Memoirs of a Geisha

"I wish I could believe life really is something more than a stream that carries us along , belly-up.'

'All right, if it's a stream , you're still free to be in this part of it or that part, aren't you? The water will divide again and again. If you bump, and tussle, and fight, and make use of whatever advantages you might have-'" (page 367 Memoirs of a Geisha)

Sometimes people's lifes seem to be very controled weither it's by there families or there professions, but theres always enough freedom to take advantage of and make it there own. This is like the profession Chiyo is pursuing as a Geisha. She was sold as a child and forced to go to a geisha house, but instead of excepting her fait and going along with it, she has to influence the decisions 'mother' is making for her. Chiyo is being brought down the stream of becoming a successful geisha and she now realizes she has to take advantage of the little freedom she has.

This quote is an example of what many people do in their lives. When stuck in a controled family or path, it is easy for someone to just go where ever the stream takes them, but it's important to take control and have an influence on their own lives. People don't realize the difficulties they could face if they leave they're lifes in someone elses hands, but it seems to be the easier thing to do rather then fighting what seems to be fait. Fate isn't something someone else decides to bring you to though, fate is what someone brings upon themself and if they want to leave fate for where the river takes them, that's fine, but then they can't expect anything for their future.

The Perils of Indifference

The perils of indifference simply means the dangers of not caring. Perils meaning something that may cause loss, or injury and indifference being lack of interest. The speech "The Perils of Indifference" explores exactly this in a historic example. There are many examples of this throughout history, of man kind ignoring issues and letting them escalate until eventually it gets so bad that someone has to step in.

When the world is faced with an sequence of disasters, the first one is usually the most publicized and responded to, while if there are disasters shorty after of similar or worst magnitude the world gets overwhelmed and choses to ignore them. A recent example of this is the earthquakes in Haiti and Chili. The Haitian earthquake was very widely publicized to attain global aid. While shorty after the Chilean earthquake being of similar eminence was practically ignored due to the Chilean economic state. Also recently there was mass flooding in India that has gotten very little media attention because the all the global aid is still going to Haiti. These are examples of dangers from ignoring things.

Elie Wiesel's speech "The Perils of Indifference" and the story, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, explore very similar themes, that dangers come from not caring. In the story "The Lottery", a very unusual event happens each year where a towns person is chosen and the villagers stone them to death. Most people would think this is wrong but when no one speaks up, people don't have a reason to stop. This connects to Elie's speech because she brought evidence forward that the United States government knew what was happening in the holocaust and chose to ignore it until other countries finally stepped in. Both these pieces share the importance of not ignoring important causes, and doing something about it.

Mr. Perfect

As our eyes met I could tell it was love at first sight. He was tall, dark and handsome, and as hot as hell. A good man is hard to find, but a hard man is good to find. This man was hard, strong as a lion. He's got the face of an angel, it was picture perfect. I decided it was time to take a walk on the wild side, approach him to say hello. We sat and talked, he was as sweet as sugar but had something strange about him. Then it hit me like a brick. He was gay, there was no doubt about it. Good-bye mr. perfect, hello reality. Well better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Assignment #1 Super Powers

Looking out into the great blue sky's thirty five thousand feet above earth through the small circular airplane window and wondering why. Why can a machine have the ability to lift hundreds of people into the sky, yet we can not lift ourselves. All throughout history there has been organisms bestowed with the ability of flight but the most advanced generation has not found the dexterity to lift ourselves. I read the superman, and wonder woman comics every night and just imagine myself with their gift, imagine the good I could do to this problematic earth, and imagine what it could be. A place where we could send our children on walks alone without concern, a place where there is no unsafe neighbor hoods, and a place where we would all be loved. This is what it could be if I had the power to fly. Yet if everyone has this ability it would make crime much worst. It would make the world hectic and atrocious to live on. That is way a very select few people would be given this gene. The kind of people who never think a bad thought and always consider others before themselves. That way others, like me could help ameliorate the beautiful place we call home.