During my conversations with different mothers, the topics of discussion centered around pregnancy, birth, and why people choose to have children.
My first conversation was with a mother of a two year old who is 32 weeks pregnant with her second child. She said that she feels tired all the time, clumsy, and forgetful. She said that she feels more moody then usual, but not by much, although she also said "my family would probably disagree with that!" She also said that with her first pregnancy, she bought all the books and stuff to prepare, but a lot of it just freaked her out ("there are so many things that can go wrong"), so she ended up taking advice from her friends, family and doctors. I asked if people treat her any differently, and she said that while her friends and family don't treat her any differently, strangers are are sometimes overly friendly, and come up and rub her stomach. She also said that with her first pregnancy, she expected to never have to wait in line for the bathroom, and for people to give up their chairs for her. However, that didn't usually happen. She also made sure to tell me that pregnancy is a beautiful and amazing thing, even if it is uncomfortable.
The physical symptoms she mentioned pretty much matched up with my previous knowledge: fatigue, mood swings, etc. I was surprised that she said that she didn't like the books about pregnancy - I always thought those were treated like bibles, and that everything in them was final. However, I liked that this wasn't true, because it shows that not everyone does things by the book all the time, and that people can make their own decisions about what is best for them. It also surprised me when she said that people didn't usually give up seats for her, because whenever I see a pregnant woman on the subway or bus, someone always gives her a seat. It disappointed me to find out that this isn't always the case, because I like to think that most people would give up their seat for a pregnant woman.
The next woman I interviewed is the mother of a baby girl. I asked about what it was like to be in labor and give birth. She said:
"I remember when the contractions started and deciding it was finally time to head to the hospital. A couple hours later my labor slowed down and I was given the option to either go home and get some sleep or stay at the hospital. I wanted to go home. When I woke up the next morning, I was in a lot more pain. I remember being desperate for relief of some kind, but nothing seemed to really help. I remember being mad at my husband because he didn't know how to help and feeling alone. At some point my husband decided we had better go back to the hospital (he kept asking me, but I was incapable of making the decision). Despite wanting to have a "natural" birth, the whole drive there the only thing I could think of was the epidural."
"By the time we got there, I was crying and looked like a horrible mess. Laying down hooked up to the monitors was agony. At that point, the pain was completely consuming and I couldn't stand it. I would hold on to the bed rail with every contraction.After the epidural, I was in a state of blissful numbness. I remember the next 12+ hours as a vague dream. When it was time to push, I couldn't feel anything so the nurse told me when to push based on the monitors. I remember saying it hurt, but I don't remember any pain. My eyes were closed. I remember the doctor saying, "I'm going to have to cut you now," and then nothing."
"When someone said "it's a girl," I realized my eyes were squeezed shut and there was already a bundled up baby in my arms. Instead of being overcome by instant love like everyone told me I would be, I just felt kind of awkward. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do or how I felt."
I was struck by how different her story was from the way birth is usually described. While I knew labor and birth were painful, I always thought that it would all be okay in the end - this is what people have always told me. I always figured that while going into labor would be scary, it would also be somewhat exiting - I mean, you're about to have a child. I would hate to feel alone right before that, and to feel helpless. However, I liked that I was hearing a completely different story then most. And I was actually glad to know that it's okay to feel uncertain, or to not know what to feel. Her story showed me that even with something as natural as birth, people still feel awkward sometimes.
The third woman I interviewed has an 11 month old daughter, and wants to have another child so that her daughter will have a sibling. However, it's not happening. She said she wants to have another child because a few months ago one of her friends died in November, and her friend had a daughter. She kept thinking about how alone her friend's daughter must feel, and decided that she wanted her daughter to have a sibling so that no matter what, they would always have each other. When I asked why she wanted to have a child the first time around, she said that she had gotten married, and felt she wanted a family.
I thought it was interesting how her friend's death made her want to have another child. During the illness and dying unit, we talked mostly about what it was like for the actual people dying, and not so much about how it affects people they know. Her friend's death made her want to have another child, conceivably so that her daughter wouldn't be alone - but I wondered if it was something more then that, if having another child was a way to help her get over the death of her friend.
