Who Am I?
Part I
Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUgwM1Ky228&feature=related
Defining me in a song is a difficult as defining me in a text or an image....but despite my considerations from Simon and Garfunkle's Sounds of Silence, and Bob Marley's Redemption Song (by far his best), this song kept slipping back into my conscious. It's been master lyricists The Indigo Girls (who have fantastic lyrics in many of their other songs), and the message sort of explains me. The song is called Closer to Fine and it edged out their song Hammer and Nail, but it describes the socratic questioning we all go through, and the one I particularly go through as I struggle through the obstacles of life. It gives me strength when I need it most and I think it has become part of me in a way.
Part II
Art
I will cheat on the description of this piece as a definition of me and use the viewer's perspective as a way to translate the piece. I will just say I love the concept presented by the piece, and I think it describes me in some ways.
Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, 1555.
http://www.oceansbridge.com/oil-paintings/product/76163/landscapewiththefalloficarus1555
Part III
Literature
As an English major in college, I loved to read; so as much as it is easy for me to pick from numerous texts, picking an item that "defines me" is of the utmost difficulty, in part because I need to separate that which I like (and perhaps aspire to) and that which I define myself as. Honesty is easy when looking at others, but not so much when looking at the self. So I will take a conceit and offer this as an imperfect definition of myself (written in 2003, if memory serves)
The World Journeys On
Walk past the killing fields, the oil spills, the famished,
the residents of the streets, the unemployed, the smallpox
patients, the corporate scandals, the greed, the human rights
violations, the court battles, the domestic abuse, the racial
inequality, the prejudice and bias, the nuclear weapons
buildups, the arsons and rapes and abductions and media
blitzes, the jihads and crusades, the cold war, and the hot war,
and the war without words that sucks
the soul out of the living...
Walk past it all, and you have a beautiful world.
- Earl. C. De Mott
Part IV
Advice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orSS968vPR4
This piece was difficult to pick out,in part because I wanted to give advice to my students and colleagues that told everything in my heart. I looked at some complex pieces such as the beautiful poem Desiderata (which holds a true philosophy to live by, and should feature prominently in everyone's entryway, but ultimately, I selected a song from one of my favourite bands because of its simple dichotomy, its absolutist nature and its sound advice. Which song, however, was also difficult, but this one contains one of my favourite lines in it, so it won the day.
Simply it says "The level in which you speak up will determine the level in which you are united or divided." And the niceness of silence can be the most destructive force out there. So shed shyness and coyness and social construct and live in the sometimes unkind and uncomplimentary truth. That is where happiness comes from.
Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUgwM1Ky228&feature=related
Defining me in a song is a difficult as defining me in a text or an image....but despite my considerations from Simon and Garfunkle's Sounds of Silence, and Bob Marley's Redemption Song (by far his best), this song kept slipping back into my conscious. It's been master lyricists The Indigo Girls (who have fantastic lyrics in many of their other songs), and the message sort of explains me. The song is called Closer to Fine and it edged out their song Hammer and Nail, but it describes the socratic questioning we all go through, and the one I particularly go through as I struggle through the obstacles of life. It gives me strength when I need it most and I think it has become part of me in a way.
Part II
Art
I will cheat on the description of this piece as a definition of me and use the viewer's perspective as a way to translate the piece. I will just say I love the concept presented by the piece, and I think it describes me in some ways.
Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, 1555.
http://www.oceansbridge.com/oil-paintings/product/76163/landscapewiththefalloficarus1555
Part III
Literature
As an English major in college, I loved to read; so as much as it is easy for me to pick from numerous texts, picking an item that "defines me" is of the utmost difficulty, in part because I need to separate that which I like (and perhaps aspire to) and that which I define myself as. Honesty is easy when looking at others, but not so much when looking at the self. So I will take a conceit and offer this as an imperfect definition of myself (written in 2003, if memory serves)
The World Journeys On
Walk past the killing fields, the oil spills, the famished,
the residents of the streets, the unemployed, the smallpox
patients, the corporate scandals, the greed, the human rights
violations, the court battles, the domestic abuse, the racial
inequality, the prejudice and bias, the nuclear weapons
buildups, the arsons and rapes and abductions and media
blitzes, the jihads and crusades, the cold war, and the hot war,
and the war without words that sucks
the soul out of the living...
Walk past it all, and you have a beautiful world.
- Earl. C. De Mott
Part IV
Advice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orSS968vPR4
This piece was difficult to pick out,in part because I wanted to give advice to my students and colleagues that told everything in my heart. I looked at some complex pieces such as the beautiful poem Desiderata (which holds a true philosophy to live by, and should feature prominently in everyone's entryway, but ultimately, I selected a song from one of my favourite bands because of its simple dichotomy, its absolutist nature and its sound advice. Which song, however, was also difficult, but this one contains one of my favourite lines in it, so it won the day.
Simply it says "The level in which you speak up will determine the level in which you are united or divided." And the niceness of silence can be the most destructive force out there. So shed shyness and coyness and social construct and live in the sometimes unkind and uncomplimentary truth. That is where happiness comes from.