Poetry isn't easy. Great poets make it seem like magic to produce such works of art, yet I'm sure overly-complex and underdeveloped poems prefaced "The Raven" and "The Road Not Taken." I may not be an Edgar Allen Poe or a Robert Frost, but taking a few levels of mediocrity to ultimately reach something stellar is and experience that I, a sophomore Academite, share with these ingenious poets.
One of the best memories I have as a child is being in North Carolina, and I wrote my first draft around this memory. My favorite poetry is that which is a little bit eery and creepy, yet simultaneously soft and smooth. This first level I worked on making sure my poem had an element of mystery and harmony. I focused heavily on creating a mood with rhyme and sound that when read aloud would mesh seamlessly into music. But my downfall was not realizing that music isn't just a sound; it's a feeling, a story, a message, and my poem had none of that.
My second draft I tried to keep that same ambiguity that I felt writing my first one, yet this time I seemed to amplify it to the point where the plot got stepped on and muddled in my creative ambition. I often tend to think in a way that always makes perfect sense to me, but when articulated to others does not come across the same way, and this became an issue in this second level. I created this fantasy scene with dark forests, sly animals, and curiosity. It all seemed wonderful and imaginative in my head; I knew every reference, metaphor, figurative language. Yet, it was not truly complete. I still did not know why I was writing it. Honestly, the only purpose I had was to write a possibly better poem that I thought Mr. Allen would hopefully deem as better, but realistically I was still close to flat-lining in terms of progress.
Finally, I caught it.
A great poetic idea is one of those great phenomenons of the world that cannot be obtained by force. For me, my greatest poetic work comes from those "aha!" moments that fly by my head and need to be harnessed into greatness. I found myself struggling for an idea when I sat down at my computer at a convenient time and stared at an empty screen begging and pleading to be splattered with words. My true success came about from the unintentional and divergent day-dreaming that I was able to condense in a fleeting moment. Eventually the hunger of the captured idea inevitably pushed its way into my fingertips and started to type. No matter what nonsense came about, be it completely ridiculous or utterly ingenious, it created the stem from which ultimately, with the combination of hard work, creativity, and elbow grease, a complete and develop flower blossomed.
My third and fourth drafts resulted from an unintentional turn. The impatience of waiting for my dad to pick me up had compelled me to walk home without a coat in the biting cold. In the two-mile walk of solitude and self-reflection, I realized that a poem did not have to be complex to be great. As a 'V' of birds towered over my head, I decided to focus on one of the most simplistic and innocent trends of nature: a bird escaping the winter. Thus, I had a feeling, a story, a message, and therefor I had music. When I sat down at my computer, the ideas poured out. Alone in the cold reminded me that I too wanted to escape the winter and fly away, and with this I found a way to emotionally connect myself to what I was writing, and what I was writing was exponentially better because of this vital piece of the puzzle I had previously lacked.
I am ultimately proud of my poem. But more than that, I am proud of the progress and steps it took to get there. Not only was creating an increasingly better poem for me satisfying, but finding that one moment, that one muse, was everlastingly thrilling. From this process I have taken away the recognition of drafting and editing, as well as the accompanying progress. But what I want most is for others to take away their own unique thoughts and feelings, different than his, different than hers, different than yours, and different than mine.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Get Organized: Metacognition of Organizing My Closet
I chose to complete the daunting task of organizing my black hole of a closet. The thing practically unhinges its snake-like jaws every time I feed it with random objects, clothes, shoes. Usually I'm not an excessively organized person; that is until my situation-onset OCD kicks in and my straightening up turns into an alphabetized game of Tetris. Some things needed to be dumped, some moved, folded, tilted, turned. I didn't want to do it, but once I started I knew I wouldn't be able to stop.
Before I started I knew my goal and how I wanted to accomplish it. I knew what should go where and with what and how. But I didn't really know specifics. I didn't know that my jeans were going to be folded in two piles, or that my old piggy bank would be parallel with a snow globe.
During the process I felt anxious. I saw the progress like taming my hair by brushing and untangling its endless knots. Creating piles of right out garbage and useless parts of nameless objects was relieving. I don't quite know how to articulate it, but it made me feel current and in the moment, seeing that all that was really left were things that I had a good chance of using or appreciating in the future, and the past was cleaning itself up.
