Oscar, baseball, Bahia, Ohio…jumping into different worlds

By Milena S. Murta


Almost impossible! Since the beginnings of this week get into a website without read at least one time the word “Oscar” is a difficult task. Glory, notoriety, fame…what is all that about? Beyond the dresses clothed and showed on the red carpet, I was thinking about the role of Hollywood industry…if there is one besides money and movies. And then, the first thing that came to my mind was the spell to deliver us from our world to another one…how we like the way that feels!

And then…when surfing on the New York Times website (trying not to look at all the “oscar” featured news) a sports report called my attention. Nothing to do with films, but all about (again) different worlds. The report (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/sports/baseball/27kershaw.html?_r=1&hpw) showed how the baseball player Clayton Kershaw came back from his trip to Africa. “It changes you,” he said. According to the report, the faces of the Zambian orphans Kershaw met during his visit have stayed with him, a rosin bag of images to help him maintain his grip on what really matters. “You come home and you see people striving to get more money, more cars, bigger houses and more possessions, thinking that will make them happier. You go to Zambia, it helps put things in perspective. You realize where happiness comes from, and it’s not from material goods.”

Movies make you travel to different worlds without move yourself, and it is just incredible. Real trips to different places make you think differently about the world you are used to live…and it is also great. I just started to realize how it is important to jump into different “worlds” to develop a sense of looking at things from different perspectives…then, I remembered a show I went to last night. “Balé folclórico da Bahia”… a Brazilian dance troupe that almost made me cry of homesickness (I’m from Brazil, and my family now lives exactly in Bahia, the most beautiful state of Brazil - in my opinion! haha). The sensation of listening to the songs I was used to in Brazil, here in El Paso, for a moment, made me question myself: where am I? Funny…and interesting at the same time! I know how much I’m enriching my life with knowledge and new experiences here in this world. But I also know how the “world” where I was raised in means a lot to me.

Finally, in this context, I couldn’t mention the world I’m so excited meet: the Ev Rogers’ mentorship symposium I’m attending in Ohio this week. More about that when I come back, but I can already say that it will be a great experience. Why? Because I’ll be jumping into a different world!