Evan,
First of all, I laughed out loud at the two comments above :p
Second of all, I agree with Eloise about you answering your questions; your post was full of interesting ideas about perspective of death, and selflessness with age. (I especially enjoyed your metaphor in "In the end, whether it be the result of genetics or technique, men and women around the world continue to walk on the stones of years, effectively evading the least common denominator that has and will always catch us all: illness and death.") Although lovely to read and visualize, it still did not answer your question of the meaning and appeal of living to be 100.
Additionally, I recommend changing your introductory sentences; I know that you were trying to tie the reader in and be interesting, but truly, does EVERYONE want to live to be 100? is it really a dream commonly shared by ALL? Be careful with gross generalizations.
Evan's HW #29:
Evan,
I thought your choice of categorizing your domains into "Wisdom", "Power", and "Courage" was original and effective. You did a wonderful job of incorporating your own experiences into your blog. I especially liked your line, "...When my lower abdominal area felt like it had been struck by a truck" because it literally made me wince and helped me to visualize your pain, in a way. Although connected illness and dying to your own experiences, I think you could have talked about the readings and resources from class a bit more. I would have loved to read your thoughts about "Stigma", "Landmark", "Mountains Beyond Mountains" and "Near Death". Articulate, concise writing!
Eloise's HW #30:
Eloise,
I'm so very impressed! This post is fantastic. It addresses important relevant problems within the realm of illness and dying, such as the never ending intentions of oncologists and other medical personnel to keep the bodies alive, the lack of homeopathic remedies in the hospital (like art, laughter, proper diet, yoga), the lack of simple comforts such as fresh air, windows, and privacy, etc. My favorite part is the description of your uncle dying in the first paragraph (perhaps because it depicted something I've never seen?) Your ideas and explorations are all over the place - from your uncle to oncologists to art in hospitals to Tracy Kidder to various interviews. I love your obvious passion for finding information, although it is a little overwhelming to read. Perhaps in the future you could choose the point of each paragraph, and stick with it concisely. Your interview with Lorelei was a nice touch; it made the idea of doctors more than just a white coat and stilted agenda. well done!
Bianca's HW #30:
Bianca,
This is an impressively organized and written project; every quote you included was relevant and beneficial to your exploration. You incorporated them very well by introducing them and explaining how they relate to your point about the morality of suicide and the horrors of ALS. I loved Craig Ewert's perspective about "playing God"; thanks for including it. I would have liked to read about an interview with ALS patients, but I realize that it would be difficult to interview a ALS patient personally.
Raven's HW #30:
Raven,
I liked that your project was applicable to the lives of many, because diabetes is very common. Good job connecting this project to you as well as others, and giving background info. I think this project might have benefitted from you asking yourself a specific question about diabetes rather than what it is; you could have explored how hospitals deal with diabetes, or if hospitals encourage diabetics to diet/exercise, or interviewed some diabetics, or further researched stigma associated with diabetes. However, this post was still very informative and it encouraged me to do what I can to avoid this disease.
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Evan's Comment on my HW #30:
Excellent post and survey to go with a great presentation! I thought it was really funny that guys are more afraid of death before being able to leave their mark, because it's true!! However I only think most of us (including myself) are very competitive, while there are some exceptions. The same goes for females (but reversed).
Best passage to me was,
" I learned from this project that teenaged males are probably more afraid of death than teenaged females are, and thus live in more misery. This conclusion is based on the assumption that Epicurus was right when he said that the ultimate cause of misery is the fear of death and the desire for immortality"
HOWEVER- I am not sure you are in a place to deal such an absolute about males living with more misery. You touch on this a little bit about the survey being on such a small scale but I would not go on to make this level of judgement quite yet. Also, I was somewhat disappointed at the abruptness of the ending of the post- I was looking for that one really, beautiful closer but I never got it.
Excellent work,
Evan
Eloise's Comment on HW #30:
"in order to feel that they have purpose and meaning, teenaged males need to feel that they are making a lasting difference, whether in someone’s life, or via a monumental accomplishment." I thought that this was the quote that withsheld the deepest amount of insight because you are clearly analyzing the results of your data. To make this point stronger you could have elaborated upon what other reasons may cause this, and why you believe in the theories of Epicurs and then stated your evidence. I also think you could have made this point stronger by analyzing your counter evidence (females) and why you believe they had the results they did.
Daniel's Comment on HW #30:
Agreed. Nice post. You synthesized the information in both Epicurus and Yolam, developed a methodology, and delivered an interpretation of the results.
I know you had mostly teenagers available for the study, but I wonder if you had a chance to ask these questions of a few adults as well. Do you think the gender difference would stand, even out, or switch?
Do you think that women consider (or are taught to consider) child-rearing a form of immortality/remembrance? If so, what does that say about the state of "fatherhood" as males have come to see it? (of course, I'm throwing inference on top of inference...but the graph made me curious about WHY there was a difference).
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