Gilgamesh Tablets 1-3: The beginning

Gilgamesh is a book that is very complex and can be hard to understand due to the tone it uses. There are many parallels with this book and the bible. In both a god created man out of mud. Also it was woman who tempted man in both cases. (Whether it was life or lost or whatever the bible meant it’s according to one’s interpretation.) This might be that the bible and the other religions could be different perspectives to the same story. What actually happened in that time is a mystery and always will be. All we rely on are what our religion tells us happened and therefore we only see the past under one single perspective.
“They called the goddess Aruru, saying to her: “You made this man. Now create another. Create his double and let the two contend. Let stormy heart contend with stormy heart that peace may come to Uruk once again.””(p.5)
Here we can see that there is always our quest for balance. For everything there must be an equal and opposite reaction. For Gilgamesh it was Enkidu. This quest for balance is always there present in our civilization as well. For a bad action there is an equal punishment, as well as there is an equal prize for those who do well. There are faults in this system we still follow it and believe that although the universe isn’t this way it should be. As Ishmael said we believe that we are to rule the world and that we know what is good and evil. Because of this we believe we can make balance happen the way we want.
Gilgamesh seems to represent good in this story. He is there to fight evil in the world that surrounds the city. This of course is seen from a taker’s point of view. Yet ofcourse the wild man seemed to be a leaver that was made into a taker because it was the right way to live and he was forced to become one in some way. Maybe Enkidu was there to balance the equation but not as the exact opposite of Gilgamesh.(being evil and attempting to kill his opposite). Infect it was rather curious to see them be so similar as if two brothers (which they were). If Enkidu was there to bring order back to Uruk or balance the equation in some way, why did he join the same purpose of Gilgamesh? Shouldn’t he have been trying to stop him? If the city was so good before Enkidu why was he needed to bring peace here?

Ishmael Chapter 13: What he left behind

In this chapter we see how Ishmael died. It is quite a coincidence that Ishmael did the same day that our narrator tried to buy him. This could have been some sort of symbolism that Ishmael would rather be dead than go against what he believed. There were several moments in which our character had to overcome challenges. We also explore some of the narrator’s personality for the first time. Although this book had the narrator all along, it was more of a conversation with the reader rather than with the main character. Somehow, it is even more symbolic that, once he finished his teaching with our narrator, he died. Maybe it was his destiny to teach him last in order to show the world what our society had problems in. It is likely that as he thought it was the gods’ decision of letting him die was because his mission was over and he had saved the gods’ garden’s balance. It was very interesting that our narrator was willing to give all of his wealth away in order to take Ishmael with him. This as noble sacrifice as it seems isn’t what Ishmael thought him to do. Ishmael believed that although he was very valuable to humanity it wasn’t right o interfere with eh gods’ plan. If he was supposed to die it was for a good reason. This is what this quote says:
“ I said, “Ishmael is dead”.
After a pause: “I am very sorry to hear it.”
“We could have saved him.”
Patrick though about that for a while. “Are you sure he would have let us?”
I wasn’t sure, and said so.” (P.262)
Although this isn’t Ishmael talking it represents his thoughts for that was his owner for a very long while and it was him who taught him about our culture and how to speak.
“With Man Gone, Will there be hope for Gorilla? The message on the other side reads: With Gorilla gone will there be hope for man?”(p.262-263)
At the beginning o f the book this phrase doesn’t really make much sense but as you read on and as the wisdom of Ishmael is given to you its meaning begins to clear. Ishmael said that man would be the first of creatures to become a self aware and conscious creature. He wasn’t mean to rule the world but rather to guide all of those other creatures who will reach his same level. So if gorilla were to be the next creature to obtain this level of intelligence then we will be the ones to guide them in to a better world rather in to a self destroying civilization. Because of this, if man is gone there won’t be hope for gorilla, apparently. Yet since it was a gorilla who guided man in to this new civilization it makes it rather hard that without this gorilla there will be hope for man. Of course Ishmael isn’t dead for what he lived for and what he taught lives on through the narrator and the other students, that is what he left behind.

