The Five Pillars

My Academy Awards post was mostly a fail (I might have gotten just over half of the guesses correct, but I didn't bother counting this year), so today I will tackle a less ambitions subject, like the meaning of life. 

There are what I like to call "The Five Pillars" of life. Here are the pillars:

1. Lord of the Rings

2. Paul Tillich

3. Musicals (mostly Les Mis, but any musical will do in a pinch, especially Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals)

4. U2

5. Lost

6. Stuffed Animals

7. Ice Cream

8. Naps

9. Out of tune pianos

10. Rutter's Requiem (and other Requiems)

11. The Bible/Conspiracy Theories/Text Analysis

12. Chili's

Notice that neither "math" nor "counting" made the Five Pillars. Also, any Pillars that happen after the first five are "lesser" pillars. It is actually impossible to get through life without the first five of the Pillars. The rest only enhance the living experience. 

1. Firstly, Lord of the Rings. Sam + Ents make a wonderful epic and founder of my personal favorite genre, and what has been my favorite genre since lower school. I am a huge believer in the "Sam's star" philosophy, and always will be. Sam keeps the trilogy going; without him, the Ring would never have been destroyed, and there would have been no hope for Frodo, in more ways than one. Ents are just awesome. Trees that attack people when people hurt trees, the plant equivalent of the Eagles. So. Cool.

2. Paul Tillich: "It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!"" Enough said. 

3. Musicals make things good. I used to be a musical-hater until the day I realized that I actually liked more musicals than I disliked. We had a CD in our house when I was little, a "Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber" cd that I listened to fairly often. Recently, that interest has been revived, especially when I played keyboard for the orchestra that accompanied our high school Les Miserables musical. 

4. U2: Similar to Lord of the Rings in the hopefulness of the lyrics; this is the only band that I've ever really paid attention the lyrics for (with the exception of a couple stray songs from other bands). Gloria is still my number one most played song, followed by "Get on your Boots" at number three ("You don't know how...beautiful...you don't know how beautiful you are!" ). 

5. Lost-- the Ultimate conspiracy theory! I have a soft spot for conspiracy theories (as you can see by Pillar no. 11), and Lost definitely fed my appetite for thinking in circles. The first season was bursting with mysteries and raised questions, so much so that anytime there was a hint of a single answer, I would be jumping up and down on the couch. By the sixth season, there were no more surprises, only patterns and connections (and after all, what is life other than a bunch of patterns?), and the ending was nothing less than perfect. Not everything was answered, but not everything needed an answer. Sometimes, just letting everything be is what makes me the happiest. I was very excited to get the Lost Encyclopedia from my little sister for Christmas, to read about even more of the connections!  (Thank you, sista!)

Now, the lesser pillars are a little bit different. They each have their role in improving your life. Stuffed animals all have personalities and names, and they're important for comforting you on bad days, and encouraging you when you need encouragement. Anyone reading this, go and give your stuffed animals a hug, and tell them thank you for how much they have done for you over the years. Right now. Just let them know how much you care about them.  Ice cream performs a similar function, but you're not supposed to care about ice cream like you care about your stuffed animals. You're just supposed to eat it. 

If life is a pattern, then naps are the knitting needles that make everything come together. You can't get by without naps. I used to be one of those nap-Scrooges that never napped. While it's still fairly rare for me, I have come to accept the importance of naps in everyday life. It may be a learning process. 

Out of tune pianos and Rutter's Requiem are both music essentials. Really, any music-related pillars are related (even musicals), but out-of-tune pianos are pianos that I feel at home with. I feel like we understand each other, and I have an easier time playing out of tune pianos in front of people. I grew up with a brown wooden Baldwin out of tune stand-up piano, and they are still my favorite kinds: wooden uprights. :) Rutter's Requiem is one that I've had for a while on CD, and I've listened to it fairly often, especially the first  movement (Requiem Aeternam). It's very soothing, no matter what kind of mood you're in, and it's a nice piece to de-stress if you have lots of work to do or something. I highly recommend it to everybody. 

Bibles/Conspiracy Theories/Text Analysis are all related for fairly obvious reasons. It's fun to make up conspiracy theories-- everybody should try it sometime. Basically, here's how it works. Pick out some sort of text that is either highly revered, or something that you greatly admire or like, and then find connections that no sane person would make. I'll give you a Biblical example that is one of my favorites. Each canonical gospel writer (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) has an animal that represents them, right? Well, try extending it to include all of the disciples. Levi, for example, is a tax collector; where does he keep all the tax that he collects? Why, in his pouch, of course! So his animal would have been a kangaroo. But, then how would people have known about kangaroos if they lived in the Middle East, since kangaroos didn't live there? Well, there were actually aliens in the Bible who must have moved some kangaroos from Australia to the Middle East while they were on Earth. How do we know that there were aliens? First, read Ezekiel (the following passage is from 1:16):

"This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel."

Clearly, Ezekiel saw a UFO, and aliens coming out of it: (1:5) "and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was that of a man..."

Our final proof is that Reuben's son is named Hezron, which is clearly not a human name. Not only that, but later down the line (Levi's line, but there was probably some intermarriage between the two after a few generations passed), Moses's grandson was named Arphaxad, which is even less human than "Hezron." 

Anyway, so that's how kangaroos got into the Middle East. And that is how to make a conspiracy theory. (I swear to God that this will actually improve your analytical skills. I'm not kidding. It really does.)

Finally, Chili's. Hamburgers. Wings. Chips and Salsa. Ice Cream Brownie Sundaes. Do I even need to say more?