Lé Final Blog Post

Ladies and gentlemen it is the last week of our 8-week adventure and we've survived!

Well, almost. I've still got the third essay to do but hey.

This course has been fast paced, as expected from any 8-week course. It wasn't really hard, but it was tedious. But I guess I learned some things. Probably the most fun I had was reading the poems and seeing the parallels between the time the poem was written and our current world. We still share a lot of the same feelings and problems, though we have come a long way. It's a huge comfort to see we're not alone in the way we feel, and that even our great-great grandparents probably felt some of the same things we feel today. Feminism, religion, true happiness, despair, hope-- all of these thoughts, beliefs and feelings are still things we struggle with today.

I guess what's so great is knowing that even back then people didn't have their shit together. So we millennials can take a breath.

Studying things from the past (and I'm not just talking about the generic textbook business), but the arts-- the paintings, sculptures, books, poems-- is important. They tell us tales of the people before us and can bring us comfort about what's to come. They've treaded through the world, hacking away at the tall jungle grass with machetes. We know which paths we should take and what we shouldn't, which ones are best for us and which ones aren't. Reading what others have thought, said, and did can help us not make the same mistakes. We can rest assured that we're not the first, we're not the last, and that we're completely normal (in the technical sense, anyway)

It's been fun, classmates! Thanks for posting awesome insights on the stuff we've read and thanks for responding to my thoughts as well!

Stay smart and stay fabulous, and remember that you're not alone and you're not the first to barrel through a tangled jungle!

That Darn'd Love Triangle

You know it when you see it in a book: Two guys and one girl. Surely it's a triangle. But what about the aftermath once the girl has picked the guy?

That, my classmates, is what you get with Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolf.

Now I'm no stranger to love triangles. I was an avid Naruto fan once upon a time and wanted Naruto and Sakura to get together. But NOPE she got together with the other guy in the triangle. She would have been happier with Naruto What

BUT ANYWAY

But with Clarissa she isn't really unhappy with the man she chose, rather she's entertaining the thought of what life could have been like with Peter. Now, she has no intention of leaving Richard, but she can't help but wonder what would have happened reciprocated Peter's affections. Maybe she would be traveling. Or something. She might not be surrounded by nice things, a calm life, stability, and parties. Richard is a pretty bland guy-- but he was the safe choice.

Still, what would life had been like with Peter? Let's face it Peter was an idiot as a young man and still sports a small dunce hat as an adult, but let's play along. More than likely they wouldn't have gotten along all the time. They would have butted heads, hurt each other's feelings, called each other out, and a menagerie of other things. But could they have made it work? Absolutely. They could have tried to talk things through and live in the moment, rather than actively seek comfort. They would have had to have put time and effort into their relationship and that can be a really rewarding thing. There could have been passion.

With Richard there isn't any real passion. He's not really around too much. He's stable and bland. In terms of survival, I suppose Richard was a logical choice. But in her fifties, Clarissa is thinking about her life and all she's done and if everything has been rewarding. If she had picked Peter then maybe things could have been rewarding. But maybe not.

But I think it's normal to think about the "what if"s in life occasionally. Just don't overdo it like this piece of brocolli

Which, as we have established in a past post, has no chill.

When You Are Old

So this week we're going to talk about the poem "When You Are Old" by W. B. Yeats.

I loved this poem personally. Which is why we're gonna talk about it, obviously, but let's go over what the poem is about first.

It's about an elderly women by the fire reading a book and thinking about her love. He has since passed away, but he was with her from her younger years and beyond. He loved that she aged and that she had a "pilgrim's soul".

First of all, I find this to be true love right there. Anyone who will stick with you throughout all your hardships and physical changes truly and deeply loves you and cares about you. They aren't obsessed with your looks and  they can handle you at your bad times. And God knows we all have bad times.

It says that many people loved the woman's glad graces and loved her beauty, but her deceased lover went beyond the superficial and gave me. He loved that werewolf transformations (metaphors ladies and gents), he loved the crows feet and the wrinkles. What he loved about that pilgrim soul was everything she had been through and everything she had become.

So even though she may have been like that werewolf in the gif from time to time, her lover ultimately saw her as this:

So the lesson in this poem would be to find someone who loves you for you. Your insides, your outsides, your good, your bad, your ugly and your beauty. Find someone who roots for you and fangirls for you-- and be sure you feel and do all the same for them

That's it for this week, my ladies and gents! Keep on lovin' until next week (actually keep on loving forever because the world needs it).