Category: Entry 1 (Page 1 of 2)

As an expression of emotion and pain, I strongly feel that poetry can be an extremely effective tool. I’ve been intermittently writing poetry/songs for the two years or so, and it has helped me gather my thoughts and emotions in times when my hell brain was causing a lot of problems for me. It was introduced to me as a form of therapy; an outlet to express things that one might have trouble articulating in typical therapeutic mediums, like conversational therapy. I have chosen my personal project as poetry; I plan to write poetry in an attempt to articulate my thoughts and feelings on world issues, and on the issues I see around myself. While my typical solution obviously wouldn’t be an actively violent one, choosing to express my feelings through poetry is a lot less “violent” than letting my frustration and resentment build inside of me.

My course of action is that any time in the next few weeks I’m confronted with a situation that bothers me, that I normally would do my best to ignore, to write poetry about my feelings on the subject. This could range from thoughts of social injustice being on my mind, to stresses regarding every day college life. This kind of mindfulness will, I hope, make me a more well-balanced person with less violent resentment building inside me. I’m not sure what I want to do with these poems after they’re written, but maybe if I decide to show some people, that it helps someone feel slightly less alone in some way or another. If this is the case, I’ll be more than happy with the results of my project.

Since consuming animal based products supports an inhumane practice, I have committed myself to becoming a vegetarian for the next five weeks. Most of us are unaware of the processes required to get animal-based products on the shelves of our supermarkets. The reality is that industrial animal husbandry is extremely abusive toward animals. An example is the poultry industry, it is estimated that each year 9 billion chickens die to be converted into food in our country alone (PETA), moreover, they are kept in atrocious environments, living their whole lives in unsanitary and densely populated barns where they can barely move. This is similar to the life stories of the cattle and livestock that are turned into the beef and ham that we see at our dinner table. It then becomes clear that by purchasing these products we are supporting a form of institutional violence towards animals.

However this doesn’t have to be the case, even though our culture has consistently encouraged a heavy animal protein based diet, many people are becoming vegan or vegetarian. And the diet has even been proved to be healthier and more environmentally responsible (as industrial animal husbandry is highly carbon intensive).

For the preceding reasons, I have taken the initiative to become vegetarian, at least for the following five weeks, as it is a way support the cause of nonviolence towards animals. As a vegetarian, I’ll allow myself to consume dairy, honey, and eggs, and although these are still animal-based products, I’m not ready to commit to a vegan diet just yet.

Finally, to address an argument that may arise, I’d like to say that eating meat from free roam and humanely raised animals is preferable to eating meat from industrial complexes. However, these methods aren’t scalable as to meet the demands of an american population that eats meat on a daily basis. For these reasons, eating less meat is still the most effective approach toward ending institutionalized animal abuse.

PETA. “Chickens Used for Food”

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/chickens/

For my personal project I have decided to practice meditation. To me, meditation is not simply sitting and achieving the skill of being without thoughts. Meditation is being in touch with your body, mind, and soul. For the past year or so, I have been exploring the world of mindfulness, which is the practice of being at peace with your thoughts, instead of  trying to control them.  I used to hate that my mind is so naturally busy. Mindfulness has made me more at peace with the pace of my mind, it has helped me calm feelings of anxiety, and has helped me sleep. Having experienced this type of meditation, I was eager to see how different methods could affect me.

I was researching different types of meditation one could practice, and came across an article that contained 23 different meditation techniques. As part of my project, I plan to pick a different technique every week and practice it twice a day, for four days of that week. I will then reflect on how I was able to practice this technique, how it made me feel, and how it contributes to nonviolence within myself.

I chose to study meditation as my personal project because I feel it is very important to keep our minds healthy. Practicing meditation can improve sleep abilities, decrease stress, improve focus and relationships, promote compassion, and decrease aggression. Becoming more focused and centered within myself will allow me to show nonviolence and understanding in my relationships with others, as is a core intention of meditation. By channeling feelings of compassion for others and myself, as well as decreasing anger and stress, I will be able to better practice nonviolence in my personal life.

Sources:

https://www.headspace.com/science/meditation-benefits

https://liveanddare.com/types-of-meditation

For my personal project, I decided to attempt the popular vegetarian lifestyle over the course of the next five weeks. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the vegetarian diet, allow me to enlighten you. By definition, a vegetarian is someone who abstains from eating any form of meat products, fish included. Unlike veganism, vegetarianism doesn’t exclude all animal products. Vegetarians may still eat dairy products, eggs, etc.