Throughout all my interviews, I also thought about why people decide to have children. I have heard women say that they "had a strong desire" to have kids, or their body was telling them it was time to have a child. I once heard a woman say that for the four years before she had a child it was all she could think about. I wondered if this was something mental (they wanted a baby to love and care for), or something physical. This is something I would like to research more about what the biological reasons behind people wanting children are.
I didn't get to interview any fathers, so I am curious about what their experience is like. Do they feel emotionally attached to their child before he is born, or only afterward, when they have seen and held him?
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
HW 35 - Other Peoples' Perspectives 1
I interviewed three people, C, L, and E, who are all sixteen year old girls. (I probably should have asked a more varied group of people. I'll try to do that next time). Something I tried to do while conducting my interviews was find out why people have the perspectives they do, and if their opinions about birth have anything to do with the way they were born. This seemed to be the case with C and L. I asked them what they thought the ideal time to have a child would be (after having a job, after getting married, etc), and they both had very similar answers: They thought the ideal time for them to have a child would be when they were in their thirties, after having finished college and finding a steady job.
When I asked why that was the ideal time, C said that by then she would hope to be financially ready to have a child, and have a home to raise them in. She also said her own mother gave birth to her when she was in her late thirties, and she thought that this was the right decision, because by then her parents were able and ready to raise her. L said that she would hope to be at least thirty when having a child, because by then, she would have done everything she wanted to (finishing college, traveling, finding a job) - in her words "I will have gotten all the crazy out of me by then." I asked L how old her mother was when she had her, and she said late thirties. She also said that she thought she would have a child earlier, because her mom had a lot of trouble during pregnancy, and this may have been because she was having a child so late.
They also had similar answers to my other questions: They both thought that only the father should be there for the birth ("and maybe not even him," joked C), and that their parents should be the first people to know when the child was born. "And no cameras, I don't understand why people do that!" said L. They both had the same answer when I asked what their first reaction was when they thought of birth: "Pain." However, my friend E had a different opinion on the subject: She didn't think that she wanted to have a child, ever. She said she didn't feel she could do a good job. We also discussed how people get married because they got pregnant, and E said she didn't like that - she thought that kids weren't a reason to get married, and a lot of marriages don't work out because that's the thing they are built on. However, she did say that she really liked kids, and that they are really interesting, she just wouldn't want to have a child of her own.
All in all, what I have gleaned from talking with people is that the time and nature of their birth affects their perspective on giving birth. I have also learned that the way people are raised affects how they want to raise their children. I also decided that the interviews confirm something that I have always thought, which is that people born in my generation have many other goals besides having children - however, it is something that some people still want to do, and still think is a natural part of life.
When I asked why that was the ideal time, C said that by then she would hope to be financially ready to have a child, and have a home to raise them in. She also said her own mother gave birth to her when she was in her late thirties, and she thought that this was the right decision, because by then her parents were able and ready to raise her. L said that she would hope to be at least thirty when having a child, because by then, she would have done everything she wanted to (finishing college, traveling, finding a job) - in her words "I will have gotten all the crazy out of me by then." I asked L how old her mother was when she had her, and she said late thirties. She also said that she thought she would have a child earlier, because her mom had a lot of trouble during pregnancy, and this may have been because she was having a child so late.
They also had similar answers to my other questions: They both thought that only the father should be there for the birth ("and maybe not even him," joked C), and that their parents should be the first people to know when the child was born. "And no cameras, I don't understand why people do that!" said L. They both had the same answer when I asked what their first reaction was when they thought of birth: "Pain." However, my friend E had a different opinion on the subject: She didn't think that she wanted to have a child, ever. She said she didn't feel she could do a good job. We also discussed how people get married because they got pregnant, and E said she didn't like that - she thought that kids weren't a reason to get married, and a lot of marriages don't work out because that's the thing they are built on. However, she did say that she really liked kids, and that they are really interesting, she just wouldn't want to have a child of her own.
All in all, what I have gleaned from talking with people is that the time and nature of their birth affects their perspective on giving birth. I have also learned that the way people are raised affects how they want to raise their children. I also decided that the interviews confirm something that I have always thought, which is that people born in my generation have many other goals besides having children - however, it is something that some people still want to do, and still think is a natural part of life.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
HW 34 - Some Initial Thoughts On Birth
My current thinking about birth seems to center around how it's presented in movies and television, why it is or isn't necessary, and why I can't think of many real life experiences related to it.
