First of all, let me say that I really liked this morality play. There is a great emphasis on beauty, strength, confession, knowledge, and discretion. Sometimes I wonder why we put such great importance on these "things." Today in class, some students were talking about how some family members had wanted a closed casket and how elderly grandparents can't go out without makeup. This just seems to exemplify that "beauty" is very important to almost each one of us--whether you are vain or not. Some people, myself included, strive to be beautiful, strong, intelligent, and discrete.
I guess being raised in a non-Christian home--my religion is shamanism--I view the play in a different light. We [my family and I] value beauty, strength, knowledge, discretion, goods, good deeds, fellowship, and our kin. The way I feel about it is--live now. Enjoy the things you have either been blessed with or have worked hard to earn. I'm not saying that you should go about sleeping around, cheating, and lying. I'm just saying that if I were to live life the way I wanted, I would enjoy my things and the time I have with people I love. And I guess, from my religion, we revere our kin (living) and ancestors (dead) to an extent that Christians can't seem to understand. (I feel this way because of my teacher--has to do with a discussion with my World Religions professor, who happens to be a preacher--and I told him that I flip flop between shamanism and Christianity on a daily basis. And I somehow got the feeling from his argument that I should not be doing that--which really offended me. The way I feel about it is, I have that right to exercise whatever I believe--regardless of what others believe. Because right now, I feel like I'm in a transitional stage in where I take the good 'lessons' and 'morals' from both religions and incorporate them into my life...anyhow...) At our funerals, friends and kin alike come to "watch" or "look after" (if translated literally) the dead. We offer libations, or sacrifices, such as money, animals, food, etc. to our dead. We want to prepare our dead for his afterlife, in taking great care to provide things for that person to have. We also believe that our ancestors are in the afterlife awaiting us when we die.
-----to be continued
You raise some good points. It is true that a lot of people place emphasis on beauty. Unfortunately, there are some that take it to the extreme. There's nothing wrong with looking beautiful, but it shouldn't be taken too far, or it becomes an obsession.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem is that people try to fill their lives with things. Once again, there's nothing wrong with buying material items and enjoying them, but all too soon they lose their glitter. We become bored. (I've done that sometimes.)
Just my honest two cents.
I agree with you. Some people do take things to the extreme. I just want to be able to enjoy things as they are and appreciate the good things in life.
ReplyDeleteTaking things to the extreme can be very harmful to us. We become too attached to these material material things and we lose sight of what really matters. Our values and beliefs are perhaps the most important things we can have and they are the ones people can't take away from us. Material things can be lost, stolen, or replaced, but values and beliefs can't be stolen. I think our modern world has become to affixed on material items and has lost sight of what really matters. Though this is sad, it is also true. I feel like our world no longer has any respect for the values and beliefs that we adopt and keep. Nothing matters to us anymore except how much money we have or what our most prized possessions are. Values and beliefs are much more important to me that material goods because they are what will stay with me.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely taking things to the extreme that can be detrimental. I see no problem with people who like to look beautiful. The problem only starts when they begin to put beauty, or material goods, above all else. I don't think it would be logical, in this day and age, to expect people not to care at all about those things, but they do need to be reminded that there are more important things, such as values and beliefs. We could survive without beauty and material goods, but without values and beliefs, we aren't much of anything.
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