Belief in Humanity

As I was glimpsing through essays on the web page of This I believe, Inc., a familiar name popped up from the screen and caught my attention. Pearl S. Buck, author of the novel The Good Earth, wrote about her belief in the goodness of mankind. Buck’s short essay “Roll Away the Stone” has allowed me to establish a better understanding between her fictional writing and her personal belief.

The Good Earth was the first novel I read during high school that pertained to the life in China, where I was born and raised before I moved to the U.S.. The novel depicts the rural life in a Southern Chinese village before World War I. The protagonist is a poor farmer named Wang Lung, who marries a servant named O-Lan from the wealthy landowner’s family. Throughout the novel, O-Lan serves all the duties of a good wife and undergoes all hardships with Wang Lung when he was poor. She farms the land, born sons to Wang Lung, infanticides her daughter to give the remaining family a better chance to survive and begs on the street with her children. In the end, Wang Lung becomes wealthy. He take in a young concubine who taunts O-Lan for her lack of charm as a woman. What goes around comes around, despite Wang Lung eventually becomes a landowner and gains everything he desires, he is condescended by  foolish sons who conspire to sell his land, the source of his wealth.

The realism in Buck’s writing is consistent with my knowledge on the history and customs of China in the early 19^th century, as well as the first person accounts from my grandparents who were witnesses of famine and war. It has always been intriguing to me; how was a Western woman able to write so perceptibly the experiences she never had?

In her essay “Roll Away the Stone,” Buck talks about her faith in humanity. Like Confucius, Buck believes that people are born good and can never become completely evil despite their circumstances. Although Buck acknowledges that “in the environments of uncertainty, fear, and hunger, the human being is dwarfed and shaped without his being aware of it,” she still believes that there is no need for any other faith other than faith in human beings. Just as the power to spring up is inherent to the plant struggling to grow out from underneath the stone, the faith in the goodness of human beings is inherent to the author. Given that Buck’s parents were missionaries, it is perhaps apparent to see why she held such strong belief.

In many ways, The Good Earth is a projection of Buck’s belief in the benevolence of mankind. The hardworking natures of Wang Lung and O-Lan brought an end to their poverty and hardships in life. Despite the cruelty and uncertainty of life, life always continues until death puts an end to it. The earth is the cradle of life; whatever springs from the earth must go back. To give the title The Good Earth to a novel that ends in bleakness is to give hope to the new lives that would arise after the old ones have perished.

Buck’s doubtlessness in humanity really reached out to me. By building the connection between The Good Earth and “Roll Away the Stone,” I too, would like to believe in what the author wants me to believe. That is the goodness in the world and the possibility of “world food, world health, world education” (Buck). The greatest inspiration in Buck’s work might have come from her single belief in the benevolence of mankind. Certainly, the universality and strength of this belief drew Buck to examine the lives’ of people from all ranks of the society. Thus, allowing her to write about the lives of rural farmer which she witnessed but never experienced. I believe the strength of Buck’s writing lies in the basis of her belief.

I also believe all forms of art leave room for audiences’ imagination. Wonju Seo’s pojagi reminded me of the game Tetris I used to watch my mother play when I was little. The empty spaces between the delicate, white fabric represent the puzzle that can be completed only when all the blank have been filled by different blocks. Mentally, I began to think that some “enlightenment” will be achieved once the entire puzzle is solved inside my head. However, my neck started to sore before that. Recalling one class discuss I had on the colors in envelopes used for various occasions, envelopes in purple, white, and silver are used when there is an funeral. The appearance of this color combination in White Wonderland gives me a sense of solemnity. I greatly enjoyed looking at the squares whose patterns fit flawlessly, creating a harmonious full picture.

Works Cited

Buck, S. Pearl. “Roll Away the Stone.” This I Believe. 22 January 2010. Web. 19 February 2016.   

Seo, Wonju. White Wonderland. 2015. Silk, Silver Print. Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY.

