When I think of prom the first thing that comes to my mind is the last hurrah or bash before before the year is over. Prom is like a celebratory synopsis of the end of your high-school career. Some first questions that pop into my mind are when was this idea set in stone? What does it emulate? What is the significance? Are there social links to this festive idea of adolescent celebration? What dominant social factors does prom bring out? If you consider not attending how are you seen by your peers? Why are drugs and alcohol such a big part of the event? Questions like this are just my initial thoughts on the subject but as I did some personal research it only lead me to thin deeper about the subject. "Proms first began in the elite colleges of the Northeast, taking their cue from the debutante balls of the rich and well bred. Middle class parents admired the poise and composure of debutantes and their escorts and began to institute formal dances as a means of instilling social skills and etiquette in their children. The dances were strictly chaperoned and were often restricted to only the senior class."("HIstory of Porm" 1-1)From this piece of information I find it intriguing that proms were first chaperoned and started at such an early age in time. As well I had a feeling that the whole idea of the prom was created by the students of the previous years as well as teachers and parents which I'm assuming were the chaperones. The entire idea that was created from college seniors was passed down to high school students early on, for instance in the 80's especially and to current day. Specifically I though it's crazy to realize just how prom has changed through the era's of evolution in time.
An insight that came to my mind when I was in class one day working in groups talking about the the topic at hand was a very interesting concept that I divulged from my thoughts.The concept that I thought of is specifically dealing with the topic of prom, the conquest of gathering materials of interest that have appeal and flaunting them to the best of their ability. Now the materials depend the eyes of the current social agenda of that time that is in fact appealing to the masses. "Today's proms have become expensive, all-night affairs, with after-prom activities often extending into the dawn of the next day. Stretch Hummers, fancy dresses, and glamorous ballrooms are now prom-night standards. Still, the prom has begun to relax a little in its dating requirements. While tradition still dictates that a boy ask a girl to the prom, more and more girls are beginning to take their prom destinies into their own hands and do the asking. Nontraditional couples are also becoming a more common sight at the prom. In practically every way, prom has moved beyond the days of strictly chaperoned, etiquette banquets to glamorous extravaganzas where nearly anything goes."("HIstory of Porm" 1-1) Prom now a days have come a long way from the proms of the past. The quote above is a great example of how prom are "suppose" to be and are like today. I even agree with how it was depicted here in the text. Almost every day I hear my peers talking about how they are driving in an escalade or chaffering a limo to have them be dropped off at the prom. They talk about this excessively almost everyday. Although my peers indulge themselves in these fantasy's yet to come true , these events are what really makes the prom experience maintain the one aspect that has kept it going since the late 1800's and that's "glamour". Glamour is what makes up the reasoning in even going to pro, some people take it very seriously and plan in advance what they are wearing and how they are getting there and then there are others that have the desire to experience it but do not harness the initiative to try as hard as ones whom care to an excessive extent. For instance in getting my suit today and its a monday and our schools prom is on a thursday. I have the initiative and have the same desire of glamour just as my peers but I do not have the same approach to the event. To me prom is something that is going to be an amazing synopsis to the end of our high school career and I plan on going out with a bang and experiencing it the way I choose to experience it, the lay back kinda way, no stress involved.
Citation:
"Pretty For Prom." HIstory of Porm 2006: 1-1. Web. 22 May 2011. <http://www.prettyforprom.com/prom-history.html>.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Extra Credit Opportunities-COTD3 "Bodies Exhibit"
As I entered into the main maze of rooms when I finally got into the exhibit there was many pictures and information segments of different body parts and functions of the body and inner and outer images and displays of the body. Something that especially stood out to me was the real life bodies that they used to depict the images that they wished to portray for each different segment of information. What I found really interesting was that at the entrance of the exhibit I was given an audio device that I used to pretty much breakdown all the segments of information that were in front of my eyes. They broke it down like this, there were numbers next to all of the diagrams and displays and segments of information and when you plugged in these numbers to the phone looking audio device it played an audio tape that summed up all of the information being displayed. I used this audio device for numerous parts of the exhibit until I got bored. Then I came to an exhibit that really caught my attention. I went into a room that was almost completely dark. Inside this room were huge vials, these vials contained of ,which I'm assuming were aborted infant fetuses. They had maybe about 10 to 8 vials in total and under the vials it read the amount of weeks the baby was able to develop. It gauged from 20 weeks to 1 week and they had an ominous glow to them. To me when I came upon this part of the exhibit although I found it to be interesting I also found it to be inhuman. To bottle up a potential human life for the entertainment of other living humans, the idea just seems unmorally wrong.
The video above was one that I took covertly inside of the exhibit of the aborted babies/ fetuses room. Although I was able to get pictures and videos from this exhibit it wasn't going about getting these things. After the first ten minutes I got caught taking pictures of the exhibit and the security official made me delete a lot of good pictures that I took before. But this in my opinion was the best video that I got of the baby's exhibit.
Extra Credit Opportunities - COTD1 Grave Yard Project.
Something that came into my mind when I was in Saint Paul's cemetery was how could someone be buried in such a huge structure. The reason for this question popping into my head is because of the huge mausoleum that was sitting in the corner of the cemetery on a huge bed of grass. I wondered how persevered the body or bodies were inside of the gigantic tomb, as well I wondered just how rich the family of this person was. The question of was this really a necessary use of money to spend on a person's death was something I was thinking about as I gazed at the top of the of the structure, it must of been at least 50 to 60 feet high. As well I make some assumptions about the family of the deceased, either they were just plain out rich or maybe this man or woman had such an impact of the lives around that person that as a memorial they all decided that it was vest for the individual to be remembered in this way. As I continued walking I noticed that some of the graves around me were from the early nineteen hundreds and even the late eighteen hundreds. While I was reading the grave stones I imagined what the world must of been like during the time these people were put six feet under, I cringed. After reading about their death years I began to dwell on the topic of my own death, thinking about what year I could die in. Someone could be writing about my death being in the early two thousands, but then I decided that my own death is a topic I shouldn't be trying to predict because it is seen by my family as bad luck to talk about.
Extra Credit Opportunities - COTD2 Response To "Harold & Maude"
In the first scene of the movie when the boys mother sees her son hung by an elastic nose ther view on death seems to be a type of calm assuring feeling,But when the mother walked in om her son in the bathroom scene after the dinner scene she was overwhelmed with the amount of work he put in to creating a plausible death scene
-meets maud at the church when he went to a funeral
chemistry lab boarding school blew up the lab
police came and told his mother he was dead she collapsed in the door way because of itthen he decided he would be better off dead
got a jaguar and turned it into a hurst
mother makes him almost go to the service and he fakes killling maud to prevent it
when they are at the junk yard she shows him the holocaust bar code tatoo o her arm
ruins his first date fin his mothers eyes failed death attempt to trick the girl
he slept with a 79!yead old! told his mother he is marrying her
priest and uncle military
he made her happy in her last ohours of life and she popped pills the boy fell in love with her he wanted to get married with her. all she wanted was for her to feel young again and die now so now he learned the fooling that he was attempting to make everyone else go through and he was touched by her interesting death and then the fake death of him using his car was him showing himself being comfortable again and takeing in her death
-meets maud at the church when he went to a funeral
chemistry lab boarding school blew up the lab
police came and told his mother he was dead she collapsed in the door way because of itthen he decided he would be better off dead
got a jaguar and turned it into a hurst
mother makes him almost go to the service and he fakes killling maud to prevent it
when they are at the junk yard she shows him the holocaust bar code tatoo o her arm
ruins his first date fin his mothers eyes failed death attempt to trick the girl
he slept with a 79!yead old! told his mother he is marrying her
priest and uncle military
he made her happy in her last ohours of life and she popped pills the boy fell in love with her he wanted to get married with her. all she wanted was for her to feel young again and die now so now he learned the fooling that he was attempting to make everyone else go through and he was touched by her interesting death and then the fake death of him using his car was him showing himself being comfortable again and takeing in her death
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
HW - Independent Research B.
