For your new blog response, read TIB pp. 56-84. Then choose one essay and write your reflection here.
Due: Before our next class meeting
Length: At least two well-developed paragraphs
Announcement: DON'T FORGET! Revise your Paper #2 drafts and BRING YOUR UPDATED DRAFTS TO CLASS ON THURSDAY. The majority of the class period will be devoted to providing specific feedback on your drafts since the final draft is due next Tuesday. :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I thought that the essay "Creating our own Happiness" by Wayne Coyne was the most realistic in terms of what I also believe. In the essay he talks about people being able to create their own happiness and looking at situations like the cup is half full instead of half empty. He says that we all have the power to make moments of happiness happen.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what hes saying because if you always think negatively about the situation your in your never going to have a positive outcome. Even in the worst situation you should look on the brighter side and know that everything will be okay in the end. If you try to look at things more positively I believe 100% that your life will be full of happiness
I love the "Dancing All the Dances as Long as I Can" by Robert Fulghum. He talks about how much he loves dance. That on a day to day basis he dances about his home. He told us a story about a time we went to learn the tango, but didnt want to do it because he didnt want to make a fool out of himself. Then, an old lady told him "If you do not dance, we will know you are a fool. But if you dance, we will think well of you for trying."
ReplyDeleteI love the message this sends. To me i feel like it is saying do not fear doing something because you feel stupid just do it. Life is too short to worry about what others think. In the end none of them will matter anyway. If you feel like dancing then dance, if you feel like singing in the middle of a crowded room then sing. Never hold yourself back.
i definitely saw where the writer of learning true tolerance was coming from. i believe everyone has a right to believe in whatever they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone.
ReplyDeleteas somebody who share his community many kinds of people i often have jehovah winesses' come to my door. i never hide or slam my door in their face. i patiently listen to their idea with an open mind. i'm personally not very religious at all, but i see the need for religion in our society because it makes people do a lot of good in the world.
I really liked the essay "Dancing All the Dances as Long as I Can" by Robert Fulghum. I think it is necessary to do whatever you can as long as you can. If you can still do something there is no need to stop. Age should not limit the activities you do.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't know how to do something there is no need to go through life wondering "what if". You should always try new things you can never be certain of what good may come from it. If you don't do things your end will come sooner than it would of if you would have been active. Doing any kind of activity keeps your mind working and as you age it won't become dull.
I really thought the essay "Creating Our Own Happiness" by Wayne Coyne was really touching. In this essay he talks about how he believes us humans have the power to create our own happiness. He saw a couple on a cold day sitting on a bus stop holding eachother trying to get warm.He was happily warm in his car he thought that couple would feel pitty for him and envy him for having a car to sit in and be warm, but they weren't. They were sitting making jokes, laughing together making ever moment happy as it lasted. This helped him realize that no matter the situation your in you can always create happiness.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Wayne Coyne. I believe that even though your in a bad situation or just in any situation you really don't want to be in,you can always look for the positive things and brighten up the moment. Being upset or sad about something isn't going to help solve things so might as well make the best of it and smile.
In the essay "The Deeper Well of Memory" by Christine Cleary, she explains the way she feels when she goes through a tramatic transition. Clearly's husband is battling cancer and soon dies, and her own mother can't remember anything because she is diagnosed with Alzheimers.
ReplyDeleteI thought the essay was very inspiring because she describes how she thinks that remembering something has to do with simple tasks, where memory is nurtured by emotion. I agree with her because even with her mother with Alzheimers, she could remember her husband for even a brief moment, although he died several years before. It was quite sad when she says the only thing worse than death, was being forgotten. Her story was very touching.
In the essay "A Marriage That's Good Enough," by Corinne Colbert says that settling is the best way to go. That looking at life at a different way. A way that says do I have everything that is necessary. She says her husband is not her soul-mate. That he is not the perfect husband she hoped for. But he is good enough.
ReplyDeleteI thought Colbert did an amazing job at telling her opinion on her life. She makes you think about your own. The way we all should. She starts with her husband but that is not the important part of the essay. The important part is that she has everything in life that is necessary. Why mess that up. She says do not try to change anything in less its worth changing. Compare to the essay "Marry Him." Colbert does a much better job at convincing to settle.
I felt like i could really relate to the essay "A Way to Honor Life" by Cortney Davis. In her essay she describes how she is a nurse and in her profession she is used to seeing dying victims and their family members grieving, Instead of helping them grieve she smiles at them and try's to be optimistic. She does the same while her own mother was dying. Instead of grieving like the rest of the family members in the hospital, she simply said goodbye with out shedding a tear.
ReplyDeleteThis essay really reminds me of my father and the time my grandfather passed on. My father is a very stern man, never showing emotions or shedding tears at funerals. I was with my father and uncles the day my grandfather passed. To this day that is the only day i have ever seen my father cry. I remember my uncle also telling me he had never seen him cry not even when their brother passed years before. In a way this essay made me think of my father and how maybe he was just as the author in the essay. With the first personal death not showing emotion then the next letting go and showing emotion.
