“There is only one question I can ask you, Adeline. There is only one answer I’ll accept, so what will it be?”
“No.”
It was later that night that Gustavo truly felt what pain meant in his lonely Parisian apartment. The walls with paint peeling off the walls and the pain seeping from his skin. The apartment was such a place of beauty, it had the authentic Parisian feel. An apartment that’s almost self-aware of it’s decay and instead of rushing to fix and change it, the apartment was slowing down. Maybe even sitting and grabbing a small glass of succulent Chateau d’Yquem. Gustavo, himself, opened that fine vintage and sipped in the darkness of his salon. The dark enveloped him almost to the point where he was simmering in his own despair. Laying slumped in his chair, he promised himself something. Adeline would pay for this. He walked over to his bedroom and grabbed a notebook, in only the light of his paraffin lamp, he wrote. He wrote until his hands began to cramp, till his mind wandered into the empty and never ending dunes of his imagination. Until, the very fabric of time slowed and somehow, the story and him became one. Binded only to reality by a single thread of his physical form, his mind wandered. Wandered to places, even he could confirm he never knew he knew.
Alas, the biting sting of the sun hit his face, awakening him from his subconscious slumber, he woke like a new man. He cocked his hat as he pleased, so to speak. He had been awakened. As his father would say Nothing like a lover to correct your path. He entered the halls where he had often find his soul. His concert hall, his Shangri-La. The place where nirvana came to him.The faded black of his concert hall was something that stirred him. He brought out his leather notebook and cracked his knuckles. He picked his violin and started a melody. People often asked how he became such a successful conductor despite the fact he never learned how to read or write music, his answer often made people skeptical, confused and even angry. He started (the recipe for his success was such popular query that he developed a brief but very descriptive answer for it) by telling people when he first heard music.
“In Toscana, I was from the small city of Grosseto, and it was completely shattered after the war. Buildings that stood tall since the days of Dante brought down by one man fooled by another to shoot down his brothers and sisters. Grosseto needed something to remind it’s people that life was not just bullets and rations. My parents opened our attic, and brought out two cases. They refused to tell me what they were until the entire city (which had only around 1000 people) met up in the “sala di concerti”. So the day passed, we met in the “sala di concerti”, and my parents opened their cases. My mother opened her case and brought out a velvet stool and sat at the piano and my father had a violin.”
What he describes next is what really confuses, angers or frustrates people. He describes what happened after his parents struck the first notes of their piece, instead of hearing their beautiful rendition of Scarlatti, he saw colours. Not from their surroundings but rather their instruments. Subtle shades of green coming from out from the beautiful strokes of the violin, shades of purple and blue coming from the pounding ivory keys. Gustavo saw his parents creating this beautiful kaliedescope of artistic expression. Passionately struck, he ran to his parents and picked up a violin and created these colours. First, the shades were wrong but soon enough he struck the perfect colour.
PETA
I was once a very strong PETA supporter. PETA is the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. I used to donate to them, go to fun-runs (we never actually ran, just walked for a bit and socialised) and even sponsor some of their animals. My ignorance for their darker deeds was complete bliss, however knowledge struck me with its burden. I happened upon a story about a dog-pound owner in Connecticut, New England. Recently, he had been getting a lot of flak from PETA because his pound was killing innocent animals. After further research into the matter, I found out that he was killing the rabid and the aggressive animals. While, I admit, I am not a zoologist I’m fairly certain that rabid and aggressive dogs are better off dead than they are alive and well. After coming to this miraculous epiphany, I understood that the paper that I was reading was a PETA leaning publication because they didn’t show their readers the facts ie: the fact that rabid and aggressive dogs need to be put down. The fact of the matter is that if the owner did not kill these animals they would have to release them. One furious worker was quoted to say “We are the repository of society ills. If we don’t kill these poor animals, what do we do? Let them out on the street and then they’ll bite everybody, and then we’ll get blamed again?”. The harassment includes daily aggressive protests as well as death threats to families. After a while these events started to intensify. Like a symphony, piano to fortissimo, the events increased in proximity. Alas, I’ve had enough. Now, I’d like to expose these tyrannous, malicious hacks for what they are.
Now, you maybe thinking the killing of animals, any animal is wrong. That’s not all they protest. Very few people haven’t heard of Pokemon, the beloved game and TV show. You may be thinking what that’s got to do with anything, well, PETA issued an OFFICIAL BOYCOTT against Pokemon. That’s right. PETA said and I quote “The difference between real life and this fictional world full of organized animal fighting is that Pokemon games paint rosy pictures of things that are actually horrible.” Firstly, Pokemon are not real. They are fictional beings, in a fictional world, with fictional characters in a fictional universe. Secondly, according to the game lore, most of the Pokemon are self-sustaining. The reason they live in those balls, when they are captured is because they are shrunk down and placed in an environment. Also, there are grass type Pokemon who are holophytic. Thirdly, why doesn’t protest against Call of Duty? In that game you snap German Shepherd necks and shoot chickens for no reason. Do you see the insanity? Do you see the horror?
Lastly, extremism. Extremism is PETA’s worst sin. Sending dangerous criminals who have thrown Molotov cocktails into research labs. People who have placed low-level incendiary devices outside scientists houses. People who would be cast as the scum if it wasn’t for one thing. They did these deeds for PETA Agenda. You know, total animal liberation. What’s worse is not the fact that they get sponsored by PETA but the fact that they go to universities around the world asking the youth to do the same. By using a mixture of emotional manipulation and horrific images to blur facts and promote their heinous agenda. They are the scum that infest the minds and hearts of naive, young men and women to think they are doing this for a just cause. When in fact they are nothing but an elaborate subterfuge. An infectious disease to numb the mind and boil the blood. Despite, the amount of hatred I’ve given them. They have one good thing, something that doesn’t redeem them but it sure makes me hate them less: they do try and promote morality in children about animals. That’s it.
Alas, this crazy jibber-jabber has finally come to a close. There are so many things in the world you can donate to: UNICEF, Red Cross, Medicines Sans Frontiers, National Geographic, WWF, Wikipedia for Christ’s sake. While animals are important and caring for our Earth is a responsibility that everyone has, there are people, REAL PEOPLE that need your help. From refugees, to old people in an empty home, there are people that need compassion and kindness. Give it to them, instead of giving it to an organization that promises to help when all it does is harm. Please avoid PETA, avoid them like the plague. Respect animals but eat them as well. You know, if you want to.
That’s it from me.
Happy Holidays from the Inquirer!
1.) Fight Club (Book and Movie)
2.) The Myth of Sisyphus
3.) American Beauty
4.) Zen and the Art of the Motorcycle Maintenance
5.) Introducing Existentialism
Any suggestions are welcomed!