"Doot do do do do doot doot! Livin' in the USA"

The song that I chose to represent American life today was the song "Livin' In The USA" by The Steve Miller Band. Even though this song was released in 1990, I feel that it still fits America's lifestyle today. The song is generally upbeat with a pretty simple instrumental progression throughout the whole thing. My favorite lines from this song are:
"I see a yellow man, a brown man
A white man, a red man
Lookin' for Uncle Sam
To give you a helpin' hand
But everybody's kickin' sand
Even politicians
We're living in a plastic land
Somebody give me a hand, yeah" (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/steve+miller+band/livin+in+the+usa_20249173.html)

Everyone needs help from their neighbors but everyone is causing problems at the same time, it says. "We're living in a plastic land" is true because we're using more plastic than ever, but at the same time trying to reduce our environmental footprint. 

A few other lines that I really like are:
"Come on try it, you can buy it, you can leave it next week, yeah
Somebody give me a cheeseburger"

This shows America’s tendency to buy things and deal with them later. And of course the cheeseburger needs to earn a line. An example of our obesity and health issues, the cheeseburger is probably one of the more symbolic items for our country.

YouTube Clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxj14ynrSKw&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

How Does One Write?

How do I write?

            To me writing can be done anywhere, at any time. If you’re suddenly inspired with a story or an experience, write it down! For schoolwork though, it seems easier to write if it’s in the same spot with the same setting each time.

            When I get home after sports or whatever I have that night, I will generally leave any writing portion of my homework for last. After finishing Spanish translations and math problems, I will eventually sit down and write. In my room, I have a white, wooden desk with a chair that has a seat made of bungee cords. I always move whatever is on my desk to my bed so that I can spread out across my desk. I am also one of those people who cannot work when it is quiet, no matter how hard I try. If it has to be pure silence (like in class sometimes), I always have a song running through my head, making it hard to concentrate. At home I usually open my window so I can hear the noises from the street. Even if it’s cold, I’ll put on a sweater and shut the blinds so that the wind doesn’t come through as much. Otherwise I’ll pick a playlist on my iPod and just let it run while I work.

Finally I’ll sit down, push some lead through a mechanical pencil and write. More often then not, the first sheet of writing goes in the trash. It’s like anything else; I think you need to warm up before you can really do a fine job. If I’m unable to have these ideal conditions to write in, I can still write anywhere. Whether it’s on the bus home from a soccer game, or happily in my cozy room, I feel that good writing can occur anywhere, it just might not be as easy to get out right away.

Inaugural Words Over Time

After going through a good amount of the lists of the most common inaugural words, there was one aspect that stood out to me. The earliest inaugural addresses contain words such as "government", "people", "country", "citizen", and "right". These addresses generally do not contain words such as "war" and "economy". These presidents seemed to focus more on the people and their role in the country rather than on the more political and economic aspects of the nation.

The more recent presidents used words such as "nation", "work", "world", "America", "American", and "responsibility". Based on these words alone, these presidents chose to focus on America's responsibility to the world, rather than to its own people.

The other thing that I noticed was how the inaugural speeches of presidents who were elected two or more times differed. Generally, the president had one word that was well used in each of his speeches, but the rest changed. These presidents also seemed to use the same word a smaller amount of times in his second or later speech, which makes me think that they assumed people already knew them, so that didn't have to give as much of an inaugural address.

This website was a very unique tool to use because it allowed us to analyze speeches without having to read the actual speech itself. Going by the most used words was interesting because it basically gave you a one or two word description of the president and his goals for his term.

Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett

            Almost everyone nowadays knows or has known someone who went through a battle with cancer. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett is the story of Ann’s friendship with Lucy Grealy, a fellow author and poet who struggled with cancer for almost all of her life, and how Lucy impacted her forever.

Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma when she was under 10 years old and struggled with its impacts throughout the remainder of her life. Her jawbone was removed, and she struggled with the negative body image that it gave her forever. She also had difficulty speaking and swallowing because her remaining facial bone was too fragile to hold more than the six teeth that cancer left her with. This led to her going through many more surgeries on her body so that she could look and hopefully feel “beautiful.” Lucy wrote her own book, Autobiography of a Face, that told this story of her cancer. On the other hand, Ann Patchett wrote Truth & Beauty about the parts of their lives that they shared and their relationship behind Lucy’s cancer treatments.

Both Ann and Lucy attended the same college, Sarah Lawrence, at the same time, but they never became close. After they were both accepted into the esteemed Iowa Writers Workshop, they became roommates and their friendship began to blossom.

