"Studying is hard and boring. Teaching is hard and boring. So, what you're telling me is to be bored, and then bored, and finally bored again, but this time for the rest of my life? This whole stupid country is bored! There's no life in it, or color, or fun! It's probably just as well the Russians are going to drop a nuclear bomb on us any day now. So my choice is to do something hard and boring, or to marry my... Jew, and go to Paris and Rome and listen to jazz, and read, and eat good food in nice restaurants, and have fun! It's not enough to educate us anymore Ms. Walters. You've got to tell us why you're doing it."
It's so incredibly difficult to be appreciative of things that feel common, or worse, things that we feel entitled to in the first place. However, we should and must take the time every once in a while to consider simple historical facts. As sons and daughters of this latest generation, we tend to overlook the fact that it has taken humanity a very long time to get to where we are. I think this generation, and our (I'm convinced flawed) ability to quickly adapt to new technologies and ridiculously senseless services, has severely disabled us to look beyond ourselves. We suffer from chronic egocentrism (only in the sense that we are actually very self-conscious; we think we're the center of the universe, always) so it's nice to have sobering moments. With that said, here I go. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to finish my undergraduate studies. I am so incredibly lucky to be an educated individual. I am so ridiculously appreciative to all the courageous and inspiring people who paved the way for me and my fellow marginalized peoples. Because of them I have the luxury of choice. I can choose to continue my studies, I can choose to get a job, I can choose to stay at home and start a family. This is a big deal and I think we have been too haste in forgetting. I think of all the women I grew up around (my mother, my aunts, the ladies at temple and church). Absolutely none of them had that luxury of an education. They didn't have a choice. I guess, in some respect, luxury is the wrong word because it implies that an education is a pleasurable, self-indulgent activity. And truthfully, at least considering the state of the entire world, it kind of is. I can only hope that this erroneous concept will be modified to better represent how essential an education truly is.
Yesterday, I watched the film An Education and afterward, quickly tracked down the Lynn Barber memoir that it was based on. Besides developing a total girl crush on Carey Mulligan, the film encouraged me to evaluate a couple of questions I've been struggling with lately. Alas, I'm done with university (while Jenny was a 16-year-old working to get into Oxford) so I suppose my circumstances are a bit different but, lately, I've been craving some superficial mind-numbing fun (I had an Entourage marathon last weekend so that's probably why). I don't think the desire for a shallow good time is a necessarily bad thing; what I do find troublesome is that it would be relatively easy to get lost in the glitz and glamour of that world; I mean, it happens all the time. So while Jenny was being seduced by David, art, France, jazz, cigarettes, restaurants, dance clubs and weekend trips, I have to admit that I, too, was being seduced. See, this is exactly what I've been craving lately; a cultured, fun, charming older man to show me the world. However, the latter half of the movie was (intentionally) sobering.
There were a couple of scenes in particular, that brought me back from seduction. When Jenny accuses the amazing Miss Stubbs (who had always believed in her) of being 'dead' for not having the life that David had, recently, offered her, I was hurt. As the film hit its turning point and Jenny is at her lowest point, she has the opportunity to visit Miss Stubbs' adorably vibrant flat. Quickly, Jenny realizes how alive Miss Stubbs actually is, and the lovely home she has made for herself was visual proof. Almost instantly, I thought of one of my favorite essays, Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own". It's incredible to me how, to this day, the idea that only a man can offer a woman these things is still so enticing. Miss Stubbs (even in this day and age) was a breath of fresh air. And yet, like I said before, I'm dying for a cultured older man to show me life.
Personally, the most insightful part of the film was when Jenny yells at Headmistress Walters about how hard and boring the lives of ordinary people are and how pointless her education is. I love this simply because I kind of agreed with her, strictly in the sense that I completely disagree with her suggestion of mutual exclusivity. I agree that we need to listen to jazz, read, go to Paris and have fun! I completely disagree with the use of "or" (see above).
There were a couple of scenes in particular, that brought me back from seduction. When Jenny accuses the amazing Miss Stubbs (who had always believed in her) of being 'dead' for not having the life that David had, recently, offered her, I was hurt. As the film hit its turning point and Jenny is at her lowest point, she has the opportunity to visit Miss Stubbs' adorably vibrant flat. Quickly, Jenny realizes how alive Miss Stubbs actually is, and the lovely home she has made for herself was visual proof. Almost instantly, I thought of one of my favorite essays, Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own". It's incredible to me how, to this day, the idea that only a man can offer a woman these things is still so enticing. Miss Stubbs (even in this day and age) was a breath of fresh air. And yet, like I said before, I'm dying for a cultured older man to show me life.
Personally, the most insightful part of the film was when Jenny yells at Headmistress Walters about how hard and boring the lives of ordinary people are and how pointless her education is. I love this simply because I kind of agreed with her, strictly in the sense that I completely disagree with her suggestion of mutual exclusivity. I agree that we need to listen to jazz, read, go to Paris and have fun! I completely disagree with the use of "or" (see above).
This last line, in particular, was my favorite: "It's not enough to educate us anymore Ms. Walters. You've got to tell us why you're doing it." I love this simply because it made me realize how incredibly blessed I am; I don't have to ask, I already know "why."
Facundo Cabral "No Soy de Aquí"
