December 4: Eyes that are watching but not seeing When you look, everywhere you look, there are eyes. Eyes of pain. Eyes that long to help. Eyes that do and don't understand. Everything is shown by the eyes that know. The ones that know what happen. The truth that we do not understand, the reasons for the eyes that watch our every move.
Guernica, the painting that is full of the eyes, was painted by Picasso. The painting is meant to show us something, make us make up our mind on something, but what? My theory is that Picasso was confused about a war, the only thing that could help him conclude on a reason was painting. So I think that he painted, and the end product was Guernica. It may look like a confusing mass of shapes, but once you look closer you can see that Picasso really did try to make us understand something.
People are lying on the floor dead, ghosts glide past the scared faces, everywhere things are dying, animals and humans, but the most intriguing thing is the eyes. There is an eye everywhere you look, or is it something that just looks like an eye, much like the painting painted by Jim Warren. Is it an eye or is it a cloud, or a far away galaxy. But it looks like an eye, just like the lamp in the painting by Picasso.
Everywhere you look there are eyes, but don't let that discourage you.
Site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22876714@N03/3703370922/ (Painted by Jim Warren)
December 3: We need to stay togetherEboo Patel. A nobody in the world, has spread his word. "We are each other's business." We have to respect people because they are different, understand them, and become friends with them. A muslim can be friends with a jew, and a jew can be friends with a christian. But what does friendship mean? Just eating lunch with them, or helping them with life problems?
Eboo Patel was friends with a jew. They sat together everyday, with other friends, and ate lunch. But once the jew had problems, Eboo turned a blind eye. He didn't help, and the jew was finding it harder and harder to come to school, with nobody there to help him. Eboo couldn't find the courage to confront the guys that had made the Jewish people's life like this, in fact, nobody could. They days were getting harder, with all the anti-Semitic slurs people were saying and writing on desks. The Jewish friend couldn't escape it, and with all his friends ignoring it, he felt abandoned, there was nobody there to help him, nobody he could trust. Eboo said "I did not confront them. I did not comfort my Jewish friend. Instead I averted my eyes from their bigotry, and I avoided my friend because I couldn't stand to face him." In the painting, artist unknown, the people are together helping one another to help keep the bridge standing. This picture is a metaphor of what we must do to keep mankind strong, help out the people that need it. Eboo and his friends now realize that they all must stick together, helping the people who need it along the way. They must must stand up for what they believe.
And you must, too.
Site: http://empathicperspectives.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-optical-illusions-to-test-your.html
November 24: The Smallest Things Make A Difference
Music. It is what shapes our world. But Burma is a different story. Nothing is normal there. Thxa Soe, a young singer, has made a new form of Hip Hop for the Burmese teenagers. But it's hard to get his lyrics published because nothing is the same in Burma. The government is worried about anything offending the military, if it slightly does, it is out lawed. But that doesn't stop the teenagers of Burma from going to the concerts and singing to the music. They are in love with this music, they can't get enough. The music inspires them to believe in what they think and believe in themselves.
They know that they could get in trouble for any slight mistake of what they say and do, but it doesn't stop the young people of Myanmar. They want to get away from the rules and military watching over them, breathing down their backs. The concerts are the one place they can do that, the ability to feel like a normal teenager, for a short time, can go along way. These teenagers are always there, for the concerts that give them hope. They want to be free, and not have to go to a concert where the military watches them. They don't want to be separated from the stage by a rope with barbed wire. They don't want have the music they listen to be chosen for them. They want to become free, just like to owl in the painting, hovering over their past and flying towards better days.
Picture: Barn Owl: By: Martin Ridley
November 11: Traveling Down That Road?
Fatmire Feka has been through the war in Kosovo, she lost her older brother and sister and still doesn't know what happened to them. As an 11 year old, going through all this is tough, but on top of all that she wanted to make peace. She made the Kids for Peace organization to unite the kids from Kozovo and the kids from Albania. She wants to forgive those who caused her all her pain, the ones who know the secrets to what happened to her brother and sister, but she doesn't know who to forgive. Without knowing who to forgive you can't forgive.She has been living in Canada, but her mom has not chosen to leave the site where she last saw her missing son and daughter. Fatmire wants to forgive but not forget, she knows she is not the only one traveling down the road to forgiveness. Reporter are always asking her, "Have you forgiven?" there is only one answer for her, no.
WHY FORGIVE THOSE WHO CAUSE US PAIN?
Because we do not know the reason they caused us pain, maybe they didn't want to do it. Maybe they did it to support their family. We do not know the reasons. We are in pain, yes, but we need to move on, you will only make yourself more depressed. You can not live in the past, it will haunt you. Fatmire has moved on but not forgetting that her brother and sister could be out there somewhere. She has gone on to do great things like make the the Kids for Peace organization. The picture at the top is symbolizing the road to forgiveness Fatmire Feka will eventually have to take. She will take her time and make her way down, with many others seeking forgiveness.
Fatmire Feka is a true Hero.
Picture: By: Don Edwards
