The
second story that Flaum's childhood classmate wrote, spoke to me the
most out of the two. The first story of the wolf finding its' howl
was a nice existential reflection but the second story of the tiger
was much more relatable to me. The main theme in the second story
about the tiger was that life is cyclical. Not only are we trapped
by our own minds and abilities but we are forced to face our
inadequacies over and over again. Once we are freed from one “cage”,
we then find ourselves in another similar cage, it is a continual
Sisyphean experience.
There
have been many times in my life where I change or find myself in a
new circumstance. Although, throughout all of the changes and new
experiences, I at my core, am still the same person. With time and
growth I often tend to grow more neurotic or particular, in some
cases jaded. In my late adolescence I found that rebelling and
seeking out adventure was the key to my own personal happiness. For a
time it was and in retrospect I envy my past self but I would never
want to return to those times. After a few years of “real world”
experience and holding a couple of demanding jobs I grew to take
pleasure in the simple life. In my time working in Alaska I gained a
reverence for people and the minimal vices that can bring people
together in brutal environments.
At
the core of my experiences in living and traveling, I have found that
people are the same everywhere. There are always the strong and the
weak, the loud and the quiet, the kindhearted and the malevolent, we
are everyone. In every country I have traveled to I have seen rich
cultures with vibrant people and sometimes people that are
disenfranchised beyond our conceivability in the West. Through it
all though, we all share human characteristics and human problems to
varying degrees, all of which are coupled with our culture and
circumstances.
The
piece of work that speaks to me the most, and that is most
consistently, is the opening monologue in the film Legends
of the Fall,
directed by Edward Zwick. The part of the quote that I find as a
proverb for my own life is: “Some
people hear their own inner voices with great cleanness. And
they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they
become legends ...”. The idea of that quote is similar to one of
my other favorite quotes that my father used to repeat throughout my
child hood. The quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald is: “The
test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed
ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to
function.”. Both quotes hold the idea that we have two voices in
our heads at all times, sometimes we can listen to one or the other.
One voice which I see as our animal voice or our voice of passion and
emotion, is the voice that brings us to a purer state of existence.
The other voice is that of reason and the voice often regarded as the
day to day voice. This second voice is the one we use to function as
a member in a society that doesn't care for our desires and longings.
Both voices are necessary to function in life but which one we chose
to listen to more is the one that will determine what we are
remembered as after we are long gone from this world.
