Never get one and share, always get two

*Note: For more information on the prompt that inspired this essay please click HERE

Sometimes I wonder if we have become a society of happiness chasers. We consistently put so much emphasis on being happy (I’m not necessarily saying that is even remotely a bad thing), that the pressure to be “happy” has transformed itself into an entity that we must seek, conquer, and triumph. It becomes formulaic. You should do well in school to get a good GPA to get a good job to support a family to be happy one day, hopefully. The whole process seems to suck the life out of happiness. The power of true happiness is the multiplicity of its manifestations. Happiness is so subjective that it could and should be revealed in every form of life; relationships, squirrels, a tear jerking movie, birthday cake, and best friends.

I find that chasing happiness is far less fulfilling than indulging myself in happiness. My best friends and I, a group of vibrant, dynamic, simply beautiful people, have made it our mission to consistently indulge in order to cultivate our own happiness. This photo is an effortless representation of our mission statement, “Never get one and share, always get two”. It is a simple means of indulging ourselves in the little things that make our days that much better, a little taste of happiness. Why get one milkshake and share when you can get two?

It’s the notion that sometimes we shouldn’t limit ourselves. Happiness can be that unrestrained joy you discover by giving into that harmless temptation. My day is that much brighter when I run into Sarena (the brilliantly vivacious beholder of the milkshakes). We exchange a mischievous smile, knowing how lucky we are that our thoughts are almost always aligned. She asks me if I want to acquire a milkshake (or two) and my response is a resounding, “Absolutely”. Despite the lofty caloric density of a milkshake and the unnecessary expense, a spontaneous milkshake on a Friday afternoon is essential on so many other levels. The indulgence produces a feeling of satisfaction that is difficult to replicate. It’s knowing that you are living life. So when Sarena asked me if we should share a chocolate or a vanilla milkshake. I had no choice but to say both.

To me it’s the simple, quieter moments in life that stand out to me. It is watching a passerby stop to smell a flower during a rainstorm. It is a heartwarming conversation with a grandparent. It is gummy bears dipped in nutella. It is feeling an overwhelming sense of pride when I watch Grace perform on stage. It is sharing a belly laugh with Nicole over an embarrassing anecdote from my day. It is Norma’s bear hugs and Leslie’s appreciation of my unnecessary sarcasm. It is indulging in a milkshake on a Friday afternoon with people who are the world to me.

So indulge. Live a little. Feel the happiness that makes it remarkably clear why an ordinary milkshake is beautiful.

Post Submitted by Ashton

The View From the Side, Night Time.

*Note: For more information on the prompt that inspired this essay please click HERE

This is a photograph from the window of my residence. This is a photograph taken late in the night, the only time when I really occupy my residential space. This is a photograph of the clean lines and the buildings directly southeast of my perspective, complete with the light clouds sitting in the sky, ready to bring colder weather to an otherwise sunny Los Angeles basin.

Faint fluorescent lights illuminate the small pockets of living space in the buildings directly south of me; green dins emerge from unoccupied rooms in the buildings across. The darkness of the night sky percolates the sensor of my camera; skinny tree tops arise to provide a sense of nature in this otherwise heavily developed hill west of the creek that once naturally flowed to Sepulveda Boulevard and to the Pacific Ocean under the daylight.

Every day, more specifically, every night, I return to glance out the window of my room. All I see are people mingling, and lights grazing from the sides and bottoms of the panorama. If I had not stopped to take a photograph, I would not have thought about the strict rigid lines governing the architecture found in the vicinity. I would not have given thought to the low hanging clouds giving rise to mild weather for the rest of the week. In terms of the deeper meaning, if available at all, I’m seeing the perspective of the outside from the inside of my camera, all captured while standing by the window and extending my hand out into the open air. The great diagonal window frame occupying the middle of the photograph intersects the perfect orthogonality of the buildings farther out; the unnaturalness of the window frame reminds me that the world need not be perfectly linear from the ground up.

Someone once said, life is far from linear and closer to infinity. Though infinity is not captured here in some visible sense, the nonlinearity is visible to the naked eye. The precisely angled corners and smooth lines defined human scale architecture and its supposed inhabitability and pleasing aesthetics. The question now becomes, what of life outside of boxed corners and lines marking the end of one panel to the next? Why must containment happen within straight lines and beams that interfere with the nonlinearity of life and the mind?

