Last Tuesday, I volunteered all day at a polling station, greeting people at the door, directing them to lines to check in, and answering questions about the voting process ("Uhh, yes ma'am, you connect these two parts of the arrow..."). I smiled for 11 hours. Nine hundred people voted while I was there. We have now legalized stem cell research in Missouri! Sweet action. But anyway.
Later in the morning, this elderly, severely obese lady with a walker asked me where the bathroom was. I slowly helped her up a ramp. I went to flag her ride down, then walked back to find her emerging from the bathroom. I really had to pee, so I started to open the door - but then I heard a terrible noise. A collective gasp came from the onlookers. Simultaneously there was a low groan, like the sound a beached whale would make. The woman's walker had rolled away too quickly and she had fallen to the ground very slowly. I rushed back out of the bathroom to bend over her and fidget...but there was nothing I could do. I ended up simply holding the door open for the paramedics who arrived by ambulance a few minutes later. She was fine, even though it took several people to lift her upright. As for me, I was racked by guilt. I had helped her up the ramp, and I felt really embarrassed for not being there to help her down. I sat there and thought about it for the rest of the day. But I kept on smiling at the voters coming in...
In other news, here's a completely unrelated question that I've been pondering. I want to hear your answers: For a long time, I've thought that as long as I make and do beautiful things and as long as I remain happy, I will have lived successfully. I actually told people that my two main goals in life were 1, making beauty, and 2, being happy. But what if the purpose of life is not being happy? I suppose it depends on one's definition of the word 'happiness'; to me, it means simple joy found in nature and doing things well. It also means contentment with myself as a person and the choices I've made. These seem like good things! If we're not happy, what are we doing with our lives? Why live unhappily?
Argh, TOK. What is the meaning of our existence, why live, blah blah blah. But still. Repondez, s'il vous plait.
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Cornell TASP 2006
For all of us, the 6 weeks we spent at the Cornell TASP in 2006 were filled with life changing experiences and fond memories. This blog is part of our attempt to stay connected to each other. Play nice and remember that Nunn is always watching.
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5 comments:
Grace... it scares me how we are so damn similar. Those are my two goals in life, too. O.O
Personally, that's what I want to do with my life BUT I also want to change the world somehow, even if it is indirectly or in a small way, though my -real- goal would be to influence it in a big way.
Life has whatever meaning you want to give it. For some, it's gaining and hoarding material posessions, for others, it's living happily, for others, it's being famous. It just varies from person to person, but for me, it's the same as it's for you. :)
Why live? Because you were put on this Earth and as long as you're living in it, you might as well enjoy it. ^_^
Is it right to be happy when others are suffering? At others' expense? In spite of others?
Is it better be aware of problems about which you can do nothing, and to be depressed by that knowledge, or to live in blissful ignorance? Or is knowledge equal to power, and any knowledge of suffering therefore the predecessor to alieving that suffering?
I think that awareness is necessary, but I don't know whether it actually helps. And I feel like there are more immediate needs than creating beauty.
I feel like ours is an escapist culture, one that has time for leisure, whereas much of the rest of the world is struggling merely to survive. And sometimes I wonder whether it is morally right for me to live a life of comfort when I could feasibly devote everything to people less fortunate than I.
I suppose I believe that our purpose is to improve the condition of humankind, even incrementally, even for just one person--and this belief is definitely influenced by religion.
But perhaps the highest condition of humanity is one of beauty. And perhaps beauty improves our lives, more than anything else.
And I think that true happinness is achieved by improving the condition of humankind.
Are those gifted with sight not morally obligated to see, despite any guilt they may feel about others who cannot do so?
My goal in life is to be happy, but in order to achieve this I must run unceasingly towards Life's limits and find beauty and happiness wherever I go. Through some luck of circumstance and birth, I was given opportunities that others do not possess. So I owe it to them to see what they cannot, to hear what they cannot, and to push human understanding into arenas inaccessible to them. Hopefully, they'll return the favor.
So anyways, I had a lot of fun writing an essay the other night. It was about the presence of homosexuality in Herman Melville's Billy Budd. I got to compare his writing process to male ejaculation. Fun stuff.
But yeah, CARDINALS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!! (I still can't get over it)
lmao, "STOP IT! I AM SO TIRED OF YOU GUYS AND YOUR SEXUAL URGES!". :P
All these things are relative and subjective, so there is not one definite answer; we can all just give our personal opinions. Such is life.
Again, it all goes back to each person's own definition of happiness, though some people choose to not chase after happiness directly and instead chase after change and improvement of the world in general (which might then make them happy, in turn, anyway, but said happiness is only a benefit, not the actual purpose).
DAMMIT. I have to go tutor a friend. >_< I'll be back! MY THOUGHTS ARE INCOMPLETE!
It's interesting how you can go from the democratic process to the meaning of life through the brief experience of a stranded obese woman.
Anyhow, you could look at the world and find it to be completely and utterly absurd and do one of several things. You could commit suicide (the total acceptance of absurdity -- the world is so crazy, and there is so much that I will never do, why should I even bother living, etc.) Or, you could accept that all we truly know of the world is our memories, our impressions, our emotions, our experiences, and feel that is alright, that is enough.
The second choice is simply better, unless you have some severe issues, in which case I suggest professional help, but I should note that there are two different approaches that you can take on the idea. You can pursue a great quantity of experiences, or you can pursue experiences of great quality. That, however, is up to you -- our culture today promotes quantity over quality in almost all things, but again, the choice is yours.
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