Mark Twain's Wisdom

I want to start off this post by saying that I think I want to look like Mark Twain when I get older. The mustache thing he has going on is great.

That being said, picking a favorite quote from Mr. Clemens is difficult at best. At worst... well, we will just leave you to fill in the rest there. One that really struck with me was one about lightning (on page 140 in my book). It goes something like this:

"The trouble isn't that there are too many fools, but that the lightning isn't distributed right."

This quote strikes me as a funny and slightly sardonic phrase that I think is true. Let's face it, we all have that person (truthfully more like persons) that at times have that we wish could get a nice little shock from the heavens, if only for an instant. Clemens, being a humorist, catches on to the frustration that humans have with each other and creates a nice little quote that catches everyone slightly off guard. Is it nice to say? Not really. Is it politically correct? Probably not. But Clemens rarely seems to care if others take offense to his sayings, something that we might all be able to take a brief lesson on (I say brief because were we all to speak so candidly without any filter, conflicts would be a commonality between mankind as much as breathing is, something we probably don't need).
 
Twain's quotes are memorable and pleasing for the most part and humorous to the last. This book was an excellent choice for any class on humor, and I intend to reread it later to pick up some of the golden bits I surely left behind on my first pass through.

The Last of Juha

As we finish out Tales of Juha, I realized I am quite disappointed: not with the book, but rather with the fact that we will get no more Juha wisdom or humor from here on out!

Tales of Juha was a wonderful book. The small tales in it were humorous when I understood them, confusing when I didn't, and overall a good shift from the books we had read previously in the semester. The light and comical anecdotes proved to contain nuggets of wisdom and insight into the Arabian culture of the time as well as a good look on the perspective of our own culture. Although the time setting seems different and the modes of transportation are not alike in the least (lots of mentions of donkeys in this book), it was intriguing to see the similarities of our American culture with the Arabic culture. For example, many of the last anecdotes that we read focused on corruption in the government and needless court cases, something that I have seen the American public frustrated about many times before. It seems that Juha's tales are not only meant to be comical, but also to be some sort of political and social commentary about the world around them.

It was also nice to have an easy read that kept me awake while I was finishing it. Tales of Juha was a short, simple read that contained a lot of humor and wisdom inside its lines. The one thing that may have not been so enjoyable was the presence of condescension towards women in many of the jokes; however, when reading a tale about another culture it is important to realize that back then (and perhaps even now) there were different social standards. Arabic culture is heavily male dominated, meaning that many writings, jokes, and traditions that come out of that culture are likely to reflect that idea.

Overall, Tales of Juha was a well compiled book, reminding me a lot of a deeper, Arabic version of Anguished English.

Creeping

First of all, I apologize for the tardiness of this post. I could make a plethora of excuses for why it was not posted in time, but in the end what really matters is Go Frogs, right? Right. Glad we got that settled.

As part of an assignment to observe what makes people laugh in situations, I spent part of Easter weekend creeping on people's conversations and observing what made them laugh. For the most part, I was only able to observe the normal things: cognitive shift and what have you. However, at one point after Easter service I noticed an extreme irony that the entire group found hilarious.

For Easter I went to a good friend's house about an hour outside of Fort Worth. His mom was gracious enough to prepare Easter baskets for the whole group of us that went, and even made distinctly different boy and girl baskets. Something that was present in every boy basket was a small pack of cards like Pokémon cards (a suggestion of Ryan, the friend whose house we were staying at). Strangely enough, as all the baskets get handed around, Ryan receives a larger Easter basket than the rest of us (fitting, considering it was his mom and his house). However, Ryan did not receive any cards. The irony of the situation is this: he was probably the only one who really desired the cards! He sat there and asked his mom if she had maybe forgotten him, but all she said was "Oh, I thought you just meant for all the other boys sweetie!" At this, the entire group started laughing, including Ryan. The irony of the situation was such that everyone found the predicament funny, even Ryan who was on the wrong side of the joke. Ryan then stated (in good fun) that he was going to Target later that night to find himself a large deck of cards so that he could easily beat all of us who were laughing with him.

After being in a class studying humor for the better part of the semester, it was nice to see such a sweet irony unfold right in front of me where I was only an observer and not a participant. It was also good to see everyone laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation as well, rather than at any one person. This was at the expense of no one (except maybe a slightly disappointed Ryan), and everyone (including Ryan and his mom) found the situation comical.

A Meaningful Life?

After reading Slaughterhouse 5, we received an assignment reminiscent of that which Billy Pilgrim's mom tries: we are to attempt to find a meaning of life from items found in a souvenir store.

After looking all over the Stockyards, here are the items I found.



Here is the skull of a warthog (or pig of some type anyway). As his vast, vacant eye sockets stare off into nothing, I cannot help but wonder: does he see the future? Perhaps his past? How did his violent ending occur? In the end, all we can see from this sad remnant of a once proud pig is how short life is and how we should make the best of it... by watching the Lion King and laughing at our good warthog friend Pumba (I wonder if they were related?)



Here is a carving of a Native American man, dressed in a feather headdress, yet looking immaculately well for his depiction. As I looked upon him, I couldn't help but think this man was either Spanish or held a Spanish influence in his life (I'm thinking conquistadors or Spanish monks here). Was this man captured by the conquistadors, forced to shave, then presented before the king and queen? Or perhaps he was a conquistador runaway, fleeing from a life of being an oppressor and joining a simpler tribal life closer to nature. Whatever the case, this carving reminded me of the oppression and fallibility of humans, how we can do cruel things and live with them, or how we can easily make excuses for things that are inexcusable.
















Finally, we have the small box. It looks like a jewelry box from the outside: what treasures does it hold on the inside? Alas, we may never know for the faithful Western guardian stands watch over its contents, practically challenging, daring even, someone to come forth and test his skill. Whatever the contents of the box, they were obviously worth guarding. So too should we guard ourselves and our hearts from what others would like to do with them.