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Commonplace #19

Vietnam: What I Remember 

“Watched fellow marine shoot himself in the foot to get evacuated. Heard same man crying in his sleep when he was returned to the company” -David W. Powell

I chose this quote because it does a great job of showing how terrible war can be when you’re in it. He witnessed a person shoot himself to try to get out of the war and the person who shot himself still had to stay in the war. That would be devastating to watch and be the person who had to go through that. This description alone creates a lot of imagery of how awful it must have been there. I couldn’t imagine being in a situation so miserable that you felt the need to shoot yourself to get out of it. This is just one quote and yet it creates so much emotion. 

The Things They Carried

“Until he was shot, Ted Lavender carried 6-7 ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity.” -Tim O’Brien

I chose this quote because it shows how this guy needed to be out of his head in order to participate in the war. He had to be high so he could handle what was going on. It had to have been a terrible situation for him if he needed to be high the whole time. This quote shows that it was so unbearable that Lavender had to mask his situation with drugs. Drugs were necessary for him to be there. This shows how sad it is to be fighting in a war. If it is so awful that you can’t be in your own head, it shows how traumatic it is to be there. This quote depicts the misery of one man very well. He could do it so long as he had his drugs. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #18

Barefoot Gen 

“I hope that Gen’s story conveys to it’s readers the preciousness of peace and the courage we need to live strongly, yet peacefully.“ -Keiji Nakazawa

I chose this quote because when I read this comic, I felt like Gen was a strong character. He was young and he was a hero. He did his best to survive the situation he was in. The comic showed me what war looks like from a civilians point of view which is very powerful. These awful things were happening to innocent people and this is regular in war. I think it is sad and terrible. Gen almost gives hope through his story that maybe one day, war will not be that awful. 

United States Strategic Bombing Survey: The Effects of the Atomic Bombs

“Most of the people in the flattened area were crushed or pinned down by the collapsing or falling debris. Shortly thereafter, numerous fires started...” -Secretary of War

I chose this quote because it shows from outside perspective what was happening to the people. It is very casual and matter of fact. It does not seem like it is a big deal that people were crushed and that is because of the way it was written. If the language was changed, this situation could be depicted as so much more horrible. This does not show a lot of emotion but it is still very awful to imagine. 

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Commonplace #17

When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead

“Not tears. Their blind eyes see not your tears flow. Not honour. It is easy to be dead. Say only this, “They are dead.” -Charles Hamilton Sorley

I chose this quote because it shows that they feel the need to not waste time on the dead. They are dead so it is a waste of energy to spend time mourning over them. The dead will never see your sorrow.

In Flanders Field

“We are dead. Short days ago. We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow. Loved and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders Field.” - John McCrae

I chose this quote because it talks about the dead which is supposed to motivate others to want to join the war and fight. I think that is scary that this poem could have been used to recruit people. It talks about the dead from the perspective of the dead which is intense. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #16

Speech to the Third Army: The Unabridged Version

“Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle.” George Patton

I chose this quote because it does a good job of summing up how he believes American men are. In his speech, he talks about how Americans are “He Men” and tough. They like to battle. When Patton is delivering his speech to his men, he uses manliness, among other things, to motivate them. These men are built to endure, they’re loyal, competitive, savage, and always like to win and Patton reminds them of this during this speech which effectively gets them ready to battle. 

Henry V

“In peace there’s nothing so become a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the war blows in our ears, then imitated the action of the tiger.” -William Shakespeare

I chose this quote because it is the beginning of a powerful speech. it shows how men are mellow when they are at peace but then in a call of action (action of the tiger), they are ready to fight. I find it interesting that people can be so calm but when war times come, their persona changes and they are in a different mindset which is the mindset of battle. This quote sets the speech up for the motivation of the speech. After this quote, he starts pumping up the others for battle. 

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Commonplace #15

Introduction to the Experience of War

“Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” -Gospel of St. Matthew

I found this quote especially interesting because it almost makes war sound positive. It says that war is happening but don’t worry because it will end, it just isn’t over yet. It almost gives us hope about the ending of war. We can bond over the first and secondary trauma of war. We know it is not a great situation at the moment but in the end, it will be okay. 

