Oh... and EVERYONE should watch this...

More about education. Groups, creativity...multi-dimensions...

The Liberal Arts Head Fake

All right. I’m a little late on this blog post, AGAIN. But it’s actually much better this way.

I think our friend Randy Pausch said it all for me. His “Last Lecture” tied up the ends of this semester so well that I almost can’t stand it. There goes that serendipity thing again.

This whole semester has been a tying up and tying-together kind of semester for me. All of my classes meshed together in incredible ways, from the obvious, like: Aristotelian arguments in Persuasion and Logic classes, to the slightly more obscure, such as: Theological perspectives in Early British Literature. The one class that really tied it all together, though? This one.

Dignity is literally everywhere, and I would NOT have been able to see that without this class. BUT HERE IS THE HEAD FAKE! This class would not have been made possible without (*drumroll*) the LIBERAL ARTS! Okay... so it wasn’t the best head fake... but I’m not Randy...

Randy’s lecture tied things up for me because of an extremely important realization I had this semester.

I have been educated.

“Well DUUHH”, you all say, “You’ve been in COLLEGE”. True. But education isn’t just about that one definition. A very wise, and very dear, friend of mine told me this: Education is realizing how much you DON’T know. I could not have been educated (in either sense) without the Liberal Arts, and this class really helped me to realize that. This class breached walls and built bridges across all disciplines. I mean, heck, look at how many different MAJORS were in our class! The amount of things that I don’t know really hit me...hard.

With that being said, here is the conclusion that I have come to. Dignity can only exist where there are relationships between people, and those relationships require us to reach across the gaps that separate us as humans. We cannot see the dignity in someone else unless we can understand the multi-dimensional experience of being human (cue the Liberal Arts education).

Through the Liberal Arts, and subsequently capstone classes like this one, we are given the ability to discover ways to build new bridges and make new connections. Reaching across those gaps forces you to learn about yourself and others, and brings out the dignity inherent in all people. Dignity doesn’t stop in one discipline because learning never stops.

Dignity, then, also becomes group education. The recognition that you can’t do it alone. Great changes, while they may start with one person and one idea, can only come to fruition when they are communicated to a group. It is also important (and, as Dr. B said, intrinsic to us as humans) to be self-reflective, but we cannot EXIST without connections to other people. So does that hermit in the woods have dignity? In his own way, maybe... but he needs other people to make it full- fledged.

Randy placed a lot of emphasis on these connections. He reached across disciplines and maneuvered around his brick walls, and achieved his DREAMS. I think we can all agree that his was a life well-lived.

I’d like to end this reflection with a song (stand on your head if you’re shocked). You don’t have to listen to it, and you might think it’s a stretch, but it’s my way of wrapping up and I want to share.

This is a song by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (I can see the excitement in your eyes). It’s called “Lost River” and all this thinking about bridges and connections made me think of this song. I feel like Dignity is the Lost River, in this valley where no one goes... and we need to come back together and gather ‘round the pot-bellied stove and build us some new bridges... and hope we're not too far down to return to higher ground.

There's a lost river that flows

In a valley where no one goes,

Where the wild water's rush

Rumbles deep in the hush.

Gone far from there now,

Lord I'll be back somehow

To where the lost river winds

In the shadow of the pines

Refrain:

Oh, lost river, now I'm coming back

To the pot-belly stove, where the firewood's all stacked

Oh Quebec girl, go with me,

Oh my belle, my fleur de lis,

Where the lost river winds

In the shadow of the pines

Now everybody knows

Where that lost river flows

It's someplace he's lost

Behind bridges that he's crossed

Well, he'd like to return,

But his bridges are all burned

And he's much too far down

To return to higher ground

(Refrain)

Oh lost river, far over the ridge

Now is it too late for me to build me a new bridge? 

To the bright golden time

When her love was still mine

And the world was still wild

Like the heart of a child

(Refrain)

Where the lost river winds

In the shadow of the pines

 Thank you ALL for such a wonderful semester. Good luck with everything... horse farms... Kenya...bumming around.... you all deserve the best.

All the World's a Stage... for Dignity

All right, I’m late on my blog post again. But honestly, this one took me awhile to think about. Not that that’s really an excuse...

