Easter weekend

I went to Chicago last weekend, accompanying my sister Amy on her visit to DePaul University. First time being in Chicago, I was amazed. Not because of the vibes of a big city since I am pretty used to Beijing, but a different and special feeling that I never get from Olaf. I am so surprised that the ultimate college decision for Amy was between St. Olaf and DePaul. One is a comparatively small Lutheran college in a small college town in Northfield, Minnesota, and another is the biggest private catholic university located in the one of the busiest city in the United States. I liked DePaul. It was different, and very fun. But the idea of going there scares me. There were cars and people everywhere. And you are studying in the heart of a loud noisy city ( Too many distractions in Chicago!). Amy brought up something when we were having the tour on campus and I thought it was very interesting and kind of relates to something we have talked about in class. She said that she likes to go to college in a big city because she thinks that people interact with each other more: Not only people inside the college community, but also people within the city, and especially in Chicago, in DePaul, where we can find the most diverse community.

The US is such a horrible country

The first time I have been to the United States, I had such a bad impression: there were no first graders with flags and balloons welcoming us in the airport. I felt disgusted as I walked around, seeing birds, squirrels, dogs, and cats everywhere. It was very disagreeable to the sight.

The education system here is so under-developed. Students my age are all very ignorant. They are wasting lots of time on worthless activities like sports, theatre, and choirs but not math and science. I even had time to watch TV for an hour on a school night my junior year! Speaking of watching TV, I happened to watch a car racing competition out of boredom because school was so easy and I had all these free time. After watching it I felt extremely disappointed in this country because I saw people from the animal protecting organization with the banner “Go Away” on the screen. There were residents protesting in this world-class championship, and the government allowed such thing to happen? Unbelievable. We can see how incapable the government is. If these unharmonious slogans appeared in my country, from the mayor of the city to the mayor of the state would have been fired. As far as I know, those people who were protesting were claiming that car racing would kill animals. How ridiculous. It would not even matter if you hit a person in my country. And of course, in my country it is impossible to run over anyone, because all the roads are blocked three days in advanced. In such a big competition like this, everyone in my country is supportive, since any move that is against the government would cause you to lose all the rights you have.

After I was done watching TV I went for a walk in the park. There were a couple walking their dog and stopped to talk to me. How stupid they were. You don’t talk to strangers like me in my country even though they are my neighbors. When they heard that I was from China, they invited me to their house for dinner the Saturday after. I realized from the education I got from elementary school that all Americans are trying to expand their evil capitalist thoughts into our innocent mind, so I refused immediately.     

Alcott

Alcott sarcastically depicts the life of the transcendental life in her community. The community tried to change the society by enforcing an idealistic, a utopian way of living. And it failed when the storm came. Women, of course had to do all the work, while the men only needed to talk about the ideas and debating about them. Not only is Alcott opposing this unpractical way of living but there are also sparks of feminism emerging. The ideology of men makes women's lives harder because men seemed to always be the "intellectuals". They discussed and made rules freely, while women are forced to bear them patiently. Women have all sorts of responsibility such as taking care of the children and doing housework and representing the family. But as for man, on the other hand, could afford to come with anything that they think will change and benefit the society, and it is not their problem if it won't work in the future.  There's a little Hutchinson here.  

Thoreau and Zinn

"The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs."
                                         Thoreau, On Civil Disobedience
I think this passage also relates the the idea Thoreau brought up in Walden about being awake and asleep. Here he thinks the mass of men are machines and tools, being manipulated unconsciously, just like being asleep. They are paying attention to anything because there's no need to. He hadn't pay tax and spent a night at jail, but he thought he was actively paying attention and thinking. The quote I found from Zinn reiterates the importance of voicing and thinking that are both beneficial for democracy. De Tocqueville will probably say the same thing.

Where I Lived, and What I Lived for

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. "


I believe that this quote shows HDT's view of life and humanity thoroughly.  It is interesting to think that someone wished to live deliberately. I see it as two meanings. First, to live deliberately could mean to choose a particular path of life that is only subject to himself. Second, it could also mean that even though we are not really able to "choose" to be alive, we can somehow make life meaningful deliberately and different from everybody else. What are the essential facts of life. Necessity of material for being alive is important, but there is also something beyond necessity. I think he is trying to convey that there is a core of human existence. And without this core people "had not lived". He is influenced by Emerson. Emerson focuses a lot on how minds work with nature, and souls and spirits and the eyes for discovering the beauty and nature are crucial for human. Thoreau’s building of a house on Walden Pond is like the creation of the world for God. Here he mentions the spiritual freedom and divine freedom that everyone is the receiver of this kind of freedom and we should cherish and develop it.   

