In the world we live there are so many problems and issues in this world that we live in, feels like a much bigger copy of your own life. Everything happens as a cause and effect, you don't get enough sleep because you had to much homework, you have so much homework because you're falling behind in school, you're falling behind in school because you didn't get enough sleep.
And so the sadistic cycle goes on, and when you finally are on top of things a new problem pops up. This, in many ways, is how it is with our government. Everything out ways the next. they are slacking on environmental issues because they don't have the money and are focusing now on healthcare; they can't have good healthcare because the economy is bad, the economy is bad because we are in debt, we are in debt from the war. And because of this debt, we can't afford healthcare.
This is no way to live with stress bitting at our ankles relentlessly. But isn't that how life has always been? Never stopping, the show must go on.
The fact is that no matter who you are you will always have something on your plate. Whether you are Obama, and the pile of things you must work on and fix is so high that you cannot tell where it starts and ends.
It doesn't matter if you are unemployed, and don't have to deal with work, or you are president of a company, you still think about the same things.
Money, health, careers, family, the environment, the homeless, the starving. These thing haunt me every day. they force me to think about more pressing matters then my next test. Sometimes I don't want to hear about the problems that are bigger then me. I don't want to hear an update on the oil spill, or about people dieing Darfur.
Last year I had my Bat-mitzvah. It is a customary gift to give money. Once I had my money the question was, what do I do with it. I gave $500 to a charity that saves animals from the gulf spill. I gave another $500 to a charity that gives relief to refugees.
I haven't picked my third charity yet but I am hoping that this project will give me an idea. Throught this week I have learned about the very things I avoid. The challenge is to stop complaining and take action.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
the Crystal Stair
now son I'll tell you
life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
This is how the poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes' starts, this is a mother telling her son of her hard life, she explains using the metaphors of stairs to the hard life shes had. The crystal stair sounds a lot like perfection in life at first.but she never said that the crystal stair was good. sure it sounds smooth and easy to walk upon.
the mothers stairs "had tacks in it, and splinters." Naturally the assumption that the crystal stair brings an easiness in life goes along with this.
The more I read it the less it seemed that way. After the second time reading the stairs sounded slippery. And after the third time they sounded cold and empty, they sounded as though they gleamed in a way that made them seem lifeless and fake. Not a life to be desired.
I thought about this some more and it made me wonder which life was better. The answer appeared to be perfectly obvious.
The mothers stair seemed to be better, more used, holding love and emotion. the crystal stair is so stiff and unyielding. it masks its ware, and shines blinding you from its truth.
One life shields you and the other protects you. It could be because one stair is the hard life of the African Americans in those days against the easy life of the Europeans. Was that how the so called mother (And Langston Hughes') saw life for them. That only if life were hard you would have true feelings. Is this true?
Is the only way to have real endurance and spirit to have a hard life? If I had been there, would my life had been considered a crystal stair? Would all of ours? Just because we were born the was we are?
life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
This is how the poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes' starts, this is a mother telling her son of her hard life, she explains using the metaphors of stairs to the hard life shes had. The crystal stair sounds a lot like perfection in life at first.but she never said that the crystal stair was good. sure it sounds smooth and easy to walk upon.
the mothers stairs "had tacks in it, and splinters." Naturally the assumption that the crystal stair brings an easiness in life goes along with this.
The more I read it the less it seemed that way. After the second time reading the stairs sounded slippery. And after the third time they sounded cold and empty, they sounded as though they gleamed in a way that made them seem lifeless and fake. Not a life to be desired.
I thought about this some more and it made me wonder which life was better. The answer appeared to be perfectly obvious.
The mothers stair seemed to be better, more used, holding love and emotion. the crystal stair is so stiff and unyielding. it masks its ware, and shines blinding you from its truth.
One life shields you and the other protects you. It could be because one stair is the hard life of the African Americans in those days against the easy life of the Europeans. Was that how the so called mother (And Langston Hughes') saw life for them. That only if life were hard you would have true feelings. Is this true?
Is the only way to have real endurance and spirit to have a hard life? If I had been there, would my life had been considered a crystal stair? Would all of ours? Just because we were born the was we are?
