Candide Pt. 2: The Value of Work

“I have no more than twenty acres of ground, the whole of which I cultivate myself with the help of my children, and our labor keeps us from three great evils—boredom, vice, and want.”

                                  -Candide, Voltaire, 129

     There is a reason sloth is one of the Seven Deadly Sins—Idle hands, you know… And undoubtedly there is a certain satisfaction in a hard day’s work. I believe this is what the Turk is trying to convey here when he tells his guests of his way of life. The Turk clearly understands this principle, and he seems to harvest not only plentiful crops, but joy. It would appear that the fruit of his labor is much more than “citrons, oranges, lemons, pine-apples, pistachio-nuts, and Mocha coffee”—he reaps a loving, close-knit family, to which the passes values and wisdom—the same values and wisdom he possesses. And that fruit is sweeter than nectar.

     I had a professor once that oft quoted her own mother’s favorite saying: “Teach your children to work and they will always be of use in the Kingdom of God.” I find this striking in its simple truth. It might seem obvious—“Teach your children to work—why, of course!—but somehow we have become an entitlement generation—nay, an entitlement nation! Everybody wants something for nothing—they want a handout—a gimme… But I daresay the Turk’s children wouldn’t dane to consider such a thing! They understand that (and here I get on my political soapbox—for which I do not apologize!) “[w]hat one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." (Dr. Adrian Rogers, emphasis added) They understand what much of America does not understand today: the value of work.

     (Now off of my soapbox and onto other things…) I think my greatest understanding of work came when I got pregnant with my first child. I had to wait, and, while I had very little control over it, for nine months my body worked to create a tiny baby. And when I went into labor (notice the word we use to describe the event…), my body worked harder than it ever had, preparing it and my baby for what was to happen next—the most wonderful and delicious fruit of any labor I could imagine—my beautiful, sweet, precious baby girl was born.

And I felt joy in the fruit of my labors, to be sure.

Candide Pt. 1: Reason in Everything

“‘It is demonstrable,’ said he, ‘that things cannot be otherwise than they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end. Observe, for instance, the nose is formed for spectacles; therefore we wear spectacles. The legs are visibly designed for stockings; accordingly we wear stockings. Stones were made to be hewn and construct castles; therefore my lord has a magnificent castle; for the greatest baron in the province ought to be the best lodged. Swine were intended to be eaten; therefore we eat pork all year round. And they who assert everything is right, do not express themselves correctly; they should say that everything is best.’”

                                                               -Candide, Voltaire, 12

Master Pangloss’s sentiment that everything that happens is for the best, and that we do things simply because it was “intended” and “designed” that we do so establishes an attitude that what happens in life is little more than destiny, and that our control over the circumstances surrounding us is limited to what was “made to be”.

From this, I glean that Pangloss means to argue that everything happens for a reason. And there are many that would agree with him. In times of distress and tribulation, this little phrase gets pulled out of our hope hats, and it provides some sort of comfort, some place of solace, some form of reason to the madness encompassing us.

That being said, having seen what I’ve seen in my life, having gone through what I have gone through, and having learned what I have learned, I cannot with faith and zeal profess that I believe everything happens for a reason. I cannot uphold that everything happens for a reason, because in so doing, I would surrender culpability luck—and I cannot believe that rape, child abuse, and drug addiction are nothing more than fate wielding her powers over us. There must be accountability, must be liability, must be justice. Instead of the eternal optimism Pangloss preaches, I fear I would lose all hope in the world if there was no answerability for all the anguish and pain we bequeath one another.

 Instead, I allege that it is our responsibility, and somehow at the same time our privilege, to find the reason in everything that happens. This may seem like I am simply restating the words in a different order, and that in so doing, they maintain the same meaning, but this is not what I mean to do. My meaning is very much different and distinct from the former assertion. My claim means to say that we are to look deeply into the conditions—good and bad—we find ourselves to be in and give them meaning—give them something so that we are bettered for having experienced them.

And so, in reading Pangloss’s words, I am amused at his absurdity and complete illogicality. I find beauty in their inaccuracy, because I am more fully convinced of my own convictions: everything does not happen for a reason, but I can find the reason for everything that happens.

