SI SUEÑAS, LOTERÍAS.

Do you feel the new waves of energy already?? The people who won Spain's Lotería Nacional de Navidad or National Christmas Lottery do. Yesterday the drawing of the top prize called El Gordo, or the Fat one (worth € 720 million distributed among 180 winning tickets which are worth € 4 million each; its kind of complicated so you can read more about it here) was heard all over the radio and broadcasted all over television. And images of utter jubilation of the people who won the top five prizes was inescapable; dreams have come true for these people and during these mad times their joy is, I can only imagine, overwhelming. The winners were announced yesterday during the annual Christmas drawing where children draw the numbers and then sing them out loud. Its part of a tradition that has continued since 1763! My interest has been focused primarily on the advertising for it. There are posters in every metro station using the slogan Si sueñas, loterías, roughly translated as if you dream, then you lottery. Below is a video that was played on television and almost everytime I went to the movie theater this season. Its epic and could be a trailer for the Spanish version of A Miracle on 34th Street crossed with Harry Potter. Even the music is awesome. I guess it reflects how big the lottery is here. What do you think???

Thoughts On The End of the World and Other things.

I saw The Hobbit this past Friday night with some friends and it was pure awesome -not as dark or serious as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but light-hearted, and with wittier dialogue. Anywho, after leaving Teatro Ideal I walked down calle Carretas and along all the walls on both sides of the street were posters with the website address noeselfindelmundo.com So, when I got home I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Sure enough, its a Madrid-based blog trying to dispell the myth that the world ends this Friday. The blogger is called Mr. Currice and he is histerical!!

Check it out!

http://www.noeselfindelmundo.com/

Now, according to literature, articles, and people whom I've talked to over the past couple of years, the Mayans believe that we are going to enter a new era, a new cycle were human beings will be more receptive to the harmonic waves of nature, the cosmos, and human-interconnectedness (that to me is a nice thought). I also remember reading about how the lead up to December 21, 2012 would be plagued with natural disasters and catastrophic events brought about by man's disrespect towards himself and mother earth. And if you think about it, many of these things have happened. These supposedly are warning signs for us to become more receptive to harmonic waves.

Regardless of what you think, the idea of entering into a new cycle is the positive reinforcement that we need during these mad times. After all, we ARE living a global economic crisis, and to a lesser extent, an environmental crisis (that could accelerate). We could use a dose of this positive medicine regardless if we believe in the Mayan prophecy or not. The fact is we are living in a more inter-connected world and we need to use that to our advantage (is this what the Mayans were talking about??!!)

During my venture into the Mayan prophecy, I came across a fascinating figure: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. His ideas about the noosphere are overwhelming, but mind-blowing. You can read up on him more by clicking on the link. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes by him (perhaps not entirely related, but its great advice anyway) which talks about this hectic, fast-paced, and anxiety-inducing world that we live in and why we have nothing to worry about, especially this friday (here me out, quarter-life-crisis sufferers!).

Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. Yet it is the law of all progress that it made by passing through some stages of instability and that may take a long time. And so I think it is with you. Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow. Let them shape themselves with undue haste. Do not try to force them on as though you could be today what time -that is to say, grace- and circumstances acting on your own goodwill will make you tomorrow.

-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

La Lechera y Otras Cosas

I called home the day before Thanksgiving and my sister picked up. We caught up a little on life before she told me to hold on a second 'cause she had to do something. In the background I heard my Mom telling my brother, Alex, a story about a woman going to the market to buy milk. The story sounded eerily familiar. Then I remembered why. It was the same story that one of my colleagues had told me a few weeks earlier! When Tracee came back, I told her that I knew exactly what story Mom was telling Alex. Talk about a coincidence! And what's more, this proved that at one point the story had crossed the pond.

So, I will tell you a modified version: There once was a Milk maid walking to market in a city to sell her pot of milk. While wandering downhill, she daydreams about how she could sell the milk and buy a chicken, which then could lay lots of eggs, produce more chickens and sell more eggs to buy her own cow, pig, goat, etc. As she concentrates on her dream, she slips on a rock along the trail and spills her milk.

What's the moral of the story? Well, I guess, the moral is to be realistic, to pay attention to the here and now first, don't get caught up in dreaming. That has truth to it, but at the same time it discourages dreaming big. I like dreaming big. I wouldn't be in Spain if I hadn't dreamt it first. But I was also focused. Hasta luego.

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird, that cannot fly"-

-Langston Hughes

Puente y Gente

Again, its been a while since my last entry. I can't help it. Life gets in the way. Anyway, we had a long four day weekend (in Spanish this is called a puente, or bridge) this past weekend because of el Día de la Constitutión, or Constitution Day. That's self-explanatory. Anywho, its tradition to have public readings of the constitution all over Spain and I ran into one on calle Arenal (which connects Ópera and Sol) with my friend Catherine. Of course we were too busy to stop and listen to the dry and didactic verbage (that doesnt mean I dont consider it unimportant) and I was also feeling claustrophic because of the multidudes of people so we kept on moving towards Lavapiés. Sol is always overflowing with people during puentes.

We had just come from a Thai Restaurant where we had spent all afternoon eating and talking. Thats a very Spanish thing to do. And another very Spanish thing to do is to stand outside the entrance to the restaurant for at least 10 minutes in the freezing cold weather, deciding what you want to do next!! Its happened several times already so I have come to the conclusion that its a very Spanish thing to do.

Anywho, I ran into one of my students who was there with her family. After exchanging introductions, I made small talk and asked if they were here shopping as well. ¡Que va! ¿Con este crisis? I should have known better. The attitude all around town has been and is about pinching pennies. People go to Sol or Gran Vía not really to shop but to go window-shopping, or just pasear. I love the word, pasear. There really isn't a word in English that captures the essence of it. Hicimos un paseo. I might translate it as we went for a walk....close enough. Its one of my favorite things to do in Madrid.