Extra Credit: Moment of Freedom

            One moment when I felt free was when I was on a roller coaster. The ride had no floor so your feet dangled throughout the whole thing. I personally am not very fond of roller coasters but I went on this one twice. When I closed my eyes, it felt as if I was flying. I felt free from life, the ground, and the world. I felt as if nothing had to affect me anymore. I was truly happy on that ride.

Wonder

Toy Mouse:

1.)    Wonder in my experience is when you try to find out all of the aspects of something. You wonder about its past, its future, its life, and its purpose. If I was six years old, I probably would have come up with a whole secret world for the toy and acted it out either in reality or in my mind. I would have done this because the actually reality of the toy is a lot more dull than the one I could come up with. The toy’s real reality would not have entertained me.

2.)    I think that we are less capable of wonder and imagination as we get older because we know more about the world. A lot of our questions get answered and so we lose that wonder of our surroundings. For example, kids wonder about the stars but adults don’t because they know that they are just swirling balls of gas in space.

3.)    I think that this means that concepts are ideas that we believe are true because we came up with them. As a result, we worship them because we think that they are true knowledge though they could be wrong. Wonder is the greatest knowledge because it supports the fact that we can’t know everything about everything which is the highest knowledge. I find this true in my experience because there are many things in life that people thought were true but turned out to be false. For example, people used to be absolutely certain that the world was flat. It was a concept but turned out to be wrong. 

Kenyon Address Essay

            In his speech, David Foster Wallace is saying that most humans make their decisions automatically based on themselves. Everything we do is on our “default setting” and because of that we become dead and like robots. In this speech he also states a solution to this problem with society. He says that we all need to look at things without simply thinking about ourselves. We need to put ourselves in the shoes of those around us and consider their lives. If we do that, then we might stop getting so angry at the world when it doesn’t do what we want. What was most important is that he said that it was our choice to accept his method or to keep looking at the world through ourselves. I completely agree with this idea because if we can consciously decide how to act around people then and how to view them, then we should be able to change how we view the world.

            I find this as a very credible idea because even though it would be extremely hard, it is possible to look at the world without putting yourself in the center. Many times when you get upset with someone, someone will tell you to put yourself in that person’s shoes so that you can understand where they are coming from. It’s basically like that but on a broader scale. Not only do I think that you could do it, I think that it could work. Your mind opens up to new possibilities when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes and that’s a lot better than getting mad at the world.

            I will admit that I never have even thought to look at the world this way. I have always been on my “default setting” and looked at the world as if it revolved around me. It really is the easiest thing to do since we don’t actually think about doing it. However, I will try this method of looking at the world and see if I can pull it off. It will be a lot of work since my thoughts usually come first before others and I like my thoughts. I’ll try this method because I like the thought that maybe I’m the only person in the world that’s feeling these negative feelings and act on them. The students could have had a negative or a positive reaction to his idea.

            I think that there are two possible reasons why the students clapped when Wallace was basically insulting them. The first possible reason was that they were in denial about what he was saying. They heard what he said but didn’t fully process it as towards them as an insult. The other possible reason is that they acknowledge what he is saying as true but don’t actually feel insulted by it. If everyone does it, then there’s not really a need to be upset. The human race has faults and we shouldn’t get upset when people point them out. This is indicative of the fact that some of the audience is already caught up in the world that he is talking about and that some might still look at the world and see things that are wrong.

            The way that you reacted to what was said by Wallace really depends on how much you think about the world. It’s a great idea to look at the world without seeing yourself as the center. Even if you don’t think that it would work, it could still be a good exercise for the mind. It is our natural instinct to look at the world with us as the center. I see it as a kind of challenge to stop thinking that way all the time. I think that this is a credible idea and I will be trying it from now on. 

Caligula

1)      Camus demonstrates Caligula’s heart by his desire for the moon. The moon stands for complete happiness in this world which is impossible to get. His heart will never have complete happiness just how Caligula will never possess the moon. This implies that Caligula realizes that his desire is unlimited but has decided to try anyway.

