el tercer ojo

What about the third eye?

I think I once promised to explain what "el tercer ojo" (the third eye) means.

First off, the quotation --which you get if you play with your cursor and the roll-over on the freeway sign above-- comes from a poem by Cherrie Moraga from her collection The Last Generation.  The entire poem is: "the third eye does not weep. it knows."  I've always loved her writing and couldn't resist this chance to use it (and thus somehow make it partly my own).  Hope she doesn't mind.

For me, the third eye is the mind's eye.  I see it as is depicted by Frida Kahlo, in her self-portrait "Diego On My Mind."  It's the inner vision of whatever is most important to us/ me at any given moment.

I think it also represents (as Moraga's poem indicates) that truth which we know rather than simply believe or feel.  Emotions can run high so often in my world / self.  Writing, for me can be a way to translate what I feel into knowledge -- to figure out why I feel the way I do. 

I weep rather easily though.  So does my third eye weep?  I don't think so; I think like Moraga's it remains somewhat abstracted.  Unlike the rest of me, I don't see it so much as about feeling as being about logic and, as said above, knowledge.  There's a coldness to my nature at time.  A part of me that however much I'm in the moment, even when I've been weeping with sadness or laughing until I can't breathe, that observes me and the situation from the outside. 

That detachment or disassociation (as I've sometimes thought of it) has led me to wonder what I'm really feeling.  Or even worse, if at the worst or best moments of my life I'm really feeling anything, or if my life is somehow a dishonest performance. 

Not happy thoughts at all.  Luckily, I don't feel that way very often anymore.

Why?  Basically because of a really good therapist telling me that there wasn't anything very abnormal going on.  That these feelings were a product of a mind that was more comfortable with analysis then emotion, not dishonesty. And so I renamed that portion of me my third eye. 

And left my other two free to weep.  And laugh.

Burning Anaya

Dear God. The crazy, far-right protect-children-from-knowledge crowd are burning the classic Chicano novel, Bless Me, Ultima in Norwood, Colorado. Burning it with the help and support of a superintendent of schools Bob Conder who admits to never even having read it. The copies couldn't be donated, he explained, because he didn't want to risk them falling into the hands of a child.

Heavens no. If it fell into the hands of high school students, they might read it and learn how full of shit he is. What is he teaching them by burning school books, destroying novels? (Picture is a famous shot from a Nazi student rally where objectionable books were burned).

This is not some new marginal or semi-pornographic work that a radical teacher is trying to slip into her or his classroom, not that I'd support burning those either. The novel was written in 1972 and is probably among two of the first and best known Chicano novels. Its author, Rudolfo Anaya is both an award-winning author and a literature professor (okay, I think maybe he's retired now) at the University of New Mexico and the book has national and international standing as exceptionally good American literature.

I've read this novel many times and been in two classes where it's been taught -- I can't really see what the problem with teaching it to highschool or even junior highschool students would be. The book uses magical realism to tell the story of a soldier returning home from the second World War and the healing he finds in the memories of the herbal magic practiced by his mother and adopted grandmother.

There's some profanity in the book, as befits a character who's a young former soldier. The grounds for the book being destroyed? That it's obscene and promotes paganism. More about the burning here.

I've sat here for a while trying to come to grips with what can be done. My suggestion is to buy a copy of the book, read it and then if you think its worthy, donate it to your local library.

Cooking Mexican

This entry is part public service, part suggestion for any family member looking for a gift idea for me. There's a wonderful (and I do mean wonderful) cookbook that's been re-released called Frida's Fiestas. I got a copy of it for Christmas ten years ago when it was first released. It's a cookbook by Frida Kahlo's step-daughter (Diego Rivera's daughter) with wonderful recipes and beautiful photographs of both the food and Diego and Frida's art and house in Mexico.

It's definitely the most beautiful cookbook I've ever had. Fun to read, beautiful photographs and the recipes are organized by monthly holidays. So in addition to getting information about Diego and Frida's lives, you also get to read about Mexican holidays.

So I bet you're wondering why I don't have my copy anymore. Basically, I gave it to someone to look through and they thought it was a gift. I didn't have the heart to take it back. But I really miss having it. All the other Mexican food I know how to make are family recipes -- I've found most cookbooks for Mexican food are dismal. The ones in Frida's Fiestas are more fun though. The book was out of print for about five years, but was re-printed last year (probably because of the movie).

So this gift would work for cooks, art lovers and anyone interested in beautiful books.