Prior to writing this, I had not posed these questions before, seeking to analyze my relationship to the environment I return to every night. My absence from my living space until the very depths of night explains my desire for nonlinearity and freedom from containment. I spend my days in other areas like the slopes of the Santa Monica mountains adjacent to the tributary that fed and continues to feed Ballona Creek, flowing with the water that refuses to be channelized in one specific course. Passing time elsewhere, whether inside a box or out in the great expanse under the perpetually blue Southern California skies, reflects my need for spontaneity and oppositions to rigidity found in and near the place I sleep. I will forever seek an environment that defies pure lines and perfectly right angles and instead search for places of adventure and delineations with time and space.

Post submitted by Courtney

Tuesday Title: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Life and Death, two of the most monumental, vibrant, and potentially challenging subjects by which to create discourse.

In a world that is so detail oriented, it can sometimes be difficult to take a step back and ruminate on the meaning behind it all, the framework that allows us to move from day to day, a life that eventually results in death. Although depressing in nature, this type of discourse is important and often hard to come by. As someone who spends a good portion of her time in immense self reflection, asking some of the more abstract, meaningless, or maybe the most meaningful questions, I find myself pondering the significance of life when juxtaposed by an inevitable end. In doing so, I truly believe that my consequential decisions help me to create a more expressive, intentional, and significant life. It is for these reasons that I was drawn to Jonathan Safran Foer’s, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

In attempting to confront what some may recall as the greatest trauma of our generation, Foer develops a compassionate, occasionally comical reality of a boy named Oskar who must face the death of his father after the September 11^th attacks. Oskar, a curious, intriguing, relatable, yet mysterious nine-year old boy, feels compelled to undertake a secret mission across New York to find the pieces that when put together will hopefully solve the puzzle of his father’s death.

Foer’s character development is uncanny. He nurtures readers by proposing thematic, thought provoking questions about the meaning of death and subsequent lack of meaning of life, in an attempt to usher readers on a journey of healing. In Oskar’s case it’s a healing of trauma and of loss, but the readers are able to indulge themselves in a journey of healing that touches the deepest corners of their own hearts.

Upon Oskar’s journey, readers are afforded with the opportunity to witness his raw encounters with a spectrum of New York City characters. It is the inner thoughts of the characters, the tender plotline, and fascinating conversations that draw readers to this novel and compel me to recommend this one to you.

 

Please visit http://www.amazon.com/Extremely-Loud-Incredibly-Close-Novel/dp/0618711651 for a complete review of this novel!

 

Post Submitted By: Ashton 

WSP Staff Explore the Importance of Creativity in Education

Hello our amazing readers!

What does creativity mean to you? Do you feel that it’s important to foster creativity in children’s lives? In Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk, “Schools Kill Creativity,” he explains that school curriculum is structured based on a hierarchy that either places the arts at the bottom or cuts them completely from public schools. He emphasizes the importance of fostering and encouraging creativity in schools, and challenges his audience to promote change in order to provide a better future for our children.

This week the Writing Success Program staff asked and explored these questions after watching Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk. They used the following questions to guide their response and thoughts for this reflection:

• What is your opinion of your own educational experience in creativity?
• Do you feel that your own creativity was fostered and encouraged?
• What is your definition of creativity?
• Do you think that creativity is needed?
• Describe how creativity has hindered or encouraged you to become the person you are today.
• What do you think needs to happen and/or change for creativity to be fostered and developed in education/life?

We challenge our readers to also consider these questions and to explore what it means to be creative. Here at WSP, we strive to cultivate confidence and student voice through writing, and we hope that our readers will also challenge themselves to think critically of their own experiences. Enjoy!

Post Submitted by Lauren

Free Speech Fridays: No arms, No Legs, NO WORRIES!

When I first watched this video I couldn’t help but cry because I was so touched by the message Nick Vujicic leaves us with. Nick reminds us that it can be easy to forget what we do have because sometimes we become so focused, almost obsessed, with what we don’t have. At the age of 8, Nick had already determined his future and was unable to see how valuable his life was. What makes Nick’s story so inspiring is the fact that he was able to face the reality of his condition and rather than being miserable and bitter about his life, he found it much more important to enjoy being alive. Although he faces challenges that many of us wouldn’t even fathom as being a challenge, he continues to stay optimistic and as he mentions, “smiles so much”. I think it’s beautiful that Nick leaves us with this message and tries to share this message with young students so they too can recognize the importance of just being grateful for what life does give us. Yes you may not have what that other person has, but what do you have that you take for granted?