When pregnancy and birth are depicted in movies and television, the way these subjects are approached tends to vary a lot depending on the audience. For instance, anything aimed toward teenagers shows pregnancy as highly uncomfortable, and birth as agonizing. Any show or movie aimed at a older audience shows pregnancy as beautiful, and birth as being "worth the pain". Neither of these approaches are ideal, since both approaches stem from people striving to tell their audience what they need to hear, or what they want to hear - the movies for teenagers try to convince them to not get pregnant, while the movies for older audiences aim to show birth as natural and beautiful, since the people (women) watching those movies tend to be closer to an age where they will want to have a child. I have always been perplexed by this. To be simultaneously told that pregnancy is wrong, and that pregnancy is beautiful, strikes two completely different chords.
Despite all the disparities in the way pregnancy is portrayed in movies and television, there does seem to be an underlying theme: Having a baby, or being a father to one (at the "right" time) is essential to having a "complete" life. However, I disagree: I don't think that having a child should be looked at as one's duty in life. Women who don't want to have children seem to be stigmatized for this, even though there is actually no reason they should be. Having a child should be seen as a joyful, albeit uncomfortable, experience - not just something someone has to do. The human population on earth will continue to grow exponentially even if a few people decide not to have children.
Throughout my pondering about pregnancy and birth, I haven't been able to come up with many real life experiences. I have visited various women in the hospital when they have just had a baby (friend's parents, mostly), but never have I known and been close to someone while they were pregnant. I wondered why I didn't ever ask anyone about it, or why the only time it was ever talked about was in biology and health class. In fact, the first thing that came to mind when I thought about birth was an episode of The Buried Life where the main characters want to help deliver a baby. During this unit, I would like to ask someone about being pregnant and giving birth, in order to gain a more real understanding about the topic, as opposed to the one I have constructed from movies and television.
Questions about birth:
How is pregnancy viewed in other countries, and does this affect how much medical care and attention pregnant women in those countries get?
How much of what the movies and television say about pregnancy and birth is true?
Why is natural birth considered "better"?
How is "natural birth" defined? Is it just birth without drugs, or birth at home as opposed to a hospital?
Why is teen pregnancy viewed as so wrong and immoral? It is, technically, what is supposed to happen.
When pregnancy and birth are depicted in movies and television, the way these subjects are approached tends to vary a lot depending on the audience. For instance, anything aimed toward teenagers shows pregnancy as highly uncomfortable, and birth as agonizing. Any show or movie aimed at a older audience shows pregnancy as beautiful, and birth as being "worth the pain". Neither of these approaches are ideal, since both approaches stem from people striving to tell their audience what they need to hear, or what they want to hear - the movies for teenagers try to convince them to not get pregnant, while the movies for older audiences aim to show birth as natural and beautiful, since the people (women) watching those movies tend to be closer to an age where they will want to have a child. I have always been perplexed by this. To be simultaneously told that pregnancy is wrong, and that pregnancy is beautiful, strikes two completely different chords.
Despite all the disparities in the way pregnancy is portrayed in movies and television, there does seem to be an underlying theme: Having a baby, or being a father to one (at the "right" time) is essential to having a "complete" life. However, I disagree: I don't think that having a child should be looked at as one's duty in life. Women who don't want to have children seem to be stigmatized for this, even though there is actually no reason they should be. Having a child should be seen as a joyful, albeit uncomfortable, experience - not just something someone has to do. The human population on earth will continue to grow exponentially even if a few people decide not to have children.
Throughout my pondering about pregnancy and birth, I haven't been able to come up with many real life experiences. I have visited various women in the hospital when they have just had a baby (friend's parents, mostly), but never have I known and been close to someone while they were pregnant. I wondered why I didn't ever ask anyone about it, or why the only time it was ever talked about was in biology and health class. In fact, the first thing that came to mind when I thought about birth was an episode of The Buried Life where the main characters want to help deliver a baby. During this unit, I would like to ask someone about being pregnant and giving birth, in order to gain a more real understanding about the topic, as opposed to the one I have constructed from movies and television.
Questions about birth:
How is pregnancy viewed in other countries, and does this affect how much medical care and attention pregnant women in those countries get?
How much of what the movies and television say about pregnancy and birth is true?
Why is natural birth considered "better"?
