Happiness
Two shepherds and an overseer ponder what happiness is.
The old shepherd dreams of hidden treasure.
The young one looks up at the sky and takes it all in.
And the overseer doesn't think happiness is attainable.
Thoughts. Everyone in their head is trying to make sense of life. Some create fantasies of hidden treasures and they never ask what if they find the treasure -- they just need something to fill their head with possibility -- to keep them going -- and some use their experiences to turn away from thoughts about happiness and dreams and just do what they can to survive -- and others are just captivated by the majesty of the universe and human nature and never imagine they will ever have definitive answers to the big questions.
And the drama goes on.
The sheep ponder and so do we.
The Goal: Read. Reflect. Respond. Over two hundred Chekhov stories. Constance Garnett translations.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
THE HUNTSMAN
The Huntsman
So you got a proud hunter who was once so drunk that he got married to a peasant girl and once he sobered up wanted nothing to do with the commitment. Except here is his wife twelve years later still pursuing him -- searching for a lost love.
He cruelly tells her exactly how he feels and she takes it -- hoping somehow to make things right -- but he's moved on -- he's got another woman and the best he can do for her is to hand her a rouble.
Sounds like fodder for a good ole country music song.
So you got a proud hunter who was once so drunk that he got married to a peasant girl and once he sobered up wanted nothing to do with the commitment. Except here is his wife twelve years later still pursuing him -- searching for a lost love.
He cruelly tells her exactly how he feels and she takes it -- hoping somehow to make things right -- but he's moved on -- he's got another woman and the best he can do for her is to hand her a rouble.
Sounds like fodder for a good ole country music song.
IN THE RAVINE
In the Ravine
I was reminded of Thornton Wilder's Our Town -- when I first began to read the story -- here was a small village where nothing much happened -- but under the eye of Chekhov we begin to see that like any other place it's full of stories -- birth -- death -- weddings -- good and evil. But soon one realizes this isn't Grover's Corners in New Hampshire but Ukleevo in Russia.
And while the evil in Ukleevo -- might occur in any village -- Chekhov creates a very deliberate moral universe.
Little by little he places the characters in front of us -- the old man who runs his business without any mercy -- the incompetent deaf son -- the daughter-in-law who appears to be a natural merchant just like the old man -- the cherished detective son who is never home -- the charitable wife -- and the poor beautiful bride.
And just when we get comfortable in our little village -- we start to see things unravel.
The detective son is involved in counterfeiting and is sent off to Siberia -- and that's just the beginning of the fraud.
Let me just say that when the baby is burned to death -- that was shocking -- but even more shocking was that the culprit -- not only goes unpunished but gains power from her actions.
But that really shouldn't be shocking -- when we see the world for what it is -- people who are agressive -- violent -- have no compassion -- no conscience -- have acquired a lot of power and still do.
I guess -- it's the expectations -- when Aksinya -- the sinner -- kills the baby -- one expects that she is going to pay for it -- that she will go to jail -- that she will forever be seen as a baby killer -- not that she will become more powerful -- more respected -- more wealthy.
When Lipa gets blamed for the baby's death -- one feels the injustice of the situation -- it gets one mad -- but then again you realize that's the way things work -- as Leo Durocher once said: " Nice guys finish last."
Or do they?
At the end of the story it is Lipa who is singing and provides food for the old man. Evil may have the material possessions and much of the power in the world but it is only the good that can achieve riches of the spirit.
And isn't that what really counts?
Isn't it?
I was reminded of Thornton Wilder's Our Town -- when I first began to read the story -- here was a small village where nothing much happened -- but under the eye of Chekhov we begin to see that like any other place it's full of stories -- birth -- death -- weddings -- good and evil. But soon one realizes this isn't Grover's Corners in New Hampshire but Ukleevo in Russia.
And while the evil in Ukleevo -- might occur in any village -- Chekhov creates a very deliberate moral universe.
Little by little he places the characters in front of us -- the old man who runs his business without any mercy -- the incompetent deaf son -- the daughter-in-law who appears to be a natural merchant just like the old man -- the cherished detective son who is never home -- the charitable wife -- and the poor beautiful bride.
And just when we get comfortable in our little village -- we start to see things unravel.
The detective son is involved in counterfeiting and is sent off to Siberia -- and that's just the beginning of the fraud.
Let me just say that when the baby is burned to death -- that was shocking -- but even more shocking was that the culprit -- not only goes unpunished but gains power from her actions.
But that really shouldn't be shocking -- when we see the world for what it is -- people who are agressive -- violent -- have no compassion -- no conscience -- have acquired a lot of power and still do.
I guess -- it's the expectations -- when Aksinya -- the sinner -- kills the baby -- one expects that she is going to pay for it -- that she will go to jail -- that she will forever be seen as a baby killer -- not that she will become more powerful -- more respected -- more wealthy.
When Lipa gets blamed for the baby's death -- one feels the injustice of the situation -- it gets one mad -- but then again you realize that's the way things work -- as Leo Durocher once said: " Nice guys finish last."
Or do they?
At the end of the story it is Lipa who is singing and provides food for the old man. Evil may have the material possessions and much of the power in the world but it is only the good that can achieve riches of the spirit.
And isn't that what really counts?
Isn't it?
Friday, May 27, 2011
THE STUDENT
Through the story of Jesus and Paul -- a young man comes to the realization that we are all connected to all that has come before us.
Six Degrees of Separation ramped up to a cosmic level.
GUSEV
Life and death.
Dreams.
What was.
What might have been.
What will never be.
A dying man's last few days on earth.
Hoping to get home as he slowly winds down in a hospital ship.
Maybe a small life wasted away.
But human.
And in the end he joins the sea and the sky and everything is as it should be.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
AT CHRISTMAS TIME
Parents worried.
Daughter has married and left to the big city.
No word from her.
They hire someone to write a letter for them.
Next scene.
Letter arrives.
Daughter is happy to hear from her parents.
However, her husband has cut her off.
She lives in fear.
As her husband lives in fear.
He runs her life.
The general runs her husband's life.
Her parents are helpless.
Their daughter is helpless.
And her husband is helpless.
Power structures.
We are all victims of one another.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
AGAFYA
Agafya is the married woman who can't resist the charms of the bad boy Savka. And she's not the only one in the village.
He's got the looks -- the body -- and most of all -- the attitude: he just doesn't care.
He tells it to you straight -- no pretense -- no false words. You can't own him -- and he doesn't want to own you.
Many wonder why women are attracted to bad boys. Chekhov doesn't answer this question. He only portrays the bad boy Savka -- and his contempt for women.
Agafya seems pathetic -- she is helpless -- a mouse in the paws of a cat -- there is no logic -- no reason -- nothing can be made sense of -- it just is.
And it was in Chekhov's day and it continues to be so.
The formula for sexual attraction -- or passion -- or human emotion -- still eludes us. Thankfully so.
Let robots be robots. Let humans be humans.
Let robots be robots. Let humans be humans.
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