In my Spanish 201 class, we have three assignments at the end of every chapter - an oral presentation about a selected topic, a chapter exam, and a written composition about a selected topic. The oral presentation is always really challenging for me - I've gotten over my fear of public speaking enough to successfully present something in English, but Spanish is a whole other story. It's hard to get up there and not directly read from my paper when I get nervous; I know what to say and I know what I need to say and how to say it, but something takes over when I stand up there and it's like I've never read a word of Spanish before in my life. The exam is always easy, that's something thats always come easy to me. The Spanish composition is like a relationship...I start off with a lot of anxiety about it and I'm unsure of how it's going to play out. But then I fall in love with it - I fall in love with the topic, I fall in love with the language, and I fall in love with the potential it has. I often write well more than I need to (which is unusual for me), but I don't mind it. Even a little. Is it time for Costa Rica yet?
#2 - Adults are crazy!
So often I hear adults talk about the pitfalls of our generation (although many talk about the potential as well) - but uhm, hello? It was your generation who raised us. We didn't get this way by some unfortunate serious of events. I also don't like the tendency of us all to be generalized into one group; we all clearly do not have the same potential. So I'm not going to generalize all adults (although my title speaks differently), but I am going to say that some adults really do not set great examples for younger generations to look up to and aspire to be like. Specifically, because I know everyone is so curious, I'm currently talking about THINKING before you SPEAK. I don't know about other families and other time periods in history...but I have grown up knowing that it is not socially acceptable nor is it polite to just spit out the first thing that comes in to your mind in many situations. Also, just because you do not like what someone has to say, that does not give you the right nor should you feel inclined to verbally harass them in retaliation. People have opinions. You can disagree with them, you can whole-heartedly believe that they are wrong in every sense of the word...but by no means does that mean you go an attack them. Even my kindergarteners know that and they are only 5 years old! But just yesterday I witnessed a few adults who never seemed to have grasped that concept...or maybe they lost it in the process of "growing up." Hmm...
#3 - I started a new book.
The book finds its foundations in the tale of Tristan and Iseult, one of the first stories of Romantic Love, and how the Western World has taken that style of Love and run with it, so to say. At the end of the introduction, Johnson states, "to honestly look at Romantic Love is a heroic journey." This is understood to mean that if you are truly analyzing this form of love, you can't just study the beautiful and idealistic view; you also have to dig into the unconscious and find the contradictions in Romantic Love that have yet to be worked out. One of the main points made in the introduction was that Romantic Love was to effect the conscious psyche of a people, or a society, but in order to be effective on the individual level, it had to be truly understood, and learned, and integrated. I'm not quite sure where its going yet, but it kind of seems like one of the points that may be made as to why Romantic Love is so skewed in the Western World is because people drive to find this Romantic Love without really understanding it. The idea of this beautiful love was accepted by society without questioning, and therefore lacking a thorough understanding.
I'm starting Part 1 tonight - How Tristan Was Born and Grew Up to Be a Great Knight. I'm sure I'll be posting again on this.
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