How is "natural birth" defined? Is it just birth without drugs, or birth at home as opposed to a hospital?
Why is teen pregnancy viewed as so wrong and immoral? It is, technically, what is supposed to happen.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
HW 33
Comments I made on others' blogs:
Elizabeth: I like how you focused on one particular aspect of illness and dying. I had always noticed that too - the way people seem to forget about someone's flaws when they're gone (I wrote my ten minute play about that topic last year). I liked the way you said it:
"It seems to me that when a loved one dies, their flaws die with them."
I notice this a lot when I'm around my father's side of my family. Him and his sisters will always talk about their parents, and joke about all the quirky things they did, but they won't say anything they didn't like about them. They don't even really talk about their personalities; it's as if they're afraid to touch they subject.
Another part I liked about your post was the next line:
"But what bothers me the most, is that they all wait until the person has passed to express their affection for them."
However, I thought you were going to go into more detail, but I guess it's okay that you didn't since this was supposed to be a pretty short post.
P.S. Also, this all seems to apply to Looking for Alaska.
Jasper:
I liked that you out got all your ideas about illness and dying. I also liked how you connected this unit to the food unit, by saying that people should focus more on preventative medicine:
"The way we eat is very unhealthy and this can lead obesity and also lead to diseases such as heart disease and diabetes which are the cause for many deaths. If we can eat better and live better we can have less health problems."
I thought this was important too. I remember a while ago Obama said something about wanting to focus his health care plan more on preventative care (eating healthy, getting exercise), so maybe that is something that could happen one day.
Comments on my blog:
Elizabeth: I think that you definitely came away from this unit with some strong insight.
Your best part was applying what you had learned to your own understanding, "I came to the conclusion that when people think about the fact that they are going to die someday, they want to do more and live more". I think it showed great growth from the beginning of the unit where you would respond to the text much more personally than general.
For example I went back to your first Tuesdays With Morrie Homework, and I found this in your response, "I couldn't imagine waking up and reading the paper and drinking coffee like normal if I knew I was going to die". Your analysis has grown and I'm actually realizing that my Homework 32 may not have grown out of a superficial nature compared to my earlier homework assignments.
That was a LOT of praise right there, but there's that cliche saying, "there's always room for improvement". For this post, I felt that you could have gotten a little more personal with the reader of your blog. Bold titles and sectioning work is great for projects or thorough research. Because you had a lot to say, but few words to say it in, I feel as though the bold titles removed the reader from exactly what you were trying to say and gave TOO general of a summary.
Elizabeth: I like how you focused on one particular aspect of illness and dying. I had always noticed that too - the way people seem to forget about someone's flaws when they're gone (I wrote my ten minute play about that topic last year). I liked the way you said it:
"It seems to me that when a loved one dies, their flaws die with them."
I notice this a lot when I'm around my father's side of my family. Him and his sisters will always talk about their parents, and joke about all the quirky things they did, but they won't say anything they didn't like about them. They don't even really talk about their personalities; it's as if they're afraid to touch they subject.
Another part I liked about your post was the next line:
"But what bothers me the most, is that they all wait until the person has passed to express their affection for them."
However, I thought you were going to go into more detail, but I guess it's okay that you didn't since this was supposed to be a pretty short post.
P.S. Also, this all seems to apply to Looking for Alaska.
Jasper:
I liked that you out got all your ideas about illness and dying. I also liked how you connected this unit to the food unit, by saying that people should focus more on preventative medicine:
"The way we eat is very unhealthy and this can lead obesity and also lead to diseases such as heart disease and diabetes which are the cause for many deaths. If we can eat better and live better we can have less health problems."
I thought this was important too. I remember a while ago Obama said something about wanting to focus his health care plan more on preventative care (eating healthy, getting exercise), so maybe that is something that could happen one day.
Comments on my blog:
Elizabeth: I think that you definitely came away from this unit with some strong insight.
Your best part was applying what you had learned to your own understanding, "I came to the conclusion that when people think about the fact that they are going to die someday, they want to do more and live more". I think it showed great growth from the beginning of the unit where you would respond to the text much more personally than general.
For example I went back to your first Tuesdays With Morrie Homework, and I found this in your response, "I couldn't imagine waking up and reading the paper and drinking coffee like normal if I knew I was going to die". Your analysis has grown and I'm actually realizing that my Homework 32 may not have grown out of a superficial nature compared to my earlier homework assignments.