This weekend when I was in the subway I was transferring from the 6 train to the 2 train and as I was walking into the train I ran into a one of those crazy christian religious fanatics that was passing out flyers promoting christian extremism. He was spewing all this garbage about all non believers being casted out to hell and the rapture saving all those faith to the lord Jesus Christ. I stopped the guy and had a short conversation with him about his views on his Extreme Protestant Christian religion. His views were very radical he was describing to me chapters of the book of god the bible what I recognized that he was saying was from the bible specifically Matthew 24:40. In that part of the bible Matthew is talking about the description of the rapture saying that god will descend down from the heavens and the faithful christian will be taken and all others will be cast down to the depth of hell. He also had some anti semitic views which I found to be disgusting, he said that , and I quote "the Blacks, all the Jews and towel headed non believers of christ will be shunned and burn for eternity in hell". After I heard this I felt a little compelled to leave because this individual was out of his mind. Racial Extremism through the Christian view is just a pretty crazy just like most religions in their extremist form. This is the type of extremism that should not even be represented or seen as a part of the Christian religion. Growing up in Catholic household has taught me simply there was heaven and hell and if you committed sin you would have to go to confession and go to church every sunday as well. While I was in Catholic school I was taught all of this.
For my interview I decided that once I was home from taking the train I would go to Saint Paul's Chapel which is an episcopalian church very close to my home. when I finally go there after walking from the train I went into the confession booth and talked to the father. After the confession booth I told the father that I wanted to interview him on his religious beliefs and what he think about to concepts of heaven and hell. So we sat in the first row of benches in the church and talked. He described to me that him being a follower of god he was taught at a young age as he was becoming a priest to preach the words of god at all times. He gestured multiple times to me that as a christian we are taught to believe that god created this good earth and that god hath the power to take it away and that one day, a day that we never know is coming. God will save all of his followers and bring them to heaven during the coming of Armageddon. What I liked that he told me was that all of these stupid people whom believe that the rapture will happen on May 25th or on all of these stupid dates are insane. The father told me that when the lord Jesus Christ himself decides the day will come, that that is the day it will be bestowed upon us. As well we as children of god do not know information such as this, so we being children of god make educated guess's and want to think that we really know but we really don't. According to the father only god knows and we will just have to wait and see.
For my interview I decided that once I was home from taking the train I would go to Saint Paul's Chapel which is an episcopalian church very close to my home. when I finally go there after walking from the train I went into the confession booth and talked to the father. After the confession booth I told the father that I wanted to interview him on his religious beliefs and what he think about to concepts of heaven and hell. So we sat in the first row of benches in the church and talked. He described to me that him being a follower of god he was taught at a young age as he was becoming a priest to preach the words of god at all times. He gestured multiple times to me that as a christian we are taught to believe that god created this good earth and that god hath the power to take it away and that one day, a day that we never know is coming. God will save all of his followers and bring them to heaven during the coming of Armageddon. What I liked that he told me was that all of these stupid people whom believe that the rapture will happen on May 25th or on all of these stupid dates are insane. The father told me that when the lord Jesus Christ himself decides the day will come, that that is the day it will be bestowed upon us. As well we as children of god do not know information such as this, so we being children of god make educated guess's and want to think that we really know but we really don't. According to the father only god knows and we will just have to wait and see.
Monday, May 9, 2011
HW 53-Independent Research A.
As i read this article reguardless of how twisted and/or convincing the article seems someone's death is being celebrated. I find it a bit disturbing just how much hatred people have to generate to hate someone enough to wish death upon them and in the event occuring celebrating like a country was liberated. It just seems a bit in humane to celebrate the death of someone. Its like a person whom hs lost their life and their family is greiving them yet the friends of the deceased is celebrating his death but on a larger scale here. the us is taking the part of the friends and the jihadist loyal to fighting thier holy war against America and the rest of the wold are the grieving family.
I can understand how the public especially in New York City feels about the topic of Osama Bin Laden but to me the idea of wanting another person to be put to death just seems wrong to me. I mean I too share these feelings of wanting Osama to be killed but I never really thought about the big picture behind all of it. " Wanting someone to to be killed actually dead and gone." Its just seems so cold to me that people want other people to be killed and put to death all around the world and are world just lives with it all everyday. I'm not saying that I feel bad for Bin Laden in any way ,I too wanted him killed but it just seems so fascinatingly cold that we as humans work like this.
When I read the second article I was immediately struck with sadness. A woman whom has escaped Tower one during 9/11 before it "collapsed" and years later death creeps up on her again and takes her life away. I chose to emulate my thoughts about this article because it was the saddest article that I could obtain after browsing through many articles that had the word death tagged in the title. As well this article is an article that I can connect to the book that I read prior to writing this assignment called "Mortician Diaries" by June Knights Nadle. The book had many individual stories about the authors life as a funeral director and going through many sad episodes of dealing with the deaths in many families. So when I read this article I almost immediately thought of all of the stories that I read about when I was reading this book. The article really strikes me at such a low because being a survivor myself of 9/11 it's almost second nature for me not to be sad to hear of a loss of another survivor of the attack on our country. I personally have some sort of respiratory problem from inhaling the debris from the towers and it saddens me to hear about people dying after the fact of the attack. As well I fear for myself one day that this problem might progress and hurt me further in the future but god forbid something like that would happen.
Citations:
- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/opinion/08kepel.html?scp=2&sq=care%20of%20the%20dead&st=cse
- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/nyregion/20josephine.html?ref=deathanddying
Sunday, May 8, 2011
HW 52-Final Third of the COTD Book
Precis:
The story of a life long funeral directors daughter is coming to a close as she continues to embellish in her life long stories of her going about her life as a Mortician. Many stories of her interesting career are now coming out more vividly to words the end of the book with some crazy events occurring while her clients are both attempting to grieve their loved ones loss and understand their loss at the same time.
Quotes:
"Max and just returned with the body of a newborn baby; we had been called to remove it from the Regis Hospital. When i took the sheet from the baby, we both gasped. Neither of us had ever seen a newborn baby covered from head to toes with dark and dried blood. This was a baby girl, weighing more than eight pounds, with rolls of fat on her arms and legs."pg 72
"Before working in cemeteries, I viewed them as beautiful, serene shrines. Since working in them, I also envision all that lies beneath the vibrant green sod-electric connections, water lines, markers placed by surveyors who measure each grave to the inch."pg 116
This quote was something that I wish I had never read in my entire life. From now on whenever I think of this vivid image of a dead new born in my mind. I couldn't imagine how it would feel to lose a new born child like this family has. I just don't know how someone could even endure the birth of a new life coming in to this world and then to lose that new life in front of their own eyes. There is so much heartbreak dealing with the loss of a new born child I'm very surprised that the parents didn't want to end their own lives after this event. Maybe I'm just think to to much of an extreme to think or suggest that someone commit suicide after losing their child. Maybe losing a child would enlighten the parents of the child to try again and bring a new child into their lives to replace the pain that the last child 's death caused. But then again who am I to conclude how these parents feel about their loss or talk about what reasoning behind their choice of having another child and the reasoning behind their choice.
