One of my favorite speakers was a woman who was supposed to talk to us about art. She began talking about local painters and then went into traditional weaving. She showed us some traditional clothes and began to explain the meaning behind the patterns.
The up and down lines she is pointing at in the photo represent the double headed snake which has many significant meanings to the Mayan culture. She explained that the up and down represented high points and low points in one's life. When someone very close to you dies you are at the bottom and you grieve for the loss. After so many days of grieving a person says will ask themselves where they want to be emotionally and being to climb up the latter.
Being an American I assumed being at the top all the time would be the ultimate achievement but I was wrong. We are always moving up and down the latter depending on where we are in our lives. Unlike the US way of thinking being happy all the time is the best thing in the world, the important part to them is maintaining balance. When you are at the top you are reminded that things can always get worse, which makes you grateful for what you do have. When you are at the bottom there is the assurance that things will certainly get better.
This woman seemed to be very enlightened. At one point she said "The wisdom of the universe is very large". This saying has definitely stuck with me because it's so true. Often times we find ourselves wondering how we got to a certain point or into a certain situation but if we remind ourselves that there are larger things out there our problems seem much smaller.
She respected that we celebrated different ideas and came from a completely different way of life. It's so interesting to learn about different ways of thinking and how people see the world. Meeting with this woman has only reinforced how bad I want to study philosophy.
Here is some of the artwork they had displayed.
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