Hey everyone! I hope you guys have been doing well and if this is your second time reading my blog, welcome! If this is your first time, I’m happy you’re here and that you’re curious about psychology. This week I’m going to be diving into an interesting aspect of how faith and psychology interact with each other. I grew up in the Roman Catholic faith and am still very involved in it and I truly believe in it as well so, like psychology, this topic is very important to me and something that I enjoy writing about. Before you get scared and run away, I promise that this isn’t going to be another theology class but more of an outside observation that connects to the main theme of Waterfall by Lisa Bergren, so hear me out. Psychology and the Catholic faith seem to mix like oil and water -not at all. This was something that I struggled with at times while studying psychology in school. On one end, I was hearing words like “self-sacrifice” and “self-denial” and that if someone slapped my face, I should offer them the other cheek. And on the other hand, I was learning about “self-actualization” and “self-fulfillment” and how I have to focus on myself. Needless to say, I was very confused at times about what I should be thinking and feeling and I’m sure that others who have grown up in religious households feel the same way. The reason I started thinking about this was that I was trying to figure out what book I should write about next. I didn’t want it to be another “Cinderella story”; I wanted it to have a little bit more substance so I thought of the book Waterfall.
Waterfall is the first book in the River of Time series by Lisa Bergren. It falls into many different genres such as religious, historical fiction, time travel fiction, fantasy fiction, as well as romance. Not to stray too far from the topic, but I’ve been obsessed with this series ever since I got it because Lisa Bergren managed to combine all of my favorite genres into a work of art (I’m also very much into time travel conspiracy theories so it just feeds into that as well). In Waterfall, the story starts with two sisters, Gabi and Lia Betarrini (referred to as “the Bettarrini sisters” throughout the story). Their parents are both archeologists who, with their daughters, have traveled to Tuscany every summer since they were born. To Gabi and Lia, it’s just another boring day on a hot and dusty archeological site so they decide to go explore the area a little more than they normally do. As they’re looking around, they see one of the tombs that are getting excavated and decide to go inside. Once they’re inside, they inspect every inch of the tomb when they spot two handprints on the wall, one bigger than the other. Together, Gabi and Lia place one hand on each print and get freaked out because the stone is warm. They leave their hands on the prints for a little while longer and that’s when the room starts spinning. Eventually, the stone gets so hot that Gabi lets go and she is found in darkness – alone. Scared and disoriented, Gabi starts yelling for help and since she hears noises outside, she thinks that she must have hit her head on something and that she fainted for a few hours. Finally, she finds a way out and realizes she’s in the middle of a battle. At first, she thinks it’s a theater group acting out a battle, but once she smells the stench of sweat and blood and sees a soldier stab another, she realizes that this isn’t acting. In the midst of all of this going on, she makes eye contact with the most attractive person that she’s ever seen and she instantly feels connected to him. The battle quickly ends and the attractive knight walks up to her and starts speaking in Italian. Since she is Italian and has spent most of her summers in Italy, she is fluent in it so she has no trouble communicating. They end up dragging her to a castle that was near the battle and she finds out that the attractive knight (whose name is Marcello) is the future lord of the castle that he dragged her to. He instantly says that she is a witch based on what she was wearing (which was a pair of jeans and a t-shirt) and that she was alone in a tomb. She quickly makes up a story that she is from Normandy and that she is looking for her sister and mother after they stopped responding to her letters. She tells him that she was hiding in the tomb because her men robbed her and fled so she got scared and hid inside the tomb. After hearing her story, Marcello becomes determined to help her find her sister and mother but at the same time, it was just an excuse for him to be able to get to know her more. Gabi ends up finding out that he has a fiance and she instantly feels horrible for feeling anything towards him except he’s not making it any easier because he too feels something for her. They keep fighting their feelings and Gabi keeps reminding herself that she can’t get involved because she just needs to find Lia and go back to their time. Eventually, Marcello and Gabi kiss and he reassures her that he and his fiance don’t love each other because their engagement was an economically strategic move. Shortly after that happens, Gabi finds Lia, and right as they’re about to leave, another battle breaks out between Marcello’s army and his enemy and the Betarrini sisters can’t leave. They have to think quickly so they explain who they really are and where they’re from to Marcello and once they do, he thinks they’re a little crazy but because he falls in love with Gabi, he decides to help them home.
Throughout this novel, Gabi is constantly fighting her feelings for Marcello while also spending her energy trying to find her sister and do the right thing. Since this novel is a Christian one, this struggle is very important to focus on because it’s one of the main struggles that I, as a religious person, go through daily. I get stuck between being selfish and selfless all the time. A lot of the time, it’s difficult for me to distinguish between what I was raised to believe and what I learned about in school, specifically while studying for my psychology major. A scene that stood out to me in Waterfall and made me think about the internal struggle that Gabi was going through, was when Marcello finally kissed her. “He leaned down then and kissed me…I knew I should stop him…but…all I wanted was more of him…when he stepped back, he looked as dazed as I felt…I put a hand to my forehead and shook my head…‘No, Marcello. This, this can’t happen…what of lady Rossi?’” To that, Marcello replies, “We are friends, but there is no passion, no love between us. She will understand.” In this scene, Gabi is succumbing to her feelings for Marcello. For a moment, she forgets that he’s engaged, that she’s in a whole different century, and that her sister is lost in this completely different world. She is only thinking about herself while they kiss but immediately after, you can see how she feels guilty for letting him do that because he has a fiance. She also feels guilty because of the types of morals that she was raised in believing. What I mean by this is that when she and Marcello kiss she also feels guilty because her feelings and emotions are taking away from finding Lia. At this point, Gabi doesn’t know where Lia is yet and Gabi is beating herself up for “losing” her sister.
This battle has always been around since the beginning of human history but for Gabi, it’s a little stronger because she was raised in, what we see as, “modern times”. In the 21st century, everyone is hyper-focused on themselves and in putting themselves first. For a while, I struggled with how to make that work with my religion because I was always taught about selflessness which made it hard for me to not only put myself first sometimes but also be kind to myself. In Waterfall, Gabi struggles with that as well, not only with her feelings towards Marcello but about what she wants for herself. What I realized towards the end of college was that being selfish is not the same thing as putting yourself first. What I mean by this is that to fully be there for someone else, you have to work on yourself first and be in a good place mentally before you can help anyone to the best of your abilities. For Gabi, this meant finally letting herself feel the feelings she had towards Marcello. After she lets him kiss her, she feels as if a weight has been lifted and it gives her a clearer head. She wasn’t overthinking his feelings towards her and she wasn’t spending unnecessary energy in trying to avoid her feelings; she was free and that allowed her to become stronger. Strong enough to fight multiple battles by sword and mind to find her sister Lia and get home.
-Sylvia Szewczyk, Blogger.
Sylvia Szewczyk – Asst Blog Editor: Sylvia graduated in May of 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Resource Management and Psychology, as well as with a minor in Polish Language and Culture. While at Lewis, Sylvia was a Community Engaged Learning Facilitator, a founder for Lewis’s Habitat for Humanity Chapter, as well as a LUMINATE Volunteer leader. She currently works full-time as an HR Generalist and joined Jet Fuel Review in hopes of following one of her lifelong passions – writing. Her favorite genres to read are historical fiction, sci-fi, and mystery. In her free time, she likes to paint, do puzzles, play the piano, read, rock climb, and hike. She loves to travel and does it
spontaneously, but wishes she could do it more often. After getting her Master’s, she plans on moving to Poland for a few years to experience work and life there.