Well I'm officially back for my second shot at this whole "blogging" thing. Humanities is definitely not my forte which can make writing about it a bit tricky, but I feel that with time these blog entries are only going to improve which should make the content a bit less of a chore for the reader.
This week my entry will once again be based out of the book "The Labyrinth of Solitude" by Octavio Paz. I am finding these chapters a bit difficult to fully digest and at times am not fully sure what Paz is even talking about, but our in class discussions are helping me to more fully analyze them. That being said, there is always a part or two that jump out at me and actually catch my attention. This week's highlighted section goes as follows:
"Slaves, servants and submerged races always wear a mask, whether smiling or sullen. Only when they are alone, during the great moments of life, do they dare to show themselves as they really are. All their relationships are poisoned by fear and suspicion: fear of the master and suspicion of their equals. Each keeps watch over the other because every companion could also be a traitor. To escape from himself the servant must leap walls, get drunk, forget his condition. He must live alone, without witnesses. He dares to be himself only in solitude."
(Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude, 70-71)
As a Mexican, Octavio Paz references, in this passage, the rich history of Mexico and his own interpretations thereof. Seeing as how I know so little of Mexico and it's history, I was able to draw on some personal feeling and past observations to also take something valuable out of Paz's words. Paz's claim that men only "dare to show themselves as they really are" during times solitude ties in perfectly with a quote given by President Uchtdorf during his General Conference address in October of 2009 (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/the-love-of-god?lang=eng) when he said, “What we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are — and who we will become." Moments of perfect "lownliness" or "downtime" are often the greatest moments for the desires of one's heart to make their way to the brain. When one finds themselves completely alone, there are zero outside influences and in that moment we can truly identify what kind of person we are and what are deepest and most intimate desires are.
The aforemetioned paragraph is no call to repentance for all Aaronic priesthood youth by any means. Solitude and isolation can also lead to self-reflection and an analysis of who we are which can often lead to desired change. Marcos Martins, a fellow IHUM260-er, shared that his most profound changes and decisions of greatest immportance have most often been made when he found himself at a high level of solitude stating, "I found a trend in the way I felt as an individual every time I chose to reinvent or change myself and my actions; I felt lonely (http://kahrma.blogspot.com/)."
**** (music video: Innocence, The Airborne Toxic Event - speaks of losing one's own innocence in personal thoughts)
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