Within our discussion of Confucius and after reading through the excerpts it made me think of what I would be willing to give up if I had to choose and what I really want in life. It makes you also think what are the bare minimums you would want in your life. If you look at 12:7-13:15 It talks about food, weapons, and confidence. The first question was if you had to get rid of one of these three what would it be? Obviously the ruler said weapons which is exactly what I would choose. The second was what if you had to get rid of one of these two and he said food. This one made me think, obviously you need food to live so how could you possibly get rid of food? Then I thought well if the people have confidence they could be confident to go to other places without any fear to gain more food. They could use that confidence to do many things while if you got rid of that and kept the food, the civilization would never get any better and food might eventually be depleted and the civilization could fall. Thinking about this small part of the bigger story, I thought if I had to get rid of basic things in my life what would that be? I think for a lot of people if they absolutely had to they could get rid of their technology. But I also think some people say that but when it comes down to it never really could. I feel like I could definitely survive without technology. I have never been one to play video games or watch a lot of TV. Next I think how much harder it would be without electricity. Our houses behind campus have been out of power multiple times within the last month and it is a life changer. As much that I think I might be able to do it, I know it would be much harder than I think. Lastly, the one other hard thing is my car. I do not know how I would survive without my car and having the freedom to travel whenever I want. I think many people take for granted many basic things they have in life and Confucius really points that out. What do you really need in life to survive successfully? What things do you really take for granted?