Let Us Sing of Love

            Ann Patchett’s novel Bel Canto is all about the music of love.  Music is the thread that ties all of the characters together, and that helps us to discover what each of them loves.  Bel Canto teaches us that love is the primary thing.  The one thing that withstands all of life’s horrible reality is love.  Love can be a dangerous thing, and it guarantees no happy endings, but it is still worth the risk.

            In Bel Canto Music serves as a sort of lubrication for thought and emotion.  As we listen to beautiful music, the things that are most important to us become clear.  Once Roxane begins to sing again the people’s minds turn to their passions.  Ruben discovers a special love for his house and the work of caring for the household.  He discovers that he enjoys the labor and that he has “a certain knack for it” (Patchett 178).   Roxane begins to develop deep relationships with people who don’t speak the same language.  She and Carmen spend their mornings together drinking tea and braiding each others’ hair (162).  According to Patchett, “In this way, only for the little time they had together in the mornings, they were sisters, girlfriends, the same.  They were happy together when it was just the two of them alone” (162).  Love begins to grow between Mr. Hosokawa and Roxanne.  Mr. Hosokawa’s thoughts show us how their relationship developed:

She sat beside him on the sofa reading.  She asked him to sit beside her at the piano.  On occasion she took his hand, a gesture so startling and wonderful that he could barely inhale.  She asked him, do you like this piece?  She asked him, what would you like me to sing?  These were things he never could have imagined: the warmth of a person and the music together. (167)

Before the music everything was terrible and scary for the captives.  The music allows the people to discover that they are still alive, and to remember the things that they have to live for, if only for that moment.  It is as if the music pumps life into their hearts so that they are able to beat more passionately and love more fully.  The music, the things and people that they love become their only concerns, and the things that they fear become less terrifying. 

However, love in itself can be terrifying. There will almost always be risks involved if we are to love fully.  Certainly, the dangers of loving and of caring are more clear in a hostage situation.  There is always the risk of losing the one that you love, but for Gen, Roxanne, Mr. Hosokawa, and Carmen, the risk is much greater.  All of them, in their own way, face those risks and their own fears, because somehow they knew that no matter what happened, it would be worth it to love.  Roxane, faced with the reality of her own death, found the courage to love.  According to Patchett:

Because if Messner was right, if it was still going to be a very long time that they were held hostage, then she deserved to have this.  And if, at the end of that long time, they were killed anyway…then she deserved it all the more. (239)

Roxane was also aware that time was short, and that if they weren’t killed “that they would all go back to their regular lives… [and] she would not see Katsumi Hosokawa again” (239).  So in the time that she had, no matter how it would end, she decided to express her love as fully as she could.  Gen took on the risk of loving as well.  Though he hoped unrealistically for a “happily ever after” with Carmen (who is a terrorist), there was a part of him that must have known that it was not possible (302-306).  Still in his heart he made his plans:  “He would marry Carmen.  He would have Father Arguedas marry them and it would be legal and binding, so that when they came for them he could say she was his wife” (303).  Carmen took risks not only for the man who she loved but for her friends, who were also hostages.  The time that Carmen spent in the house was probably the best time of her life.  At one point she asks Gen, “would it be so awful if we all stayed here in this beautiful house?” (206). When she talks about staying there, what she means is never leaving, because she has more here than she has ever had before in her life.  However, she still risks an end to this beautiful time because of her love for Gen and her friends.  She sneaks Mr. Hosokawa up the stairs to see Roxane in the middle of the night, and when they are discovered, she risks her life for him and for his happiness (257).  According to the author, “These two things Mr. Hosokawa was sure of:  Beatriz pointed the rifle at him and Carmen came in front of the gun” (257).   In that moment Mr. Hosokawa must have understood Carmen’s love and loved her in return.  Though Mr. Hosokawa took a very big risk because of love, it seemed that he had the least to lose.  According to the author, “He had been asked to come to her room at two A.M. and there was nothing more in the world to want, ever” (254).  Mr. Hosokawa’s relationship with Roxane fulfilled him completely.  He finally had everything that there was for him to want out of life.  This must have made it easy for him to give up his life for Carmen.  Life had nothing more to offer him than it had already given, and so there was nothing for him to fear in death.  According to Patchett, “He was in front of her the instant she was being thrown behind him, the instant the man who saw her standing in front, separate from Mr. Hosokawa, fired his gun” (313).  In the end Carman and Mr. Hosokawa die.  The worst fears of Gen and Roxane are realized, but somehow their love still survives.  It is as if the love that was born in them had to be expressed somewhere, so Gen and Roxane held on to each other (315).

            Love is the thing that matters most.  In the novel the music helps each person discover the love within them.  In the midst of a terrifying situation, brave souls take risks for the sake of love.  They face their fears because the love that they experience is worth the risk.  Shouldn’t we too be a little braver when we love?  Shouldn’t we let our lives sing of love? If tomorrow never comes, we should be sure that we have loved passionately and fearlessly, and know that it is worth the risk.

