Week 5 Story: Vali Doesn't Listen

Vali was invincible. He was already strong and when he fought someone, he took half their strength. Vali would fight anyone. He could fight anyone.

Not long ago, Vali chased a demon into a cave. He was gone for quite a while, terrible noises came from the cave, and it was feared he had finally been overcome. Fearing the worst, Vali's brother Sugriva had the cave closed up. For surely, if something in that cave could kill the mighty Vali, the entire kingdom, maybe the world, would be in danger if it came back out!

Fortunately for the world, and ultimately unfortunately for Sugriva, Vali lived! But now Vali was sure that his brother was trying to get rid of him and wanted to take everything that was his. Because Vali would not listen to reason or explanation, the brothers fought. Fearing for his life, Sugriva fled to a place Vali could not follow. The fight continued, but Sugriva was not in danger of losing his life over a misunderstanding.

Vali took Sugriva's wife and continued to be immune to any pleas. For all his strength and prowess in combat, Vali's ears were closed to reason. Vali knew best, and nothing would change that.

Sugriva lived without his wife and without his people for a time. When he met the hero Rama, he talked through the situation with Vali and asked for help. Rama agreed to help Sugriva defeat his brother who would not listen to reason.

On the day Sugriva came to challenge Vali, with Rama in tow as his secret weapon, Vali was again immune to reason. Vali's wife Tara pleaded with him not to take the fight. She knew in her bones that nothing good could come of the situation. Again, Vali did not listen to anyone else - Vali knows best, Vali is invincible.

One arrow was all it took for the hero Rama to put an end to Vali. Before he died, Vali's ears were finally opened to reason. 

 

 

 An illustration from a 17th-century copy of the Ramayana in the collection of the British Library: "Outside the palace of Kiskindha, Sugriva roars out his challenge to his usurping brother Bali, so that the very birds fall out of the sky in fright, while Rama and Laksmana and the other monkeys look on from the right. On the left is the monkey king's palace, from which Bali, his queen Tara and ministers have emerged on hearing the uproar. Tara advises him not to fight, but to no avail. Bali and his party all wear human costume, except for turbans, while Bali himself wears a crown."

Source: Wikimedia and ultimately the British Mueseum

 

 

 

Based on:  The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic by Kamban / R. K. Narayan, 1972   (Kindle edition) 

Author's Note: This ended up being a very simplistic retelling/overview of Vali and his closed ears. I may revisit this at some point because it isn't quite what I wanted to do, but it's where I ended up!

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part D

 Title: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic
Author: Kamban / R. K. Narayan
Year: 1972   (Kindle edition) 

 

More listening time!! I feel like that has been a theme I keep picking up on in this second half. People try to tell folks hey, watch out for this or don't do that. They don't listen. Not great things happen.  

After the not great things? Folks are like "Oh crap, I should have listened!" 

Now granted. If they had listened....there wouldn't be a story. If Ravana had listened to Vibhishana. If yesterday Vali had listened to Tara. For the most part Rama is the only one who asks other people for advice and considers it. Even that is an issue sometimes. Whole theme of everything needs to be what happens when you stop and listen. Consider the advice, take note of the warnings. Make a plan.

"LISTEN" by elycefeliz is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part C

Title: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic
Author: Kamban / R. K. Narayan
Year: 1972   (Kindle edition) 

I am affectionately calling the part of this reading that stood out to me "LISTEN TO WOMEN"

Like look buddy. She told you. She told you multiple times. You basically head patted her and went silly lady, you don't know about fighting! Then you died. 

You didn't listen. You should have listened. Now you are dead and she is sad. Although it took you FOREVER to die. Maybe someone could have fetched a doctor but they were like "Nah. He wouldn't listen to the doctor either." 

The story doesn't give us much about Tara but once she got done being sad I bet she was super angry. I would have been. I was angry just reading it. 

"The Death of Marat" by Kecko is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

DEATH - DRAMATIC DEATH

Extra credit reading week 3: Ramayana part B

Title: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic
Author: Kamban / R. K. Narayan
Year: 1972   (Kindle edition) 

 

Poor Soorpanaka! She's got a bad case of wanting Jessie's girl, except it is Sita's man. She just will NOT give it up and gets mutilated when she tries to take Sita out of the picture. She basically promises Rama the moon and then some and he's just like nope. So she leaves, but is going to come back with some friends to show him who the boss is - still don't think he's going to ask her out though.

Soorpanka's first friend (Her brother Kara) is not successful - rocks fall, everyone dies. Tragedy! Horror! Time to try another brother!

She's off to see Ravana now. This brother she tells all about how awesome Sita is. So now Ravana is full on Jessie's girl about Sita and Soorpanaka is still having Sita's man feelings about Rama. It would be easier if this wasn't an epic with heroes and villains. They could go on that wife swap show, everyone would probably hate each other by the end and there would be less tragedy. 