I Believe in the White Wonderland

Having a writing limit of 500 words is daunting for me, but writing the This I Believe essay was better than I had originally expected. In fact, I had written my essay before reading any This I Believe essays. In any case, I wrote about my belief in the subtleties of life. I find the most meaning in small gestures that are often unnoticed. 500 words later, I was further inspired by Miles Goodwin’s “The Connection Between Strangers,” Lisa Dunlap’s “It’s Better to Give…and Receive,” and Michelle Lee’s “The Act of Giving Thanks.” What I take away from these three writers, more importantly just everyday people, is that I am not alone, which gives me hope that more than one person holds esteem to this same belief I share. I also do not want to lose sight of my experiences while talking about the experiences of others, so I will say this now: I tried to connect myself to the small moments that stood out to me most by trying to pair the meaningful emotions I felt to the words I had written. I finally gave myself space to think, and I was able to fully take advantage of reflection. I have successfully overcome the first obstacle in my personal writing experience.

Miles Goodwin believes in the connection between strangers when they reach out to one another. He writes about his experience of a bus ride he took upon returning back home from duty in Vietnam. While he was sitting on the bus, a young girl gave him a magazine and said “welcome home.” He admits that all he was able to respond was a lingering “thank you,” because he was moved by this small gesture of compassion that he describes as “the first I had experienced in a long time.” Goodwin expected nothing but “hostility” upon his return, but in a time that he needed comfort, the young girl lifted his spirits and made him feel appreciated for his time and service in a war that ended in dismay. I remember last semester, a small gesture of compassion that made me feel the way that Goodwin felt about the magazine was when my good friend bought me a bouquet of roses after my painful break-up. As she handed me the bouquet, she said “Thank you for being the beautiful person you are. You are an amazing friend.” I was instantly a puddle of tears, just as Goodwin “turned to the window and wept.” I always think about the roses, even though they no longer fill the vase they sat in during a time I needed solace.

Lisa Dunlap believes that it’s better to give and receive. She writes that she often overlooks the act of receiving because she is more accustomed to giving back to others; however, the needs of the self are also important. Dunlap does hold expectations for others, but when people find her in need, they reach out to her and she accepts. She writes,

 “I have received the blessings of those whose acts of kindness and generosity have found me when I needed them most. I believe that we are all in this wonderful, messy world together, and it’s not about my strength and independence or how much I have. It’s about allowing the giver to be blessed when the gift is graciously received. For me, it’s about a long-lost little girl who is no longer alone. Now I know that giving and receiving are two halves of a whole, each incomplete without the other.”

In my own perspective, I find that the subtleties of life propel me to do better for those around me because I want to see them happy, which, in turn, makes me happy. In a way, I am giving back happiness to myself. I will admit that I am sometimes reluctant to accept small gestures of appreciation because I am also less accustomed to receiving, as is Dunlap. February 14-20, 2016 was Random Acts of Kindness Week, and as the Community Service Coordinator of National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH), I motivated my fellow NRHH members and other members of the community to be unafraid to be kind. I wrote a poem for one of my friends about how much I appreciate our new-found friendship and deep conversations, I bought Starbucks for a friend because I wanted to motivate him to finish his physics laboratory report.

The ultimate test: Can I acknowledge that I have received? This week was particularly difficult for me because my schedule was jam-packed with commitments, so receiving words of affirmation during the days of my distress helped me ease some of my tensions. My high school friends also reached out to me this week, and I felt reconnected with the flavors of home. Last night, I was emotionally distraught and needed someone to talk to about the internal conflict I have been having with myself, and friends spent a few hours just listening to the words I needed also needed to hear when they hit the air. When I feel overwhelmed, I pause for a moment to remember these random gleams of hope and happiness. My philosophy is that the more I think about these happy memories, the more I will be happy.

Michelle Lee believes in the act of giving thanks. She appreciates the art of writing thank-you letters to thank people for their deeds of kindness. She writes, “Nearly every Monday morning I sit down with my favorite pen and write a few thank-yous. I write them for parties I attend, dinners I’m fed, or just to thank a friend for listening. It is one of the highlights of my week.” All the small moments I talk about in my This I Believe essay are my thank-you notes to the past. All the New Year’s Eves that my sister and I danced to repeated radio music and spun around fast in circles while holding hands. All the days I spent helping my mom place the plates carefully on the soft, red Christmas tablecloth with the fork always on the left and the knife always on the right. All the winter evenings I sat inside, looking out the window at the snowfall, and all the summer nights sitting on the steps outside my house watching the sherbet summer sky transform into a map of constellations. All these times, I caught myself thinking about how much I loved the small parts of my life. After a while, I stopped caring about the toys and bicycles and games that everyone else had and just wanted to remember the good days before they became lost memories.