Even after my closet was dustless and organized like a well-ordered machine, I felt that I couldn't stop. I then proceeded to clean and straighten the rest of my room until every object was neatly tucked away in its home. Even my "crap drawer" looked a bit less crappy and more purposeful. After I finished, I felt satisfaction and serenity. Organizing my humble abode definitely made my mind feel more at ease, for my thoughts had less objects and junk to jump around and think about.
This project made me realize that the way I create ideas inside my head parallels the environment around me, Like my room, my thinking process does not organize itself. If left alone they will tangle into a taxing pile of "I'll-do-it-later"s and "it-will-happen-eventually"s. Unless I truly focus and put my mind to it, things will never be worked out. My endless divergent thought will never converge unless I choose to take the time to steer it in that direction. I would like to work on creating an organized mind that allows me to be messy up until the point where it becomes noticeably overwhelming and I need to clean it. Like my room, its okay to throw things on the floor or push things under the bed, but eventually I need to embrace that I live there, and straightening up is inescapable and necessary.
Before I started I knew my goal and how I wanted to accomplish it. I knew what should go where and with what and how. But I didn't really know specifics. I didn't know that my jeans were going to be folded in two piles, or that my old piggy bank would be parallel with a snow globe.
During the process I felt anxious. I saw the progress like taming my hair by brushing and untangling its endless knots. Creating piles of right out garbage and useless parts of nameless objects was relieving. I don't quite know how to articulate it, but it made me feel current and in the moment, seeing that all that was really left were things that I had a good chance of using or appreciating in the future, and the past was cleaning itself up.
Even after my closet was dustless and organized like a well-ordered machine, I felt that I couldn't stop. I then proceeded to clean and straighten the rest of my room until every object was neatly tucked away in its home. Even my "crap drawer" looked a bit less crappy and more purposeful. After I finished, I felt satisfaction and serenity. Organizing my humble abode definitely made my mind feel more at ease, for my thoughts had less objects and junk to jump around and think about.
This project made me realize that the way I create ideas inside my head parallels the environment around me, Like my room, my thinking process does not organize itself. If left alone they will tangle into a taxing pile of "I'll-do-it-later"s and "it-will-happen-eventually"s. Unless I truly focus and put my mind to it, things will never be worked out. My endless divergent thought will never converge unless I choose to take the time to steer it in that direction. I would like to work on creating an organized mind that allows me to be messy up until the point where it becomes noticeably overwhelming and I need to clean it. Like my room, its okay to throw things on the floor or push things under the bed, but eventually I need to embrace that I live there, and straightening up is inescapable and necessary.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Metacognition: Early Modern Era Project
I've never really been one to think about my thinking. But when you take the time to think about the way you think, and realize it's actually a little different than the way you thought you thought, you learn a lot about yourself.
I went through an interesting period of personal discovery when working on the most recent history project regarding a "TFAD" for a society from the Early Modern Era. It seems simple, right? Take what you read from the book, swallow it, spit it out in your own words, meet the required guidelines, and you're set. I mean, it doesn't seem like I would be exhausting my brain power. However, group projects are so much more than focusing on your part and having it all miraculously come together in the end. It was in my nature to kind of take the upper hand and make sure that everyone was getting their work done, was having their questions answered, and were set on track to finish with a smooth landing. However, I found myself not only thinking about my own work, but also about others, and this added to my mental load. What I'm trying to get at is that I have observed through my lengthy almost 16 years of life that I tend to be someone who helps others with their thinking, as well as trying to balance and organize my own. When it comes to group projects, I would like to think that others appreciate this, but I know I also need to find a happy medium between my runway train of thoughts and other's temporarily stuck ones.
As a thinker I would like to become more organized. Ironically I am very obsessive compulsive about organization in my physical world, but the thoughts the ricochet around my head seem to be very sporadic and divergent. While although this may be beneficial for brainstorming and also be very advantageous for coming up with new ideas, this can be also often problematic. Sometimes I will be trying to get out all of the ideas in my head, and I ignore the time needed to be spent on further deepening specific, key thoughts. I really need to slow down and take the time to form a complete, well-thought-out thought before trying to formulate a million other partially-developed thoughts that ultimately become irrelevant to the larger picture.
Sometimes it's this over thinking things that becomes my biggest enemy. Much too often I think the life out of a thought, and this makes me very stressed and even paranoid. It is also these feelings that lead to overwhelming anxiety, and this I have found to be very debilitating.
