Thursday, July 9, 2015

The Universe, Environment, and Us

If I were to describe today in one word, I would say adventurous. In our morning lecture in class, we mainly discussed philosophers such as Kant and Hegel. I don't know much about these specific philosophers besides the fact that they were racists that believed African Americans could not think in depth.
We questioned each philosopher's theory in relation to a stable ahistorical form or unstable historical form. I silently paid attention to the lecture and didn't offer any insight because I didn't quite understand the reading enough to analyze it. According to the discussion in my class, it was about how our consciousness can simultaneously exist in itself and for another.

After a short lunch, we gathered together for a lecture on the environment. I know I probably sound like a terrible human being but the environment just isn't in my top 5 list of what we need to fix in our society. I don't think it's even in my top 10, but it really should be. It's because we are all trained to separate ourselves from the universe instead of seeing ourselves as an extension of the universe. We wouldn't cut open our veins and drain ourselves of blood just because it had valuable minerals, so why would we do that to our earth. The fact of the matter is, our planet is dying and we're essentially watching it die. What frustrated me about the lecture is that our professor Michael had no problem explaining our environmental problems in excruciating detail; however, when it came down to his solution, he offered no details that would help the audience grasp his solution better. His solution was "love". There are so many questions that come with that territory; like what kind of love? Love, or our idea of love has evolved with us over the years that there's no one solid definition of it.

After Michael's lecture, we moved on to UPenn’s alumni lecture on the environment in relation to the Jewish religion. His concept of the environment was completely over my head and I wouldn't be able to put it into words. But his solution came down to the little things we do every day and the concept of private property.

We took a field trip to a "bearded Ladies" Cabernet that was hysterical in my opinion. I sat in the front row so I enjoyed how the cast interacted with the audience. I loved their constant use of sarcasm and irony to remind is that our planet is dying and we need to start caring now if we don't want to die.

the band up close and personal


My roommate and I ended the day trying to kill a cockroach we found in our closet. She was much braver than I and was able to put the cup over the bug.  I just don't like bugs, of course one could argue that they're more scared of me than I am of them, but those who argue this, have never met me.

We don't have class until 10 am tomorrow so I'm excited to sleep in and take on what the day throws at me tomorrow.

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