I am glad to have elaborated the connections of my This I Believe essay to parts of the essays that Goodwin, Dunlap, and Lee had posted. I find that I have been making progress with self-reflection, which has made me more willing to get in touch with my most vulnerable thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Though I have already insinuated that I have been dealing with internal pain, Wonju Seo’s White Wonderland piece in the Skylight Gallery at the Wang Center made me think of the entire road-map of myself. Parts of the map are complete, some parts are gray areas, and some parts are empty. I am in the making, but these are all the small parts, the “small things” to which I give endearment. The entire piece is me, but I consider the complete me to be the “white wonderland,” the pure, complete version of me; however, I am far from being pure and complete, though I am constructing myself over time. Light shines over the masterpiece, shedding rays of hope and optimism for the future road-map, brightening certain areas that need to be highlighted or improved, while others are darkened so that other parts of me can be focused on more specifically. Understanding myself more personally through writing has been a challenge before the This I Believe exercise and before being exposed to White Wonderland, but I conclude my blog post with the following: I believe in this, all that I have written, but most importantly, I believe in me. I will someday be the White Wonderland.

The Best Way out is Through

I personally really enjoyed this week’s theme of belief. It was interesting to see the variety of beliefs represented on the This I Believe website and which ones resonated with my classmates. I chose two essays that stood out to me: “Accomplishing Big Things in Small Pieces” by William Wissemann and “There is Always a Way Out” by Morris Mchawia Mwavizo. The two authors describe different experiences that seem to have a common theme.

Wissemann’s essay was very inspirational. He described the struggle he had with dyslexia and how in the fourth and fifth grade, he remembers struggling significantly. He had to exert more effort than the other kids to read and write. “Memorizing symbols for letters, I learned the pieces of the puzzle of language,” he says. Another puzzle, one that he chose to deal with, was the Rubik’s cube. Even with the Rubik’s cube, he became frustrated and tore it apart, but after four weeks of patience and focus, he was able to figure out how to solve it. Wissemann says that the Rubik’s cube taught him that “to accomplish something big, it helps to break it down into small pieces.” He also believes that steps to progress occur unexpectedly and that sometimes there are “surprises around the corner.” I think that this essay in an important reminder that determination and focus will bring success, and although it may not be immediate, everything will be okay eventually.

In the second essay I read, Mwavizo begins his essay with an anecdote describing how he would try to trap ants with mud walls when he was younger, and how amazed he was when they were able to use their determination to escape. He admired the perseverance of the ants, and translated that into dealing with his own struggles. He used writing to help him get through many obstacles in his life. This essay, and even the one by Wissemann, reminded me of a quote by Robert Frost that says, “The best way out is always through.” This is one of my favorite quotes because it reminds me that there is light at the end of every inevitable struggle, and that keeping faith and working through a problem is the best way to be set free and learn from it.

Our visit to the Wang Center during class on Thursday was very refreshing. When first observing the piece, I thought that there was not much to it. It didn’t make much sense to me at first. Then I started to think about Emerson’s essay that we read in class, and I began to make some connections. I saw the white fabric as a blank canvas for original, untainted, and sentimental thoughts to be painted upon by an author. The overall shape seemed to be a square, but it was incomplete. Random empty patches, to which I cannot attribute any pattern, are scattered throughout the square. These empty patches can symbolize what is missing from someone’s story. It is a vacancy waiting to be filled by something significant and worthwhile.

This is a beautiful piece of art by Wonju Seo. It is very elegant and provokes a lot of thinking and interpretation.

References:

1. Wissemann, William. “Accomplishing Big Things in Small Pieces.” This I Believe. This I Believe, Inc., 14 Sept. 2008. Web. 20 Feb. 2016. <http://thisibelieve.org/essay/39318/&gt;.
2. Mwavizo, Morris M. “There Is Always a Way Out.” This I Believe. This I Believe, Inc., 1 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 Feb. 2016. <http://thisibelieve.org/essay/133302/&gt;.
3. “White Wonderland” by Wonju Seo, 2015.

