Utopia

I just finished a project for my art class. We had to actually "answer" to a call for art and artists concerning "sustainability." We had to do a silk painting of what we saw sustainability as and such. It was very interesting... stressful, considering we had a week to create a peice with a new technique and considering that we had to cater to the specific requirements of the exhibition. Anyway, although my peice didn't turn out like i'd hoped, I had some interesting thoughts today, walking to and from the coffee shop with a collegue (fancy word for another guy in my class), about "sustainability."

Is environmentalism practical? I think it's a nice idea, just like communism, but I don't know if it would actually work for our society right now. We are (America) a culture that wants everything fast, convenient and comfortable. Is the hi 5 improving the percentage of hawaiians that recycle? Statistically no. It raising the price on all bottled beverages and giving the homeless and children something to do, but it isn't getting the job done. When I think about us conserving the environment, I think of us all wearing gloves in some overly sterilized building with all matching environmentally safe bio-degradable clothing, standing in some line for our daily rations of food. I think of monotony and pretty much socialism. All these liberalists who are rebel hippies seem to want the very thing they will be fighting against when they finally get what they want.

Utopianism. A peaceful society, capitalistic, with a clean environment, no wars, no problems... we think this would be perfection, what we want, but I myself cannot imagine living like this. Without problems what would I do? Without the sick, what would the doctors do, or aspiring doctors dream of doing? What would bring people together if they were already perfect? What would unite a country if their were no war? There will always be disagreements, petty or huge. There will always be sickness. There will always be the rich and the poor. What could we dream of fixing or when we try so hard to fix it and fail, what could we pray to God for or ask your friends for help for? I feel like a Utopian society would be so superficial, but maybe I'm wrong. I thank God for the bad so I can appreciate the good, so I can grow as a person, so I can actually feel. I will do everything I can to help the environment, but I'm not going to be afraid of living. Siddartha Buddha was right with at least one of the things he said (the main one) Live the middle path, don't live in the two extremes. If a string is too slack, it won't play. If it's too tight, it'll snap. If it's just right, you can play the most beautiful music... So maybe the real Utopia is the one we're living in right now and we just haven't seen it yet.

Entre el Oceano y el Mar

Erase una vez vivía una jovencita en la media del oceano y el mar. Ella no tenía ningunos recuerdos de su infancia ni como llegó a su isla. Todo que sabía era no sabía nada. La gente de esa isla en particular no eran tan amorosas, ellos solo se ocupaban por si mismos. La niña nunca vía la gente besando, abrasando ni caminando por la calle mano en mano; pero tampoco la ponía de pensar porque porque no había experiensada nada diferente. Las únicas cosas que le daba felicidad y consuelo eran: nadar en el oceano, bañar en el mar y hablar con su amigo extraño que tenía alas hechos de plumas. El le enseñaba del mundo lejos de la isla: de los países, la gente, los idiomas, el arte, la música, la arquitectura, y mucho más. El le contaba historias de su mundo arriba del cielo, de Dios, de los ángeles, los demonios, y de sus guerras. A la niña le encantaba hablar con su amigo que venía todo los días, pero un día el no vinó. Cada día por 365 días, ella lo esperaba pero cada día ella le dormía disolusionada. En el día 366, ella decidió irse de su isla, y decidió a ver todas las cosas que su amigo le contó. Asi que en el día 367, ella empezó subir el barco para que podría ver el mundo; pero al mismo tiempo el joven con alas llegó sobre la orilla y llamó la niña, “Vuelve, queda conmigo, ¡perdoname!”
Entonces, ella volvió para quedar con su querido. Ellos quedaban por un gran rato juntos, enamorados. Ellos les conocían mucho, caminando, nadando, y volando, pero un día ellos escucharon un golpe a la puerta y vió un hombre con alas. El joven vinó a la puerta para hablar con el hombre. Después que el hombre se fue, el joven dijo a su enamorada, “Tengo que irme, hay otra guerra en el cielo y ellos me necesitan. Todavia Dios no sabe que yo estoy aqui. Si supiera de nosotros, el me mataría.”
Pues ellos se despidieron. El estaba ausente por meses y la niña tenía mucho miedo que el nunca iba a volver. Cuando ella estaba lavando ropa, su enamorado se aparació. A ella se pareció como el estaba llorando. “Qué pasó, mi amor?” Ella lo preguntó. “Porque te ves tan grave? Te he echado mucho de menos mi amor ¿pero que te pasa?”
“Mi amorcita,” El la contestó, “te quiero más que el mar, más que el oceano, más que mi mismo y más que el cielo; y por eso, mi amor, es porque no puedo verte nunca más. Conté todo a Dios y el me dijo que tengas que vivir su propia vida, tengas que ver el mundo y encontrar una vida separada de mi. Voy a cortar mis alas para que no tendría tentación para verte y ayudarte nunca más. Pero al mismo tiempo te dejo mi corazón para que puedes llevarlo contigo por siempre. Dios lo convirtió en un collar para que puedas ponerlo. El me dijo que si te lo pongas por 75 años y todavia me amas, podemos vivir por siempre, juntos.”
Dejandola con su corazón en mano, llorando, el se fue, volando al cielo donde que se quemó sus alas para que no tendría tentación a volver. Todos que vivían entre el oceano y el mar vieron el humo que les parecieron a nubes y oíron las gritas que les parecieron a trueno. Solo la niña sabía que los eran en realidad Después de estar tanto de luto, ella decidió a ver el mundo de nuevo. Por todo de su vida ella recorría el mundo, llevando el corazón de su enamorado, cada día recordando de el; y después de 75 años, las olas levantaron al cielo para que ella podría estar con su enamorado para siempre. Y por su dedicación ellos pudieron vivir siempre, juntos y enamorados.

