Kegan Jenkins

Contemplation and Action

Alexander Weinstein

5 November 2015

Praise & Grief

1. I really liked how Prechtel compared praise and grief right off the bat. In our culture we tend

to differentiate between them or think they are the opposites of each other. However, Prechtel

says that they are very much the same. Praise comes from when you praise the things you have

and grief is praise for the things you’ve lost. I’ve never thought of it like that before, but I can’t

help but think that is so true. Our culture sees crying or grief as almost shameful in some ways,

but we miss the beauty in it. I think it very beautiful to cry for someone because that means you

cared or loved. What other higher praise could you give a person?

2. Prechtel mentions almost in passing how there is a place for everyone in Mayan culture. He

uses gender as an example, saying no matter man, woman, or anything in between there is no

room for judgement, but there is a place for everyone. That is such a beautiful concept that

people in this country have a hard time embracing for some reason. We push out and ridicule

those that are different than us. I would love to live in a place that just accepted a person no

matter what. It’s seems like such a ‘progressive’ view, but it is clearly not if these people have

been practicing it in Mayan cultures for lifetimes.

3. I loved how Prechtel said that in the Mayan culture there is no word for rational or irrational.

So in there culture it is impossible to be one of those things, and only possible to just be. This

this country we fear expressing ourselves a lot of the time because we think we’ll come off as

‘crazy’ or irrational. However, in their culture when someone is acting what we would label

‘irrational’ that just means they need someone to listen to them. So these people can just feel and

express how they feel and everyone will come and listen and help. We scoff at people who can’t

control their emotions like it’s some sort of weakness, but I think we need to start taking the

Mayan thinking more to heart because there is nothing wrong with having emotions. It’s a

fundamental part of what makes us humans.

4. I thought it was also very interesting when Prechtel described those in his culture who what

American’s would consider and ‘alcoholic’. In the Mayan culture they call these people tear

listeners or say that they are ‘lost in liquid’. American’s tend to think that the alcohol is what the

problem is or that the individual is just weak. However, Mayan’s see these people as just having

troubling dealing with some sadness in their life so they as a community have a responsibility to

pull that person from the water, as they say. I think it would be amazing if instead of just writing

people off with alcohol or drug abuse problems, we actually tried to help them together.

5. The idea of professional weepers was really unique and intriguing to me. The idea that they

pay men and women who are extra sensitive to life to come help them cry if something tragic

happens. I can’t help but think I would be pretty good at this job if it existed in our country. I

can empathize with an animated character in a movie so much it makes me cry, so I think I

would have a pretty easy time empathizing with an actual human. I think our country could

greatly benefit from this profession. I know so many people who never cry or almost refuse to

cry and nothing good can ever come from suppressing your emotions. Maybe it would help fight

the stigma against crying in this country.

6. Prechtel made a beautiful metaphor about life that really stuck with me. He said that the

spirits and humans are both feeding a third thing, and that thing is life. Life is a separate being

that is lived beyond us and before us with only a little bit of our beautiful scent left in the air as

proof we were here. I love that imagery. That we are breathing in air rich with all those lives

before us and our legacy will add to that. They said a similar thing in the documentary we

watched about the Argon on our planet being the exact same as Einstein or Jesus breathed in their

day. That is such a cool concept that really makes you feel connected to humanity, that you are

not one, but many. You parts of all the people that were and you will be part of all the people

still to come.

7. I enjoyed Prechtel notion of why would you medicate expression. A lot of times in our

culture we treat being sad as an illness so we just gives pills to those people. However, everyone

gets sad or down or depressed at some point in their lives, it’s just part of being a human. So

instead of just doping them up we should listen to them and try to help them work through their

grief. When you’re down, let yourself be down just like you would if you were happy. We have

all had that experience of letting ourselves crying and feeling renewed and restored afterward.

There must be a reason for that! It really must be healthy to let our minds be and sad and to let

ourselves fully express that. He says in Mayan culture after a large feast, everyone weeps as

dessert. I think that’s such an interesting perspective. To see crying as no different than

laughing, because it many ways it is no different.

8. I also think Prechtel is on to something when we spoke of how we like to repress our

emotions. That if we don’t let it out the sadness will become a stone in us and become and

illness. He reasons that this is why a lot of veterans have PTSD or kill themselves because their

is no time to grieve for death during war so the sadness becomes petrified inside them. Or when

people move into the city from one of the Mayan cultures and so they don’t express themselves

like they used to, because we don’t do that in our culture. So the children find violence, or gangs

to express themselves because they have no other way. Even though he seems like he is over-

simplifying some complicated things, I still think he is on the right track. We never feel good

when we are stifling how we really feel. We even say that something is a ‘weight off of our

shoulder’ when we finally get to be open about something. Isn’t that proof that holding things

inside is weighing us down?

9. One of the beautiful things I think Prechtel talked about was how the Mayans view heaven.

To them it is not a place you go or really a place at all. It is just simply being surrounded by

those you love, living well and passionately. I think we’ve all had those experiences where we

have looked around us and felt so surrounded by love and happiness that is was almost heaven. I

think we strive for the future as Americans, we’re always working toward something. We never

take the time to appreciate the beauty of the moment we are in. To them, just being alive is

heaven. I think if more of us adopted that perspective we’d live much happier, fulfilling lives

focused on what was really important.

10. The thing I think Prechtel made the main point throughout his speech was the importance of

grief in our life. He says if we don’t miss something, then it’s like we never had it. So if we

don’t mourn and grieve for things and people we lose, then it was as if they were never there.

That really hits home for me, because if you no one cries after you die, then what was your life

for? If we don’t care about each other enough to express ourselves, then life becomes nothing.

Our biggest fear in life can be loneliness, yet we still push people away. We still focus on the

individual, like we are separate. However, it is clear in so many ways we are connected. We feel

compassion, empathy, and love naturally. Why should we suppress something that is part of our

nature? Especially when it will only bring good. Grief is your gift to the dead, so don’t be afraid

to give it.