Anyway, I finally decided to use this picture. It’s the Antonian stage. Just the bare, quiet, stage. Why does this represent dignity to me? Because in our culture, all the world literally is a stage. Everyone wants to be famous. There are photojournalists and reality TV shows and YouTube, giving everyone the chance to stand out, no matter what the cost...including dignity.

But to me, this picture represents my definition of dignity. Dignity is inherent to all humans, but it would not exist without a social aspect, as well. Dignity is attributed to people based on their social contexts. Being on stage illustrates this. On the stage, actors give up their dignity for the sake of performance. For the duration of a play, they take on another dignity...the dignity of their character... and it is up to the audience to attribute that dignity. An actor may do undignified things on stage, but the indignities are attributed to the character. The stage allows people, for a brief moment, to become other people. Therefore, dignity is something that cannot exist without other people to say that it exists.

Now the picture brings up more questions. Do characters in plays have dignity at all, since they’re not real? Or are they given dignity by the playwright, then the actor, then the audience? If all the world is a stage, (as Jaques says in his famous speech in As You Like It), and performance is the experience of being human, are we all just performing our dignities? Does it really exist?

DUKE SENIOR.

Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy;

This wide and universal theatre

Presents more woeful pageants than the scene

Wherein we play in.

JAQUES.

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;

Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

 This blog prompt has really made me ask more questions about the nature of dignity. I know that it’s the end of the semester, and we’re supposed to be taking stands, and I thought that I had, but having to encapsulate what I thought was my stand into a photograph really made me stop and think. How do I illustrate what I think dignity is?

I went back to what I know. I know performance and I know this stage. And now, because of this class, I know how to connect things to dignity...

The Afterlife

One more. Sort of goes with my point about the universality of death... this is just an interesting and maybe a little bit sarcastic take on it.

There is video for this one because it's off Paul Simon's not-even-released-yet (SQUEE!) album!

Paul Simon – The Afterlife

After I died, and the make up had dried, I went back to my place.
No moon that night, but a heavenly light shone on my face.
Still I thought it was odd, there was no sign of God just to usher me in.
Then a voice from above, sugar coated with Love said, “Let us begin”.

You got to fill out a form first, and then you wait in the line.
You got to fill out a form first, and then you wait in the line.

OK, a new kid in school, got to follow the rule, you got to learn the routine.
Woah, there’s a girl over there, with the sunshiny hair, like a homecomin’ queen.
I said, “Hey, what you say? It’s a glorious day, by the way how long you been dead?”
Maybe you, maybe me, maybe baby makes three, but she just shook her head…

You got to fill out a form first, and then you wait in the line.
You got to fill out a form first, and then you wait in the line.

Buddah and Moses and all the noses from narrow to flat, had to stand in the line, just to glimpse the divine, what you think about that?
Well it seems like our fate to suffer and wait for the knowledge we seek.
It’s all his design, no one cuts in the line, no one here likes a sneak

You got to fill out a form first, and then you wait in the line.
You got to fill out a form first, and then you wait in the line.

After you climb, up the ladder of time, the Lord God is here.
Face to face, in the vastness of space, your words disappear.
And you feel like swimming in an ocean of love, and the current is strong.
But all that remains when you try to explain is a fragment of song…
Lord is it, Be Bop A Lu La or Ooh Poppa Do
Lord, Be Bop A Lu La or Ooh Poppa Do
Be Bop A Lu La

Citizen of the Planet

I posted that last post about life sentences and human dignity without any links or videos or pictures and I just couldn't let it stay that way. So I'm posting an epilogue in the form of a Simon and Garfunkel song called "Citizen of the Planet". I think it fits...

I am a citizen of the planet
I was born here
I'm going to die here
Come what may
I am entitled by my birth
To the treasures of the earth
No one must be denied these
No one must be denied
Easy dreams
At the end of a chain-smokin' day
Easy dreams at the end of the day

Who am I to believe
That the future we perceive
Lies in danger and the dangers increase
Who are we to demand
That the leaders of the land
Hear the voices of reason and peace

We are the citizens of the planet
We were born here
We're going to die here
Come what may
We are entitled by our birth
To the treasures of the earth
No one must be denied these
No one must be denied
Easy dreams at the end of a chain-smokin' day
Easy dreams at the end of the day

Who am I to deny
What my eyes can clearly see
And raise a child with a flame in his heart
Who are we to believe
That these thoughts are so naïve
When we've all disagreed from the start

We are the citizens of the planet
We were born here
We're gong to die here
Come what may
We are entitled by our birth
To the treasures of the earth
No one must be denied these
No one must be denied
Easy dreams at the end of a chain-smokin' day
Easy dreams at the end of the day

Of COURSE I couldn't find video or audio to go with this!!!! I think the Internet is violating my dignity by not allowing me to fully express and share my musical choices with others.

