Hi, my name is Justine.

My mother and I have two day-to-day calendars this year: Garfield, a comic about Jon and his cat, and Zits, a comic about a teenager named Jeremy and his interactions with his family and friends.

Yesterday, an interesting Zits comic caught my attention and made me laugh more than they usually do (see image). The truth of Jeremy and his mother’s situation is evident all over our society, and often as exaggerated as the comic makes it seem.

The naiveness with which Jeremy assumes that his mother won’t notice that he did type much more than just a simple “my mom says hi” shows that us young people often assume that our elders are somehow behind in the ever-changing world of technology and communication. Though this may be true, it’s not very fair for us to hide and go behind our parents’ backs in terms of what we do on the Internet, who we text, who we email, or what we watch on TV.

Jeremy’s mom only gets so angry that her son has typed so much more than “hi” because he has given her reason to think that he might be saying something bad about her. We must eliminate this kind of thinking from our society in order to be able to establish parent-child trust.

Establishing this trust will help our society progress because parents will be able to worry less about their teenagers, and teens will have more freedom to do what they want. Trust between parents and their children is the only way that the children will gain more freedom.

In Genesis 12 when King Abimelech discovers that Abraham has lied to him about the identity of his wife, Sarah, he proceeds to promptly kick Abraham out of his lands. However, when Abraham’s son, Lot, does exactly the same thing to Abimelech in Genesis 20, his reaction is much more subdued than when Abraham tricked him. He simply calmly reminds Lot of the consequences that might have occurred, but doesn’t kick him out for the reason of deceiving him about the identity of his wife.

This different reaction about almost the same incident leads me to believe that if humans are subjected to something bad time and time again, they will eventually build up some sort of immunity against it, and it will not affect them as much as it did before.

In a similar way to a human body’s immunity to an exact strand of a disease that it has had before, the human mind will perceive a bad situation to be less and less severe each time that a person is put through it, but this results in very negative consequences.

For example, a person might do drugs once just to try it out, knowing that it’s something that they should not be doing. But the next time that they do drugs, already its degree of severity will seem much less than it was the first time.

However, people need to ignore the immunity that they will gain from exposure to bad situations because however many times they have been through that situation, the risks still exist even if they haven’t been obvious to them yet.

In Genesis 15, God tells Abram that his descendants “shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but [he] will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions” (Gen. 15.13-14).

This serves to be quite confusing to the reader because God has previously shown himself to be concerned with the wellness of Abram and his descendants, but he is now vowing that they will have to go through oppression before they get wealth and well-being, along with the promised land, Canaan.

God is a character with a tremendous amount of power over mankind, and he could easily give Abram and his descendants peace and prosperity without lifting a finger. This leads me to question why he would force Abram’s descendants into servitude for four generations before giving them what he promised them.

Similarly in real life, people tend to want to take advantage of their power over others instead of simply giving others whatever they wanted. Could this be because people enjoy watching others suffer? This feeling could certainly stem from the inborn sense of competitiveness that humans have.

If one is extremely competitive, then watching others suffer or go through hardship could make him feel better about himself because he is the one who is inflicting this pain onto his competitors and he is the only one with the power to stop it. Having power over people often makes one feel superior and those with power often feel the need to exercise it in a way that is obvious or noticeable to others.

Science vs. Religion: An Ongoing Battle

In reading more of Genesis in tonight’s homework assignment, I came across yet another contradiction between science and the word of God. In Genesis 8.22, God vows that “[a]s long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

In vowing this, he is essentially saying that all the agricultural seasons will remain unchanged for all of eternity, but that is not the case in our modern day world. Due to global warming, our planet’s seasons and temperatures are topsy-turvy and no one really has too much control over it. This clearly contradicts what God vowed so many years ago. If he were truly to keep his word, then the effects of global warming would not exist because God would do away with them.

The ongoing battle between science and religion will not end in the near future. There will be more and more scientific faults found in religious texts such as the Bible, and this will only serve to madden the religious people even more as they scramble to find scientific excuses as to why the Bible says what it does.

I believe that science will ultimately win this battle, since there more evidence can back up all its theories and postulates. With ancient texts like the Bible, we only have the oral stories that have been passed down through many generations, such that the stories themselves have been changed unmeasurably. Because of these factors, I think that eventually, science’s beliefs will prevail over religion.

Accepting Responsibility

When Eve is tricked by the serpent to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she also gives some to her partner, Adam. When the two are later questioned by God as to why they ate the fruit, Adam is quick to blame Eve for causing him to commit such a crime. In previous sections, Adam has been portrayed as a person of power over the female, but it is evident that once the instance comes up in which he does something wrong, he is quick to point out that Eve has some power over him and that it was she who told him to eat the fruit.

I believe that this concept is very evident in our lives today as well. Pompous people carry themselves as if they are the best in the world and that they do things solely because they want to, but the second that something befalls them that may cause them to look bad, they are quick to blame others for all their problems. I feel that this is unfair because everyone must learn that they must take responsibility for their own actions, a lesson that has been taught to most of us by our parents since a very young age. If we do not accept responsibility for our own actions, we will be looked upon by others as immature and quick to defend ourselves often by using a scapegoat, both traits that are not welcome in everyday life.

Happy Living: Buddhist Teachings

Towards the beginning of The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullamn, Lord Asriel comments on the special type of wine that has been chosen for him out of the respect he holds from the Scholars of Jordan College. When the Butler tells Lord Asriel that there are only 36 bottles of this particular type of wine left, Lord Asriel simply states that “[a]ll good things pass away” (Pullman 12).