That was a LOT of praise right there, but there's that cliche saying, "there's always room for improvement". For this post, I felt that you could have gotten a little more personal with the reader of your blog. Bold titles and sectioning work is great for projects or thorough research. Because you had a lot to say, but few words to say it in, I feel as though the bold titles removed the reader from exactly what you were trying to say and gave TOO general of a summary.
Friday, January 21, 2011
HW 32 - Thoughts following illness & dying unit
Health Care - I was talking to a friend a few days previous to watching Sicko, and she was telling me about how her father didn't get health insurance for her family through his job, and because of this, he had to pay for it himself. He works for the New York State department of health.
Spiritual aspect of dying / living a good life - This was a theme in Tuesdays With Morrie, and it came up in class a few times. We were asked how alive we felt, and when we felt like we were alive. In my culminating project, I asked people how they would feel about dying, what they would do if they had 24 hours left to live. Most people, like Morrie, talked about spending time with friends and family, and doing things to help others. I came to the conclusion that when people think about the fact that they are going to die someday, they want to do more and live more. However, people don't tend to think about the fact that they are going to die one day.
The last few years of life / dying alone in a hospital- A lot of money is spent on people in their last years of life, trying to keep them alive for longer. They end up dying while attached to machines. It seems like a better solution would simply be to try to keep them as comfortable as possible for as long as possible. People also shouldn't be isolated in nursing homes - they should be around family and people of different ages.
Spiritual aspect of dying / living a good life - This was a theme in Tuesdays With Morrie, and it came up in class a few times. We were asked how alive we felt, and when we felt like we were alive. In my culminating project, I asked people how they would feel about dying, what they would do if they had 24 hours left to live. Most people, like Morrie, talked about spending time with friends and family, and doing things to help others. I came to the conclusion that when people think about the fact that they are going to die someday, they want to do more and live more. However, people don't tend to think about the fact that they are going to die one day.
The last few years of life / dying alone in a hospital- A lot of money is spent on people in their last years of life, trying to keep them alive for longer. They end up dying while attached to machines. It seems like a better solution would simply be to try to keep them as comfortable as possible for as long as possible. People also shouldn't be isolated in nursing homes - they should be around family and people of different ages.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
HW 31 - Comments 3
My comments on others' blogs:
Elizabeth:
My first impression of your post was that it was REALLY thorough (showed depth/insight). You explained every detail of your thinking, and what led you to your conclusion that people have tried to make the word die have less of a bad meaning.
Overall, I thought you were going to go further with it (for instance, asking people what they thought illness and dying meant), but the research you did was really interesting.
Jasper:
I really liked your post. Your research was very thorough, and you explained your reactions to it clearly. I also liked how you explained how your research led you to doing the interview (your account of the interview was good too). All in all, it was really good.
Eloise:
I was looking forward to reading your post after you gave your elevator speech. It was way more then I expected! I like how you did so much research, and the way you told the different stories.
My favorite part was your description of how hospitals isolate people and put them in a bubble, and how you brought up the idea that there should be more art related stuff in hospitals, along with better food and care, to make patients feel more comfortable.
Amber:
I really liked this part of your post:
"While taking a part of this interesting project I learned a number of things. Our society is very gullible; we trust individuals without making any attempt to learn much about them. Our society is too busy with unnecessary worries; we forget about making an attempt to learn about serious risk factors that may harm one later on. In this specific case people are willing to take a risk to put them self our a loved one in an institution with strangers who they have no clue where they come from and how big of a threat they may be. Some of the articles I read discussed that many of these residents fear of exposing these horrified accounts. It is usually their loved ones that make them do so. Not only does our society fear about exposing the idea of illness and death to the public, but we also have a fear of showing imperfection."
I thought this summed up your point well - that people don't really know what goes on in nursing homes, and that they don't bother to check. It was also a good comment on how people tend to act. I didn't know a lot about neglect and abuse in nursing homes before reading your post, and before you gave your speech I hadn't even thought about it, so this really opened my eyes.
Comments on my blog:
Elizabeth:
I think that you chose an interesting topic to work off of. I really liked the question and response section, but when it came down to explaining them I was a bit disappointed. Not necessarily with your analysis, but with the way it was formatted. I kind of forgot previous answers and had to re read them a few times. I felt that you could have given some insight after each quote to keep the reader thinking.
