Hw - 22 Precis #1

Tuesdays With Morrie By Mitch Albom, Published by Doubleday, Sept. 1997
Pages 3-54: I miss my dear professor, it's a shame I did not keep in contact with him all these years. In fact I didn't keep in contact with anyone after my college years. The world, I discovered was not all interested in me, and neither was I to it. For a few years I wandered looking for a job, getting a job and paying rent. Eventually I got a job as a columnist in the Detroit Free Press. I buried myself in accomplishments because with accomplishments, I believed I could control things, I thought about my professor and what he use to tell me, " about being human and relating to others", but thinking about this was distant to what my life was like already. I saw Morrie while flicking through TV channels to figure out that he had become ill and I went numb. I must visit him before he passes. My visit with Morrie was brief because I had to return to work in a couple of days, but from what I got out if it, reminded me of my college days where I found life much more interesting.

Quotes:"You know that I'm dying. I've become much more interesting to people...People see me as a bridge. I'm not as alive as I used to be, but I'm not yet dead. I'm sort of in-between."(p.33) Morrie's understanding of accepting death and becoming a teacher to those around him, has become an apparent factor for those who want to understand the meaning behind illness and dying. "Dying is only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else."(p.35) Mitch's issue with being miserable about how his life has turned up is nothing in comparison to know that you will have to die in the future. So live your life happily because the worst has not come yet."Well, for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own."(p.35) The culture we live in puts a lot more attention on materialistic things that provide a superficial feeling of happiness because it satisfies our wants and needs, but it's a constantly changing system of wants and needs, so one stresses themselves in trying to get the new thing every time. "The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."(p.43) Enjoying what your doing is much better then doing what someone wants you to do because it's a unique purpose and meaning you have created on your own, and by creating it, the community around you may take better notice to it.

Insights/Thoughts: Reading these amount of pages in Tuesdays With Morrie has provided a deeper understanding of the meaning of life around the thought of death. Morrie's experience with being ill and dying is interesting because he has made the decision to accept it and make the best out of it. On top of making the best out of it, he has made himself a teacher to those who want to know the meaning behind dying.

HW - 21 Post Comments #1

To Harry:

Harry,

In your blog post, you gave examples of similar experiences that was presented by Beth describing the death of her husband. Something that struck in me in your blog was how you wanted to know how you would handle illness and dying now because of Beth's presentation. I'm curious as to why "now" after hearing Beth's presentation put you in a mindset of "what if" this happened to me, then what would I do? For me, since Beth's presentation I feel that I would still handle dying and illness the way I wanted too("I'm not sure what way that is"), but it would be a secondary source to how I could possibly react to news like I was to die or become very ill.
Brief note once your finish doing your blog for the future, if you could re-read and clear up any mistakes and order of thought.

Insightful Post!
Christian

To Dean:

Dean,

Your insights and experiences similarly relate to Beth's insights and experiences but if you could explain how these experiences and insights made you feel, it would deepen your understanding and make your blog post longer. For example, you explained that "you will better understand how she was feeling and what she was talking about", but what about her talking struck you personally and why, and if it didn't, why don't you think it did and further explain. During Beth's presentation, she said she had become comfortable talking to crowds about the death of her husband which helped her cope with her feelings and one could assume that this could be a reason why she did not tear up in front of us. I, for one, am not comfortable talking to people about the death of someone I knew only because it is such a sensitive topic, but when I do, I feel better because it feels like I got something off my chest.

Good Post!
Christian

Hw - 21 Expert #1

Beth Bernett
Insights & Experiences:

• Health Insurance was tough to come by since they were both Artist.
• After finding out that her Husband was diagnosed with Cancer, she didn't want to hear about how things were usually done on TV.
• Limited option is what could now be done in a normal day.
• Mobility issue.
• "When you get sick enough; Dignity goes out the window."
• Family getting together during the time of Beth's husband getting ill.

