Greeks are Not so Different from Us (Thoughts on the Next 5 Pages of Classical Rhetoric Now)

You always hear about the intellectual Greeks and how "before their time" they were. Thus, I was surprised to learn that they didn't think of women as people. They believed women were not human enough to make decisions, but men were. It is astounding to me that such "wise" people could believe such a nonsensical thing. Women were meant to be the caretakers of the family and the house. This is exactly what everyone still believed (and continue to believe) up until fifty years ago when Betty Frieden let the cat out of the bag with her book, "The Feminine Mystique". She wrote about what every woman was thinking and what every man was obviously oblivious to. She wrote about the fact that women were not living meaningful lives; they were living as maids, bearers of children, and entirely dependent on their husband.

The Tale of Keystone is Longer than its Tail...

There are only about thirty days before Keystone XL will either be signed in, or rejected. The idea of it being allowed is alarming. It has been said countless times that this pipeline would mean, "game over for climate change" by Hansen, a former NASA scientist. Already, they are clearing forest and "removing" bears to make room for the construction of Keystone XL. The Boreal Forest is in the path of Keystone, and it is likely large parts of it will be destroyed– this forest is home to over 35,000 animal species! The thought of all this destruction is appalling. People who are in favor of this dirty pipeline are only thinking of themselves and the convenience for the human race. They never think of other species out there who are unwillingly dying for our comfort. How would you feel if you and your family were forced to leave your home, or worse, be executed just because you were an inconvenience? Not only will those things occur, the dirtiest fuel in the world would be making its way down to Texas, and once there, would pollute the air, only adding to the large amount of greenhouse emissions already present. If this doesn't bother you, the fact that the pipe will travel near the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest supplies of water in the U.S., will. If the pipe spilled, it would be catastrophic for you and other species. This is plausible, as a previous, smaller pipeline built last year [2011] had twelve spills in the first six months of it being built. Green energy creates more jobs, with Keystone only creating 35 permanent jobs, and is better for the environment in the long- run. 

The piece above is something I wrote in the ninth grade; that is how long I have been following the tale of Keystone XL Pipeline. Unbeknownst to me back then was how long it would take for Congress to make their final decision on the pipeline. It is 2015 and I am still awaiting their decision, which is said to be next week sometime. However, they have been saying that same thing for the past five years... Keystone XL might just reveal how ineffective our government has become. 

After studying AP US History back in high school, all I can remember is Teddy Roosevelt and how quickly it seemed he and the U.S. government could make decisions. His term was eight years, but he managed to do so much more in that time. Nowadays, it seems as though nothing ever gets done. I am not sure if that is true to others or not, but it is just the feeling I get from what I hear and read. 

Among the constant emails I get from Sierra Club and NRDC about Keystone XL lately, one thing is clear to me, Congress is just wasting time. From what I have been reading in the newspapers and my emails, I see that Obama has promised to veto any approval of Keystone XL by Congress. My question is only, why are they spending so much time on trying to pass this pipeline (which is bad for the environment by the way) when they know all their efforts will only be in vain? Yes, they will try to get the necessary amount of votes to override Obama's veto, but couldn't they be spending their time more wisely trying to figure out how to fix our education system? Disturbingly enough, our government cannot even accept that climate change is real; this past week, Congress voted against stating that climate change was real and humans are causing it. Regrettably, I am beginning to believe that there is not enough time for us to get our acts together. 

Signing a Paper is all it Takes not to Drop Out

In the ninth grade, my entire class and I made a pact to graduate together by signing a huge piece of paper that was to be hung up in the school. It wasn't until now that I realized how incredibly ludicrous that was. The school district couldn't seriously believe that would work, could they?

 As a recent high school student, I can empathize with those who either dropped out or wanted to. Personally, I never wanted to drop out due to the fourth grade when I decided it was my dream to become an architect and design treehouses for writers (maybe me someday) to live in. Nevertheless, imagine yourself as a sixteen year old with no career aspirations, struggling to find meaning in your classes and piles of homework. Think how incredibly frustrating it would be to spend five years struggling to survive your math classes whilst dealing with the typical dramas of adolescence. If you had no career plans or were not a lover of mathematics, you'd note how pointless your math classes were and wonder why in the hell you were learning the quadratic equation. The same can be said for Literary Composition 9-12 or the sequence of sciences: Physics, Biology, and Chemistry. Why does the average person need chemistry? The answer to that question is (as said by multiple Beaverton School District Counselors), "People should have a well rounded education behind them". This could be translated as, "People should have a load of useless knowledge in their heads so that nothing actually important can take up space" or "You learn what we tell you to learn". Yes, chemistry would be important for a would-be chemist, chemistry teacher, or someone who wanted to be in pharmaceuticals to know. But everyone?