Have Trust and Faith in The Grilled Cheese of Life

One particular This I Believe essay that really resonated with me on a personal level was, “Love is Trust and Faith” by Shirley. This essay talks about the struggle of an eating disorder and the parallel between not fully understanding the disorder and not believing one can get better and how that translates to the sufferer, but then realizing that giving up isn’t an option; that one should never give up on a friend or family and having faith is what can help one persevere through any struggle. While it may be hard to trust someone (in this case someone with an illness that makes them lie and deceive others) it is essential sometimes. The more we learn to trust and have faith in others, they begin to trust and have faith in themselves. Sometimes all it takes it a little bit of faith to get someone to accomplish what they need to. This rang true for me because I have see loved ones start to give up on me throughout my recovery journey from my eating disorder, but as they began to have more faith that recovery is possible (even though there are many ups and downs) – the more they had faith in me to recover, the more I had faith and believed that I could get better.

The other essay I enjoyed reading was the “The Grilled Cheese Principle” by Emily Schmitt Lavin. She talks about multitasking and being in the present moment and how when we are distracted it’s hard to be in the here and now. That is something that rings true for me on a daily basis. I am constantly bombarded with thing after thing and trying to manage everything at once. It’s so easy to lose focus on one thing that is so easy (making a grilled cheese). Life is the same way. If we give things the attention they need, we get the full effect and it ends up benefiting us in the long run. What I got out of this essay was that things in life don’t have to be complicated. They can actually be quite simple if we just allow them to be what they are for all that they are. If we focus on one thing at a time and try our hardest to stay within that realm of focus and give these tasks the attention they deserve, they get appreciated more and the execution of these tasks are effective and worthwhile.

When I sat in front of “White Wonderland” by Wonju Seo, I viewed this as sort of a meditation. I found myself really focused on the left side of this piece of art. The way the sun was shining and hitting the tiles and the blank parts of the white wall made me feel so serene and at piece. I found myself having moments of clarity and peace in my mind. The different colors of the tiles were really intriguing to look at. There were tiles that were a shiny purple and a shiny greenish/brown color. I was particularly drawn to the spots of exposed wall where there were no tiles. This piece reminded me of what life is like. We have all different things that make up our life yet there are still blank spots with a blank canvas, for things we’ve yet to experience or maybe they’re blank because of things that might never happen/we never want to experience. Also, the sunlight didn’t hit all of the tiles. There were some areas that were dark and untouched by the sun, and that represents life a lot too. Not all moments are happy and bright. We experience moments where there is nothing but darkness, but despite that, there are always going to be good moments. After all, darkness is needed for us to see the light shining. So the contrast between the light and the dark really added to this piece.

Texturally, what I thought these tiles were made out of, changed throughout the 5 minutes. I imagined it being some sort of stone/marble like material, and then the tiles started to soften and I imagined them to be more of a cloth like material; something that would resemble a quilt or blanket. Although it doesn’t vary much in color, the patchwork and patterns are exquisite and elegant. Each individual square has simply yet distinct detail that looking at it is an experience in and of itself. As a whole, it made me think of experiences in life; simple yet descriptive and interpreted differently by all.

A picture doesn’t do it justice.  The way the light reflected over the patchwork was really pleasing for me to look at.

 

Beliefs I Agree With

    While reading the “This I Believe” essay this week, I found myself feeling refreshed. Many of the personal essay so far that we have both written and read have been more negative, focusing on gray-er areas of life, and not really having any uplifting spirit. Each Believe essay that I read was inspirational and left me with a feel-good attitude. Two of my favorites were “Marking the World, One Patient at a Time”, by Matt Rizzotti, and “Never Give Up”, by Mary Curran Hackett. Both essays were wholly genuine and saw the silver lining to life, and left me with inspiration for my week.

In Rizzotti’s essay, he discusses life as an emergency medical technician for a fire department and includes anecdotes about failed cardiac arrests and having to care for his friends parents. However, he also mentions in paragraph five of his essay how no matter what happens, from bad calls to abusive patients, he only continues to want to help people more and more. In the final paragraph, he states his belief: answering the pager in the middle of the night. Obviously this belief translates to always helping and answering the pager even in the daytime, but as an EMT myself, I understand how answering the pager in the middle of the night somehow feels more powerful. Helping someone at 3AM when everything is closed and they are completely depending on you – it feels different. I respect Rizzoti’s belief and also share it.

In the “Never Give Up” Believe piece, Mary Curran Hackett tells a story of her father telling her to always try, and never give up when she was younger. She remembers saying that her father would give similar speeches to her siblings during sporting events, but never thinking she would ever receive his famous speech, since she was not as interested in sports. Hackett says she “worked her ass off just to survive”, as her father inspired her to do, but eventually ended up pregnant and about to be a single mom, and had to call on her father to help her. She felt disappointed and so did her father; yet he did not give up on her, and inspired her to not give up on herself or the baby.

