Mommy and Daddy

Family is a huge influential factor in growing up and shaping how children will be as they get older. Family is who you are born with and (hopefully) die with, so it is clear that they have a huge effect on one's life. The values parents teach their children are most often the values the children also value as a result, however, many times, it is these values that kids vow to stay away from when getting older. For example, my parents value a number of things above getting good grades, while I value grades and education over almost anything. Yet, the moral values I was taught regarding respect and manners have stayed with me becuase of what my family has taught me. Many times when children are struggling/have a problem, the connection can be linked back to home life. Many troubled kids have broken homes and their morals were never set in place.
The true link to having a successful future is being born into a successful, happy family; however, clearly this is not an option up to us.

Morrie's Dependency

Although from the surface it may seem as though Americans are afraid of being too dependent on one another, just as Morrie said, "There is nothing innately shameful about being dependent. When we were infants we needed others to live, when we are dying we need others to live, but here's the secret - in between we need others even more." What Americans truly fear is physical dependency, not emotional dependency. We fear death and we fear approaching death because the approach towards death is one where the factor of physically dependency regresses back into childhood where the only way to live is from reliance on others. Emotionally, however, we are extremely dependent on one another. We depend on our families and relationships for love. This is not a bad thing, though. In the grand scheme of things, everyone needs one another from the moment we are born. In most societies, however, we try so hard to stray away from this dependency. We want to be able to live for ourselves and not for others, but the further we try and stay away from it, the worse off we are. Dependency can have negative results such as the pain after broken trust; however, there is a reason we strive so hardly for love. We want to love, but love, in itself, is a dependency on another person. Although Americans want to stay independent, we need each other more than ever.

Munich Madness

This week we read an essay written by Stefan Schirmer, the journalist from Munich, and I must say, I wholeheartedly disagree with him! I read the essay regarding rules and was disgusted by how he views America. We have been bombarded with all different shows/movies/texts that explain how poorly other countries think of us and not once have we examined the positives. Perhaps no country views us in a positive manner, but this is unlikely. My parents came to America for a reason -- they wanted freedom and Schirmer's view on freedom is far unlike our own. Freedom to him is freedom from rules and restrictions; like he explained, they may have a drinking age, but who follows it? Freedom for the Americans is set by our Bill of Rights and we are expected to follow the laws because if we didn't this country wouldn't be as successful. In my opinion, America, will all its pitfalls and mistakes, is still the most successful country in the world. America has its faults like every nation, but we aren't known the same way Iran or North Korea is. Schirmer, along with every other critic, deserves to show a bit of respect.