Lyrics & Indians

Some gal would giggle

And I'd get red

And some guy'd laugh

And I'd bust his head

I tell ya: Life ain't easy for a boy named Sue

Well I grew up quick and I grew up mean

My fist got hard and my whits got keen

Roamed from town to town to hide my shame

But I made me a vow to the moon and stars...

-Johnny Cash.

Friday (yesterday) we learned about the historical aspects of folklore. 

My take on it: History is in everything. 

This reading intertwines with Dundes.

No matter how far about some people want to pull them apart.

There is history to everything. Even a song.

[For the ones that write it and the ones that say it and the ones that hear it.]

How We all Secretly Want to Be.

Folklore is about traditions.

It's about people who, across the country and no common relatives, practice the same traditions.

So what happens when someone is different?

What happens when someone else makes their traditions?

Are we, as a whole, as individuals, group members, university students, 20-somethings, Mormons, Americans... are we ready for that?

"She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew." -Stargirl by Spinelli, page 15.

They try to change her, but it never really works and I love that.

Maybe this isn't exactly how Jill Rudy envisioned my Folklore Blog, but I'm okay with that. I've always cared more about learning than marks. I want to learn everything, and everything I have done for this class seems to launch into every category. I feel like anything I experience can already be considered folklore, or can be turned into it with time. At that is why it is enchanting.

When I Grow Up

This is Anna.
At the age of 3, all Anna wanted to be was one thing. She'd sit in the back seat of our car, light brown hair spiraling every which direction off of her head, her soft pink cheeks framing her baby tooth smile and she would say, with her childlike lisp: "I wanna be a FIGHTER pilot!"

She had no idea what fighter pilots did. She had never been on an airplane in 1993. She had probably never even seen one up close. But she did know that her grandfather had driven airplanes. She knew that they went fast. She knew that she could see them in the sky from the ground. She also knew they made a whole lotta noise. So now I ask: what child wouldn't want to be a fighter pilot?

I got a little frustrated today with our Dundes discussion, so I distracted myself for writing out my schedule for the day. Why did I get frustrated? Because I agree with him. We are a futuristic society and let's face it, even when we ask our friends what they've been doing the past few days or weeks or months or years of their life (because yes, if they are our friends, we really do want to know), the next question is what they will do next.

I'm not saying this is an all together bad thing. It's good to have goals, but it is also more than... it's more than beneficial to know where we are coming from, to know where our friends and family are coming from, and to know where society as a whole is coming from. Maybe this is because I am a history major- I love the past, not for its facts, but because it strings everything together. It makes things both logical and touching. It meshes so many aspects of society, of personalities, into a whole. Even within a single person, we will never understand anything until we understand their past, until we understand their motives.

This is why being a futuristic society can be detrimental. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in what we can do, what we will do, and what we think we have to do. Sometimes it's not enough to just live our lives. We want to know everything that is going to happen to us. But if we did know everything (which is impossible), there would be nothing left to know. Then what would the future hold for us? Nothing. Because we would always know everything. And what would the past hold for us? A chance for understanding. And what would the future hold? Everything. Knowing facts and details are not enough- what matters is the nitty gritty. What matters are the passions people hold, the factors that influence their decisions, and how they evolve as person. Without personal attributes and emotions, the future would hold nothing. Because even though people want to believe they can hold the answers to life's mysteries, they really cannot.

I do not believe it is healthy for anyone to dwell too much on what could have been or what might be. I respect my friends who say "I don't know what I want to do" when asked about their plans after graduation. Because I don't either. Most of us don't. Most of us make decisions because it's what society tells us to do, reflecting on the past, the future, or both-- maybe we believe we'll make bank as a businessman, or maybe our grandfather was a lawyer. When we make our decisions based on this kind of material, we are destined for unhappiness. Everyone in the world needs to decide what they are passionate about, and they don't need to be embarrassed by it.

Everyone evolves, everyone changes. Some situations turn us into better people, and some people stay with us the rest of our lives. Sometimes we pass up the opportunities that will change us from mediocre to great because we are so focused on the future or the past that we can't see what is right in front of us. So, what do I want to be when I grow up? I want to change that question to "What do I want to do with my life?" I want to live it. I want to know the people I know- really know them. I want to understand their history and be part of their future. I never want to give up art, but I want to go as far as I can in the academic world. I want to raise a family. I want to be happy. But all of this- all of this starts with today because I will never have this moment again. It is my life and I am living it. L-I-V-I-N.

Proverbs Take 2.

The other day I told my mother that I needed to hear a proverb so that I could write about it for an assignment due tomorrow. Every day since, she has dropped a proverb in our conversation and I never even notice. Proverbs... they are part of everyday conversation.

P.R.O.V.E.R.B.S.

The first time I ever became aware that there was such a thing as proverbs I was 12 or 13 and watching THIS movie:

In it, the main character's mother-esque figure quips "When one door closes..." and I KNEW I'd heard it before. Sure enough, this saying was one repetitive proverb. And I have heard it countless times since.

I probably should have known that proverbs existed before I started my teenage years, especially with the astronomically quipped "Life is like a box of chocolates" from Forrest Gump. But I didn't. Maybe that's part of the draw of proverbs. They are heard so much when you are young that they become somewhat engrained in you. You say them without really thinking them. But not all proverbs are well known. Proverbs can come from anywhere, whether it be from my friends Rob and Brett who LOVE to say "Just do it and it's done" to the cynical (but often true) view my grandma took on long distance relationships "Absence makes the heart grow fonder... for someone else."

Proverbs are everywhere. They are straight up in everyday conversations, alluded to in movies, picked apart in English classes, and subjects of research for some academic scholars... which is what makes them rad.

Looking for some good'uns? Here's a list:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html

VICTORY.

This one American Folklore class we learned about BYU Traditions

And my BFF Calvin told me about ringing the Victory Bell (which is also depicted in Grease... too bad Rydell lost everything [besides auto-racin'] and never got to ring theirs.) And yesterday in the 59-0 shut out BYU participated in, the announcers announced meeting at the Victory Bell. That is what we like to call a living tradition.

[By the way, I still have no idea what tunnel singing is.]