To Dance or Not to Dance...

I have this thing; this crazy obsessive thing for cliché carpe-diem quotes. Ironically, however, I normally find my self doing just the opposite. Just today I came by this quote: We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. And you know I sat there thinking, “wow how right he is, you know sometime you’ve just got to throw yourself out there.” Yet I know that next time I get the chance of making an ass out of myself, I won’t. I’ll be safe like I always am. Always. I’m majoring in business, not because I have any overwhelming passion to be the next Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, but rather for the fact that its safe, and acceptable. If I could, I’d be a fashion designer; but than my parents would disown me and I’d be like every other starving artist out there. So I don’t. I don’t commit. I’m more scared of commitment than most men I know. I hate the idea of being codependent or simply dependent on another person. Ironic, no? So what do I do? How hell does one person, decide at 20, what they’re doing and where they’re going? How do I choose what to sacrifice and what to hold on to for dear life? There are so many choices and it feels like there’s not enough time to everything that I could possibly want to. I don’t want to look back 30 year down the road and realize I haven’t lived at all, and I’ve remained that confused, unhappy 20 year old.

Free for All

Freeganism sounds like something straight out of a book. It seems unbelievable that people, living within minutes of USF, can actually survive off a throw away food. Personally, I think that the idea, while resourceful, has many flaws to it. First off, food gets thrown out for a reason and consuming that food could be a potential threat to one’s health. Yes Steve Smith of Sweetbay does admit to early expiration dates for the safety of consumers, but what happens when something really has gone bad? Many times people don’t even realize that something will make them sick because the visible signs of being spoilt are not visible. Also, a more effective way to fight consumer waste would be to encourage even more stores to donate their uneaten food. This task, though difficult due to restrictions put on donated food, is quite plausible. In fact, a young girl aged 14 pioneered the whole concept. Secondly, what would our society be if a good portion of our population scoured the dumpsters for food? We would be setting evolution backwards a little bit, no? Yes I understand that in today’s world we are spoilt and wasteful. Yes we are rapidly destroying our environment but there are better ways to manage all these thing rather than eating out of our dumpsters.

Relay for Rights

The Olympic torch symbolizes the sprit of the Olympic Games and the unity of the world. The Olympics were resurrected in the early 20th century to give the youth of the world direction and productive outlets for their energy. To some extent using the Olympic touch as a method of garnering attention to the human rights violations in Tibet embodies these goals. This shows that the people of the world are giving enough importance to what the feel is a wrong doing on the part of an Olympic host country. Protesters are bringing a lot of negative attention to something that is supposed to be unifying and representative of our common humanity, but by speaking out for people whose voices have been silenced; these protesters are bringing this unification to a whole new level. Protesters are doing something very brave and very good and utilizing their resources to the maximum capacity. Had these protestors chosen to protest at any other time they would have gotten some media attention but it would have been quickly forgotten. By doing it during the Olympic torch relay, they are ensuring that people around they world see why China’s actions in Tibet are wrong. Overall, the protestors are getting their message across: China is doing some very immoral and unforgivable things.

An Empty Room

Personally I think the author of Michael Chitwood in writing “The Room” was thinking about life in general. The empty room, which he is standing in, represents where he is in life right now. The room is empty because though he may wish to seek the council of others no one else can help him with what he has to do: choosing a life for himself. He talks about two doors that exit the room, which showcase the two paths upon which he is contemplating: living in a small town and getting married or a rigorous career. He goes on to say “We are leaving as we speak” meaning that even though he has not chosen a door, he a still moving because he is maturing and growing. Then when he is talking about the “dearly departed” he is referring to all of the experiences that led him up to this point. They are no present, but the remnants of their former presence lingers and plays a huge role in his decision. He ends the poem talking about “our bodies ghosted, the leavings remaining” referring to all the marks that have been physically left by him, referring to things which immortalize him in people’s memories, such as photographs, achievements, etc. On the whole though, the poem simply talks about how choosing where one is going is highly dependent on where one has been.