Metacognition: A Tribute To Aristotle

This year my family hosted Thanksgiving at our house. This of course means plenty of cooking...and cleaning. Since my two older siblings were off at college until a couple of days before, this means i had to do a lot of the cleaning. My mother decided to use my room as the coat room which means i had to clean it twice as much.

Before I started I was frustrated because I had already spent most of the day cleaning the rest of the house and then i got this new assignment to clean my room. It was unfair! After I started, I was still frustrated. I didnt want to be doing this at all. I had to put all my clothes in my drawers, make my bed, clean my bookselves, desk, floor, closet, etc. After I finished, I felt, for lack of a better word, clean. But not just physically. My mind felt neater and clearer.

In a sence, I knew this would happen. Everytime I have to clean something, I get upset that I have to do it and after I feel acomplished and clean. I think the hardest part for me is actually keeping it clean!

I did learn (and still need to work on) that cleaning is not just making things LOOK clean. I have to go through old things and clothes or whatever and give and/or throw them away, not just push it aside. Hopefully, by the time I get my own place, I'll have this nailed.



http://media.photobucket.com/image/clean/soysaucecarnival/spring_clean.png



Change of Mind: Religion

As a child, I grew up with a pretty religious parent. In fact, my dad went into college majoring in music and ended up changing to religious studies. For a while, after college he taught religious classes and such until he realized he could not make a living off of it. Now he is a salesman. In a way, this disappoints me because I think it is important to do what you love no matter what. At the same time, I understand where he is coming from. Unfortunatley, money is more important than I would like.

Anyways, as I was saying, my father is pretty religious. I wouldn't say he is very religious because we dont go to church every week (although we used to), we dont say Grace every night before dinner (although, once again, we used to), and he doesn't preach to our family about religion (although, he did teach my brother, sister, and I in our last year of religious studies at our church). But seriously, the idea of God and Christianity is not a commonly brought up in our house. Sophie's World and other discussions we've had in class have caused me to ponder the idea of religion and God.

As I've entered high school, and maybe throughout some of my middle school years, I have begun to reject the idea of God. Science has always been something that makes sence to me (even though I may not always get the best grades). The idea of evolution is so much more believable and practical than a God. I've come to the conclusion that people have created the idea of God because they don't have the all the answers they need. Maybe they think its easier to creat some sort of almighty and powerful creature than to live with the fact that they can't figure out where the world came from. But sometimes I still wonder.

There is a part of me that wants to scream out and say, "NOTHING MAKES SENSE!" Anything is possible. Even though science is practical, whose to say the wonders of the world and universe are? We have no idea what is out there is space, what was here before us, what will be here after, etc. If I know so little about the world, myself, and others, why can't there be a God? Or multiple Gods for that matter? 

This conflict had lead me to no final answer. I think maybe we are jumping to conclusions. There is no way for us to prove there is a God(s) and no way for us to prove there isn't. But I think that if I were dropped on some island as a baby, isolated from everyone and anyone (just ignore the fact that I proably wouldn't survive and all that junk) I don't think I would think of a God. Well...Wait...Maybe I take that back. Considering that I wouldn't know any scientific information. And also, its so hard to tell because every civilization has created some sort of religion. Which makes me wonder, WHY? It brings me back to the thought of people creating a God because they have so many unanswered questions. But, agh. Who knows? ....No one....

But anyways, the topic of this blog is "Change of Mind" and I have yet to explain that. Clearly, Sophie's World and the discussions has caused many questions to resurface but I think they have caused me to be more open to the idea of religion. I mean, as far as we know, there could be some religion out there (that has not yet been created, or discovered, i guess) that holds all the unanswered questions. There are endless possibilities out there. I just need to figure out what I believe, or don't believe.

An Inconvenient Truth: Technology is Taking Over

"I can't expel the truth. It's much more than I ever thought..."
-Death Cab For Cutie, "Sleep Spent"

I am so extremely afraid of technology. But unfortunately, I am a hypocrite. Right now, I am sitting on my computer, typing this blog, listening to music off itunes, and I'm waiting for my cell phone, which is sitting in my lap, to buzz with a text message. Obviously, all of these inventions are here because of the recent advances in technology.

Okay, I get it. some of these inventions are SO cool and mindblowing. I can talk to anyone i want, literally whenever I want, I can find out anything I want, whenever I want, I cant listen to anything I want, whenever I want (all of these are to some extent). But, its so overwhelming.

