"As you get older, you don´t get wiser. You get irritable. "-Doris Lessing

Today , the British writer Doris Lessing has passed away . She was awarded the 2007 Nobel prize of literature, among many more.

She wrote about social issues since she was a writer politically committed  She struggled passionately  for  freedom and equality between races,  engaging in Third World causes. Works such as "Memoirs of a Survivor" "The good terrorist" or "Briefing for a Descent into Hell" display her interest in social problems. She refused the title of "Lady of British empire" , awarded by  the Queen Isabel II ,  she stated  that there was no empire . 

Her novel "The Golden notebook" is considered a classic feminist work as it explores the theme of  women`s struggle and conflicts as sex, maternity, or work, besides  others .
Apart from novels, she wrote short stories, poetry and Drama.

Someone in her blog has written ""She helped change the way women are perceived, and perceive themselves" . She probably did so .

“I write because I've always written, can't stop. I am a writing animal. The way a silk worm is a silk-producing animal.”   - Doris Lessing.

  “If someone cracks up, what does that mean? At what point does a person about to fall to pieces say: I'm cracking up? And if I were to crack up, what form would it take?”
― Doris Lessing,     The Golden Notebook

  

Robert F. Kennedy - University of Kansas

 

This is another Robert F. Kennedy´s Speech. He talks about the war of Vietnam, poverty and unemployment in America, and obviously  , it has the three elements of a speech : logos, ethos and pathos

I especially like the way he speaks about poverty , he does so about the minute 13 ," I have seen children in the Delta area of Mississippi with distended stomachs, whose faces are covered with sores from starvation, and we haven't developed a policy so we can get enough food so that they can live, so that their children, so that their lives are not destroyed, I don't think that's acceptable in the United States of America and I think we need a change.
    
I have seen Indians living on their bare and meagre reservations, with no jobs, with an unemployment rate of 80 percent,and with so little hope for the future, so little hope for the future that for young people, for young men and women in their teens, the greatest cause of death amongst them is suicide. (...)
I have seen the people of the black ghetto, listening to ever greater promises of equality and of justice, as they sit in the same decaying schools and huddled in the same filthy rooms - without heat - warding off the cold and warding off the rats.

He uses repetitions, anaphora in this example, "I don't want to be part of a government, I don't want to be part of the United States, I don't want to be part of the American people, and have them write of us as they wrote of Rome: "They made a desert and they called it peace.", quotations; George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "Some people see things as they are and say why?  I dream things that never were and say, why not?", and, of course a "huge "end.

Remembrance Day

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24887778

 Today is an important day for the UK and the Commonwealth countries as the Remembrance Day or Poppy Day is celebrated .
This day remembers all the members of the army who died during the Great World,  or World War I .
When this war broke out, many citizens rushed to join the army feeling the duty of fight for their country and die with honour defending it .
The symbol of this day is a red poppy which grows near the graves of the fallen soldiers and the reason why the poppy has became its symbol is this war poem by McCrae . This poem is one of the best known of the war poems and it was used as an incentive for making men join the army. The poem, told in first person by  the dead buried in Flanders Field ,insists that the living should keep on fighting .

 In  Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders field.

Another famous poem that shares this romantic vision of the war is "The Soldier " by  Rupert  Brooke.

If I should die, think only this of me;

That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

(...)

 As time went by the romantic idea vanished into bitterness. Thousands of casualties, soldiers suffering from shell shock ,food shortage ... One of the best known poems of this period of disillusion is "Dulce Et  Decorum Est " by Wilfred Owen . This poem describes vividly  the horror  that the soldiers live in the war trenches .

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

(...)

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

One of my favourite war poem is "They "  by Siegfried Sassoon  . This poet helped Wilfred Owen to find his style since he wanted to tell to truth about the war .

THEY





THE Bishop tells us: ‘When the boys come back
‘They will not be the same; for they’ll have fought
‘In a just cause: they lead the last attack
‘On Anti-Christ; their comrades’ blood has bought
‘New right to breed an honourable race,
‘They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.’
‘We’re none of us the same!’ the boys reply.
‘For George lost both his legs; and Bill’s stone blind;
‘Poor Jim’s shot through the lungs and like to die;
‘And Bert’s gone syphilitic: you’ll not find
‘A chap who’s served that hasn’t found some change.’
And the Bishop said: ‘The ways of God are strange!’

Amy Winehouse : A powerful voice

 

 

It is difficult to find a video or  performance of Amy Winehouse where she does not appear drugged or drunk . Despite all her additions to different substances , her capacity to transmit feelings and emotions was endless .

 

This song describes someone´s feelings who has been dumped , how she tries to cope with grief , keeping herself  busy during the day but when night falls and there is nothing to do ,all her memories come back. She uses a language simple and direct which is , at the same time, visual ,poetic and sensitive. Really awesome.

 

 

 

The Sparrow

Her unblinking gaze was fixed on the chipped wall  .Outside, the storm was raging  while the antique clock  impassively  ticked the hours away. Weary of battling against the morose being living in her skin , she had  let her  life glide away.  . Suddenly , a sharp crash into the pane made her toss her head ,  she slid her hand out the window and took the tiny sparrow . A shiver ran through her spine .The clock struck twelve and the room went dark .

 

Clasping the little bird to her bosom she went to bed. That night, and the following ones, she dreamt about dramatic sceneries, giant waves lashing  the coastline and ancient, pagan, Celtic rituals.  As time went by , her dreams showed her how  to use mistletoe and marsh plants with healing properties . She established an abiding relationship with nature and  its deities , being able to forecast the future by watching the clouds”  What is happening to me ?” she wondered  bewildered ."Whatever it may be, it has given my life back over"

 

A crisp clear morning , while she was  admiring the sacred  places of the druids,  a woman with gnarled hands sauntered up to her . “  Release the sparrow  perched on your windowsill , someone´s souls is trapped in it ”

That night, overawed by sadness, she left the window wide open so that her friend flew away . It was snowing in Ireland, and it was in  J. Joyce`s work “The Dead"( …)”  the snow falling faintly through the uni­verse and faintly falling( … ) "  upon  all the liv­ing and the dead.”  but dead, cannot feel the snow “, she thought, while the snowflakes were soaking her skin . Then,seizing to life, she closed the window.

Paulo Coelho and...his quotes

 

  Some days ago, I came across an article called "Pump Up your energy " which gave us some tips in order to avoid the ups and downs of our daily life.

Among all the secrets shared, there was one  particularly weird
"Adopt your primal posture" According to the article , we should use the right muscles when we walk and  sit (in order to keep our elongated position ). Anybody knows what the primal position is? and , by the way, anybody knows what is the relation between sitting right and being happy ?

Positive as the article was, it also praised the virtues  of the "Emotional energy" hope, encouragement, optimism as the bases for boosting your moral .
 That reminded me of Paulo Coelho and some of his quotes :"It´s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting" "when someone leaves , it´s because someone else is about to arrive "  or the famous one "when a person really desires something , all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream".
That was my motto long time ago , when I was still naïve enough to believe that the universe has not better things to do that to  worry for me to achieve my aims  , but... if by any chance it were true; how many hours would have the universe to work if it were to materialise everyone`s dreams? Considering that the universe  was capable of making my dreams came true ,then, I could blame it for all my disappointments  rather than myself  for not having done better ,could I ?

I reckon ,you must do as much as you can for being happy in life, and that it is not only a matter of positive energy , quotes and sentences , but also a matter of struggle . No matter how hard I have tried, I can always strive to do it better .