Author: djgregor

This past week, we talked about the excerpts from Chuang Tzu, Flame, and Broken. This blog post will be about my opinion on these stories.

My favorite section from the excerpts is definitely section J. I love the first sentence-“Is there such a thing as perfect happiness in the world or isn’t there.” This section is about what people find happiness in and how people feel bad about when the perfect happiness can’t be reached. In my own opinion, I think many people believe that happiness is associated with tangible items. Having money, having fancy items, being the best at one’s job and so forth. But for me, happiness comes from within. There are more internal reasons to be happy rather than external objects. One of my favorite quotes in this section states “I look at what ordinary people find happiness in, what they all make a mad dash for, racing around as though they couldn’t stop – they all say they’re happy with it. I’m not happy with it and I’m not unhappy with it.” Happiness comes from within, so if people are trying to obtain some object that they think will make them happy, they don’t understand true happiness. Personally, I rather be poor and happy than sad and rich. Friendships, love, connections and relationships should make people happy, not having the biggest house or fanciest phone or whatever. That’s just my opinion on how happiness is different for others, but people shouldn’t strive to obtain this happiness. It should just happen naturally without effort.

We also talked about arranged marriages because that was the theme for Flame. The main question was whether we would disobey our parents to marry our true love or accept this arranged spouse because you were told to. Personally, if one finds true love, go for it. I know this doesn’t happen in our culture, so I can’t imagine what it would be like if I was forced to marry someone against my will. So I tried to put myself in Nimei’s shoes. I would go for the love of my life even though my mother wouldn’t approve of it. Hopefully, my mother would come back around and see that I’m truly happy and that she could still be associated with my life. However, that’s not a given and one’s relationship with their parents could be ruined forever. But then after discussing with my classmates, I may have listened to my mother because my arranged spouse was able to feed me while the other villagers weren’t able to have a steady supply of food coming in. Would it seem selfish that I refused free food for the love of my life knowing that other villagers would appreciate the food income. All I know is that if you find someone you love, don’t let anybody hold you back or prevent you from being with that person.

The last story was about how men and women aren’t treated the same. This story is about how people stereotype men and women when it comes to having many relationships or sleeping with many people. I felt bad that this story accurately describes our own society for a fiction novel. Tingting is sleeping with Benchou, who is already married and having an affair. First of all, it shouldn’t be the coworkers business who is sleeping with who. If there is an affair going on, there should be at least four people who know about the current situation-the two people having the affair and their respective spouses (if married). Second of all, Tingting gets verbally attacked when being interrogated, while Benchou easily acts like nothing has happened. Eventually, our main character gets himself in a dilemma. He is approached by some unidentified human at the movie theater, who ends up doing some unusual sexual things during the movie. Manjin then tries to find this person after she leaves and approaches the wrong woman, which results in Manjin being interrogated for his actions. I’m surprised he is told that he has a minimum of three years for attempted sexual assault.  Most news stories in our society involve the men getting away with stuff like this. The worst part of this story is the ending, where Tingting is the assumed woman in the movie scene dilemma. Just because she was considered “broken” in the beginning in the novel and how she had her confessions about Benchou earlier in the story, that doesn’t mean she is the unidentified woman. There was no clear evidence she was even involved in this problem. She eventually commits suicide, which absolutely makes this story depressing at the end. Men and women should be treated the same with the same rights, but because our society praises men when sleeping with other women and demoralizes women by calling them whore or slut when sleeping with many people, that can never happen in this society. That’s my opinion on this book and unfortunate scenario will live in throughout our society.

I’ve been busy with all of my math classes, so I haven’t done a journal in a while. This blog post will be about the contents we talked about two weeks ago, which were the Tao te Ching and about Mencius.

Of all of the Tao te Ching poems, 49 was one that stood out to me because the middle section explains how people should act towards others. “People who are good, I treat well. People who are not good, I also treat well. Trustworthy people, I trust. Untrustworthy people, I also trust.” I think this is important to understand because you should treat others the same way you would want to be treated. We shouldn’t treat people differently based on how we perceive them. What is the true definition of “good”? Everyone has a different meaning, so I may think people are good while others don’t. We should treat everyone the same way even if they aren’t “good” because nobody is perfectly good. People have their ups and downs, and people aren’t just naturally untrustworthy or not good. There’s good in everyone, and that’s something that everyone needs to understand. Just treat people positively and everything will be okay for everyone.

The second day of class, we reflected on Mencius and the question whether people are born good, evil, or neutral. Prior to class, I thought that people were typically good. I haven’t met anyone who is just pure evil and is full of negativity. But after reading Mencius, I think people are born with a clean slate and they decide if they want to be good or evil. Most people who start neutral end up good, and that’s what I believe now. I liked how in the Man’s Nature is Evil article that every paragraph usually ends with “that man’s nature is evil, and that the goodness is the result of conscious activity.” I don’t think people just wake up like, ‘I’m gonna be evil today.’ But I also don’t think people also wake up trying to be good. People just naturally are good…people don’t try to be good. From my perspective, people are just good. But that doesn’t come from our own conscience at first. Based on however we grew up, people will have more good inside them, but everyone will have some good in them nonetheless. We start out as neutral, but we usually end up good. That’s my opinion, that evil doesn’t really exist in this world. There are just different levels of goodness and everyone has a different definition of what being good means to them.

This week we learned about Confucius, his teachings, and read the Tao Te Ching poems. We were also asked the question whether we would want fame now or later after death and whether we would be rock or water during a conflict. This reflection has to do with my views from the week’s teaching as well as my first visit to the Nur Allah site.

