CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (S)…

 

There is no end in the difficulties of our time… Yes, punishments continue to invade us: The covid virus is still around, and even worse than a few months ago, every day I learned that somebody I know is sick; wars all over and Ukraine being destroyed; with the climate change the weather is worse in the entire world; the monkeypox disease is starting to be a real danger; the economy is a mess and we have more and more people starving; the cities are terribly dangerous with shootings every day.... and despite that incredible painful situation, too many people continue to behave like the world belongs to them and the rules to guide the society should be their rules. HOW STRANGE IS THAT?

It is time to read again Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky? I remember his book with passion, I went back to it and found quotes I believe are adequate for our times…Here are some:

 

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”                                                                                                                                                  “Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!”                                     “I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity.”                                                                                                                “People with new ideas, people with the faintest capacity for saying something new, are extremely few in number, extraordinarily so, in fact.”                                                                                                                         “It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.”
“Intelligence alone is not nearly enough when it comes to acting wisely.”
“The whole question here is: am I a monster, or a victim myself?”

Are we punished for OUR CRIME(S)?

Every day I am astonished and very often in shock hearing about the new ways of functioning of our society…. I mentioned many times in this blog the incredible changes of our world and how difficult it is for all of us to adapt to it…

But nothing has changed and even worse it is prevalent… I hear all the times about students complaining to the dean about their teachers because they are not supported enough, and their ARTISTRY is not recognized and actually is defeated… Or about other ARTISTS beginners not understanding why they are not cast in big companies like the Metropolitan Opera when they have such a great talent…But it is not only in the Artistic world, it is in every aspect of life and society, too many people really do not know their jobs and do not try to learn more, they prefer to be on Instagram or…or…and are convinced they KNOW AND DESERVE MORE….

 

PUNISHMENTS???

…. I READ RECENTLY THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE

“The founder of Dubai Sheikh Rashid was asked in an interview about the future of his country, and he replied: My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I ride a Mercedes, my son will ride a land rover, my grandson will ride a land rover, but my great grandson will have to ride a camel again.

When asked why, his response was hard times create strong men, strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, and weak men create difficult times, many will not understand it but we need to create warriors, not parasites, add to the historical reality that all great empires, the Persians, the Trojans, the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians and later the British all rose and perish within 240 years. They were not conquered by external enemies, they were rotten and destroyed from within. America has reached that 240 years mark and it is starting to become visible and accelerating. We are past the Mercedes and Land rover years, the camels are now on the horizon, the greatest generation consisted of 18 years old kids that stormed the beaches of Normandy and now two generations later some kids, some 18 years old want to hide in a safe room when words hurt their feelings, they want free stuff from the government because they think they are entitled to it. The camels are on the horizon for sure…”                                                

History has a funny way of repeating itself.

Everything is owed to everybody, everybody deserves everything, everybody should have everything…

CRIMES???     We are punished… WHY????                                                                                                                                                       Are we only functioning guided and directed by the Moi buried in our subconscious? And ignoring all the rules and all the lessons of previous generations? The MOI? What is it really?

Example of the MOI in the subconscious…In French theater, to attract public attention before a rising curtain, knocks are hit on the floor by a wooden pole on the backstage and then three loud knocks just before the start of a performance. Since lights were candles that was the way to tell the audience that the performance was starting... It was a tradition and still happen in some theaters today.                                                                                                               Puccini in LA BOHEME, at the beginning of Musetta Aria illustrates this tradition of LES TROIS COUPS (THE THREE KNOCKS) … Did he do it on purpose as a wink to the French theater tradition and to show that Musetta will act a role in a theater scene?? Or had he acquired this knowledge, digested it and it came out without even thinking of it? Did his subconscious work for him? Did the hidden MOI function for this?                                                                                                                                    PROBABLY YES.                                                                                                                                                                                  

The surrealists developed this idea with what they called “ECRITURE AUTOMATIQUE”                                                                                                          “Automatic writing deflects the unconscious thought. It is the imprudence of vocabulary in order to finally release the unconscious expression through writing”

Can we function obeying only our desires, our beliefs, and our culture? Unfortunately, our culture now is fake and false and based on NOTHING…

I think sometimes about the past, even a relatively recent past… Yes, it was possible then to continue to be , to continue to think, to continue to feel, to continue to give to others…I remember 11 years ago a singer sent me the following email about her opening as Mimi in a production:

Dear Bernard,                                                                                                                                          As promised, I send you an email. It was a wonderful evening, but I still cannot sleep because I burned myself emotionally.                                         This role is very special for me and takes enormous power from my soul. I cannot just "play" it, I have to live it on stage as my own life. And this is sometimes goes so far and deep that it is very hard to come back. Thank you for wonderful performance I am allowed to play here. I am so grateful that Mimi is Mimi here and she is alive, real girl, not just a figure or personage from the book or opera.                                                                                       And when I hear orchestra, playing so strong and somehow pitiless I feel like the music tells me how small and helpless we are in confront of destiny. the music is like a natural disaster, an immense power which tell us our future...

Death and love together... what a mixture!

So I hope to find myself again for Friday, I need to be in "Sola soletta" mood at least in the act one;))

Thank you for your attention, you promised me to answer...!                                                                                                                                                                      Good night and have a nice dream!

Yours,

………..

AND I ANSWER HER:

“This is the only good reason to be in theater, to live again and again incredible strong moments, to purge our soul, our body, our mind, our fears of great and deeply buried emotions.

I love rehearsals because for me that is the moment to achieve all this thru my actors... Yes, it takes time to become again ourselves, but we never completely do, because ourselves in every experience change, have an evolution... It is frightening sometimes to know that we will wake up different, how can we deal with the routine of the day, the demands of the ones who believe we are the same person that the day before?

Life goes so fast, so many experiences, so many great moments, so many pains and joys, so many wonderful encounters... And for some people, so many questions about the meaning of What we do...

I love the theater because it is almost the only time where we can be ourselves with no shame, no barriers, no calculation no selfish intentions.                                                                                                                                 You will find yourself for Friday and you will be again the wonderful human Mimi you are because You are a wonderful person ... Each character you will perform will be richer and richer because you will carry with you forever what Mimi is giving you.                                                                                                      

Death and love together!!! Is there anything else?

I send you thru your sleep all the strength possible

Bernard”

Unfortunately it seems that these days are gone .                                                   Yes, I sincerely hope that we could find ways to go back to the times when we were  searching for our soul and our strength and have again the desire to give back to people around us what they really need, and then Crime and Punishment will become only a book, the masterpiece of Dostoevsky and not a possible life.