Work Cited

Patchett, Ann. Bel Canto: A Novel. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. Print.

Image found at: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2332/2521290248_718c33bcb1.jpg

Happiness

Denis Waitley once said that "Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude."

Novel

If you could only own one novel, what would it be?

Let me start by saying that to only own or have access to one novel would be cruel and unusual punishment to me. My greatest vice is books. I don’t have much room for them but I make due and my kindle is a lifesaver. However, I think that if I could only own one novel it would have to be Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I love gothic romances. There is so much going on in this one. There is drama (more than on the Jerry Springer show) love, hysteria, strife, death and finally a happily ever after. Also I think a lot can be learned from this book. The characters show us how terrible love can be and then show us the good thing it should be. I won’t tell you much more because you will enjoy discovering it on your own much more. Tell me if this punishment was imposed on you what novel would you choose?

(Writing prompt found at: http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/2012/04/todays-writing-prompt-novel.html )

(Image found at: http://favim.com/image/121425/ )

How do you decide what to blog about?

Actually, people ask me what I blog about.  I tell them come read, I blog about lots of things.  A more to the point question might be how do you decide what to blog about?  Sometimes something comes into my mind that I’m just so passionate about that I have to write about it.  So I write and I share.  However, more often I just feel the need to write so I do a quick Google search for writing prompts and see what comes up.  I click around until something catches my eye.  I hope one day soon that my readers will start commenting and blogging back.  I’d love to know what you blog about, or what you would like to read on my blog.  I also find that reading helps me blog.  Reading something great never ceases to inspire me.  Tell me how do you decide what to blog about?  What inspires you?

(http://beonline.co.nz/business-solutions/blogging/)

(writing prompt found at: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/100-blog-topics-i-hope-you-write )

Whose Fate is it?

            Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Shakespeare’s Hamlet both end in tragedy.  Were these tragedies avoidable?  If Hamlet and Oedipus would have taken control of their own destinies they could have gone on to live full and productive lives.  Oedipus and Hamlet each let an outside influence control their fate.  Hamlet let the ghost of his father (or something that seemed to be his father’s ghost) control his actions. Oedipus let the gods, the oracles, and their prophecies control his life.  The outside bodies that influenced both protagonists had their own agendas, agendas which did not include the welfare of either Oedipus or Hamlet.  Each protagonist made the mistake of giving up control of his own fate.

            Oedipus’ journey began with his mother being manipulated by the gods.  She was convinced by a prophecy to have her own son put to death.  She listened to and believed the prophecy without stopping to question the reason it was revealed to her in the first place.  Later, her son made the same mistake.  When he first heard the prophecy, he immediately moved to act against it.  This is one of the first signs of his dangerous reactive nature.  He distrusted the prophecy enough to try to overcome it, but believed it enough that he thought he had to try to avoid it.  Oedipus speaks of his response to the prophecy:

He said that I would be my mother’s lover,

show offspring to mankind they could not look at,

 and be his murderer whose seed I am. 

When I heard this, and ever since, I gauged

the way to Corinth by the stars alone,

 running to a place where I would never see

the disgrace in the oracle’s words come true. (795-801)

If the gods are truly the ones in control of the prophecies, then they have their own agenda.  Who knows what it is they were trying to accomplish, but it is clear that they don’t have Oedipus’ best interest in mind.  Oedipus could have ignored the prophecy and decided to simply live his life rightly and justly no matter what.  If the prophecy did come true, he would know it was not because of any evil in his own heart, and he would have a clear conscience.  Instead he reacted in fear and gave up the power he had over his over his own fate.  Oedipus also never took the time to evaluate the source of the prophecy or if he should trust it; he simply gave into that source never knowing what its true motives were.  If Oedipus had determined not to let anyone but himself guide his future, perhaps he would have had a more promising one.  Had Oedipus ignored the prophecy (and stayed at home) he may have in effect also saved the lives of his biological parents.  If Oedipus had trusted in himself or even in those that loved him, perhaps he would have resolved never to listen to any prophecy, and much trouble would have been saved. 