What surprises me about my thinking is how influenced I am by others thoughts. Sometimes some of my best ideas emerge after someone else's own unique thoughts create very pronounced ones for myself. Of course, I'm not saying that I take their ideas and use it as my own. Rather, by talking with others, the budding seedlings of my own euphorically metaphorical thoughts are sprinkled with water and bathed in sunshine, and then bloom into something I would never have come up with on my own. This peer-building thought process is one of the reasons, I believe, that I made the right choice in 8th grade to try out for Academy.
Something I like about my thinking is my curiosity to know why things are a certain way or how things are done. Especially with this very prevalent election, I have recently found myself getting in never-ending conversations prolonged by my profuse amount of questions with my parents in the car. Random questions come to me while listening to the news, like "What is the point of the electoral college over the majority of the vote?" or "Why are there vice-presidential debates?" or "Are the church and state really separated?" These ideas seem to come to me unexpectedly, yet they open up a whole novel of knowledge and conversations that would have otherwise been undiscovered.
Overall, most thoughts are uncontrollable. No one can really pick and choose what pops into their heads unannounced But what we can control is what we want to think more about, and what we want to spend our time developing. This is something no one is perfect at. No one can think about a single idea and suddenly know all there is to know about it. But believe it or not, being an efficient thinker takes practice, and when it comes to essays or homework or speeches or projects, this can be very beneficial. But sometimes I enjoy being a bit mindless, a bit aloof, or a bit unreasonable, and that's okay too.
I went through an interesting period of personal discovery when working on the most recent history project regarding a "TFAD" for a society from the Early Modern Era. It seems simple, right? Take what you read from the book, swallow it, spit it out in your own words, meet the required guidelines, and you're set. I mean, it doesn't seem like I would be exhausting my brain power. However, group projects are so much more than focusing on your part and having it all miraculously come together in the end. It was in my nature to kind of take the upper hand and make sure that everyone was getting their work done, was having their questions answered, and were set on track to finish with a smooth landing. However, I found myself not only thinking about my own work, but also about others, and this added to my mental load. What I'm trying to get at is that I have observed through my lengthy almost 16 years of life that I tend to be someone who helps others with their thinking, as well as trying to balance and organize my own. When it comes to group projects, I would like to think that others appreciate this, but I know I also need to find a happy medium between my runway train of thoughts and other's temporarily stuck ones.
As a thinker I would like to become more organized. Ironically I am very obsessive compulsive about organization in my physical world, but the thoughts the ricochet around my head seem to be very sporadic and divergent. While although this may be beneficial for brainstorming and also be very advantageous for coming up with new ideas, this can be also often problematic. Sometimes I will be trying to get out all of the ideas in my head, and I ignore the time needed to be spent on further deepening specific, key thoughts. I really need to slow down and take the time to form a complete, well-thought-out thought before trying to formulate a million other partially-developed thoughts that ultimately become irrelevant to the larger picture.
Sometimes it's this over thinking things that becomes my biggest enemy. Much too often I think the life out of a thought, and this makes me very stressed and even paranoid. It is also these feelings that lead to overwhelming anxiety, and this I have found to be very debilitating.
What surprises me about my thinking is how influenced I am by others thoughts. Sometimes some of my best ideas emerge after someone else's own unique thoughts create very pronounced ones for myself. Of course, I'm not saying that I take their ideas and use it as my own. Rather, by talking with others, the budding seedlings of my own euphorically metaphorical thoughts are sprinkled with water and bathed in sunshine, and then bloom into something I would never have come up with on my own. This peer-building thought process is one of the reasons, I believe, that I made the right choice in 8th grade to try out for Academy.
Something I like about my thinking is my curiosity to know why things are a certain way or how things are done. Especially with this very prevalent election, I have recently found myself getting in never-ending conversations prolonged by my profuse amount of questions with my parents in the car. Random questions come to me while listening to the news, like "What is the point of the electoral college over the majority of the vote?" or "Why are there vice-presidential debates?" or "Are the church and state really separated?" These ideas seem to come to me unexpectedly, yet they open up a whole novel of knowledge and conversations that would have otherwise been undiscovered.
