Dreams are usually random events that occur whenever we are sleeping or are entering the unconscious part of our minds. Sometimes, these random dreams represent significant messages that tells us what we are feeling or what we must do in order overcome a current obstacle that we are facing in the real world (the conscious). Usually, I remember dreams when I take hourly naps around the late morning, early night, or anytime in the afternoon. There was one dream that I remembered yesterday (Friday, November 18 between 1-3 pm) and I wanted to talk about this dream because this was recent and this was the one I remembered the best.
On that day, I decided to take a nap because I was feeling tired that day since that was the last day before Thanksgiving break. I had a weird but memorable dream that I was with one of my friends named Jack in the movie theater. There was no one but me and him in the dark theater. We were watching a horror movie with mummies and zombies armed with swords, staffs, and bows. Suddenly, they started to come out of the picture to attack me and my friend. Just when one of the mummies swung its sword to attack me, I suddenly woke up in a dark gray room with nothing, no doors, windows, just plain nothing other than dark gray walls. I walk around for a few minutes and heard Jack call my name, even though I did not see him with me. As I heard his voice get louder, I immediately woke up again, this time I was in a small helicopter around a thousand feet in the air with my family members. The scary part was, the doors were open and we were not wearing any seatbelts nor were we wearing ANYTHING that prevented us from falling. I was scared and ready to cry because I was afraid of falling and looking down. As soon as I looked down, I felt myself falling and suddenly, I woke up in a hotel room. This time I was sleeping in a soft gray couch and was getting up. As soon as I got up, I felt my vision getting messed up as I saw only the lights, the walls of the hotel room and a piece of the gray couch on the bottom right side of my vision. They NEVER moved one centimeter out of my eye and this image stayed exactly the same, no matter how much I tried to look away, run, and open my eyes as wide as possible (when I was inside the dream). I was afraid that I was going to be trapped in here forever and was hoping that this was all a dream. Suddenly, my vision started to fade black and I woke up back in my room (in the conscious world), hoping that this is all no longer a dream. Minutes after waking up, I finally felt relieved that I was no longer trapped in my dream.
Although this dream contained random and unusual events, I thought this dream played an important role to how I lived my life. One part that was significant was when I was in the empty dark gray room and at that time, I was afraid and usually whenever I am in the dark, I feel fear since I often think about ghosts or anything trying to haunt me. Another event in my dream that was significant was when I was in the helicopter with the doors open. This shows how much I am afraid of heights. I do enjoy riding roller coasters and thrill rides but when I do not have any seat belt or anything to prevent me from falling, I end up getting extremely nervous and scared. Overall, this whole dream resembles the fears and anxieties that I was and am continuing to face in the conscious world.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Blog #9 - My Camus
(Response to Question #7):
When it comes to the public identity, each and every one of us must be aware of it by taking responsibility for the decisions that we make, whether it is related to politics or the work environment in general. Doing this can be extremely difficult since we are often busy with our own personal lives at home or at school. For example, from my experience, I am usually not aware with what is going on in our state or country since I have been heavily focusing on my schoolwork. After most Election Days, some of my friends, acquaintances, and random strangers would ask me who or what I voted for. I would either tell them, "I did not vote" or "I do not know what that law or proposition was". I would usually feel uncomfortable whenever I told them these words because I figured that they would give me bad reactions as to what I said. They would tend to get somewhat angry with me due to my lack of commitment and would then question me as to why I did not vote or know about that law or proposition.
My mind is mostly disconnected with the public because I am used to focusing on the things that "I" want, rather than what everyone else wants. It is not good to disconnect myself with the public since doing that will make me not prepare in future consequences. These serious consequences may include losing my education or having more difficulty in finding jobs without any backup plan due to my self-centered and apathetic behavior.
Another reason why we make little to no effort in participating in political elections is that we are not informed well enough. The media is not enough to remind us about political elections and other issues that are going on in our state and our country since we often ignore watching the news on television and do not read the newspapers. For me, I usually do not vote because I do not want to vote for something that I do not know about and may end up making a wrong vote.
At times, we tend to think that our vote would not be that significant. For example, if I were to vote, I would ONLY make the number of "YES" votes go from 40,000 to 40,001 and that it would make VERY little difference in the voting system. If I were to tell my friends, acquaintances, and random strangers this reason as to why I never vote, they may believe in my wrong words and would end up losing commitment in voting. We should learn to not think this way because every little vote counts. Each person, including myself, is usually affected by the outcome of the votes, regardless of whether we voted or not.
People may be publicly inactive and do not go out to participate in political elections due to their fear of facing the public themselves. Some people stay home for a majority of their time because they are perhaps afraid of the violence that is occurring outside of their home. There is a pretty high crime rate here in the United States compared to other countries, which means that violence and other crimes can take place anywhere. This is the one factor that people fear about since they are afraid of being victims of horrible crimes. So they end up staying home and go on the internet to interact with their family members and friends because they think this is the safest way to avoid violence.