I think my fear focuses on what technology WILL become. I am afraid of the future of technology. I am afraid robots will take over the world. I am afraid people will end up communicating only through technology. I am afraid of so many things relating to technolgy that it is very difficult for me to put it into words.

Side note:

Dear Reader:

I am trying very hard to converge my thoughts and not ramble.

This is very hard for me...

I apologize in advance if this gets hard to follow.

-Hana B.

I'm going to try to explain what goes on in my mind when I think about this topic.
So, here goes nothing-

For some reason my mind wonders to colors.

The future is grey, silver, white, and black. Kind of like the Apple company.
HERE! LOOK AT THIS-
http://www.apple.com/
That's exactly what I think about. That color scheme. AND thats not even the future! Thats right NOW! Agh. That's scary as heck.

Well anyways,
I picture the past and present, this colorful and wonderful scheme of organic colors and brightness and beauty. And I'm afraid the people of the future are never going to be able to experience and appreciate this rainbow of the world.

OH! By analyzing my thought process and thinking about why I think of it like this, I have figured it out. I'm afraid the future will lose sence of nature and natural experiences. Technology will force us to create a false sence of emotions and seeing. Therefor, the colors of the furture have to do with technoloical things. And the colors of the present and past are natural.

Wow, that seems extremely obvious. I guess I just never thought about it before.

In conclusion, my fear is that we will lose touch with nature and our natural, human, behaviors and selves.



But wait! There's more! Now, I must suggest how I should come to terms with this problem.

A couple of friends and I have been talking about creating a commune and just living in the forest and avoiding all technological inventions (we all share the same fear). Although I would absolutley love to do this, I have a feeling it is not going to work out (don't tell them that).

I think maybe I should just relax and take a step back. There must be other people who feel the same way as I do. Maybe, I can start to think about other possible outcomes of the future, maybe it'll all be okay. Although technolgy is advancing SO QUICKLY, I can hope that people will still want to remain human and natural.

But, agh. That doesnt really do much for me. Honestly, I am having so much trouble coping with this problem because these advances are unavoidable. There are people out there who want,  and  need, to see how much we can make possible through technology. But we can only go so far....

Connection: Anonymous Letters and Anonymous Gift

In Sopie's World, Sopie recives anonymous letters with philosophical questions and lessons. I was really excited about this because I liked that the teacher was an unknown figure. In fact, that might have been my favorite part about the letters. Naturally, Sophie is curious about who it is but thats the fun of it! But, honestly, I was upset when Sopie discovered who the teacher was. I didn't think it was needed. The only thing that I thought that had to be known was that someone was taking their time to create all these lessons and teach Sophie some of the coolest and most thought provoking ideas ever pondered. To be able to know that someone is teaching her these very valuable lessons about history, life, and thinking but does not need to be recognized  is so amazing! They dont feel the need to be reconized for "doing a good thing." Thats the wonderful thing about being anonymous.

Last year, on my birthday, I went to my locker to collect my things, as usual. I opened it up to find a wrapped box that I had never seen before. This was easy for whoever put the box in because my locker is always unlocked since it is backstage. I trust that no one will take anything and if they do I know they will return it. But i had never expected for someone to leave me a present!

So this box, in red wrapping paper, had a note written right on the front. All the note said was:
"To: Hana
From: Someone
Happy birthday!"

I looked around asking who gave it to me but everyone looked just as surprised as me! No one knew anything! Or at least they were very good actors. So I proceded to open the box. I freaked out because it was a converse box, my favorite kind of shoe. You dont give converse to just anyone! Plus, theyre expensive! So I immediatly starting asking "Who bought me converse?! Who was it?!" Again, no one seemed to know!

Finally, after prodding everyone with my questions and getting no answers, i opened the box. Inside were not the converse I expected, rather, I found a box of 150 crayons. I guess box would not be the correct term. It was a crayon tower! With crayons of all different colors, some even had glitter in them! AND it came with a crayon sharpener that you can take out. Whoever gave them to me obviously knew this tower would be something I would be very excited about.

Just like Sophie, I was dying to know who gave me this. I was asking around for weeks. I came to the conclusion that I love not knowing who it is! It makes this present so much more interesting. I am so so so happy that someone did this without feeling they need to be recognized but rather, just out of the kindness of their heart. To this day, almost a year later, I still do not know who it is.  And I'm perfectly content with that :)