The Power of Dancing - Matt Harding

By watching this video, I learnt a useful lesson. I learned the importance of Dances. Luckily, Matt Harding had the privilege to travel around the world and express his feelings through his dances. I believe 'Dancing' is a powerful tool to communicate with other people, despite the difference in the language we speak. It also creates bonds that link our feelings to each other by sharing our ideas globally, by dancing. Dancing is a language that can be understood by everyone throughout the world. It has its own charm by making people smile, laugh and be connected to others. 

Wishes, Hopes and Dreams

After watching this video, I was deeply inspired. 2 different things amazed me. Firstly, it was shocking to see how people judged Susan based on everything unimportant before she even performed. People laughed at her just because she was different. She was different in terms of age, size and appearance than all the other contestants before. Honestly, I was never different than those. Before she even performed, I was wondering why an old woman was standing there, confident of the fact that she would fail. Everybody was biased against her and was certain that she would not make it, but the outcome was absolutely ironic and amazing. Everyone stood up at the end of her performance clapping out loud as the music stopped, shocked by her gifted voice.

Watching this video made me rethink about my daily life and like others, I was found guilty of judging people. Unfortunately, this bad habit has adapted to our daily lifestyle and it always influences our thinking. Another fact that I found amazing was Susan’s capability to spark a miracle. This reminded me of a quote said by Jean De La Bruyere ‘Out of difficulties grow miracles..’ I believe that you can achieve nothing without effort. It required bravery for Susan to stand on the stage fighting herself, and all the negative comments out there. Now, this has proven to me that everybody has the potential to do something absolutely amazing that we are not even aware of. Like Susan said “I dream to be a professional singer…..I never got the chance to perform, but here’s hopefully going to change.” First, I accused this as being just an excuse of appearing on the show not talented. Now, I believe that she is absolutely right and I am sure that there are thousands of those in the world with amazing gifts like Susan and Paul that the world is not aware of. We should abandon our thoughts on everything else but our honest opinion on the performer’s talent itself.

I find it often surprising that it is the ‘irony’ that amazes people. Not exceptional talent on an aspect but the fact that it was the different from what we expected. We judge people based on all those irrelevant things, such as appearance, skin color, background, size and so on. Both of these videos claim to have over 40 million views. The reason behind this is because both of these heroes inspire the hopeless in the world by proving, encouraging them to never give up their dream, despite the negative comments of people. There is a clear connection of the poems written by Langston Hughes and the videos of the heroes above. They both inspire people and make the readers/viewers reconsider their definition of hope while emphasizing the importance of hope. The poem ‘Dream’ clearly states the importance of hope by comparing Life to a Broken-winged bird without hope. Susan and Paul proved to the world that appearance and size are just an outer skin. But pure talent comes from the inside. They are my inspiration.

I chose an image of Winston Churchill because the bravery of Susan Boyle reminded me of a quote once said by Winston Churchill. 'The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.' Susan endured the difficulty and in the end, she was approved of a talent that was left in the dark before.

Sources:
Susan Boyle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
Paul Potts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA
'Dream' by Langston Hughes
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dreams-2/
Jean De La Bruyere quote - http://thinkexist.com/quotation/out_of_difficulties_grow_miracles/146332.html

I am the Ocean

I am the Ocean

I am the Ocean,
Fierce yet calm,
Trailing behind the unwanted,
Devouring hungrily upon those boats,
As wavelets of my white horses gallop,
Leaving nothing behind but pieces of flotsam,
Swaying to my current.
At night, the moon seeks me,
The reason why I rise and fall.
Glassy as ever,
I grip my claws in the depth of sand,
And I pull.
In the morning, I return.
Mirror calm,
Listening to the melodies of the seagulls,
Waiting for sunrise.

*The reason why I picked the image above to describe my poem is because it is the image similar to the image I had in my mind while writing this poem. I could imagine wavelets crashing against each other racing to spread themselves across the sandy beach.

Cricket Diane, 'Joyous Song of the Sea'

Image source

http://cricketdiane.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/2-23-08-art-card-joyous-song-of-the-sea-cdcp08-acrylic-mat-1.jpg

'Breaking the Frozen Sea Within us'

‘A book should be like an ice axe breaking the frozen sea within us’

-Franz Kafka

Hope, Freedom, Imagination. Books are our main sources of hope, freedom and imagination. This is what the author suggests.

You might be already questioning yourself as you read this post, ‘how books are an ice-axe that should break the frozen seas?’ but as I think and think more deeply about this theory suggested by Franz Kafka, I begin to realize that this quote contains a clear, meaningful definition. I was confused at times thinking about the quote, but now, this quote has inspired me to change my ‘reading life’. The first image that came up to my mind as I read the quote the first time was an image of a frozen lake in winter with bits of it melting as spring time was about to come. I compared the frozen lake as a dark, solitary cell where there was no hope and no happiness, while the melting water represented freedom, hope and knowledge. According to me, I think this is what the author suggests. I believe that books are powerful sources of hope, freedom and knowledge. We learn from books and they also give hope to those who need it.

Books are like a key to our mind. They lead us to where we can’t imagine, until where endless imagination take us. They make impossible things possible. They are a great companion whenever we are lonely. They give us hope, freedom and knowledge. However, despite these advantages, most of us choose not to read. Most of us regard ‘reading’ as a waste of time because we have not yet encountered books that played the role of an ice – axe that freed us, which made our minds to penetrate into the unknown world of imagination.

Frankly, I do not deny that I was one of those who despised reading, those who would only read whenever we were really forced to. The only books that made me travel beyond my everyday thinking were books written by Louis Sachar. These books made me imagine events taking place in my life and made me think about the character’s point of view. They made me want to read more by drawing my attention.

This interesting quote stated by Kafka will help me with my relationship with books and will encourage me to finish a book, rather than picking a new one, even though they are boring. This quote has taught me many facts, it will also remind me of the ice-axe and the frozen sea whenever I’m reading.

I chose this image because it explains Franz Kafka’s quote very clearly and simply. The melting water represents hope, while the frozen lake is used as the solitariness. As winter times turns to spring, more and more ice begin to melt just like the books will do to our mind, by giving hope.







http://lh5.ggpht.com/_7QmL8_4m9eI/SD4iraaxHTI/AAAAAAAAGVA/D9AZkI5iUPI/IMG_7249.JPG

My Special Guitar Pick

My thumb slides across the strings gripping a triangular shaped piece of plastic as sounds echo from the amplifier. This piece of plastic is special, although it is only a guitar pick.

I’ve had this pick for almost three years now, since the day I first plucked a string of a guitar. This pick holds the memory I shared with my old mates ever since my first day there. This is not a pick that you can buy from a guitar shop, this pick means something. My pick contains friendship, unlike others.

Hatred Paralyzes Life

The reason I chose 'Hatred Paralyzes Life' as my blog title is because it is something that everyone should be aware of and keep in mind while it is also very meaningful. Another reason made me use this as my blog title which is very important. This special reason is that it is a quote said by Martin Luther King Jr. whom I respect.



'Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.' -Martin Luther King Jr.



This quote reminds me that 'hatred' is something you should always avoid.