Under Life’s Covers

As you may have noticed from my lack of posting and dropping, I have been occupied with activities other than reading and blogging.  This period of my life has been and is tumultuous in many respects… from the seemingly impossible struggle to be seen as an independent adult - capable of making her own life decisions - in my parents’ eyes, to deciding where to launch the next part of my life after college, and even maintaining a healthy and happy balance between being frugal and having a little bit of fun now and then. 

Someone once told me that as people enter different phases of their lives and change, the relationships they are involved in need to change.  As seen from the moms who still nag at their 40 year old children who have their own kids now, and the dads who still insist on their way of doing things, relationships do not change much.  On a lighter note, you easily travel back and revert to your adolescent self when you’re back with your high school friends.  Perhaps it’s because of we are creatures of habit, perhaps we think that the people we’ve grown up with are the same, perhaps it’s because we act on only what we already know without finding out more.  This unyielding aspect of relationships is probably an underlying reason for the high percentage of failed marriages these days.  Instead of focusing on changing the people in your life, what are the relationships in your life that need to change?

I will be going to Europe in a couple of weeks for my 2 months of traveling abroad experience, then moving into a new city to start my corporate gig - so I will be pretty much nonexistent for several months until my life settles down.  So apologies to my audience out there, and to members of the entrecard community who may want to advertise on my blog as it continues to drop in the number of credits.  I am going to be bet that by the time I come back to Life’s Covers to begin building it back up again, it will be a measly 2 credits.  But that’s okay, because I am confident that when I have the energy and time to write quality posts and to promote my blog, the traffic will follow.

In the meantime…

• I will be saving up while lamenting over the awful euro exchange rate (I was depressed by the currency exchange rate I saw while I was in the airport this weekend: buy at 0.71, sell at 0.51) and spending it all on my 2 months of traveling
• Packing and moving all of my stuff (it’s amazing how you never think you have enough possessions until you have to move them from one place to another)
• Using only about 20% of what I learned in my college courses in my job (20% is actually rather high for most people - I estimate 20% for me because I completed a professional major instead of a generalized literature, science and arts major). 

À bientôt!

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A man in the city falls off his motorcycle and ends up in the hospital.  While he is being cared for in the hospital room, he drifts in and out of a dream where he is being chased by Aztec hunters.  Right when he is about to be sacrificed on the altar, he realizes, “… he was not going to wake up, that he was awake, and that the marvelous dream (the hospital) had been the other, absurd as all dreams are.”   - “Night Face Up” by Julio Cortazar

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How do you know what is reality and what is a dream?

“Reality is what happens to me when I’m awake and conscious.  Dreams happen when I’m asleep and unconscious.” 

Good answer, but how do you know whether you’re conscious or unconscious?  Isn’t it possible to dream when you’re conscious?  Perhaps it’s the same question as…

How do you know whether you’re facing up or down?

“I know because I can tell where I am facing…” you say.  Or you say, “If I was facing up, I would be looking at the ceiling and if I was facing down, I would be looking at the ground.”

All answers to the questions are reasonable - because that’s what we have experienced and seen.  But that’s the key point… because how can we be sure what we have experienced is really reality?  The truth is, we can’t be sure - and this is proven time and time again when people judge others, different lifestyles and beliefs based on the little information they know.  What is reality for one person is not reality for another.  Reality changes as we grow into mature adults from young adults from adolescents from pre-teens from children from infants.  Perhaps the only reality for all is that we will all die someday… or will we?

Our realities are our own perceptions of the world.  By changing your perception, you can change your reality. 

I was given Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen as a graduation present.  I don’t think I would have read it otherwise… simply because the book’s circus life theme is not what I would choose to read over other options.  However, it was so engaging that I spent 10 hours straight reading it from start to finish.  Granted, I had the day off from work and was conveniently glued to my comfy chair due to a cold, but it was a wonderful and easy read with a cute, unexpected ending. 

In short, the book is about an elderly man’s unspoken past - his memories of his journey from an Ivy-league college boy to a working man on a traveling circus during the Great Depression.  Jacob is only a couple weeks away from taking his final college veterinarian exams when his parents die in an automobile accident and he discovers that the bank has taken possession of his family’s assets.  Devastated and penniless, he walks away from his exams and unknowingly jumps onto the train of the “Benzini Brother’s Most Spectacular Show on Earth.”  There, Jacob begins his career as a lowly stock boy turned cooch tent guard turned unofficial circus veterinarian in a world of freaks, glitzy performers, underpaid workmen, mistreated animals, and corrupt bosses.  From his experiences in the harsh conditions of circus life, he develops from a sheltered boy to a courageous man who risks everything for his loves: the lovely wife of his violent, schizophrenic boss and the animals on the show.

There are many points that could be mentioned about the book, but to me, the most captivating (and not as obvious) themes of the book are the mysterious quality of memories and one’s perception of reality.  

“Sometimes when you get older… things you think on and wish on start to seem real. And then you believe them, and before you know it they’re part of your history…” (177). 

