Carry It Forward: Conscious Thinking

                Life can be incredibly overwhelming at times. With the constant buzzing of phones, loud noises from the television, and bright lights from computer screens, I begin to feel trapped by modern technology. Nicholas Carr would explain the power of new equipment as “the ‘frenzied-ness of technology threatens to ‘entrench itself everywhere’.” It begins to take over many of our lives forbidding any moments of self reflecting and being aware. Instead it allows us to roam around unconsciously. In Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows, he explains how technology can make us unconscious, less creative and lazier.  

In The Shallows it says, “Our ability to engage in “meditative thinking,” which he saw as the very essence of our humanity, might become a victim if headlong progress. The tumultuous advance of technology could, like the arrival of the locomotive at the Concord station, drown out the refined perceptions, thoughts, and emotions that arise only through contemplation and reflection” (222). After reading this last part of the book, I understood how fast technology is advancing and how fast we become over-involved with new products. This passage also reminds me of when I was completely unaware while walking through the streets of an old city in Iran. I was constantly texting and looking at my phone instead of really enjoying the wonderful sites. After understanding this passage, I have decided to balance the amount of technology I use. Instead of going on Facebook or checking what’s new online, I’ll take a moment to reflect on my day and actually think about how I spent my day. Nicholas Carr has taught me to be more conscious of what is happening around me instead of being caught up in modern equipment.

Tony and Maria: The New Romeo and Juliet

Many of us know of Shakespeare’s famous love struck Romeo and Juliet. We know about their love at first sight, and their tragic ending, but do we truly understand the meaning behind this famous love story?

Romeo and Juliet was written as a play in the 1500’s and has been retold many times after. Many movies, songs, plays and books are based on this tragedy, trying to recreate the true love of Romeo and Juliet. In the 1950’s West Side Story was made. It was a popular musical based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It was known as the modern day tragic love story written by Arthur Laurents. This musical was about the forbidden romance between a Puerto Rican girl named Maria and an American boy named Tony. Although the love between these two beings were real, it was impossible because of the gang rivalry between the Jets (Americans) and the Sharks (Puerto Ricans). West Side Story is a contemporary Romeo and Juliet allowing our generation to understand the difficulty that these characters went through. Many of us are unaware of the true hardships of what Montague and Capulet went through but when it is retold with the Jets versus Sharks it is understood. When reading, or even hearing, the original Romeo and Juliet, our age group becomes confused and caught up in trying to understand the primary language of the text instead of actually concentrating on the emotions and thoughts that are given by the characters. When the “new version” of this story is watched, the audience becomes happy when Maria realizes she is loved and is empathetic to her when her true love is dead.

West Side Story has always been one of my favorite movies. In my opinion it is an incredible story of the joys and tragedies of Maria. Although remakes are known to be worse than the original, that is not always true. Remakes can give a clearer image to newer generations and help the audience relive the same experiences of past spectators. I believe that remakes are good because they can be easier to understand and allow us to see the story in new perspective.

To learn more about West Side Story: http://www.filmsite.org/wests.html

Best of the Week: The Run ("Pearls Before Breakfast")

Ready, Set, GO!  Start running. Keep your head straight, look at nothing but the finish line and keep your legs moving. All that you think about is being number one and winning. This is what the most people’s days start like. They wake up in a rush to get to work, and school. Most human beings lives have become a never ending race. We have filled are lives with unnecessary obligations, tests and challenges that we must overcome. Most people live for their requirements and nothing else, but is this the real reason for human life? For the constant stresses and jobs that we have?  

Human beings today live life as if it was a competition. A competition about school, college then jobs. So when do we rest? We cannot take breaks to walk in a race because then well be behind. We go on everyday unnoticing the little treasures around us. We never seem to notice the beautiful plants that come to life in the spring or the street performers that sing their heartfelt songs. Life was meant to live not suffer through. While reading “Pearls before Breakfast” I was upset by how many of the men and women did not even stop to listen to Joshua Bell’s performance. In one part of this article, Gene Weingarten says, “if we can’t take the time out of lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth and play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that—then what else are we missing?” It is upsetting to think about how so many beautiful things in life go unnoticed. How we block out extra noises from performers and never notice the wonderful things around us. We become so overwhelmed with unimportant issues and things that we forget to look around and become aware. We fail to see performers like Joshua Bell.

Reading this article was somewhat of an awakening for me. I would hate to be thought of as an inconsiderate person who fails to notice the beauty of the world we live in. I know that I too am a person who ignores the street performers and the other artists on the streets, but after reading this article, I want to change that. “Pearls Before Breakfast” was an interesting article that completely changed my viewpoint on the artists that perform on streets.