Overall, most thoughts are uncontrollable. No one can really pick and choose what pops into their heads unannounced But what we can control is what we want to think more about, and what we want to spend our time developing. This is something no one is perfect at. No one can think about a single idea and suddenly know all there is to know about it. But believe it or not, being an efficient thinker takes practice, and when it comes to essays or homework or speeches or projects, this can be very beneficial. But sometimes I enjoy being a bit mindless, a bit aloof, or a bit unreasonable, and that's okay too.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Blogging Around
The first blog I commented on was that by Miss Noreen Andersen, long-time friend and impeccable writer. In her blog post, 360 Degrees: Through the Fish Eye Lens, Nonie talks about all the different ways one can look at a simple image, and how by doing so, we experience something we have never seen, which is unexpectedly beautiful and life-changing. My comment is as follows:
Hey Noners! From the minute I met you, you have always written exquisitely, and this is no different. I completely agree; seeing the world from another perspective, from someone else's viewpoint, through a different lens, truly is beautiful. It's kind of like how we all can look at the same glass window and see the same colors, but not the same picture or message. I know that in my lifetime, this has helped me to understand and accept others, which I can easily say has enriched my world. Like you said, looking at something in a way you have never experienced can be absolutely stunning. Stepping out of the corner that we all feel so comfortable in never prompts any emotional growth. Little do we know that our "safe" world is a minuscule, insignificant part of life. With each moment we spend outside of that zone, our perspectives tenfold, and we begin to truly understand things that we would have never acknowledged before. The sad part is that most people don't put forth such an effort to walk in new shoes and subsequently suffer the loss of so much perspective and knowledge that really can change a person. But for those of us who are fortunate enough to find something worthwhile in the search for a new take on things, life seems that much more wonderful, and I can see you are definitely one of those people! Call me overly optimistic, but I believe that even the saddest, most uncomfortable, most unfamiliar of things have a way of turning around, just as long as you're willing enough to look through the right lens.
The second post I commented on was from Minho's blog. In the post entitled Best of Today: Moments, he talks about the "Moments" video watched in class incited the idea of taking the small things of life for granted. He also talks about how as humans we focus on what happened and what has yet to happen, and by doing so we miss perhaps the most important parts of life. My comment is as follows:
This post definitely epitomizes one of the greatest flaws of society - we are so concentrated on that which we cannot change and that which we have yet to regret, we miss perhaps the greatest moments of life. I too plead guilty; I do not truly observe the present around me enough. Consequently, this leads me to believe that life is utterly boring and lackluster, which could not be further from the truth. If we take the time to really just look at what's around us, we capture some of the best parts of life; those which we would never normally acknowledge. I agree with you wholeheartedly. We've been taught our whole existence to look ahead and focus on the future. While although that might sound somewhat inspirational and a great motto to tell yourself once in a while, this thought is much too prevalent. As a sucker for quotes, I must reference the legend John Lennon who said, "Life's what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." This is one of my favorites because it forces me stop and evaluate what I have been missing around me. During all the time I've wasted worrying and stressing over the most insignificant things that I believe to be so significant, I've lost all those completely significant moments that seemingly aren't at all. Life truly is a song composed of little moments, and those we take for granted equate with an incomplete, unfulfilled work of art.
Hey Noners! From the minute I met you, you have always written exquisitely, and this is no different. I completely agree; seeing the world from another perspective, from someone else's viewpoint, through a different lens, truly is beautiful. It's kind of like how we all can look at the same glass window and see the same colors, but not the same picture or message. I know that in my lifetime, this has helped me to understand and accept others, which I can easily say has enriched my world. Like you said, looking at something in a way you have never experienced can be absolutely stunning. Stepping out of the corner that we all feel so comfortable in never prompts any emotional growth. Little do we know that our "safe" world is a minuscule, insignificant part of life. With each moment we spend outside of that zone, our perspectives tenfold, and we begin to truly understand things that we would have never acknowledged before. The sad part is that most people don't put forth such an effort to walk in new shoes and subsequently suffer the loss of so much perspective and knowledge that really can change a person. But for those of us who are fortunate enough to find something worthwhile in the search for a new take on things, life seems that much more wonderful, and I can see you are definitely one of those people! Call me overly optimistic, but I believe that even the saddest, most uncomfortable, most unfamiliar of things have a way of turning around, just as long as you're willing enough to look through the right lens.
