Masih's Choice

Gauge of Normalcy

As human we are put on this earth with no sense of definite direction. When we are born, we aren’t handed a handbook on how to live our lives. When we see someone else do something we like to do, or have the desire to do, we get together and form a community.  Community gives us confirmation that our way of living life is normal. Any activity in this world can be connected to a sense of community. It is nearly impossible do even think of doing something, if there is only one person doing it.

What forms a community is passion and interest for a certain subject or an activity. In her essay Befriending Barbie, Shari Caudron explores the world of Barbie dolls collection. In her essay she reflects on what she saw in a Barbie Doll convention, “behind a pink cord, there were about 150 people standing in line wearing psychedelic clothing, abstract geometric prints, Afro wigs, and lime green fringed vests. Two men at the front were wearing matching striped bell bottoms, white belts and platform shoes.” She further goes on to see “booths and tables that were filled with overfilling with clothing, accessories, books, teeny, tiny jewelry, I love Lucy barbies little Bo Peep Barbies, Erika Kane Barbies, And Olympic Athlete Barbies” (170). One can see that all these people are totally obsessed with Barbies, but why? After all it’s just a doll. The reason is because there are so many people passionate and interested about it. Barbie collection is “second only to stamp collecting as the most popular collecting hobby in America” (168). There would be no extravagant conventions such as this if there was only 1 person who liked this hobby. Barbies, are after all just dolls, but the mass appeal attracted the formation of this dedicated community. From the outsider’s perspective looking in, one would definitely judge a grown man if he was in line dressed up for a Barbie convention. But to that person, that lifestyle is normal because there are so many people doing the same thing he likes to do which is obsessing over Barbie.

Communities can range from as big as the Barbie doll collection community, to as small as the high school wrestling community. High school wrestling is by far the most physically demanding sport in high school. There aren’t any professional leagues for high caliber wrestlers, there aren’t any million dollar contracts, and there aren’t sponsorships. But still every year, young men and women still go through the pain and agony of cutting weight, running miles, just so they can put on tights so they can battle an opponent in the ring. But why? The reason is because of the community. You would sound crazy to wrestle by yourself and be the only one on the team, but the passion to win and get your hand raised motivates kids of all ages to join the wrestling team. When Cascade High School head wrestling coach, Todd Freeman, was asked “What community means to him”? He replied “community to me is a place where people feel safe and comfortable, and be happy doing what they do. A community can range from wrestling, to playing soccer, or being in the chess team, or just being a nice person.” It is not necessarily where you live, or who you hang out with. It’s mostly what you like to do. Let’s take wrestling for example, there would be nobody doing wrestling, if there was only person on a team. When kids see other kids doing something and it interest’s them, they seem do want to give more effort and attention, and be more expressive on how they behave. I know I am a coach of the wrestling team, but this team will go nowhere if there wasn’t a community to support it”. Then he was asked “why do so many kids do wrestling even though it’s a hard sport”? He answered “When a wrestler sees another wrestler work as hard or even harder, then he is more motivated to work hard. My number one philosophy in wrestling is character outside the wrestling mat. When you see my athletes walking in halls of the school, they vibrate a sense of pride which can be seen by all, kids want to be part of that, so when student see my athletes, they want to be part of that, which in turn builds the community, which in turn is benevolent cycle that builds the team bigger and stronger”. The last question he was asked was “why did you choose to wrestle”? He answered “at first I was hesitant to do wrestling, but the reason why I did it was because there were so many kids wrestling in my high school, that it was the thing to do. Here in Cascade High school we don’t have a big program because kids look at wrestling and say it’s just weird when guys touch other guys, so there is a mob mentality not to do wrestling. If the whole school bought into the idea of wrestling being a sport in which character and pride is built, we would have a strong team. When kids see their friends wrestle they want to wrestle, it’s that simple. But when they see the sport being looked at as being “homosexual” they are deterred because they will be looked at by their peers as an outcast, But when they enter and buy into the wrestling community, they feel more comfortable with what they are doing because they see so many kids wrestling and see that it’s no different than any other sport.” So basically, seeing other kids wrestle, and take pride in what they do attracts the interests of other kids in school, making this grueling sport seem a normal thing to do, and not weird. 

Community although big or small is a gauge of normalcy for human tendencies. When we see other people do the same thing we like to do, we get together and do it because we feel normal. There would be no obsession over dolls, or determination for a grueling sport, if there was only one person interested in the subject. This interpretation of community can be related to all aspects life big or little. 

Introduction: Writer's Choice

The piece I chose to be my “writer’s choice” was the paper I had to write about community and its function called “Gauge of Normalcy”. This paper by far was my favorite to write about. From the first day that I heard about the topic of community and was familiarized with it, it clicked with me really well. My favorite part of this essay was my thesis “Community gives us confirmation that our way of living life is normal. Any activity in this world can be connected to a sense of community. It is nearly impossible do even think of doing something, if there is only one person doing it.” I felt like this was one of the best thesis’ I have written and it really displays my ability as a writer. 