Ishmael Chapter 12: The Final Lesson

Ishmael has finally given his final lesson. It is all up to our narrator to take action upon what has been given to him. What is more important is what was actually given to him. In this second to last chapter we see a set of teachings that require a very deep analysis.
The chapter starts off with our narrator trying to buy Ishmael. This might have been of some significance in terms of symbolism. In a certain way the fact that he was unable to buy Ishmael said something. Maybe although it’s not said directly the wisdom that Ishmael teaches had no price and therefore can’t be bought. ““Uh huh, I could probably raise fifteen hundred.” “Don’t see how I could go below twenty-two, that’s a fact”” (p.234) Here we can see a little of the narrator bargaining skills yet he didn’t buy Ishmael. His wisdom couldn’t be bought but most importantly it would go against all that which Ishmael taught him. By doing this he would be choosing what the right way for Ishmael to live was. This is where we can see how deeply mother culture had influenced him. Although he had been taught another way of living, he still tried to follow it like an instinct put in him by our culture.
Another very important point made by Ishmael was what happened to people who were in the hands of the gods. Not only were they happy but also they evolved. In our current state everyone can survive with medicine although this goes against natural selection. Also these people that might have a problem get to reproduce in some cases and because of this they make the next generation suffer their problem or at least carry it to the next. This may be a reason why it is harder for us to evolve in these conditions. It is no longer the survival of the fittest for everyone has the right to live even if this harms the specie’s evolution. Here we see that although there might be a huge epidemic we will find a cure before it kills us all and in the case that only a very small amount of population will survive which is immune to the disease a great amount of non immune people will keep on going. This is a reason why evolution in our life style is very hard. ““So now what happens to people who live in the hands of the gods. “Yes. They evolve.” “Because they’re in a position to evolve. Because that’s where evolution takes place. Pre-man evolved into early man because he was out there competing with all the rest. Pre-man evolved into early man because he didn’t take himself out of the competition, because he was still in the place where natural selection was going on.”” (p.238) this here is contradictory to what we believe. Because if this were to happen we would have to go back in to the cycle we believe we are out of and by doing this everyday would be at some point dangerous. Man didn’t evolve to be sitting down in front of a computer for hours for work. In some way we evolved for the wild yet we deny this and this can kill us.
Finally what man is as the intelligent creature it evolved in to our job is to make this world a better place. To improve it or at least help it in some way maintain the balance its had for billions of years. We are the ones who are to open the way for other species that will become as smart as we are. The greater question here that needs to be answered is if we will be able to teach those who follow us. Will they want to learn from us? Or will they try to destroy us and attempt to replace us with the same believe we takers have. In the end is it possible for us to become the leavers?

Obama Speech Correction

OBAMA: As you might imagine, for Barack, running for president is nothing compared to that first game of basketball with my brother Craig.I can't tell you how much it means to have Craig and my mom here tonight. Like Craig, I can feel my dad looking down on us, just as I've felt his presence in every grace-filled moment of my life.At six-foot-six, I've often felt like Craig was looking down on me too - literally. But the truth is, both when we were kids and today, he wasn't looking down on me — he was watching over me.and he's been there for me every step of the way since that clear February day 19 months ago, when — with little more than our faith in each other and a hunger for change — we joined my husband, Barack Obama, on the improbable journey that's brought us to this moment.but each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey.I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my protector and my lifelong friend.I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president.I come here as a Mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world — they're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future — and all our children's future — is my stake in this election.and I come here as a daughter — raised on the south side of Chicago, by a father who was a blue collar city worker, and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me. My mother's love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her Integrity, her compassion, and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.my dad was our rock, although he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his early thirties, he was our provider, our champion, our hero but as he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk it took him longer to get dressed in the morning but if he was in pain, he never let on he never stopped, smiling and laughing — even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my mom a kiss he just woke up a little earlier and worked a little harder.He and my mom poured everything they had into me and Craig. it was the greatest gift a child can receive, never doubting for a single minute that you're loved, and cherished and have a place in this world. And thanks to their faith and hard work we both were able to go on to college, so I know firsthand from their lives — and mine — that the american dream endures.and you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he'd grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine, he was raised by grandparents who were working class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. like my family they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities they never had themselves, and Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them.And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams, and your willingness to work for them.and as our friendship grew and I learned more about Barack, he introduced me to the work he'd done when he first moved to Chicago after college, instead of heading to wall street Barack, had gone to work in neighborhoods devastated when steel plants shut down, and jobs dried up, and he'd been invited back to speak to people from those neighborhoods about how to rebuild their communitythe people gathered together that day were ordinary folks doing the best they could to build a good life they were parents living paycheck to paycheck, grandparents trying to get by on a fixed income men, frustrated that they couldn't support their families after their jobs disappeared, those folks weren't asking for a handout or a shortcut they were ready to work, — they wanted to contribute they believed — like you and I believe — that america should be a place where you can make it if you try.Barack stood up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since, he talked about "The world as it is", and "The world as it should be." and he said that all too often we accept the distance between the two and settle for the world as it is — even when it doesn't reflect our values and aspirations, but he reminded us, that we know what our world should look like, we know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like, and he urged us to believe in ourselves, — to find the strength within ourselves, to strive for the world as it should be, and isn't that the great american story?it's the story of men and women gathered in churches and union halls, in town squares and high school gyms — people who stood up and marched and risked everything they had, — refusing to settle, determined to mold our future into the shape of our ideals.it is because of their will and determination that this week, we celebrate two anniversaries, the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, and the 45th anniversary of that hot summer day, when Dr. King lifted our sights and our hearts with his dream for our nation.

