David Masumoto's Song 'Thinking Blues'
With music we can express the feelings that are hard to express with everyday language. An example of this is Bessie Smith’s song, “Thinking Blues.” (McClary). In the song she is singing about how much she misses and wants her man to take her back, how she will do just about anything to take her back. However at first sight of the lyrics, I thought the meaning of the song was completely different. I thought it was about how she does not want to be deprived of singing blues just because she is a woman, and it was not popular for a woman to sing blues during that time. It can also just be a simple general love song without much meaning to someone else.Therefore, although music is very similar to language, it proves that it is not universal.
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One of the readings that week was on David Mas Masumoto’s, “Epitaph of a Peach Four Seasons on My Family Farm.” Although Masumoto is in a different position than his workers, he can sympathize and relate to them. Although he is the boss, and they are workers on his peach farm, he shows high respect and consideration for them. We learn that although these different individuals come from different ranks and places in society, they are not so different. An example of this is when Masumoto sits down at the end of a hard day to enjoy a conversation with his workers. Masumoto empathizes with their struggles and wishes that he could pay his workers more. He does his best to make sure his workers are living in humane situations. The most heartwarming moment is when he is offered a beer by his workers but he respectfully declines. The reason why Masumoto declines is not to be rude, but because he put into consideration how many hours of working in the scorching sun, and how many trees they must pick the fruit from in order to earn enough money to buy the six pack of beer. Another way of analyzing his actions would be that he doesn’t want to associate with them, however he does join his workers. His intentions are consideration and empathetic, it is Masumoto’s way of expressing care and understanding towards his workers. This displays how we as individuals are not so different, and can relate to similar feelings even if we belong in different ranks of
One of the readings that week was on David Mas Masumoto’s, “Epitaph of a Peach Four Seasons on My Family Farm.” Although Masumoto is in a different position than his workers, he can sympathize and relate to them. Although he is the boss, and they are workers on his peach farm, he shows high respect and consideration for them. We learn that although these different individuals come from different ranks and places in society, they are not so different. An example of this is when Masumoto sits down at the end of a hard day to enjoy a conversation with his workers. Masumoto empathizes with their struggles and wishes that he could pay his workers more. He does his best to make sure his workers are living in humane situations. The most heartwarming moment is when he is offered a beer by his workers but he respectfully declines. The reason why Masumoto declines is not to be rude, but because he put into consideration how many hours of working in the scorching sun, and how many trees they must pick the fruit from in order to earn enough money to buy the six pack of beer. Another way of analyzing his actions would be that he doesn’t want to associate with them, however he does join his workers. His intentions are consideration and empathetic, it is Masumoto’s way of expressing care and understanding towards his workers. This displays how we as individuals are not so different, and can relate to similar feelings even if we belong in different ranks of