I find it probable that I would have the same reaction to words cemeteries if I had such a deep connection and interaction with them as June Knights Nadle does. I can connect to the feeling she expresses to words the concept of a cemetery because I too have a respectful and feeling for these shrines of beauty. As well If I had such a deep connection with these places of respect I probably would have a more morbid feeling of dislike or distaste to words them just as she does. I feel that overall although someone could have an eternal feeling about grave yards and cemeteries but there is always a small form of respect of those whom have been lost to the swift hand of death to be put there in the first place. I say this because I feel that everyone has some type of dark and respectful feeling to words these places because from birth we are taught to respect our loved ones whom have passed at these places. But at the same time we are taught to feel sadness and dark feeling to word these places because it in fact is a field of dead people that are buried six feet under.
The story of a life long funeral directors daughter is coming to a close as she continues to embellish in her life long stories of her going about her life as a Mortician. Many stories of her interesting career are now coming out more vividly to words the end of the book with some crazy events occurring while her clients are both attempting to grieve their loved ones loss and understand their loss at the same time.
Quotes:
"Max and just returned with the body of a newborn baby; we had been called to remove it from the Regis Hospital. When i took the sheet from the baby, we both gasped. Neither of us had ever seen a newborn baby covered from head to toes with dark and dried blood. This was a baby girl, weighing more than eight pounds, with rolls of fat on her arms and legs."pg 72
"Before working in cemeteries, I viewed them as beautiful, serene shrines. Since working in them, I also envision all that lies beneath the vibrant green sod-electric connections, water lines, markers placed by surveyors who measure each grave to the inch."pg 116
This quote was something that I wish I had never read in my entire life. From now on whenever I think of this vivid image of a dead new born in my mind. I couldn't imagine how it would feel to lose a new born child like this family has. I just don't know how someone could even endure the birth of a new life coming in to this world and then to lose that new life in front of their own eyes. There is so much heartbreak dealing with the loss of a new born child I'm very surprised that the parents didn't want to end their own lives after this event. Maybe I'm just think to to much of an extreme to think or suggest that someone commit suicide after losing their child. Maybe losing a child would enlighten the parents of the child to try again and bring a new child into their lives to replace the pain that the last child 's death caused. But then again who am I to conclude how these parents feel about their loss or talk about what reasoning behind their choice of having another child and the reasoning behind their choice.
I find it probable that I would have the same reaction to words cemeteries if I had such a deep connection and interaction with them as June Knights Nadle does. I can connect to the feeling she expresses to words the concept of a cemetery because I too have a respectful and feeling for these shrines of beauty. As well If I had such a deep connection with these places of respect I probably would have a more morbid feeling of dislike or distaste to words them just as she does. I feel that overall although someone could have an eternal feeling about grave yards and cemeteries but there is always a small form of respect of those whom have been lost to the swift hand of death to be put there in the first place. I say this because I feel that everyone has some type of dark and respectful feeling to words these places because from birth we are taught to respect our loved ones whom have passed at these places. But at the same time we are taught to feel sadness and dark feeling to word these places because it in fact is a field of dead people that are buried six feet under.
Monday, May 2, 2011
HW 51-Second Third of COTD Book.
Mortician Diaries
By: June Knights Nadle
Precis:
The life long story of a funeral directors daughter, a woman fresh out of the graduating class of Cincinnati College of Mortuary science in 1945 starting out her career having a hard time starting out her own roots in the business and going along with the events that brought to the place she is now.
Quotes:
"She told me, "As the numbness faded, I was angry. I reached over and punched him on the arm. I told him dying on me was one thing. Leaving me with three teenage boys to raise was something else!" pg59
"When I presented him with the forms he had to sign for cremation, his anger flared and he said, "Just tell me what the bill is. I want to get the hell out of here!" No, he did not want an obituary published. No, he did not want any funeral service. No, he did not want any urn. Just use a cardboard box. I advised him he could come for the cremains on Wednesday at noon, and that is what he did, without speaking a word."pg 67
"When I presented him with the forms he had to sign for cremation, his anger flared and he said, "Just tell me what the bill is. I want to get the hell out of here!" No, he did not want an obituary published. No, he did not want any funeral service. No, he did not want any urn. Just use a cardboard box. I advised him he could come for the cremains on Wednesday at noon, and that is what he did, without speaking a word."pg 67
The first quote on page 59 stuck out to me the most. To have a reaction such as blankly feeling nothing and then to have the feeling turn to rage I can infer that there was a lot of resentment in that relationship. I mean maybe it was just that Donna had her own way of coping with her immediate grief before it really had a chance to settle in on her. I say this because when someone loses a loved one there are many different ways the individual could handle the problem. Immediate sadness, numbness, or lashing out with anger. But I guess for Donna the sadness will settle in later after she's done even realizing that her husband is gone and his responsibilities aren't as important as his life.
I don't understand how someone whom had lost his own with to suicide could go about acting like a mad man when it comes to dealing with her funeral demands. I mean to have lived with someone as long as this guy has to have a 20 year old son and to not even have a measly funeral for his own wife of 20 plus years, what kind of person could go about doing that? To me it seems that this man is either very heartless or on the other hand he could be hiding something that he is feeling, maybe resentment or maybe even there was unsolved marital issues that this man was dealing with. Maybe he felt resentment that he couldn't save her from herself. But then again who am I to say or judge him.
I don't understand how someone whom had lost his own with to suicide could go about acting like a mad man when it comes to dealing with her funeral demands. I mean to have lived with someone as long as this guy has to have a 20 year old son and to not even have a measly funeral for his own wife of 20 plus years, what kind of person could go about doing that? To me it seems that this man is either very heartless or on the other hand he could be hiding something that he is feeling, maybe resentment or maybe even there was unsolved marital issues that this man was dealing with. Maybe he felt resentment that he couldn't save her from herself. But then again who am I to say or judge him.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
HW 49-Comments on Your the Best of your Break HW.
Allwyn,
Overall great post dealing with your thoughts and feeling on the topic of Death but what stuck out to me the most was the end of your post. Interviewing your parents was a good approach and a good source of information for you to gather from. As well it gave me the idea that the topic is a very unsettling to be talked about in your family. When you mentioned the topic to your parents they had a very negative reaction to words Death. Just as I can imagine it is a very uncomfortable topic to be discussed but I have a kind of different view now that I myself has had more classes in which in groups we have discussed the topic casually and I have gathered more natural feeling towards the topic. What I mean is that your parents show a perfect example of the socially accepted way of discussing the topic of death. Furthermore to feel uncomfortable and not right to talk about it but on the other hand I fell that people should embrace this inevitable topic and discuss it more freely and openly and not be so disinclined at the thought of it. But regardless of my views on this topic you have a great post discussing your thoughts and families thoughts on the topic of Death.
-Brendan.
Ariel,
I found it very brave of you to have been able to write about such intimate information about you family. I feel that it is very empowering for you to be sharing your thoughts and being able to share your families at the same time. But I feel that you should talk to your grandmother more about topics in which she is uncomfortable about. I say this because I too have relatives that have had problems in the past with talking about passed family members. As well I feel that there is a good result that comes from discussing and opening up with your family about passed relatives and I have found it to be a great form of closure and a cure to the grief that some people let hang over them when they lose a loved one. But don't let my view feel pushed on to you I'm only giving you an idea of how to approach the issue and I in no way want you to feel like I'm pushing it on you. But regardless I like how you set up your post with the questions in one column and the answers in another, it was very easy for me to read through everything great post.