I read the excerpts from the Analects of Confucius and two of them stood out to me. One of them was [13:10] The Master said: “If any of the rulers were to employ me, I would have control of the situation within a month, and would have everything straightened out within three years.” I enjoyed this quote because it made me thing of the difference between having a title and having the necessary qualities of deserving that title. If the Master could fix the situation within a month, then those rulers seem undeserving of their title. How can one be called a ruler while this Master could fix everything within three years. From my past experiences, I’ve come across people who claim to be good at something or say they can do certain things when in reality they are lying. This quote connects to me because it helps me not to judge people by the cover. Like I’m a very skinny, small child, but I’m also a black belt in karate. So don’t judge people if you really don’t know their past, and also don’t listen to people when they are sometimes bragging about themselves because most of the time, it’s false.

Another quote was [4:17] The Master said: “When you see a good person, think of becoming like her/him. When you see someone not so good, reflect on your own weak points.” This is similar to the previous quote where I think don’t treat others as you would want to be treated. If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything. I like how to quote ends, with it not saying “when you see someone not so good, don’t think of becoming like her/him.” Everyone has flaws and you shouldn’t judge people based on their weak points. There’s nobody perfect out there, and there will never be someone where you can 100% strive to be like. Just be yourself, and don’t judge people because if you do, then you will become that person who isn’t so good.

From the Tao Te Ching poems, one of them stuck with me. Poem 27 states “Therefore the good person is the bad person’s teacher, and the bad person is the good person’s resource.” I like this quote because it resembles balance in the world. There is always two sides of every coin is one of my favorite sayings, and this poem explains that well. We need people to compliment each other. From my experience as a tutor, if everyone is good at math, then my job is useless. And without tutors, people who aren’t good at math can’t get help. These so call “good” and “bad” people need each other because they can’t become complete without learning from each other. I learn about how to help people when teaching and how to adapt based on the student, and the student learns how to deal with a difficult problem and learn that some people don’t have to be good at everything to succeed in life. That’s my take from the poem, and it’s a good way to look at life.

The two questions asked in class were interesting to me. First of all, I would much rather be famous later than now. I’m not a very social person, so I hate attention. I much rather live in the shadows while people get recognition for my actions. I don’t need fame to be happy, fame is a tangible item. Popularity and happiness don’t necessarily work well with each other. For the water and rock question, I’m definitely water. I’m a calm person, so I just avoid the conflict or ignore the conflict if it’s small. I don’t get angry at little things, so like water, when there is a roadblock (like a rock), I would swim around the obstacle and keep going. Some people just get angry, and I’m always about having a positive and clean mind when dealing with problems.

Today was also my first day at my community site: Nur Allah. I went to the Friday service and meet with the sisters and brothers who work there and meet with locals who go there to pray. I somewhat taught myself the Arabic alphabet when the children were being taught while helping out the sisters in the classroom. It’s very interesting how they read from right to left, which I know is common but I had to train myself to avoid reading left to right when saying the alphabet. Everybody there is very nice and I had to good time working with the kids during Sunday school. Good week in class and with  Sunday school overall. I’ll have another reflection next week, hope you enjoy this one.

When I was growing up, I was never really good at anything. I tried playing sports, whether it was soccer, baseball, basketball, etc. I tried being a good writer, which never resulted in anything special. I tried being a good student, but was always overshadowed by my brother. He was always better than me at everything, whether in athletics or academics. I always looked up to him, but internally thought that I was letting my parents down because I was always standing in his shadow. I felt proud of myself, but was always trying to please others by attempting to achieve something that most people didn’t. Eventually, I found acceptance that I’m my own person and didn’t have to be my brother.

The reason I’m sharing this is because this thought came back to me after reading the Tiger Killer short story and biography of Yu Jang. I felt that I wasn’t good enough for my family and thought I couldn’t be respected as my brother. But then my mother told me that I’m my own person and don’t have to worry about not everyone having a positive image of me. After reading the Tiger Killer story, Huping was bragging about killing the tiger in his first attempt. But once the film industry wants to have a re-take, Huping fails miserably to kill the tiger. He freaks out and has a mental breakdown because he failed to kill the tiger. This shows that he is worried about how people view him as a person. He believes that his image is ruined and he has no honor anymore. Even when the film industry tells Huping that he needs a re-take reflects on the idea that if they produce a movie that doesn’t show the Chinese story correctly, they will lose their honor for portraying something false. I feel like this is a stereotype of Chinese lifestyle, where if you don’t earn your parents’ respect that you are a failure. Everyone has heard the joke about how Chinese people have to grow up a be doctors in order to not fail their parents. I feel like this is important in their culture, while not in American culture. I don’t have to impress my parents, but that doesn’t mean I don’t necessarily try. Like many people in China are hard-working or smart in the common American’s perspective, while there are many lazy people in our society. Honor just doesn’t mean much in America, where it’s very important in China.

Similar in the biography of Yu Jang, there’s not many people I know that would risk their own death to avenge someone or get back their honor. I’d take a bullet for some people, but wouldn’t risk my life as a symbol of earning honor. I just thought that this person is psycho when risking his life to avenge his master’s death. Honor is just very important in China, and I respect that. But in our society, honor isn’t associated with our culture. I was just amazed and confused when hearing about why people need to impress or achieve so much when it’s not to please themselves, but have people view them as someone glorious.