Take a Deep Breath

    Just watching such magnificently and terrifyingly steep, snowcapped peaks made me shiver. How incredible, I thought, is nature? From shots of a solar eclipse to a monkey blissfully meditating in hot springs, Baraka made the viewer think deeper than they do in everyday life and stop to think; what is this wonderful planet we ALL call home? Without any dialogue at all, Baraka leaves the viewer to his or her own thoughts about how interconnected every living thing on this earth is. This film hit me in a unique way because I am fortunate enough to be an avid traveler. I am in love with experiencing new cultures and taking in new and gorgeous sights. Therefore, while watching the film I was able to recognize some of the footage, and overall I felt as if I had a deeper connection to the film. Watching the whirling dervishes brought me back to Turkey, when I was watching these men swirl around in their flowing white skirts and later drinking the most amazing, fresh, hot apple cider. The scenes shot in India resurfaced memories of watching herds of cattle roam freely in streets, eating nan bread and grinning at the free monkeys at Hanuman's temple. All these memories reminded me how happy and calm being in these wonderful places were, and not being in my own, ordinary home. A key concept I interpreted from this relaxing, exciting, and intense film is to slow down every once in a while and appreciate my life. No matter how busy my everyday life is, no matter how much is flying around my brain at one time, I need to remind myself that a calm, meditative state will forever and always be more powerful than a stressed, frantic one.

     Last semester, we focused on how and why world literature was important to society, and why the study of world literature was important in general. To summarize a complex semester's worth of reading, analyzing, and writing, world literature exposes events and cultures that are unfamiliar to some people. It helps one better understand how the world is connected by explaining their unknown. Baraka does the same service. Like Mary Ann Brussat says, by showing footage of tribes from all over the world performing their rituals, or by capturing the stare of a prostitute on a street, this film delivers the message that everybody/everything is connected in some way. We all breathe the same air, we all live life on earth. "Baraka" is a Sufi word meaning "blessing". Brussat explains that we are "saddened" by the scenes of traffic in New York, however that is where I disagree. Of course, the Big Apple is quite different from a temple in Tibet, but I believe that blessings come in all different kinds of forms; you just have to know how to look at it. For me, experiencing a Tibetan life would be a blessing, as it would teach the definition of peacefulness. But on the other hand, experiencing a New Yorker's life would be another blessing all on it's own, as I see an unknown city as a whole new book just waiting to be cracked open.