Wow. All of the presentations so far have been awesome (and by this I mean actually awe inspiring). My complements to everyone so far and apologizes for being behind in my resonances. You all have set the bar high.
Jonah- I loved the quote about how everyone builds a shelter around them and the only difference between us and the homeless man is that he gets to break his down and recreate it more often. Your right; in a way this man is more free than any of us here at college living in cheap apartments or dorm rooms, shackled to the college life. Freedom is one of those concepts that everyone has a definition for in their heads but when they go to put it on paper, it never says exactly what you are thinking. I think despite this you managed to show us how the dichotomy of being free and simultaneously not free is possible. I have always struggled with ideas that seem mutually exclusive and yet seem to exist together at the same time. Duality is something that seems conflicting but in reality many things in life are a contradiction. The past possesses the present.
Katie- Dreams- Improbable, erotic, desiring, and violent. I strongly considered using much of this as a final project so I was extremely intrigued by where you took your presentation. For a while in high school I was obsessed with dreaming. I kept a dream journal, tried methods to teach myself about lucid dreaming, and was honestly happiest when I was asleep. I spent a lot of time researching what the dreams I had meant, and came up with a lot of the general Freudian interpretation guide style crap. I wanted answers from my dreams in a textbook kind of way at that point in my life but what I didn't understand at that point was that I didn't need to. I love the idea that when we are dreaming, this is the real world. No daily grind, no homework, but the mythic and primal stories flowing through us that leave us waking up trying to cling to an incomplete adventure.
Yasmin- Just Smile! There is so much in a smile and so many different kinds of smiles. I love that you mentioned we are born smiling; it gives me hope for the human race. I started to write down a quote of something you said about "There will be pain and you will weep. There will be joy and you will smile" but I'm not sure I got the quote exactly right. I also wrote down "You wish to be liked. I wish only to be" from the Magus. I really liked this quote because I think this is something I am yet unable to accomplish in my own life. I still cling to the desire to be liked even though focusing on just being is probably a better life goal. If I spent less time worrying about if I was liked and more time smiling I would probably be a lot happier. Though the happiest smile you showed us had to bet Nelson Mendel. I had the opportunity to travel to South Africa and talk with with a couple who had some strong opinions about the changes that happened there (some I agreed with and others I couldn't understand the reasoning behind) but no matter what people I spoke with said they all respected him. His smile, after 27 years in prison, is one that no one in history will be able to forget.
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