Hearing the insights and experiences Beth Bernett went through when she was with her husband made a lot more sense with the insights and experiences that I thought would happen. One of my insights were, that when one gets sick, a lot of the normal things start to end. During the time Beth's husband was suffering from cancer, gradually, the normal habits started to end because of how ill he was getting. Beth brought my insights further based on her experience because when some of the normal habits were stopped, her husband had to learn to cope with it and based on his "out-going" personality, it affected him a lot. Each individual that suffers from an overbearing illness has to learn either to cope or "heroically" want to fight it off because of this sense of dignity that they still want to hold on too. Which is another thing Beth mentioned when it came to the point where her husband had to accept loosing his dignity based on how much his illness was putting him through.

Another thing that struck me was the all to well "get together" when one family member gets ill and everyone gets much closer. When my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, everyone in the family came to her aid immediately because we wanted to show her we cared about her. Usually these get together go two ways, the individual who's ill decides whether or not they want to be around family when there dying, or completely close them off because they don't want them to be hurt. Its two very interesting choices that really depends on how that individual feels and for my aunt she chose to keep quiet, I still don't know much about her condition to this day. Beth, as well when her husband was very ill, it was more of a decision to have the family know, but keep contact with people limited only because this sense of hurting people was apparent.

During Beth's presentation to our class, I started to realize that a hospital curtains the ugly and the beauty of dying. If Beth and her husband didn't ask straight up about her husband's condition, a lot of what doctors were saying would be the "heroic" type of things that are said in movies and TV. Which is not as much of a big problem because of how sensitive illness and dying is of a topic. Usually coating the truth about something traumatic could do someone good because it might be unbearable for those who couldn't handle something like hearing they were going to die, or you have this much amount of time left in this world, etc.

Hw - 19 Family Perspective on Illness and Dying

Both of my parents had interesting insights on their perspectives of illness and dying which probably would have not been shared if it wasn't for this blog post, because in our family we did not talk about this kind of topic. What I found interesting coming from my mom was that, her mother never talked about illness and dying to her as she has also done to me as well because it should be a innate emotion to show care and concern about the sick and dying. Her quote was "if you are a rational human being, you should know how to provide care for the sick and dying; only irrational people would not know what to do." During our conversation this quote stuck with me the most because before talking to my mom about illness and dying, I had already known to show care and concern to the sick but I never talked about it with my mom nor dad. My mom also talked about showing unconditional love and getting the sick and dying out of gloominess to help them better deal with their situation. She gave an example that before her father had passed, he was very sick and when we visited him, he was in his room, laying in bed with the lights dimly lit and when he saw us, he brightened up. He felt happier.

We should always show empathy to those of the sick and dying do what ever we could do to make their lives more memorable which is what my dad shared with me. One of my dad's co workers who was diagnosed with cancer, they had set up a dinner for her and during that dinner my dad said that all he wanted to do was to make her feel included and try his best to not have her feel bad about her condition. He also was not taught by his parents about the ill and dying and how to approach it because it was something you should already know what to do if you were a rational human being. One of my questions I had for both my parents was since you think rational human beings should know to provide care and concern, how does our society fair with dealing with the sick and dying? My mom quickly replied with, "well if you believe society is rational then we should be able to express similarly the same thought about the sick and dying. "

Hearing from both of my parents about illness and dying helped me formulate where I stood upon approaching illness and dying because in someways I relate to them because their parents never really talked to them about this topic, but they knew what to do when it came to dealing with it. As for me, I feel like I know how I should present myself in the face of someone who is sick or dying because of the straight forward solutions there are to dealing with this kind of topic. We provide care and concern, we make sure they feel included, we try to make them happier, all things to help that sick and dying person avoid their current situation.

Hw - 18 Health & Illness Feasting

This year's family thanksgiving was more festive than it was in it's previous years. Maybe it was because of the family member who was new to hosting. In the home that the Thanksgiving holiday was not held in the traditional way where everyone sits at the table and say grace just before we eat. It was loud music, loud talking, children playing video games, and eating as much food as you like moving in and out of the kitchen. The vibe of constant movement provided more of a lively feel that made everyone feel comfortable. It was a party. At first we weren't sure about how this Thanksgiving would go because of how different it was, it almost foreign even with close family members by your side, but like all natural human beings, we adapt to our new surroundings.