Finals week is a few days away and if you are anything like me, you are probably saying things like “Jeeeez! I wish I didn’t have to take these finals” or even “Gosh I wish I was someone else right now!”  BUT, after seeing this video I recognize that I should be grateful for just being a UCLA student and having an opportunity to make my future much better than what my parents were able to offer me. Growing up I didn’t have my own room and I was utterly ashamed to tell my friends that my bed was the couch. It took me a very long time, actually not until my senior year of high school when I began to apply for college, to realize how wrong I had been for being ashamed of my reality. I was ashamed for what I didn’t have, but I was never grateful for what my parents were able to provide me with. I had never thanked them for giving me some of the important things in life, which is love, motivation, and a roof over my head for 18 years of my life. Not many people can say that they have parents who love and push them to try their hardest, or even say that they have homes or parents at all, and because of my obsession over what I didn’t have, I was blind to the things God had given me.

I know that if it hadn’t been for the struggles I faced as a child I would have never been the student I was and I would not be writing this post as a UCLA student. Sometimes it’s through our struggles, and the things we don’t have, that we find the strength to pursue even greater things. I think this is the message that Nick Vuicic wants us to understand. So, although you may be frustrated over a certain situation you may be in, or complain over something you don’t or can’t have, I challenge you to reflect on your blessings. Also, think of the moments where you may have not obtained what you wanted , but were able to gain something else, like a lesson or a different, but equally positive, opportunity. Had Nick let his disability stop him from enjoying life, he would have never learned to do all the things we see him do today, like swim, play golf, and even get married! Maybe if we stop dwelling in our own challenges, we can find different ways to overcome them and gain something that we would have NEVER thought otherwise!

Post By: Alexandra Barba 

Free Speech Fridays: Ellen DeGeneres- Commencement Speech 2009

In her commencement speech to the graduating class of Tulane University Class of 2009, Ellen DeGeneres shares her experiences that have made her into the confident and free spirited person she is today. She emphasizes the importance of being true to yourself and not letting anyone else dictate what is important to you. Her manner of speaking throughout the speech proves how comfortable she is within her own skin, and she exudes this natural confidence that is a result of the struggles she had experienced and overcome. As a college undergraduate student, I am still in the process of discovering who I am and learning to love the different facets of myself that I discover. Ellen’s speech touched me deeply because of the fact that she risked everything she had worked for in order to be true to herself. She admitted to having lost everything in one point of her life, but she can now live her life being honest with herself and those around her. This inspirational and hilarious speech invokes a sense of purpose and strikes a cord for the rest of us who are still on that path of discovering who we are. Take a look at her amazing speech (even if just for the pure hilarity Ellen creates) and write your comments below!

Post submitted by Lauren Park

Wednesday Word: “Pro-Life”

In a recent Op-Ed piece Thomas Friedman writes: “You don’t get to call yourself ‘pro-life’ and want to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency, which ensures clean air and clean water, prevents childhood asthma, preserves biodiversity and combats climate change that could disrupt every life on the planet. You don’t get to call yourself ‘pro-life’ and oppose programs like Head Start that provide basic education, health and nutrition for the most disadvantaged children.”

So, what does it mean to be “pro-life”? Let’s sit a minute and think. If you are “pro-life,” is your support exclusive to fetuses only?   Is it limited to humans only?   Or does your definition include other life forms like plants and animals? Some people believe in a hierarchy of life forms, where humans are on the top. Yet, some people may see (though rather large) Earth as a top priority life form while some may view all life as essentially equal, from the green grass in the front yard to the drooling dog in the backyard to the people feasting inside the living room. People say they are “pro-life” but often do not spend enough time to reflect on how they define ‘life‘ and what it means to be “for life.” As you go about your day, try to spend a little time reflecting on what life means to you.

Friedman argues: “The term “pro-life” should be a shorthand for respect for the sanctity of life. But I will not let that label apply to people for whom sanctity for life begins at conception and ends at birth. What about the rest of life? Respect for the sanctity of life, if you believe that it begins at conception, cannot end at birth. That radical narrowing of our concern for the sanctity of life is leading to terrible distortions in our society.”