Also, the Author of Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Fear of Death is Irvin Yalom, not Irving Yalon.
Jasper:
This was one of my favorites. I thought this topic was related to our unit and brought up a lot in Tuesday's with Morrie. I found the answers very interesting. My favorite part was : "After reading Tuesdays With Morrie, I formed the opinion that people are motivated by possessions more then anything. However, after doing the survey and reading the dozens of answers that talked about family and friends, I realized that this isn't necessarily true." I completely agree with this, I also noticed this in the book. I think maybe on a day to day basis all people may value is material things but if you ask people to look at their life as a whole they can see things that actually matter more.. Niiiiice post
Evan:
I noticed that only Liz commented, so to help out I am commenting here as well. You picked quite a deep and complex question to answer! I really like your analysis of the texts at the start, BUT- when you recite answers such as "go to the pyramids" or "save a life" it begs for an explanation of why these answers contradict Morrie's answers. I think only if you explained the difference of age and circumstance, you'd really be on to something incredibly deep.
Looking at the interviews I must say you asked great and significant questions and in turn got (mostly) meaningful and insightful answers. I just wish that after each quote or section of quotes, you would talk a little about the mentality or the dominant social view which leads to such answers.
Elizabeth:
My first impression of your post was that it was REALLY thorough (showed depth/insight). You explained every detail of your thinking, and what led you to your conclusion that people have tried to make the word die have less of a bad meaning.
Overall, I thought you were going to go further with it (for instance, asking people what they thought illness and dying meant), but the research you did was really interesting.
Jasper:
I really liked your post. Your research was very thorough, and you explained your reactions to it clearly. I also liked how you explained how your research led you to doing the interview (your account of the interview was good too). All in all, it was really good.
Eloise:
I was looking forward to reading your post after you gave your elevator speech. It was way more then I expected! I like how you did so much research, and the way you told the different stories.
My favorite part was your description of how hospitals isolate people and put them in a bubble, and how you brought up the idea that there should be more art related stuff in hospitals, along with better food and care, to make patients feel more comfortable.
Amber:
I really liked this part of your post:
"While taking a part of this interesting project I learned a number of things. Our society is very gullible; we trust individuals without making any attempt to learn much about them. Our society is too busy with unnecessary worries; we forget about making an attempt to learn about serious risk factors that may harm one later on. In this specific case people are willing to take a risk to put them self our a loved one in an institution with strangers who they have no clue where they come from and how big of a threat they may be. Some of the articles I read discussed that many of these residents fear of exposing these horrified accounts. It is usually their loved ones that make them do so. Not only does our society fear about exposing the idea of illness and death to the public, but we also have a fear of showing imperfection."
I thought this summed up your point well - that people don't really know what goes on in nursing homes, and that they don't bother to check. It was also a good comment on how people tend to act. I didn't know a lot about neglect and abuse in nursing homes before reading your post, and before you gave your speech I hadn't even thought about it, so this really opened my eyes.
Comments on my blog:
Elizabeth:
I think that you chose an interesting topic to work off of. I really liked the question and response section, but when it came down to explaining them I was a bit disappointed. Not necessarily with your analysis, but with the way it was formatted. I kind of forgot previous answers and had to re read them a few times. I felt that you could have given some insight after each quote to keep the reader thinking.
Also, the Author of Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Fear of Death is Irvin Yalom, not Irving Yalon.
Jasper:
This was one of my favorites. I thought this topic was related to our unit and brought up a lot in Tuesday's with Morrie. I found the answers very interesting. My favorite part was : "After reading Tuesdays With Morrie, I formed the opinion that people are motivated by possessions more then anything. However, after doing the survey and reading the dozens of answers that talked about family and friends, I realized that this isn't necessarily true." I completely agree with this, I also noticed this in the book. I think maybe on a day to day basis all people may value is material things but if you ask people to look at their life as a whole they can see things that actually matter more.. Niiiiice post
Evan:
I noticed that only Liz commented, so to help out I am commenting here as well. You picked quite a deep and complex question to answer! I really like your analysis of the texts at the start, BUT- when you recite answers such as "go to the pyramids" or "save a life" it begs for an explanation of why these answers contradict Morrie's answers. I think only if you explained the difference of age and circumstance, you'd really be on to something incredibly deep.