In doing some personal research, I found that the reasons one may follow a veggie diet vary greatly. Some do it for health related reasons (medical issues, weight loss, etc), while for others, the diet is followed in opposition to the practices of the meat industry, or more specifically, the killing of animals for the purpose of human consumption. Many vegetarians believe that violence against animals is morally unacceptable, considering that there are numerous other foods that can sustain human life. As someone who loves (and I mean loves) chicken and fish, I wanted to try and make this process a bit easier by educating myself on the meat industry and its practices. I can confidently say that after viewing the acclaimed documentary Food Inc., I was definitely ready to begin my journey.

The first few days of eating vegetarian proved to be a bit difficult. Finding things in the dining hall that were adequately filling was a bit of a challenge, since prior to this diet, I would usually consume some form of meat to fill me up. I found that in my first few days eating green, I would usually have to eat a pre-bed snack due to my grumbling stomach, something I never had to do during my days as a carnivore. Every time I felt the need to reach for a chicken cutlet, I did further research on the grotesque practices of the meat industry, which usually subdued my craving. As I went on my third day of the vegetarian diet today, I found that the pesky grumbling has gone away as I’ve increased my vegetable intake, and started incorporating things like squash, quinoa, and chickpeas, all of which are vegetarian friendly foods with filling macronutrients. I’m hoping that as my body adjusts to this lifestyle, I will begin to feel the positive physical and mental affects that come along with this nonviolent form of eating. 

I became a vegetarian a little over a year ago. I made the decision impulsively so I didn’t think I would last longer than a week, but I learned to love the lifestyle. Changing my diet made me feel so much healthier because I substituted the meat I was eating with vegetables and other nutritious foods. When I started my journey I didn’t know much about the inhumane practices of factory farms and the damage it causes our environment. Overtime, I watched documentaries such as Food Inc and Cowspiracy that expose the unethical and environmentally destructive activities of the meat industry. I also read articles that focus on this issue and its global impact, which expanded my understanding and made me even more passionate about the cause. Some of my friends commented that even if I stopped eating meat the problem won’t go away because everyone else will be eating meat. Ghandi once said that “you must be the change you wish to see in the world,” this quote in addition to other factors inspired me to stick to the lifestyle.

It is predicted that the global consumption of beef, poultry, pork and other livestock will double by 2020. This not only hurts the animals, but also contributes to water and air pollution as well as environmental degradation.  With so much at risk, it is imperative that more people are introduced to a more sustainable vegetarian diet. For my personal project I hope to do more research on the meat industry, share my experience with other vegetarians and inform non-vegetarians of the benefits of the lifestyle and the health risk and other consequences that come with consuming meat.

Citations

Brooks, Cassandra. “Meat’s Environmental Impact.” Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. July 25, 2016. Accessed September 24, 2018. https://woods.stanford.edu/news-events/news/meats-environmental-impact.

It can be argued that the Grecian dramatists endowed posterity the greatest contributions of Western Civilization: the tragedy. Tragedies speak to the special condition of the human soul. For millennia, prominent thinkers have underscored the importance of the tragic poem. Notably, in Aristotle’s Poetics, Aristotle extols the dramatic act of tragedy to be the paragon of poetry. He believed that through watching the tragedies, the masses would be purged of their emotions.  

The legacy of the purgative power of tragedy is demonstrated in the films of our era. Because of modern technology that substantially brings the emotionally rich stories to the visual forefront, today’s movies can achieve significantly more catharsis than the Greek plays.  

As a proponent of social justice, I believe that the systemic violence reaped upon the African American community is a great modern tragedy. I ironically believe that using fictional dramas that depict real scenarios to be the way to achieve constructive national discourse and catharsis.

Aristotle also was a philosopher who thought about communication, specifically the means of argumentation, thus giving rise to the Aristotelian appeals: logos, reason, pathos, emotion, and ethos, the speaker’s credibility. Aristotle believed that logos was the most necessary component of a persuasion.  

I believe the most effective way to captivate an audience is a dramatic and cathartic combination of logos and pathos. For my personal project, I will be writing a short film centered around nonviolence. In my short film, the protagonist must grapple with the aftermath of her family member fatally shooting an unarmed civilian while in the line of duty. In this film, the protagonist will grapple internally and externally with what nonviolence looks like to her, as well as the social implications of living in a Black Lives Matter world.  Included are my notes on the film.

