Yesterday my little
blog turned one!
I might be exaggerating, but I think that calls for a
celebration. So, as you read, imagine I’m spraying you with champagne, the way those pilots do after they win a Formula 1 race.
This could be the
imaginary champagne talking, but I want to thank everybody for reading and
supporting the blog. Your comments make my day and I’m thrilled to find other
people that share my passion for culture.
***
You know, in January
I was reading this article about a New Year’s detox diet
I used to be a big
fan of detox diets. Just like the Cat Woman in that disapointing Batman movie, I would really like to clean the slate: she committed one too many
crimes, I ate one too many ice cream sandwiches.
So, I decided to go on
the New Year’s detox diet. I bought everything: kale, collard greens, apples, bananas, parsley... And that was all for one smoothie.
When I was almost
dying drinking that, it hit me.
This diet takes a
gigantic amount of will power and energy. And what for? Wouldn’t it be much
more rewarding to go to all that trouble to detox my mind? I’m the Culture
Enthusiast, after all. I ought to go on a cultural detox too.
And so I did.
My cultural diet,
just like my regular diet of potato chips and coke, was unhealthy. I knew I had hit rock
bottom when I memorized a Justin Bieber song (show
you off…).
In my defense, I didn’t
memorize it on purpose. It’s just that I listened to it over and over in
stores, at the gym and pretty much everywhere. But still... Justing
Bieber didn’t put a gun to my head and made me watch
reality shows. I was the one
spending hours consuming mind numbing, brain cell killing cultural material.
So, I got back on
track. I picked up the dusty copy of Guy the Maupassant’s short stories. Did a little research on classical music and finally discovered the name of a composer I long loved.
Revisited some of my childhood favorite movies.
In the beginning it
took a lot of effort, but it was worth it. Much more worth it than drinking kale.
Because it's much easier to go back to a healthy diet than it is going back to a healthy cultural diet. I don't want to sound drastic, but once you get
used to a diet of cultural junk, there’s no telling you’ll ever come back.
I’m laughing right
now, but it's dangerous exposing yourself to
certain things inadvertently.
The other day I saw that actress from Harry Potter saying she was watching a lot of reality shows to prepare for a movie.
She said: "I was doing an English course [at Brown University]. So I would go from reading Virginia Woolf to [watching] Kim Kardashian. I kind of loved it, this mix of super-high and super-low culture. I think it was a nice balance."
While I can totally
relate to what's she is saying, I don't think it's a "nice balance", I think it’s risky business. It's not like math, where you can mix a high number with a low number and get an average number.
I see it as Kim Kardarshian pulling you from one end and Virginia Woolf from the other, as if they were participants of a Tug of War game where you are the rope and the prize is your mind.
Since it
takes much less effort to go to Kim’s side, you might find yourself one day spending hours and hours with Kim and never wanting to visit Virginia ever again.
As they say, a mind’s is a terrible thing to waste. Cultivating good
cultural habits involves effort, but it’s what feeds your intelligence and soul.
And that’s why I like writing for this blog. It's when I remember I have to educate myself because no one is
going to that for me. It's an extra motivation to turn off the Tv and open a book. It's an encouragement to think and talk about things that I like and that really, really matter. Unlike my New Year’s detox diet.
Thanks again for bearing with me and here's to another year!