Read entire article: The New York Times: Why I Am Pro-Life

Post submitted by: Christina Trieu

Thursday Take-Off: Advice for newborns

If you could give a newborn child one piece of advice, what would it be?

Think back to the most important lessons you have learned in your life. What do you wish someone would have told you? What have you learned that you want to impart on others?

Post submitted by: Miqi Cos

American Cultural Literacy: “Experience is the best teacher”

 ”Experience is the best teacher”

PROVERB

Life teaches more effectively than books or school.

American Cultural Literacy: “Variety is the spice of life”

“Variety is the spice of life”

PROVERB

Changes and new experiences make life delightful.

Free Speech Fridays: Do not forget to wear sunscreen

Happy Spring everyone! One of the best advice we hear, especially during this season of sunshine, is to wear sunscreen. Yet, who knew that this seemingly simple advice can give us a whole new perspective on life?

In 1998, Mary Schmich, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, wrote an essay titled “Wear Sunscreen”. Her advice for the graduating classes of that year transcends the usual commencement addresses; in fact, it’s become one of the most famous and enlightening perspectives on living our lives.

Post submitted by: Miqi Cos

Lee’s Speech: “Humans are hardwired to empathize with others”

Imagine you are going back to your high school and giving the students a speech about life, academics, success, hardship, identity and/or the pursuit of happiness. What would you tell them?

 

I come from a small, somewhat isolated town.  When I was in high school, I was closeted, sheltered, and, in many senses, pre-conscious to where I am in life now.  My outlet in those days was storytelling, which become a way of connecting to others and re-envisioning my life as it might be — stories became a place of exchange and representation, as well as realization of myself and others through the liberating lens of ‘fiction.’  Long before I came out, I wrote stories about queer individuals, displaying my own internal (and somewhat unconscious) concept of self, as opposed to the very bland one my overlarge Old Navy jackets, bursting backpack, and quantum physics-related shirts broadcasted (although these certainly told a part of my personality).  At the same time, working for my school newspaper, I began talking to people in my school’s community whom I likely would never have come into contact with ordinarily in my AP classes or extracurriculars — people whose appearance very simply stated “jock,” “gangster,” “cheerleader,” and many other of the cliched labels that abound in high school.  In talking to them in an interview format — in which they were encouraged to share their own stories — I came to learn things about them that I never would have if I had simply judged them by appearance or talked to them in a more social situation.  This is about when I learned that everyone has something interesting about them, some interesting experience or story to tell, and, thus, incredible value.

This probably sounds like an anticlimactic epiphany, but its implications are far reaching.  How many times have you encountered someone of whom you’ve thought, “I don’t care for them,” or “I could never live as they do,” or any other type of judgment?  Next time you think one such thought about a person, though, consider that they aren’t just the external image, the outward actor, that you encounter.  They are a multi-dimension, deeply internal person, just as you are.  They have the same constant rush of thoughts that runs about in your mind. They have the same emotional valences.  They have the same buried broken spots. Everybody does.  Which is simply spectacular.

A useful metaphor here is of life as a tapestry, one which W. Somerset Maugham elaborates in his novel Of Human Bondage:

As the weaver elaborated his pattern for no end but the pleasure of his aesthetic sense, so might a man live his life, or if one was forced to believe that his actions were outside his choosing, so might a man look at his life, that it made a pattern… Out of the manifold events of his life, his deeds, his feelings, his thoughts, he might make a design, regular, elaborate, complicated, or beautiful… Whatever happened to him now would be one more motive to add to the complexity of the pattern, and when the end approached he would rejoice in its completion. It would be a work of art, and it would be none the less beautiful because he alone knew of its existence, and with his death it would at once cease to be.

Narrative, life crafted into art, thus becomes of immense use and immense power.  It becomes a way of relating to people, of viewing and exploring the cast richness of existence and the world that we occupy but too often glance over with disinterested eye.  It also becomes a way of aligning communities not along divisive labels or difference, like religion, class, race, sexual orientation, etc., but along structural similarities, upon immediate experience, which can cross such boundaries, is never exclusive to a certain group.  In this way, narrative can help us become more empathetic individuals with fewer conflicts.