In other words, the educational system does not adequately prepare you for college, a future career, or life in general. The system is inflexible and not designed for  students to succeed in the long term. Everyone basically goes through the same curriculum no matter their dreams or talents.

This is the basic path most students take 

with minor changes based on student choice.

Curriculum that is standardized such as this is doomed to failure. When someone starts taking all these core classes for seven years straight without any clue of why they are doing it, they can only begin to ponder if it is a waste of time. This is why so many people enter careers they are unhappy about, are conflicted about majors in college, or drop out of high school; the standards are neither personalized to the student or give the students an accurate idea of what they want to do. If students were to become involved in a more intense career exploration early in middle school, by the time they reached high school they would know what their talents were and what they were interested in, or enjoyed doing. In turn, they could form a personalized education that would allow them to study a particular field of work that they would enjoy. I truly believe something to this extent is worth a try.

Strictly speaking, the schools should not expect that signing a poster will keep students from dropping out. A new form of education that is personalized to the student is needed. The standard one size fits all does not work.

Thoughts on the First Chapter of Classical Rhetoric Now

After reading the first chapter of the class textbook, Classical Rhetoric Now, I must say firstly, that I enjoyed the easiness of reading the humor- infused language and history presented. Unlike other course books I have had the displeasure of reading, this one was not (so far) overwhelmingly filled with facts and other information I could not possibly remember in my wildest dreams. Chapter one gave the history of the people behind rhetoric and our current methods of writing, and even where and how our cultures began. One thing that especially struck me was the woman Aspasia. I have never heard of her in my life, and I am now wondering, why? The reading claims that she was the one who inspired Socrates and Pericles and they are the only ones that are ever mentioned, along with Socrates' student Plato, and Plato's student Aristotle- all men!Is she not ever mentioned because she is a woman? I am not sure, but I would like to find out.

Expectations and the Oregon Buddhist Temple- Revised

Last week I attended a Sunday service at the Oregon Buddhist Temple in Portland. They study Jodo Shinsu which is a Japanese sect of buddhism. I had been to a festival hosted by another temple in Portland many years prior, but that experience did not leave me with any idea as to what I should expect to experience at a regular service. I knew what the temple looked like from pictures, but I was truly walking in blindly. I didn't even know if I would have to take my shoes off or not.

I shouldn't say that I had big expectations, or worries anticipating going to the temple. Though, I think I did have this notion that the temple would be influenced by Japanese culture allowing for there to be pillows to sit on instead of chairs. 

The temple, it turned out, was just like a regular Christian church! Aisles of pews with a kind of stage or altar at the front, and a pastor, or reverend who spoke. Of course, what the reverend spoke of was different than what I seem to remember the pastor talking about at a Christian church, but I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed that the temple wasn't more like, a temple. I felt as if I was back in church as a child, quietly waiting for the service to end. 

Amidst my disappointment, however, I did learn something from the reverend's sermon; what I learned was an ironic idea, and quite coincidental, as it was about expectations. 

We all have expectations just like the one I described above. Yes, all my silly one had to do with was whether or not I would sit on pillows, but it did change how I enjoyed the experience. No matter how small or large our expectations are; if they are not met, we feel disappointed. Why we even have expectations, when we know all they bring is sadness, I don't know. I can't tell you the number of times I had expectations that were, of course, not met, which in turn ruined my entire day. The questions here are then: why do we make expectations, and how can we stop ourselves from having them? 

As human beings, we often feel entitlement and this is what causes us to have certain expectations. We feel like this should happen, or I should get this, because either we've done something that "warrants" a reward, or we have no reason to expect, but we do anyway. Entitlement is a kind of expectation which has no basis– no one owes you anything, and if you think like that, you won't be disappointed. We should all try to feel grateful for what we have, and maybe this will end our feelings of entitlement. 

On the other hand, our predisposition towards having expectations is different than having expectations through feelings of entitlement. In this case, we unintentionally make expectations with the awareness that there are consequences to having them. We don't feel entitled in this case, because we are unintentionally making expectations here. My shallow hope, or expectation that there would be pillows to sit on in the temple was an example of this. Ultimately, I do not believe we can stop ourselves from having expectations, but I think we can be at peace with that fact. Accordingly, we can decide that there is no reason our expectations should be fulfilled. Imagine the relief we could feel if we realized this. 