Looking at the interviews I must say you asked great and significant questions and in turn got (mostly) meaningful and insightful answers. I just wish that after each quote or section of quotes, you would talk a little about the mentality or the dominant social view which leads to such answers.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
HW 30 - Illness & Dying - Culminating Experiential Project
The aspect of the dominant social practices surrounding illness and dying that I decided to explore was: What makes a fulfilled life? This doesn't directly relate to illness and dying, but it seemed to be a theme that came up throughout the unit.
In Staring at the Sun, the author brings up one of Nietzsche's ideas: "What if you were to live the identical life again and again throughout eternity - how would that change you? (Yalon 98)" and then reflects upon it: ".....the idea of living your identical life over and over again can be kind of jarring, a sort of petite existential shock therapy. It often serves as a sobering thought experiment, leading you to consider seriously how you are really living (Yalon 100)." The idea presented here is that upon asking themselves this, someone would probably decide there was something about their life that they had to change in order to be happier.
In Tuesdays With Morrie, there was a part where Mitch asks Morrie what he would do if he had 24 hours of perfect health. Morrie says he would eat good food and go dancing and swimming. Mitch is then surprised that it would be something so normal, and then realizes that that is the point - most people would want to do something extraordinary, but Morrie just wants to have a good day, one that most people would take for granted.
I did internet research on Thus Spake Zarathustra, the book in which Nietzsche posed the question of identical life. I found some excerpts of it here. I also did research on Nietzsche himself: "Nietzsche's whole philosophy can be seen as an attempt to answer this one question: How do we live in a world without something (a God) that guarantees that life has meaning? In 1882 Nietzsche finally conceded that God is dead, and so began his long philosophical quest to find a non-religious answer to the "meaning of life" and to escape the feelings of despair that followed his loss of faith in Christianity (Turnbull 140)."
I wanted to see what people would actually say when posed with these questions. These are some of the questions I asked, and some answers people gave (Online survey). For the full list of questions and answers, see HW 30 - Interviews.
If you had to live your life over and over again, for eternity, would you be happy?
"The same life lived over and over would quickly become a complete nightmare."
"oh heck yes, because I could remember ALL the mistakes/regrets from the first time around, and change those the second time, and so on and so forth. I could literally build my perfect life. Eventually though, once I felt I got it "right" and had a life I felt I could not possibly make better, I'd be done."
"Only if I knew what would happen ahead of time so I can make any changes ahead of time as dictated by necessity. If I can make changes to my past, then my future should be altered accordingly. But, I really do think that's asking for the impossible."
If you had one day of your life that you had to live over and over again forever, what day would it be?
"The time when I won a singing competition-- however my drive for variety would have to be deprogrammed from my mind."
"The time me and my late mother went to the fair, I was eight, she died when I was 13."
"I think it would be one of those Saturdays when I visited my parents, and we sat at the kitchen table eating cookies and drinking coffee, looking at the newspaper and just talking. They're gone now, and I miss them very much."
What do you want to do before you die?
"Go to the pyramids, go to Japan, and go visit my best friend in Egypt."
"Live to at least make something useful out of myself. Whether it's to help another person or group of people."
"Save a life."
It seemed that the only reason people would want to live their life over and over again would be to improve on it. I don't think anyone came to the realization that one would hope for when asking this question - the realization that they were happy or unhappy with their life, that they were not doing what they wanted, etc. However, when people were asked what day they would want to live over and over (this question was sort of a combination of Nietzsche's and Mitch's), the answers were more sentimental - Morrie would have appreciated them, as they had everything to do with happiness and being with people you love.
I asked people what they wanted to do before they died simply to see what people found important to accomplish in life - something else discussed in Tuesdays With Morrie. This was another area where people's answers seemed to clash with the book's expectation of what they would say - most people mentioned something about wanting to make a difference, whereas Morrie seemed to imply people are solely motivated by the acquisition of material possessions.
From doing this survey, I learned that opinions presented in books about dominant social practices surrounding illness and dying aren't always true. After reading Tuesdays With Morrie, I formed the opinion that people are motivated by possessions more then anything. However, after doing the survey and reading the dozens of answers that talked about family and friends, I realized that this isn't necessarily true.
