By Prof. Tom Talledo
First of three parts
Tales of Mirrors: Those Lies That Convey Truth
I am more fascinated with the telling of fantastic tales; I am enamored with tales that fired imaginations rather than of clinical and cold expositions and conclusions. Playing long the role of a facilitator in the heavy traffic of outrageous ideas, out-of-place opinions, and naughty stupidities inside the classroom for almost four decades in the University, I observed that what grip the attention of learners are fascinating tales or are extraordinary stories. I have not fully grasped the reason why but I suspect this attentiveness is an aspect of our human penchant in the collective psyche of our ancestors who long ago gathered around the warmth of fire to listen to tales. Luckily, we inherited such attentiveness.
In my experience as one who handled General Education (GE) subjects, the teaching and learning moments commence at the beginning of an unexpected story, that is, when teachers and learners are surprised and found joy in rapt attention. What is GE after all if not an adventure of imagination into unfamiliar space and time sans the agonizing burden of the “logy” (or the focus object of study) ? I found the nature of our GE courses in the University as more idiographic than nomothetic, not that scientific but more of poetics, less absolutely stated but more intuitively hinted.
Indulge me now with your patience while I try to unpack the nature of our GE courses as I share The Three Tales of Mirrors in this Lecture. These tales serve as sort of a carrying vessel that I prepared for us to cross the treacherous river of meaningmaking and stock-taking. These stories are our metaphorical ferry of Kharon [KAREuhn], the boatman who brings woeful souls to their deserved location.
‘The Broken Mirror’ from the Snow Queen Tales collected by Hans Christian Andersen
Once upon a time there was a troll, the evilest troll of them all; he was called the devil. One day he was particularly pleased with himself, for he had invented a mirror which has strange power of being able to make anything good or beautiful that it reflected appear horrid; and all that was evil and worthless seem attractive and worthwhile. The most beautiful landscape looked like spinach; and the kindest and most honorable people looked repulsive or ridiculous.
“It’s a very amusing mirror,” said the devil. But the most amusing part of it all was if a good or a kind thought passed through anyone’s mind the most horrible grin would appear on the face of the mirror. It was so entertaining that the devil himself laughed out loud. All the little trolls who went to the troll school, where the devil was head-master, said that a miracle had taken place. Now for the first time one could see what humanity and the world really looked like —
At last, they decided to fly up to heaven to poke fun of the angels and God Himself. All together they carried the mirror, and flew up higher and higher. The nearer they came to heaven, the harder the mirror laughed, so that the trolls could hardly hold onto it; still, they flew higher and higher: upward toward God and the angels, then the mirror shook so violently from laughter that they lost their grasp; it fell and broke into hundreds of millions of billions and some odd pieces.
Some of the splinters were as tiny as grains of sand and just as light, so that they were spread by the winds all over the world. When a sliver like that entered someone’s eye it stayed there; and the person, forever after, would see the world distorted, and only be able to see the faults, and not the virtues, of everyone around her, since even the tiniest fragment contained all the evil qualities of the whole mirror. If a splinter enters someone’s heart — oh, that was the most terrible of all — that heart would turn to ice!
I am amazed of this story from Andersen’s Russian religious tales since it alerts me of the strong inclination to consider knowledge earned in the University as some sort of capital investment with expected fat returns in the future. I also came to observe that learners and teachers seem obsessed with accumulation and preparation for some safe future career thus sidelined the surprising joy of living precariously, nay, dangerously. Why, had we not heard the saying that “the secret of greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously” by Friedrich Nietzche ? Aversion to risks, fear of failures, avoiding the road less traveled is the loudest whisper we heard. It was and is the hidden module before, during and after pandemic. Not only the loudest whisper but the pernicious fragments of that broken mirror lodged in the eyes of the many including myself. Thus, appearances were inverted as in camera obscura and had us perceiving the good or beautiful as horrid or terrible. Now in our current academic culture, excellence is equated with collected certificates of recognition and honor is equated with capturing the top rank, while the unhurried and quiet contemplation is considered as failure of indolence.
