We are all Luna-tics

No matter what is happening down here, when we look up at the sky, it is always there: the moon, eternal and everlasting. The idea that it has an influence on us is something which goes back a long way, and there have been so many legends about it that consequently a myth has been created, to the point that many people believed (and believe) in werewolf, or wolfman, humans who transformed themselves into wolves during full moon. Perhaps not up to that point, but it does have an influence on human beings.

While Waning Moon is said to convey tranquility to meditate and make plans, it would be Crescent Moon the right moment to carry out these plans. However, it is thought that when the moon most influences us is when it is full. There is a belief that Full moon modifies somehow human behaviour, and there must be some truth in this because it is especially in Full Moon nights when most accidents, most crimes and most suicides happen. Although there is no scientific evidence about this, I do believe that the moon influences us, and this influence happens mostly through our horoscope. Approximately, every two days and a half the moon changes from one star sign to another, that means, every twenty-eight days (one lunar cycle) the moon will stay in your star sign influencing you during those couple of days.

Unfortunately, astrology and the zodiac are unregarded and not taken seriously by many people, or used just for economic-purposes by opportunists. Certainly, the horoscopes are not rules, there are lots of elements influencing us, culture, education. Neither should we fall into generalization, not all Aquarius are eccentric nor all Pisces are dreamers. Neither all Libras are romantic nor all Capricorns are loyal. But still, I do believe there is a close relation between our date of birth and our personality, which may explain why every person has a different way of seeing things and why it is so difficult to understand other people sometimes.

“We need not feel ashamed of flirting with the zodiac.The zodiac is well worth flirting with”. (D.H. Lawrence) 

What went around, comes around

That afternoon, Ada woke up from her short nap determined to buy what she had been waiting for all this time. There were just 15 minutes until lady Fatimah leaves for her 5 o'clock tea, so she got dressed as fast as she could, grabbed the coffee she always needs after sleeping and left in a hurry.

Across from her house, there was a small but very well-supplied shop called “A little bit of everything”, whose owner, a chubby lady originally from Syria but married to an English journalist, was exceptionally gifted at healing any disease, either mental or physical, by just mixing the appropriate herbs and ingredients.

When Ada got to the store, Fatimah had already left, and instead of her, her eldest daughter, who was the only person she would leave in charge in her absence, was there. Ada would have never let other person different than lady Fatimah to assist her, but the girl asked kindly:

-Welcome, how can I help you, Miss?
-Hi. Well...er...I ordered this medicine to Fatimah some weeks ago- she said, showing her client card- I wonder if...

Before she could finish her sentence, the girl had already left to the stock room. When she came back, she was carrying a little green crystal jar, with a note on it:

-The oblivion potion- she read slowly, - yes, it is ready- Here you have.

Ada took the little jar with a mixture of happiness and surprise, left twenty pounds in coins on 50 pence- it was her tips savings for almost 2 months, and run to her apartment impatiently. Once in home, she removed the label from the bottle and read carefully: “To reach the forgotten state, take one teaspoon everyday, preferably with meals, during 2 weeks. Do not take during more than one month. In case of discomfort, consult Fatimah”.

Gradually, she fell in a forgetfulness state which made her delete all the bad experiences, her last breakup, her parents' divorce. Little by little, she became happier, hopeful, optimistic, any bad memory affecting her now. However, all that glitters is not gold, and short after, she also started to forget the good memories, the summers from her childhood, the chit-chats with her sister. One morning, when she looked in the mirror, she had to check her face twice to recognise who she was. Her cat was starving because she forgot to feed him. Everything around seemed strange to her.

Eventually, I could not think of an end to Ada's story. Sometimes, many of us would prefer to delete like her all the bad memories, clean our minds from the negative past, or start from zero. Other times, we lean on sayings such as what does not kill you makes you stronger just to make a sense of the negative experiences. To me, the idea that our past influences our present, and will influence our future is one of the lemas of my life. To have the faith, the belief, that our stories matter, that across all the experiences we have lived, either good or bad, something has remained, something has been learnt.

“You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. (...) Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it we are nothing.”

(Luis Buñuel, Spanish filmmaker).

Losing words, gaining inspiration

As a non-native English speaker who has been given the task to write in English, I come across one problem: the lack of inspiration. Leaving aside the English level, which in all of us is good otherwise we wouldn't be here, I found it hard to open a blog and write freely about what I want, but in English.

Somehow, we are used to teachers who tell us what to write and how, which number of words they want and even which type of letter to use. One teacher even told me one time to choose dark blue when typing because it was softer for his sight.

So here I am now, with so much freedom but not many ideas, free but blocked, and it was interestingly this mental blank which gave me the idea to write about inspiration. Pablo Picasso used to say, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working”. The problem is when inspiration and me speak different languages... Some time ago, I read one writer's interview saying she would write in different languages depending on her mood. When writing on melancholy or romanticism, she would choose French. When her mind was more logical, she would write in English, or in German when an agressive speech. Unfortunately, not all of us are able to communicate in more than three languages, but her case makes me think if language is related with inspiration or the lack of it.

When writing in a second language, we are certainly losing some vocabulary, and when our vocabulary shrinks, our imagination shrinks, and the way we are thinking shrinks as well. Nevertheless, some studies state that, when thinking in a second language, our decisions are less risky and more analytical. If this is true, we might be more analytical and less emotional in our blogs, but this has its positive side too. When it comes to a good piece of writing, just inspiration is not enough.

Whatever the case, it is true that when we choose to think in another language we feel different, but still this can bring us new ideas we never thought we would have, and therefore new inspiration.

“A different language is a different vision of life”

(Federico Fellini, Italian director)