This memoir follows the lives of Lucy and Ann through the life they went through together. In addition, Ann also included the letters that they sent each other when they were separated. The theme of this book appeared to me about, as the title suggests, real beauty and what it entails. Lucy Grealy struggled throughout her life with people judging her solely on her looks. From getting plastic surgery to trying any means of getting more than six teeth, Lucy was always one step behind her disease. This part of the book was so powerful that I had to pause a few times because the emotion was so strong. Is there a point where you can’t win? Should Lucy just give up on beating her disease because of all the pain the surgeries are causing her as well as her family and friends?

Lucy was constantly looking for Ann’s reassurance on these matters of love and beauty, relentlessly asking Ann questions to boost her confidence. ‘Do you love me, Ann? Do you love me the most? Do you think I’m pretty? Do you think I’m talented?’ Ann was always there for her, keeping her sane and helping her mentally, physically, and financially.

During her life, Lucy keeps stacking up her medical and school bills, constantly going more and more in debt but never paying any of it back.  This leads Ann to describe their relationship using an ant and a grasshopper metaphor where Lucy was the carefree grasshopper, always having fun and doing things last minute, while Ann was the ant who kept moving forward at the same steady pace, always following the beaten path to ensure security. The two struggle to become commended authors throughout the book until Lucy publishes her novel, Autobiography of a Face and Ann eventually publishes The Patron Saint of Liars. From that point, Lucy seems to become more independent and Ann is in less of her life.

Ultimately, fame is not enough for Lucy, and she becomes dependent on OxyContin, which was prescribed to her after her final reconstructive surgery, just like she had earlier in the story with codeine. She also resorts to cutting herself with razor blades, drinking, and taking any pills she could find to cope with the pain she felt inside. Lucy felt that fame because of her face was worth nothing; what she really needed was someone who truly loved her. She found this in Ann who was consistently at her bedside and trying to convince her to give up her drug and alcohol habits. This part was also extremely full of feeling. It was hard for me to understand at first what Ann was getting out of the relationship where she was basically the parent to Lucy’s antics. Conversely, by this point, Ann has painted this picture of Lucy as a lovable, vibrant woman with so much talent to offer the world. I felt that I was right alongside Ann next to the hospital bed, telling Lucy to never give up and to keep on fighting.

By the end of the book, Ann starts hearing from Lucy less and less. Ann tries to convince Lucy to go into a drug rehabilitation program, but Lucy’s health gradually diminishes further and she becomes even more addicted to heroin.

On December 18, 2002, Ann gets a call telling her that Lucy had died of a heroin overdose at the age of 39. The last few pages convey to us that Ann still has Lucy in her dreams and heart, and that she still cannot believe that Lucy is really gone. Ann closes the book with two exceptionally powerful lines: “The sheer force of Lucy’s life convinced me that she would live no matter what. That was my mistake.”

This book really spoke to me because I have known multiple people who have struggled with cancer for years and in the end lost the fight. I felt that it was amazing that even with all the stress and problems that Lucy brought her, Ann was always there, the one unwavering supporter in Lucy’s life. This memoir truly demonstrates the power of friendship and how one person can impact your life forever.

Mary Wollstonecraft on the Rights of Women

            Throughout this article’s entirety, Mary Wollstonecraft is challenging the stereotypical place in society that women held in her era (the mid to late 1700s). She starts off by speaking of how a woman’s only role is to be beautiful and that their character “governs by obeying”. Much later in the article, Wollstonecraft comes back to that point by stating that “women who have distinguished themselves have neither been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex”. I feel that she makes a fair point on this aspect---many of the most notable women do not follow the stereotypes of females; they take a different view that some would consider to be like a man.

            On that note, Wollstonecraft combats any rebuttal by saying that women “have been drawn out of their sphere by false refinement, and not by an endeavour to acquire masculine qualities.” I believe that this was one of her best points. Those skeptical of these thoughts may say that women are trying to be like men, which makes men the ideal. False. Women are pushing their society’s boundaries because of the role thrust upon them, not because they are trying to be like men.

            Another matter that Wollstonecraft discusses is the role that education plays on the lives of women. She claims that women receive “only a disorderly kind of education” and that “learning is with them, in general, only a secondary thing” because women are taught that their goal is to serve a husband. Perhaps the reason for a woman’s gentleness is because “they dwell on effects”, Wollstonecraft ponders.

            The biggest “issue” that Wollstonecraft claims threatens a woman from changing her place in society is love. The love that she speaks of is passion, not the friendship that blossoms into a romantic interest, the passion that is said to be able to distract a woman from any other goal.