‘The Mirror of Erised’ from Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling in Shawn E. Klein’s ‘The Mirror of Erised: Why We Should Heed Dumbledore’s Warning’
The boy character Harry Potter accidentally discovers the Mirror of Erised in an unused classroom at Hogwarts. He notices the Mirror’s odd inscription: “Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.” [Trans. “I show not your face but your heart’s desire.”] This is no ordinary mirror — a little surprise in a world where cars can fly and portraits talk. When Harry looks into it, he does not see his own reflection, but instead the images of his dead mother and father smiling back at him, even waving. He immediately looks around the room, but his parents are not there; they are only in the Mirror.
The schoolmaster Dumbledore reveals to Harry what the powers of the Mirror of Erised are: “This mirror will give us neither knowledge nor truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.” He goes on to warn Harry that “it doesn’t do to dwell in dreams and forget to live.” While we might be able to learn something from looking in the Mirror — perhaps something important and shocking — we cannot pursue or satisfy our worthwhile desires in the Mirror.
Still the Mirror does offer us one truth — it shows us what we deeply and desperately desire. While our lives should not be spent just in desire-satisfaction — as the Mirror of Erised illustrates for us — we do have desires that are worthwhile to pursue and satisfy. The desire for self improvement and for non-oppressive happy relationships is also a significant part of life.
The pivot of the story lies in understanding the palindrome, that is, a phrase that reads the same backward as forward as a model of reference. Often than not when learner and teacher meet for their regular class session, both soon tumbled into swirl of the banal, the taken-for-granted encounter with boring everydayness of life. The regular rhythm of the routine, those predictable interpersonal relations in the academe, and the placid state of our salary account in the Land Bank became the Mirror of Erised. As mirror it does not reflect that we are disagreeable examples to others but shows instead our desire as likeable creatures in the University. Again “this mirror gives us neither knowledge nor truth.” More likely knowledge and truth as learner and teacher lie outside the construction of ourselves in the everyday life because everyday life is the deathbed of our passions. And my fear is glancing at our joie de vivre (ZHwa de vevra), the exuberant life of our mind is already attached to a monitoring device inside an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Passion dies when honest audacity is wickedly discouraged but slavish obeisance is rewarded. Passion dies in the mad pursuit of high metrics of performance. Passion dies when recognitions and positions granted presume the acquisition of wisdom.
‘Place without Mirrors’ by Tomas Talledo from Songs of War Patriots and other poems
In a faraway place, so far you can imagine, farther than imagination, there are no mirrors.
There are no mirrors in this place though people had been laboring to have one. Though extraordinary artistry was resorted to, but no mirror or its equivalent was ever produced. Not even shiny metals, crystals, clear water not wood reflect the images of people. No object can report back what faces of people look like. Everyone has invisible reflection.
This is the place without mirrors.
All hopes not lost though because one can see herself but not her reflection in the eyes of another person.
In unprepared way, only in unconscious moment one can have a glimpse of oneself in the pupils of another person’s eyes. But so many do not like this moment, in fact, nearly all hate this revealing chance.
And they refused to talk about it to anyone. A few were brave enough to report what they saw in another person’s eyes. But what they saw, they say in bits and parts of words like “foolish” “unfair” “distorted” ‘cruel”. No one wants to disclose the frank picture.
There’s a long wait to comprehend this revelation. In the flood of questioning, the tentative but consoling hint that emerged is that perhaps what one saw wasn’t an image of herself as such but as another person sees her. Thus, there is no rest in the place without mirrors.
Reflecting on my long stay in the University, I originally fashioned this story. My experiences with the University more often appear to resemble the place without mirror. A place without mirror since the acquisition and transmission of knowledge that really matter necessitates the peeling-off of self-importance as cheap illusion. So many and that includes myself are predisposed to quickly avoid and to dismiss that which shatters the sense of self-importance, our self-conceit. Yet such quick dismissal is but a reflex act of self-preservation, the avoidance of hurts and pains. But when nastiness out of that shattering pain bursts forth from the pit of human hurts, no life affirming knowledge can be expected, no openness for real learning, no General Education can happen. And woe to the vengeful but I am of the view that the nutritious ingredients of General Education can only be savored in the magnanimity of one’s character. Lest we forget the ancient insight: hurting wounds are entrances of wisdom; hurting wounds are receptacles of the sublime. Torments though taste bitter are true fruits of the Tree of Life.
(To be continued)