Don Quixote Pt. 2: True Friends

“Whether it was owing to melancholy occasioned by the defeat he had suffered, or was simply, the will of Heaven which had so ordained it, he was taken with a fever that kept him in bed for a week, during which time his friends, the curate, the bachelor, and the barber, visited him frequently, while Sancho Panza, his faithful squire, never left his bedside.”

                                                                                                                                -Don Quixote, Cervantes, 2346

                Good friends are hard to find, to be sure. And truly, Don Quixote found one when he found Sancho Panza. Sancho stands by his friend loyally throughout the crazies that Don Quixote continually subjects him to. Don Quixote thinks himself a knight-errant, and pursues quests to prove himself true to that calling, not unlike an early Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story  in the fact that he thinks himself a Space Ranger, not, in fact, a toy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1PRT2GBjd8

But still, Sancho, and, later in the movie, Woody stick by their delusional comrades. A quote describing this very idea floating around Facebook for a minute a little while back says:

A good friend will come and bail you out of jail, but a true friend will be sitting right next to you saying, ‘That was awesome!’

Early in the book, Don Quixote, it would seem that simple-minded Sancho knows no better than to follow the leader, so to speak, in knightly pursuits. But as the book comes to a close, we see Sancho overtake his master with wisdom. Still, he stands by his friend, until the very end, despite Don Quixote’s many failings. Cervantes narrates that in Don Quixote’s illness, his many friends visited (friends, that mind you did not seem to really care about Don Quixote as a person, but rather the amusement he provided in his insanity), but, in Sancho, he had one TRUE friend that did not leave his side. This bore a striking resemblance to Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings, especially in The Return of the King’s pivotal scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_NmCh42hZM

Frodo would not have survived—let alone succeeded—without the help of his truest friend. And I think the same is true for Don Quixote. Sancho served as a buffer to the madness consuming Don Quixote, almost protecting him from himself.

Just as Woody, Samwise, and Sancho, in good times and bad, true friends are there.

May we all find our own Sancho, and may we strive to be someone else’s: this is my charge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4mNDS5rIRU&feature=related

Don Quixote Pt. 1: Romance Addiction

“Of all those that he devoured none pleased him so well as the ones that had been composed by the famous Feliciano de Silva, whose lucid prose style and involved conceits were as precious to him as pearls; especially when he came to read those tales of love and amorous challenges that are to be met with in many places, such a passage as the following, for example: ‘The reason of the unreason that afflicts my reason, in such a manner weakens my reason that I with reason lament me of your comeliness.’ And he was similarly affected when his eyes fell upon such lines as these: ‘…the high Heaven of your divinity divinely fortifies you with the stars and renders you deserving if that desert you greatness doth deserve.’”

-Don Quixote, Cervantes, 2226

            If you’re going, “What…??,” then you got it exactly. In this passage, Cervantes is commenting on the ridiculous nature of the writ of love. The circular speech and repetitive wording in both of the quotes Cervantes tells us that Don Quixote adores dizzies and confuses, and we see a commentary on obsessive love and romance addiction, because certainly if Don Quixote is taken by such verse as these, he has some level of addiction to romance. Cervantes himself is quick to point out that the lines make little to no sense whatsoever, and that even the greatest minds could not unravel their meaning. Not to claim myself among those greatest minds, but I did try, and eventually I got through them, I think able to glean something akin to what they may have been intended to mean, but  honestly, I am still not sure.

            The overdone sap that drips from these lines reminds me of many lines in Twilight, but a few, for example, might be: “His voice was like melting honey. I could imagine how much more overwhelming his eyes would be” (102); “I was consumed by the mystery Edward presented. And more than a little obsessed by Edward himself” (67); and: “It was hard to believe that someone so beautiful could be real. I was afraid that he might disappear in a sudden puff of smoke, and I would wake up” (87). But none so clearly overly obsessed as the passage that reads: “ About three things I was absolutely positive. First Edward was a vampire. Second there was a part of him—and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.”

            Romance addiction is an affliction suffered by many, at differing levels. Some mild cases simply yearn for the un-reality that “I must get butterflies in my stomach every time I see him, no matter how long we’ve been together,” while the more extreme cases involve violence and abuse to themselves and/ or their “loved” one. It may be the difference between caffeine and heroine, but addiction—to substance or romance—is dangerous regardless.