Although both positive, the essayists do differ in writing style. Rizzotti works up to telling us what his belief is, not stating it wholly until the end. He starts off with the suspense of a pager dispatching them to a cardiac arrest, and even starts to dip into a depressing paragraph about negative calls, and bring the reader back into positivity by saying he nevertheless wants to keep answering calls & believes in answering that nighttime page. Curran states her belief right away, and explaining how her father instilled it in her and how it became more relevant and powerful in her life later on. However, both essays are still powerful Believe pieces.

This week in class we also paid a visit to the Wang Center, where we viewed the piece “White Wonderland” by Wonju Seo, an exhibition that appears as different snowflakes all pieced together. Some of the snowflakes appear dirty, some are deflated, some jut out. They are all different, but the piece as a whole appears clean and perfect. The more you stare, the more imperfection you find; it is an interesting piece. Especially with the off-white snow flakes on the white wall, you might at first just walk past it, but the more you look the more startling the piece is.

Citations

Curran Hackett, Mary. “Never Give Up.” This I Believe, 1 June 2015. Web. 18 Feb. 2016. <http://thisibelieve.org/essay/5704/&gt;.

Rizzotti, Matt. “Marking the World, One Patient at a Time.” This I Believe, 23 Mar. 2012. Web. 18 Feb. 2016. <http://thisibelieve.org/essay/89977/&gt;.

Seo, Wonju. White Wonderland. 2015. Silk, Silver Print. Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY.

Sweet Simplicity

It is incredible how a single experience in life can completely change your outlook of everything and create a new belief to live by. In Emily Schmitt Lavin’s “The Grilled Cheese Principle,” the author reflects on why she has failed to make excellent grilled cheese sandwiches and arrives at a principle that she can now depend on (Lavin).  Similarly, in Jackie Lantry’s “The Power of Love to Transform and to Heal,” the author writes about when she adopted her son and how his growth from being a troubled boy to a confident student helped the author gain a new belief in her ability to change a life for the best with something as natural as love (Lantry).

In “The Grilled Cheese Principle,” the author recalls that her mother would often burn only the second side of grilled cheese sandwiches (Lavin). Meanwhile, the author notices that the first side of the author’s grilled cheese sandwiches are usually burnt, but she tends to “…more carefully monitor the second side” (Lavin). This difference is interesting because it demonstrates the unique ways in which the author and her mother approached this task. When she realizes the mistake that she had been making, the author writes that she “…learned that even the most tedious and simple task deserves my full attention” (Lavin). In “The Power of Love to Transform and to Heal,” the author recalls the first time that she met her adopted son, Luke, and their first moments together when she bought him his favorite food, taught him about the moon, bathed him, and read with him (Lantry). These simple acts led Luke to trust the author, but the author had contemplated “…if he would ever get over the wounds of neglect that the orphanage had beaten into him” (Lantry). Nevertheless, Luke grew up to be a wonderful young boy and the author realizes that what had helped him the most “…was love: just simple, plain, easy to give” (Lantry).

For Lavin, focusing on each and every task became essential to “…achieve uncommon and appreciated perfection” (Lavin). Meanwhile, for Lantry, love became the overarching force that could make a positive difference in someone’s life even though love does “…not cost money, require connections or great privilege” (Lantry). While Lavin’s essay is more lighthearted than Lantry’s essay, both essays leave a great impact on the reader.

While observing Wonju Seo’s installation called White Wonderland in Stony Brook University’s Charles B. Wang Center, my eyes traveled all over this collection of square textiles of various sizes and tints (Seo). I came to realize that white comes in many shades, there is beauty in the spaces between tangible art, and that my perception of art is subject to influences around me. In the photograph that I took of Wonju Seo’s White Wonderland below, you can see how rectangles of light are superimposed upon the square textiles of the installation in a way that brings a balance of lightness and darkness to this beautiful installation.

Photograph of Wonju Seo’s White Wonderland installation in Stony Brook University’s Charles B. Wang Center. Photograph taken by Japbani Nanda.

Works Cited

Lantry, Jackie. “The Power of Love to Transform and to Heal.” This I Believe.

            This I Believe, Inc., 1 August 2005. Web. 19 February 2016.

Lavin, Emily Schmitt. “The Grilled Cheese Principle.” This I Believe.

