Morrie Aphorisms Project

The aphorism I chose was, " without love, we are birds with broken wings" What I think Morrie means by this is that love is a fundamental part of being a happy or satisfied person. Without it we tend to look for things to replace it. Things like gambling, drugs, money, etc. Looking for something better than love tends to take up most of people's life and can essentially leave them crippled. (In a figurative sense)  another way to interpret this is that the broken wing represents the lack of freedom that comes with not knowing love. Love  frees people to be able to show affection towards others and to receive the same affections. And the bird is the ultimate symbol of freedom, hence a bird with a broken wing so someone who is not free to show their emotions because they don't know love.

Probably one of the best (in my opinion) and most literal examples of this is Harry Potter.  In the book one of the most important part of the plot is a prophecy that claims that Harry is the chosen one and has "a power the dark Lord knows not" which is literally love.  The fact that Harry's mother loved him enough to die for him is the one thing that Voldemort did not expect and as such he was unable to kill Harry.  Since Voldemort it is unable to feel love he does not anticipate that anybody would love their child enough to die for them and as a result  is destroyed. This continues to be a reoccurring theme in all of the books as people who love Harry help him even though that tends to ruin their lives.  Voldemort continues to be basically blindsided by this as he can't feel love and can't relate to them.

 I really agree with this aphorism, because it kind of just makes sense to me .  I mean the majority of us wouldn't have survived past being infants if it wasn't for the fact that our mother loved us enough to keep dealing with all the stress that raising a child brings.  Then later on in life if it was for the support and love from friends and family many of us would've given up on a lot of things. So although some  people will say that putting love above everything else make somebody weak and easy to manipulate, in reality love is a driving force in our society. Its been shown in a lot of pop culture too.  The basic premise behind romantic comedies trying to find love, sure they find it in a funny way but they do find it .

I think my  on aphorism would be something like, " just deserves is called that for a reason, it is deserved"  this is something that I really believe in as I feel that somebody who does something deserving of punishment can't really complain because they did something to earn it. If they  decided to do an action then they should have to do with the consequences.

Socratic Seminar Reflection

The Socratic seminars have made me think deeper on things like death (which came up a lot), life, friends, society, and family. Very often during the seminars we often analyze these things wit extreme focus, and then we start to wonder about their possible meanings for Tuesdays With Morrie. Honestly without the seminars most of us wouldn't think too deeply on any of the topics brought up. Analysis of things we do and why we do them really made me think about how the reading affects our actions. Then reading more in the books would just add on to what we had discussed and would elaborate on the ideas brought up, making the seminars all the more interesting.

I noticed that, for me at least, there was a lot of participation.  I spoke a lot more than I did during other seminars before these, and  what I said was a bit more relevant to the topics.  I noticed also that for my goals they all kind of shifted around a bit. One day it wants to try to not talk over others, the next it had something to do with bringing other people into the conversation.  It all depends on how the day went and what I notice from other people in the group. Actively, I tried to see how I could bring up things from my seminar guys into the discussion, and I tried to consider more what other people were saying.

 As a class, the seminars started out with a lot of not so in-depth discussions on a multitude of topics, and then funneled  down to the main topics of the book and a lot of very deep conversations of them and their meaning. For example the last seminar that we had had the least amount of topics but we discussed a lot more personal effects of the topics and our opinions on. Then for participation when we're doing a lot better towards the end with everybody contributing at least a couple things.  We had the least amount of participation in the beginning, which overall was stillgreat, and the most towards the end.

The Perfect Day

For me a perfect day would be spent near Lake Michigan. We would get there early, abou nine or ten in the morning, to set up. A good majority of my extended family and friends would be there. Near the lake there is a grassy hill that leads down into the sand. That is where we would set up. People would bring blankets and chairs to sit on, and tables for the food. My uncle would brig his grill to cook, and his boat to drive out onto the lake. The younger people would spend hours swimming or being pulled on a raft behind the boat, and our parents would stay behind to cook and socialize.

Then when the food was ready we would come back and dry off. Then, sitting together, everyone would eat and talk. People would lay down and sunbathe until everyone was done. Then we would go out on the lake again. Later, when the sun was setting, we would all help to clean. We would load everything onto the cars and start driving home. When we arrived, me and my family would gather around in the living room to watch a movie. Afterwards we woul all get ready and go to sleep.

I remember that when I was really young we did this all the time during the Summer months. Everybody would go, and we alway came home exhausted but happy. Sadly, the visits waned out as we started to age. These used to be the highlight of my week, but now I can't even remember the last time one of these days happened. I suppose these kinds of things go with time, but I sometimes wish that they didn't. The nostalgia is strong in this one.