Famished For Victory

It is always joyful, I have learned, to achieve something though one’s own effort. A hollow feeling is always subsequent when receiving credit by someone else’s feats. In a way, sometimes the feeling of accomplishment is greater than the joy from the accomplishment itself. This is why, you must not seek other’s accomplishments (because you would be lacking the moment of achievement), but you must aspire to the joy in the act of triumph as an alternative for being in quest for the happiness in the gain itself. For instance, an A+ on an exam is much sweeter if I know that I studied for it, than if I cheated to acquire it. Another example is that if I practice my instrument dedicatedly, then upon perfecting something simple like a scale would give me more happiness from the feeling of success than the scale does by itself. In this way, Abram was very wise when rejecting the riches offered to him, for he would rather attain it himself and acknowledge his triumph. He supported his choice when he said,
“That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:”. I believe he was the first man to overcome greed and predict how his choices would affect his future personality, and, in turn, his destiny.

A Divine Reflexion

We are here and they are not here.
As water’s reflections, drawn to
Our original, which seems near,
But not before we knew too,
That reality beat us in
A way which made us see our sin.

“Honor Thy Father And Thy Mother”, Or Else

The world abides by one main law: For every action, there is an equal reaction. For every cause, there is an effect, or a consequence, that evens out the event. I have learned that if I disobey my parents on a warning or an order, a I will experience the reaction, if it is a punishment or an uncomfortable situation. For instance, if my father warns me about peer pressure (in Adam and Eve’s case, the serpent) in school and how, if I give into it, would end up with a serious health dilemma. Since Adam and Eve didn’t heed to their father’s, God’s warning, they had to pay for their defiance by having to work the land and eat “from the sweat of their foreheads” and were banished from the garden of Eden as well. From this we can learn that almost all of the time, our parents know what’s best for us even though we think it’s not so.

An Emptied Shelf

It can be soul-shattering to have to sell your life’s passion in exchange for your life. I have never had to commit such a difficult trade, but I am sure that if I would have, then my gained life would be hollow and without meaning, much like Bois’s was after he had to sell his books in order to sustain his family. He didn’t precisely have to sell his passion as a whole, because his knowledge still remained with him, something priceless and unsellable. Nevertheless, Bois’s obligation did hurt him deeply and gave him a sense of defeat. I have seen cases of people who transform, or sell their personalities to be able to fit in. Their desire is so great, that they believe acceptance simply costs a personality. This is a greatly overpriced act of desperation which only leads to regret. The murder of Bois’s “darling” can be witnessed in the paragraph which states that “not so much imagination is needed to envisage the terrible scene in the Boxworth parsonage, the anger and resentment on both sides, the books being loaded into a cart to be taken back to the Cambridge booksellers, the dusty nothing left in the vacated shelves, the atmosphere in the house of failure and betrayal.” Pg. 206 Upon tossing your personality, all that is left is a dusty outline on an empty shelf.

Whatever Shall I Do?

It has often occurred to me that someone annoys me in a persistent and derogatory manner, bullying, one could say, and many spectators pretend they can’t hear. It is incredible the way people take the remark “Mind your own business” a little to seriously. I’m not sure if the situation affects their guilty conscience at all, but what I do know for a fact is that people’s will power in general, is crappy. It is not until the aggressor threatens the bystander, that he gets involved. This example can also be noticed in the Holocaust, where it wasn’t until Germany threatened the United States, that the nation got involved. Without this happening, the States would have continued to turn look away. This problem can also be seen in the narrow-mindedness of the English government when faced with the protestant purist orphans and widows. Adams describes this ego-centered attitude with the paragraph “This moving story of a small group of people, driven by a passionate belief in the strict purity of their devotion to the word of God and an equally passionate rejection of worldly authority in favour of a divinely sanctioned life, scarcely registered on the consciousness of England.” Pg. 179 This quote can be sadly recognized as an attitude many people use when faced with the burden of helping someone else.

An Impossible Solution

Many times have I been faced with a situation in which I must choose the lesser of two wrongs. It does not occur in every occurrence, that the solution is obvious. For instance, when choosing whether to help my siblings with their homework or to do my own so that I don’t fall behind, is a common happening in my life. I choose to help the homework get done properly, for the most part. It is not such a difficult decision, but it isn’t evident either. I simply base my reaction after analyzing the two consequences on both sides in the case of each scenario. It usually turns out all right. It was not so in Henry Garnet’s dilemma. He probably used the same method as I do, which is to ponder the repercussions of both choices, and decided on the one which he thought was less bad. I’m not so sure if I would have done the same as he did… choosing religion over state (and in turn, caused him torture, death sentence, and traitor sentence, among other punishments). I think, that in this way, Garnet was a true Catholic. He way loyal to his duty above his own self. It is difficult to make a decision as this one, more so if one side pressures your conflict as England did to Garnet. The effect can be much more profound if the rejected side convinces you of their correctness, but this isn’t the case. Adams states that “the conflict between his duty as a Catholic priest and his duty as an English citizen they considered no conflict at all.” Pg. 113 Other’s opinions on your decision makes it much more difficult to bear it, however, this is impossible to avoid because on way or another, he would have been judged by one side. It was a lose-lose situation which lead to his gruesome and rather painful execution. I really hope I never encounter a situation as complicated as this one in my entire life. I expect it would be much easier to bear if one had a companion to share the conflict.

"Corect Speling"

In dealing with students on the high-school level- that is, the second, third, and fourth year of high school- we must bare in mind that to some degree they are at a difficult psychological stage, generally called adolescence. Students at this level are likely to be confused mentally, to be subject to involuntary distractions and romantic dreaminess. They are basically timid or self-conscious, they lack frankness and are usually very sensitive but hate to admit it. They are motivated either by great ambition, probably out of all proportion to their capabilities, or by extreme laziness caused by the fear of not succeeding or attaining their objectives. Fundamentally they want to be kept busy but they refuse to admit it. They are frequently the victims of earlier poor training, and this makes every effort doubly hard. They are usually willing to work, but they hate to work without obtaining the results they think they should obtain. Their critical faculties are beginning to develop and they are critical of their instructors and of the materials they are given to learn. They are beginning to feel the pressure of time; and although they seldom say so, they really want to be consulted and given an opportunity to direct their own affairs, but they need considerable guidance. (From A Language Teacher's Guide by E. A. M?ras)