            The purpose of this blog is to find beauty in things, and so, the beauty I find in these passages from both Don Quixote and Twilight is this: We see through them that obsessive love is consuming, maddening, ultimately unhealthy. Through them we learn to seek what is true love: giving, service, and kindness.

“Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.” –Jean Anouilh

Hamlet Act V Scene 2: Anger and Revenge

“Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric;

I am justly killed with mine own treachery.”

                        --Hamlet, William Shakespeare, 2497

            Simply put: karma’s a b***. In this scene, Laertes has been poisoned with his own sword, poisoned to kill Hamlet. Laertes grew angry, losing sight of his composure, and in the course of the exchange, Hamlet switched swords with Laertes and returned the offence (drawing blood in what was supposed to be a playful game)—an eye for an eye and all that…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oStWixf19OM (0:00 – 0:17)

            After all, is not turnabout fair play? Laertes received his just desserts, just as Mr. Yin in the Psych episode Yang 3 in 2D. http://movies.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70153394&trkid=2361637&t=Psych#MovieId=70153394&EpisodeMovieId=70152179 (35:54 – 37:54)

But as Laertes lay there, dying, he realizes this was not brought upon by Hamlet’s hand, but by his own vengeful spirit. And, instead of holding onto that spirit in death, he apologizes to Hamlet for his perfidy. 

Certainly there is insight in his actions. Buddha said, “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” As I see it, that vengeful, unforgiving anger is the poison, and it will fester and stew inside of your soul, darkening it, eating away at it, and ultimately destroying it. The moral of Laertes story? Thus: when we fuel our anger with exacting revenge, no one gains… 

And everyone dies in the end.

Hamlet Act II Scene 2: Eternal Love

“To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia,

….In her excellent white bosom, these,

…. Doubt thou the stars are fire;

          Doubt that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt I love.

O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to reckon my groans: but that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.”
–Hamlet, William Shakespeare, 2436

          Let’s be honest—no one writes love poems like Shakespeare, and this passage is no different. In a letter from Hamlet to his adored Ophelia, he expresses such strength in his love that he tells her that he should doubt everything she knows to be truth before she doubts his love for her. How powerful is that? And then he goes on to say his words aren’t even ample to 

cover it… Now what girl doesn’t want to hear that?

The world we live in today is one in which cohabitating and “starter marriages” are accepted—even normal, because we, as individuals in a relationship evolve separately and distinctly from our relational counterparts. And with an almost 50% divorce rate, it would seem that no relationship is sure. So how much more poignant would words such as these—if said in earnest and truth—be. If two loving and loyal parties could pledge such love and devotion as this, and make good on that pledge, how much less doubt and worry we would feel for our relationships! How much deeper would be the vulnerability and, therefore, intimacy shared between partners!

As I read this particular passage, I was reminded of the Song of Solomon. Similar to Hamlet’s reference to Ophelia’s “excellent white bosom” (2436), oft is the breast referenced in Solomon’s Song, as in chapter 7, verse 3: “Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins”, or chapter 1 verse 13: “A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.” But more similarly is the avowal that in no way will this love burn out: “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: of a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned” (Song of Solomon 8:6-7, KJV).  

From there, my mind goes to Princess Buttercup’s declaration “Westley and I are joined by the bonds of love, and you cannot track that—not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it—not with a thousand swords…” (The Princess Bride). (Interestingly enough, Westley also mentions the exquisiteness of his love’s breasts as well: “There’s a shortage of perfect breasts in this world—t’would be a pity to damage yours…”)

And then I’m onto All-for-One’s classic love song, I Swear. “I swear by the moon and the stars in the sky: I’ll be there. And I swear, like the shadow that’s by your side I’ll be there. For better or worse, ‘til death do us part—I’ll love you with every beat of my heart. I swear.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDtTerDzoXA

   I guess my point is this: Just like Renee Olstead, we all “want a love that will last.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgDwCh94yp0 We all want assurance that if we are going to put our hearts one the line the way love requires us to, we want a guarantee that it will be forever. What a blessing that we know how it can!