CAPTIVITY!

Today I was thinking about the different ways that we are captive. One of the forms of captivity I was focusing on most this week were expectations. It has been so beautiful out lately but are we outside? NO, unfortunately we are inside studying for finals. I haven´t enjoyed the outdoors in the last two weeks because i´ve been inside trying to focus on studying for my upcoming tests, but secretly daydreaming about what I could be doing in the sweet sunshine. What held me back from going outside? Expectations. Most of them coming from myself and some from my parents. Sometimes I wonder why our society is so focused on a certain path that we are supposed to follow. Graduate from high school, go to college, get a degree, get a job, and then work until we are able to retire. I find this very sad and definitely something I don´t look forward too. I have mentioned this before but I think it´s relevant now also. I hope to get a job that I enjoy so that I can wake up everyday happy to go to work and to do something "meaningful," in my case hopefully help people. I challenge you all to find new meaning in your degree path if you have not already after taking this class. This can be our little way of breaking the chains of captivity

Findings

Here are the pictures Pedro and I took during our fast write adventure outdoors.

Game.. I realized how unobservant we are when we are walking outside between classes. Pedro and I just stumbled upon these two by chance. Later Don pointed out their tracks that we completely missed.

Moose poop! We see it everywhere. This was our sign of nature, proof that animals are wandering even if we may not see them all the time.

Pedro got a little creative here with the garbage found outside. People are so lazy sometimes. I´m pretty sure there was a garbage can no more than 50 ft away. Sad

Last but not least here we have nature fighting back. No matter how many times we make our concrete paths to cover up the grasses/weeds/moss, nature will find a way to seep through the cracks.

Taboo

                 Yesterday I was watching the show Taboo on National Geographic. I found this episode particularly interesting because we have talked about these leaver people before. This episode was about the Maori people of New Zealand. There was a women, descendant of the Maori people who decided to get her moko, a tattoo associated with the Maori people. As you can see from the picture above, moko is a marking on the lips and chin on women. On men it can take over the entire face or many other places on the body. This is considered a taboo since people in our culture tends to make assumptions about others who have look different, in this case, have tattoos.
                  I really admired this girl for going through with the process and not caring what anyone else thought. In Maori culture it was a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, even a sign of beauty to attract the opposite sex, and she was honoring her ancestral culture. It´s funny to me that there are so many taboos within our culture. I´m guilty of judging people based on things like piercings, tattoos, etc. I don´t do it intentionally but I think the taker culture instills in us certain norms.
                 This show is pretty awesome to watch and definitely brings some new insight to different cultures that we can´t understand due to their distinct beliefs and normal practices. I recommend you all check it out :) Let me know if you see any cool episodes.

Is our lifestyle really easier??

                                                                                2010                  

           A couple of weeks ago we were told to hunt in the AK section of the library. We were on a mission to find a couple pieces of evidence that show how the life of the Leavers, in our case the AK natives, is in fact much easier than our way of life. As I was searching the books of he history and culture of the AK natives I found something that really stood out to me.
           I don´t know about you all but I´ve always had a problem with the ever changing trends in fashion in our taker culture. Ever year we have new shoes, new tops, new hair styles etc. I remember when I was little and cordoroy was "in", then jeans (but not just any jeans, they had to be boot cut), then flare pants (almost bellbottom style) were the new thing, closer to the 2000´s skinny jeans started to turn into what everyone was wearing. Nowaday I believe the new hot style is jeggins :/ (leggins/jeans). Who can keep up! I know some people who care enough to change their wardrobe with this wave of trends but I find it exhausting, unnecessary, and expensive.
            In all the books that I saw in the Alaska native section I noticed that most wore traditional clothing made by their mothers, sisters, or grandparent. Not only did they wear these but they took pride in the fact that they had this skill. I believe this way of life would be so much easier. They still have individuality but they don´t have the pressure to change their looks for aesthetic reasons, they are practical.

