My
life as a mythological detective
Since my first semester at MSU, I
had tried in vain to take this mythology class with professor Sexson. My friend Jon loved professor Sexson
and insisted that I should take this class. After four failed attempts, I finally got into the class
this semester. This time,
registering for the class was so easy that I could not believe it, maybe it was
destiny. Yes, I was meant to be in
this class this semester because I have learned that the past possesses the
present, and my past was what brought me to this class.
Since myth is the precedent behind
every action, I know that there are so many reasons why I have waited all this
time to be able to take this class.
Here is how the realizations of my mythological life begin. As I listened to professor Sexson
lecture during my first day of class, I knew why Jon had insisted I take this
class. Professor’s Sexson words
sound like sweet melodies to the ear and I was astonished and hypnotize by his
charisma. He is a mythological
being, I tought, he is wise in a way I have not seen or heard before. I have met many interesting and
well-educated people in my life, but there is that non-se qua about him, that makes me think, “yeah I love him.”
Our first assignment was to take a
picture hugging a tree. I remember
that particular task because I was late for class and I had to sit in a
different spot that day. As a
result of my tardiness, I had no idea about the nature of the assignment, so I
wrote a note to the person sitting to my right and ask him what was I suppose
to do. He smiled and wrote back “I
will explain after class”. After
class, he introduced himself as Aaron, explained the assignment, and offered to
take the picture. We met for the
picture taking, and he took a terrible picture of me, while I did a great job
with his. Life is not fair, I know,
but I still like him. The purpose
of this assignment was to identify with a tree, to think what life could that
tree have had in the past. Was he
just a tree? Could the tree be a
mythological being? I wanted to
believe that the tree was the reincarnation of Dante Alighieri. Oh, Dante, who with his precious Divine
Comedy change my religious believes.
With this in mind, I hugged my tree. Although my divine tree gave me no feedback, I thought about
the things that he had seen in his lifetime. I would love to hear some of his stories.
After that photo shoot, Aaron and I
became friends. He told me that he
had a dog; I told him that I was allergic to dogs. His response was quite simply “that is a tragedy.” His dog’s name is Annabel which made me
laugh, my mom’s name is Annabel too!
What I never told Aaron is how my mom got her name. My mother, who was born in Ecuador, was
named after the famous poem “Annabel Lee” by Allan Poe. A little history is required to explain
the connection. As the world was
at war with Germany during the Second World War, Ecuador was involved in its
own territorial battle with its neighbor Peru. Seeing that Peru was allied with the German Nazis’, Ecuador
chose to align itself with the Allied Forces, which included the United States. As a result, during this time there was
a lot of North American sentiment in Ecuador, and that is how the poem “Annabel
Lee” became so famous. My Grandmother
loves poetry, she memorized the poem and decided to name my mom Annabel Lee. However, when she went to register the
name, the “Lee” part was not accepted by the authorities as it did not qualify
as a Spanish name. How
mythological is that?
One day I met Aaron’s dog, who’s
full name happens to be Annabel Lee.
When I finally met the canine Annabel Lee and saw her face, I knew there
was something special about her. She
had the sweetest look I had ever seen, her eyes were so human that it was scary.
Every time I looked at her, I
wanted to hug and kiss her. This
was an odd feeling since I am allergic to dogs and for that reason have never
been crazy about them. She made me
feel in a way I had not felt in a long time about a dog, or even a human being. It almost felt maternal instincts,
which had been previously absent, growing within me. From that day on, all I wanted was a dog. The feeling was infections, I had
become dog crazy!!. After a while,
I started to think about my mythology class and how anything is possible. Maybe
Annabel Lee was the reincarnation of a human being, perhaps someone dear to me? There were too many coincidences. How is it that I got into this class so
easily this semester? How is it that I was late for class one day and there was
only one seat left in the whole class and it happened to be next to Aaron? How is that his dog had the same name as my mother? And how is it that this dog inspired
feelings within me that I had never experienced before? My reaction at the beginning was that
Annabel inspired me to have these feelings because the relationship that Aaron
and her share. It was beautiful to
see those two together; Aaron was so sweet and loving to her that maybe my feelings
were just a reaction to their love.
Not long after my first meeting with Annabel Lee, she started getting
sick and in less than one week she passed away. It was very sad. I did not know how to express my sympathy to Aaron. I knew he had lost someone he loved, but
at the same time I felt like I had lost somebody very dear to my heart too. After she died, all I could think about
was Ovid and all the stories that we read and talked about in class. The tales of how humans were turned
into animals or plants. I started thinking about Actaeon, Io, Daphne, Narcissus,
and Eco. Sadly, everything made sense;
I was to be in this class this semester to learn the mythological ways of my daily
life.
It was my destiny to be in this
class this semester to meet Professor Sexson, Annabel Lee, and finally, Frederick
Tuner. If I were to take this
class any other semester, I may have met Frederick, but I would not have had
the opportunity to hear his poetry about the Galapagos Island. I know that even though Frederick’s
poetry is beautiful, I don’t believe that anybody else could have appreciated
it in the way I did. Every word he
recited had a meaning to me; the meaning that a person can only understand when
you know the subject well. I felt
like Delia del Carril when she read Neruda’s poems “los versos del capitan” and understood that her husband was having
an affair with another woman. Frederick’s recital was a ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences
and as professor Sexson says, “it doesn’t get better than this.”
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