Throughout the book, old Jacob drifts back and forth between dreaming about his past and waking up to his present.  He has difficulty remembering where he is, his family members, and even his own age.  Perhaps… just perhaps, Jacob never worked in the circus at all…  He went to watch the “Benzini Brother’s Most Spectacular Show on Earth” as a young man in his twenties and now, as a 90 or 93 old man (”one or the other”), he dreams so much about being in the circus that it is reality to him.  A span of 70 years is incredible - all the more likely for memories to become diluted in the waters of the mind.  Even more coincidental is that the book’s title is connected to a character’s disillusioned remembrance of the past. 

This gives us lots to wonder.  I’ve always wondered whether the ridiculous memories I have of 1st and 2nd grade, only 13 years ago, really happened…  Michelle, a girl with curly brown hair and glasses (or wait, did she have glasses?), who was my friend as well as the source of my jealousy, who was chased and admired by many of the boys.  Dean, who ran after Michelle with arms outstretched, lips pursed in kissy noises, screaming his love.  Slyvia, a girl who ran after Dean out of jealousy and tried to get him to chase her instead.  Jonathan, who once offered Michelle his apple in his lunch box, but after holding it against his lips, tilting back, and making smooching sounds.  Jesse, my best friend during the time, a quiet and kind individual, who always had stickers in his lunch box to give me.

Or maybe, these wild memories of 1st and 2nd grade didn’t happen; they are figments of a dream turned false reality.  Maybe they only half-happened and the rest was my imagination.  Who knows?  That’s the funny thing about memory - there is always a hint of inaccuracy, sometimes even when multiple people remember. 

For an even more frightening twist of perception and reality, we can refer to a short story, “The Night Face Up,” written by Julio Cortazar - which I talk about in my post “Face up or down.”  (Coming Soon)

There are many things with “covers.”  You have many covers, as do I.  Even activities have covers.  Here are some activities that have common misperceptions.  The first of more examples of my “Don’t judge a book by its cover” mantra:

• Trading and Investing

Yes, I know - not something I thought I’d get into, but I definitely recommend looking into it for your own financial well-being. Money isn’t everything, but it’s a necessary asset to have in order to live your life well, right now and in your retirement years. Trading and investing is one of the more involved steps I have currently started taking towards managing my personal finance.

The thing is, personal finance not as complicated as some people may think.   There are many great sites to learn more about this, but here’s one - A-Train Finance - that I like because it has sound, simple, easy-to-follow advice about how to manage your personal finances.

• Scrapbooking

It’s cooler and alot more meaningful than it seems. Scrapbooking is not an activity only for moms and grandmas. I guess it appeals to me because of my love of the creative process of making something that I will one day cherish, remember and share with others. The best part of it is that there are so many unique things you can add to your scrapbooking efforts. Anything from old ticket stubs, notes, cards, interesting cutouts from magazines, the occasional treasure you find on the ground at some place, pictures, drawings, jewelry. It’s all about remembering both small and big moments in your life. If anything, it’s a great quality-time activity to do with the people in your life. Here’s a site to visit to get some great ideas that won’t take up much time - Scramories.

• Exercising

The opinion that exercising regularly is difficult and takes a lot of effort really depends on what your definition of exercising. The common definition is going to the gym and doing an aerobic activity for 30+ minutes… so for most people, exercising would be seen as difficult.

But if you define exercise more loosely, it can benefit you greatly while making it seem like less of an effort - which I’m all for. Simple steps like taking the long way when you’re walking somewhere, putting things back in their place after you use it, and choosing to take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator fall within this looser definition. The most successful and proven method is one step at a time!

There is a serious lack of content on this site right now.  I hope to change that in the near future - but there are several challenges to overcome:

1.  Slow writing Speed - I am a meticulous writer - a small part is by choice, the rest is something close to an obsessive need to scrutinize every word I put down. 
2. Lack of time - I am currently saving up for the traveling experience every recent college graduate should go on… 2 months backpacking in Europe.  So that means I spend a good deal of time working and less time figuring out how to code and get everything set up on this blog. 
3. So many things to do! - The things-to-do on my list never seem to end.  And for me, that’s a good thing because I hate the feeling of not moving forward or making progress on something in my life.  I believe life is purely about learning and trying out new things. 

After all of this - my main point is that content more relevant to my blog will be coming as soon as possible.  To all my anxious readers out there - I’m sure there are many at this point - my apologies. 

Whether a book or any form of communication, there must be an introduction - so here it is:

Hello, I am pleased to meet you.  I am a writer and a blogger, as well as many other nouns.  Who are you? 

Or rather…

Under Life’s Covers is a blog about books - classics, memoirs, and even those in the forbidden “self-help” section - and how they relate to the many aspects of life.  My theory is as simple as the mantra that we’ve all heard from childhood, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  But it transcends past books to a broader level to include everyone, everything that we experience in our lives. 

With that said, what we have experienced is how we interpret what we see.  So even if we don’t judge an entity by its appearance, our views are limited to what we have internalized from our personal development.  The views expressed here are through my pair of weathered lenses; a glimpse under life’s covers through my individual shade on life. 

What you absorb from my discussion of life and books will hopefully enable you to try on different shades… maybe even develop a new shade of your own, or try a new read.  Now that’s what makes life and books exciting.