Monday, October 18, 2010
Appreciating final draft
My favorite children books are not the picture books, nor the ones that were challenging but you enjoyed anyway. They for me, are the ones that were easy reads, no more then 250 pages. But they were never simple. My favorite children books are the one that you don't get at first, but something makes you keep coming back for more. The ones that you eat, devouring each bit. Wincing sometimes at the sour taste, that's what makes this book for me.
Isn't that for everyone? A perfect book provides no interest for the reader, it only is interesting when there is loss, and forgiveness. It is what we thrive on. The Giver is a science fiction novel that revolves around a strict community, where if you make a mistake you die, but one person holds memories from the past and Jonas is selected to receive these memories. But that is the beauty of it, stuck in this bland world, where even colors have been taken away from them, Jonas see's change.
In the book, it says that Jonas has the power to see beyond, slowly revealing true colors and the truth of the safe community he lives in. It is like a flashback form the future, (technically impossible) but The Giver shoves itself in your face, it shows you every day life from the most innocent person of all. A boy who does not know the true meaning of death, he barely knows what death is.
The Giver makes you see beyond the things that you hold true. Right and wrong is one big issue in Jonas's world. What is right, to let people go on with there bad ways, to try and punish them, and make them see what they did was wrong, or to take away the bad as soon as it enters, even it was slight. Is it right to take someones life for disturbing the balance? In the first chapter, it explains how a man misread the navigational instructions. He had made a mistake "Needless to say he will be released," announced the loud speakers. he was killed because he misread something and flew in the wrong direction. But how could anyone know which way to deal with things is right?
"But now that I can see colors, at least sometimes, I was just thinking: what we could hold up things that were bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose instead of the sameness."
"He might make the wrong choices."
"Oh, I see what you mean, it doesn't matter with a newchild's toy. But later it does matter, doesn't it? We don't dare to let people make choices on their own."
"Not safe?"
"Definitely not safe, what if they were allowed to choose their own mate and they choose wrong? or what if they choose their own jobs?"
This was a conversation held between the Giver and Jonas, and it brings up so many questions, is it better to be that way? unknowing but safe, from all of the worlds harm a world were you are tucked away all decisions made for us? Or is it better to live exposed, the worlds pain ready for your ears to hear.
The Giver is truly an amazing story, it is a story of innocence, it is a a story of the discovery of love and hate, and death. And what is that, but everyday life, discovering the truth of it all. Learning about ourselves and the world around us. Seeing the world in a way you have never seen it before. We all know some kind of pain, whatever it is the question is, would you rather live without it?
That, I believe is the true meaning of books, to show you, and open your eyes to something in that you have never even imagined imagining before.
This is really why I harbor a deep love for The Giver, it holds in secrets that all good books need. It has just the right kind of ending, that leaves you hanging wondering why that you sitting on the end of your seat, when you turn the page and find that there is no more to go. This book is thought provoking, brings out the best in all of us making you think. It does not have a full ending that ties up all of the loose ends, all of your wonderings, it leaves your imagination to unscramble it and finish the book off.
Isn't that for everyone? A perfect book provides no interest for the reader, it only is interesting when there is loss, and forgiveness. It is what we thrive on. The Giver is a science fiction novel that revolves around a strict community, where if you make a mistake you die, but one person holds memories from the past and Jonas is selected to receive these memories. But that is the beauty of it, stuck in this bland world, where even colors have been taken away from them, Jonas see's change.
In the book, it says that Jonas has the power to see beyond, slowly revealing true colors and the truth of the safe community he lives in. It is like a flashback form the future, (technically impossible) but The Giver shoves itself in your face, it shows you every day life from the most innocent person of all. A boy who does not know the true meaning of death, he barely knows what death is.
The Giver makes you see beyond the things that you hold true. Right and wrong is one big issue in Jonas's world. What is right, to let people go on with there bad ways, to try and punish them, and make them see what they did was wrong, or to take away the bad as soon as it enters, even it was slight. Is it right to take someones life for disturbing the balance? In the first chapter, it explains how a man misread the navigational instructions. He had made a mistake "Needless to say he will be released," announced the loud speakers. he was killed because he misread something and flew in the wrong direction. But how could anyone know which way to deal with things is right?
