Encanto enchantment

 

20 January 2022

Lamentations 4 is today's reading. I feel for Jeremiah, that he knows it is within God's rights to pillage Israel while also suffering for his people. Same, I understand that the dynamics among people is complex. It is pressure from above, outside and within. We cannot change people, only influence them. And I fully suspend myself from imposing my will on others.

Because the situation is no longer favorable for her and she can't take it anymore, she'll leave. It is sad. And she gave me a notepad with my caricature and my name on it. I told her I feel like I'm ripe grapes, plucked and treaded on. I wish those who tread on me would be pricked by thorns, only, I'm grapes, not a thorn. She said, How could you take it. I thought, "The way I do."

Also, I received my first ever name stamper with my professional license in it yesterday. Should've made me happy. It was an empty gesture. I preferred the old lady greeting me out of the blue. When to another, her yesterday revolved around it, becrying how her years of service was invalidated because she was not given one. Thought I was not a judgmental character, and here I am seeing that as totally petty.

I would be remiss if I don't discuss Encanto. It was how I celebrated 2022. While children were jumping to get taller (which I did until I became 30), I was huddled in bed next to Sam bawling to Encanto, welcoming the year with puffy eyelids and a swollen nose.

For the month, I've been listening to the soundtrack with Surface Pressure on my top list. It's really catchy and boppy techno music to describe the burden of expectations.

Vishie told me that she prefers What Else Can I Do? At first, I was already defending Surface Pressure in my mind. Hearing more of it, I realized she related to it not because she feels herself perfect as Isabel, but because she resonates with the following lines:
It's not symmetrical or perfect
But it's beautiful and it's mine

What could I do if I just grew what I was feelin' in the moment?
(Do you know where you're going? Whoa)
What could I do if I just knew it didn't need to be perfect?
It just needed to be? And they'd let me be?

I wanna feel the shiver of something new
I'm so sick of pretty, I want something true, don't you?

What can you do when you are deeply, madly, truly in the moment?
(Seize the moment, keep goin')
What can you do when you know who you wanna be is imperfect?
But I'll still be okay
Hey, everybody clear the way, woo

As I told Lianne when she asked if I watched Encanto followed by if I watched Brooklyn Nine Nine, I said, "Stephanie Diaz, right?" mixing up the actress' given name and B99 character surname.

Encanto was tempered in a manner that the protagonist excels at being a support figure, making everyone else shine.

My sister told me that Felix Madrigal is hailed as an underrated character, providing stability to a rather nebulous and dangerous Pepa who is a kid-friendly version of Storm.