A Poem and a Novel

This January, I have had couple of goals in order to keep reading and get my brain working: firstly, read, analyze, and relate poems that I enjoy and secondly, to read more books! Keeping these in mind, I would like to share a poem and a book I read recently. 

First for the poem: 

Great experiences should

be valued like silver,every day is as precious as a box of gold.If we only lived in this moment and made the most of it,we would experience joy, peace and love untold.~ Raphael Notch

When reading this poem, one common phrase rings a bell- YOLO. Y.O.L.O- a common slang phrase used among the high school crowd of our generation, almost like a savior. A savior we say? Yes, the ultimate haven for the frets in life. We use the saying "you only live life once" to contradict our affinity to try, our capital actions. Why try, why struggle, why search beyond the stars, when we only live once? Life is so short, live it. Is this dilemma, the scorching nag of laziness, a healthy habit for us? Is it the indicative immunization for our motivation? More so, are we stranded in the midst of introspection with no catalyst for progression, for our ultimate happiness we seek to find? Do we try, do we live?

Second- a sad yet lovely novel:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Love in the Time of Cholera, a tragic love story( NY: Editorial Oveja Negra 1988) , suggests that south American culture defines love as society's complications,  as a  physical and mental disease, and as an agent to retain youthfulness.  He develops such definitions first by describing why "it is impossible not to become what others believe you are;" second, by emphasizing that "there is no greater glory than to die for love;" lastly, by accepting that "age has no reality except in the physical world." Marquez's purpose was to prove that love is not controlled by a mutual feelings, but by nature's obstacles and mindsets. Because of Marquez's poetic and dense tone, he was able to communicate the essence of love in south American culture in many different aspects, creating a dynamic plot line that easily grabs attention from both adolescents and adults.