Standing Up for Life

We are being encouraged to take a stand... here is my stand: Life imprisonment might diminish human dignity, but it is the lesser of two evils in the capital punishment debate. I have issues with the death penalty... abruptly ending a person’s life, even if they are a criminal is wrong and unfair. Personally, I think the death penalty is more against Kantian principles than life sentences. (The DeBaco article about life sentences and human dignity says that life imprisonment uses people as a means to an end). The Categorical Imperative basically states that you should treat people as ends in themselves and that all people, everywhere should be treated that way, and finally, you shouldn’t hold others up to a standard that you would not hold yourself up to. I don’t think it’s fair to take someone’s life as punishment. We are all going to die anyway...who are we to take a life before it's been lived out, no matter how that person chooses to live it?

The DeBaco article asks which is more contrary to human dignity: execution or being excluded from society forever?  Both of them are contrary to human dignity, as both of them are about excluding someone from society forever. But in one case, that person is excluded and isn’t coming back, while in the other case, that person still has their right to live and a right to rehabilitation (also discussed in the article). Sure, there is no guarantee that a person will reform. I believe that there are evil people in the world who will never change, but even they have dignity. I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to knock those people off the planet when they know that they wouldn’t want to be knocked off the planet themselves.

Yes. I still hold this stance for people like Sadaam Hussein. I don’t think it was right to take his life. For the reasons I mentioned above, and because I believe he actually wanted to die and it would have been a greater punishment to let him live. Giving him the Doritos he asked for was unnecessary, but you get my point.

I like what DeBaco had to say about the right to rehabilitation. Even though it’s not a guarantee, allowing a person the right to regain some status as a viable member of society is better than snuffing their candle. I know, we can’t force people to reform, but maybe we need to tweak our system so that there is some kind of voluntary offering for prisoners with long or life sentences. After a certain amount of time, they should be given the opportunity to re-enter society, but one that they could refuse. It’s not fair to force reform, either.

What I am really trying to get at is this: I don’t believe that ANYONE is really OK with the concept of dying. I don’t care what your major is, your profession, anything... Act as macho about it as you want. Somewhere, deep down, there is fear. It is NOT OK to take that fear out on criminals by executing them. Of course, it was NOT OK for those criminals to take the lives that they took, so why does it make us better to kill them back?  

Mentally Challenging...

There are a lot of social stigmas around "mentally challenged" people. Our language here in the U.S. reflects our attitudes about people who have mental illnesses. We call people “retards” when we are commenting on something that they did that was sub-standard. I’m guilty of it too. The word is thrown around as if it is something that those people can change, like an ugly hat or mismatched shoes. This is how we take away the dignity of those people. We use their “problems” as insults, and most of them probably don’t even realize it!

Those people are not any different than we are. They just have to go about their lives in different ways. It’s like anyone with a “disability”, permanent or temporary. As I discussed in my Milton post, those people have to overcome obstacles and in doing so have a higher development of their other senses. People who are “mentally challenged” (whatever you want to call it), are simple...more things make them happy more easily. They aren’t constrained by the same day-to-day stresses that we have.

The example I keep coming up with to restore the dignity of those people is through a comedian (shock, surprise).  Ralphie May discusses the use of the word “retarded” in our vernacular. For as comedic as it’s supposed to be, he does make interesting points.

The segment comes in two clips. The first is his intro and the second is a story about his friend.

Ralphie May- Retarded

Ralphie May- Rusty

His story about Rusty is a short (albeit, slightly crude) statement on tolerance... later on in the segment (the clip ends very abruptly) he summarizes by discussing how much happier “retarded” people are than the rest of us because they have the capacity to appreciate the little things in life.

I think that we can go all the way back to Kateb and say that every human has dignity and when we engage in acts that harm another’s dignity we are also harming ourselves. We should mentally challenge ourselves to watch how we use our language and how it affects the dignity of others.