-Brendan.
Ariel,
I would like to thank you for actually getting the point of my post number one religion has a extremely big part that pretty much defines the whole process after death within the topic of The Care of the Death. As well I would like to thank you fro agreeing with me on my point that religion is a big topic that pretty much lays out a whole new story when the process of the Care of the Dead is carried out. Also I can relate to you in the way of faith to religion I to am not a very religions person although I have been to Catholic school and have had the Catholic religion pushed on me my entire life. One thing that stuck out to me in your comment was that you haven't been to any funerals in your life I find that a little hard to believe , so let me pose this question to you was it a choice for you not to go to any funerals or have you just not had any immediate family members taken from you?
-Brendan
Overall great post dealing with your thoughts and feeling on the topic of Death but what stuck out to me the most was the end of your post. Interviewing your parents was a good approach and a good source of information for you to gather from. As well it gave me the idea that the topic is a very unsettling to be talked about in your family. When you mentioned the topic to your parents they had a very negative reaction to words Death. Just as I can imagine it is a very uncomfortable topic to be discussed but I have a kind of different view now that I myself has had more classes in which in groups we have discussed the topic casually and I have gathered more natural feeling towards the topic. What I mean is that your parents show a perfect example of the socially accepted way of discussing the topic of death. Furthermore to feel uncomfortable and not right to talk about it but on the other hand I fell that people should embrace this inevitable topic and discuss it more freely and openly and not be so disinclined at the thought of it. But regardless of my views on this topic you have a great post discussing your thoughts and families thoughts on the topic of Death.
-Brendan.
Ariel,
I found it very brave of you to have been able to write about such intimate information about you family. I feel that it is very empowering for you to be sharing your thoughts and being able to share your families at the same time. But I feel that you should talk to your grandmother more about topics in which she is uncomfortable about. I say this because I too have relatives that have had problems in the past with talking about passed family members. As well I feel that there is a good result that comes from discussing and opening up with your family about passed relatives and I have found it to be a great form of closure and a cure to the grief that some people let hang over them when they lose a loved one. But don't let my view feel pushed on to you I'm only giving you an idea of how to approach the issue and I in no way want you to feel like I'm pushing it on you. But regardless I like how you set up your post with the questions in one column and the answers in another, it was very easy for me to read through everything great post.
-Brendan.
Ariel,
I would like to thank you for actually getting the point of my post number one religion has a extremely big part that pretty much defines the whole process after death within the topic of The Care of the Death. As well I would like to thank you fro agreeing with me on my point that religion is a big topic that pretty much lays out a whole new story when the process of the Care of the Dead is carried out. Also I can relate to you in the way of faith to religion I to am not a very religions person although I have been to Catholic school and have had the Catholic religion pushed on me my entire life. One thing that stuck out to me in your comment was that you haven't been to any funerals in your life I find that a little hard to believe , so let me pose this question to you was it a choice for you not to go to any funerals or have you just not had any immediate family members taken from you?
-Brendan
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
HW 48-Family Perspectives on the Care of the Dead.
When I interviewed my Mother I asked her numerous questions about the topic of death and how she personally dealt with the topic herself as well. What I decided to share my blog is as follows:
I asked my Mother how she personally deals and/or copes with losing a loved one in our family and she told me she just goes through a process of grieving the loved one that she lost and then I proceeded to ask her more questions on specific loved ones that we have both lost in our family but I chose not to include that part. Another question that I asked her was, why do you think people say the best things about people after they are dead? Where did the new found respect come from? Why do we talk so highly of people after they have passed? I asked questions like this. I got her response, she said that I feel its because that they just aren't around any more so they can't have people talking badly about the person who has died or else what would the scene at the funeral be like? Everyone would be out raged at the people talking badly about the deceased individual and therefore the funeral would be ruined. She also said something interesting that caught my ear and I quote, "What else is there to say then good words?" After the interview I thought about those words and couldn't help but agree with what my mother was saying. Asking my brother this question the other day and he said some similar things my mother but I noticed that he said the say phrase that my Mother said. I guessed that that is the result of us being family, maybe thats the reason we could have the same mind set on the topic.
The second person I interviewed in my family was my brother. I had a very long conversation with my brother before this unit even started about the topic of death but this as well is something I would rather share in person rather then on my blog. But one question that I could show on this blog was why some people on different sides on my family have different types of funerals? Before I go on different sides of my family have funerals in churches and some have funerals in funeral parlors. There's just so many differences in the care of the dead in the different sides that of my family practices. So when I asked him this he responded in this way, It's all about religion he told me. He said that my specific people in my family just take their religion more to heart then others in our family. For example my Aunt Caren is a Jehovah's Witness and every year she send me a birthday card that say's "I'm glad you were born" , It never says Happy Birthday because in her religion she refuses to celebrate birthdays. So i guess I should be happy she even acknowledges my birthday at all. But to go on with what my brother was saying, its all about religion. People in my family just take things more to heart and include their religion in the ceremonies and some of them decide not to include religion. It all depends on the immediate family of the deceased individual, it's up to them not the entire family even though they are usually all in attendance. Although something that I noticed as me being in attendance of all of my families funerals I have noticed that regardless of the funeral being at a parlor or a church the words of God and prayers are always spoken at some point in the speeches and conversations at these events as well as blessings at the end of the service. So I guess all of my families funerals are touched by religion in some way even if they aren't at a church.
I asked my Mother how she personally deals and/or copes with losing a loved one in our family and she told me she just goes through a process of grieving the loved one that she lost and then I proceeded to ask her more questions on specific loved ones that we have both lost in our family but I chose not to include that part. Another question that I asked her was, why do you think people say the best things about people after they are dead? Where did the new found respect come from? Why do we talk so highly of people after they have passed? I asked questions like this. I got her response, she said that I feel its because that they just aren't around any more so they can't have people talking badly about the person who has died or else what would the scene at the funeral be like? Everyone would be out raged at the people talking badly about the deceased individual and therefore the funeral would be ruined. She also said something interesting that caught my ear and I quote, "What else is there to say then good words?" After the interview I thought about those words and couldn't help but agree with what my mother was saying. Asking my brother this question the other day and he said some similar things my mother but I noticed that he said the say phrase that my Mother said. I guessed that that is the result of us being family, maybe thats the reason we could have the same mind set on the topic.
The second person I interviewed in my family was my brother. I had a very long conversation with my brother before this unit even started about the topic of death but this as well is something I would rather share in person rather then on my blog. But one question that I could show on this blog was why some people on different sides on my family have different types of funerals? Before I go on different sides of my family have funerals in churches and some have funerals in funeral parlors. There's just so many differences in the care of the dead in the different sides that of my family practices. So when I asked him this he responded in this way, It's all about religion he told me. He said that my specific people in my family just take their religion more to heart then others in our family. For example my Aunt Caren is a Jehovah's Witness and every year she send me a birthday card that say's "I'm glad you were born" , It never says Happy Birthday because in her religion she refuses to celebrate birthdays. So i guess I should be happy she even acknowledges my birthday at all. But to go on with what my brother was saying, its all about religion. People in my family just take things more to heart and include their religion in the ceremonies and some of them decide not to include religion. It all depends on the immediate family of the deceased individual, it's up to them not the entire family even though they are usually all in attendance. Although something that I noticed as me being in attendance of all of my families funerals I have noticed that regardless of the funeral being at a parlor or a church the words of God and prayers are always spoken at some point in the speeches and conversations at these events as well as blessings at the end of the service. So I guess all of my families funerals are touched by religion in some way even if they aren't at a church.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
HW 46-Initial Thoughts on the Care of the Dead.