"But now that I can see colors, at least sometimes, I was just thinking: what we could hold up things that were bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose instead of the sameness."
"He might make the wrong choices."
"Oh, I see what you mean, it doesn't matter with a newchild's toy. But later it does matter, doesn't it? We don't dare to let people make choices on their own."
"Not safe?"
"Definitely not safe, what if they were allowed to choose their own mate and they choose wrong? or what if they choose their own jobs?"
This was a conversation held between the Giver and Jonas, and it brings up so many questions, is it better to be that way? unknowing but safe, from all of the worlds harm a world were you are tucked away all decisions made for us? Or is it better to live exposed, the worlds pain ready for your ears to hear.
The Giver is truly an amazing story, it is a story of innocence, it is a a story of the discovery of love and hate, and death. And what is that, but everyday life, discovering the truth of it all. Learning about ourselves and the world around us. Seeing the world in a way you have never seen it before. We all know some kind of pain, whatever it is the question is, would you rather live without it?
That, I believe is the true meaning of books, to show you, and open your eyes to something in that you have never even imagined imagining before.
This is really why I harbor a deep love for The Giver, it holds in secrets that all good books need. It has just the right kind of ending, that leaves you hanging wondering why that you sitting on the end of your seat, when you turn the page and find that there is no more to go. This book is thought provoking, brings out the best in all of us making you think. It does not have a full ending that ties up all of the loose ends, all of your wonderings, it leaves your imagination to unscramble it and finish the book off.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
The Giver Entry #7
We all read our rereading books, we all annotated dutifully, and we all slowly but surely read into the text absorbing ourselves in childhood favorites and recently renowned books. I was reading The Giver and as always as I read this book I feel this sense of security, a feeling that, whenever I doubt sociaty i read, it reassures me that hope is not gone. We are not like them. And we still have time.
In The Giver (which is part of a trilogy) never truly ends, it leaves you thinking. "What will happen to Jonas?", "is it really safe where he's going?", "is he going to end up in another community?". I couldn't settle this, and the author only answers the question in her books. Fist I reread Gathering Blue and it just changed so much of my view on the Giver, first of all it allowed me to see that the community Jonas lived in wasn't how the entire world worked. There were other people out there that had different ways and customs. this makes me think of when Lily, Jonas's younger sister says that she got mad at a kid from different community who didn't know the rules, but they still spoke the same languge, and organized the visits with each other, and in Kira's community they are unaware that other places to live without being terrorized by the so called monsters that roam the world that the believe is true.
But how could that be true? Even though Jonas's life is so much more cleaned and cushioned then Kira's, they do live in the same world, and in that way their lives are ever so much the same. They bothlived trapped in a bubble, whether its because of fear, or being uneducated about the true world. they are both stolen from. For Jonas's community, true life and feelings, colors are stolen from him. For Kira, they also stole her true self the made her so she was only a shell of her former self, she lost the joy in doing the work that used to bring a smile to her face and make her happy. This has taught me so many things about our community. Everywhere around the we all are the same. Sure we have different religions and beliefes and traditions. But when it comes to it we are all human beings. And we might expirence life each in our own individual ways.
Its what makes us great, and its what might make us turn towards their lifestyle in the end.
In The Giver (which is part of a trilogy) never truly ends, it leaves you thinking. "What will happen to Jonas?", "is it really safe where he's going?", "is he going to end up in another community?". I couldn't settle this, and the author only answers the question in her books. Fist I reread Gathering Blue and it just changed so much of my view on the Giver, first of all it allowed me to see that the community Jonas lived in wasn't how the entire world worked. There were other people out there that had different ways and customs. this makes me think of when Lily, Jonas's younger sister says that she got mad at a kid from different community who didn't know the rules, but they still spoke the same languge, and organized the visits with each other, and in Kira's community they are unaware that other places to live without being terrorized by the so called monsters that roam the world that the believe is true.