Grammar and Ideology in Reporting War

“...the badly burned 12-year old who lost his mother, his father and his arms during an American airstrike.” -Indymedia, April 15th, 2003

I liked this quote because it shows how language can be extremely powerful. It can make something sound kind or mean, happy or sad, etc. The way words are put together, it can make it sound more harsh and put blame on someone. This quote starts off with a child losing their arm and it makes the reader feel sad and sympathetic. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #14

A Fable for Tomorrow

“A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we shall all know.” -Rachel Carson

I think this poem is about how much humans depend on nature and don’t necessarily realize it until nature is gone. I think this quote sums up how we view nature as humans. We don’t notice subtle changes like a plant dying or birds not chirping but when all these things happen at once, we will notice and it will be upsetting to humans and our relationship with nature. And these things that are happening around us are a part of nature, but we seem to only notice the beauty of nature and forget the burden it may bring when we rely on it so heavily. We will notice the not so beautiful parts of nature when it all depletes at once.

The Bottleneck

“If Earth’s ability to support our growth is finite- and it is- we were mostly to busy to notice.” -E.O. Wilson

I chose this quote because it is a very real and true statement about our planet and the people on our planet. The Earth can only give so much and humans continue to take without noticing the damage it is doing to our planet. He talks a lot about population/overpopulation, how land is being used, and how water is being used. Americans seem to use a maximum amount of resources which is causing issues on Earth. This chapter explains a lot of different views the economist and environmentalist and everyone seems to have different views on how we got to this point in our world. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #13

The Sea Around Us

“Pressure, darkness, and - we should have added only a few years ago - silence, are the conditions of life in the deep sea. But we know the conception of the sea is as a silent place is wholly false.” - Rachel Carson

I chose this quote because it has a lot to do with the beginning of life. The beginning of life is not silent much like the sea. Carson said that the sea being silent is false and I interpret that to have a strong correlation with the beginning of life. When humans are born, it is not silent. If you look at the sea, it is full of sound and full of life. As life begins in sea, we begin the same way. It is all natural and organic. 

The Pinewoods

“But once, years ago, in some kind of rapturous mistake, the deer did not run away but walked toward me and touched my hands- and I have been, ever since, separated from my old, comfortable life.” - Mary Oliver

Her world is transformed after this encounter. She will always remember this encounter. She think it is a good mistake that the deer came up to her instead of her going up to the deer. It is not necessarily logical and now it has changed the way she thinks about nature and spirituality. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #12

The Way to Rainy Mountain

“Loneliness is an aspect of the land. All things in the plain are isolate; there is no confusion of objects in the eye, but one hill or one tree or one man. To look upon that landscape in the early morning, with the sun at your back, is to lose the sense of proportion. Your imagination comes to life, and this, you think, is where Creation was begun.” -N. Scott Momaday

I chose this quote because it shows such a large appreciation for nature as well as for the beginning of life. Early in the morning, you see the sun come up and begin to feel the essence of nature and the natural world. This quote shows how this person feels about nature. It is beautiful and a chance for new beginnings. 

Landscape, History, and The Pueblo Imagination 

“You see that after a thing is dead, it dries up. It might take weeks or years, but eventually if you touch the thing, it crumbles under your fingers. It goes back to dust. The soul of the thing has long since departed.” - Leslie Marmon Silko

This quote is really deep and I interpret it to mean that once the life of something ends, that same life can never come back. If you keep bothering the thing that is dying, it is going to die faster. To me, the moral I get from this quote is to let it be. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #11

Introduction to Responses in Nature

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” - Frank Lloyd Wright 

I chose this quote because I like how much meaning it depicts from such a short portion. It is describing how nature will always be a solace for you. It will always do what it is going to do and that is a good thing. Humans don’t have control over nature which is what is so great about it. Nature will never you fail in the sense that is will always be there, doing what it does best, which is being unpredictable, peaceful, and beautiful. 