When I think of the words "Care of the Dead" the first things that come to my mind are funerals and the friends and family that I have lost and seen being put in the ground six feet under. My personal experience with the topic I feel I have seen the normal amount of death an 18 year old guy is suppose to see now a days but then again I could be wrong. I have seen a few of my friends pass and my fair share of family members unfortunately, and I feel it's not a good topic to dwell on for too long. The way that I have been taught to deal with these occurrences of death when they happen to come upon into my life is to naturally grieve. Everyone has their different ways of grieving, their natural way that comes to them when someone they know is plagued by death. As well when people are touched by death there is a process of reflection and a process of reconciliation but thats another deep topic to be discussed later on. My own personal way of grieving is helping others in my family or people whom are my friends grieve themselves. I feel that to me this is something that assists me very much in my own process of dealing with a personal loss of a relative and/or friend. Some social norms that I know of about dealing with the care of the dead are pretty much self explanatory, things like open casket or closed casket which is also referred to as an "Wake", then you got the burial ceremony, and as well as cremation, but then you wouldn't have everything else you would just have a cremation and then maybe a releasing of the ashes ceremony in place of a normal burial. As for my family's perspective regarding people whom have died we all have different ways of seeing things so for me to actually bring to light all of these perspectives I would have to interview many different members of my family to fulfill that requirement.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
HW-45
I'm very happy that I was able to bring a very important subject into the clear for my readers. Although I personally think that my project wasn't the best and could of used more I'm glad that it was able to take my readers minds and enlighten them on just how to approach the dangers and benefits of both hospital and home birth. As well I would like to agree with one of my readers comments that in my third paragraph when i was discussing my bit about the hospital birthing processes that they were "misinterpreted" I agree because you have given me a secondary alternative to the result of the low number of home births. Now that you have enlightened me as well while bring up this point I also feel convinced that it in fact is a reason of lack of education that so few women are having home births because honestly almost every person that I have discussed my project with has little to no education on the topics in which I'm discussing.
Thank you for the comments readers.
Thank you for the comments readers.
HW 44-Comments On Other People's Project's.
Sam,
I first off i love the first sentence of your project especially where you said having a baby is "our deepest animal instinct". You covered many important ideas that matter when it comes to having a baby and how a families religion correlates within the decision making around having children or not. One aspect that stood out to me was the bit you were talking about in your 5th paragraph about how religious Americans actually are. I found it crazy how only 83 percent of Americans belong to some type of religious denomination. Something I would of liked to see you add to this project would be maybe a comparative section maybe comparing maybe a country like china's birthing information and statics to Americans. But overall great project.
-Brendan.
Allwyn,
I like how you first off chose topic of adoption which in your families case must of been very sad because your mother couldn't take your families friends baby. What you covered about adoption was very chilling for me as i read your second paragraph about unplanned pregnancy's. In this world a lot of people get pregnant and aren't ready for what comes 9 months later it was sad for me as you talked about the situations people go through within that paragraph. Something I feel you should fix with your project though is your grammar. When I first read the first paragraph I got confused a little about if you were talking about abortion or adoption for a second but overall you have a great project on Adoption.
-Brendan.
Amhara,
I liked your project especially because I feel it was more of a personal project about talking to your mother about her past births and her future one which god bless I hope goes well. Being that you enlightening her about birthing centers and midwives I found it interesting that she already knew about the these topics. But like others have said in the comments above I didn't really get solidly what your project was actually about and I would suggest you to add more to it to give people a clearer understanding of what you actually trying to get across.
-Brendan.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Hw 42-Pregnancy & Birth Culminating Project.
Today the average woman goes through a lot of decision making when it comes to making clear decisions on planning their own births. The biggest percentage of women in America take the most socially accepted root and just have their births experiences in regular hospitals. But there is methods of birthing that a wide majority of women also take part it called home birthing. Although there has been criticize in pitting the hospital birth and the home birth together they both have their downfall's and their own benefits.
If you look at your typical hospital scene today you see hundreds of women giving birth at all hours of the day every day. You don't see every day is the but a specific news station in Bakersfield took some polls and tallied them up and had this to say: " Though it doesn't appeal to all moms, some women prefer to deliver their babies in the peace and comfort of their own home. About one in 200 women in the United States gives birth at home, and about 75 percent of those delivers are low-risk single births that are planned in advance."(Parks) This piece of information just shows that there really is a good amount of women that actually take part in using their natural home birthing method and not everyone is taking the typical path of a hospital birth.
The whole aspect of having your birthing experience within a normal hospital I feel has been misinterpreted by most women of the United States for years. I mean look at your sisters mothers and grand mothers most likely they had their birthing experiences within regular hospitals and most likely they had a few bad experiences. For example my own family's women have all had hospital births and have had some terrible experiences with the doctors risky procedures and juiced up medicine. Here some information your average OBGYN doesn't want you to know:"The medical evidence about VBAC is actually clearer than some recent medical and media interpretations of it would suggest. Cesarean surgery is just as risky as any other major abdominal surgery for the mother-a considerably higher risk for her than vaginal birth. With repeat cesarean she has three times the chance of dying and roughly five times to ten times the risk of suffering complications from anesthesia; injuries to the bladder, intestines, or urethra; and future bowel obstructions, hysterectomy, ectopic pregnancies, infertility, and dangerous placental complications. The more cesareans a woman has, the more the risks to her increase."(Mays 294-295) VBAC is an acronym for vaginal birth after cesarean. This information here is saying that even having a natural vaginal birth is absolutely a much safer solution to having multiple cesarean back to back to give birth to their children. As well:" For over a generation, more than one fifth of U.S. women have had their babies by cesarean surgery."(Mays 294) With numbers like that, considering the amount of women that are actually getting cesarean surgery's there are going to be many women that are at the risk of falling ill or even losing their own life all for this risky method of birthing surgery. Overall what I'm trying to get across here is that hospitals aren't the only choice of a place for having your baby. Think about centuries ago when we didn't even have the technology we had today, a woman's only method of birthing was to give birth in their own homes and look where the human race is today, it's stronger then ever.
All that I'm really trying to get across here is that hospitals aren't your only choice of places of birthing and as well they aren't always the safest. Having your birthing experience at home the natural way is the way our race has been doing for thousands of years. Although both of these methods have their downfalls in some aspects I feel that having a home birth is significantly safer then having your birth in a regular hospital. As well even if you tweak the home birthing method a little bit by having doctors there or having a hospital near your home incase of emergencies couldn't hurt if you wanted to be on the safe side of things.
MLA Citations:
-Mays, Ina. Ina Mays Guide To Childbirth. 1st edition. New York City,NY: Bantam Dell A Division of Random House, Inc, 2003. 294-95. Print.
-Parks, Jackie. "Staying Healthy." Study Evaluates Home Birth Statics 07 July 2010: 1-1. Web. 14 Apr 2011. <http://www.turnto23.com/health/24174998/detail.html>.
