TOW #25 "Should You Go With the Flow?"

   Our language is full of overused sayings that we here all the time in everyday life. Sometimes they may seem appropriate for a situation, but other times they may seem to be contradictory or have negative implications. For example, Ronald Pies notes that the saying "go with the flow" can "become an excuse for apathy or indifference." In order to counteract this sense of the saying, in this essay from Tuft's University's Magazine, professor of psychiatry Ronald Pies analyzes the meaning and origin behind the concept of "going with the flow" to discuss how it applies positively to our lives.
   Pies first explores the themes of going with the flow emphasized in ancient traditions such as Taoism and Buddhism. He quotes a Taoist name Elizabeth Reninger who defines the central concept as "'“a state of being in which our actions are quite effortlessly in alignment with the ebb and flow of the elemental cycles of the natural world.'" What this saying really means is that we should live in harmony with the natural order of things. This idea is spiritual in nature but has been secularized in our society today as the cliché "go with the flow." 
   Pies then applies this idea to real life by presenting a personal anecdote. He writes about a time when his mother was seriously sick and he needed to take care of her. The uncertainty of his situation was difficult as he didn't know when he would be needed. Pies uses this situation to show how the idea of "going with the flow" can be applied positively to our lives. During the time when his mother needed him, Pies just went with the natural order of his life; a child cares for his sick parent. This helped him to be flexible and adapt to the uncertainties of the situation. 
   But Pies explores the idea further by asking rhetorical questions. He began in the introduction of the essay by asking "How can we apply this phrase wisely?" As his personal anecdote showed, the idea can be encouragement in times of uncertainty and struggle to help oneself be flexible and do what needs to be done. But Pies recognizes that this saying can be used to support inaction where action is necessary and he asks, "But what does a morally responsible person do when confronted with prejudice, injustice, or hatred? Should one go with the flow, saying 'Oh, well, that’s life'?" These questions serve to stimulate the readers own internal contemplation of the idea before Pies gives his own answer. Pies then cites examples of nonviolent resisters such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi who may have went against the flow of injustice but by resisting injustice were going with the flow of order and reason and human connection. Ultimately Pies concludes the essay by answering his first question but in a way that leaves the readers minds wide open to consider the implications of the idea of "going with the flow" in their own lives. 

Article: http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/winter2014/think-tank/mind.html 

IRB Intro Post: Fourth Marking Period

For my last and final IRB I have chosen to read When Languages Die by David Harrison, which explores the human knowledge that is an integral part of language and how that knowledge is lost when languages die out. I came across this topic when my eye was caught by an article about endangered languages in the April edition of American University's magazine. The article mentioned David Harrison, who is a linguist and professor at Swarthmore College, and described his work through the Living Tongues Institute to preserve languages who have few speakers left.  As someone who is passionate about foreign languages, the idea of endangered languages intrigued me and I decided to pursue the topic further by selecting this book as my IRB.

TOW #24 IRB Post

Reading goal: understand how the arrangement/progression of the book helps tie the message together

Writing goal: effectively and cohesively explore both overarching strategies used throughout the memoir as well as specific devices used in specific instances  

   When I last posted about my IRB Dreams from My Father, I had only read the first section, titled Origins, in which Obama describes his early life with his mother and maternal grandparents in Hawaii. By now, I have finished the book, which consisted of two more sections called Chicago and Kenya. As in the first part of the book, Obama continues to explore the family history that played a role in developing his identity as well as the social relationships he experienced in the beginnings of his career as a community organizer in Chicago. 

   By arranging the book in three parts, Obama reflects the progression of his personal journey. First comes Origins, introducing Obama's family history and heritage, the influences on the development of his identity. Next is Chicago, in which Obama decides in college that he wants to become a community organizer and moves to Chicago to work in the lower-economic African American communities on the South Side. In this section, Obama shows how his struggles with his identity were influenced by the issues the African American communities he worked with faced: the discrimination, the poverty, the lack of means and opportunity. The last section, Kenya, brings the book towards its culmination and Obama's realization of the meaning of his connection to his family in Kenya. Obama describes his visit to Kenya to meet his father's family and how the relationships he developed and experiences he had with his relatives allowed him to come to a point of acceptance of his families past and his identity as a part of that story. Thus the arrangement follows Obama's journey from the joy and confusion of childhood to the frustrations and dreams of becoming an adult to the acceptance and realization of coming to his family.
   Following the idea of a return to origins, reflected in the title of the first part and the stories of Obama's visit to his family in Kenya, throughout the text Obama uses a number of images and allusions that reference the beginnings of humanity and human community. For example, Obama writes of the pastor of a Chicago church who watched wealthier African Americans move out of the inner city communities. With the loss of these people "the link to the past would be finally broken, [the reverend feared] that the children would no longer retain the memory of that first circle, around a fire..." (Obama 274). Obama watches the struggles of a community in which the wealthier members move, leaving the community to the poor and unprivileged, perpetuated in its troubles. He faces the frustration of the conflicting interests of people who are essentially brothers and sisters, who come from the same ancestors way, way back, the first humans who sat around a fire together. Later, describing a safari trip during his visit to Kenya, Obama writes "There in the dusk, over that hill, I imagined the first man stepping forward... If only we could remember that first common step, that first common word - that time before Babel," (Obama 356). Examining himself in a divided world, Obama refers back to the idea of a time of unity, a state from which everyone originated with the same needs for life, the same dangers to face and the same joys.