Also less kidnapping but if there was less kidnapping the story might be over. 

 Apparently there is/was an 80s cover band called Jessie's Girl. I kept thinking of the song lyrics about someone wishing they had another person's girl/guy and this photo came up. And it's just so dramatic looking like "Oh my gosh, I'm in the floor and I'm PINING"

 

"Jessie's Girl - The World's Hottest 80s Tribute Band" by danperezfilms is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Topic Research: Reincarnation

 I'm stuck. I've been all over wikipedia, done some general googling for stoires, checked sacred texts. I don't know what I'm doing!

So I was looking at the Matrikas. They sound interesting, but hten when I go further into them, some of them are incarnations/aspects/etc of Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswati. Which is a whole other thought/idea. 

Everyone individually has a LOT going on and I am not sure at this point how to hone in on where to go. Parvati alone leads me off into all her aspects (Mahavidya) which then pulls in Kali. Lakshmi and Saraswati bring their own incarnations to the party and if this was indoors in the season of COVID we'd be well beyond our numbers for safe social distancing.

Right now I am absolutely flummoxed on what 3 stories I might like to tell. I am definitely digging the all the goddesses. And I know I can edit, edit, edit no matter what I do. I may just end up leaning into the confusion and uncertainty at this point. I feel actually like with reincarnation and aspects and avatars there may be a story in that! Pick a goddess and have a fun story of uncertainty about what aspect is needed?

So perhaps I've typed my way into at least one story idea and can grow from there? That's one of the benefits of blog posting in a stream of consciousness style - sometimes things start to work themselves out. 

If I'm remembering correctly from the wikipedia rabbit hole I got myself into, Parvati, Lakshmi and Saraswati sort of go together. And all have aspects. They could all have a story along those lines. Or even a retelling of a story about how they 'got' an aspect in the first place!! For instance the origin of Kali. That would basically be a retelling but I am sure there are some fabulous ideas that could come out of that. 

From the Matrikas, Brahmini is an aspect of Saraswati. So this is now less reincarnation and more alternate personalities, but that is okay! I've also got Pratyangira and Vaishnavi as aspects of Lakshmi. I'll have to think some more on how this would work, but I actually feel more like I have somewhere to go now. :)

"That is the Question" by cogdogblog is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Feedback Strategies

 I read How to Give Bad Feedback without Being a Jerk and The Trouble with Amazing. I also skimmed most of the other articles, looking at them from a social work client interaction perspective. 

I know that in my practicum so far, there have actually been times and clients who you have to go backwards and just say amazing, I'm so glad you are here. But that's a social work thing and all about knowing your audience - if you've got someone who just walked in looking for food and resources on mental health a lot of stuff does not apply in that moment.

Once we've worked with someone for a while, more constructive feedback might come in to play. It just totally depends on the person and where they are in their journey. It is a bit difficult for me to remember to switch out of my social work mode and back into story feedback mode. That is something I'll have to work on throughout the semester!

They wouldn't make erasers if we didn't make mistakes

Found on Feedback padlet

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part A

Title: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic
Author: Kamban / R. K. Narayan
Year: 1972   (Kindle edition) 

Tales within tales not of Canterbury but still taking a trip. Journey in the desert, story of how the desert because so....desert-y. Very parable feel towards the end of the tale within tale.

Rama begins building his legend - killing demon who made desert. Weapons bonus!

But vengeance was sworn by the sons of the demon Rama killed. That comes back into play rapidly but again victory! Legend building continues.

Legendary wedding! SO many guests. All the guests. All the elephants. (Mental picture of live action aladdin parade scene...)

Good news! You're gonna be a king! Bad news - I made some promises a couple (hundred? thousand?) years ago and now you're not going to be king AND you have to move out. In modern times we'd say you should definitely get a therapist that's a lot to handle. Rama is just like *shrug* It's cool - time to make new friends!

A slightly less epic wedding.

"Confetti" by SteveR- is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Feedback Thoughts

 I decided to read Make Good Art: Neil Gaiman's Advice on the Creative Life, Adapted by Design Legend Chip Kidd and How to Tame Your Inner Critic: A Simple Habit to Rewire Your Brain. 

These articles were really interesting to me. Like a lot of people I struggle with confidence! Hello imposter syndrome, my old friend. I can be told over and over again by people I work with, people I go to school with or family that I am good at what I do, that I am smart and so on but do I believe it? Heck no!

I finally begin to believe some of this when I get feedback from those who my brain files in the 'trusted professional' category. Why them? My family spends the most time with me, they see my good side, my horrible side, my hasn't done laundry in two weeks side. Why shouldn't they be a trusted professional on the subject of me? Why shouldn't I be a trusted professional on the subject of myself?