2)      The politicians view Caligula as a boy that can’t get over things and takes things too serious. You can get this from how the first patrician says “it’s really going too far, setting all Rome in a turmoil because the girl has died.” I do not agree with their view because I think that Caligula sees the world much more clearly than they do and has learned to question things instead of leaving them the way they are. He has decided to strive for happiness when all they can do is simply ignore their grief like the way they forget that their loved ones have died. 

Factors of a Bed

Factors of a bed:

Soft

You can lay on it

You can sit on it

You can sit or stack things on it

You can jump on it

You can put covers over it

You can relax on it

You can do work on it

You can eat on it

You can do acrobats on it

You can give birth on it

You can sleep on it

Has springs and bedding

You can carry it

You can travel with it

You can have intercourse on it

What makes me happy

            What makes me happy is when I fulfill my desires and when the things around me fulfill the desires I have for them. I have unlimited desires so there are possibly infinitely many things that will make me happy. There are also many aspects of things that make me happy. They could be objects, people, ideas, dreams, or animals. Concepts like knowledge could make me happy or things that I find beautiful to look at. In this essay I will give the top things that make me happy or would make be happy if I fulfilled them.

            The top thing that makes be happy is when I feel like I have accomplished something. This makes me happy because a lot of the time I feel like I’m wasting my life and accomplishing something abates that for a little while. Another thing that makes me happy is reading fiction books that I choose. They make me happy because I like to lose myself in their pages and made-up worlds and amazing lives. The third thing that makes me happy is keeping my cat happy. This makes me happy because it is an accomplishment and a very important one to me. One thing that will make me happy in the future is becoming a vet and saving lives. This will make me extremely happy because saving lives, in my opinion, is a great way to make a difference in this world. A fourth thing that makes me happy is looking at beautiful things. Things I qualify as beautiful are sunsets, starry night skies, cats with pretty coats, and many other things. There really isn’t a reason for this besides the fact that I just like looking at them. Getting what I want makes me happy because I’m getting what I want. Learning about animals makes me happy because I find animals fascinating and want to know everything I can about them. Eating, sleeping, dreaming, and living make me happy because they fulfill certain desires I have within myself. Certain people make me happy but not many. My family only makes me happy some of the time and some friends make me happy whenever they are around and some don’t. Animals make me happy if they’re alive because if I’m seeing them, I’m probably learning about or helping them. A lot of small things also make me happy but that would take forever to write.

            All together a lot of things make me happy. Certain objects, people, thoughts, and sights have the high possibility of making my happy. Ideas, dreams, or just about anything that can be defined as a noun have the possibility make me happy. I most likely do have an infinite amount of things that make me happy because my desires are infinite and whatever fulfills those desires will make me happy. My happiness consists of whatever fulfills my desires.

Who I am

           In class we talked about how people define themselves by what they do and not who they are. In my opinion, the two are very closely related. We define ourselves by what we do because, in a way, they reflect on who we are and they are a lot easier to say. What you do isn’t completely what defines you but it is a part. Who you are controls what you do and so I define myself with both things.

            I am a human being with basic desires. My desires include a lot of things which come together to define me as a person. I play the violin and like to read fiction. I try to do my best in everything that I do. The thing that is most valuable to me in life is my sense of self. Being able to be my own person is important to me. My religious background is Catholic and I do personally believe in God and Jesus. It should be more important to me than it is now but it is still important to me in some degree because it defines how I should act and treat others in a good way. My cultural background is so low on importance to me that I’m not even sure what it is because I haven’t really thought about it much. What I hope for in life is to make a difference and that is my biggest goal.

            All of the things that I said in the last paragraph define me because they are impact me in some way. Who we are and what we do both impact us in a way and may change us over time. Who you are controls what you do and what you do impacts your life. My religion, my name, playing the violin, being a Catholic, and my culture all define me as a human being. What I hope for and my desires also define who I might become.