The experience of Thanksgiving was quite different this year. I felt abnormally weird eating food this year. This was most likely because of the food unit that just passed, I felt very guilty eating and didn't even finish one plate. This was very weird for me because I hadn't eaten all day, similar to last year where I even went on that night to eat 8 meals. I'm usually one of those people that uses thanksgiving as an excuse to have an all you can eat buffet, meanwhile not even knowing the true meaning of thanksgiving which it pains me to admit. In my family thanksgiving has become more about socializing and discussing issues in the world, and with ourselves. I would much rather this than to have us all at a dinner table stuffing our faces. It seems to be becoming more and more cultural and traditional. Not to sound conceited but this may be because as I get older it becomes more socially acceptable for me to chat with the adults. This makes it all the more fun.
A new tradition that me and my family took part in this year was, watching the football game. Even though, I don't enjoy watching football just because my family was there it was alright. We all gathered around the T.V. and watched football, conversed during commercials,and ate food. It couldn't get much better than that. It's definently unhealthy to eat and watch t.v. while just sitting down, but this is one of those examples where Thanksgiving is used to show that body centered practices dominate over anti-body practices.
Honestly I don't think it's a bad thing that there is at least one day a year which is completely devoted to body centered practices. After thanksgiving is over, or all the food is eaten people often become very sluggish/tired. This is probably due to the rapid ingestion of food that was eaten.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
HW#17 Initial Thoughts About Illness and Dying
I haven't died yet, but like everyone else in the world I know what it feels like to be sick. My experiences with being sick from memory haven't really been that terrible. Whenever I get sick, I either lay down in bed for a week straight and do absolutely nothing but sleep, or I will do what most people do and go to the doctor. I usually get better after a week or two and its back to normal life for me, Luckily for me I also have health insurance. I can thank my responsible mom for that, although if a person can't afford it that doesn't mean there irresponsible. I'm not entirely familiar with Obama's new healthcare plan but, I know he had to make one because, basically when someone didn't have health insurance they were left to die. America should try and strive to adapt free healthcare for Americans, which is what France, and Canada have.
When it comes to dying, I personally have never been told I was going to die, as of now. I have unfortunately been around people who were either dying, or knew they were going to die very soon. As Kevin Wagner stated in his response, for some reason most people imagine the "traditional" American death scene, it involves a grieving family crowded around a hospital bed. I actually attended one of these tragic events. It was very depressing, everyone was crying except for me really, I cried at the funeral though. My experiences with dying made me realize I won't actually know what it feels like until I'm actually there, which I will get to later in life hopefully.
Most people think about illness and dying in a negative way. I think it's for good reason also. No one should want to die, I sure don't. I'm not looking forward to it at all. No one can really prepare for it, as no one knows when it's coming. During times of illness and death, people often act very patronizing, they pity people, there sympathetic, and compassionate. Most of these things I personally wouldn't like done to me, but it happens anyway. Somehow, dying often brings people extremely close either temporarily or forever. I found this out especially with my family, it makes me very sad to think so though.
Lots of people try to avoid illness and dying, which isn't possible at all. I would like to think it's possible, but no one is superman/woman it will happen to all of us. Also no one knows what's going to happen when you die because, there dead and can't tell you. This is one of those things in life where you just have to figure out on your own.
Questions:
1. How has the way humans approached illness and dying changed over time?
2. How does religion affect our interpretation of illness and dying?
3. How does knowing humans aren't perfect and get ill and die affect how we view ourselves?
When it comes to dying, I personally have never been told I was going to die, as of now. I have unfortunately been around people who were either dying, or knew they were going to die very soon. As Kevin Wagner stated in his response, for some reason most people imagine the "traditional" American death scene, it involves a grieving family crowded around a hospital bed. I actually attended one of these tragic events. It was very depressing, everyone was crying except for me really, I cried at the funeral though. My experiences with dying made me realize I won't actually know what it feels like until I'm actually there, which I will get to later in life hopefully.
Most people think about illness and dying in a negative way. I think it's for good reason also. No one should want to die, I sure don't. I'm not looking forward to it at all. No one can really prepare for it, as no one knows when it's coming. During times of illness and death, people often act very patronizing, they pity people, there sympathetic, and compassionate. Most of these things I personally wouldn't like done to me, but it happens anyway. Somehow, dying often brings people extremely close either temporarily or forever. I found this out especially with my family, it makes me very sad to think so though.
Lots of people try to avoid illness and dying, which isn't possible at all. I would like to think it's possible, but no one is superman/woman it will happen to all of us. Also no one knows what's going to happen when you die because, there dead and can't tell you. This is one of those things in life where you just have to figure out on your own.
Questions:
1. How has the way humans approached illness and dying changed over time?
2. How does religion affect our interpretation of illness and dying?
3. How does knowing humans aren't perfect and get ill and die affect how we view ourselves?
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