Moreover, this isn’t just nice philosophizing; there’s a new field of neuroscience which is finding that humans are hardwired to empathize with others, and that the uniquely human capacity for narrative aids us in doing this.  As science writer Jeremy Rifkin summarizes:

We are strange creatures. We can put our meaning above our survival. There is no dividing line between what one is and what one ought to be. To our knowledge, we are unique among the animal species in that we are the only ones who tell stories. We live by narrative. Concepts like the past, present, future and the resolution of conflict are all introduced to the child by way of narrative. Narrative is critical to transforming empathic distress to empathic engagement. We are each a composite of the stories we tell about ourselves and the stories others tell about us.

Thus, I leave you all with the questions:  What will your story be?  What pattern will it take?  Who will you share it with?  Whose will you listen to and observe for its own singular artisanry?

By Lee.

Casey’s Speech: “Don’t be naïve or live in a dream land, but also don’t be afraid to dream or lose sight of your dreams.”

Imagine you are going back to your high school and giving the students a speech about life, academics, success, hardship, identity and/or the pursuit of happiness. What would you tell them?

Think of your life 10 years from now. What would it look like? Who would be in it? What would you be doing? What would your job be? Would you be married? Would you have kids? Would you be happy? Why or why not? Now take a moment to envision your ideal, future self. Let that image really sink in and actually try to picture the smallest details, even down to what you look like and what you would be wearing.

Open your eyes, or if you didn’t close your eyes, slowly come back to the present. Now I want you to completely erase all of those images, dreams, and aspirations. Get them all completely out of your head because I’m here to tell you that they are probably not going to happen. At least not in the exact way that you planned. I’m not saying this to discourage any of you; rather, I want to prepare you for adulthood and reality. It may seem that I am being harsh or pessimistic, but I’m not being either. I’m here to keep it 100 with you, to be real and tell you how it is because I care for you all and I want the best for each and every one of you.

The world outside of these four walls is a nasty place. Wherever you go there are going to be people who may not like you. In fact, they may even hate you, whether you give them a reason to hate you or not. There are people who are going to try and take advantage of you, and there are even people who are going to deceive you and betray you. Not everyone is truly going to be your best friend.

There are going to be moments when you feel alone, scared, homesick, and even ashamed. There may be times when you look at your life and completely hate the person you have become because you may do everything you say you would never do. Or you may love the person you have become because the old you didn’t know how to “live it up while you’re still young,” but partying, clubbing, drinking, hooking up, smoking, and all of that gets old  after awhile.

At one point during your college career you are going to break down.  You are going to experience the worst feeling in the world, a feeling of hopelessness and despair. You will question who you are and what your purpose on this earth is. Why are all these bad things happening to you? What did you do to deserve them? Many college students go through an identity crisis at least once while they are in college. Some college kids even consider committing suicide because they do not know how to deal with these overwhelming emotions.

We all hit our breaking point. It’s that point in life where we realize that there is absolutely nothing we can do to be perfect or live the perfect life. I truly hope that you reach that ugly place at some point during college. You know why? Because it is better to reach your worst and darkest point during your college years because then you have the rest of your life to truly embrace and learn from life.  Instead of making the same mistakes over and over again and then have a midlife crisis, you learn while you’re young so you thrive when you are old. So that when you encounter a distressing situation you can just laugh at it and say, “I’ve been through this before; this is nothing.” I’m not saying hope for the worst, but I’m saying be open to change and be ready for whatever life throws at you.

Ok. Enough with the reality check. College is not the worst, most morbid experience that life has to offer as you may be thinking as a result of my speech. I just wanted to get it in your head that college is not all fun and games. There are life lessons that must be learned in order to grow and improve as an individual. There are beautiful, wonderful aspects to the college life as well. It is in college that you meet people who will have life-changing impacts on your life. Your professors, your classmates, your co-workers, people you volunteer with, heck even random people on the street. They are all likely candidates for making an imprint on your life. You may even meet people who remain lifelong friends, those friends that last and are truly there for you.  You get to experience freedom and learn how to live independently. You get the chance to truly figure out who you are and why you believe what you believe. You get to defend your assertions and make an impact on others’ lives as well. You get to network and (hopefully) study things that absolutely intrigue you, things you love. It is that one point in life that you can live freely and explore what the world has to offer you.

