Music

I was listening to MPR this morning and I heard a broadcast of my favorite cellist, Steven Isserlis. He was talking, how ironic, about my favorite composer- Felix Mendelssohn. Turns out, somewhere in Steven's family tree, he's related to Mendelssohn! How cool is that? Life just throws out these things at you... it's interesting how things fit together.

Anyways, if you've thought about it, didn't we all originate somewhere in Africa? When we all had strange-looking skulls that they find underground these days.
So would you inflict harm on a sibling? If we're really all related, then shouldn't we just be all happy and joyful and live together in joyful harmony?

The answer is no.

Just as we re-live the patterns of life in a small family atmosphere, there is always a need for sibling rivalry. Always. No-one is satisfied with just peace... because with ultimate peace comes ultimate violence: people are restrained from doing what they're instinctually made to do. People always have to compete, and for this reason, World Peace and other such Utopian ideas are impossible: someone will always try to come out on top and cheat other out of something. Thats just the way things work. It's not a bad thing or a good thing, just natural.

Same thing happens in New Moon... Jacob and Edward find it very hard to coexist, because if they did they would both be giving up something they really want. The conflict springing up between them is strictly natural and predictable.

C'est la vie.