10 years ago
I am reading Cien Años de Soledad for the second time. The first time I read it was exactly 10 years ago when I was a senior in High School. I had to write a thesis and literary analysis on the book in order to graduate (the high school I attended was demanding and H-A-R-D-C-O-R-E…looking back, it may have been as challenging as graduate school!). It is quite the memory trip to read this book again. I liked it a lot then, but I’m enjoying it a lot more this time around. It is easier to relate to it. It is funny how one’s life perspective changes with time. The novel does not follow a continuous linear format, but a spiral -more realistic- cyclic timeline. One of the characters says, “Time passes, but not that much.” It is true. We may be moving forward, but it also feels like we are moving in circles. I will read this book again in 10 years.
Cien Años de Soledad is beautiful Latin American magical realism. As two of the characters are having sex for the very first time, the whole room starts smelling like charcoal and mud in a beautiful metaphor. In High School, my friend was so worried of losing her virginity because she thought her room would start smelling like burnt charcoal and her parents would find out because of the smell.
September 11th, too, was 10 years ago. Then, I did not have the capacity to grasp the magnitude of what had occurred. I don’t think I even understood the concept of terrorism. As a 17 year old in a Panamanian private Catholic School, the attacks seemed far away and foreign yet so scary. I moved to the US the following January 2002 in the midst of a mistrusting and nationalist high-terror-alert social climate. Knoxville, TN did its best to welcome me into the country (Southern hospitality at its best), but the attacks had already set the tone for a decade of challenges, adversity, and political dysfunction. I burnt incense with the intention of sending healing energies to NYC and did a healing meditation and prayer in remembrance of everyone who was affected by the attacks. It was not much, but I felt a moral/spiritual duty to do something in memory of the 10th anniversary of September 11th. I can’t believe it was 10 years ago already. Time passes, but not that much.
I have started the apprenticeship with G, and I’m fully committed to my Ashtanga yoga practice these days. Since this practice is purely experiential, I don’t feel there is much I can write about it at the moment. Except to say that I’m loving the journey.
The season is changing, and the weather is nice. Believe it or not, I’m actually ready for the fall.
Life is good.
I just wish I had more money in the bank LOL.
Peace,
“El amor es una peste”. -José Arcadio Buendía, Cien Años de Soledad
Juan Carlos Galán 
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