         Another aspect of the Alaskan Native leaver culture that I found astounding was their main focus in their every day life. The most essential need they had was survival: food and shelter. Although this may seem harsh to some I believe that if we knew how to survive in that environment we would be set. There are many skills needed to survive but they have a whole village to back them up. If my family were in trouble in this culture, we wouldn´t even have willing neighbors to help us out, let alone an entire culdesac. I feel that we in this taker culture always have something to worry about: bills, taxes, food, clothes, gas, etc. Wouldn´t it be nice if our main priority was just feeding ourselves and our village.
           Next time we hear someone say that the leaver way of life is so harsh and difficult we have to re-think the definitions. I believe that we have a very hard way of life and maybe we as students still don´t feel the impact of having to be independent and live on our own. Living with my parents and still being supported by them I know that I have only a small concept of  what "the real world" of our taker culture feels like.

During this spring break I had the chance to go to the Grand Canyon. I never thought how amazing it would be to hike this canyon but the experience was mind blowing. While I was hiking I stopped two or three times to listen, like the exercise we did in class. It was a great experience, beautiful! I couldn't believe how right Ishmael was. I never realized that his idea that the human race is so insignificant in the natural world was so true. I felt so tiny going down the canyon and looking out into the wide open space. This was an experience I hope to repeat many many times in the future and I think everyone should visit. During my hike I saw people on the side of the path that were volunteering to keep the path groomed for visitors. Maybe there is hope for the taker culture! If we can protect this beautiful landmark then that proves that there are still people who care about preserving our environment.

Ishmael got me thinking about my choice to become a doctor. I have always wanted to do it not because of the money but because I truly have a desire to help people. Sometimes I have doubts though because the process involves many many many years of schooling. I hope that I will not skew from my ultimate goal of having my own practice and maybe opening up a nonprofit. If nothing else I would love to volunteer with Doctor´s Without Borders. I have talked to many surgeons who wanted to initially do the same thing I want to, help people, but the cost of medical school is so expensive that make it hard not to specialize in an area that makes more money.
Yesterday I was reading a blog by Patch Adams, a doctor who has been an inspiration to me. He is known for being a clown because his care involves loving people and making them laugh, not just treating them like another disease to be cured. If you haven´t seen the movie Patch Adams I highly recommend renting it, even if you´re not into medicine it´s still a very inspiring story.
Here is one of his blogs that I though pertained a lot to Ishmael, even though he gives some personal statements about politics as well.
http://www.patchadams.org/what-does-it-mean

Today in my Microbiology class my teacher was discussing a little bit about a science conference he attended last week. At this event there were many people dedicated to a variety of scientific research. One topic that stood out and reminded me of our class discussions was that of populations of the world as well as the damage that humans are doing to the world. One of the scientists gave a lecture about statitcs involving populations around the world and CO2 emission in different countries. Unfortuantely, most statistics must be taken with a grain of salt but he has a website that I thought was pretty neat.
He has statistical charts where you can manually change, choosing your X and Y axis. Let me know if you discover anything interesting. One that I found to be frustrating was the chart, CO2 emission vs. Time since 1820. I have a feeling most of you will not be surprised to find which conutry is at the top of the chart.

The website is gapminder.com

If you click on Load Gap Minder World it will lead you to the chart

Have Fun!

Happy Super Bowl everybody! This morning my friends and family came over bearing tons of super bowl snacks. Being that there were only 6 of us it seemed that, like every year, there was way too much food for us to possibly finish. I had never really thought about this during previous super bowls but this year all I could think about was the novel Ishmael. "The lion that comes across a herd of gazelles doesn´t massacre them, as an enemy would. It kills one, not to satisfy its hatred for gazelles but to satisfy its hunger..." (Quinn, pgs 117-118). Why do we as a taker society feel that we need to overindulge in almost every aspect of our lives? We are having a fairly small get together that lasts about 4 hours, are two  buckets of chicken wings, pizzas, sodas, and never ending bags of chips etc. really necessary in order for us to have a good time? Now that the game is over we still have bowls and bowls of uneaten food, most of which will be going in the trash. In a country where we have an abundant amount of food how is it that there are still people going hungry? Ishmael said, "The rule there [natural community] is: Take what you need, and leave the rest alone" (Quinn, pg 127). When are we going to take this rule to heart...