MODERN WOMAN OF SHAKESPEARE

"I'll be in speaking,
liberal as the air;
let heaven, and men, and devils, let'em all,
all cry shame against me;
yet I'll speak."

This quotation expresses the wish, the need, the will and the right of freedom of speech, and what's important, it belongs to a woman. Too often husbands and men in general try to keep us silent because the fact we have actually a voice is unpleasant to them, nowadays as in the past.

I became fascinated by those lines while I was reading Othello, one of Shakespeare's best plays; I would have never imagined he would have made these very same words to be uttered by a female character, a servant, a woman, called Emilia.
They look very modern and impressive indeed.
Emilia, maiden of lady Desdemona, shows a very strong personality in the end of the play, which enables her to challenge her husbands, her masters' authority and her social inferiority, in order to defend the truth and the justice.

But that's not enough, as I discovered with pleasure, this play, and this woman, manifest an even more modern and open-mindend vision of world and female society:
I think the next monologue from Emilia could be used as the manifest of the modern women, claiming the respect of the very same rights of their men:

"But I do think it is their husbands faults if wives do fall:
say ,that they slack their duties,
and pour our treasures into foreign laps;
or else break out in peevish jealousies, throwing restraint upon us.
or say they strike us, or scant our former having in despite,
why ,we have galls:
and though we have some grace,yet have we some revenge.
Let husbands know,their wives have sense like them:
they see,and smell, and have their palates both for sweet,and sour,
as husbands have.
What is it that they do, when they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
I think it doth. Is it frailty thus that errs? It is so too.
and have not we affections? desires for sport? and frailty,as men have?
Then let them use us well:
else let them know,the ills we do, their ills instruct us so"

It made me reflect that Shakespeare conceded these feelings, and the possibility to express them, to a woman already in 1600...

SENSE OR SENSIBILITY?

Sense or Sensibility? Reason or Passion? Brain or Heart?
Which is better? Which one do we have to follow?

This question was inspired to me by reading one of Jane Austen's famous novels, Sense and Sensibility.
In this novel, two worlds are compared: there are two sisters who have very different personalities and attitudes towards life, and love.
Indeed Elinor is smart, quiet, discrete, cautious, and makes a large use of reason to keep her heart safe, while Marianne is romantic, active, naive, impulsive, and behaves according to her true feelings. Both sisters experience joy of love: conversely, when their suffering is at his top, Elinor is able to accept it, instead Marianne is almost overcome by it.
In the end, Marianne learns to conciliate her feelings and sensibility with reason and sense, therefore she manages to accept and understand the reality of existence, and starts to appreciate little things and simpler objectives.
But the price of this "growing up", of this realization, is in my opinion very high: indeed Marianne rejects all her daydreams and illusions.

I agree that we can't live in a castle of glass, surrounded by imaginations in a visionary world of fiction: we'll have to face the truth, sooner or later...

But what happens if we entirely rejects the dream?
What would life be without dreams, ideals, fantasia?
As for me, I believe that people should not lose sense of reality, without renouncing to that little bit of colour, of "sparks" which make life more enjoyable.

But when we are actually bound to act or behave in a certain way, what would you choose?
Sense or Sensibility?

Some months ago...

                                                                                   CHRISTMAS?

It's Christmas time...
Although it is not snowing, you can see it and feel in the air.
Almost all families have filled their houses with festoons,garlands, Christmas decorations, have made the crib and put up a wreath on the door...
Outside it's all a triumph of lights and decorations and christmas trees.
Along the city centre main road ,you can find many sellers who try to make you buy odd hand-made items, or some fragrant flavoured dainty...

But this time I can't feel this atmosphere...or at least, I haven't felt it yet.
Maybe it is because I am a bit stressed out also due to the school, which is becoming more and more demanding...
Maybe it is because the mix of school and training, made me feel often tired and a bit sick..
Maybe it is because there are no snowmen at all here in the south of Italy, or maybe it is because I had no free time to buy Christmas presents and things like that...
Probably it is because I've grown up, and I far ago stopped believing in Santa Klaus and all that wonderful magic stuff...
...and,on the other hand, I've became more concerned and worried about the current political, economic and social situation which Italy and the entire world are living,which is very dangerous for our own next future...
And another thing, very important, is that I no longer feel "close" to religion, I'm kind of..."suspended", so Christmas has almost lost its original meaning to me..

But then, I look at my life: ok, there are many things that I'd like to do, and maybe I would never do.. but those are not the fundamental ones! And all I have, my family, my friends, are much more important! I can not complain at all: and if sometime I feel a bit melancholy, I just have to put on my earphones and listen to some good music (Muse or Linkin Park or Dream Theater, for instance) to recover my usual good mood, and to talk with some friends and to hang out with them, or to make a simple run with my training mates... And I soon remember how much I'm lucky!

Of course, some problems can remain, small in my abitual life and big in the world, but I can try to solve them in a better moment.. Surely, even if some others might not be up to me, I often feel involved and in those situations I just can provide help...
...and this, perhaps, is that lost Christmas spirit, which is so often given for granted or overlooked.
I'll think over it.

IT'S NOT A FIGHT

"I disagree with what you say,
but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
That's what Voltaire, famous French philosopher and writer, said more than two hundreds years ago.
His aim was to give to others freedom to express and to share their opinions, even if those were different from his own point of view.
We all should follow his example: instead too often we keep straight forward with our ideas and we don't even listen to other's opinions if we're not pleased with them..
That's why, above all on social networks, most conversations have "strong" tones and
nobody but a few feels satisfied...

