Another Kind of Change

   Imagine waking up on a lazy Saturday. Half-asleep, you hop off your bed and onto your feet, stretching your arms and letting out a big yawn. You shamble to the bathroom, and turn on the light as you always do, when you finally look into the mirror and see an unfamiliar face staring back at you. You don't know how or why, but you realize you've been turned into a person of the opposite gender.
   Personally, I can't imagine what I'd do if something like that happened to me. I guess if it was permanent, I'd have to throw out all my clothes. And I'd have to get rid of my jewelry or give it away. That'd be a pain in the rear. On the bright side, though, I'd probably be taller, since most guys are taller than the average woman. And guys have nice looking clothes, too. I wouldn't mind wearing suits, since I've always thought guys' suits look better than ladies' suits.
   On the other hand, though, I'm kind of a cry-baby, and I get way too emotional about little problems, so I'd probably get ridiculed for having traits like that that would make me seem more feminine. You don't think about it, but guys pretty much have to stay composed at all times or risk having people call them weak or not a real man.
   Now that I think about it, guys have it pretty rough. But I'll say one thing I wouldn't miss would be Aunt Flo coming to visit, if you know what I mean. At least if I was a guy, I wouldn't have to deal with that!

Changes

   The biggest change I've gone through in recent years is moving down here to Georgia. Before I lived in Warner Robins, I lived all the way up in Nebraska, in a town of barely more than 600 people. Living up there, my family had to go to the next town over to get groceries and my graduating class was about 30 people. I'd started my first year of college at a school up there, but my family moved down here to be closer to my mom's extended family, so I decided to move down here as well.
   It was a huge change because I left a lot of my friends from high school behind and the weather down here is so different- in Nebraska, the summers are hot and the winters are freezing, while here, the summers feel like you're living in an oven and the winters are extremely mild. And when it does snow here, no one seems to know how to handle it, which kind of makes me laugh a little. And it made me anxious to be somewhere where I didn't really know anyone or where anything was. I had gotten used to everyone in town knowing each other and while that got weird sometimes, it made you also feel a little bit at home.
   I'll say that I do like it down here since there's a lot more to do. There's actually a grocery store in town, and a movie theater, plus the internet isn't terrible! I don't know how I survived before. And I'm getting to know a ton of my extended family members who are mostly crazy and weird, but still interesting to talk to. So that's also a plus... kind of.

How People Deal With Tragedy

   Over the last year or so, there have been many tragedies to befall the country. Innocent people getting killed by police, police getting killed by people angry at the police, riots, shootings, etc. And just looking at these events, you see how people deal with tragedy in different ways.
   Take the shootings that have been committed by police. Some people chose to show their grief and sadness by peacefully protesting or expressing themselves through art, music, and writing. Other people let their grief lead to anger, and commit equally heinous acts of violence in revenge. And other people get together and remember the people who were killed so that those people can live on in memory. And I'm sure there are countless more ways that people react and grieve. And there are some people who don't at all, instead holding in their feelings (or not having any feelings about these incidents at all).
   When a tragedy happens, while most feel sad about it, everyone reacts to it in a different way and it shows how diverse our country is and how deeply these things can affect us. And just like the numerous other tragedies that have happened in the past, these current ones will pass, although we will remember them and discuss them for years to come.

Tragedy

    In my personal life, I haven't really experienced much tragedy. I've read about it, but aside from that and having some family members die, it hasn't affected me as much as it might affect other people. The closest thing I can think of is a family friend dying a few months ago. He had been diagnosed with cancer in the past, but it had seemed like he beat it until it resurfaced and slowly ate away at him and he passed away. I was upset, but my mother, who'd been really close to them, was completely broken by it. Even now, sometimes, I catch her crying a bit because of it. She'll start telling me a story about him and how funny he was, or something nice he did, and just start tearing up. And that makes me feel even worse because I didn't really know that person all that well and I didn't feel nearly as bad as my mother did.
    But I think that's just how I am. Even when my grandparents died, I didn't cry for very long, and not because I wasn't upset, but I just couldn't cry anymore tears. Even worse is that I cry about everything else- failing tests, getting a speeding ticket, homework... Man, that sounds depressing just reading it! And maybe that's a kind of tragedy in itself- a person not being able to cry in sad situations no matter how hard they try. But that's nowhere near as bad as what we've read already. At least I didn't kill one of my parents and marry the other and then stab myself in the eyes after learning what I'd done. Now that would be really tragic.

