From Today On, Star Wars is a Cute Topic For Me.

Today, I had a cute day. Hanging out with my nephews is the cutest time of my life, like cute, extra cute, rainbows, and chocolate mountains, toy cars and heartily laughs. They bring out the best version of me, and they even manage to stop my swearing, which I can't even hide in front of my mother.
I try not to impose any of my hobbies on them but rather encourage them to pursue their interest - I'm becoming a big man with some understanding on children. If they want to watch Pixar's Cars or repeat to me the many brands and models of their collection cars (they're rather mechanically oriented, you see?) I manage to fake good ten minutes of interest, and then I suggest switchin to something that is more of my liking: make them fly on the air, pushing their rideable toy car or drawing. I love drawing, and I'm becoming more of the story-telling uncle to my own surprise.
You can imagine my amazement when my 9 year old nephew sat with me and asked me to play Angry Birds Star Wars. My nephews (the three of them gamers, proudly) have always resourced to me whenever they´re stuck on a level or just showed me how good they do. That's generation X's supremacy still: "You know, kids, we still played tag on the streets with packs of friends and managed to conquer the videogames for the first time. Videogames are our thing, and you'll never be better than us." So we sat down and played, because those 3 stars on the rating weren't going to unlock themselves.
The conversation swiftly changes from the mechanics of the videogame to the content of it. I, an expert in the first Angry Birds but a  newbie in the Star Wars themed version, make a casual observation. I tell little Danny "Cool! This stage is Tatoiune, where Anakin is from". "Who's Anaking?" He asked. "Oh, but he's who started it all. He's not in the game, though. Luke is. And this yellow bird right here with the gun, that's Han Solo, the driver of the Milennial Falcon, the ship you see in the cutscenes" I find hard to control my geek side at this point, and my nephew doesn't seem to be bothered by my "I act like I never lost my virginity" nerd state, so I carry on. "Don't you know who this robot is?" and I point RD-D2 in the gallery. He went there because he wanted me to explain the list of characters. "No. He's an egg-robot" he replies. "Well, he's an egg robot here because all in this game needs to fit with Angry Birds, but in real life, (yes, I said "in real life) he's a robot that helps the characters a lot". My nephew is a bright kid for this kind of things. He knows how to deal with grown ups and our big words. "This guy makes a funny sound" and he presses the Chewbacca icon on the screen. "In the movie version, he's not an egg. He's tall and full of fur, and he is Han Solo's best buddy." At the mention of Han Solo, Danny points the yellow bird and makes it sound with a click of the mouse. I nod with satisfaction. "And this..." and I point Darth Vader with my finger. "Oh, you don't need to tell me who he is. I know. He's the bad guy". "He's the bad guy" I concur, and before I realized the heart to heart I just had with my nephew over Star Wars, he starts clicking the green pig's different icons in the gallery very fast and he tells me "I call this the piggie rap". I can't help start clicking other icons and see how many raps we can create with the characters. The game turns into a completely different thing, and we start mixing sounds and making music. That part was extra fun too.
So, there will come the day when I see with horror how the Death Star destroy's Alderaan before Prince Leia's eyes, and I will feel deeply disgusted by the sole existence of Jabba the Hut. Not today, though. Today Star Wars is the cutest thing.

On How We Try To Change The World

This week shall be forgotten soon, and most will never recall what they felt. We've seen Venezuelans rebeling against their government, and Kiev up in flames one more time. I wish I could say I've been moved by major events, but I have a weak spot for little stories that happen in the margins of what I should be supposed to pay attention to. I want to document very briefly what I think happened and deserved to be remembered forever: what made my very humanity tremble.

The Sochi Winter Olympics has been particularly infamous games because the spirit of human unity, deeply engrained in the philosophy of the games, has been tainted by the homophobic agenda of the Russian government, most disgraceful host. Putin has firstly condemned homosexuality and often link it with child molesting and negative values. He has encouraged hate, fueled ignorance, and completely neglected the rights of the Russian queer community. On top of the bullying against his own people, he threatened the gay Olympians with a message that easily translates into "you're welcome in our country, but your sexuality is none". Act straight or face the consequences, such a welcoming message.

