Sunday, February 17, 2013
pura vida
Photographs have the power to resurge
memories. They may paint vivid pictures
of places and whether good or bad, one’s mind may become engulfed with these images. Sometimes our eyes omit the photo were
looking at itself. Instead, our minds
are flooded by desired or undesired reminiscences during our lives the time the
photo was captured. No matter how hard we
try, we can’t get rid of our thoughts and our selfless examinations.
I take very few photographs, either
on my cell phone or film camera, sometimes the cheap tourist over-the-counter
ones. I try to capture those certain
moments of bliss of the environment or whoever is in my surroundings. Usually I am trying to soak up everything in
that setting like a sponge.
It was three o’ clock in the morning
and I was on my way home from Costa Rica on a red-eye flight. The bottom half of my body was being crept on
by the frigid, icy air seeping through the emergency escape route. Suddenly, I shook violently with the chills
and was wide awake. I leaned over and
grabbed my snoring friend’s camera out of his backpack beneath the seat. Scrolling through photos of wildlife, waves,
and unique cultural images, I came across one photo that had made me pause for
quite some time and had forced several emotions into my mind.
Being on the plane returning home, I
had mixed emotions about this place I was going to be in less than five hours,
I called, “home”, and when I stumbled across this photo, my thoughts went
wild. The photo is one of those;
“awkward selfies” teenie boppers tend to take.
In the left foreground of the photograph, is my friend Adam’s face. Adam, the good looking twenty – nine year old
surfer, stoner, free spirited bearded hippy dude is staring directly into the
camera, his piercing turquoise eyes wide.
He looks grungy with his greasy dirty brown hair flowing down to his
beard and his mustache highlighting the photo.
His cheek bone posture shows shock and disbelief. To the far top right of the photo is me,
nineteen years old, standing barefoot with no shirt in black and white
trunks. My left arm is raised near my
head and my hand is throwing a, “shaka”, a gesture of aloha spirit. Below us are the moist, pure black sands of
Costa Rica; while behind us lies dense, green rainforest. Peeking through the forest are small huts a
short distance further scattered amongst the thick brush and palm. My mouth is in the midst of becoming a full
smile, my eyebrows are raised and I’m looking into the camera with a look that
shows astonishment.
When this photo was taken, I had been
travelling through Costa Rica in the search for waves. We had definitely found epic surf, as the in
the photograph shows our gleaming faces after just seeing a perfect set of
waves roll in. However after this trip,
I had found something much more valuable and learned things about life I will
always cherish. Searching for waves
meant long hours of exploring and conversations of whereabouts using our
terrible broken Spanish. We passed
through beautiful jungles and areas of farm land usually seeing very few
housing in between. In most areas,
shelter was built using large shambled wooden walls and a long junky piece of
sheet metal would hang over the edge of the roofs. Housing would be about fifty square feet and
to the right most homes would have some sort of chicken pens. Old Costa Ricans were sitting peacefully on
the porch fiddling with something-possibly sewing, young, filthy, shoeless
children were playing with stray dogs in the dirt road, and middle aged
parental figures were either partaking in woodwork or tending to their
cattle. Hours went by as we ventured
south and as we passed these natives simply living off the land, I noticed the
same thing over and over. The people were all smiling. Every single
person seemed so happy. We had stopped
to eat at one place, where a small brown man had been roasting chickens and
juicy slabs of pork on the side of the road had waved us down. The patio of their beat down little wooden
home is where we sat, and a young girl with the hugest smile had given us forks
and knives (we figured she was our server).
They were all smiles and laughs as we sat there talking to them with the
little Spanish we knew. The kind mother
had came out of the kitchen and had brought us plates of rice and bowls of
spicy red and yellow peppers. Shortly
after she brought us our meat, then said something in Spanish we had not known,
smiled and left back into her home. Each
person’s smile here radiated through my whole body as I could feel there
happiness. With joy, we ate on this
patio, the dusty dirt roads being rumbled around by children, and the sights of
cheerful people living so simply.
This photo was captured shortly after
this meal. I had been utterly shocked by
the simplicity of life here and inspired by such beautiful personalities. The
simplicity of the family’s duties which had seemed to suffice complete
happiness was touching. These local
inhabitants seemed to have so little, but having each other seemed to be the
only thing that mattered.
At that moment, staring at the
photograph, less than five hours from home, I had remembered the condition of
my family at home. My parents had been
working long, rough hours and their relationship seemed to be fiddling
away. Each night, when they’d return
home, there were very few words exchanged, and usually it consisted of topics
like money, bills and my troubled younger brothers upcoming court dates. As a family, we hadn’t had a sit down dinner
in… well I couldn’t even remember. When
I tried talking to my mother or father, they both seemed so flustered all of
the time, constantly thinking about work and money. Worries and stresses dominated conversations
in the house, nobody was happy. I
thought to myself, “How come the Costa Ricans were so happy?”, “Why can’t my
family see that having each other is what’s important” and most importantly, I
thought to myself, “What truly brings happiness?”
It’s important for us to know what
makes us happy. I wonder how many people
take the time and stop to contemplate the simple things that can be a part of
their everyday lives. I learned in Costa
Rica that happiness is truly within us.
In the United States, we see people filling their lives up with lots of
stuff and working long dedicated hours to earn massive salaries, however, most
people are still unhappy. The simplicity
of family, friends, surfing and food on the table is what accounted for
happiness in Costa Rica. Back home, in
my family’s eyes, this was not good enough.
Although we were all in good health, living together in a beautiful
home, happiness was not expressed at a level comparable to some of those
underprivileged Costa Ricans.
I cherish what I have learned in
Costa Rica. When I came back to the
states, I realized how much more children have here, all the materials and
technology at their side, and how hard adults strive to gain social
status. Yet, I notice majority of these
people are not happy. Is it the way we
grew up in a society that values and promotes materialistic items? Our goal in life is to be as rich as we can
so we can buy all sorts of cool stuff.
But in the end, is that truly what we want? I believe happiness is more than the
sensational things such as fancy cars, houses, or the latest iPhone. These things can only bring temporary
happiness. Once there gone, once
everything is gone, what are the things that will make us happy? I believe having solid relationships with
friends and whoever we call family will bring happiness. Looking back to Costa Rica, the way children
are raised by helping family and working for the bare minimum of money and food
was all they needed to be happy. So are
we humans brainwashed into thinking happiness means money, countless toys and
materials? Sadly, I think so. Therefore, I believe that it is important for
us to enjoy life, be the best possible people we can be and live our lives as
gratifying as possible.
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