I think this is what I'm taking away from all of this and these articles this time around. Take a breath. Yes, you are probably your own worst critic. It's okay. Breathe and do the thing. Then do the thing some more. Do the thing because you want to do the thing! (Okay that maybe doesn't apply if the 'thing' you want to do is say...brain surgery and you are not an MD. That's frowned on. A lot.) Experience joy that you have done the thing and do the thing some more.

Image from Laura's Growth Mindset & Feedback blog - Picture from cheezburger

Topic Brainstorm

 My first possible topic right away is reincarnation. I was tossing that idea around last semester before I ended up on volcanoes. (How? I don't know - okay well, volcanoes are sort of like a reincarnation of rocks but that's beside the point!) There's the project topic page on reincarnation, which is nice, and one of the other pages actually pointed me towards a Wikipedia page on Saṃsāra - meaning world and the concept of rebirth, cyclical nature.

So related to reincarnation is birth - usually you can't be reincarnated if you aren't born at some point, right? It comes back to that whole cycle thing. Shashthi - goddess of childbirth

And the other side of the cycle? Death. But I know I don't want to tell just death stories, but I need the death aspect of the stories, I need them to come back! It's a cycle.

(And going along with birth, death and reincarnation is that you could be an avatar of a god. This is not something I am super familiar with and isn't really true reincarnation, but more reincarnation adjacent?) 

There's a piece I'm missing here I feel like - overall is reincarnation/rebirth/return a cycle. This feels like pieces of one topic, which is my fault because I am overall focused on the cyclical idea of reincarnation/rebirth I think. I don't know what particular stories I would want to retell just yet - if there are enough tales about about one person..and I think there might be...it might be interesting to do a storybook that follows someone through multiple reincarnations. 

A decidedly western/European take on rebirth - into the cauldron! 

"Rebirth" by ξωαŋ ThΦt (slowly back...) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Week 2 Story: Finally a Time to Learn

Veli knew it was time for finals. He knew his friends were trying to concentrate and study for their exams. It was just far more fun to sing, dance, and laugh.
He was hushed by his friends. He was quieted by the librarian. Finally, Veli was tossed out of the library for causing a disturbance. He found his way to the courtyard, where in less stressful seasons, the students would gather to enjoy the sun, talk, or play music. Today there was no one there but one older woman feeding the birds.
Veli couldn't help himself. He ran straight towards the woman and the flock of birds. Before he could reach the birds, the woman looked up at Veli and asked, "What joy do you find in these actions?" Veli stopped. He felt as if he had lived this moment before. He wasn't always Veli. It wasn't always a woman with birds - but there was always a moment and a question.
He stopped to think about the question and slowly walked toward the bench the woman was sitting on.
"I don't know that I find joy," Veli replied. "But my friends don't talk to me very much, and when I am loud at least I know they still see me."
The woman looked into Veli's eyes and said, "I see you here beside me. Perhaps your friends see you as well. Talk to them, talk to new people, while people will still talk to you."
Veli considered the woman's words. While they made sense, he knew they would be hard. Laughing, dancing, and singing all the time was an easy way to engage with the world. Changing the way he talked to his friends and approached other people would be hard.
"I think I understand what you are saying. If I continue to do things like getting kicked out of the library for being loud while my friends are studying... it may not matter that that is how I get them to talk to me. They will not be my friends. No one will be my friend." Veli stood up. "Thank you for speaking with me. I think I need to begin apologizing to some people."

"feeding the birds" by j3ssl33 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Source: The Jataka: Volume 1 translated by Robert Chalmers. 

Author's Note - This is my twist on the tales told in the Unruly Monks.

I wanted to tell a version of this story where the Brother - Veli in my story (name picked from a list here and meaning brother) - finally shows signs of breaking out of the cycle. The overall "feel" off the stories in the Unruly Monks reminded me a bit of the western/Christian idea of everything having a season. Which some folks may be familiar with either from the lyrics to the song Turn, Turn, Turn or from the biblical verses in Ecclesiastes. (Which are directly quoted in the song.) 

Either way, the reference is that there is a time to dance/sing/laugh/etc and a time to be quiet, mourn and so on. There is not specifically referenced a time to learn, which is what the Brother may have needed, again and again. A quiet moment to have someone say "Hey friend, what's the purpose of all of this?"

Week 2 Reading Anthology - Unruly Monks Reading Notes

I am taking notes on the story/parables around the Unruly Monks

Source: The Jataka: Volume 1 translated by Robert Chalmers.

First note - parables - compare disciples to other disciples (Thich Nhat Hanh)

2 stories told about a brother/monk who is unruly and loud/speaking out of turn/time.  Stories relate similar actions in other lives/reincarnations leading to a bad end - deer caught in trap, strangled rooster. 