This week, a video of the singers/activists of Pussy Riot in Sochi went viral. These courageous women start a demonstration in a public square in Sochi, and face violence and public humiliation the moment they attempt to start singing (something among the lines of "Putin sucks" or "gay is ok" would be my guess). The moment they sing a couple of lines -not even verses- Russian officers rain on them with lashes and push them so that they hit the ground really hard.

I do not enjoy seeing them suffering or being beaten up. My heart sinks a little when I think of the horrors they've been through for sending a message of equality and standing against their government's bigotry. The clip makes me shiver, yeah, but it also fills me with admiration. There was a time when people commented that the members of Pussy Riot were just "rioting" for the sake of it and using the historical momentum for achieving fame. While I don't see how their music has gotten any better, their message carries power now. Their "Pussy Riot" expands. After some time of conviction and violence that I do not picture myself standing, they keep on doing their thing. Can you hear them scream in the video when they're being hit? Sure, their bodies feel just like the first day the world turned against them, but their spirit neither bends nor breaks, and for that they have all my admiration. They could have easily thought they had done their share for human rights when they were released from prison and got their minutes of fame on a late night American show. Just that they did not. Completely unaffected by the praise of the Western World, they go back to their land where the real fight is, and this week they showed us it is not about the fame or the reputation of being rebels; for them, it is pretty much about principles. I cannot help but think that we all deserve to share one of their bruises. This week, I was reminded that there's no such a thing as standing on the side and not getting involved without being an accomplice. 

A certain Spanish short animation stole the spotlight as well. I lost the count of my contacts on Facebook that shared it, claimed cry watching it, and used the emotional appeal of the clip to boast their humanity. I do not many were touched, but how to tell the legit apart from the fakers? The short animation by La Fiesta tells the story of an orphan kid with almost complete paralysis and how a little girl with no disabilities tries to make the world of games inclusive for him. There are so many lessons to learn in just ten minutes. Since I have done community service with population with both mental and physical disabilities (or both), I was saying "yes, yes, that's how you do it" every time María (the little girl) adjusted a game for the little boy just to provoke a glimpse of a smile in him. Inclusion, not exclusion, makes sense. As the story takes a more or less anticipated predictable conflict, the clip allows us to purge our pain. We cry, we share the video. For many, that's the end of the story. Not for me. I want to remember this animation touched me this week.

I don't know much about the ancient Greek, but I did learn in school that Greeks used the theater to vent their feelings. They would use the tragedy to purge their everyday's affliction suffering vicariously the demise and perils of a beloved mythical character. My only concern with a video that causes such an emotional reaction is that it becomes yet another beautifully crafted message that ends up labeled as entertainment. I believe the makers want the viewers to cry a little, but they want the people they touched with this video to play it in the schools for their students, parents to show it to their children (instead of a full episode of Ben 10, I hope,) churches talking about it on Sunday School, and us at least making a donation to the closest charity that struggles to get funding to provide people with special needs with a condition most of us take for granted: dignity.

My job exposes me to feelings every day. Sometimes I'm cold and calculating, and I come home after yet another shift. Some other times, and it is becoming more frequent, I come home truly touched by the passion of my volunteers and by the time I spend with the different population in need they help. I love what they are doing, and I will never stop believing in volunteering: this week I want to leave a manifesto of the great admiration I feel for selfless people. I do not get a spotlight, but I've been really involved in social causes this week. My position's a little different because I do not live the day by day of volunteering full time in a project, but man, do I enjoy visiting them! I only get people, train them a little, and encourage them to keep on making contributions that might seem insignificant for the world but that really have an impact on individual's lives. I go for an hour to a children's shelter and help a little girl get the numbers from 50 to 99 right while my volunteer teaches shapes and colors to prekindergarteners. I only shake the hand of many homeless while my volunteers clean a table for them and serve them with a wide smile on their faces. I only send emails, request for admissions into a project, make some calls, hold some meetings while the volunteers are out there, waking up at 1 a.m. and patrolling a beach in the dark to save turtle nests from poachers, or helping elderly who might be dead by the sunrise. This week, more than never, I feel truly inspired and challenged by all those people who, in spite of wanting to do something with their lives, keep on trying to do something to change the world as a whole. And sure the world is burning in some parts and my heart feels for it, but in some other places the world is being healed. 

Pussy Riot, La Fiesta, and volunteers: take a bow.