Modern Heroes

   So, in my last post, I said I think the heroes of the past upheld the values of their cultures. But that hasn't changed very much in the hundreds of years since those heroic tales were written. Modern heroic characters do the same thing for the cultures of modern countries. Superman stands for truth, justice, and the American way- and although he was made in the 50s, he still represents the values of the modern era. And going back to Gilgamesh, it's interesting to compare him to a more current hero like Supes.
   Rather than doing as he pleases, Superman (despite being pretty much the most powerful person in his fictional universe) obeys the law as best he can, sticks with one woman rather than all of them, and pretty much stays in Metropolis to make sure nothing happens to the city. But as different as Gilgamesh and Supes are from each other, there's one thing they both do in their stories- fighting great threats like monsters and gods. I suppose that just shows that there are some concepts that will always be pretty entertaining.
  And in the end, both of them are heroes- just different ones for different times. Thinking about it, it makes me wonder what kind of heroes the future will bring? I wonder how different they'll be from ancient heroes and current ones? I guess we'll have to see, right?

Ancient Heroes

   What ancient heroes did for the civilizations of the past was to give them an ideal for the citizens of those civilizations to follow. Ancient heroes upheld the standards that the people saw as desirable, which is why the heroes of the past may not seem as heroic to people in the modern day.
    For example, look at Gilgamesh. He sleeps with as many women as he pleases, leaves the city he rules to fight monsters, and goes on a long quest to become immortal, leaving his city with no leader while he's gone. Yet, despite what we might think now, in that time and place, Gilgamesh was considered to be a hero.
    I think part of it is also that making a hero with flaws like Gilgamesh just makes for a more interesting story. No one wants to read about a hero who is completely perfect. But I'm not an expert on this, so I could be wrong.

What Makes a Hero

   This is going to sound like something out of a elementary school essay, but I think that a hero is anyone who is selfless and helps others, even in tough situations. Some people think that just because someone is famous, that makes them heroic, but there's more to it than that. In my personal definition, a heroic person helps someone when no one else would. They give up their time, their money, even their lives to help someone else.
    In thinking about being a hero, it makes me wonder, would I be brave enough to do something heroic? I imagine a situation in which another person's life is in danger and by saving them, I could endanger my own. Would I really be brave enough to save them, even if there was a chance I may be injured or possibly killed? It's sad for me to admit, but I don't know. I'd like to say I would, but until a situation like that actually arises, I can't say. And despite it being pretty selfish, I can understand a person being so scared that they'd rather run than risk hurting themselves. But what about you guys? Would you go straight for self-preservation, or try to help someone else in need?

Project Evaluation

     Our group evaluated Jordan, Aubrey, and Dalton's creation story presentation. Overall, I thought it was good. Whoever did the writing on it did a great job. It's very descriptive and really paints a picture in your mind of what's going on in the story, like the process of the Earth's creation by one of the gods. And they did a good job of understanding what makes a creation story, especially an entertaining one. I like that it's not too long or short, either- it's just the right length that makes it easy to read.
     I think they also chose a good medium for their story. Making a slideshow is a simple way of presenting what they've got to everyone. I will say I think it's a bit plain looking, but it seems like there's space on the slides for images, so that and maybe a change of background color will solve that problem. Other than that, I can't think of much else to say about it. It's a little rough, but after they add onto it, I think it'll be a great presentation.

Erotic Literature

     There's a thought that's been on my mind for a little while now and it's something that's been bugging me a bit. When it comes to erotic literature, why is it you don't hear as many people complaining about it compared to other lewd media? I can remember countless times when people I know have complained about adult TV shows, sexy characters in games, or explicit songs on the radio, but you don't really hear about raunchy books, aside from stuff like 50 Shades of Grey, and that happened to get ultra popular and get a movie, so that's a special case.
     Is it because books aren't a visual kind of media? But if that's the case, then why do so many people criticize songs for their lyrics? Songs aren't visual, either.
    The closest thing I've heard to complaints are people making jokes about the covers of romance novels, but that's not really talking about the content of the book, just the art used to advertise it.
   Maybe it's just that not very many people read for fun these days, and it's hard to care about the content of a medium you don't experience yourself.
  What does everyone else think? If anyone else has a better idea, post a comment.

Thoughts on Eroticism

     The discussion we had in class the other day kind of opened my eyes to what can be considered erotic, but I'm still not sure on what I think eroticism actually means. I guess, at the moment, I'd say it's more of a mental state of mind where someone feels attracted to a person, thing, or concept. That attraction can be to things traditionally seen as erotic, or things most would find completely unattractive or mundane. So, some people are into the whole chains and whips kind of thing while other people are into even stranger things than that.
     It feels weird even discussing this kind of thing, though, even online. It's a subject that's pretty sensitive to people and I'm sure a lot of people would rather no one talk about it at all. But as weird as it is to talk about, I think it's good to talk about so people can understand more about sex and eroticism and not feel so embarrassed about it. The less embarrassed you are about sex, the easier it is to talk with your partner about when you have issues in the bedroom (or at least, that's what I think).