"Feeling Fucked Up"

Love is gentle. Love is good...except when you no longer have love then love is brutal, love is mad.

There is one thing in common between a man who is in love and a man who has fallen out of love: they are full of madness that they no longer care about the world around them. They won't care about the weather, for as long as they are in love, blizzards and snow would not matter. But if they have fallen out of love, even the nicest sunny day would not cheer them up. They won't care whether they are hungry, for the man in love can't be more full of love, and the man fallen out of love is probably stuffed with sadness. They won't care about government and politics, for as long as the man in love is with his woman, North Korea will still be a good spot for honeymoon. And the man out of love, freedom and human rights would not do him any good because he could probably care less.

Mad in love and mad because of love. Doesn't matter, because both are crazy because of love.

SP

"Feeling Fucked Up" prompt

The poet is talking about a woman that just left him and curses essentially the world and all theses things in it that probably make him think about her. When he says, "come back and everywhere in the world is bare," this parallels to the reading "Old Boys, Old Girls" by Jones and the idea that when prisoners come back into society, they feel lost within the world and in their humanity. The world outside of prison isn't theirs anymore and their world is turned upside down. This resonates with Knights poem because he too imprisoned by his despair and has lost his soul by losing her, like the prisoners lose their soul in prison, suffering harsh realities when getting out. The poet is being thrown into a sort of imprisonment where now he is turned upside down, cursing the world whereas the prisoner in Knights story is being freed but suffering in the same way. Both theses characters are in a state of feeling "fucked up" and are anxiously wanting what used to be theirs back in order for their "souls to sing once again." 

"Hey Mama"- Kanye West

I call my mom "mama" as well. She does not let my sisters and I call her mother or mom. I have come up with a solution to this. Instead of calling her mommy as I got older, I started to compile a list of different versions of the word mom. I call her mama the most, especially recently. I call her meemaw as a joke sometimes. My all time favorite is mum.

I have always wondered why she does not want us to call her mom. She calls her own mother mom. Perhaps it is a way to keep us as children and not fully grown up adults. Perhaps she finds mother to rigid and mom is too similar to calling her by her first name.

I wonder when that switch occurs. At what age do children begin to call their parents mom and dad? 18? 10, when they might begin to become embarrassed by them? At least that is not something I have to worry about.

I do not wish to call her mom. I would not mind using mother every once in a while, but not seriously. I am happy having mama and mum in my arsenal of names.

-Scout

A little something on war..

"I hate war as only a solider who has lived it can, only as one who has seen it's brutality, it's futility, it's supidity."

The way I see it, the person that quoted this has a strong passionate hate for war. And I agree with this passion. A soldier experiences many things during a war. They can experience physical injuries along with emotional trauma, loneliness and hardships. They not only encounter their "enemies" whom they have never met, but they also encounter the enemies within themselves. A soldier not only battles in combat, but battles between their morals of what is right and what is wrong. In order to survive they must lose of a sense of their humanity, they must lose their conscience. They must re-program themselves to survival mode. They must do anything and everything to survive. They kind of become like animals. No remorse for a life lost. They lose a part of themselves that they will never get back. It's not their fault, not really. The fault lies in the society we live in. War is senseless because not only does it take the lives of others, it also takes a part of a soldiers life that they can never get back. And even when they return, they will never really return to the way they were before they left. They will never forget the things they've seen and will always be on the lookout for a battle. It's in the word itself. WAR! It's the opposite of peace. War is not only the physical war, but the war within the soldiers that haunt them every step of the way.

- T.T

" The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting"

                                                             - Sun Tzo

 "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting" was a quote said by Sun Tzo, this quote means that the greater conqueror is the person who overcomes the enemy without putting up a big show/fight. In movies we always see the victory tends to go to the person with the most firepower, the biggest explosions and the highest body count. But thats not what Sun Tzo believes. To win without fighting isn't easy, but it is easier then killing everyone that you feel doesn't agree with you. Victory without fighting requires you to change the heart and mind of others, to win them over with you actions, your spirit and your words. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. both used kindness to win over people, they didn't need to use violence so why should we ?

- CI 

Going home and leaving home

"For where does one run to when he's already in the promised land?"

He will run away from it.

There are only two directions in life: going home and leaving home. If one is already in the promised land, which must be comfortable, like home, one will turn around and leave his home. Why wouldn't he want to stay in the promised land? Because he will die of boredom and be overwhelmed by the comfortableness.