No matter how aware or disconnected we are with the public, we will be facing serious consequences, whether they are good ones or bad ones. Even though we face these consequences, we should learn to not ignore the public by focusing only on our education, family, and other personal factors. It is best to prepare ourselves to face these consequences by paying attention to the media and listening to the things that are going on outside of our personal lives. When we are showing public awareness, we can also spread the word about political elections and other significant events to our friends, family members, and acquaintances so that they too will not be publicly inactive and will be able to help maintain the stability of our society. When we are active, not only will we be able to help ourselves and our significant others, but we will be able to help those that are outside of our personal lives as well.
When it comes to the public identity, each and every one of us must be aware of it by taking responsibility for the decisions that we make, whether it is related to politics or the work environment in general. Doing this can be extremely difficult since we are often busy with our own personal lives at home or at school. For example, from my experience, I am usually not aware with what is going on in our state or country since I have been heavily focusing on my schoolwork. After most Election Days, some of my friends, acquaintances, and random strangers would ask me who or what I voted for. I would either tell them, "I did not vote" or "I do not know what that law or proposition was". I would usually feel uncomfortable whenever I told them these words because I figured that they would give me bad reactions as to what I said. They would tend to get somewhat angry with me due to my lack of commitment and would then question me as to why I did not vote or know about that law or proposition.
My mind is mostly disconnected with the public because I am used to focusing on the things that "I" want, rather than what everyone else wants. It is not good to disconnect myself with the public since doing that will make me not prepare in future consequences. These serious consequences may include losing my education or having more difficulty in finding jobs without any backup plan due to my self-centered and apathetic behavior.
Another reason why we make little to no effort in participating in political elections is that we are not informed well enough. The media is not enough to remind us about political elections and other issues that are going on in our state and our country since we often ignore watching the news on television and do not read the newspapers. For me, I usually do not vote because I do not want to vote for something that I do not know about and may end up making a wrong vote.
At times, we tend to think that our vote would not be that significant. For example, if I were to vote, I would ONLY make the number of "YES" votes go from 40,000 to 40,001 and that it would make VERY little difference in the voting system. If I were to tell my friends, acquaintances, and random strangers this reason as to why I never vote, they may believe in my wrong words and would end up losing commitment in voting. We should learn to not think this way because every little vote counts. Each person, including myself, is usually affected by the outcome of the votes, regardless of whether we voted or not.
People may be publicly inactive and do not go out to participate in political elections due to their fear of facing the public themselves. Some people stay home for a majority of their time because they are perhaps afraid of the violence that is occurring outside of their home. There is a pretty high crime rate here in the United States compared to other countries, which means that violence and other crimes can take place anywhere. This is the one factor that people fear about since they are afraid of being victims of horrible crimes. So they end up staying home and go on the internet to interact with their family members and friends because they think this is the safest way to avoid violence.
No matter how aware or disconnected we are with the public, we will be facing serious consequences, whether they are good ones or bad ones. Even though we face these consequences, we should learn to not ignore the public by focusing only on our education, family, and other personal factors. It is best to prepare ourselves to face these consequences by paying attention to the media and listening to the things that are going on outside of our personal lives. When we are showing public awareness, we can also spread the word about political elections and other significant events to our friends, family members, and acquaintances so that they too will not be publicly inactive and will be able to help maintain the stability of our society. When we are active, not only will we be able to help ourselves and our significant others, but we will be able to help those that are outside of our personal lives as well.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Blog #7 - Daru's Loyalty and Respect
Daru is one of the most significant characters in this story because he is the one person who is against hatred, disrespect, and separation. Daru is against these three things because he believes that these do harm and no justice between others. Daru is for peace and love and he shows these feelings when he helps the prisoner by treating him with respect and treating him as if he were a friend, rather than an enemy. It is between extremely difficult and impossible for someone like Daru to stay loyal on both sides. Although Daru is faced with this dilemma, he maintains trust and loyalty within himself. This is similar to Fromm's point saying that objectivity must start from the self so that one can express that objectivity to others. Despite being a solitary man, Daru holds repsect and loyalty for himself and expresses these same positive virtues as best as possible to the Arab prisoner, Balducci, the children, and everyone else.
Maintaining neutrality and equal respect for both sides is difficult not only for Daru but for myself, as well as each and every one of us. The story tells us that regardless of how much respect and loyalty we have for both sides, in the end, we are forced to make a decision by choosing a side. There are serious consequences to choosing one of the sides and there will be regrets along the way. But the one thing that we must do is maintain loyalty and respect for ourselves the same way that Daru maintains those positive virtues for himself.
Maintaining neutrality and equal respect for both sides is difficult not only for Daru but for myself, as well as each and every one of us. The story tells us that regardless of how much respect and loyalty we have for both sides, in the end, we are forced to make a decision by choosing a side. There are serious consequences to choosing one of the sides and there will be regrets along the way. But the one thing that we must do is maintain loyalty and respect for ourselves the same way that Daru maintains those positive virtues for himself.
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