In the essay "The Deeper Well of Memory" by Christine, the author has gone through dreadful times in her life with loosing very close loved ones. Which was her mother of old age who also had Alzheimers, and her husband battling lung cancer.
ReplyDeleteI thought this essay was sullen but very uplifting at the same time. Everyone in life is going to get sick and die that's just the honest truth, but she looks at death from a different perspective by showing you that trying to remember someone is something that you never forget because it's in your memory and nothing can take that away from you even in sickness. Which as for myself as I've gotten older seeing my grand parents pass away, and my wife's grand father passed away, now let's me know that I will never ever forget them.
THE ESSAY "CREATING YOUR OWN HAPPINESS" BY WAYNE COYNE HAD SOME GREAT AND INTERESTING POINTS THAT I COULD RELATE AND AGREE WITH. I AGREE WITH COYNE ABOUT HOW HUMANS CAN CREATED THEIR OWN HAPPINESS AND ITS IMPORTANT TO MAKE THE BEST OUT OF WHAT WE HAVE. LIFE IS NOT EASY BUT COMPLAINING IS NOT GOING TO MAKE IT EASIER.
ReplyDeleteIT IS EASY FOR ANYONE TO THINK THAT THEY ARE EXPERIENCING THE WORST DAY EVER BUT ITS NOT TRUE. I ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND THAT THERE'S OVER 6 BILLION PEOPLE OUT THERE AND THAT THERE'S AT LEAST ONE OTHER PERSON GOING THROUGH EVEN SOMETHING WORST AND PROBABLY WITH A SMILE ON THEIR FACE.
Doing Things My Own Way by Bela Fleck by Bela Fleck explains that doing your own things can have good results but also has negative results. She got alot of her nature from his grandfather. He grew up in a rough New York neighborhood, never graduated school, but ran two succesful buisness. Bela loved to play the banjo she took lessons from some great teachers. He just makes it up as he goes along.
ReplyDelete"A Way to Honor Life" by Courtney Davis really hit home for me. This last month has been a little rocky for me and my family because my grandma was put into hospice care in my house. :[ The doctors say she doesn't really have much longer, so there has been this grey cloud over my house recently. There is always all these people in my house, and it sucks to see people crying for her, but i know that they love her.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Davis explains, "...sorrow, grief becomes a way to honor life". I'm not afraid to show my feelings and cry about someone who was like my 2nd mom all my life. If you look at it like how Davis said, I guess I'm honoring and celebrating her life in a way. I know some people who think they have to be"grief-denying professionals", and try to be strong and not cry. I think this is the wrong way to go about a situation like this. Nothing good comes from holding everything inside. It's okay to cry, sometimes you just need to get it all out, grieve, and over time everything is going to be okay. Thats what i keep on telling myself.
The essay “Dancing All the Dances as Long as I Can” by Robert Fulghum. It is about how the author loves to dance to any kind of dance. Where throughout his day, when staying at home, he turns up the stereo and starts to dance to the beat of the music. One day a situation came up, when he went to learn how to dance tango, in the beginning he got embarrassed of trying it out, but after hearing some words from an old women, he got the courage to get up and dance. So since then, he has been learning any kind of dance that comes to his mind with overcoming his fears.
ReplyDeleteI loved what the author had to say in this passage. In situations, if you feel like you can do anything that comes to your mind, you should go for it. If it is like dancing, singing, or anything that makes you get out of your comfort zone, and show the real you, where you have no need of keeping fear inside yourself anymore. Also no one is really stopping you, so you shouldn’t care what others think about you throughout your life. You should live and enjoy life to the fullest, no matter what age you are.
In the essay "The Deeper Well of Memory" by Christine Cleary its says how she is going through some rough times. Her mother is losing her memory because of Alzheimers and her husband is trying to fight cancer.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was true that memory has to do more with your heart than your mind.This essay really caught my eye because i think that you do put memories in your heart. That you really wont lose someone as long as you remember them and keep their memory alive.
The essay i really enjoyed reading was “Dancing All the Dances as Long as I Can” by Robert Fulghum. Fulghum loves to dance , and he tells a story about when he went tango dancing how confusing ,and intimidated he was at first .He was scared to try it ,because he didn't want to feel like a fool . After trying it he loved it . and he loves the challenges that come with learning a new dance.
ReplyDeleteI loved how Fulghum says "My passion for tango disguises a fearfulness. I fear the shrinking of life that goes with aging. I fear the boredom that comes with not learning and not taking chances. I fear the dying that goes on inside you when you leave the game of life to wait in the final checkout line." because we all do something to hide our fears for example i exercise to get away from my problems and fears . its the only time i feel i can be alone.He sends out a great message to everyone that your never to old to try new things and and feel like you've accomplished something in your life.
I really enjoyed reading the essay "Creating Our Own Happiness" by Wayne Coyne. I total agree that we should be happy with what we have or make the best of it. I know sometimes it's hard to find the positive or happiness in a negative situation, but if we did it would definitely help the situation.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit it's not always easy to look on the brightside especially if it's a bad situation. In the past, I've noticed that when you do find that one positive thing it usually changes your whole outlook on the situation. I think if we were to always make the best of things and create our own happiness life would run a whole lot smoother.