            This I Believe, Inc., 30 March 2015. Web. 19 February 2016.

Seo, Wonju. White Wonderland. 2015. Silk, Silver Print. Charles B. Wang

            Center at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY.

Some Thoughts

Reading through different essays on the This I Believe website was pretty fun. It was interesting to learn about what others believe in and how they deliver their stories in an interesting and relate-able way. Out of all the essays I have read so far on the site, A Dog’s Life is still my favorite. This is probably because I have a dog and I agree with the sentiments of the author, Fred Flaxman. In his essay, he recounts his experience of owning a dog and learning the responsibilities that came with taking care of one. In reflection, he realizes that he is envious of his dog’s life,  one that if free of responsibilities. His essay indicates that he has been living a life-style that he is supposed to: working at a job, earning money, supporting a family etc. He reveals that he wishes to live a lifestyle where he can relax and not have to do much.

I enjoyed this essay because I also feel the same way the author does. Even though I have not lived as long as he has, or have had to work to support a family, I do find myself envious of my dog’s life. I do wish to live a life where all I have to do is eat, sleep, and play (or just a life without responsibilities); however, I do feel guilty for thinking this way. As a human being (a creature of free thought), I feel obligated to do more than just “live”, to define some meaning in the life I live (yes, some existential thoughts). In a sense we are both liberated and burdened by our cognitive ability. We can do more than just fulfill our biological needs, but the “more” is what I struggle with. Why must we do the “more” and how do we figure out what it is that we must do?

Sitting in front of Wonju Seo’s White Wonderland, a large scale installation featuring squares silk folded and sewn together, was meant to be an exercise to clear the mind and do some thinking. For some reason, I was not able to do much reflecting. For the most part I was scanning the different folds and wondering why the artist included some blues and greens. Other than some immediate observations of the artwork, I found myself mostly focusing on the light cast on the wall. There was some mysterious light pattern near the bottom of the artwork and I could not find the light source.

The interesting light cast on the wall. I speculated the origin of the light but came to no concrete conclusion.

Experiencing Life in Different Lens

This whole week in the I learned about beliefs in our writing class, I read Emerson, I dove into the personal beliefs of complete strangers and I stared at a huge piece of art, and from doing all of this, I think that I learned a lot about life. Learning about how others go about their lives and how they see things really made me evaluate my own life and how my actions may conform to it, or how I stand out without even realizing it.

I wanted to read some “I Believe” essays before I chose which ones I decided to write about it. Since there are so many, I decided to go to the two themes that had the very most and the very least essays; humor and laughter with just one essay, and self- knowledge with 15,711 essays. Through this method, I came across “A Photo A Day” and “Give Me a Waffle”. Truly, I thought that the “A Photo a Day” essay (self- knowledge themed) was one that I am really glad I could relate too. The author of this piece, Stephanie, discussed about how she began to take pictures, at least one every day, after reading about how a man did it for 18 years. Capturing the happy and sad moments in one still picture can take a person back to that same exact place, and I think that I try to mimic that into my life because I love reliving old moments. There’s just something that is really nice about seeing a picture and remember the same emotions that filled that one scene.

Now, the “Give Me a Waffle” essay was not humorous nor filled with laughter, but it was truly profound. The essayist, Brenda, was referring to a waffle as her tangible object that gives her comfort in times of trouble and times filled with glee. For others, she states that this could include “a song or a walk or a chick flick”. I think that existing in a world where there is so much destruction and chaos, everybody needs some sort of comfort sometimes. However, I also think that in times filled with pure happiness, there should be objects that may correlate with that as well. For her, those are also waffles. For me, I think that mine would be mashed potatoes. The carb- enriched snack is my go- to food for almost any situation. I think that recognizing how life has both ups and downs, we all need some sort of support sometimes.

Free Write~ I saw squares and diamonds encompassing this magnanimous piece of art. I didn’t know what it was nor did I know anything about the artist, but this piece made me feel.

As I strained my neck trying to look at the entirety of the piece, I tried dismantling its unique form into small aspects that I could understand. What is this material made out of? How did the artist know when to add a pearl white, a faded navy or an earthy green to a diamond? Why and when would a segment of the piece branch off?

I couldn’t deduce anything while looking at it. There wasn’t anything logical about it to me, yet, I found myself thinking about how beautiful of a rug it would be.