If you look at your typical hospital scene today you see hundreds of women giving birth at all hours of the day every day. You don't see every day is the but a specific news station in Bakersfield took some polls and tallied them up and had this to say: " Though it doesn't appeal to all moms, some women prefer to deliver their babies in the peace and comfort of their own home. About one in 200 women in the United States gives birth at home, and about 75 percent of those delivers are low-risk single births that are planned in advance."(Parks) This piece of information just shows that there really is a good amount of women that actually take part in using their natural home birthing method and not everyone is taking the typical path of a hospital birth.
The whole aspect of having your birthing experience within a normal hospital I feel has been misinterpreted by most women of the United States for years. I mean look at your sisters mothers and grand mothers most likely they had their birthing experiences within regular hospitals and most likely they had a few bad experiences. For example my own family's women have all had hospital births and have had some terrible experiences with the doctors risky procedures and juiced up medicine. Here some information your average OBGYN doesn't want you to know:"The medical evidence about VBAC is actually clearer than some recent medical and media interpretations of it would suggest. Cesarean surgery is just as risky as any other major abdominal surgery for the mother-a considerably higher risk for her than vaginal birth. With repeat cesarean she has three times the chance of dying and roughly five times to ten times the risk of suffering complications from anesthesia; injuries to the bladder, intestines, or urethra; and future bowel obstructions, hysterectomy, ectopic pregnancies, infertility, and dangerous placental complications. The more cesareans a woman has, the more the risks to her increase."(Mays 294-295) VBAC is an acronym for vaginal birth after cesarean. This information here is saying that even having a natural vaginal birth is absolutely a much safer solution to having multiple cesarean back to back to give birth to their children. As well:" For over a generation, more than one fifth of U.S. women have had their babies by cesarean surgery."(Mays 294) With numbers like that, considering the amount of women that are actually getting cesarean surgery's there are going to be many women that are at the risk of falling ill or even losing their own life all for this risky method of birthing surgery. Overall what I'm trying to get across here is that hospitals aren't the only choice of a place for having your baby. Think about centuries ago when we didn't even have the technology we had today, a woman's only method of birthing was to give birth in their own homes and look where the human race is today, it's stronger then ever.
All that I'm really trying to get across here is that hospitals aren't your only choice of places of birthing and as well they aren't always the safest. Having your birthing experience at home the natural way is the way our race has been doing for thousands of years. Although both of these methods have their downfalls in some aspects I feel that having a home birth is significantly safer then having your birth in a regular hospital. As well even if you tweak the home birthing method a little bit by having doctors there or having a hospital near your home incase of emergencies couldn't hurt if you wanted to be on the safe side of things.
MLA Citations:
-Mays, Ina. Ina Mays Guide To Childbirth. 1st edition. New York City,NY: Bantam Dell A Division of Random House, Inc, 2003. 294-95. Print.
-Parks, Jackie. "Staying Healthy." Study Evaluates Home Birth Statics 07 July 2010: 1-1. Web. 14 Apr 2011. <http://www.turnto23.com/health/24174998/detail.html>.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Hw 40-Insights From Book Part 3.
Thank you Ina Mays for writing "Ina Mays Guide To ChildBirth". I personally enjoyed reading your views on midwifery and the flawed and unnecessary policies that is driven down peoples throats when they are expecting and giving birth in our current American hospital system. From reading the episodes of many births that had midwives involved and the positive results and the negative results that hospitals can induce this has persuaded me to re think the topic of pregnancy and birth all together.
So in the last third part of the book you talked about our flawed medical system that provides and carries outs unnecessary medical procedures that a large percent of our country falls victim to. But as well these procedures are sometimes necessary during extreme circumstances during child birth in hospitals.
"For over a generation, more than one-fifth of U.S. women have had their babies by cesarean surgery. With such a high rate of surgical birth, the question of how to give birth after a previous cesarean comes up for tens of thousands of women every year."( Mays 294) From this piece of information you can infer that to many women are having unnatural surgical births and it is effecting women's natural cycle of giving birth which is suppose to naturally occur. "For most of the twentieth century, North American doctors automatically scheduled repeat cesareans for those women who had a previous cesarean , because they feared that the scar on the women's uterus might rupture during labor. (European physicians have, for the most part , long understood that VBAC's are safe for most women.)"( Mays 295) You can see how flawed our medical care system is when doctors are scheduling unnecessary medical procedures over and over again as to deter women from giving birth naturally. "Nearly eighty percent of women who tried VBAC were able to give birth vaginally."(Mays 296) It even further supports my claim that the medical system of America is preforming unnecessary procedures and disrupting women's natural birth cycles just for their own profit. I would like to thank you for your time and attention.
-Brendan B.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Hw 36-Pregnancy & Birth Stories.
So unfortunately I only could interview two people in my family about their pregnancy and birth experiences but I feel during my interviews I was given a perfect documentation of what it's like going through pregnancy and experience giving birth.
I started off both of y interviews asking: "Please give me some insights and description on your own experience of being pregnant and your own birth process?"
Interview 1: My Mother.
"Child birth is an amazing experience. Actually it's a bit indescribable but not delicious! I experienced three different pregnancies and deliveries. The 1st was by far the toughest as they often are. Due to the fact that I changed doctors in my 8th month because I disagreed with many of her practices. I can only attribute my totally natural childbirth experience to my new doctor's patience and cooperation and his agreement to adhere to my wishes as best he could. Since my daughters presentation or position in my uterus was not head down that could have created a problem for a vaginal delivery and would have warranted a c section. It took many more hours of labor for the traumatic position to change.My labor progressed but it was difficult for my cervix to reach ten centimeters which is required to begin pushing. Imagine doing sit ups for four hours while experiencing horrendous uterine contractions!? Luckily my baby turned head down and was in fact delivered at 8:45PM. 10 hours after my water broke. She was 7lbs & 9oz happy and healthy and I was very sore and tired. My second baby the contractions were not as bad, I was six and a half centimeters already when we got to the hospital. They broke my water and I progressed very quickly to nine centimeters and pushed him out at ten centimeters with a small episiotomy. He was 8lbs & 1oz. My third baby was a breeze. I was watching TV from 1-2 PM and in the hospital at 3PM . The labor was wild, crazy fast and hard. My mail doctor couldn't believe how fast my labor was. Although he wasn't even in the room at the time, I had the best female nurses and doctors by my side that day. He was born at 4:30PM 8lbs & 4oz. And no episiotomy this time , I love those females.
Interview 2: My Eldest Sister.
"There is no book you can read, advice you can hear or class you can take to prepare you for the experiences you face throughout pregnancy and childbirth. Your body goes through a whirlwind of change and you endure greater pain than you have known before. However, it is truly a remarkable and extraordinary experience. The day I gave birth to my son was the best day of my life to date and gave me the most precious and rewarding gift a person can receive.You experience many contractions leading up to the day you actually go into labor; the first "labor" contraction although not that intense has a different feeling however. It was the beginning of an upward crescendo that would climb to the point of unbearable pain. I dealt with 7 hours of this discomfort (that is an understatement!) before heading to the hospital. Although, I had every intention of having a natural, drug-free birth, that idea quickly changed once my labor was in full swing. Although I made it through 13 hours of labor, excruciating pain every 5 minutes, I gave into an epidural for the final 6 hours. Making this decision allowed for a much more pleasant time from then on.Although my pregnancy thus far had been without any complications, the doctors began to notice that every time I had a contraction my baby's heartrate would drop. This meant he was not breathing between each contraction. This was a very scary thought and meant that as the contractions became closer together, he would have less and less time to breathe. My husband and I were starting to become nervous, especially when my doctor told me they were going to prepare the operating room in the case I might need to have an emergency ceasarean section. He was worried that the umbilical cord might be wrapped around my precious baby's neck. Well the time came for me to start pushing and my doctor assisted the delivery with forceps to pull the baby out in case he did have the cord around his neck. I am extremely happy to report however, it was wrapped around his leg twice and not his neck, thank goodness! Also, a c-section was gladly avoided. My son was immediately placed on my stomach and the feeling of elation my husband and I felt the first moment we saw our son was indescribable. It was a moment we prepared a long time for after making the decision we were ready to have a baby after almost 10 years together. The entire experience was life-changing and miraculous. Pregnancy, childbirth and now child-rearing have been the hardest but most rewarding time in my life. I have never been happier than I am with my precious Leo."
