El Gringoqueño

I’ve always loved the movie "Joe Vs. The Volcano." It’s always touched me in ways that only a handful of other stories or pieces of art do. I always thought I was the only one. Then I found out through an idle web search that there are a lot of people out there who have dedicated a lot of time and thought into enjoying and studying this movie. Imagine my surprise and delight. Some great stuff.

A great essay

This guy sums up just how I feel about the movie and indeed it’s a pretty good life philosophy for me. Then I read this other one that started me off on my own little wandering path of thought.

Another great essay

As our business has gotten funded and we are moving out our fog of discontent, things are starting to make sense again. Once again, I’ve learned some valuable lessons from Puerto Rican culture. I’ve been noticing that people generally put up with a lot from one another and are slow to break ties over disputes, ill words or broken promises. Perhaps it’s the island culture that no one is very far from one another and getting along is sort of a survival instinct.

Part of the reason most people behave better with strangers than loved ones, is that strangers, others, co-workers, and friends are quicker to throw you away if you screw up. You put yourself on your best behavior directly proportionately to your imperiled value to the other person. In Puerto Rico, office cultures are sometimes what we Americans would call unprofessional… lots of noise, people maybe talking loud. People are quicker to bring their home problems to the office, bring their kids, bring their personal lives into the forefront of their professional lives. I suspect that since Puerto Ricans are slower to throw each other way, in a way it’s like family. You deal with it and try to make it better instead of cutting the guy a pink slip, check and sending him on packing on his merry way.

Viserally, Puerto Ricans are connected to life in a far deeper way than most Americans… work, life… these two aren’t seperate.

Increasingly I’ve seen technology make culture take on a more drastic meaningless existence. Movies are all show and no imagination. Two hours is a very short story if it’s all visual. And breathless wanting kisses of the forties have been replaced by a carefully crafted sculpted silicon breast shot. Shakespeare in Love? Shouldn’t it have been Shakespeare in lust?

The fast pace of the Internet makes ALL the rules able to be rewritten in a matter of months. The WAY of doing things seems to go extinct overnight, with the next new thing growing ever closer and closer. To what are we beholden? Increasingly we grow dissatisfied with religion. We shift from thing to thing looking for some sort of self satisfaction, peace, or wellness. We flit and click and jump from one thing to next hoping that it will fill us. We don’t want to hold too tightly to any one thing for fear it will evaporate in a heartbeat. So we tie down emotionally and fill our lives with eye candy… the illusion of life.

At work we can be replaced without a second thought. Shareholders you know… Downsizing, cutting middle management, move to new facilities, restructuring, not making the cut are all reasons people are tossed aside.

Quoting Joe in the movie Joe vs. the Volcano, "Zombi lights… sucking the juice out of my eyeballs."

It’s difficult now, with all external indications that the US is doing very well. We have lots of jobs, money, and we are busy busy busy. Gotta move, gotta do, gotta be.

I sometimes criticize Puerto Ricans for not caring about doing a good job, being lazy or not being efficient. But Laura shamed me the other day as I was bitching about something she broke or damaged, saying to her, "At least I care about how I treat things."

"Too bad you don’t feel the same way about people," she shot back.

And damn it if she wasn’t right. We Americans are so pointy clicky, efficient, and bottom line oriented that we seem to forget that people are more important than things. It’s easy to answer correctly on a test, but hard in practice. That’s one thing at which Puerto Ricans excel. Things are inconsequential. Sure they love gadgets, cars, and all manner of cool toys, but 99% of them are damaged in some way… including all these new Jaguar’s I’m seeing recently. You work it out, it’ll work out. Está bien… tranquilo.

And so there I will leave this for now. I’m still learning, still growing, still failing, but every once in a while these things just come out of the blue and hit you over the head plain as day. I hope the Latin influences of family, culture, fun, and society can have some great positive influences on the American way of life.

I registered to vote here in Puerto Rico. Laura’s sister, Nellie, kept bugging us (Miray, Laura, and me) until we finally got around to it. Feels good. Now I feel more a participating member of the island. As far as the candidates go, I don’t believe that any make any sense except for the Statehood party, Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP).

Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) which is the commonwealth status party just wants to remain semi-autonomous. No vote in Congress, just the good will of the US. It’s like having no responsibilities and living at home with mom and dad. It’s gonna get old eventually. The only solution is to move out, get a job, and visit during the weekends, and don’t bring home your laundry.

As far as the independence party goes, Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño I don’t know what to say. Keep dreaming maybe? Hehe, get this, the party was founded by a guy named Gilberto Concepción de Gracia [corrected his name and of course the next part is rendered moot ]. It can’t be his real name. He must have changed it because it means "Gilbert Conception of Grace".  What a nut. I wonder what his mother said? Anyway, if Puerto Rico cuts loose I don’t see it staying afloat. Too far out and too dependent on the US’s economy. To become independent would be like moving out from your parents and becoming homeless but having too much pride to ever ask for help or just trying to do it on your own. Doesn’t make sense either.

Really, the only fair choice is for the statehood party. It gives Puerto Rico power as a state and keeps it from falling off the face of the planet. I mean after 500 some years of being a colonial possession, how does it think it could hack it on its own? Commonwealth is just the same old mooching off your parents and eventually it gets old.