Happiness Poem

Over the damp sand, across the shore,
hand in hand, their loving hearts soar,
daylight or moonshine, regardless of which,
true lovers are happy.

Through the woods on a dark black night,
arms locked, hands clasped, and fingers laced tight,
starlight or none, it doesn't matter to either,
true lovers are happy.

Living in a box, or in a mansion on a hilltop,
a huge diamond ring, or a simple string tied in a knot,
is happiness only materialistic?
because true lovers are always happy.

In sickness or in health, poverty or wealth,
close together or miles away, whatever they are dealt,
as long as they have one another,
true lovers are happy.

1984 Prediction

Chapter ten was filled with surprises showing how Mr. Charrington was really a member of the thought police and how they were being watched and listened to through a telescreen behind a picture on the wall. I didn't see any of this coming.

In the next book I believe that Julia will be questioned and give herself up as being a part of the brotherhood along with Martin and O'Brien. However, with her love for Winston being so strong she will not give him up to try and save him. After this Julia will be killed, but Winston will have hope. To stay alive he will make a deal to become a member of the thought police. From this position he will be able to corrupt the minds of the party, and with help from the proles and the brotherhood, be able to overthrow the party.

Genetic Engineering

With technology advancing quicker than ever right before the public’s eyes, one begins to wonder where the line is to be drawn between letting nature take its course, and allowing humans to have their own options. After reading parts of Brave New World, one can see the effects of human control, and although there are many positive sides to that society, in the long run, the negatives outweigh the benefits. Parents should by no means be able to genetically alter their children.

Although genetically altering children would probably eliminate many diseases and/or disorders that a child may come to have, we tend to forget how sickness becomes a part of who we are. Without sickness as a young child, we would have probably never had to experience pain. Without pain, how could one experience pleasure? As many today say, “what doesn’t kill, makes one stronger” and being strong is definitely not a bad thing.

It would be a wonderful thing to be able to choose your child’s gender, hair color, body type, and even brain power, but how many people would choose to make their child a chubby, dark haired, female with mental retardation? If these capabilities got into the wrong hands, someone could make a bloodthirsty army of intelligent, strong, fierce, males and destroy the world. Or parents would all choose to have intelligent good looking children, and everyone would eventually be exactly the same. You wouldn’t have anyone to look up to, or any dreams to accomplish, because everyone would be doing the same thing. If everyone was a genius, there wouldn’t be any geniuses because there would be no one less intelligent to compare them to.

In Brave New World, the ability to genetically alter embryos was used to create a “structured” society with predetermined castes and jobs for each individual. So if you are born to the low end of the caste system, you will have nothing to aspire for, because you will only be a moron, and will only run an elevator for your entire life. This type of society becomes especially disturbing when one of the individuals doesn’t fit in, or begins to wonder what his life would be like if he were higher up in the caste system.

By allowing nature to take its course, true beauty is achieved through good and bad qualities mixed. Without the bad, there would be no good, because the good would just be ordinary without anything else to judge it against. By allowing parents to genetically alter their children, it seems as if parents gain more freedom, but in actuality it takes the freedom from nature, from chance, and from God.

This I Believe

There’s been talk about animals possessing a sixth sense and I believe my story might prove it. I believe puppies have healing powers. When I was about ten years old, my biological parents got a divorce and my younger sister and I moved from our house to a cramped apartment with our mother. Coping with the change was very difficult, but after a few months we got used to the fact that we would always be in each other’s way and that all three of us would have to use the only bathroom at the exact same time. After a few years though, our mother got married, and not only was there a new addition to the family but there was a reduction of our already limited privacy and space in the apartment. We were always at each other’s throat.

After a terrible year filled with stepping on each other’s toes, we moved to a huge old house in a nice neighborhood. Things seemed to be much better with the extra space until we couldn’t afford to keep the heat blasting like we could in our old apartment. We would all be in each other’s way again huddling under blankets in our living room, the only room that was sort of warm. We fought over what we’d watch on TV, who spent too much time on the computer, who had the biggest blanket too long, and so on. The list was endless. If there was any sort of disagreement, everyone in the house, and sometimes a few of our neighbors knew about it.
Thing carried on this way until the summer when all rooms in our big old house were sweltering hot, so we all spent most of our time in our air conditioned living room. We fought over who got the biggest couch, whose food smelled worse, and who did too much laundry. The fighting and bickering was endless. It seemed that our new family was hopeless and my mother even feared that her husband, my new step father would leave.

No one wanted to be home. My sister and I would leave to go to the movies and come home late, which (as you can probably imagine) only made matters worse. Our mother and step father would work overtime every chance they got as to avoid unnecessary fighting at home. Our family was falling apart. We were all sick of each other, and there was none of that family closeness left.

When our friends would hang up with their parents we’d always dread hearing their “I love you too mom” or “Miss you daddy”. And seeing anyone kiss their family goodbye made us cringe because we secretly longed for that at home. Both my sister and my grades dropped, and my own depression became severely bad.

Nearing the Christmas holiday one night, my mother called and asked me to go near my sister and put the phone on speaker. She proceeded to ask my sister and I to sit in our living room with the Christmas tree lights on, and to pretend it was Christmas Eve. She asked us to wait quietly and keep our eyes closed tight. Then, she hung up and we heard our front door unlock. My sister and I squeezed our eyes shut excited for what we hoped was an early Christmas present. We could feel a slight breeze as she and our step father walked silently into the room.

My mother reminded us to keep our eyes shut. Then she gave us a little heartwarming speech that basically told us that this surprise was pretty much from our step father because it was his idea and he had coaxed her to do it for us. She pleaded that we all try our best to get along and not to give up hope for our family. Then she said “okay, open your eyes,” and in our step father’s arms peeking out of his jacket was a tiny black puppy.

Almost immediately, the puppy had an effect on my younger sister and I, as we jumped to hug and kiss our mother and stepfather. We had wanted a puppy so badly but we knew we could only dream of getting one. We were so thankful, and we both knew we’d have some more respect for our stepfather and we’d be more grateful towards our mother. The puppy’s tail wagged back and forth as he kissed my sister and I on the nose.

The puppy, who had come with the name TJ, brought our family together and we watched puppy training videos, took turns teaching him new tricks, and dressed him up to take a photo for our Christmas card. Our love for the little puppy grew and grew. It was something that each family member had in common and we could all relate to. We began to recognize that although we had a lot of differences, concentrating on our similarities would make it much easier to get along. The little puppy brought joy into our house and into each of our hearts.

TJ knows when something is wrong too. When we fight, he lays down and gives us these puppy eyes that we know mean “stop fighting!” Then he kisses us when the fighting stops and helps us to realize that getting along, even though it takes some work, is the right thing to do.

It has only been a few months since TJ healed our broken family, but I hope, like I’m sure my family does as well, that he will continue to bring us together.