The food that was provided this year was like most of the previous years where each family cooks and brings food to the party and it's up to you to decide what you want eat even though most of my family persuade you in eating what they brought even if you don't want it. Most of the food that is brought to the Thanksgiving, the food I only enjoy would be the food my mom cooked only because I trust what my mom cooks. Each year is like that. I don't know why I do that, and its not because some of the other food taste bad, but its that I just don't feel comfortable eating other people's home cooked meals.

During the festivities, most of the elderly that had join in on the party stayed seated and were cared to by the adults such as getting the food and drinks and how/who they were going home with. They sat in the most comfortable chair, and each and every grand child was introduced and said there hello's to them. The adults made sure we hugged and kissed the grandmothers' and shakes the hands of the grandfather's like if they were not getting enough love by now. Like in my previous blog, this huge association with the sick and dying and the elderly go hand and hand with making sure that the sick and dying are cared for the most because it is something needed.

Hw - 17 Initial Thoughts on Illness and Dying

My initial thought about illness and dying happen to be nothing at the moment because personally I don't know anyone personal who died or is ill. Experience is the best teacher, and I have no experience with both of these topics but I know that eventually everyone will suffer from one of these topics. So how do I cope with this then? I avoid it. I avoid it as much as possible because of the known sadness is brings to people. I've been taught to see illness and dying as being concerned and aware. I should be concerned for those who are ill and aware of the dying and deceased to be respectful. Being concerned and providing care seems to go hand and hand to be a good solution to aid people who are in need of help. That is another thing our culture has attended too. The association with help and caring for the ill and dying. We have this sense of giving back to those in dire need by providing them with "help" in what worries them most. As messed up as it sounds, another thought I had about illness and dying were the elderly people in our culture. We treat them with a different kind of respect because of this category of illness and dying they fall into. For example, my grandmother is in her 70's now, so I treat her completely different then how I would treat my younger sister who is 13. When my grandmother needs help with anything, I give her my immediate attention making sure she gets what she needs and because she is elderly I make it sort of my job to make sure she gets what she wanted. As for my sister, when she asks for anything, I give her the run around, or I just don't do it. And that's not because I don't love her, but because she is capable, and is not nearly as close to being elderly. What does this even mean then? Is it the fact that I am associating sick and dying with elderly people as a problem, or is it just appropriate to do so? To treat those who are going to meet their end, with ultimate kindness. Is there more than just associating help and kindness with illness and dying? Or is there more illness and dying could be implying?

I've also come to notice that after the passing of someone, there is a period of grief and then coming of moving on. Our culture tends to do this because we accept the lost we have encountered, and we try to make the best out of it. Basically saying, the gain in something we loose. I can't say from experience that I have lost someone dearly and gained a new benefit from it. But I can say something that is relevant to this; When I had lost my iPod there was a period of time that I missed listening to music on bus, later on I figured instead of just sitting on the bus now with no music, read or finish homework which the end result was getting better grades in school. I now own a Zune player. It's interesting now that I see it, I replaced what I had before after "that period of grief and then moving on" which is another thing our culture does. We replace what is missed, for instance a pet that has passed, many people will adopt a new one to cope with their feelings.

Hw - 12 Final Project 2

Thesis: The dominant practices in our society are large corporations contributing to knightmarish atrocities that are held in secracy furthermore affecting the population.

Supporting Claim: The Food industry has become one of the many reasons why our population is suffering in health.

Evidence: The huge recall in meat products in nations history that was infected with E Coli.
"25 million pounds of ground beef was consumed after 35 millions pounds ground beef was recalled."- Food Inc.
Evidence: The cost in health care spending due to America's obesity.
"$147 billion every year to treat obesity. It costs another $116 billion each year to treat diabetes,and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and many types of cancer."(http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=8184975&page=1)
Evidence: The government shielding the public eye from certain meat products.
"Agribusiness interest lobbied the CA state to keep labels off meat that came from cloned animals and they're excuse for doing that was ["it would create unnecessary fright."] - Food Inc.

Supporting Claim:

*TO BE CONTINUED