Being Literate in the Classics

One of my summer's in high school I set a goal to read all the books in a series of "classics" that my mom had. I did it too. This wasn't the first or the last time I've read classics that were not required of me.

Recently I have watched some movies that are considered cultural classics... as in I've heard them mentioned a lot. Partly, this is because I have a roommate that enjoys watching them, and enjoys introducing them to me, but part of it is I just find it interesting.

The thing is, I don't why I think it is so interestign to read and watch things that are considered classics. It isn't like I am always in the middle of cultural norms while they happen... in fact I'm far more likely to avoid them. But I guess I do find it fascinating to see what types of stories people hold onto and I guess I also like suddenly being in on the "inside jokes." I just like to be literate... even if there is no reason for it.

Positive Persistence and Stereoscopy

Well I apologize if I wrote about this before but an experience pushed it to the forefront.
Last week I was looking at a paleontology book with my professor. There was a set of stereo photographs of bones. Basically this means two pictures of the same thing taken from almost the exact same position... but not quite, so when you look at them through a viewer the image pops into 3D. This is helpful in visual sciences so that others can see the real depth of a hole in a bone or an alien planet's surface (and kids like them). But I've never been good at those hidden image books. My professor didn't take no as an answer and told me I would learn how to see them without the viewers. He sat in his office for a 3 minutes staring at nothing, praying and pretending. Then he asked "Did you get it to work?" "Nope." I was so close to saying yes... I mean how important is this skill anyway? He gave me more instructions. I tried for another few minutes, and then another and another. Maybe 20 minutes after it first came up I had figured out how to do it more or less (with the emphasis on more) on command. I was unreasonably proud of myself. I mean how often can you say you learned an entire skill in one day? But I did feel bad that I had been such a naysayer at the beginning.
In college I took a ceramics class. When we first started using the wheel I had a hard time learning how to center the clay (and that is how you start). I struggled with it for like a whole day and a half! Two days after I got the hang of it I saw my professor working with one of my peers who was still struggling with it. And she was patient.
I also hated reading for a long time because I didn't pick it up right away.
Many things that I have tried come easily for me. So, I have a tendency to resent the ones that don't.
Thus maybe even more than being proud of a new skill I am proud that after those first 3 minutes and that fateful moment. I approached it with a fairly good attitude and pushed through. (And yes... a whole 20 minutes... I know that's ridiculous).

Patterns

"The pattern is there in Nature because it was first there in God."
                                                                                             -C.S. Lewis
Lately I have noticed some interesting patterns.

Ripples

Spirals

Bumps and Ridges

Cracks

These aren't even the best pictures to show these things, and yet the parallels are apparent despite differences in size, medium, and creation. I just think it is crazy how sometimes vastly different mediums and causes can create such similarities. I believe God is a god of law and pattern. Is it any wonder that we love patterns and tend to see them in nature as well as our own lives?

Conscious Decisions

I've noticed that in this new age of new and changing technology it seems like the technology is changing faster than people have figured out how to deal with it culturally. As in as a society we haven't looked at the implications of specific types of media and technology nor the general uses of said technology and thus haven'tdecided what is socially acceptable.
I don't have all the answers (in case that needed to be spelled out) but I think it is at least worth making a conscious decision about some things.
Some Examples:
Mulitasking - multitasking has run rampant with most people (at least in my generation) seem like they can't even watch a movie, go to a meeting, or in the wost cases have a conversation without also checking their messages or playing a game on their phone at the same time. Sometimes that may be appropriate... but a lot of time it is not. The studies I've seen about multitasking usually conclude by saying it is essentially impossible. It appears that people cannot actually focus at two things at once, instead when we think we are multitasking we are really just changing our focus between two or more tasks relatively quickly, thus we miss things. So next time your phone is trying to get your attention pause to ask yourself if whatever is in front of you is more important than your phone.... Like I said, sometimes your conclusion might be your phone, but it might not be.
Listening at High Speeds - This is pobably less of a widespread issue but all of my brothers do it and I have done it on occasion. Sometimes a youtube video or podcast is just too slow, so it is tempting to set the speed at 1.5 or 2 or even more times the normal speed. There are times when this is a helpful feature, like when I was watching a how-to video about some computer thing but the first half of the video was things I already knew. However, listening to things at double speed also gives us less time to process and might make us impatient when real human interactions can not be sped up. Speeding up things might be useful but is it worth it? I don't know.
There are more issues I didn't even mention but the point isn't whether they are good or bad (they may be both in different situations) but to at least think through the implications and make conscious decisions instead of just going along with the flow without thought. With technology changing so fast we can't rely on our ancestors to set the culture norm, instead we have to figure it out ourselves... let's just make sure we are making the decision with a little thought behind it.

Transitions

My sister often talks about transitions being diffiuclt for children. She says that they are more likely to scream or punch each other as they are getting ready to go somewhere then when they are playing normally and as they prepare for a move or major vacation they are more likely to act up.
I've decided that kids aren't the only ones that have a tough time with transition. I'm both between semesters and between vacation and school right now. Plus, I finished typing in my second novel so I'm also between fun projects right now. And I have been having a horrid time being productive.... which also means I've had a hard time staying positive. I'm not looking forward to school starting tomorrow but I'm hoping that the normalness will help.
Just because we grow up and may manifest stress differently it doesn't mean we have outgrown the basic patterns.