Seeing Life

Everyday I see people with the same face; a flat, expressionless face. Their eyes see nothing. None of them notice me; they are all focused on where they have to be, and what they have to do. It seems to me that none of them are happy because they don't have time to be.

In the United States we learn from a young age that being successful is the main objective in life. Being successful is also synonymous with having status. How come being happy is not the objective? How come we assume that being successful goes hand in hand with being happy? Because it does not. Those people that we deem so successful seem unhappy. When you see them on T.V. you see worry and anxiety. In fact, they seem constantly in stress. Why is this? And why is this side affect of being successful not important? 

We also learn that to be successful you have to set goals. We are taught to set goals in every aspect of our lives, for everyday of every week of every year. Every minute that we are alive we have a goal we must achieve in order to be successful. Yet, when one becomes successful, there are still things to be had, and goals to set. We are never done making goals, and we are never truly living. Being alive is not working to get what you want, it's realizing what you already have. It is noticing the world around you and not the world you want to live in. When we set goals for something we want, we no longer notice what is around us, or what we have, because we become obsessed with rushing towards that goal. Our choices are now in pursuit of that goal; everything we do is now in pursuit of that goal. Once this happens, we are not living anymore. We are those people that I described above, the expressionless, flat faced people. We see nothing, but our end goal. 

All those successful people that we long to be are not all that successful because they are not content. In fact, they have a hunger that will never be satisfied. They have had a taste of what it is like to attain your biggest dreams, and they now feel that the next goal is also accomplishable. This a vicious cycle that will never end until they realize that what they have is also what they always wanted. They also have more things to lose, and therefore more things to be worried about.

Always in a rush to succeed by accomplishing our goals, we don't enjoy the moment. The key is not to not have dreams. The key is to enjoy the process of getting to your dreams and not to always be in "need" of something. To notice what is going on around you and not become so preoccupied by what you have to do that you forget to live. Don't hurry through life so that you can get the thing you want. You wont be happy if you're always in a haste to have the next thing you desire. Remember that we can't see or live once we are dominated by what we want. 

The Dalai Lama

The other day I watched a documentary called, "10 Questions for the Dalai Lama". I now wonder how the Dalai Lama can be so at peace. It seems impossible that someone can have so much faith in anything. How can he sit idly by and watch as everything is taken from him and his people? How does he resist the urge to fight back? Or does he not have that urge at all?

When the Dalai Lama was fifteen years old, many changes were occurring in China. These changes were the beginning of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The Chinese leader Mao Zedong was determined to rid China of its "superstitious" beliefs and its past by destroying any evidence of it. He was also bent on absorbing Tibet into China.

Tibet had long been under the rule of Buddhist leaders called Dalai Lamas. Tibet's whole existence was formed under the impression that they would be a Buddhist community. In Mao's eye, an entirely religious community ruled by a spiritual leader was dangerous. Mao believed that "religion was poison" and that religious governments were not fit to rule. Under the justification that he was liberating Tibet, Mao destroyed thousands of monasteries and killed many Tibetans. At this time, the Dalai Lama and thousands of Tibetans fled to exile in India where they now inhabit a small northern portion of the country. 

Now, how would you feel if this happened to you? If your entire way of living and country was taken away from you. I know my first instinct would be to fight back. However, for the Dalai Lama, he feels no impulse to do so. In fact, he has forgiven the Chinese and immerses himself wholeheartedly in discussions with them. He does this because he believes that if the Tibetan people do not fight and go on with their daily lives, this will shame China. Still, I don't understand how this could be possible for anyone. 

I realized that he does all these things because he has faith that one day, due to their own corruption and faults, the Chinese regime over Tibet will fail and Tibet will be there for the Tibetan people once again. There will be no bloodshed in order to fight. Patience and the faith in the ability of the truth to shine will win in the end even if it means years of waiting in exile. It is true that people who do not desire things will not have the need to fight for things that they desire. They are at peace with what they have and if losing their homes and livelihoods so that no loss of life or tainting of the soul occurs, then so be it. The Dalai Lama has taught his people to want little and have little because you have little to fear if that is so and plenty of reasons to be happy. 

Though, if you want nothing, how do you persevere? If you have no dreams to keep you going, how? I think, that it's not that you can't have dreams, its just that you must understand that your dreams, if they are meant to happen, they will, if not, they won't. But you must not fight for your dreams if that means discontentment and misery. Feeling as so means that you are fighting against life, or the universe. Yet, if fighting is your tendency, find peace with life, or the universe through something that eases your mind.