This is the Title.

jmart103-utcoad:

Awareness (ft. Glassworks by Philip Glass)

It is curious to me how to define the concept we call awareness. I do not mean the type of awareness that is contrasted to academic ignorance. This awareness cannot be gained through memorization of facts or principals in a book. It cannot be solved purely based on hours and hours of studying a subject. I mean the kind of awareness that is timeless and has the unique ability to spread into every area of our lives. The best way to describe this awareness would be to imagine how one perceives a song by a classical composer with no prominently catchy lyrics or percussion. While most might write off the song because of impatient ear or merely unconditioned taste, another person might find in the song a beauty that most miss. Now, that person is intellectually aware of the internal beauty of the song, but that is not the awareness I speak of. I speak of a conscious awareness already present in this person before listening that moved them to look for the subtle beauty or unseen nature of the composition in the first place. It is a presence of mind to even consider what others miss in general or more specifically what the author of a song intended the listener to feel.

Perhaps some are born with this awareness to look differently at things or perhaps an experience, whether spanning a single moment or an entire lifetime, creates awareness inside them. Italo Calvino writes about a man who symbolizes this type of awareness in Marcovald or The Seasons in the City. Consistently in his writing Calvino establishes the man Marcovald as one of a kind in terms of how he views the city. While city life seems to blur by, Marcovald shows an awareness to notice the subtle things such as a leaf, a flock of birds, a cool park bench under a tree, or a group of mushrooms sprouting from the ground. Also, in If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, Calvino assumes the reader’s own awareness to look for and notice tactics used by himself, the author. He directly addresses these hidden tactics through his main character by confusing the line drawn between the character’s thoughts and the author’s words. Whether the character is speaking as himself or serving a dual-role of character and author, there are clear attempts for Calvino to point out both the awareness of the reader to see past mere sentences and the fact that Calvino himself is aware of this mindset within the reader. These writings by Calvino have me pondering awareness in general and, as stated earlier, perhaps serve as an experience to at least partially awaken my own awareness in how I perceive the world around me.