The Etiquette of Freedom

“The word nature is from Latin natura, “birth, constitution, character, course of things” - ultimately from nasci, to be born. So we have nation, natal, native, pregnant.” - Gary Snyder 

When he talks about where the word nature derived from, it shows how many things nature can mean. From al these words, I think the thing that stands out most to me is how these are all organic words. They have to do with new beginnings and where you come from. Going off that, I have a very big picture of what he is trying to get the reader to understand about nature. It will always do what it is supposed to and remain special and almost sacred. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #10

Symptoms of Love

“Take courage, lover! Could you endure such grief At any hand but hers?” -Robert Graves

I chose this quote because he is describing how much you have to love someone in order to endure things like jealousy, passiveness, and being in the dark about what the other person’s true feelings are for him. This quote is the end of his poem and it is summing up how you must be truly, deeply, and emotionally in love with someone in order to deal with the hardships and strong emotions that love brings. 

Fires Run Through My Body

“Pain runs through my body with the fires of my love for you. Sickness wanders my body with my love for you.” - Anonymous Kwakiutl of Southern Alaska

I chose this quote because this person is describing the pain of love. Everyone imagines love to be sunshine and rainbows but in reality, love hurts. It can take over your whole body and mind, especially when there is heartache involved and I can tell that heartache is what this person is experiencing. When you love someone and they are leaving, it consumes your entire life. This poem portrayed intense pain that came from love. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #9

The Art of Love - A Hot Afternoon: Siesta-Time

“I tore the dress off her - not that it really hid much, But all the same she struggled to keep it on: Yet her efforts were unconvincing. she seemed half-hearted.” -Ovid

I actually really disliked this poem and this quote in particular. I know it was written a couple thousand years ago but it sounds a lot like assault. I understand that the point of it is to show inner desire and how the girl was “fighting temptation” until she gave in and how he had such a wonderful afternoon, but the way it is worded, makes it sound like it is perpetuating rape culture. He phrases it as if the woman’s only purpose and obligation is to please him. This poem made me feel unsettled as I read it. I am assuming it is because it was written so long ago but if there was a new poem written today using the same language, it would be considered very offensive.

Until We Could 

“I caught the sunlight pining through the shears, traveling millions of dark miles simply to graze your skin as I did the first dawn I studied you sleeping beside me: Yes I counted your eyelashes, read your dreams like butterflies flitting underneath your eyelids, ready to flutter into the room.” -Richard Blanco

I chose this quote because it is the beginning of his story of his love for this man and how the world is against him and his love because he is gay. I think it is beautiful how he speaks about his significant other. This quote shows how Blanco pays attention to every tiny detail of his lover and how genuine he is when he talks about him. It reminds me of when I first started dating the person I am with. That feeling of infatuation and wanting to scream it at the top of your lungs but not being able to because people will disapprove. However, I am not a gay man and I will never fully understand these hardships. 

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[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #8

Orpheus and Eurydice

“And as they neared the surface of the Earth, The poet, fearful that she’d lost her way, Glanced backwards with a look that spoke his love - Then saw her gliding into deeper darkness, As he reached out to hold her, she was gone; He had embraced a world of emptiness. This was her second death...”

I chose this quote because it I like the climax to this story. Orpheus lost Eurydice once and traveled all through the underworld among the dead to find her again because he loved her so much. He finally made it and had her to take back to Earth with him, but the only stipulation he had was that he could not look at her. He did very well right up until they were leaving and he looked back at her which killed her again. This scene depicts so much love, longing, yearning, and heartbreak. It shows a lot of ideas about love. He was so dedicated to his love for her and that made him be able to get to the underworld, but it also showed that you should not turn your back in the midst of love and one flicker of doubt is enough to kill love. 

Letter from Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett

“I quite laugh to remember how I have been turning and turning again in my mind what I should be able to tell you of their affect upon me, for in the first flush of delight I thought I would this once get out of my habit of purely passive enjoyment, when I do really enjoy, and thoroughly justify my admiration...”