From personal experience, the more open you are to growing and learning, the more opportunities you are given to learn, and the happier you become. The summer of 2010 was perhaps the most exhausting summer of my life. I worked two jobs from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m every day. Some weekends I even managed to work a third job as a camp counselor. At one point during the summer I was so exhausted that I got really sick, and I was forced to stay home and sleep. It was at that time that I reflected on the summer. I was so busy working and stressing and struggling to survive that I failed to notice what beautiful opportunity I had been given to make an impression on people’s lives. I was working with babies at a daycare. Who is more impressionable than a two-year-old child? I was working with college students that struggled with their writing. They came to me looking for answers. What an honor to be able to make them feel at ease! At the same time, I also asked the question, “What can I learn from them? What is God teaching me through this hectic situation?” Once I asked these questions, I learned the answers.

I needed to experience these things in order grow. I needed to feel absolutely hopeless in order to realize that I do have hope. I learned that no matter how hard I try, I cannot live my life on my own. I need people, and I need the grace that God has given me through His son Jesus. Working at the daycare, I gained valuable skills that will help me be a better mom than I would have been without the experience I had there. I learned to forgive others, even when I feel that they do not deserve to be forgiven. I learned to stop living in a fantasy land, to wake up and realize that the life I am living is real; time is ticking. I learned to take each situation in life one step, and one breath, at a time. I learned that although I won’t be able to reach every single one of my dreams, I can still dream and I can still hope. But I can’t be disappointed when things don’t go exactly the way that I envisioned.

Bottom line, don’t be naïve or live in a dream land, but also don’t be afraid to dream or lose sight of your dreams. Because once you give into the lie that life is all fun and games or life is completely terrible, the harder it is to take each experience as one that you can grow from. Be realistic, but also stay humble.

I can now say that I am a happier person having gone through some very trying situations. I am happy because I learned to keep my head up and not wallow in self-pity. Sometimes I need people to remind me of that, but that’s what friends are for   Remember: “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17: 22). Live life joyously; don’t resent it; and keep pushing.

Post submitted by Casey O’Neill

Lauren’s Sestina: “Friends Forever?”

You always yearn for that group of friends

that can fill the night with laugher

ones that will stick by you forever

whether you act immature or loud

wishing that time can stand still

as the sun comes up over the end

A chapter of life must end

as you wave goodbye to your friends

hoping that next time you can still

smile with love and laughter.

You hope that the loud

fights of yesterday will be forgotten forever.

Real friendships are meant to last forever

that turn and twist without end.

You wonder if you can ever be as loud

as you were with your old friends;

those who just sit and laugh

at you for being so silly still.

You move on with life, wondering still

if you made the bonds that last forever.

You no longer spend every day in laughter

since you know all good things come to an end.

Life isn’t all about fund and friends

or acting impulsively loud.

The demands of life are loud

and clear as you stand still

in this harsh “real” world without friends.

You feel like the path stretches forever

hoping that at the tunnel’s end

you can finally give way to laughter.

Struggles have no time for laughter.

But as you live on you hear a loud

call in your soul to let the monotony end.

You realize that you can still

count on the bonds you made forever

ago with the people you once called your friends.

So in the end you realize you can still

spend each day with laughter without end

with those you made a pact to be “forever friends.”

Post submitted by Lauren

Casey’s Haibun: “Melancholy in the Form of a Rainstorm”

“Melancholy in the Form of a Rainstorm”—Casey O’Neill

 Inspired by the tragic tale of a friend caught in depression

Raindrops the size of cannon balls crash down on the earth.

Instead of mud puddles forming, I see large cracks spread across the deserted land.

The thunder does not echo in the distance; rather, it screams at me, foreboding doom.

The stench makes me quiver—blood never appeals to the senses.

I taste this murder scene upon my lips, turning away in disgust.

The wind is fierce and cold upon my back.

I refuse to turn back, for the past only reflects my misery and pain.

The chills of the wind make me shiver because icicles have formed on my ears, my breasts, my face.

My ears no longer hear, my breasts no longer bring life, my face no longer reflects my joyful spirit.

The whispers of the wind haunt me because the darkness of a whisper is frightening.

Darkness, like clouds on a rainy day, causes confusion—darkness is the unknown.

Life is frightening because of the unknown:

We cannot hear the melodic tunes of our destiny nor taste the bittersweet facts of the future.

The hearers of a whisper must strain their ears, intently focusing on every detail their

interlocutor breathes. Their breaths are puzzle pieces that must be woven together.

Like the hearers of the whisper, we are forced to pay attention to the few clues we are given;

we decipher the rest by speculating, hoping, dreaming, or brutally struggling to survive day-by-day .