Just like how people need to get out for fresh air after a whole day at home. The air might not be fresh outside, but is surely is a different kind of air that one has been breathing at home. One may not actually need to get fresh air, but might just want to move to a different space and adapt to a different feeling.

WHy do people move around and go back and forth between going home and leaving home? Because the need new things, new atmospheres and new environments to adjust to, to freshen up their bodies and their minds.

SP

If you think it is true, it will come true

"All stories are true". This statement might be true depends on how confident you are when you are telling the story and how well you are able to convince yourself to believe in a lie.

This quote is almost like a fantasy or a phrase that will hypnotize yourself. For example, if one tells himself a story about how he is the richest man in the world, and truly believe in this story, he might have a completely different attitude towards life if he didn't think he was the richest man.

By convincing himself that he is the richest man, he believes that this story is true. Therefore, he may have been living a happier life where he would enjoy all the luxury of the world, but may end up miserable because he would e in so much debt since he is not actually that rich. On the other hand, he might become a wealthy man because he would be thinking like a billionaire by being optimistic and seizing every opportunity. In the end, it all depends on what you think. If you think it is true, it will come true.

SP

Asfandiyar Husain "For Where does one run when he's already in the promised land"

Man and greed have been linked together so much that they can almost be considered synonymous with each other. Man is never satisfied with what he has; there is always something more that he can attain. This neverending pursuit for wealth and fame causes great turmoil, both external and internal. But even when a man has reached the promised land, when he has achieved whatever he yearned for. he doesn't stop. He can't stop. Greed has conquered his better senses. This greed causes him to search for more even if there is nothing to be found. Man then runs towards his own destruction when he has gained the maximum of his desires.

Life's Relativity

February 3rd, 2015

I guess I am starting this prompt rather randomly. I walked in late, right after the first "true" class of the year had started. But, realistically I am not too worried, simply because I know I was late for a reason.

My purpose in life is to fulfill my personal tank of morality and happiness on a day to day basis. Sometimes irrepressible changes, as Junot Diaz says, can alter everything- even when we do not want them to... But you roll with it, just as you would roll with the marbles that fell out of a cup if you were one because if you try to stay stagnant, anxiety and stress overcome you, and there's no reason for that.

Last night, one of my best friends, Meagan Martinez, realized she had to leave New York University this morning. Her mother's loan for her college dropped due to bad credit, and she does not have income to file for a new one. Last night, was my night with her, and this morning I stared at a random stranger's lost NYU ID card on the ground.

Do I deserve to be here?

Institutionalized Oppression

When Henry Ford says "Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian" he's speaking about the American government as being deceiving or not having the best interest for its people. I agree with Henry Ford because once white settlers stepped into The New World, they have tried and in many cases successfully eliminate the Native American culture. They not only killed many Native Americans but they also turned a lot of Native people against each other for their convince. Even in today's age most Native Americans live on reservations where they are very limited and have little economic means. In many cases throughout history, the American government oppresses people for free labor or land or in any form as a result of greater economic means. Many people criticize the government for getting involved in the lives of its people an doing things like providing economic aid. Most people in this oppressive state were put in this situation by the government themselves. When people come from these oppressive backgrounds it makes it harder to be prosperous because of how they're institutionally oppressed. The government never changes the system to help these people get out of these oppressive states, which is why we as people can't count on the government to take care of us because we won't prosper.


- Kimberly Ortega

All Stories Are True

Wideman says "all stories are true."  All stories are true not neccesarily in fact or in their accuracy, but they all, in their simplest form, come from a place of truth.  They come into a writer's head because they are from his or her life experience in some way or another.  By this I mean, they reflect a part of the writer's consciousness, something he or she must put on the page or into the world as I means to make sense of it.  Does this suggest that all imagination is rooted in reality, in truth.  Do we ever really make things up?  Or, are all of our thoughts based in reality.  I see the possibility of Wideman's idea.  It seems plausible, that even as imaginative as I think my thoughts are, they are in actuality, just the outcome of many experiences in my reality.  My thoughts are just fragments of my truth, and I have never made something up plainly out of creativity.  I have heard that we cannot make up faces in our dreams, rather they all belong to people we have actually seen.  I see this as an extension of Wideman's claim.

Sophie Maes

why we should work?

abdourahamane diallo     jjay.cuny               02/04/2015

          The idea of capitalism is to give everyone the opportunity to compete in life with the same rules and this what make it different from the socialism. they said "work hard play hard", you can't be happy and prosperous by letting a person or an entity taking care of your entire needs. the paradigm of life "success" is to have good education and good career  but  letting someone taking fully care of you, will make you lazy and unwilling to do anything positive for your self . For instance, in America the majority of people that live under the food stamp benefit do not look happy and prosperous compare to the people that are taking lead and care to make it better for themselves.
        To conclude, they said "who sows the wind harvest the storm".

