I Love Alone Time & Alone Time Loves Me

A lot of unfortunate things have happened during quarantine and because of quarantine. But for me, one of the things I’ve been enjoying is the alone time I have at home.

Seriously, I’m wondering how I’m going to schedule regular social activities with all the alone time I’ve gotten used to. Because the list of things I do when I have time to myself has gotten pretty long already.

For example, lately I have been:

Reading
Following the moon phases using my Moon Planner
Editing my book (crossing my fingers to release a full version this year!)
Working out (Running, yoga, Blogilates videos)
Crocheting characters from Harry Potter (pics at the end of the post!)
Reading tarot
Meditating
Doing The Chakras Activity Book & Journal
Figuring out what to write for this blog 😬
Trying out different brands of pistachio ice cream – I’m seeing pistachio food everywhere now, are you?
Doing my best to keep up with current movies and shows

Plus, soon we are putting a bathtub in and I already bought a couple Lush bath bombs and planning what I’m going to do while taking bath. Can’t wait!

If you’re spending more time alone recently, what have you been doing?

Spent some time making these characters! Harry, Dobby the Free Elf and Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback! Currently working on crocheting Hermione.

New Things in the New Mulan

Over the weekend I sat down to watch the new live action Mulan on Disney+.

There were two things I liked about the remake. One was referencing qi, and the other was additional character of Xianniang, the shape shifting witch.

What interested me most about the film was how it incorporated qi (ch’i), a principal used in many Asian belief systems that is described as a vital force forming part of any living entity.

As someone who’s interested in spirituality and exploring similarities and differences between belief systems of other cultures, I was excited that a mainstream film used it as part of the story to explain what makes Mulan, Mulan.

However, I think they could have gone deeper into explaining it, or how Mulan connects to it spiritually, instead of just physically with her fighting moves.

It felt like they were too busy trying to make sure they hit all the same plot points as the animated film, rather than exploring this new aspect to Mulan’s character they added in and what it means to her.

As an example of what I’m looking for, in Avatar: the Last Airbender, there’s an episode that shows Aang learning how to connect to the Avatar state by unblocking his chakras. Chakras are another spiritual principal that is used to help someone connect to their energy force. The episode does well in explaining what chakras are and what Aang has to do for each one in order to unblock it.

I understand that a film can’t spend thirty minutes on explaining a whole new belief system, but there could have been a way from them to explain it better, and have us get to know Mulan in a way we’ve never seen before.

The second new thing I liked about the movie was Xianniang. If you remember in the animated film, Shan Yu had a pet falcon that acted like his eyes and ears. In the live-action, Xianniang replaces the falcon as a witch who can shape shift and works along side with Khan.

I love that Xianniang was meant to be Mulan’s dark counterpart. They both have powers that they’ve developed by remaining true to themselves, but have been judged and shunned by others when they use them.

This is why I wished they showed Mulan connecting to her qi in a more spiritual way, so that we can see how it compares and contrasts to Xianniang.

Obviously Xianniang has accepted who she is already, while Mulan is just learning how and what that means. But what choices did she make to get her to where she’s at? And how do those differ to Mulan’s choices?

Again, I felt like the issue was the pressure of hitting those same plot points as the animated film. It didn’t feel like there was room to explore this new character and what qi means to her.

At it’s core, the story of Mulan is about a young woman being true to herself in order to fight for what she believes in. I think adding the concept of qi and the character of Xianniang would have deepened the theme and made the live action more satisfying, if they were given more time to breath.

And I’m going to say it, I don’t think we need Mushu and the songs to fully enjoy the retelling of this story.

What did you think of the new Mulan? Are you looking forward to any more of the live action films? The Little Mermaid is the next one for me!

Horror is as What Society Does

In the spirit of Halloween, on Saturday I watched It: Chapter 2. I had been meaning to see it, since I saw It: Chapter 1. Plus, I read the book about 6-7 years ago and wanted to see how the adaptation went.

I like to dive into a horror film every once in a while, especially if it’s been well received. I think horror should be taken more seriously as a genre than it has been historically because horror, once you get past the jump scares, is most notably a commentary of what’s happening in our society. Probably more-so than dramas or historical films. (Here’s an interesting argument for The Purge franchise, one I haven’t seen but I’ve heard the plot.)

But because it’s such a specific genre, like fantasy and sci-fi, it doesn’t get much recognition by the Academy Awards.

If you haven’t read It, Stephen King goes back and forth between the main characters (their group is called the Losers) as kids, meeting and fighting It for the first time, and as adults, when It awakes again and they come together and kill it for good.

In the most recent adaptation, the book is split into two movies: Chapter 1 for when they’re kids, and Chapter 2 for when they’re adults.

Part of the mythology about It that you learn as you read/watch, is that It comes to life every 27 years. After it wreaks havoc in Derry, feeding on the children, it goes away to sleep. Remarkably, the town forgets the tragedies it went through and write them off as some other cause or find someone to blame.

In Chapter 2, we find that the Losers have moved away from Derry and they’re living their own lives. When they are brought back together, most of them can’t remember what happened the summer they were tormented by It.

Mike, the only one who didn’t leave Derry, is also the only one who remembers what they went through and has to remind them. By keeping tabs on what was happening in the town, he was the one who recognized that It was back 27 years later and rounded up the group again so they could fight and kill it, once and for all.

This phenomena of Derry residents forgetting the tragedies that happened in their town can be related to how we’ve been dealing with racism in America for the past 400 years and how we shift our focus towards and away from systemic racism every time an egregious killing happens.

The story of another Black person being killed by police comes and goes on our news feeds and our TVs. We are shocked again and again by how deeply rooted racism is in our country.

We’re realizing that our thoughts and prayers aren’t going to cut it if there’s going to be real change towards driving out systemic racism and white supremacy. It’s been great to see people educating themselves, protesting, donating to causes, and spreading the word.

But we can’t stop.

We cannot become complacent. Our attention has to be focused on ending white supremacy at all times.

We have to call racism out for what it is, just like the Losers called out It for what it is. That’s how they were able to defeat it. (Sorry, spoiler alert.)

What’s scary is it’s easy to forget that racism is happening if it’s not happening to you or people you know.

Is it a coincidence that the only person of the Losers Group who remembered everything that went down with It is also Black? And that the ones who forgot what happened, who were able to leave and move on with their lives, where white?

Hmm… I think only Stephen King can answer that one for us.

ALSO, TOMORROW IS ELECTION DAY. HOPEFULLY YOU’VE VOTED OR HAVE A PLAN TO VOTE TOMORROW.

DON’T MISS OUT ON HAVING YOUR VOICE HEARD AND DON’T FORGET TO VOTE DOWN THE BALLOT!