Writer's Voice Blog

Green Community

Smoking Marijuana is a community. Although it may sound like a bunch of “drug addicts” abusing “drugs”, smoking weed is a recreational activity that brings people together. Smoking weed is an interest shared by people from all different ages, ethnicity, or color. The enjoyment of smoking holds the group together because smoking enhances the senses and pleasure so when you are around people that are “high” there is a lot of love and compassion to be passed around. In a smoking session the members take turns passing the smoking apparatus, the smokier the air, the deeper the conversations that take place. The enhancement of the senses usually leads to another activity such as eating, dancing, or socializing so therefore there is a lot of enthusiasm to have fun and hangout. All the members of the smoking community share the love and passion for smoking and this similarity brings them together.  Since smoking Marijuana is illegal, unless you have proper certification, the law is the biggest tension the works against the cohesion of this community.

In the smoking group, I am another person who loves to smoke. I like to smoke with different kinds of people. Since I have a job, and a stable source of income I usually contribute the most amount to the pool of medicine. I like talking and socializing so in the community I like to drive conversations and try to talk to as many different people as I can. The smoking community is a community I like being a part of because it attracts different types of people, and one of my favorite things to do is meet and greet new people. Besides the socializing aspect, the calming effects of Marijuana makes this community filled with people that just like to chill and be nice to each other. 

Introduction: Writer's Voice

The paper I chose to demonstrate my “writer’s voice” is the Blog I titled “Green Community”. In this blog we had to talk about a certain community that we are a part of and how we contributed in the whole process of this community. I chose to write about my medical marijuana community I was part of. When I first wrote this paper I was very careful about how I want to come off as. People who smoke weed are looked at as so called “losers” and are stereotyped as having a lower intellectual level. So when I started writing this blog I tried to veer away from words that would make me sound like a stoner and chose to go with a more articulate approach. An example of that is “The enjoyment of smoking holds the group together because smoking enhances the senses and pleasure so when you are around people that are “high” there is a lot of love and compassion to be passed around. In a smoking session the members take turns passing the smoking apparatus, the smokier the air, the deeper the conversations that take place.” I also knew that I was speaking to an audience of a bunch of college kids who are already aware of the smoking community around them so I was no afraid of not talking about it and was not shy to bring it up in a blog. Writing in a public environment is challenging because a writer is only judged by his/her word which at time can have a good reflection, but can also evoke emotions from certain people because the writer is less aware of who is out there. This process of public writing really challenged me to think about what I have to say before I write it because I am not familiar with my audience.

My Revision Piece

Pop culture is what is the most common interest in society. It is the cool car all people should own. It’s the new style of hair all the ladies should rock. It's the new kind of sound that is bumping through the speakers of all the cars. Pop culture is the reflection of what the society's desires are. Just like tradition pop culture evolves with the generation that it is with. Like for example each decade is given its own pop culture and whenever someone talks about that certain decade, we always seem to categorize certain things with it. Like with the 70's we seem to think about hippies, long blonde hair on guys, and funk music. I believe in the future the pop culture will reflect what is current with that time. If we decide to go green and find alternative fuel sources, we might have a green pop culture in which everybody decides to be on the green side and I believe the music and the fashion will reflect it eventually. Pop culture is what we think of when try to categorize many things in out a summation and try to fit it in a category that is easily understandable. Like for example if we were to look at the decade we have had so far in the decade 200-2010, many ideas can come to mind. We can start out by talking about how we were scared of the Y2K scares and how we started the whole decade in a bang. Then after that there was an explosion of rap music that expanded throughout the country and made the rap stars that were there lots of money. One of the prime examples of this theory was the rapper Kanye West. In the mid 2000’s he had his CD College Dropout that went platinum and made him a lot of money because of it. By the end of the decade he was one of the best musicians and will be looked at as a prime example of what the decade stood for.

 Pop culture is summation what is the most common interest in society. It is the cool car all people should own. It’s the new style of hair all the ladies should rock. It's the new kind of sound that is bumping through the speakers of all the cars. Pop culture is the reflection of what the society's desires are. Pop culture is what we think of when try to categorize many things in out a summation and try to fit it in a category that is easily understandable Just like tradition pop culture evolves with the generation that it is with. Like for example each decade is given its own pop culture and whenever someone talks about that certain decade, we always seem to categorize certain things with it. Like with the 70's we seem to think about hippies, long blonde hair on guys, and funk music. I believe in the future the pop culture will reflect what is current with that time. In the essay, “This is How we Live”, by Ellen DeGeneres, she writes how technology makes people lazy.  “Modern life requires hardly any physical activity.  We just push a button and stand there.”(638). I feel like our generation that was raised in this decade will not only be considered lazy, we will also considered technologically dependent and a lot less humane than the generations before us. If we decide to go green and find alternative fuel sources, we might have a green pop culture in which everybody decides to be on the green side and I believe the music and the fashion will reflect it eventually. But if we were to look at it in the opposite side of the spectrum, we can see that humans can be a lot less green and we can be more dependent on machines to do our jobs. If we were to go through that route, we all would look like the humans that were depicted in the movie Wall-E. In this movie it depicts humans of just moving on a bed that carries them everywhere without them even wanting to move. Everybody wears the same clothes that can change by a push of a button, and everyone is large and overweight. The pop culture like that would be quite dry and far from the disco, and hippies of the 70’s.

