King's Speech

I saw The King's Speech, last nigh and I really loved this movie, it was well made, well acted, great plot, and I don't feel that I missed out on anything by seeing the edited version. This movie has been rather infamous for it's "one scene" which caused it to be rated R, where, as part of his speech therapy, Colin Firth's character swears repeatedly, using the F-word several times over (at least so I've heard, in the edited version we only had one F-word). I understand why the scene was included, it is very much a part of the movie and it probably would not have been all that terrible to see it unedited. On the other hand, I do not feel as though I missed anything, I knew that the extra swear words were there, I knew why they were being said, and that it was not with the feeling that a swear word might normally be said; all that being said I'm just as happy to have missed some of the ugly words, even said as I mentioned above. It was a wonderful movie, very powerful, sometimes it was hard to watch and at one point it brought me close to tears. I think people should see it, whether you see it edited or not is up to you. I think that perhaps a bit to much fuss is being made over the swearing scene, on both sides of the debate. At any rate, see this movie.

Aside from the movie, I realize that I haven't been blogging much lately and that is because I've had a lot of other things going on and frankly I don't find blogging on the top of my to do list. For now I believe I'm done with blogging. I'm not going to get rid of my blogs but I'm just not going to worry about them, maybe at some later point I'll start blogging again. We shall see.

Bella dominica

This has been a really nice Sunday. I learned a lot. One of my callings in church is to teach in Relief Society (the women's group in my church) the second Sunday of every month. We're studying gospel principles right now and today's lesson was on service. I got a few major things from the lesson, the first was that service and love are sort of synonyms; that didn't really stand out to me in preparing the lesson but as we discussed service and it's various aspects, it became very clear to me. The second thing that really stood out to me was that it isn't me that does the teaching, it's the Spirit, the Holy Ghost; I feel sheepish after I've taught and people tell me that it was a great lesson, I've prepared yes, but what makes a lesson great is the comments and discussion that occur, the things that I don't bring to the table. I'm always so grateful when people are willing to comment and I love hearing comments that bring me back on track or take us in directions that had never occurred to me. I'm not a great teacher, but the Spirit is and I'm grateful for that.

I heard this program yesterday about the worth of degrees in the humanities, those talking felt there was quite a lot of worth in them and I agree. I'm a bit biased of course because I got my degree in art, and that's another area that's been under attack.
I feel that for a lot of people these days, if something doesn't add up and put money in one's pocket, it's not worth pursuing. These are certainly difficult financial times but I believe that only looking for a profit causes one to miss out on a great many things. A price cannot be put on everything, but such things may be lost if we cannot appreciate what we have before us.

Beautiful Book

My friend and former classmate is having a give away/contest on her blog for a beautiful book that she made. The idea behind this is to motivate people to do what they can to help with the disaster in Japan, by donating money or something to help these people out. The details are on her blog but you should check it out, a chance both to help other people out and a chance to win a beautiful book, she really makes beautiful books, much cooler than the ones I make.

Reading and Liberal Arts

I was looking at the newspaper this morning, which is somewhat of a rarity for me, and even more surprising is that I actually read several articles. The article that drew me in was one questioning the value of the liberal arts, things like English, humanities, communications, etc. I was drawn into this article because I attended a liberal arts school and received my degree in the arts, specifically visual arts (and that is about the most stereotypically useless degree there is, we perhaps English (no offense English majors, I didn't say it was useless, just stereotyped that way)). I saw this article happening all around me. I could count the male students that I had art classes with on two hands, through all four years. This did not stem from a male lack of interest in art, but rather a lack of belief that there was a living to be made with a degree in art. The story could be told with almost every branch of the arts.
It always made me sad to think of people going into something just for the money, as if that were the most important thing in life. Yes, money is important, and very useful, but it is not the only thing in life. Isn't doing something you enjoy and which fulfills you also important.
The article I read today touch on this, and others I have read have centered more on it, while sciences and math are areas where a job is more likely to be available upon graduation are a good thing, they may be pushed too much. The article pointed out that the reality is that the majority of people will not end up working in their fields of study, that we don't really even know yet the sorts of jobs that will be out there in the future. I also think about an event I attended sponsored by the Italian Club, it was to encourage people to major in Italian if they enjoyed it. In this day in age a bachelors degree is not the final destination of most students, in applying to grad schools, etc. and it was pointed out how being an Italian major made applicants stand out from the crowd in an advantageous way.
The liberal arts are still a viable commodity, it may not be emblazoned in red letters but there is still importance and relevance behind them.
Another article that I read struck me and tied in to the above article indirectly. I read an article about literacy and how important it is to develop that. The tie in to the liberal arts is that even in math and science fields being able to write well and to read and understand is very important. Literacy is a huge issue, one that I think is largely put on the back burner. I was told a few years ago that literacy levels in schools are declining to where individuals can graduate from high school and still be largely illiterate, perhaps only literate to the point that they could fill out a job application.
In the article I read today, other issues of illiteracy were pointed out to me. The point was made that an illiterate mother can progress the cycle of illiteracy and that illiteracy can lead to all types of problems, form crime to poor health. On the issue of health alone illiteracy can cause problems from not reading up on nutritional needs for children, etc. to not knowing understanding the instructions for a medication, etc.
Read with children! Help children and others become literate, it could be such a simple way to make a huge change in our world.

Little Women

Little Women, I got to see this opera recently and I was skeptical. I knew going in that it was not your average melodic type opera, it was more modern and 20th century type music, if you're familiar with the composer John Adams at all, that's the type of music I was expecting. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw, though parts of the opera were more modern music-y, and in 12 tone (if that means anything to you, it doesn't really to me) other parts were quite melodic. A big difference in the opera was that I don't really recall songs or arias that much as one might with other operas, what I did take away were there phrases "things change Jo" and variations of "things were/are perfect as they were/are" Those were the main themes focused on in this opera, Jo and that she wanted things to stay as happy and perfect as there were to her, and people in turn telling her that things changed and had to change. So I quite enjoyed this opera and I'd recommend it. I compare it to Aaron Copeland's music, I heard once that though his music was so modern, it was made relateable because he worked so much with folk songs, things that people knew, this opera's plot line is one that is near and dear and well known to so many, I think that's part of the reason it's so popular. Anyway those are my thoughts.

I happened to listen to this devotional today and it really resonated with me. It really made me think about my life, how it is now and how I might like it to ideally be in the future. I think that I and that we all could benefit from more sophistication and refinement in our lives. Life in this day and age is often crass or vulgar and perhaps it's not always seen because it's what we've become accustom to. I hope to do my part to elevate my own life and hopefully the lives of others.