But how could that be true? Even though Jonas's life is so much more cleaned and cushioned then Kira's, they do live in the same world, and in that way their lives are ever so much the same. They bothlived trapped in a bubble, whether its because of fear, or being uneducated about the true world. they are both stolen from. For Jonas's community, true life and feelings, colors are stolen from him. For Kira, they also stole her true self the made her so she was only a shell of her former self, she lost the joy in doing the work that used to bring a smile to her face and make her happy. This has taught me so many things about our community. Everywhere around the we all are the same. Sure we have different religions and beliefes and traditions. But when it comes to it we are all human beings. And we might expirence life each in our own individual ways.
Its what makes us great, and its what might make us turn towards their lifestyle in the end.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The Giver Entry #5
In the book I am rereading Jonas finds himself at war with himself because of his community. I was reading through my notes to see what annotation I wanted to write on when I noticed one, small discrete note scribbled quite messily in the corner. once I had deciphered my handwriting I saw that it said, "Jonas along with the community is stripped of his emotions," (pg. 39). In this chapter, Jonas gets his first "stirring" which is really just a sexual feeling, his mother and father quickly give him a pill to make this go away. The first thought that hit me was that they took away his own thoughts, his free will to be as perverted as he wanted to be.
This made me wonder what happens when you have a strait up private thought snatched from. Your inner self raided, and your will to make that thought or recall the old one. what do you really have left then? I believe all you have are raw simple feelings, and isn't that what they have, they never yell, the most that they ever do is they "feel" it and then they talk it over at dinner.
They don't have emotions! Sure they have feelings, but emotions are different, they are the feeling when you are angry that makes you want to punch. They make you want to cry. And when you are happy they are that surge, that rush that makes you want to smile and laugh. The community takes away the action, the follow up feeling that makes you want to curse or jump.
The people that live in Jonas's world never truly live, the joys of life are gone. There is no true learning done because they are not able to make mistakes. Everything they touch is padded and approved, and everything they do is planned. nothing and no one is special. there identity, the things that made them different, an individual, is taken from. They are just copies that are afraid to be different, afraid of change. Afraid to lead any other life then the one that has been carefully mapped out, all the way to their deaths.
When your world is Grey, and their is nothing to look forward to, no excitement, or even the ability to have excitement, what do you think? You can't ask questions, rules restrict you until you can't breathe. what must one think of this society. Living a loveless life, knowing whats around each bend. I think the true problem is the fact that they have no meaning of life, while ours is there, we just don't know or understand it. they don't even have any one to ponder it. They don't have anyone to question, they don't have anyone to argue. The real thing that was stolen was their voice, their say, and with it their hearts.
This made me wonder what happens when you have a strait up private thought snatched from. Your inner self raided, and your will to make that thought or recall the old one. what do you really have left then? I believe all you have are raw simple feelings, and isn't that what they have, they never yell, the most that they ever do is they "feel" it and then they talk it over at dinner.
They don't have emotions! Sure they have feelings, but emotions are different, they are the feeling when you are angry that makes you want to punch. They make you want to cry. And when you are happy they are that surge, that rush that makes you want to smile and laugh. The community takes away the action, the follow up feeling that makes you want to curse or jump.
The people that live in Jonas's world never truly live, the joys of life are gone. There is no true learning done because they are not able to make mistakes. Everything they touch is padded and approved, and everything they do is planned. nothing and no one is special. there identity, the things that made them different, an individual, is taken from. They are just copies that are afraid to be different, afraid of change. Afraid to lead any other life then the one that has been carefully mapped out, all the way to their deaths.
When your world is Grey, and their is nothing to look forward to, no excitement, or even the ability to have excitement, what do you think? You can't ask questions, rules restrict you until you can't breathe. what must one think of this society. Living a loveless life, knowing whats around each bend. I think the true problem is the fact that they have no meaning of life, while ours is there, we just don't know or understand it. they don't even have any one to ponder it. They don't have anyone to question, they don't have anyone to argue. The real thing that was stolen was their voice, their say, and with it their hearts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)