Mother - revisited

I recently posted a quotation I like from the book Mother, by Maxim Gorky after reading it.

Although at the beginning I found it a rather slow read, the book eventually picked up its pace and I found it quite intriguing. Mother is a story published over a hundred years ago by one of Russia’s revolutionary writers. Although the book revolves around the events of 1902, it reflects how the Russian proletariat was warming up to revolutionary emotions and dissent.  However, Lenin did not lead the Russian proletariat into the successful October Socialist Revolution until 1917, unease with the Tsar and attempts at revolt began long before that.

Already the people, the intellectuals, were talking of “camaraderie” and a classless society – the ideas of Karl Marx. The feelings of change were brewing before they actually succeeded in taking down the Tsar. It is marveling what drives people and how certain leaders can mobilize a whole nation just on an idea. Of course, it was not only an idea, but the suffering of hundreds and the torturous and unequal work conditions were the helm of what spurred them forward into their revolt.

But when you examine the ideas put forward, the teachings of Marx and Lenin, the idea of a classless, stateless society, the desire for global camaraderie it makes you think – were the people following some Utopian notion that was never meant to be practically implemented? I don’t even think it can even be classified as Utopian; I mean what is Utopian?

But another quotation from the book, this time by Andrei shows how some people viewed the future of the world if a global revolution over ‘evil’ was to be successful:

“I know the time will come when people will wonder at their own beauty, when each will be like a star to all the others. The earth will be peopled with free men, great in their freedom. The hearts of all will be open, and every heart will be innocent of envy and malice. Then life will be transformed into the great service of Man, and Man will have become something fine and exalted, for all things are attainable to those who are free. Then people will live in truth and freedom for the sake of beauty, and the best people will be accounted those whose hearts are most capable of embracing the world and of loving it, those who are the most free, for in them lies the greatest beauty. They will be great people, those of the new life...”And of the sake of that life I am ready to do anything at all.”

It makes me wonder, now that the Tsar is no longer, now that the revolution happened, not only in Russia but in so many countries of the world – have we achieved those goals? Have we reached the greatest beauty and become ‘fine and exalted’? What has the free man done with his freedom?

I wonder if the problem is with the goals that revolutionaries set for themselves. What goes wrong, why don’t we learned?

Maxim Gorky got it right with this other passage, said by the mother herself; it could very well be a premonition:

“The mother loved to listen to his speeches, and they left her with a strange impression: it seemed that the most vicious enemy of the people, those who most often deceived them and were most cruel to them, were fat, redfaced little men, mean, greedy, sly and cruel. When they were themselves hard-pressed by the tsar of their land, they set the common people on him, and when the people had overthrown their ruler, these little men seized the power by fraud, driving the people back to their hovels, or, if resisted, killing hundreds and thousands of them.”

In such a complicated world we live in, it’s intriguing that we are all manipulated by such simplistic views in our distorted perception of “good” vs “evil” and “us” vs “them”. The pure sheep mentality. Cattling along…(no, cattling is not a word).

Shouldn’t it be easier to attain peace?

So many questions prompted by the stupidity of human-kind.

On the other hand, the book provides food for thought because it is based on real events and Gorky himself admits that the novel was based on factual historical events. The novel offers a window into a different world, a different way of living that isn’t too far from present reality in some places on earth. Gorky does have a beautiful style of writing; I personally love his descriptions, depictions and metaphors. He captures the emotions of the mother so well; it’s hard to believe that the mother herself didn't write it. 

Mother

"It's criminal, mother. The vicious murdering of the millions of people. The murdering of human souls. Do you see it? Killers of souls. And do you see the difference between them and us?  When we strike a fellow it is disgusting, shameful, hurtful - mostly, disgusting. But they kill thousands of people calmly and mercilessly, without any qualms and with the greatest satisfaction. And their only reason for crushing people to death is to preserve their silver and gold and securities and all the miserable stuff which enables them to enslave us. Think of it - it isn't their lives they're defending when they murder people and mutilate their souls - not their lives, but their possessions! The things that are outside a man, not what's within him." - Pavel Vlassov from the novel Mother by Maxim Gorky

Be like the birds...3mena Victor Hugo

"Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings." 


It's quite romantic picturing us as birds. We hatch in one place, perhaps Eden, and then we either fly off to other destinations in hope of a better life, or we are moved by winds we can't control. 


