JE30 Image of Grief

            Longfellow chose that particular scene as a powerful image to convey his grief because he believed that his situation could be related to a darker side of nature. Natural scenes always give people different feelings. For example, a sunny day makes people happy and a rainy day usually makes people depressing. Longfellow related his feeling to a scene that could be used to explain his grief. In “The Cross of Snow”, the cross on the mountain makes him feel the same way about a deep cut in his heart. Basically, he transformed the feeling inside him to something that we can see.

            If I were to describe a feeling of grief, I would use the withering of trees. (It would be better to have the setting at the beginning of winter, when everything starts seem to lose life and energy.) As the leaves fall, it represents a feeling of losing hope. It also feels like a heartbroken scene, which the leaves can be described as the broken pieces. The coming of winter symbolizes the tough situation that one is facing. The tree was supposed to be strong but now it is falling apart. It can be used to describe a feeling that  everything is going to an end. 

JE29 Human Life: A Cycle?

            I think human life is different from the nature. Although we do cycle eventually, I believe human can make a difference in their lifetime. Unlike the cycles in nature, that continuously functions and never stops, human can work on his or her own life and change the fate. I think a person can actually change your path in this complicated big cycle. There are many factors in our lives that we can control. Just use your logic, there must be a difference between a person who change a world and a person who contribute nothing to this world. After they died, I don't think they will go to the same place. It was said that good people would go to heaven and bad people would go to hell.

I think there is a goal that I have to accomplish and that was why I was sent to this world. It is easier to think of death as my friend. After I die, I would just go to another place and start a new life. The hardest part was probably leaving the people around me and giving up all the things that I once had. Also, I think it is better to live everyday as my last day and avoid doing anything that makes you feel regretful. 

JE28 Thanksgiving

            I am thankful for the life I have right now. Sometime I complain too much about what I don't have and what do I need. But in fact, I already have enough things comparing to other people outside of school. I should be thinking what I have right now and be grateful for them. I am thankful for my parents who always support me and provide me such a good learning environment. I am thankful for my teachers who gave me so much knowledge. I am thankful for my friends who make my life better. I am thankful for Steve Jobs who made MacBooks and iProducts that made my life co much more fun and more efficient. I am thankful for music and many talented artists because of them my personal life has become more splendid. I am thankful for the person who created Youtube because I enjoyed the videos very much when I am bored. I am thankful for those people who made Taiwan a free country. I am also thankful for people like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington who made United States an independent and democratic country.  I am thankful for people who had contribution to this world and made what is it today. I am thankful for they turkeys who were killed and eaten by us. 

JE27 More Than Thanatopsis

            In “Tanatopsis,” Bryant wrote: “And lost each human trace, surrendering up thine individual being, shalt thou go to mix forever with the elements, to be a brother to the insensible rick and to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain turns with his share, and treads upon.” In short, it means that after the end of life, our physical bodies will be mix with other elements in the world and form to a different thing or being. One idea that connects Anne Bradstreet, Juana, and Bryant’s poems is that they all agree that life is short and fickle and there’s no eternity. The things we have, or owned, are those of transient. Human beings on earth are just following the rule of universe, which is the cycle of life and fickleness.

            For me, nature is where we came from and where our life should be ended. Mortality is not really the end of our life. I somehow think it is a beginning of a new journey. Think of it in a spiritual view, there’s not really a thing called death. I sometimes feel like it is only like moving to somewhere else and begin a new life with people you don't know. I think there are two simple rules in the universe are simple: capriciousness and conservation. Everything changes all the time, however, nothing really disappear and transform to something else instead. 

JE26 Thanatopsis

            William Cullen Bryant described many things in nature that comes in cycles of life and death. He first introduced nature as a person who tells the events that happened in nature. This is strongly connected to one Romantic point, which states that the truth is found in nature. The author viewed this world as fickle. Everything can change within any moment and there is no eternity. The believed that after we died, we chemically and physically turn into other beings or stuffs. He believes that every “matter” has gone through the cycle of life and death, and then transforms into something else instead. I think it is something good to think about. We do not just disappear from this world. It is actually nice to turn into something else in other people’s life. This idea is not religion-related, which involves in the afterlife of soul. I agree with Bryant’s idea of life and death cycle. However, I believe there is something more to do with the soul. The soul in our body cannot just disappear after we died. It will have to go to somewhere else. Maybe it is heaven, or a new born baby’s body. Bryant described death as the end of something. However, I actually think it is also the start of a new event. 

JE25 Natural Cycle

         Nature reminds me the cycle of death and birth. Biologically, it is called food chain, which animals eating animals and form into a big chain. In the other aspect, I see people pass away and also being born every day. This reminds me “when a door is closed, another window will be opened.” There is no exact way, or fate, for where are you going and what are you going to become. Death and birth are just two points we must pass, like two doors. And we create the rest of it. I think this cycle is comforting because you can create your path by making different decisions in your life. I think the cycle of life is just a basic rule that we must follow.

This rule is pretty much like the idea of yin and yang. There are always positive things and negative things in this world, balancing our life. This idea is also like the conservation of energy. The energy you exerted did not disappear, it instead transformed into another form of energy still existing in this world. Everything on earth is merely a big cycle. One goes, another comes. Sometimes I do find this rule disturbing because it is hard to let something or someone go in your life. But the good thing is, something else will come and fulfill another missing piece in your life. 

JE24 Freedom and Equality

            I personally think freedom is a true American value. However, equality only seems to be the ideal situation that they want to achieve. To me, these ideas don't seem to have many connections with my current life right now. Even though I live in a free country, my life was pretty much limited. In this competitive society, people had to get into a good school m finish PhD, and get a good job in order to get a good life. Few decades ago, when academics were not that important, people could simply follow their dreams and do whatever they want. Also, I think it is impossible to reach equality. Everyone was born in different families and grew up in different environments. Some people just got a better environment and therefore got more chances to be successful. Some people are given with more talents, some just don't.

            I should really be thankful for living in a free society. I’ve been to a place that permits no freedom at all. I could only do things surreptitiously. Freedom, back then, meant the world to me. Now I am free and I can do a lot of things that I couldn’t. However, that kind of limitation is different from a non-democratic country.  I think one thing I am really thankful for what a free society provide me is the Internet access. There is no political censorship. When I do research, I can access to more historical or political events. I can tell what is going on with the world around me.