Ishmael Chapter 11: The revolution against the gods

In this occasion we explore the fear we takers have to the leaver’s life style. Here we see where the true power of mother culture lies in. The reason why we can’t move one past this culture and why the 60’s were a failure was we didn’t know how to live any other way. We have an irrational fear for the wild and the dangers that it has to us. The reason for this fear to be irrational is that we evolved to live in harsh conditions. Being sedentary caused by agriculture has caused us to have health problems such as obesity these days.
The taker culture is so illogical because of this. We believe that this is the way that it was mean for us to be. Being rulers of the world and therefore reduce our activities to the minimum. (In terms of physical activity.) It is also hard to believe that if we were meant here to put balance we always look back and think that the old days where better.
When it comes to argue between Ishmael and our narrator it can be a lesson Ishmael is trying to teach too. “I know you don’t, and that’s what irks me. You’ve become a passive listener here, turning your brain off when you sit down and turning it on when you get up to leave.” (p.212) this can happen to us sometimes. In occasions we turn off our brains and become passive listeners. It´s what happens when a teacher tells you something but instead of thinking if you agree or disagree or why you just take the teachers side and go the easy way. The narrator wasn’t pondering whether what Ishmael was presenting was right according to what he believed. He just agreed without any sort of doubt or even comment on this. (This doesn’t mean that Ishmael’s arguments weren’t well presented and hard to revoke.) Of course the narrator and his mentor are nothing but puppets in a play to tech us a new way of seeing our civilization.
Finally Ishmael made it clear, the leaver’s way of life was much better that the Leavers had. The reason why the leavers were happy and weren’t worried or stressed during most of their life is because survival was their main worry. By survival I mean going out and grabbing something nice to eat in the great food producer that is the world. Now in order to survive you must go to school, then to university and you would have needed to do a very good job on those two to get a good job and survive. Here you can see the difference. We have to do more work, get more stressed and we have to be as close to the best as possible to get the job you want. The leaver’s life is simple and relaxing. Just eat and sleep. Finally going the leaver’s way is easier because we evolved to live in the wild and to find food. What we do right now is a great change in our way of thinking that our physical body hasn’t evolved to yet. Maybe someday living this way of life will make us happy but in between we might have already crashed and we might never have a chance to see what will become of the world. Why would we want to change our way of life if we’re happy as we used to be? If the leaver’s lifestyle was so good why did the first leavers become takers? Why if our mother culture wasn’t present did this begin?