The second post I commented on was from Minho's blog. In the post entitled Best of Today: Moments, he talks about the "Moments" video watched in class incited the idea of taking the small things of life for granted. He also talks about how as humans we focus on what happened and what has yet to happen, and by doing so we miss perhaps the most important parts of life. My comment is as follows:
This post definitely epitomizes one of the greatest flaws of society - we are so concentrated on that which we cannot change and that which we have yet to regret, we miss perhaps the greatest moments of life. I too plead guilty; I do not truly observe the present around me enough. Consequently, this leads me to believe that life is utterly boring and lackluster, which could not be further from the truth. If we take the time to really just look at what's around us, we capture some of the best parts of life; those which we would never normally acknowledge. I agree with you wholeheartedly. We've been taught our whole existence to look ahead and focus on the future. While although that might sound somewhat inspirational and a great motto to tell yourself once in a while, this thought is much too prevalent. As a sucker for quotes, I must reference the legend John Lennon who said, "Life's what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." This is one of my favorites because it forces me stop and evaluate what I have been missing around me. During all the time I've wasted worrying and stressing over the most insignificant things that I believe to be so significant, I've lost all those completely significant moments that seemingly aren't at all. Life truly is a song composed of little moments, and those we take for granted equate with an incomplete, unfulfilled work of art.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
360 Degrees: The Moon
I've tried the new moon tilted in the air
Above a hazy tree-and-farmhouse cluster
As you might try a jewel in your hair.
I've tried it fine with little breadth of luster,
Alone or in one ornament combining
With one first-water start almost shining.
I put it shining anywhere I please.
By walking slowly on some evening later,
I've pulled it from a crate of crooked trees,
And brought it over glossy water, greater,
And dropped it in, and seen the image wallow,
The color run, all sorts of wonder follow.
There's magic in the moon. It is as if it is attached to an immeasurable amount of leashes that drag it everywhere an individual decides to roam. I love how the Milky Way seemingly corrodes it away with each passing phase. But no matter from what angle or body you see it in, it remains the same.
Sitting on my front stairs in Glenview Illinois I gaze up and envision the moon in its full phase, even though it is partially obscured by hazy cloud. If my aunt were to sit on her front stairs in California she would see the same thing. And if my cousin on the balcony of a suave apartment in New York could take the time to ignore the shining lights of the city and tilt his head up to the sky, he too would the same craters as me.
What if I were the fish that jumped out of the ocean to see my iridescent scales illuminate in the white reflection of the moon on the surface of the water? What if I was the wolf who cried "moon" almost every night? What if I were the satellite practically having a face to face conversation with the moon?
However, this astrological rock is much more than its physical appearance makes it out to be. From ancient times it was emphasized to be spiritually important. The beginnings of religion saw it as a figure to worship in forms of gods and goddesses. Before the 60s, touching it seemed impossible, but somehow we came together set our sights on conquering it and succeeded. On one hemisphere it signals the end of the day, where on the other it signals the early beginning. Yet no matter when or how one sees it, the moon has defied the ends of time and the farthest of distances to remain entirely universal.
Frost's poem emulates its connectivity. It defies time, it defies space, and it defies meaning. I'd like to think that no matter what the moon represents, or from what angle one sees it, its magnetic pull binds us to our history and each other. Maybe I'm a little far-fetched here, and some would probably say that this claim is a stretch, but this is how I see it from where I stand. See, that's what I love about the moon. I'd like to think that no matter who I am, what I am, where I am, how I am, when I look at the cratered rock that orbits the very diverse and distant earth we live on, I am connected to everything.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
iMedia: "Society" by Eddie Vedder
Into the Wild is probably one of my favorite movies. Whether its the flawless cinematography, spot-on acting, or oddly inspirational, based-on-a-true-story plot, this movie never ceases to hypnotize. However, it is the hauntingly accurate melody of Eddie Vedder's "Society" that leaves me weaving an endless web of divergent thought.
Society. It's something that molds the way we think, the way we act, the way we look, dress, walk, talk, eat, sleep. It invades our subconscious, whether conscious or unconscious. Inescapable. It is a utopia designed to feed insiders with false information in order to prevent them from pulling the curtain and finding out that the great Wizard of Oz is nothing but a man.