At one point, Wollstonecraft references Rousseau who states that “a woman should never, for a moment, feel herself independent, that she should be governed by fear to exercise her natural cunning.” This notion seems completely absurd to me. Why should a woman not be allowed to assert her independence in the world? Later, this point is brought back. Why should a woman only seek to please? “Whether she be loved or neglected, her first wish should be to make herself respectable,” Wollstonecraft states. I agree with her that this is how happiness should be attained. Without being happy with herself, a man’s love will never last, Wollstonecraft pronounces.

This article brings to attention all the strides that women have made since Mary Wollstonecraft was alive. Women can now vote, hold political offices, and we even had a woman make it further than ever before in the United States presidential race. Even though women have many more opportunities, there is still a large portion of people that still hold opinions of women that are far inferior to the thoughts of men. However subtle these opinions are, I’m sure that just about everyone would agree that this is the truth.

I personally believe that women will always, or at least for a very long time, be considered by some to be inferior to men. The history is too deeply rooted to be completely swayed in a short segment of time from one pole to another. Though I feel that this will not be a painless journey, I’m sure that if men and women work together and treat each other as equals, the trip will not be fruitless.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

            When I first began to read this article, all my thoughts were skeptical. Just like most of today’s teenagers, I use Google and the internet often. But how can simply looking up a fact here and there and searching for a little extra information impact my entire thinking process? After reading the article, I feel that Nicholas Carr’s thoughts about this, backed up by many sources, are sadly very true.

            The part that really made me feel like he was right was when he spoke of how “…[his] concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages…. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text.” In today’s fast-paced world, we all want to just do whatever we need to do so that we are done.  Before the internet became commonplace, people would be able to sit down and read a large novel because they enjoyed it. Now, people just skim and hope for a decent summary because they can’t concentrate long enough.

            In this day and age, many aspects of everyday life are run by some form of the internet. No longer are we basing our internet use on things that are already here, we are basing new things on the internet and its capabilities. The internet is changing the natural process of human thought into an automated, almost machine-like algorithm, intent on multi-tasking if necessary to get the job done. Ironically enough, I had just put a fresh CD in my computer to give myself a little bit of white noise before embarking on this article. Halfway through, I turned the music off after realizing that I was just like another statistic in this story.

            Later in the article, Carr discusses how the Google founders feel about what it is becoming. Larry Page, one of the founders, stated that they are trying to make Google into something smarter and more powerful than people, which seems like a frightening concept to me.

            This article really opened my eyes to how much of an impact the internet is having, not only on how we find information, but how we process and utilize that information. The next time I head to the search box for some quick info, I’m really going to be thinking a lot harder than normal!

Translating Skunk Dreams

This article by Louise Erdrich for The Georgia Review made me think very in depth about the message the author was trying to convey. Although hard to understand in some of the more vague parts, I felt that Erdrich was trying to put into words the thought that the skunk was the perfect example of how to live fearlessly.

The story begins with Erdrich describing the night she spent on a football field where a skunk comes and sleeps right next to her. A little while after the skunk falls asleep, Erdrich begins to speculate about the skunk's dreams. Is he dreaming of casserole, dogs, garbage, the plot of Moby Dick, or anything even related to humans or skunks? Erdrich states that “We don’t know about the dreams of any other biota, and even much about our own.” This leaves the reader to hypothesize about dreams and how little we know about their meaning.

When she returns to the story about the skunk, she dives in to the meaning of a skunk’s scent. The stink is more than just an unpleasant stench, she believes, it is a symbol of the skunk and its independence. By letting its presence be known in such a simple way, it is almost like a skunk is liberating itself by alerting people to its presence.

Erdrich then explores the journey she herself has taken, from becoming what she calls “urbanized” in New Hampshire to realizing that what she loves is the outdoors and the freedom it holds for her. The deeper meaning behind these memories seems lost to me though. It’s not until she conquers the fear of going inside the fence around the hunting park that the story seems to connect with its beginning.

While contemplating the risks and benefits of getting inside the park, she returns to the mystery of dreams and speaks of Adam Phillips, a psychotherapist who believes that dreams are simply a person’s desires without obstacles. I agree with this statement in a way: without obstacles, a desire is more easily grasped. At the same time, there are still consequences which makes it possible for a dream to not turn out as expected.

At the end of the article, Erdrich says that “We should take comfort from the skunk, an arrogant creature so pleased with its own devices that it never runs from harm, just turns its back in total confidence.” I feel that through this statement, Erdrich gets her point across that, by having one undesirable aspect (the skunk’s stench), the skunk is able to be pleased enough with its other characteristics that it feels almost invincible. True, skunks are not big or strong, feared or admired, but they are able to be one of the most proud creatures by simply living fearlessly and, as the cliché goes, living their lives to the fullest.