Ricky Martin is Gay!!!

I know, not very surprising. He was living la Vida Loca after all. I was surprised after reading the yahoo article about his self-declaration as a "fortunate homosexual man"; I found a connection with what he had to say and Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist.

"To keep living as I did up until today would be to indirectly diminish the glow that my kids where [sic] born with. Enough is enough. This has to change. This was not supposed to happen 5 or 10 years ago, it is supposed to happen now. Today is my day, this is my time, and this is my moment,"

"These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed," he continued. "What will happen from now on? It doesn't matter. I can only focus on what's happening to me in this moment. The word "happiness" takes on a new meaning for me as of today."

Ricky Martin listened to his heart, his inner voice. For years he was asked whether or not he was gay. He denied and denied. Barbara Walters grilled him. The public assumed it. Through the last few years he realized that being gay is part of his Personal Legend and that he could not deny his heart anymore. Ricky Martin, like Santiago needed to listen closely to his heart and not the criticism or advice of others. And in doing so Ricky Martin feels "...very blessed to be who I am." I have a little more respect for Ricky Martin as a person, not so much for his music.

Are we Human; or, are we Dancer?

This question asked by The Killers; brings to my mind the Matrix.  Are we Dancers?  Are we just puppets chained to a rock, living a life that has already been imagined for us?  Are we running around this simulated, computerized rat race with the maze and ending already planned? 

The Matrix was created by machines, which were created by humans, to serve as a Tempest to distract the sleeping human population from awaking to the truth; their planet was completely destroyed, they were being harvested to power the machines, and the outlook was quite bleak. They needed a savior, a Neo, to show them the truth. Someone who broke from the chains and witnessed the de-fictionalized reality.  Humans were responsible for creating the Matrix, and Humans in turn, will be responsible for destroying the Matrix.  A low-brow film I watched yesterday also shows me that, Alice herself created a Matrix to hide from the reality of her situation.  

In this case, she is a young woman living in a suppressed, Aristocratic English household where every detail of her life is planned, downed the the exact time she will be engaged.  Alice's Wonderland is her escape, it is her life as fiction.   Throughout the movie she is questioned if she is the right Alice.  No one really thinks that she is the real Alice, except her. She knows she is the right Alice because it is her dream, she is the wizard behind the curtain.  She realizes that she controls her own destiny. After journeying through wonderland she returns out of her own rabbit hole,  says no to her soon to be fiancée, and ventures out to create a life for herself.

I have created meaning throughout my whole life through my experiences, stories, knowledge, and relationships.  I have questioned myself many times; asking, is this all real?  It has to be, I am Prospero.  My life has meaning because I place it there.  My own personal life is a Matrix that I have shaped and created. Its not that simple, the fictitious life that I have created must also have some sort of truth.  And that truth is that I am my own Neo. I am awakened to the fact that in reality I am asleep.  In becoming awakened you understand that you are chained to a rock; that your reality is just a computer program; the meaning of your life is socially constructed by the forces you yourself perpetuate, and you have the ability to change who you are and what life means.  Your life can become your Wonderland.

Life Stranger than Fiction

One of the tell tale signs that our lives are indeed fiction can be witnessed at a funeral.  Once the deceased is buried stories start to come out.  Everyone that feels they should, gets up and tells the rest of the congregation a meaningful story that connects the deceased to themselves.  The stories are created by the person telling them and are subjective to that person's view of the events as well as how much they liked the person that passed away.  Usually, since the person is attending the funeral, they loved, or at least liked the person, most of the stories will be heartfelt, humorous, and or meaningful.  They wish to share the stories that they have created because they don't want the deceased to be forgotten.  Attending some of my family member funerals has given me the opportunity to hear stories about my family that I had never heard before.  It gives me completely different perspective on those people, and it's hard to let them know I appreciate their stories because they are gone.  I will probably never hear the stories that were told at my grandmother's and great-grandmother's funerals again; I don't need to, I know the stories of them and those stories make them who they are to me.  

In the Four Quartets I found a passage that might relate to the theme of Life as Fiction.  

"To communicate with Mars, converse with spirits, to report the behavior of the sea monster, describe the horoscope, haruspicate or scry,  observe disease in signatures, evoke biography from the wrinkles of the palm and tragedy from the fingers..." Dry Salvages p.43

haruspicate - When one rips out the guts, and in particular the intestines, of dead animals and tells the future by looking at them.  

Scry - to look into a crystal ball