All Art, like all Love, has its roots in Heartache.
Solitude
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
Who am I? What is my true reason for being? What is my destiny?
These are the words that I can recall most clearly from all of the pokemon movies that I have watched. And now, I find myself admiring MewTwo again, because of his desire to carve a destiny for himself, a reason for his being.
I always abhored it when someone addresses a group of people as 'People'. I find myself wondering, why is it that society is so eager to preach conformity and denounces individuality? In Shakespeare's time, Mark Anthony addresses the Pelebians as ' Friends, Romans, Countrymen'. There, we see a sense of pride at being a Roman- being a Roman is their identity, and they take pride in it. Today, there is no longer any sense kinship between men. We are just another person in society, just a person out of a group of people. The ideal person today is striped of identity, faceless and forced to conform.
I admire MewTwo. He is able to break free from the tight reins of social constructs, to pursue and discover his reason for being, his identity. He posesses a desire to discover himself. It is a lamentable fact that most people today no longer wishes to discover himself. Instead, they have fallen into the trap of conformity, of false pseudo 'perfection'. This is quite evident in our society, where spiked/rebonded/dyed hair outnumbers the people who have natural hair. Society preaches that not questioning is a virture, and it has made us retards today. Social etiquettes set in place have became formal decroums, to be strictlyt observed. This following of rules is a form of stripping away of one's identity, for one, under the restrictions of these decorums, are forced to put on a mask. Since everyone observes the same set of decorum, the females giggles shyly when spoken too, all the males clad in dark suits discussing big buiness, they have conformed. In conforming, they have found perfection.
Naturally, we see a group of people that try to break free of the shackles of social constructs. They are known as rebellious youths. Sadly, I feel that they too, have inadvertly conformed. Think about it- they do not want to follow social norms, so instead, they follow the more rebellious, unorthodox group of people. They have conformed, not to social norms perhaps, but in the quest of finding their own identity, they have still adopted another's identity as his own.
I admit that to survive in today's society, one does have, to a large extent, conform. It is inevitable. It is a survival skill. However, I do feel that in this jungle of social constructs and norm, one can remain true to himself, by being what he wants to be, and not adopt another's mind for his own.
Hence, my friends, my readers, set forth, and carve in your own hearts, a personal destiny.
posted @ 12:36 AM