Kennedy Corrin- "It''s never the changes we want that changes everything."

"It's never the changes we want that changes everything" said Junot Diaz. No one really likes change. Change can surprise you, throw you off course, scare you, but change can be a good thing and can help us better ourselves in many ways. I have had many changes in my life. Some with family, having my parents divorce and going through an unwanted four year custody battle which was the spark that really "changed" everything. I had two classmates die in freak accidents, Julia and Justin both who I had many interactions with and one I really could call a friend. From 8th grade, that changed my perspective on life and death at an early age, seeing it as something so fragile, tangible and precious. It changed how I viewed the ones I loved, how I interacted with them and how I learned to cherish them everyday. Justin, three years later changed me more emotionally. I started to really feel and recognize the power of death and the effect it had on me as a person especially during such a immature time in my life. I think the most important change in my life was the coming to terms with my sexuality. Now that totally changed my life and how I view the same sex and my life from that day forward. It definitely wasn't the changed I "wanted" seeing that it brought me extreme hardship, doubt and confusion during my senior year of high school but overall coming to terms with my bisexuality has shaped who I am and is the change I am most proud of and the one I am still currently learning from today. 

Melan Salinas

Prompt: "It's Never The Changes We Want That Change Everything"

   Life takes unexpected turns sometimes. Sometimes for the bad, sometimes for the good, but

nonetheless, change. Sometimes it can be morbid, for instance, an uncle getting cancer. Never would

anyone wish for a member of their family to get an illness, but regardless it's a huge change that

could potentially change a family forever, for better or worse. Sometimes, the change is happy, even

if in disguise. Let's take the girl who breaks up with the "boy of her dreams". She feels rejected, only

to meet someone two weeks later who is everything she dreamed of and more. Although the change

wasn't wanted, the change ended up making her life even better. Sometimes, it's scary. For instance

the mother who gets laid off from her job and has no way to support her kids. With lack of income

everything changes, and not knowing where your next dollar, meal, etc. might come from is truly

terrifying. However no matter how hard you fight it, change is inevitable. This is life, where changes

can come from any direction at any time. Instead of living in fear of change we should praise it, for it

is the only thing promised in this world. For it is the foundation of wonder, of experience, and of

living.

Asfandiyar Husain- "its never the changes you want that change everything"

When I was a child, I was in love with hockey. I played and watched it as much as I could. I even dreamed of playing for my school team some day. So it was of no surprise that at the start of 6th grade, when the students choose their preferred sports in P.E class, I see down hockey. I daydreamed about impressing all of my skills. Unfortunately, the spots filled up quickly and I was placed in the soccer group. Having never played the game before, I was distraught. I started to hate it already. At the start of the first match, I tried to get a hang of the game by looking at two teams. I found it quite similar to hockey, so I watched with interests. My thoughts on the game had started to change.

A few months later, I already had a favorite soccer team and a good grasp on how to play. As tenth grade approached, I practiced harder to get into the team. At soccer tryouts, I did my best and managed to get some positive reactions from my teammates. Hopeful, I looked over at the coaches and noticed them throwing glances at me and murmuring to themselves. They gave me one final look and scribbled on their notepad...

Abraham Serouya-- "its never the changes we want that change everything."

"its never the changes we want that change everything."

Naturally, people fear change. change, demands that we get out of our comfort zone and push, thus risking our current happiness. However, sometimes change rips us out of our happy place mercilessly and unapologetically. It can alter the world for the rest of time. War is a prime example of this. Many times, most people wish not to go to war, though it is necessary. It is this necessary evil that vaporizes the status quo and leaves nature to take its course. A prime example of this, is world war two. The allies so desperately wanted to avoid war, remembering the not-so-distant horrors of the first world war. This left world leaders timid and scared. The prime minister of the United Kingdom, Neville Chaimberlin told the world that there will be “peace in our  time” only months before Hitlers ferocious Blitz Kreig decimated Poland. 

This war was largely inevidible. Yet, once it started, things would never be the same. It left Europe in ruins, leaving great colonial empires in shambles; Jews, Gypsies and other minorities massacred. However, at the end of this change that nobody wants, there a rebirth. Independence for so many countries in Africa and Asia, a homeland for the jews, and a destruction of totalitarian facism.  The horrible changed that changed everything had a great light at the end of the tunnel.