Quote from the Stranger

"When she were a home with me, Maman used to spend her time following me with her eyes, not saying a thing. For the first few days she was at the home she cried a lot. But that was because she wasn't used to it. A few months later and she would have cried if she'd been taken out. She was used to it" (5).

Being "used to things" is a recurring theme in The Stranger, especially when it pertains to Meursault's way of looking at the world. He dislikes change, which is obvious from the beginning. He finds it annoying when people cry at his mother's funeral, a display of emotion that is common at such an event as a funeral, but is also annoyed when they stop. He is obsessed with the physical aspects of life: the sun, light, and heat all fascinate him to an extent that this has overshadowed any kinds of feelings or emotions he may have had. When the weather changes, when something happens that disturbs the routine of his day, Meursault is irritated by the temporary inconvenience, but soon becomes "used to" the path that this inconvenience has led him down. He is focused entirely on what people are doing and not what they are thinking, which is why he is so focused on the physical change that goes on around him.

Walt Whitman

"There was never any more inception than there is now
Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now."

There is no time like the present, or so the saying goes, and so says Whitman in this quote. You are You right now in this moment, and you never know if you will be able to say that in the next moment, so you are who you are and that is all. These things that Whitman lists here are all subjective and, basically, arbitrary: perfection is in the eye of the beholder, age is a concept of time created by humans, and believing in heaven or hell is a decision that varies based on different people. So as you change and the world changes around you, you never know what will happen to you in the next moment, but all the while there will always be a Now even if you aren't apart of it. These things will always exist as long as human consciousness is around to believe in them. So while the rest of the world changes, these will not.

"I am not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth,
I am the mate and companion of people, all just as
immortal and fathomless as myself."

This is probably one of my favorite quotes ever ever ever. I am not the earth: I am not great, I am not mighty. I am simple, I am not the whole world, I am not even my own whole world. I am not even apart of this earth. I am of the souls of the people. It makes me think of an entire connected line of peoples' souls, all different, all unique, and yet still one entity. You are just one of them, and the souls are eternal. You come and go on earth, for you are not a physical being: you are an immortal, endless, fathomless soul with a combination of feelings and ideas and emotions and loves that none of those other souls have. And when you die, you will no longer have the earth, but that's okay because you never had it in the first place. Your soul will live on.

Inspirational Things

I am who I am today because of a lot of things and a lot of people. I've met a lot of people (I've moved a lot) and each of them has contributed to who I am today.

When I lived in New York, I had barely lived. I was three months old living in an apartment I do not remember and surrounded by friends of my parents that I have yet to meet in my modern era of living. But I always had my parents. My dad is very success-driven and goal-oriented, something I like to think he passed down to me. But he often gets frustrated when life doesn't go his way (which, surprise, it often doesn't), but he is without a doubt the smartest person I have ever met. We go out to lunch sometimes on days where he's not too busy and it's my favorite thing ever. If my dad is the smartest person ever then my mom is definitely the kindest: she works at a hospital and often makes me go into work with her on the weekends just to check on her patients when she's off-duty ("don't tell your dad!"). She is my best friend and someone I can tell anything to, whether it's about school or swim or annoying friends.

When I lived in San Diego, I met a group of people that I thought were my friends. And in some ways they were: we had a lot of fun and were always really loud. They always said "we are the closest best friends in the history of the world!" and for awhile I thought we were. But they taught me to fit in and be average and to be rude to people with different values, and when I left I was a person I did not want to be.

Now I live here (for the second time) and I met a group of people who have made me a person I am at least a little bit proud of. I am a devoted friend who will do anything for the people that she cares about, because the people I have met have showed me that they would do the same for me. Everywhere I go I meet new people who mold me into a fuller sculpture. I hope that I will keep growing with every new place I visit.

Socratic Seminar Reflection

Most of the things our class talked about in the Socratic Seminar (both times) had to do with what distinguished people from animals. In class, we have talked about how Aristotle believed that, since humans have the freedom of thought, they were different from all other "lesser beings" with less constructed existences. Even though people went back and forth discussing this, no one really said outright that the difference between people and animals is the power of thought. It answers the other main question asked in the seminar as well: Can animals be evil? And my answer is that animals cannot be evil, because if they do not have advanced rational thought like humans do (that we know of: this could change as new evidence comes into play) then they cannot consciously make truly evil decisions. Plus, evil is a human construct that we have created to ensure the survival of our species: if people killed each other, robbed each other, and did other evil things to each other, it would not be ideal to the success of the human race. Someone brought up that bears often kill each other if they're hungry, but I'm pretty sure that's not true. Bears also have a concept of species survival, and therefore would not commit an atrocity against his fellow bear unless it would benefit him as an individual.

So, basically, the thing that separates animals from humans is the fact that humans can think. We don't know for sure if animals have rational thought like we do (certainly not on the level that we do, or there's a reason why they haven't risen to the level of humans, but that's another debate entirely), but until we know that, it's safe to assume that any "evil" act we attribute to animals is only their nature and nothing more.

Marcus Aurelius

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact.

Everything we see is a perspective, not a truth."

-Marcus Aurelius

How can everything we think we know not be true? This quote is asking an awful lot of us in believing: admit that everything you know is only an illusion. But if what you see and what you hear is not real then what is? If I look up and see the sky, walk outside and see the beach and the ocean and the trees, is that not reality? What else is there if what we think we know is not real?

This is terrifying, honestly. I cant imagine a world where nothing exists, because things have always appeared to exist. But what is the definition of existence? I think anything can be called into question if you just change its definition a little. For example, does existence refer to a higher sense, like everyone ever sees everything the same way, or is it if I see it, believe it, and know that it exists for me , does that make it real? If reality is what one perceives as existing, then everything we know is true, for that is what we believe and that is the end of it. But people will always seek out an Ultimate Truth, something that seemingly gives meaning to everything they see and hear. So the question isn't necessarily Is This Real, but What is Real? What is reality to you? To me, what I see and what I've learned through living and what I can experience myself is reality, but other people have different concepts of reality. 

My Personal Philosophy

My whole life, I have always answered the question "What is the meaning of life?" with the simple response of "happiness." But what is happiness really? How is a person's life defined singularly as happy? As we learned in class, life resembles a sine curve, with some moments that reach a high point and others that reach a low point, but the majority of our life rests on the line that cuts through the middle. When we believe that our whole life should be devoted to the pursuit of happiness, we forget about the entire rest of our lives that lies below the happiness.

But, people may argue, moments on the line that are neither good nor bad are easily forgettable and therefore unimportant in the grand scheme of things, which is true for some people. But bad moments are definitely not forgettable, and, as human beings, we learn our best lessons this way. 

It is an unrealistic expectation to want your entire life to be happy, as we discussed, but honestly, I don't think being happy all the time is exactly what people mean when they say "My goal in life is to be happy." Yes, it might be vague and cause another person to roll their eyes, but really if someone's goal is this, they most likely mean that they want the good times in their life to outweigh the bad. They know that bad things always happen, as do mediocre things, but they want their version of normal to be better than everyone else's version of normal. They want to shift their sine curve upward, increase their y-values. But that brings the discussion back to what is valuable in a life: what makes people "successful" or "better" than others? And then it just becomes a circle where people say "I want to be happy by being successful and you know you're successful when you're happy" and all that. So then the real question is lost. There is a motivating factor behind both of these answers. There is definitely a Something that makes a general quality of life better for certain people rather than others, Something that makes them happier or more fulfilled. I guess I have yet to find it.