21st Century Flower Child

I have officially finished my first week and four days of school.
Before I get to my flower childness, I must explain some things:

1. I miss Chile
a. My friends
b. Traveling 50 hours on a bus to see some crazy world wonder for a couple days
c. The culture
d. speaking espanish
e. My friends...

2. Adjusting to my new/old life is crazy...
a. changed me adjusting to old Hawaii (culture, people, language... I do love the food though.)
b. I guess that sums it up if you want it short

3. I've had this weird struggle figuring out that I am not the all-powerful fixer of all things in the world.


So yes, I've been having a little bit of a challenging time being back. My goals this year are:
1. Make Hawaii my Chile
2. Find Bradley.

I swear I have others, but these are the most important.


So after finally getting all of my 17 credits I wanted in school... I had a couple of nervous breakdowns... maybe we'll just call them melt downs... Haha. Anyway, this is not the point. The unimmediate point is that I have two amazing teachers this semester, my physics teacher, which is hilarious and smart... and my religion teacher, who is... how do I describe him? He knows his shit. He challenges yours... he's great.

Today we went over the Jainism religion.
I think this religion is intriguing.
Please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, considering I have only known this information for a day, but...

Jainism started off as a denomination of Hinduism and then eventually became it's own religion. It all started (unless you're a jainist and then nothing starts or ends...) when Vardhamana, a prince, studied the enlightenments of Parsva and Mahavira. He wanted to be enlightened and renounce all his earthly posessions. He respected his parents so much that he waited till they died to do this. After that he gave up his crown and practiced asceticism (giving up all worldly desires including new clothig) for 12 years. After 1 year his clothes detiriorated. After 12 years he became enlightened and reached "Kevala." He taught for 30 years.

Teachings:
There is soul (you) and non-soul (everything else, material world)
When soul and non-soul encounter each other they produce Karma.
To be enlightened you need to get rid of Karma.
Good Karma erases bad Karma...
You need to help others.
Highest form of good Karma is truthfulness and Non-Violence.

There are four kinds of Jainists:
Male renunciants
Male householders
Female renunciants
Female householders

There are two types of ways to dress:
The Digumbadas= sky clad (naked)
The Shwaykumbada= white clad (white clothes)

Goal:
To be free of all desires:
includes leaving family, clothing optional, fasting, meditation...

The final step would be to fast till you die, renouncing your desire for food... and then the desire to breathe. When you die your spirit is free and is inspiration for those who have not attained enlightenment and will be re-born till they do.


First of all, I think that this religion is very interesting and inspiring, and though I do not follow this religion I think there are things we can learn from it.


One thing that's weird about the US is that everyone is constantly on their phones, a habit I try not to get back into... but I did have one indulgence... talking to Shaun. We've been friends for about five years. I was telling him about my religion class and Jainism... He was like, "Charisa, please don't tell me you're going to fast till you die..."
"No," I said, "But they do inspire me, their conviction, their dedication, extremism... they live by example instead of pushing their beliefs on others."

We began to talk about beliefs and I asked him to tell me one thing he believed in. He told me that he believed in doing good and it'll come back to you, same thing with doing bad...
Alright, anything else??? No. Ok. I'm sorry Shaun, I love you like hell, but it made me sad that you (we, the majority of young people or people in general of the world) don't have beliefs or convictions like we should. We have no concept of real or truth. It's sad.

So he asked me what I believe in (here comes the flower child part...)
"Ah," I said, "I believe in love. I believe that with love anything is possible. I believe in peace and with love peace would be possible. I believe in ideals," I told him, " I believe in ideals that probably aren't reachable. I believe that just like the Jains believe, we shouldn't be attached to our material things, stupid things shouldn't matter to us, if someone needs something, we should be able to help them, emotionally, physically, materialistically... you know. I know that there will always be people we don't like, but it's possible to love them too because they're a part of our family too. I know there's disease, but we can work through it as a family, suport them, find ways to work through it. I know there are bad people in the world and none of us are perfect, but we can work towards it. We can work towards peace. If everyone would just do their best to make a world a better place..."

Andeh says that Winston Churchill said "If everyone wanted world peace as much as they wanted a color T.V., we would have it."

Well said.

As I was driving home, I thought of all the "gods" the Jainists have. They're not really gods to worship, just reminders and ideals. They all look alike because they're an image of an ideal. This made me think: People make a big deal about how Christ looks. Does it really matter? All we need is an ideal and a reminder of what we're living for. A goal to reach or to be. An example, a reminder. Maybe my other goal this year is to be able to live with conviction, which means I have to get myself edumacated. Yes. Learn. I don't know. I'd love to live with passion for what I believe in, find my identity in that. But what do I know, I'm just a 21st Century Flower Child.