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The Maquech Brooch: A Living Jewelry

"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." Genesis 2:15



Image owned by University of Colorado Museum
of Natural History


The Maquech brooch aka beetle brooch aka living brooch is an adornment made of a live beetle emblazoned with gems and gold trimmings. It's then worn over clothing as a form of jewelry by the Mayans who started this centuries-old tradition.

What compelled me to blog about this was when I heard that this is still being practiced by people (I think in Mexico), and is currently a "hot" accessory. In my opinion, this is such a cruel thing to do. Accessories are fun and exciting I suppose, but using living creatures as one is a completely different thing. Men are supposed to be stewards of God's creation, not sadistic barbarians who take pride in using these poor creatures as a means to enhance themselves.

Identity

"Nothing's as it seems, but who can be sure?"

As far as I can remember, this was the first book that had triggered me to look at how the story ended. I hate spoilers, but I couldn't resist the urge.

The story started oh-so-well and progressed prudently. However, I think Milan's razor-sharp wit suddenly disappeared in the middle of the narrative because when I was nearing the finale, it suddenly transformed from realism to fantasy sort of thing. The vagueness of the ending completely caught me off-guard. It was like being ripped off after you had invested your time since it had good potentials at the beginning.

But then again, maybe that was Kundera's purpose, to give us a first person glance on how circumstances affect a person's well-being. Just as for the main character herself, Chantal was also led on by her own perception, combined with vivid imagination, and then both of which turning out to be incongruent to what was really happening.. It was a perfect recipe for disaster, in this case, the final thread to the losing of Chantal's wits.

The Plot (From Publishers Weekly):

In his second novel written in French (after Slowness), Czech-born novelist Kundera employs spare prose in the service of a meditation on the precarious nature of the human sense of self. Recently divorced ad executive Chantal, on a vacation with her younger boyfriend, Jean-Marc, believes that she is too old to be considered attractive by other men. For Chantal, identity is defined by the perceptions of strangers. Her dreams, to the extent that they impose a "leveling contemporaneity of everything a person has ever experienced," disturb Chantal. They remind her that she has a past, when she feels that she exists only in the present, that she is who she is only at any given moment. When she returns from her vacation, she begins to receive letters from an anonymous admirer. She suspects each new man she encounters to be the mysterious scribe and fantasizes how each might perceive her. Gradually, these letters, along with a few dreams, affect how Chantal views herself and her relationship with Jean-Marc, until her feelings and identity become unrecognizable both to her lover and to herself. At the end of the book, the unnamed narrator asks: "At what exact moment did the real turn into the unreal, reality into reverie? Where was the border? Where is the border?"...

Economics of Cows

The Economics of owning bovines:

From trivialdevotion.blogspot.com

SOCIALISM: You have 2 cows, so you give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then files the milk away…

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM: You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank,
then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
Sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release. The public buys your bull.

A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called ‘Cowkimon’ and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are. You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows because you’re sobering up and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION: You have 5,000 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINA CORPORATION: You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. Both are mad.

IRAQI CORPORATION: Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none. No-one believes you, so they bomb you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a Democracy….

AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers.

WELSH CORPORATION: You have two cows. The one on the left looks very attractive.

IRISH CORPORATION: You have two cows…or is it three? What matters? Aren’t you well off to have even one

by Shaun Kester on Sept. 13, 2007

http://skfox.com/2007/09/13/economics-of-cows/

Wiped-Out

Note: This is purely a work of fiction. I've written this long before I actually tried riding some easy waves back there in La Union... I also remember that surfing was the last thing on my mind while working on this.

I fell in love with the ocean from the moment I've heard of it. But it was similar to getting to know a person. It was a learning process. Before, I used to be doing fine with just swimming along the coast for it was easy and safe, but later on, I decided to take it a notch higher. I'd learn to surf.

I knew then that it would be difficult for me just by the way it looked. But on the day I started, everything was perfect! It was as smooth as silk. The waves were calm, the breeze was blowing gently, the sun was shining brightly. In short - perfect. Little by little, I started gaining confidence. I even thought it would always be like that. I had no idea it was nothing but beginner's luck.

Sometimes, I could surf without any obstacles at all. In those times, I'd think I was born for the job. There were some occasions when a wave or two knocked me off, but it's okay, nothing's perfect.

Suddenly, on one of my sessions, a giant wave engulfed me. It was much beyond my expectations. I didn't know it was coming. I was kind of expecting it already but it hit me real hard and brought me ashore. I was stupefied beyond my wits.

I was scared for the longest time that I swore not to step on my board again. But my love for the sea overcame my fear. Yes, my fear was still weighing on me, but I wasn't the type to easily give up so I decided to give it another shot. Anyway, they said that what didn't kill you made you stronger, right?

I was hesitant when I put my feet on the board again. But the ocean welcomed me with such tempting delight. So slowly and carefully, I made my way through. I tried paying attention to everything so as not to make the same mistake again. My confidence started to trickle in. I thought that maybe this time, I finally got everything under control.

I was still recuperating from the previous incident when as if on cue, a big wave came up and pummeled me with such a force, it disoriented me for a while. My previous wound was still fresh but now I was left with more bruises than I could handle. I was despondent.

Would I ever learn to ride those waves? Should I accept them as part of what I wanted to become, or was it really not for me?

Bet you can tell.

September 3, 2008

1:47 pm

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