Walt Whitman Poem Reflection

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

I loafe and invite my soul,

Creeds and schools in abeyance,

Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never

forgotten,

I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every 

hazard,

Nature without check with original energy.

I feel that this poem conveys that Whitman is a spiritual man who tries to engulf himself in nature whenever he can. He celebrates the beauty of life and the unity of man. Furthermore, the poem shows that he holds a patriotic national identity as well as an overall connection between people all over the world. In addition, he says that all men are connected and should therefore learn from one another. The poem aims to teach us the importance of nature and its close relation with humanity. For example, he says that while an initial education may be important, the truly important lessons in life are figured out by experiencing nature. Lastly, he believes that humanity should not interfere with the course of nature whether it is good or bad.

A Significant Impact on the Person I Am Today

            Throughout the course of my life, my father has had a tremendous impact on the person I am today. Ever since I was little, I would admire him for his consistent optimism and happiness no matter what the circumstances were. Furthermore, as I continued to grow my dad showed me all the categories of work he pursued after college, which include architecture and engineering. Luckily for me, I was able to instantly discover that I share a similar passion for engineering and architecture. After I made this clear to my father, he would bring me along on some of his projects to educate me as much as he could on both respective fields. For example, in my summer going into my sophomore year, he purchased a property in Santa Cruz and demolished it. After the demolition, I sat down with him every night at his drafting table to learn how to draw intricate plans for the construction of the house. In addition, I learned many of the county and state regulations that one must consider if they want to construct a house in Santa Cruz. After we finished drafting all the plans and received approval, my dad had me come to begin construction with him all of his workers. I stayed at the Santa Cruz property for the next three weeks, and it was easily one of the most rewarding experiences of my lifetime. Since there was no house to stay in, I lived the next three weeks inside a motor home with my father and four of his employees. I have never had to work so hard in my life, which was quite a funny conclusion considering I didn't even work half as hard as men who were more than double my age. Overall, these experiences have had a significant impact on the hard-working, meticulous person I am today.

Second Socratic Seminar Response

     One aspect of the seminar that I found particularly interesting was our discussion of Lewis's critic on humanity through the peaceful society depicted on Malacandra. Some people thought that perhaps the separation of the three humanoid beings was Lewis saying that our society can never achieve peace unless were are separated into smaller societies based on our differences because it is our differences that cause our conflict. However, I feel that our constant conflict and inability to achieve complete peace resides in the combination of human nature and limited number of resources in the world. With that being said, I feel that Lewis's message is not really trying explain that we need segregation, but he is trying to say that human's are greedy, and therefore have too many wants that can not be sustained. In other words, humanity's greed causes them to desire an infinite number of things that are not even necessities. This, in turn, adds to the already inevitable conflict of acquiring things that are necessities. And given the fact that our world cannot even satisfy the true needs of our dense population, we are creating even more unnecessary conflict in the world. Furthermore, we are so caught up in only thinking about ourselves that we lose sight of the importance of other people and living things. Therefore, I believe that our greed makes us oblivious in a sense to seeing the consequences of our actions. Lewis notes this symbolizes our inability to appreciate other life through the hrossa and hnakra when Hyoi explains that even if a hnakra killed him, he would not wish that its species did not exist because he recognizes the unity between his species and theirs. In conclusion, I feel that Lewis is trying to say that the only way our society would be able to achieve complete peace is if all human beings were able to combat their innate selfishness and recognize the importance of all forms of life.