The winds take us as they may, to greener planes, to deserts...anywhere. Like Confucius astutely noted, "remember no matter where you go, there you are." 


So at the end of the day, there is no good or bad, just different a different place. Experiencing different winds and different climates. Sure, there is bad I suppose - I guess the strong will be tested.


But to wrap up with a third quote, from 3m Shakespeare, "there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so..."

God, give me sunshine

A little sunshine in my soul won't hurt, it'd make nice company for the road. Brighten up some of those days, maybe make me see things in a different light.

Just a sprinkle of sunshine so I can be on my way. 

This is what happens at 2 am in the morning...

This is what I was thinking about 2 am in the morning, I must have been hungry:


I tiptoed into a tiny room, then another, then another. It was a maze; I was excited and moved by instinct with no map, except my womanly intuition, of course.

Every room was different. One dark, one noisy, one crowded. One was peaceful and another doubtful (I could tell from the hunched up figure in the room scratching its head – I think that was curiosity).

I found a grocery list had left its respective room and wandered up to the VIP room. In the VIP room morals, freedom, skepticism, and religion were in a heated debate concerning a matter of importance. Interesting I thought, seems to happen everywhere.

I think they were bothered by grocery list’s presence, although benign enough, since food was not on the agenda for that day.

Skepticism curtly told grocery list to try another room if it was bored and did not want to go back to its own room, and suggested it go into the room of desires.

Morals, almost having a hissy fit, objected and insisted that room would just corrupt grocery list.

Freedom on the other hand, looking at the far corner of the room and musing upon something other than grocery list, such a trivial matter it seemed to Freedom, thought grocery list should be bold and try to go in there with its healthy principles and see if it would come out alive.

Religion believed it should avoid temptation and go and do something useful, like read a book on GI foods.

I sort of thought that it was in my best interest for grocery list to take its wandering tush to the exercise room till I could get it back home.

But then again, this was all just in my head.©

Somehow the inevitability of life, destiny, and death makes it more bearable.  

You’ve been around for 36 months, and this is it?

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution! | Video on TED.com

This is Sir Ken once again, back on the TED stage for a 2010 sequel. He says some very important and eye-opening points. He's hilarious, too.

If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

I am so impressed with the TED talks and how inspiring and unconventional they are...food for thought and action.

Look for early signs...

A stroke. This is a word that could mean something positive, like, a stroke of luck. Or something totally disastrous, like, a clinical stroke.  Anyone who is a care-giver, especially for someone who did not recover well from the stroke can understand how this experience can be so traumatizing.

It usually single-handedly changes your life, your perspective on life and your whole life-style. Sometimes although the stroke survivor has survived, they may become different from the person you knew before.

The thing is, sometimes it comes with guilt from lack of knowledge. I know that many people would’ve wished to know the early warning signals of strokes (especially in developing countries), and how TIAs can predict a future stroke. Most people would’ve liked to be given advice on how to deal with the situation medically and emotionally. Not only that, it is expected that someone (like a physician) should sit down with the survivor’s family and explain exactly what to expect in the future and what it means to be a caregiver. But most of the time that just doesn't happen.

There aren’t support groups available everywhere, for everyone. Sometimes the caregiver is their own support group, sometimes friends don’t understand because truly “seeing is believing.”  

I decided to search for resources online and information on TIAs, the most important warning that a stroke could happen in the future.

I initially was on a mission to track down support groups (and there are none where I live as far as I know) and also to check out the tell-tale red lights indicating an on-coming stroke.

I would like to share this information here; I really hope it helps someone.

I’ll begin with TIAs and add other tidbits in the future, isA.

From strokeassociation.org:

What You Need to Know about TIAsExcerpted from “Why Rush?”, Stroke Connection January/February 2009
While transient ischemic attack (TIA) is often labeled “mini-stroke,” it is more accurately characterized as a “warning stroke,” a warning you should take very seriously.

	click to enlarge

TIA is caused by a clot; the only difference between a stroke and TIA is that with TIA the blockage is transient (temporary). TIA symptoms occur rapidly and last a relatively short time. Most TIAs last less than five minutes; the average is about a minute. Unlike a stroke, when a TIA is over, there’s no permanent injury to the brain. View a detailed animation of TIAThe warning signs of a TIA are exactly the same as for a stroke:

	Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
	Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
	Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
	Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
	Sudden, severe headache with no known cause To read the rest of the article go to:

http://www.strokeassociation.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3068856

and 

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4781