This comment reminded me of Buddhist ways of life, and how Buddhist teachings have spread throughout the world and have affected many people’s lives. Buddhists are taught to rid themselves of material and emotional desires. It is of Buddhist belief that it is better not to wish for anything, because if one never gets that thing, or if he gets it and then it gets taken away, their lives will be all the more miserable.

Purpose of Life: Buddhist perspective about the purpose of a human’s life

Cherry Blossom Festival: information about our very own annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C.

Another part of Buddhist teachings is not to appreciate the beauty of things at the moment. For example, during the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival, it is considered better not to appreciate the blossoms’ beauty because come the end of cherry blossom season, all the beauty will vanish, and one will be left feeling empty and cold inside. This is similar to Lord Asriel’s statement that all things that are wonderful will be taken away, or will come to an end.

Although I somewhat agree with the Buddhist teachings that one will be happier if he does not wish for something that he cannot have, I do not think that one must rid himself completely of all desires. One must simply learn to control his desires, and not wish for something that is impossible to get.

Proposition: One must learn to control his desires and the goals that he sets for himself; only then can one truly be happy.

The 200-Meter Butterfly

The long whistle is blown, and we climb the two steps onto the blocks. I position my feet, right foot in front, left foot in back, and prepare to swim one of the most grueling events, the 200-meter butterfly. My ears block out any cheering and support from my teammates; all I can hear is the chatter of my mind as I feverishly review all the tips given to me by my coach. Don’t just spin through the water, push as much water backwards as possible. Snap your ankles while you kick, it’ll help you when your arms start to get tired. Keep your chin low to the water, that way there’s not as much traveling between breaths.

The starter’s voice comes through the PA system installed below each swimmer’s block, “Swimmers, take your mark…”

I lean down and grab the front of the block on either side of my front foot. My muscles tense and I try not to anticipate the beep of the start so that I won’t be disqualified for a false start.

Beep. I fly off the blocks as my legs push as hard as they can, propelling me as far as they possibly can before I slide into the water. My arms travel into a streamline position, and my body angles downward at at 45 degree angle, as I have practiced so many times in the water.

I start to swim the first of four laps, and my body quickly gets into a rhythm. By the end of the 50-meter pool, my arms and legs are already beginning to tire, and I am out of breath. But I keep swimming, pulling more water, and keeping my rhythm fast and strong.

The third lap is most important, because I am almost at the end, but not quite yet. I dig deep down into what seems to be the pit of my stomach and put even more energy into every stroke, pull, and kick. I reach the 150-meter mark, and turn for home. My arms and legs all tell me to quit, but I will not give up. My lungs scream for air, but I keep my head down and sprint for home. On the last stroke, I lunge for the wall and touch victorious.

I look anxiously up at the scoreboard; my time is my only concern. I have made the cut that I needed to travel with my team to the next elite meet, and for one instant, it seems as if the fatigue and lactic acid have disappeared. I pull myself out of the water with the help of some teammates and stagger over to my coach.

“Nice race, Justine. You swam that race really well and made your Sectionals cut! Congratulations. Go warm down and flush all that lactic acid out of your system. We still have 3 more races today.”

So I go to the warm-down pool and hop into the water, elated at how well I swam, and start the long process of warming down and preparing for my next race.

What We Imagine Ourselves to Be: One’s Own Opinion

In my mother and father’s bathroom, there is a day-by-day calendar by Mary Engelbreit that has a different quotation on each page along with a picture that is hand drawn by Ms. Engelbreit. One quote that I particularly remembered happened to be on the page with my birthday on it, but I like to think that it is because I find it very meaningful. Ms. Engelbreit quotes Kurt Vonnegut Jr.: “We are what we imagine ourselves to be.”

Mary Engelbreit: some information about her and her products

Dictators: dictators from around the world

This quote could influence people in both a positive and negative way. This quote could make one feel good about themselves, because anything that they want to be, they can be. One such example might be someone living in poverty. If they make the best of what they have, and truly believe that they can be happy with the little that they have, chances are that they will end up being more happy than they would otherwise have been, but in fact, nothing has changed. In this way, the quote could change lives for the better in a sense that it would make one feel better about himself.

Another way that this quote could be interpreted is in a negative way. This quote could influence people to believe that their ideas are the correct ones, and that they are right because they imagine a world in which they are always right. This may not happen too much in real life, but it could theoretically happen that someone feels this way. One such example is the various dictators around the globe. They have convinced themselves and their minions that they are right, so no matter what they do, they can justify it by saying that it is what they thought is right.

Proposition: Taking one’s own opinion about an issue too much into account could result in a biased conclusion about the state of things around him.

I reluctantly peered through the murkiness of my room, not daring to turn the lights on for fear that what I saw would prove too much for me to handle. My mother had just sent me in to “tidy up,” as she would say, but we all knew that this consisted of my resting lazily on the bed and obstinately refusing to get up and put things away. My mother would often barricade my door, threatening not to let me out until my room was pristine, but I simply would quietly unlatch my window and vault over the windowsill, landing on the garden roof below. From there, I would desultorily wander the streets until it seemed that enough time had passed.

Now, it was easy enough to get out of my room, but it was a different matter to get back in. The last thing I wanted to do was saunter into the house as if nothing had happened and precipitate a sharp scolding and more time stuck in my room only this time, I would have my window locked shut. No, I wanted to find a discreet way to sneak back into my bedroom.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. My mother hadn’t locked the door on me yet, so for now, I would simply need to pretend that I was cleaning up after myself. As I looked around, I realized that I had left copious amounts of dirty clothes, books, and just all-around messiness scattered all over my room. I would have to dig into the deepest nooks and crannies in order to clean it all up.