Like Oedipus, Hamlet also let negative influences control his life.  Even before his father’s death Hamlet, is suspected to be one who was not in control of his own fate.  In his warning to Ophelia, Laertes notes this, “Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch The virtue of his will: but you must fear, His greatness weighed, his will is not his own” (1.3.14-17).  Because Hamlet is a prince, “his will is not his own” (1.3.14-17).  Should Hamlet have become king, his actions would have been determined by what was good for the kingdom, not what was best for himself only.  However, like all of us, Hamlet had the choice to make his will his own.  Unfortunately, he never made that choice.  When Hamlet was faced by the ghost of his father, he freely gave his will and his fate over to it.  It is clear to us that the ghost was only interested in his own agenda, revenge.  He warned Hamlet not to lose his mind, but even that was aimed only at keeping him fit to accomplish the murder of his brother (1.5.85-86).  Hamlet, at least at first, did not consider that.  He simply reacted and went on his way to accomplish another’s agenda.  As the play progresses, we see hints that Hamlet is wondering if he should give up his life for the sake of the ghost’s agenda.  He is at least a little less impetuous than Oedipus in this regard.  In his famous soliloquy Hamlet wonders:

To be, or not to be, that is the question,

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing, end them: to die to sleep. (3.1.57-61) 

If Hamlet chose not to pursue the ordered revenge, (and his own death) he might have had to suffer while being ruled by Claudius.  If he had simply confronted the man and stood up as the rightful king, he would have to bear burden of the crown, but at least he would still be alive.  If he did that and took his fate back he might have to face his demons, or confront the ghost of his father.  Hamlet not only allows his father’s ghost to control him, but he also allows his own emotions to control his behavior.  Ophelia’s life may have been spared if he hadn’t given himself to emotional bouts of anger.  In his grief he struck out verbally at Ophelia and physically at her father.  Had Hamlet simply taken control of himself, a better life might have been had by both him and those that he loved.  Had Hamlet been less emotional, he might not have ignored the good advice that his best friend Horatio gave him.  When the ghost first summoned Hamlet, Horatio spoke up with wisdom:  “What if it tempt you toward the flood my lord, Or … deprive your sovereignty of reason” (1.4.70-74).  In the end Horatio was right; Hamlet’s reason was not the thing that guided him.

            Both Oedipus and Hamlet allowed outside influences to control their lives.  They both had character flaws which allowed them to be influenced easily.  Hamlet had an emotional nature, and Oedipus had a reactive nature.  Had either of them resolved to get control of himself and his own fate, their stories might have turned out very differently.  None of us should allow others to send us down a destructive path.  Only we can take responsibility for our own lives.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction

to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig. 5^th Compact ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 1010-1107. Print.

Sophocles. “Oedipus the King” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar

V. Roberts and Robert Zweig. 5^th Compact ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 968-1004. Print.

Grief

We lost our cat today.  Raymond T, aka Ray, aka, Raymond Tom Cat, aka Ray Ray.  I loved my cat.  We got him out of a barn.  There was a sign on the side of the road that read “FREE KITTENS.”  We stopped and looked inside.  It was the week before Easter.  Mark and I had been together for a year and had decided it was time to have a pet together.  The little barn had a card board box filled with tiny, nearly new born, kittens.   Then there was one slightly larger kitten filled with rambunctious energy.  An orange ball of fluff bouncing over and around his brothers and sisters.  Only he wasn’t from this litter.  As it turned out they had given away the last litter of kittens and someone brought this little one back.  That was all I had to hear.  This little orange tiger was mine.  Mark tried to talk me out of it, but by the next morning he was in love with Ray as much as I was.  He hopped wildly all over my bed that night, like some kind of half cat half rabbit hybrid.  But when he got tired out I gathered him close to my heart.  He fell asleep and rested his cold little heart shaped nose on my chest.  From that moment I was Raymond’s mommy.  I guess that’s why twelve years later it feels like I’ve lost a child.  Tomorrow is Easter and I feel like a circle or a cycle has been completed.  I wonder if I’ll always think about my sweet cat at this time of year.  For now I imagine him in heaven running through fields chasing mice, but never harming them.  I see my dad reaching down to scratch his ears and introducing him to his new friend Kitty, my childhood pet.  I imagine that he remembers me and my love and that somehow he knows that he’ll see me again one day.  I believe this, controversial or not, and it gives me peace in the midst of my grief.

(image found at: www.catclipart.net/cat_clipart_images/sleepy_orange_cartoon_kitty_with_a_drop_shadow_0515-1004-0101-1243_SMU.jpg )

Inhibited

Are you more or less inhibited than you were 10 years ago? Why?

Ten years ago I was 22 years old.  I would have to say that I was less inhibited.  In the last 10 years I’ve gotten older.  I’ve gotten more comfortable with myself and the life I’m living.  I don’t feel the need to experiment with life so much.  I’ve found the things that I love and I spend my time doing those things.  Some  people would say that I’m uninhibited because I have a blog, I scuba dive and spend some of my time in the outdoors, but for me that’s just life.  I think I’m more inhibited now because I don’t smoke and I don’t go out to play pool by myself at night.  I’ve also developed a strong personal relationship with God so that keeps me from getting into too much trouble.  Being married keeps me a bit more inhibited as well.  What are some of your inhibitions? 

Writing prompt found at :

http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/2012/04/todays-writing-prompt-inhibited.html

The artists job...

Midnight in Paris: "The artist's job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence." No pressure there.