Posted by emily on Aug 12, 2010 in
academia,
thinking matters Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech
(excerpt)
And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.
We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren’t we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still.
http://blog.swiftkickonline.com/2010/07/valedictorian-speaks-out-against-schooling-in-graduation-speech.html
*and that right there is just the kind of
eloquence you develop when you have a college degree
Posted by emily on May 22, 2010 in
living faith,
thinking matters (author unknown)
If, as Herod
We fill our lives with things,
And again with things;
If we consider ourselves
So unimportant that we must fill
Every moment of our lives
With action,
When will we have the time to make
The long, slow journey across the desert
As did the Magi?
Or sit and watch the stars
As did the shepherds?
Or brood over the coming of the Child
As did Mary?
For each of us,
There is a desert to travel.
A star to discover.
And a being within ourselves to bring to life.
Posted by emily on Apr 21, 2010 in
academia,
thinking matters Could it be that we’re asking the wrong questions?
It’s been almost two years since I graduated from college. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography-Anthropology. I love my degree and I loved earning it. College was a really great experience. I could have done without Algebra, but my classes were interesting, I met a lot of amazing people, and I gained new perspectives that have shaped me as a person. I liked school.
And I could have gone to graduate school. I certainly thought about it. When people would ask me “Well, what now?”, graduate school was the safe answer. And it would have been the safe choice. Not the easy choice, but the safe choice. I would have worked very hard and been able to chart, with some predictability, the course of my life. Which is pretty nice…if anthropology were truly my passion.
Instead, I made a much more difficult and far riskier decision. I took the chance to chart my own course, following something I was truly passionate about. Something I didn’t need a degree for. Something that wouldn’t be predictable.
I am very fortunate, as a young woman, to have the option of advanced education so open to me. Universities used to be only for an elite few. Degrees were rarer and therefore college education was highly valued. We’ve gained a lot, as a society, by having a college education accessible to almost anyone. But we’ve changed a lot, too.
Because now college is something different: it’s the default.
It’s nice to imagine that higher education is so valued that we want it for everyone. But that’s not how college is sold, is it? College is sold as the key to unlocking your true purpose. The place where you discover your passion. Your path to adulthood. Your only chance of finding a job. Your ticket to earning WAY MORE MONEY than those poor schmoes who didn’t go to school.
And all of those things are true…for some people.
But what about most people?
The people who go through four years and earn a degree that they will never use.
The people who leave college expecting employment and wind up working the same job they could have worked before…only now they’re thousands of dollars in debt.
The people who simply put off leaving school because they haven’t found IT yet: their passion, the thing that fires them up inside.
The people who put off leaving school because they can’t afford to start paying off loans.
The people who get a degree, get a high-earning job, and then burn-out. Because making more money doesn’t mean a whole lot when it’s draining you dry.
We have been sold the idea of college as the answer to our existential angst: why am I here and what I am supposed to do with my life. Don’t know what to do? Go to school! We go into college not knowing what to do and we come out expecting someone to give us a job. That it is an achievement does not rule out the fact that, for so many people, the process is entirely passive.
To suggest that someone not go to college is akin to suggesting that they doom themselves to a life of menial labor. Is that really true? That tends to be the consensus among my peers. Friends who never went to school, or never finished school, practically apologize for it. But among the older people I know, this issue is not nearly so simple.
I’ll be posting more on this over the next few weeks. I want to have this conversation here on my blog. I want to have it here for my younger siblings. My brilliant and artistic sister, who is still deciding where (if anywhere) college fits into her future, and my musically talented brother, who is making the same scary choice I am but without my five year interlude.
They’re discovering now what most people won’t discover until much later in life: that college isn’t always the answer.
Posted by emily on Apr 17, 2010 in
movies,
thinking matters I’m kind of a snob when it comes to movies. It either has to be very, very good or so very bad that watching it is kind of fun (which is why Hannah and I plan to see Battlefield Earth at some point in the near future). The only rule I have for very bad movies is that they can’t take themselves too seriously.
Enter: Clash of the Titans.
We went to see it at our local theater for “Bargain Tuesday”. I do not recommend you pay full price to see this movie. I certainly don’t think you should shell out the extra money for 3D. The whole time I was watching I couldn’t help but think: this could have been better. This could and should have been SO MUCH better than it actually is.
First and foremost you’ve got Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes playing two of the opposing members in one phenomenally dysfunctional family. It’s like Schindler vs. Schutzstaffel. This should be a recipe for success.
Or not.
I mean what is up with Zeus’ Olan Mills glow? The Mount Olympus in Disney’s Hercules is cooler than the Mount Olympus here, which for whatever reason doesn’t look even remotely Greek.
Hades is what Lord Voldemort would look like if he had a nose and decided to live in a cave for a few decades. Voldemort is by far more scary and much more evil than the god of the underworld. Hades here is more petulant than intimidating.
And if it hadn’t been explained in the very beginning of the film, you could be forgiven for not realizing that they even had a brother. Poseidon is almost entirely marginalized in the film, which is I guess what happens to you when they ran out of their budget for big name actors.
The human storyline is supposed to be the main catalyst for the plot, but I found it very predictable and thus not at all compelling. For all of its shortcomings, what is still really interesting is what happens on Mount Olympus. Because the gods, as we all know, were TOTALLY WACK. So much so that the humans get tired of their shenanigans, they decide to rise up, Hades is all “Oh please can I hurt them, please please please?”, Zeus kind of likes the idea until it turns out that his underworld brother is actually BAD (OMG!), and things pretty much end where they began. The End.
But let’s break this down a little further: for all of his badness, Hades doesn’t ever seem truly evil. This is more than just a weakness of the writing. Hades the character (at least in this film) is very deeply disturbed and clearly a sociopath, but evil? That attribute is much more fitting for his much glowier brother.
More than just the fact that he conceived Perseus through decidedly non-consensual means (and if you like that, you’ll LOVE the way the film interprets Medusa’s story), there’s this whole bit about why Zeus allows Hades to wreak havoc on the humans.
Because humans need to be punished for their insolence. Hurt them, and they’ll realize how much they really love us.
What. The. What.
If you’re like me, your first response will be disgust. It’s a revolting idea. In fact, it’s a downright abusive idea. I’m hurting you because you deserve it. I’m hurting you because I love you.
And, if you’re like me, your second response will be a light bulb moment.
How many people have chosen to mold the image of our God onto the model of the Greek gods. How many people have chosen to believe that God is like that? Have chosen to believe that God is petty and vengeful? That He hurts us because He wants to? That He hurts us because He loves us?
Doesn’t that idea just turn your stomach? Because it should. There’s this Biblical anecdote that gets passed around. It’s not actually Biblical at all, but it’s told as though it were God’s Truth, and it’s the story of the shepherd and his sheep. As the story goes, when a lamb or sheep goes astray, the shepherd uses his staff to break the animals leg. That way the shepherd has to carry his crippled lamb until they heal, and they learn to love the shepherd and never wander off again.
The story is completely erroneous, of course. From an animal husbandry perspective it doesn’t make sense. From a Biblical perspective, it’s not at all what we know about the nature of God. And yet people believe it.
But I don’t believe in Zeus. Do you?