Beauty is nothing

Without the Beast, whose name is

“Sir Calamity.”

Post submitted by Casey O’Neill

American Cultural Literacy: “Where are the snows of yesteryear?”

 ”Where are the snows of yesteryear?”

PROVERB

Why does life fade so quickly? This saying comes from the works of the fifteenth-century French poet Francois Villon.

Lines of Beauty and Life: A Sestina

Streetlamps flicker on around the block

To drown the scintillation of the pricked star,

While powdered faces queue up in line

To throb away the memories of those they miss,

To dance across their heart’s break.

It’s miraculous they even can.

Sound shivers through them like the walls of an aluminum can;

Magnified images enter, occlude, and block.

A couple in a dark corner’s hearts break

Under the vibrata of a populist star

Whose name was once known in margins, but who’d missed

Her chance, devoted now isntead to the powdery line.

The ogee curves one way and another, is a line

That arches against itself, that can

Hit across all boundaries, then suddenly miss.

Its purposeless ornament dissipates, even as the sturdy block

Remains under that same glistering star

Beneath which all will link and all will break.

“Hey man, life’s shit and times are hard: cut me a break!”

But the dealer doesn’t forgive when you’ve  cut a line

Too many, even if you feel so much you burst like a star.

It’s not a matter of whether one cannot or whether one can,

But merely whether you threaten to block

A mister from having his miss,

In this case a tittilating white lady whom you can’t miss,

For to do so would be to break

The mechanized flow of chopping the block

And ordering the line

And huffing from the bottom of a can

And sharing a momentarily equal existence with a star.

Above her ass is a black tattoo of a star.

This is the image that haunts me when I miss

Her most, when I close my eyes and feel I can

Reinster muself into the break,

That I can reinvent our lives with in the white wedding line,

Until eventually the star is gone and all is black behind the block.

If this is all we can do, we must jumpt the break

Into the star that illuminates the cheek of that miss,

When we will be another streetlamp in that line on that block.

[Written by Lee]

Tuesday Title: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Whether you are a self-proclaimed bookworm, a bookstore rookie, or a curious intellectual, if you have been craving a thought provoking piece of literature, look no further than Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance!

Here’s an excellent review from www.amazon.com by Gary Larson:

“This book is famous because it fills a perfect niche in that it introduces some very complicated philosophical questions in a form that the common reader will find interesting. Pirsig is attempting to create a practical philosophy and sets the book against the background of actual experience to make the questions he ponders real for the reader.

Probably no book has ever been more successful in interesting people in philosophy in the first place. So why are people who are interested in the subject eager to send them away because it disagrees with something they read in some banal tone?

Bottom line, if you ran across this book at your local bookshop or had it recommended to you by a friend, you must read it. It is an awesomely thought inspiring book and asks questions you never thought to ask or at least didn’t know how to put your finger on. It’s both a good novel and a great introduction to philosophy for people who have an interest in greater questions but not all the time to pursue them. I don’t think you should worry about the fact that someone with a Masters Degree in Philosophy, or an equivalent knowledge, is bothered by the book. Also, I wouldn’t be thrown by the title. The book isn’t trying to sell you a newsletter or convert you to any church (despite the use of the phrase “The Church of Reason”) and is only using a bit of Zen philosophy as a grounding for its premise.

Pirsig’s premise is that we live in a world of both the “Classical” and “Romantic” or, as I’ll simplify it, “function” and “form”, respectively. Pirsig sees the problems in our world as the result of an overemphasis on form, when function is more essential. However, pure “function” has problems of its own. For example, our bodily organs carry out the function of allowing us to live, but one doesn’t really desire for our skin to be translucent so we can watch these functions. In fact, we would have a revulsion to such a thing. Therefore, we have a combination of both of “form” and “function”; our organs work very well without our having to see them. This is the desirable state. This desirable state is called “Quality”. Good “function” seems to bring about its own desirable “form”. May the decorative towel be damned. That’s grossly oversimplified, but there it is. “

One of the most profound quotations I gained from this book: “we take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.” Just a little teaser to intrigue your philosophical whims!

Post by: Miqi Cos

American Cultural Literacy: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”

Where there’s a will, there’s a way

Proverbs

If you want something badly enough, you can find the means to get it.

American Cultural Literacy: “While there’s life, there’s hope”

While there’s is life, there’s hope

Proverbs

Never give up.