Nature

Emerson defines nature as anything that is not "me", that is something external to ourselves. We distract ourselves and the nature by theories, histories, and what other people think. What really matters is what we are personally experiencing from the nature, which is a lot accurate than others' accounts. I love the passage where he said that nature's beauty should be viewed as a whole but not as individual parts. I feel that in today busy life, we, as college students, are drown ourselves in the swirl of little different things was too much but forget about how wonderful life and nature really are. Even though Emerson said that only poets like him would be able to integrate nature, I believe that everyone is capable of doing it. It seems not that difficult to fit myself into the pattern of integration if I try to ignore the little and unnecessary emotion and troublesome. He mentioned the cycle analogy a lot: a cycle is simply perfect. Landscape, life, and beauty can all be compared to this perfect cycle. The way I see it is that nature and our lives are ordered and united.

It was such a beautiful day today. Siting outside on stairs near Regents, I read this essay with Bob Dylan playing in the background. I finally understood what DeAne meant when she said "read Whitman again and find the passage that sings to you." This entire essay just sang to me.

"The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of a child."

This is probably my favorite line. It is beautiful. He describe a different and profound way of seeing the nature: like a child. Adults lose a sense of wonder in perceiving the nature. Adults see nature, but they do not truly appreciate the way children do. Remember when you were young and the world was just like a treasure box? Children see with their hearts as well as their eyes. They are full of wonder and have not yet taken the beauty of nature for granted. I am not a child anymore, but I could be one when I see myself as a piece of this whole integration of the world.

Bowling in Life Story

Every Tuesday afternoon I go to the hospital to volunteer at the the Long Term Care Center. I enjoy spending time with the residents, and I'd like to believe that they enjoy my accompany as well. My visit usually includes a greeting from room to room, chatting with the residents about what had been going on since last week I saw them. Then I ask people to come to the dining room; we either play games or have conversations about anything we want to talk about. One of our favorite games that we have played almost almost every single week is called "life story". It is very easy to play: each player roll the die and move the piece forward. Each space corresponds a different color of card, and the player should pick up the card and read the question and answer it. There are four colors, and the categories are etchings, memories, valuable and alternative.  Questions like "Describe one way that you and your father are alike" is usually found in Memories, and "What is the oldest photo you own" is a typical valuable question. The residents love this game. Not only because everyone wins the game, but also they all have a life full of life stories to share. They will go nonstop on something that sparks their memory and they describe every single detail of what happened.

One of the residents picked up a card from the Etching pile today. "What was your favorite athletic related thing to do in the past." She burst out without taking any seconds to think: "Bowling in a bowling league!"Then she started to talk about what a great time she had, and how she met her husband when she was bowling, and how their league won a tournament one year and the bowling alley let them play a day of free games. I couldn't believe now I know someone who played with a bowling league now. I asked her how long she played and she said many years that she couldn't remember how long. She then said her sons hated that she played, and she once told them to join a bowling league and just to have fun, but non of them were interested. I just think it was so fascinating that a game can related to class and what Putnam said in his article about the generation decline actually seems true. There were people who really enjoying bowling league and there were people who did not. Maybe I should have asked her something about social capital but I thought it would probably not be a good idea in the given context. Next time when I talk to her one on one I will probably ask.

Another thing that I forgot to mention to people. My family owns a bowling alley. It is part of my parents' business. I didn't go there often because I barely had time and also bowling is not the "cool" thing for teenagers, at least in China and maybe it is completely different here. Maybe I should take my friends advice to ask my dad to invest in laser bowling so more young people will come.       

Trains

I remember the conversation I had with people about the railroad when I first came here. I was surprise because when people travel here, everyone either flies or drive, and no one really travels by train. This came as a total shock because everyone takes the train to go places back home. The reason as far as I know from asking people about this issue is mostly that flying is just so much easier, faster, and cheaper, and we don't have a really developed railroad system here that connects the whole country. In Cronon article the talked about how before the railroads every little town had its own time, and now they are more united and have time zones regard to the time difference. Even though railroads are not playing a huge role right now (maybe they are I just know really know the their importance), they still changed people's life in the 19th century in ways such as physically transferring people from places to places, and because people are more mobile a lot of amazing things are happening. Markets, trades, and fusion of cultures and ideas are all moving from one place to another. I personally think that traveling by trains are better, at least in China. They are so much more reasonable, environmental friendly, and safer comparing to cars and planes.