Do you ever open your eyes, turn off your mind and see the world differently for a moment? Like you transcended time for a moment and could see and feel things the way you did once before?? Or the way others see them??
It Started when I was 17.
After I experienced quite a bit of trauma in my youth.
I began to see life as a perpetual state of dreaming... and the day to day events are just visions in dreams, like I was a viewer, not a participator.
I was sitting in my 12th grade english class, the class was gathered in a circle, holding hands for some activity.. only I was sitting on the side lines, watching.. looking at their individual faces, seeing their expressions... wondering what they were feeling, what their story was... and completely losing myself.. (which is a parable in itself.. think about it)...
I think perhaps.. if you shift your paradigm slightly you may just get to see things from someone else's point of view.
lately I have been going over les miserables with my six year old.. now before you get all judgey I don't explain the prostitution part or anything, but I am pretty real with her on the other topics... anyway.. builds character right??
SO we have been listening to the soundtrack on repeat and I keep fixating on the same question in my mind. Who of the main characters leads the more tragic life? interesting topic of question I know however think about it.. the play/book/movie is called "Les Miserables" which roughly translates from French as "The Miserable Ones" and you when you think of each storyline individually you will see that this isn't just a tragic story because of the larger picture of the time period etc.. but individually each character leads a very tragic life..
Everyone watches the movie/musical/theatrical performance as the story unfolding around one specific character "JOhn Valjean" Because it's start with him, however if you shift your paradigm ever so slightly to the point where Valjean isn't just slightly more important than the other characters... you will find yourself watching an entirely different story.. several times over...
Have I lost you? Stay with me.
Here is the Les Miserables we have come to know and love:
(centered around jean valjean)
Jean Valjean gets arrested for stealing some bread to save his starving sister and neice.. when he is caught he tries to run adding 12 years to his 9 year thief sentance.. after wasting 19 years of the better part of his life he is released from prison to encounter the world from new, so very different from his life as a jail bird.. he comes out to oppression and poverty leading up to the French Revolution... in order to survive this new world he finds no other choice than to steal again, this time it's silverware from an elderly bishop. He is caught and to try to be set free he tells the police the bishop gave him the silverware... not believing him they ask the bishop and to valjean's and the officer's surprise, the bishop agrees that he did offer the silver to Valjean and even offered him candlesticks as well, Valjeans convict heart is shifted and he devotes his time to becoming a godly man, he forms an alias and becomes Alias Because he broke parole he is constantly hunted down by Javert an unshifting police officer very devoted to his life work. At some point Valjean comes across a dying prostitute and swears to protect her child who is living with an unruly innkeeper and his wife.. he spends the next 10 years still on the run but with Cossette (the prostitute's daughter) as his daughter.. eventually his daughter falls in love with a man leading the cause of the french revolution and risks his life to keep that man alive so that he can marry Cossette, he then runs away in the night and lives at a convent where he ends his days.
But what if we latched onto the other character's in the story and see things from their point of view.
FANTINE: Moves to France when she is 15, is impregnated by a man who runs out on her, she is forced to give up her daughter to an innkeeper and his wife, who lie about the child being ill and request money from her constantly. In a time where jobs and the economy were roughly nonexistent she gets a factory job but after rumors run about and secrets come to light she is forced to resign, leaving her on the streets, selling her hair and teeth and eventually her body until she becomes gravely ill, the mayor of the town takes her to a hospital and swears to her he will take care of her child .. leaving her with one measly act of witnessed kindness before she dies...
COSSETTE: A Child born a bastard in a terrible time in history, she is raised by an abusive and unruly inkeeper and his wife, who treat her like garbage basically enslaving her and milking her mother (whom she never got to know) for all she is worth.... She has never known kindness or gentleness until a man shows up and buys her from the innkeeper and his wife and then raises her in a convent for the next 10 years, he never tells her anything about his past, and her life is full of curiosity and wonder as everything surrounding her is a mystery with no hope of solving...when she is 18 she falls in love with a man.. they are married and then her father runs away not telling her where he went... heart broken she isn't reunited with him until his dying day, where he reveals the truth of his past and then dies.
JAVERT: A man strictly religious and to the book, an officer of the law who devote his entire life to protecting people and doing God's bidding to see evil put away. He makes it his entire life goal to chase down a man he firmly believes is the scum of the community; Jean Valjean.. several times he came close to catching Valjean in a tireless effort/life race to see him back behind bars, only to have valjean save his life in a moment of shear selflessness, forcing him to re-evaluate his whole life "purpose" forcing him to spiral into an immeasurable depression and he eventually takes his life by drowning himself.
Eponine: An innkeeper's daughter. Living on pennies, always dirty, forced into scams of thievery by her parents.. unloved, unnoticed. she falls in love with an upper class boy; Marius... they are friends for years and Marius Falls in love with another girl after only seeing her for a moment... torn between her love for him and His happiness, she sacrifices her feelings for him to see him and this other girl together, later she joins him on the battlefield and dies in his arms.. claiming that her last moments were her best because he was there.
Gavroche: A child, the youngest of the same corrupt innkeeper, lives a relatively ignored life until he joins forces with the revolutionary soldiers and dies at the hands of the opposition at only about 6? years old..
Marius: A Young man born into a wealthy family but aware of all the injustices of his fellow people.. along with his closest friends he forms a union to revolt against the government... he falls in love right before shit goes down and he is torn between his life with her and his loyalty to his comrades and his country.. believing his love is moving away, he joins forces with his amigos and they all die. He is injured but saved by his love's "father" by escaping through the sewers... he does get to marry the love of his life but then has to lie to her for awhile about her father's wearabouts.. until he reunites them at the end of his (Valjean's) Life.
this could goo on and on... but you get the idea.. everyone has a story, life, and the world and existence even is completely different with everyone. Everyone is fighting some sort of battle..
I have been trying to do my part to be kind lately.. even when I am frustrated on in a bad mood, I am consciously choosing kindness over anger or any other emotion...
I was kind to the man at the dmv, when I waited for an hour and half and he told me he couldn't help me because I didn't have a necessary form that the car dealership was supposed to give me... I was kind to the Dealership Lady who didn't give me the necessary form... even complimented her a couple of times and sincerely meant it with a smile on my face..
both of these scenarios were frustrating and unexpected but I chose kindness and you know what?? I just kept paying it forward from all those times someone showed me kindness when I probably also didn't deserve it...
Life is short, it's beautiful, open your eyes, you are not dreaming. You are here and there are so many beautiful souls out there who need love and kindness.. and it is our life mission to be shepherds of peace and love and kindness..
We are not alone.
We are in this together.
Life is Hard.
Love is Hard
but they are both worth it.
and you can quote me on that.