Chapter 10: The Return of the Student

Here we can see that after having lost some days with Ishmael our narrator, finds that his teacher was no longer there. Although this might not have been on purpose it did test how deep his desire to save the world was. Although the pursuit was important as a test what came after this eclipsed this. The final lesson of Ishmael, is putting together the big picture. What came before explained how the takers came to be and therefore their culture. There was a definition of culture that was really because of how it applied to us.
“When a species attains a certain order of intelligence, the members of one generation begin to pass information and techniques to the next. The next generation takes this accumulation, adds its own discoveries and refinements, and passes the total on to the next.” (p.198)
This is the definition of culture but of course the context is what really makes it mean something. Chimpanzees are passing information down to the next generation and therefore they have some sort of primitive culture.
““Yes. The takers accumulate knowledge about what works for things. The Leavers accumulate knowledge about what works well for people.””(206)
This is the main point of the whole chapter and I believe one of the most important ones of the book. It’s the main difference between the Cultures of the Leavers and Takers. That statement is why our civilization is going down the path it is. Knowing how to deal with things is good for the limited universe we live in. The book makes us see the knowledge of the leavers as something wonderful that we don’t posses. This wisdom isn’t meant for our limited universe, (of what we see hear and touch.) it means to be for the generations to come and it is means to solve the really important questions in some way. (Why are we here, what is our purpose, etc.) This way can make us think of what are we doing and should make us reflect on our actions. Many of the things we do as Takers are directly related with this. An example of this is the war in the Middle East and the political tension between Colombia and Venezuela. All of these events occur because we believe to know what the right way of living is, but when we do realize that it’s not about the right way but which works best for us will it be too late? If it ever is too late and something else takes our place will they know which and how to follow the most important law of all? If we do accept our mistakes and find our path will we fall back on to darkness when the meaning of that idealistic culture is lost?

Ishmael: A Journey of Rediscovery

Ishmael is a deep book that shows us the problems of our civilization. It is similar to “Tuesdays with Morrie” because both express the problems of our society and how these make us feel trapped and forced to live unfulfilled lives. We can see a parallel between this book with Mitch. After being in class with Morrie he decided to follow what he learned but eventually the circumstances forced him to find a usual job and get back to his place in the story as Ishmael said.
Our narrator is very similar to Mitch. He started as a person who didn’t want to follow the rules that our culture wanted to impose in to him but eventually he turned out to be another regular person living an unhappy and caged life. Eventually both Mitch and our narrator find a teacher to take them back in the right path or at least attempt to do so.
Back on Ishmael he states that the world is made for man according to our culture. Although literally this shouldn’t be true and its more man was made for the world there is no prove to contradict our idea. We haven’t found other life forms similar to us in intelligence to tell us it’s not. Even more important although we can’t control some factors and these might get to kill some of us we will keep on existing and consuming the planet the way we are right now as if nothing had changed.
I believe that the reason why we have it in our culture to think that we own the world is that we control the environment we live in. We can have more or less light in a room and control the temperature in our house. To most of us our universe is very limited. (Our home, the school, the bus) As long as that small universe that we live in stays the same then we believe that nothing outside of it can affect us. Even though we might be changing the bigger picture something’s in the smallest scale remain the same, the reason why we choose not to change the way we behave is that losing control of those little things can make us afraid of change even if it’s for a good cause.
In conclusion, because we are trapped in our society (as said in Ishmael) we end up living unfulfilled and sad lives (as said in Tuesday’s with Morrie). This happens because of our selfish thought that the world is ours and we can do as we please with it. Eventually we destroy our world and killed ourselves in the way and none of this will be solved unless we decide to make a change in our lifestyle. Our culture has evolved with us and although we were shaped in an almost perfect way to fit our place I this planet does it mean our culture fits in it too?
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What is a Blog

A. What is the difference between a blog and a book?
A book is a more rigid way of storing information, mostly words and in some cases pictures. A blog has much more freedom for you can add audio and video as well. Also books have and end but blogs can have information added to them indefinitely. Finally what is written in a book can’t be altered in anyway, for a blog you can add to or modify the information. Because of this blogs are more flexible and can carry more types of information than a book.
B. How have blogs changes recently?
Today blogs can be about anything. You can have in them any type of media and there is a huge amount of them in the internet. Although the information can sometimes be reliable it’s more likely to be false for everyone can have a blog.
C. Why might you read a blog?
I would read a blog to try and complement the information I already have. This is because I can see the comments of other people that might have found what I am looking for. Finally if I were to be looking for actual information I would also go looking for a blog.
D. Is there reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog? Why? Why not?
Yes there is reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog because the person who wrote it did this under his point of view. Therefore he might be in favor of one side rather than another. A blog usually isn’t made by a group of people but rather a single person.
E. If you kept your own blog, what would you title it?
If I were to make a blog the title would somehow be relevant to the topic its dealing with