Introduction: Revision Piece

During the tradition Unit we had a DB post which gave us many assumptions about pop culture and we had to either affirm or challenge 1 of those assumptions based on a selected reading. When I first responded to this DB I just really blabbered on about how pop culture is and how it affects me personally without even acknowledging any of the assumptions. At the end of this brief response I said “Like with the 70's we seem to think about hippies, long blonde hair on guys, and funk music. I believe in the future the pop culture will reflect what is current with that time. If we decide to go green and find alternative fuel sources, we might have a green pop culture in which everybody decides to be on the green side and I believe the music and the fashion will reflect it eventually.” Although it seems okay I just didn’t put enough actual effort into it to talk about the assumption of pop culture being the reflection of what is current in our society. In my revision I actually referred to a reading as instructed by the prompt and I elaborated on what I meant with the assumption being reaffirmed. 

So Much For Family Meals

So Much For Family Meals

            If the last supper was to have modern interpretation, it would most likely be called the last TV dinner in the fridge or the last time food was ordered from McDonalds. Family meals have been a cultural tradition throughout time for humans. Ever since the days of the cavemen, people from the same tribe would sit together and enjoy meals. The modern innovation of fast food and processed foods has drastically ruined the tradition of eating food with the family together.

            Prior to the innovation of fast food and processed food the whole family would sit around the table and say grace to eat together. The matriarch of the family would work hard and long to prepare the food so the whole family can get together and enjoy the food. The gravy ladle would be passed to the person who wants some sauce on their mashed potatoes; the salad would be exchanged for the person not to fond of the meat in the meal. There was a sense of bonding when the whole family would get together at a meal and exchange ideas about how each person’s day was and how they plan to spend the rest of the week. But ever since the innovation of processed and fast foods came about, the scene above was less and less apparent in the American lifestyle. And “Mom lost authority over the dinner menu”(Pollan 541).

            With the appearance of and processed food, there was no need to gather around the table and eat together because a meal can be made in less than 5 minutes instead of waiting for the whole family to get together and eat. Nowadays everyone in the family has a different schedule to go by so it is impossible to find a time to get together with the family and eat food together. According to Eric Schlosser “about 90% of the money that Americans now spend on food goes to buy processed foods.”(527). Processed foods are the food that manufacturers make prior so when the consumer gets it on their table, the food is already premade. And all the consumer has to do is just put the premade food in the microwave and they have a meal ready and hot just like momma used to make. With conflicting schedules of mom, dad and the kids, processed food allows each member of the family to have a cooked meal ready to enjoy without the hassle of cooking something from scratch.

            Besides processed food, the innovation of fast food has changed how family meals are eaten. In the United States there are thousands upon thousands of fast food restaurants in every turn. Each of them providing a different variety to choose from. There are even some fast food restaurant that even have the so called dollar menu, which basically means a menu items for a dollar. With this sort of convenience it makes sense why would a family turn away from family dinner and start eating fast foods. It is cheap and it is quick so there is no hassle to go through to make the meal.  Besides the time spent in the kitchen, preparing a food requires making a trip to the super market to buy all of the ingredients. After the ingredients are bought, the vegetables must be washed then peeled and then more effort and time needs to be put in to cook the food. If the person in charge of making food for the family has to do this several time throughout the day, there would be no time for that person to do anything else and they would really hate their duty for the family.    

            Even though the cultural tradition of having family dinners have been lessened by the innovation of fast foods and processed food, they have made life a lot easier for people. If we were to look a bit further back in time, we would imagine our ancestors huddled up in small tribes moving from one place to another looking for the next thing to eat, but when there wasn’t anything to eat or there would be some sort of natural disaster that would affect the sustainability of food, the population to shrink and that tribe would die out. Fast forward to the modern day present, we can see that there is no need for humans to be nomads because the convenience of processed and fast food makes our lives easier. Prior to the invention of processing food, the shelf life of many foods was quite minimal and when the food rots, it would be a big waste of money. And in this economy we are having, processed and fast food has helped families because it is quite hard raising a family so when the costs of feeding one’s kid is lessened it makes it a lot easier to live.  

              Having family meals is a tradition that has been a way of living and stability ever since the days of the cavemen. Sitting around the table bonds families and creates a scenery that is not replicable anywhere else. But with the innovation of processed and fast food, this cultural innovation has be lessened quite a bit. The convenience that fast foods and processed foods provides really makes life easier because they take a lot less time to make and are cheap and easy time acquire. The family meal has not totally been erased from our culture just yet, but with the human technology being improved every day, and the techniques of processing for the population to eat, this cultural tradition’s future looks bleak. Not to be pessimistic or anything but there can be a future where each family member would be huddled in ones room, taking a cube and just adding water to it and leaving it in the microwave and in seconds they would have mashed potatoes with gravy, or salad with their meal, without the hassle of walking down to the family table.