This piece doesn’t make sense to me, and to be frank, many works of art don’t. However, I can still adore its beauty with my own interpretation of it, even if it doesn’t align with the artist’s. The relaxed colors made me feel at peace when gazing my eyes upon it. The seemingly random blank spaces made me think that this artist may have been a fan of the game, Tetris. The perfect rectangular exposures of light on this irregular piece somehow made it whole. Attracting my eyes to where there was light made the lines of triangles and diamonds fade. I no longer saw a separation of lines, but one whole piece. ~

I think that my free write, and this edited picture that I created, is one that really resonated with the theme that I really received this week. People are different. People have different perspectives. These differences in people and perspectives is what makes life so fun and unique, and it’s why I can love the same piece of art taken from 18 different students.

Drawing our Differences

Human beings were designed by nature only to ultimately resent its beauty. We as a species can not withstand the undefined non-geometrical world we live in. Nothing in nature can be drawn by a ruler except for what we build.  For many years, the wilderness and forest was something humans took pride in conquering – in taming. As I sat looking at the perfectly geometrical textiles I thought how the piece would be the ideal geography of our planet.

The textiles are a reflection of the rigidness and definition we aspire to achieve. We transcend this desire in the undefined world. We try our best to give it shape, to give it lines – borders. As a society we revel in our ability to coexist, yet it only goes as far as a line drawn on a map. Our world would be so simple and defined if it resembled the geography of the textiles. The United States would have 20 – 25 large squares and a couple smaller ones in the pacific; while Honduras would reserve itself to one medium sized square. Border resolutions would be so resolvable without all the chaos of our natural landscape. However, I believe the best resolution to a border dispute would be no border.

White Wonderland by Wonju Seo

We have tried to organize our planet for many years. Giving it imaginary longitudinal and axial lines, defining its seas, carving canals. When we look up a map of our world we need to realize that borders will always change and are not concrete in natures view. We should see nature for its imperfections not its capability to be altered. Our planet will never be a “White Wonderland.”

Ryan from Vista, California, wrote an essay where he questions the value and purpose of borders. In his This I Believe essay, “The Human Spirit Knows No Border,” Ryan boldly states “I believe that national borders are nothing more than decorative walls.” Ryan’s view resonates with my desire to unite all man kind as one race – the human race. We mimic the lines in our art and design to place on our planet. Not only do these lines divide us, they also obstruct the natural beauty of the world we live in. Ryan finally adds, “Our lives on earth are so much greater than the lines on a map.”

A Border-less World

This I Believe

James T. Harris is currently the president of the University of San Diego. However, many years ago, at the age of seventeen, he was a janitor during the summer. He considered it a valuable experience because he understood what it meant to be invisible. It was a frustrating job for him because people did not see him as a person but only as a janitor who cleaned restrooms. He explained to his grandmother about this experience of being invisible. She had told him before that “you are no better than anyone else, but you are also just as good as anyone.” Harris now understood why he had to treat everyone equally. She also told him to work hard and he’ll become a better person in the future. He didn’t fully understand why she told him to work hard because he was working as a janitor to pay for college. Regardless, he kept his head down and did his job. He learned that he was no more important than anyone else despite his title. He claims this experience of becoming a janitor is what helped him become the president of the university. This leads to his belief that all young people should do some work outside of the class room so they understand what it is like to be someone else. You must walk in someone else’s shoe to truly understand them.

Opal Ruth Prater’s husband had died and a funeral was hosted for him. When his wife returned home from the funeral she found his shirt hanging on a chair. She would smell the shirt to remind her of him. Whenever she realized his absence, she would cry into the shirt. One day there was a storm, and when she went to check on the shirt in the shed the day after, the farm animals had taken shelter in the shed and trampled all over the shirt. The smell on the shirt was no longer there. Fifteen years later, she still loved him. Her husband is still in her memories and that is why she still loves him. This leads to her belief that love is stronger than death. The present may always be changing, but memories are forever imprinted in our minds.

I have passed by the White Wonderland before and did not pay much attention to it before; it didn’t look interesting. I always thought it was some type of paper mache, but at a closer look and reading the description, I found out it was composed of patchworks. After focusing on the giant patchwork of origami, nothing really came to mind besides why did Wonju Seo make this? What is this giant patchwork collage supposed to mean? Or was it simply a giant patchwork collage and I was just overthinking?

There Is Value in Every Person

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