“Shelter” can be either a verb (to protect or to put under protection something/someone) or a noun (a place or state -emotional/psychological). Many different conceptualizations can be made defending on the context.

Songs like Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones) and Shelter from the Storm (Bob Dylan), or the short story A Sense of Shelter (by John Updlike) are good examples of different ways of understanding and perceiving “Shelter”.

If you want to know a little bit about what my class thinks about the concept (in photos), you can search in Instagram for #seu_shelter   -make sure to check mine @mdelanop 😉  https://instagram.com/mdelanop/

To me shelters have to do more with the perception of feeling protected than the actual physical protection. Places, people, objects, my own attitudes and gestures, are all my own shelters… I have a strong sense of belonging, and if I don’t feel that with a places, thing, person, etc. then that is not a “shelter” for me.

I also think that stereotypes can be a way of creating shelters, both when someone ‘stereotypes’ another person and when someone ‘stereotypes’ him/her-self. Categorizing is a way humans have to protect themselves from ‘the unknown’. Calling things as we call them is a way of finding sense and therefore a certain way of protection.

But I also think that sometimes we need to put our barriers down, so wean evolve and protect ourselves from a self-dictated doom. How can we protect ourselves from ourselves if we don’t incorporate new knowledge of our existences?

 

This are a couple of my own shelters through songs:

 https://youtu.be/vXFhqG8G5uI  The Ave Maria by Pavarotti (it has many emotional and psychological meanings to me)

https://youtu.be/58D4elqQqbg You’ve Got a Friend by Carol King (in this version with more of my favorite singers)

Enjoy!