            Today is my first day dedicated to being completely vegetarian. After thinking about my project ideas, I realized I have been disturbed by eating meat for a while, but usually I block out the hidden stories from my mind. I try not to think about the animals being raised in poor conditions just to be slaughtered. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about the way animals are treated so that I can share the information with others and possibly create some change. I will be working on avoiding meat at all meals, reading articles about being vegetarian and connecting with people on campus and other places to discuss the lifestyle . I will be spreading the word about being vegetarian as a moral practice. Some people eat vegetarian because they believe it is good for their health, it is part of their religion, economically meat is more expensive, or they are influenced by their families (Harvard Health 2017). Although these are all fair reasons to be vegetarian, I am eating vegetarian because ethically I find it disturbing to raise animals in poor living conditions and then kill them in slaughterhouses.

             Currently, I am in the initiation stage of my project. I began my process of reaching out by sending an email to the president of VETS club which is a club that meets once a month to organize animal-oriented events including visits to the local animal shelter and guest speakers. Additionally, I began researching the treatment of animals in factory farms. I confirmed that many of the animals are packed into small spaces where they can not even turn around.  However, I also learned much about maltreatment including that often turkeys that are not fully killed by a slit to the neck are boiled alive in slaughterhouses (Haas 2001, 15). From what I gathered, researching the mistreatment of animals will make it much easier to stick to eating vegetarian.

Sources:

Harvard Health Publishing. “Becoming a Vegetarian – Harvard Health.” Harvard Health Blog, Harvard Health Publishing, 4 Dec. 2017, www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/becoming-a-vegetarian.

Haas, Samantha J. “How We Mistreat the Animals We Eat.” Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication, 2001.

For my personal project I chose to create a sketch collage reflecting on John Horgan’s The End of War. The title of this collage is The Will of Us All, as it is specifically a reflection on Horgan’s theory that the end of war or the act of nonviolence is a matter of willpower on the part of mankind. In particular, I kept in mind one of Horgan’s most powerful quotes – “Choices, freely made, are what make life meaningful” (Horgan 2014, pg. 187).

I have been practicing stream of consciousness sketching for many years as a way to help battle my anxiety disorder, and I often like to choose a central idea or quote to base my sketch off of. I would consider stream of consciousness sketching a meditative form of art, as the artist is not bound by expectations of a specific product but rather creates for the purpose of self-healing. My personal art almost always involves flowers, as I see them as symbolic of a unifying life force. In this collage, I found myself associating flowers with images of violence, such as soldiers or weapons. I also entwined these flowers with images of protest and resistance, such as a kneeling man or a meditator. The symbols of life and energy flow throughout violence and nonviolence, complacency with the system and resistance against it. Although many of the images in this collage are in great conflict, they are still unified by the life force of the flower – I interpret these flowers as the free will to which Horgan refers. As Horgan suggests, free will is the one tool that unifies all humans, and yet it is also what allows us to so easily divide.

Vegetarianism is viewed in the United States as an alternative lifestyle that contradicts many of our societal norms and practices. This is largely based on the Judeo-Christian values that are deeply embedded in Western society. In Genesis 1:26, it says “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Despite numerous decades of advocacy by animal rights campaigns and for the fair treatment of the environment, these meat eating societal tendencies prevail due to the virtually unanimous understanding and acceptance that man is superior to all other beings.

Many Eastern cultures, such as that of Buddhism in South East Asia, or Hinduism in Central Asia teach that vegetarianism and veganism are integral practices in one’s spiritual  journey towards reaching enlightenment. Largely based on the respect for all other sentient beings, Eastern traditions suggest that pursuing a plant-based diet allows one to step out of their human-centric mindset, encouraging them to see the world and its other inhabitants as no lesser than one’s self. This is also related to the belief that all souls are of equal value, regardless of the bodily form that they possess.

This past summer, I adopted the practice of vegetarianism after wanting to have done so for the past several years. My personal motive for this choice stems from my deeply held belief that we humans have the moral obligation to treat all other animals with dignity and respect. This means not using animal products and a means to our end by justifying that we have the right to do whatever we please as a result of our evolutionary superiority. So far, I have found this practice to be spiritually fulfilling, and it has not drastically inconvenienced my daily life in a significant way. I believe that it will help me increase my mindfulness, and, furthermore, that this practice will help me to better understand my place as a human in relation to the world as a whole.