola during kindergarten years. As a matter of fact MSN is a rudimentary part of any 8 year old’s life. MSN is no longer a craze but has been integrated into every day life. Not only is it that, a craze, but it is slowly but surely becoming the easiest fastest way of getting in touch with “anyone”. Just like the toaster changed breakfast forever and the remote control revolutionized TV watching so too has MSN and its effect on language. Net lingo is the wave of the future. It ranges from the usual : ) indicating a smile to “lol” denoting laughing out loud. Acronyms are an intricate and major part of computer and Cyber-space culture. They represent common phrases that people say to one another but are generally too lazy to type. Upper case and lower case typing have become equally as important as acronyms. WRITING FULL SENTENCES IN CAPITAL LETTERS IMPLIES SHOUTING OR EXCLAMATOIN. Many people these days accuse today’s youth of lacking ingenuity and creativity, I believe it is quite the opposite. The key element to this realization lies in the acknowledgment of the fact that creativity and ingenuity do exist but the difference lies in the venues through which they are expressed. Before the TV it was mainly through writing, drawing and thinking. Even though these venues are still in use today, technology has brought around other venues. Cyber-space is most certainly one of these venues. While many of us react to a joke by slapping our thigh and throwing our head back in laughter. Today’s youth have found a different means of communicating these emotions using LOL, ROTFL and LMAO. To the naked eye this is laziness at its best but I believe it is the willingness to venture where language hasn’t gone before. Laughing out loud (LOL), rolling on the floor laughing (ROTFL), and laughing my, er, ankles off (LMAO) are just a few of the many expressive acronyms and shorthand used to convey laughter, anger, approval, disapproval, love, hate--and everything in between. Who says technology and the computer revolution no longer allows youth to exhibit creativity and emotion? Not only have today’s youth found a faster way of communicating activities such as laughing out loud but they have also managed to make an emotionless realm (Cyber-space) come to life with human emotion. Acronyms and emoticons have quickly become the hieroglyphics of a hurried generation.

She was me. : P

Yay long weekend

August 4th weekend is already here and that means the summer has almost come to an end. September is right around the corner and the winter frost will slowly start to creep in where it left us last. New year resolutions will be made and broken. And soon enough we’ll be right where we started…waiting for the reds, oranges and yellows of fall to roll in again. Though eternal sunshine makes for impeccable differences in people’s moods I must say I do love the change in seasons.

Et tu, Burte?

I Called my friend up last night who has grown more and more eerily depressed as the days have gone by. The nerve! He’s been in Canada less than three years and ALREADY he’s developing a complex.
Try 15 buddy!
He’s this incredibly sweet guy who values family to no end. So smart but so incredibly crippled by his simplicity and inability to entertain or engage in abstract thought. “Philosophy?!” he says, “Will that feed me at the end of the day?” But, despite our differences, I think I’ve finally come to understand him. Raised by simple hardworking people whose biggest concern was having a place to live and food on the table he wasn’t afforded the luxury of developing his mind. When you’re occupied with basic essentials human needs like water and food somehow your concern for other issues like Socrates’ theories diminishes emmensely. He’s got a heart of gold but educated and cultured by his travels and experience he finds that he neither fits in here nor there. He is unable to adjust to his newfound social status and at the same time unable to let go of his brute past. I genuinely believe that god has opened many doors for him simply because he is a good man. But because many things have come so easy for him in the past and with his transition to life in Canada he is slowly becoming depressed at his in ability to make the one thing he wants most happen. He’s so infatuated with finding a bride and it’s consuming his entire being. I feel for the man… Half the women he wants to meet won’t even have coffee with him because of his family’s situation or because of how long he’s been in Canada. “Mafeesh wa7da tesma3 3any gheer ma te2ool 3alaya FOP w materdash te2abilny” I giggle at how clever it was of him to unintentionally change the B to a P, he did after all arrive on a plane and not a boat. He brings up an amazing point though. What is up with women?! So he has a bit of an accent and he hasn’t been in the country for long and sure he relates to an entirely different form of pop culture and literature. But really, isn’t that what women want? Someone who isn’t a replica of themselves? Some one who will expose them to different things and have a different take on life? Whatever happened to wanting to be with someone that will treat you right and cherish you for who you are? Anyways…thats a whole other can of worms for a different day.

He was too funny last night. His depression seemed to be of a different sort. The kind filled with sexual frustration and the inability to do anything about it. So in an attempt to break the awkward tension, thinking I’m funny, I enthusiastically offer my self up. He pauses, like he’s seriously considering the offer or like he’s thought about it before and then goes… "ummmmm no." And I go … “no? you’re sure? “I make a clicking noise by sucking my teeth at this point still thinking I’m a barrel of laughs and suggestively go: “It might be fuuuuun… I’ve heard stories about good boys gone bad… mategy negy (lets go) there's nothing like being damned to a life in hell firrrrre by 2 religions instead of one.”

Side note: Am I the only one that finds it hilarious that clerics always
say hell fire? It so increadibly redundant. Kinda like starbucks'
chai tea... they're one and the same thing people!

He takes on this serious serious tone and I know its about to go down… he calmly responds “no thank you.” I hesitate for a bit… I think I might have unintentionally hurt his pride or something by making fun of his lack of mo jo. I find that there is a beauty that shines through in people when they are that exposed. It is precisely during those moments of clarity and understanding the person I am talking to that I feel most human. Ma 3aleena... at this point I was so knee deep in the conversation there was no turning back… sooo I laugh and fake sob only to over dramatically announce “7atta anta ya Brutus?! Ana 3arfa… heya il world kidda… yom leek w yom 3aleek” and after the words come out of my mouth i think... oh god... please say u know who Brutus was!