The story of Into the Wild focuses on how society held in by a materialistic cage. Our human nature is to think that what we want is what need. And what we do have, materialistically, whether it be needed or wanted, affects the way society makes others see us.
"There's those thinking, more-or-less, less is more
But if less is more, how you keeping score?
Means for every point you make, your level drops
Kinda like you're starting from the top
You can't do that..."
These are my favorite lines in the song. Vedder complexly addresses the paradox of less being more, but also more being more. We need to break society's measurement of worth. If we look at one another with a materialistic lens, we are programmed to look down on those who have nothing, those who go against society's idealistic "norm." For every man that goes against the societal concept that having more material equates with being on top, "for every point you make, your level drops." This is society's defense mechanism to protect itself against a threat to its order. Society refuses to allow us to be happy if we do not have quote-unquote "stuff." Should we every make the unthinkable, the intolerable, the blasphemous choice to be content with what we have, to accept that what we want is not what we need, we are to be punished and to punish others.
But how do we fix this? How do we dispose of the notion that material makes us happy? That those who have more are worth more? If we are bound by such a tight rope around our subconscious, how can we escape? I believe we need to to measure worth in terms of one's immeasurable, emotional possessions. We need to start "keeping score" on the basis that less is more in terms of material, and more is more in terms of mental, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and philosophical worth. Those who are blinded by their ultra-thin iPhone 5 or energy-efficient Toyota may have more materialistically, but lack the most valuable measure of worth, and therefor really have nothing. To refuse to allow society to make you who you are, to have immense amounts of spiritual and intellectual knowledge, to live without wanting what you do not need, that is priceless.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Best of Week: Sex vs. Gender
You are born with a sex, but are you really born with a gender? I always believed that 'sex' and 'gender' could be used interchangeably; both defined completely by biological and physical factors. But after thinking it through and discussing the matter in class, gender really means so much more than that; there is a whole other mental and emotional aspect that contributes to one's gender, different than one's sex, that not many people realize.
Thinking about those numerous times I have had to fill out my information, can the question of "What gender are you?" simply be answered with an 'M' or an 'F'? Or should there be two questions, asking my gender along with my sex? I feel as though describing one's gender can not be answered in one word, considering that psychologically, we all have a little bit of the other gender in ourselves. Women are said to have a more emotional and sensitive brain, while men are more analytical and structural. Does this mean that because my sex is female, I cannot be logical? We are constantly labeled as one way or the other, male or female, and although we usually identify ourselves this way, the black and white distinction leads people to choose between one or the other on the basis that we cannot be a compilation of both.
This gray area, so to speak, is often overlooked. For example, the referenced Native American author spoke about how his qualities of being sensitive or emotional - deemed feminine characteristics - often lead people to jump to the conclusion that he must be gay, because there was no possible way he could be deep and straight at the same time. I feel as though some people have a hard time accepting that a male can be a little feminine, or a female can be a bit masculine, and because the distinction between sex and gender is widely unknown, we are often forced to make a sometimes incorrect deduction or assumption on one's gender because of their "un-sexly" characteristics.
This gray area, so to speak, is often overlooked. For example, the referenced Native American author spoke about how his qualities of being sensitive or emotional - deemed feminine characteristics - often lead people to jump to the conclusion that he must be gay, because there was no possible way he could be deep and straight at the same time. I feel as though some people have a hard time accepting that a male can be a little feminine, or a female can be a bit masculine, and because the distinction between sex and gender is widely unknown, we are often forced to make a sometimes incorrect deduction or assumption on one's gender because of their "un-sexly" characteristics.
I now believe that one's gender is based on their identity, not the physicality of the body they were born in. Society makes us think that we must act or be a certain way based on our sex, but our gender is not that simple. A man who cries or wears his hair long does not make him gay. A female who likes to play sports or build things does not make her gay. The fact that we even acknowledge these distinctions and let them alter our opinions is unnecessary. Acknowledging the difference between 'sex' and 'gender' has taught me not to be quick to judge someone because they act a certain way or not to expect anything from someone based on how society defines their sex. These incorrect assumptions that many make ultimately stem from the simplistic labeling of 'male' and 'female' that we choose to use to define those around us. Until we as a society accepts the gray area, we will continue to live in a world of black and white.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Captured Thought: Taking Time Into Your Own Hands
"They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
- Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
As a self-declared optimist I am naturally obligated to believe that even in the most opaque, smoggy, and dreary of rooms there is a light that is waiting to be turned on. I am constantly under the impression, no matter how far-fetched or - if I dare say the "i" word - impossible things may be, there is always a way to achieve our goals. But in addition to being an optimist, as self-diagnosed introvert, who loves to do beyond my fair share of meditation and internal reflection, I have come to the conclusion that we must always take matters into our own hands in order for change to be successful.