I started off both of y interviews asking: "Please give me some insights and description on your own experience of being pregnant and your own birth process?"
Interview 1: My Mother.
"Child birth is an amazing experience. Actually it's a bit indescribable but not delicious! I experienced three different pregnancies and deliveries. The 1st was by far the toughest as they often are. Due to the fact that I changed doctors in my 8th month because I disagreed with many of her practices. I can only attribute my totally natural childbirth experience to my new doctor's patience and cooperation and his agreement to adhere to my wishes as best he could. Since my daughters presentation or position in my uterus was not head down that could have created a problem for a vaginal delivery and would have warranted a c section. It took many more hours of labor for the traumatic position to change.My labor progressed but it was difficult for my cervix to reach ten centimeters which is required to begin pushing. Imagine doing sit ups for four hours while experiencing horrendous uterine contractions!? Luckily my baby turned head down and was in fact delivered at 8:45PM. 10 hours after my water broke. She was 7lbs & 9oz happy and healthy and I was very sore and tired. My second baby the contractions were not as bad, I was six and a half centimeters already when we got to the hospital. They broke my water and I progressed very quickly to nine centimeters and pushed him out at ten centimeters with a small episiotomy. He was 8lbs & 1oz. My third baby was a breeze. I was watching TV from 1-2 PM and in the hospital at 3PM . The labor was wild, crazy fast and hard. My mail doctor couldn't believe how fast my labor was. Although he wasn't even in the room at the time, I had the best female nurses and doctors by my side that day. He was born at 4:30PM 8lbs & 4oz. And no episiotomy this time , I love those females.
Interview 2: My Eldest Sister.
"There is no book you can read, advice you can hear or class you can take to prepare you for the experiences you face throughout pregnancy and childbirth. Your body goes through a whirlwind of change and you endure greater pain than you have known before. However, it is truly a remarkable and extraordinary experience. The day I gave birth to my son was the best day of my life to date and gave me the most precious and rewarding gift a person can receive.You experience many contractions leading up to the day you actually go into labor; the first "labor" contraction although not that intense has a different feeling however. It was the beginning of an upward crescendo that would climb to the point of unbearable pain. I dealt with 7 hours of this discomfort (that is an understatement!) before heading to the hospital. Although, I had every intention of having a natural, drug-free birth, that idea quickly changed once my labor was in full swing. Although I made it through 13 hours of labor, excruciating pain every 5 minutes, I gave into an epidural for the final 6 hours. Making this decision allowed for a much more pleasant time from then on.Although my pregnancy thus far had been without any complications, the doctors began to notice that every time I had a contraction my baby's heartrate would drop. This meant he was not breathing between each contraction. This was a very scary thought and meant that as the contractions became closer together, he would have less and less time to breathe. My husband and I were starting to become nervous, especially when my doctor told me they were going to prepare the operating room in the case I might need to have an emergency ceasarean section. He was worried that the umbilical cord might be wrapped around my precious baby's neck. Well the time came for me to start pushing and my doctor assisted the delivery with forceps to pull the baby out in case he did have the cord around his neck. I am extremely happy to report however, it was wrapped around his leg twice and not his neck, thank goodness! Also, a c-section was gladly avoided. My son was immediately placed on my stomach and the feeling of elation my husband and I felt the first moment we saw our son was indescribable. It was a moment we prepared a long time for after making the decision we were ready to have a baby after almost 10 years together. The entire experience was life-changing and miraculous. Pregnancy, childbirth and now child-rearing have been the hardest but most rewarding time in my life. I have never been happier than I am with my precious Leo."
Friday, January 21, 2011
HW 32-Thoughts following Illness & Dying unit
What I believe are some of the most nightmarish practices in our culture that deal with the topic of Illness & Dying are for instance the hospital situations a large amount of Americans get themselves with. For example, open heart surgery is a plain out nightmare. I mean the surgeons open your chest up for christ sake and operate on the organ that is most vital to your life. Another instance in the hospital atmosphere could just be being hooked up to a breathing machine because you can't breath by your self. Think about how horrible that is..., you can't even expand and retract your own lungs, how must that feel, how powerless would you feel in that position? Even the topic of Suicide which I discussed in my project in my last post, I feel can be classified as nightmarish. Although I say that it can be nightmarish to some people I feel that it just as well can be classified as an alternative practice in our culture around Illness & Dying. I say this because someone could see the act of committing suicide a sickness and a nightmare in one instance but the person actually committing suicide could just as well in the other had see the act as a form of salvation from their personal suffering. As well another alternative could be hooking up a morphine machine to yourself in your last days of your life. But to bring this post to an end overall what I've learned in this unit now at its end will most defiantly change the way I percieve Illness & Dying and the way I will handle in from now on. I feel that I will lead my life a lot better now knowing what I have learned in this unit.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
HW 31 - Comment 3
Comments to peers:
Matt,
After reading your post I can relate to your experiences because I too have lost a Grandmother. What I personally liked about your post was that it's not just some study or some little research it's real. You discuss your feelings and your thoughts about the end of your Grandmothers life and how it effected you and others and to me that takes a lot of will power and personal strength to share such deep parts about yourself. I love your insight that a person dying doesn't just effect the person it effects everyone around them, it's a very thoughtful realization that a lot of people for the most part I've noticed don't come to terms with. Overall great project, but as well check your spelling and punctuation before posting.
-Brendan.
Sam,
After reading your project I loved your set up of how after you visited the Hallmark that you connected it to various authors to back up your point and that is a great technique. But what really caught my eye in your post was your thoughts on the people inside of the Hallmark. The entire first paragraph which is what I'm referring where you describe the place as ornate and the people as not engaged as a happy person should be. I loved the way you made this observation so clearly. All of the people I know in my family see old folk's homes in such a different way but you describe it in the way it is suppose to be described and I have the same view's on them as you.
-Brendan
Matt,
After reading your post I can relate to your experiences because I too have lost a Grandmother. What I personally liked about your post was that it's not just some study or some little research it's real. You discuss your feelings and your thoughts about the end of your Grandmothers life and how it effected you and others and to me that takes a lot of will power and personal strength to share such deep parts about yourself. I love your insight that a person dying doesn't just effect the person it effects everyone around them, it's a very thoughtful realization that a lot of people for the most part I've noticed don't come to terms with. Overall great project, but as well check your spelling and punctuation before posting.
-Brendan.
Sam,
After reading your project I loved your set up of how after you visited the Hallmark that you connected it to various authors to back up your point and that is a great technique. But what really caught my eye in your post was your thoughts on the people inside of the Hallmark. The entire first paragraph which is what I'm referring where you describe the place as ornate and the people as not engaged as a happy person should be. I loved the way you made this observation so clearly. All of the people I know in my family see old folk's homes in such a different way but you describe it in the way it is suppose to be described and I have the same view's on them as you.