Some days ago I deepened this topic with my classmates, and we found out that a conversation can be a simple dialogue between people, or can be a debate, and there are important differences among them:
first of all, a dialogue is more pacific, as long as speakers have no aims or goals but only want to share opinions which are considered of the same value. Then, there isn't a fixed topic and all interlocutors can intervene into the conversation and can learn from it.
Conversely, in a debate there is a person or a group of people which disputes or argues with another group, trying to make their own "truth", or point or view, to predominate by the power of their arguments.
Nobody can learn anything from this opposition, as long as there will be one looser and one winner!

I noticed that many dialogues, even between friends of mine, sometimes take some features of a debate,and that's not positive...
so I think it would be nice if everyone of us,at least once,showed more interest or enthusiasm in what others have to say. :)

Tags: 

WHERE IS TRUTH?

                                                                 WHERE IS TRUTH?

This is, in my opinion, a very difficult question.. where is truth? And WHAT is truth?
When can I properly say "I'm right?"
What is that gives us that self-confidence, when we refute someone else’s opinion, and we take for granted our beliefs are the best?
And we often speak without thinking too much about it, we forget to be polite and respectful, and we don’t take into account that, maybe, our truth is not the only one, or that at least somebody could not accept it…
So, when we see something just a bit discording from our little perfect world, from our scheduled system of ideas, we soon give judgments and consider it weird, odd, or bad, trusting our wisdom…
Maybe we’re not really aware of all this ,we do it because of our personal culture, or religious background, or our upbringing… but we should remember that, sometimes, our opinions (so easily shared) might hurt. And they might REALLY hurt.

A friend of mine, some time ago, was really sad, and upset, and confided in me. He was in trouble because some people thought badly about him, and didn’t take him into any account, and spoke with him in a very rude way ; for he likes another boy.
That evening he asked me: “Why am I so different? Why HAVE I to be so different? What’s wrong with me? Why am I not right, like everyone else?”
I’ll not report our conversation, but those questions are a good inducement to reflect…
and I have another question: “Who are we to decide what’s WRONG and what’s RIGHT? How can we know what is better for someone else? “
I think that before thinking bad of someone, we should learn to know him better.. to understand his points of views.. we should learn to LISTEN to the others, because we are not alone in this world, we are “social animals” and there won’t be any cooperation if we keep not to respect them.
In conclusion, I add those lines of a beautiful song, Innuendo by Queen, that express in a better way what I’m trying to say:

"You can be anything you want to be
Just turn yourself into anything you think that you could ever be
Be free with your tempo, be free be free
Surrender your ego - be free, be free to yourself
Oooh, ooh -
If there's a God or any kind of justice under the sky
If there's a point, if there's a reason to live or die
If there's an answer to the questions we feel bound to ask
Show yourself - destroy our fears - release your mask
Oh yes we'll keep on trying"

http://youtu.be/eKClwkbDO1o

A BEAUTIFUL EXPERIENCE

                                             THE EMERALD ISLE

This summer I  went abroad for the first time in my life, and I can say that's been the most beautiful experience of my life!
 I spent two weeks in Cork, in the south of Ireland, for a study-holiday,as I wished to improve my English and to travel.

I took the plane with three friends of mine, but as long as we landed, I became friend with many other guys and girls from all over Italy, and I met a lot of nice people during my stay there in the college, and we're still keeping each other in touch  :) 

Ireland is called the "Emerald Isle" and I could check that the nickname was correct: from the plane, from the coach,I saw so many fields of a bright green colour interrupted only by the black and white of cows herds...

This was a world completely different from mine, for example in Cork there were cosy little cottages provided of coloured entrances and gardens full of flowers, which are named as "Ellesmere" or "Valhalla" and reminded me of fairy tales and old myths...
This fantastic perception was rinforced by the continuous hearing of the English language (with Cork accent) and the look of Irish people,most of which have blonde or red hair, light blue eyes and a very white skin.
I was thrilled,not scared of these differences.
Irish are very polite,friendly and helpful, and I tried to take advantage of every single occasion to talk with them, despite a bit of shyness..
Kevin, my teacher who looked like Santa Klaus, told most of Cork people have a big smile on their face,talk very fast and are similar to Mediterraneum people, as long as they love enjoying life. :D 
I soon became fond of Irish traditional music and of gaelic fairy tales: Ireland , which in Gaelic is called Erin, is a land of dances, elves, witches ,leprichauns and surely it's famous for Guinnes beer! :D 
these links are  for Irish dance and a tipical song:
http://youtu.be/eJwC9jPhuY4

http://youtu.be/HgGAzBDE454

In two weeks there, I had a lot of fun trying some new and original (for me!) sports such as climbing wall, hip hop, boxe. ;)

We visited Cork and Limerick city centre (Limerick is "nonsense" in English, but this city's name derives from the gaelic "desert swamp") , Bunratty Castle, Murdock House with its Victorian atmosphere, Killarney's tipical old farms , Cobh's marvellous gotic cathedral and his harbour (the last fascinating port of call of Titanic) and many museums.
But the thing I enjoyed most was the afternoon spent in a park watching street-artists performances. They came from Ireland, Turkey, Australia, and were able to dance,sing,make very nice baloons for kids,contort themselves and put sharp swords into their throat.
I also took a photo with a mad who had got a full-body tattoo,so that he had green skin and his tongue had two tips like a reptile's one.
I put myself into the heart of Irish big crowd and I loved listening to their comments, speaking to some of them and thrilling at the shows with them: and I felt in direct contact with them, as long as I laughed at the same remarks they did.:D

I didn't love just two things of Ireland: food (much better Italian cuisine!) and weather, which was almost always rainy, even if I miss it now! but rain is indispensable for the emerald isle.

I won't ever forget that little bit of Irish life, and I'll return there one day.

MOMENTS OF FREEDOM

These are my favourite photos; when I took them, I felt I was in the right place at the right time! They reminds me of the power and the beauty of Nature. I hope you 'll like them!