As humans, and even more so, as Americans, we tend to believe that things will be handed to us clean and dusted with a pristine red bow as long as we just let life take its course. But what if I said life doesn't have a pre-made course? What if in reality we don't walk a path already made for us and accept every curveball, fastball, breaking ball, or change up on the basis that "time heals all wounds." I believe we are the authors of our own stories. We think that life has a way of untangling itself with time, and maybe it does, but not without ourselves acting as the catalyst.
Paradoxically I must presently travel to the past and reference a previously read section of Orlando where Orlando spent much time thinking, but only a moment acting.
"...time when he is thinking becomes inordinately long; time when he is doing becomes inordinately short" (72).
This quote prompted the question, why are we given seemingly eons upon eons to think, but nanoseconds to act? If we truly seek change, why does it seem we are given so little time to achieve it? My answer to this would be that time spent doing and prompting that desired change may be brief, but these decisions we make to change have a immeasurable lifetime of consequences. Orlando spent what seemed like centuries in his own head questioning and concluding, pondering and answering. Even though he was evolving mentally, nothing truly changed until he declared and made the conscious choice to no longer write to please anyone but himself. When he literally put in on paper and started to write freely, he had changed, and it was not time that had forced him to do so.
As the extremely wise, universally loved, and uncontroversial Yoko Ono said, "Time is a concept that humans created." I believe this holds true. As much as I believe and tell myself that everything will be okay with time, I know that this is only true because I have made, are making, and will make the choice to change. It is foolish to believe that the light in the previously mentioned room will turn itself on as long as I wait patiently for it to appear. It is not the wait that brings the solution, but the conscious decisions to take action and flip the switch in our own dungeons that heal our wounds.
- Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
As a self-declared optimist I am naturally obligated to believe that even in the most opaque, smoggy, and dreary of rooms there is a light that is waiting to be turned on. I am constantly under the impression, no matter how far-fetched or - if I dare say the "i" word - impossible things may be, there is always a way to achieve our goals. But in addition to being an optimist, as self-diagnosed introvert, who loves to do beyond my fair share of meditation and internal reflection, I have come to the conclusion that we must always take matters into our own hands in order for change to be successful.
As humans, and even more so, as Americans, we tend to believe that things will be handed to us clean and dusted with a pristine red bow as long as we just let life take its course. But what if I said life doesn't have a pre-made course? What if in reality we don't walk a path already made for us and accept every curveball, fastball, breaking ball, or change up on the basis that "time heals all wounds." I believe we are the authors of our own stories. We think that life has a way of untangling itself with time, and maybe it does, but not without ourselves acting as the catalyst.
Paradoxically I must presently travel to the past and reference a previously read section of Orlando where Orlando spent much time thinking, but only a moment acting.
"...time when he is thinking becomes inordinately long; time when he is doing becomes inordinately short" (72).
This quote prompted the question, why are we given seemingly eons upon eons to think, but nanoseconds to act? If we truly seek change, why does it seem we are given so little time to achieve it? My answer to this would be that time spent doing and prompting that desired change may be brief, but these decisions we make to change have a immeasurable lifetime of consequences. Orlando spent what seemed like centuries in his own head questioning and concluding, pondering and answering. Even though he was evolving mentally, nothing truly changed until he declared and made the conscious choice to no longer write to please anyone but himself. When he literally put in on paper and started to write freely, he had changed, and it was not time that had forced him to do so.
As the extremely wise, universally loved, and uncontroversial Yoko Ono said, "Time is a concept that humans created." I believe this holds true. As much as I believe and tell myself that everything will be okay with time, I know that this is only true because I have made, are making, and will make the choice to change. It is foolish to believe that the light in the previously mentioned room will turn itself on as long as I wait patiently for it to appear. It is not the wait that brings the solution, but the conscious decisions to take action and flip the switch in our own dungeons that heal our wounds.
Venice Beach, August, 2012
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