-Brendan
Sunday, January 16, 2011
HW 30-Illness & Dying-Culminating Experimental Project
One dominant social practice that engulfs our people of this world is suicide. Every forty seconds on this earth someone commits suicide. In American every 18 minutes someone commits suicide. This act is an illness and can most certainly be categorized as an topic dominant social practice's of illness & dying. What I chose to explore was my own families experiences with the topic of Illness & Dying. First I interviewed my father about his experiences with death and I specifically asked him about his own experiences in Vietnam. He told me many stories about marines contracting rare strain's of syphilis and dying, "ingenious" jungle traps, and some of his own personal journeys that were surrounded with death. One of the first things he told me was that through out his entire time in Vietnam he lost each and every member of his original platoon of 13 men including himself. That was just the first tale that shook me to my core. I never realized just how lucky he was to make it out of there alive. Another story he told me was when he was asked by a group of men dressed in black to accompany them for a ride to transport Vietnam POW's on a chopper. He continued to tell me that once they were in the chopper these men began to interrogate these prisoners in Vietnamese and one by one as they were in interrogating these POW's the men in black would throw each man out until there were none of them left. My father just sat there and watched while this was occurring and thought to himself afterwords that these men must have not gotten the information that they wanted from the prisoners. Later on in our conversation he told me that the men dressed in black were members of the CIA. My fathers experiences in this story made me think, how do some people get to the point of bringing death upon another so easily? Why do we as humans constantly struggle for dominance over each other, I constantly ask myself why is war in our blood? I guess its just part of being human.
The second person I interviewed was my 29 year old brother. I asked him about his experiences with Illness & Dying and he began to remind me about his old friend Tommy Hayes who died of a drug overdose as a result of PTSD from serving in the Army in Iraq. My brother told me he couldn't deal with what he saw and took part in while he was over there fighting, so he turned to drugs to get away from it all and it took him away from this earth. Being reminded of Tommy made me a little emotional at the time, but as well created me to think to myself. The act of committing suicide, why would someone do this to themselves? I can comprehend the aspect of using drugs to get away from what your thinking about but you should seek help if you have a hard time dealing with the things you have seen or that bother you. It strikes me as absurd that the amount of people in this world that don't reach out to other's for help and take their own problems into their own hands. I've come to the conclusion that when man is faced with a problem that they see no solution and can't destroy he will destroy himself. Why do some of us work like this and others don't? There are so many questions that will never be answered about human kind, maybe one day we will figure them out.
The third part of my project I decided to do a little research of my own online. I read an article about a soldier who classified by another soldier who was a medic as having mental problems after fighting in iraq and the soldier was not admitted to a psychiatric evaluation. Now because of this soldier not being evaluated as a result he killed one of his Army buddies by stabbing him 32 times and burning his body. Now this soldier had a severe case of PTSD just like my family friend Tommy Hayes. After reading the entire article I understood and came to the conclusion that our leaders in the US military have a serious problem in controlling and finding solutions of soldiers developing PTSD from serving on the front lines. What I discovered was that large amounts of soldiers are going through these problems and the cases of mental illness's and dying is only progressing as the years go on. What I've come to think of after taking all of this in is that we have a serious problem on are hands with our Military and the care of our men and women who serve our country with their lives. We need to find a better way of figuring out a solution to all of this. It saddens me that people join the military not knowing of these issues at hand and then get caught up in all of this.
What I learned from all of this is that there are many unanswered questions about the human race that will remain unanswered for who know how long. As well what I've learned is that the military promotes an atmosphere of illness and dying. If you don't know how your going to be able to handle this type of environment then you shouldn't even think of putting yourself in a place where all of these horrible things have the possibility of getting to you. Dealing with illness all around you, witnessing death in the masses, and living with your friends committing suicide are all aspects of illness & dying that are dominant social practices in our culture as humans. For centuries we have all gone through this, every where through out this earth. These things show although we have been doing these things like rituals for centuries we are an ever changing people that will one day find explanations for these problems and ways to create solutions to make them happen less than more often as in todays earth. These things matter because these practices are the results of our interactions with one another and until the day we can figure out a resolution to act civilized to each other things such as these will only continue to occur and more of our people will continue to die for nothing.
PS: I had a insight that I thought was relevant to this project: Suicide can be defined as a permanent solution to a temporary situation.
Citations:
- http://www.gsfso.org/PTSD.html
- http://www.gsfso.org/Suicide.html
The second person I interviewed was my 29 year old brother. I asked him about his experiences with Illness & Dying and he began to remind me about his old friend Tommy Hayes who died of a drug overdose as a result of PTSD from serving in the Army in Iraq. My brother told me he couldn't deal with what he saw and took part in while he was over there fighting, so he turned to drugs to get away from it all and it took him away from this earth. Being reminded of Tommy made me a little emotional at the time, but as well created me to think to myself. The act of committing suicide, why would someone do this to themselves? I can comprehend the aspect of using drugs to get away from what your thinking about but you should seek help if you have a hard time dealing with the things you have seen or that bother you. It strikes me as absurd that the amount of people in this world that don't reach out to other's for help and take their own problems into their own hands. I've come to the conclusion that when man is faced with a problem that they see no solution and can't destroy he will destroy himself. Why do some of us work like this and others don't? There are so many questions that will never be answered about human kind, maybe one day we will figure them out.
The third part of my project I decided to do a little research of my own online. I read an article about a soldier who classified by another soldier who was a medic as having mental problems after fighting in iraq and the soldier was not admitted to a psychiatric evaluation. Now because of this soldier not being evaluated as a result he killed one of his Army buddies by stabbing him 32 times and burning his body. Now this soldier had a severe case of PTSD just like my family friend Tommy Hayes. After reading the entire article I understood and came to the conclusion that our leaders in the US military have a serious problem in controlling and finding solutions of soldiers developing PTSD from serving on the front lines. What I discovered was that large amounts of soldiers are going through these problems and the cases of mental illness's and dying is only progressing as the years go on. What I've come to think of after taking all of this in is that we have a serious problem on are hands with our Military and the care of our men and women who serve our country with their lives. We need to find a better way of figuring out a solution to all of this. It saddens me that people join the military not knowing of these issues at hand and then get caught up in all of this.
What I learned from all of this is that there are many unanswered questions about the human race that will remain unanswered for who know how long. As well what I've learned is that the military promotes an atmosphere of illness and dying. If you don't know how your going to be able to handle this type of environment then you shouldn't even think of putting yourself in a place where all of these horrible things have the possibility of getting to you. Dealing with illness all around you, witnessing death in the masses, and living with your friends committing suicide are all aspects of illness & dying that are dominant social practices in our culture as humans. For centuries we have all gone through this, every where through out this earth. These things show although we have been doing these things like rituals for centuries we are an ever changing people that will one day find explanations for these problems and ways to create solutions to make them happen less than more often as in todays earth. These things matter because these practices are the results of our interactions with one another and until the day we can figure out a resolution to act civilized to each other things such as these will only continue to occur and more of our people will continue to die for nothing.
PS: I had a insight that I thought was relevant to this project: Suicide can be defined as a permanent solution to a temporary situation.
Citations:
- http://www.gsfso.org/PTSD.html
- http://www.gsfso.org/Suicide.html
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