In both stories, the person meeting the bad end was unteachable, not willing to be taught or had not been taught. No learning, no awareness of time/place/surroundings/others. 

Probably endless stories could be told of same unruly person reincarnating and not learning - what does it take, how many lives, does the person ever come to learn or begin to learn? What's the moment of understanding or is there one or do they repeat being the cautionary tale in the fable for many more reincarnations? That may be a direction to think about writing in - is there an 'aha' moment to break out of the cycle or not.

 

 This 100% looks like the type of rooster that would wake you up at midnight. Rock and roll rooster. 

"Rooster Romeo" by goingslo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0  

Week 2 Reading Overview

 I think I'm going to read the Narayan version of the Ramayana beginning next week. My one of my main factors here is the ease of having one book on my kindle app. Yes I did have to buy it, but I also bought Laura's tiny tales books in case I change my mind and read those! Reading on my kindle/kindle app is great - it's portable and there are no links to keep track of or page numbers or places to keep. 

One of the videos that caught my eye was Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story.

At that point I went down a YouTube rabbit hole and found several more videos Noor Inayat Khan including Noor Inayat Khan: Britain's first Muslim female agent and Noor Inayat Khan -- A Life of Bravery. 

 Some photos I found that I enjoyed are here!
 

Image source: Lakshmi

I selected this first image because it feels pretty serene and I like the elephants. As you can see below, my second image is very, very similar - there is a theme here!

Image source: Gajalakshmi
 

This image specifically states that Laskhmi flanked by two elephants is known as Gajalakshmi. And in this photo she is pictured with Sarasvati and her peacock. I am apparently really liking somewhat serene or peaceful images of goddesses hanging out with their animal companions. 

The comic books are a little harder for me to pick since they are not digitized. I may see if some are available for digital purchase somewhere but I am never in Norman anymore to read what Bizzell has! So I'm picking somewhat on topic but I have to say the artwork for this first one, Ganga: The Divine Beauty, amused me to no end. One of the faces looks like "Folks. Really? Again??" Just slightly perturbed, I love it. I do love this concept of drinking the sea though, what a thought. 

My second comic choice was Sukanya. The whole idea of picking the correct choice from multiple identical choices is a theme that shows up in stories all over the place and I love when you get to read some of the older/source type myths that spawned a thousand other tales!

Time Strategies - Steve

 I hate the idea of time management. Just the whole concept, really. It just sounds very middle manager-y and gross. I'm going to call the whole concept Steve instead. Steve sounds more chill, like maybe Steve would go out for burgers. 

Okay, so Steve and I don't always get along. We try, we really do, but sometimes we are like the odd couple. Steve says let's leave 10 minutes early in case of traffic and I say there is never any traffic, it'll be fine! (Pro tip: Just listen to Steve. He's good friends with this guy named Murphy. And Murphy has this law....)

But Steve really tries. He has good intentions and so do I! Sometimes Steve and I both just need a kick in the pants to get our day/week/reading/paper started. 

To that end, Steve and I have compromised. Say Steve is yelling at me to NOT crochet a hat or play a video game or binge watch Bridgerton on Netflix. Am I going to listen to Steve? No. No, I will not. BUT what I have learned to do over many years of living with Steve is to set a timer. I'll even call out to my evil Alexa overlord to set a timer - no I can't find my phone excuses, thanks Steve. So I'll watch some TV, I'll go run through a dungeon in a game, or I'll work on a hat. Then time will be up and Steve will be in charge and everyone is mostly happy. 

I already had in mind what I was going to write for this post. The articles I read, based on the title alone were The Important Habit of Just Starting and How to Beat Procrastination. These may be the same articles I read last semester as well, I didn't pull that blog post up to check!

"Triple Timer" by wwarby is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Technology

 I never did add a word count last semester, but I use grammerly in a separate tab to edit and format before pasting in the blog. That does my word count for me! It is also my digital backup, just in case I need a previous version or something without links/photos. 

My primary browser for this class, and anything I may have to open canvas for, is Firefox. Chrome is my backup browser. For everything else, day to day web use, it's the opposite. This helps because I have a secondary online identity for class/blogs/google sites. I can leave everything logged in on Firefox and use Chrome for my day to day accounts. 

I personally could not live without my password manager, but that may just be me! 

"Secure password of the week" by Simon Lieschke is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Assignments

  I never did experiment with microfiction in the last class! I am still interested in it and I enjoy reading other people's microfictions. I may actually write some of my own for this class but that's up in the air. Once I start reading all bets are off. 

And of course I am still thrilled by reading and writing for enjoyment. Yes it is technically still for a class but there isn't a style guide, there are not endless journal pages of research, methodology and notes. It is a great break from other classes!

"Writing journal" by avrdreamer is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0