Works Cited:
Yalon, Irving D. Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Fear of Death. Jossey - Bass. San Francisco. 2008.
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays With Morrie. Doubleday. New York. 1997.
Turnbull, Neil. Get a Grip on Philosophy. Time Life Books. 1998.
http://praxeology.net/zara.htm
In Staring at the Sun, the author brings up one of Nietzsche's ideas: "What if you were to live the identical life again and again throughout eternity - how would that change you? (Yalon 98)" and then reflects upon it: ".....the idea of living your identical life over and over again can be kind of jarring, a sort of petite existential shock therapy. It often serves as a sobering thought experiment, leading you to consider seriously how you are really living (Yalon 100)." The idea presented here is that upon asking themselves this, someone would probably decide there was something about their life that they had to change in order to be happier.
In Tuesdays With Morrie, there was a part where Mitch asks Morrie what he would do if he had 24 hours of perfect health. Morrie says he would eat good food and go dancing and swimming. Mitch is then surprised that it would be something so normal, and then realizes that that is the point - most people would want to do something extraordinary, but Morrie just wants to have a good day, one that most people would take for granted.
I did internet research on Thus Spake Zarathustra, the book in which Nietzsche posed the question of identical life. I found some excerpts of it here. I also did research on Nietzsche himself: "Nietzsche's whole philosophy can be seen as an attempt to answer this one question: How do we live in a world without something (a God) that guarantees that life has meaning? In 1882 Nietzsche finally conceded that God is dead, and so began his long philosophical quest to find a non-religious answer to the "meaning of life" and to escape the feelings of despair that followed his loss of faith in Christianity (Turnbull 140)."
I wanted to see what people would actually say when posed with these questions. These are some of the questions I asked, and some answers people gave (Online survey). For the full list of questions and answers, see HW 30 - Interviews.
If you had to live your life over and over again, for eternity, would you be happy?
"The same life lived over and over would quickly become a complete nightmare."
"oh heck yes, because I could remember ALL the mistakes/regrets from the first time around, and change those the second time, and so on and so forth. I could literally build my perfect life. Eventually though, once I felt I got it "right" and had a life I felt I could not possibly make better, I'd be done."
"Only if I knew what would happen ahead of time so I can make any changes ahead of time as dictated by necessity. If I can make changes to my past, then my future should be altered accordingly. But, I really do think that's asking for the impossible."
If you had one day of your life that you had to live over and over again forever, what day would it be?
"The time when I won a singing competition-- however my drive for variety would have to be deprogrammed from my mind."
"The time me and my late mother went to the fair, I was eight, she died when I was 13."
"I think it would be one of those Saturdays when I visited my parents, and we sat at the kitchen table eating cookies and drinking coffee, looking at the newspaper and just talking. They're gone now, and I miss them very much."
What do you want to do before you die?
"Go to the pyramids, go to Japan, and go visit my best friend in Egypt."
"Live to at least make something useful out of myself. Whether it's to help another person or group of people."
"Save a life."
It seemed that the only reason people would want to live their life over and over again would be to improve on it. I don't think anyone came to the realization that one would hope for when asking this question - the realization that they were happy or unhappy with their life, that they were not doing what they wanted, etc. However, when people were asked what day they would want to live over and over (this question was sort of a combination of Nietzsche's and Mitch's), the answers were more sentimental - Morrie would have appreciated them, as they had everything to do with happiness and being with people you love.
I asked people what they wanted to do before they died simply to see what people found important to accomplish in life - something else discussed in Tuesdays With Morrie. This was another area where people's answers seemed to clash with the book's expectation of what they would say - most people mentioned something about wanting to make a difference, whereas Morrie seemed to imply people are solely motivated by the acquisition of material possessions.
From doing this survey, I learned that opinions presented in books about dominant social practices surrounding illness and dying aren't always true. After reading Tuesdays With Morrie, I formed the opinion that people are motivated by possessions more then anything. However, after doing the survey and reading the dozens of answers that talked about family and friends, I realized that this isn't necessarily true.
Works Cited:
Yalon, Irving D. Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Fear of Death. Jossey - Bass. San Francisco. 2008.
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays With Morrie. Doubleday. New York. 1997.
Turnbull, Neil. Get a Grip on Philosophy. Time Life Books. 1998.
http://praxeology.net/zara.htm
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