I chose this quote because I like how much adoration he is describing in reference to the poems Elizabeth had written him prior to his poem. I can tell he has a deep and passionate love for this woman. A lot of men do not express their love and compassion in the way that Browning did to his future wife. He is expressing so much joy and happiness that came from her poems and love for her. His words are beautiful, silly, and graceful. I think it is amazing to see that type of adoration. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #7

Introduction to Romantic and Passionate Love

“You were looking at me. I was looking at you. You had a way so familiar. But I could not recognize. Cause you had blood on your face; I had blood  in my eyes. But I could swear by your expression. That the pain in your soul was the same as the one down in mine. That’s the pain, cuts a straight line down through the heart. We called it love.” - Hedwig

I love this quote because it is real and raw. It describes how many romantic relationships are. Hedwig may have been referencing the Hindu story where Brahma forces Shiva (the half male half female being) to be separated from his female half so they would forever feel longing and the desire to meet again. That story has always resonated with me and I feel like it did so with Hedwig, too. This quote shows the pain, love, sadness, and passion that many people feel every day. It is a beautiful way to think of love.

On the Madness and Charm of Crushes

“A crush represents in pure and perfect form the dynamics of romantic philosophy: the explosive interaction of limited knowledge, outward obstacles to further discovery - and boundless hope.” - The School of Life

I find this quote to be very cute because it describes how we feel when we first meet someone we want to become romantically involved with. My favorite part is where they say, “boundless hope.” I remember feeling like when I first met my significant other and that feeling is amazing. Not knowing what to expect, how to act, and what is to come. It is exciting, scary, and joyful. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #6

Utilitarianism

“For the first of these objections would go to the root of the matter were it well founded; for if no happiness is to be had at all by human beings, the attainment of it cannot be the end of morality, of any rational conduct,”-John Stuart Mill

This quote spoke to me because I interpret it to mean that if you are not going to be happy, then you probably won’t be very moral in your life. Mill’s idea is that we should take actions to gain happiness individually but we should also act in the favor of public good. We should be doing things to make ourselves happy as well as doing things for the greater good. You should use self-sacrifice only when it benefits others. If you are sacrificing your own happiness for something that isn’t ultimately going to make others happy, then it is a waste of your energy and you should not do it. 

Thank Goodness!

“If they really want to do something useful, they could devote their prayer time and energy to some pressing project that they can do something about.” - Daniel C Dennett

I like this quote by Dennett because this is a perfect explanation of his point of view. He believes that if you want to do something good then you should actually use actions instead of doing things like praying. Praying isn’t going to actually do anything to help people. When he was in the hospital, it was people and equipment that helped him, not prayers. It is a nice intention to pray but it does not actually help anything. It is a waste of energy to pray. Use your energy to actually do something for the greater good. 

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #5

Why the Americans Show Themselves So Restive in the Midst of Their Well-Being

“..first do not think of the evils they endure, whereas the others dream constantly of the goods they do not have.” - Alexis de Tocqueville

This quote was intriguing to me because it really paints a picture of how unsatisfied Americans are and will remain. Americans are constantly in a rush to take the shortest route to get things to achieve happiness as well as being attached to materialistic items and envying things they do not have. There will always be inequalities in the world whether natural or unnatural. The downfall of Americans is that they are their own downfall with the way they think about things. This is interesting to me because I live in America and see this.  

Against Happiness: Why We Need A Philosophy of Failure

“But the spread of depression is partly a side effect of our addiction to happiness.” -Andy Martin

I like this quote because it does a good job of explaining his thoughts on Hawaiianisation and why people are so unhappy. We are constantly looking for the next best thing to make us happy and when we finally get the thing that we thought was going to keep us happy, the novelty of it wears off and it is suddenly no longer good enough and we become discontent, therefore, striving for the next best thing to make us happy and so on. In the end, we are going to remain unhappy if this is the way we go about finding happiness. 

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Commonplace #4

Jesus on the Elevated Status of Poverty and the Condemnation of Wealth p946

“That poor widow threw in more than all who cast money into the treasury. All have thrown in from their abundance. She has thrown in from her poverty. She gave all that she had for living on.” (Mark 12:43)

“From one who takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt. To all who ask you, give what you have. From one who takes what is yours, ask nothing back....when you loan, ask nothing in return.” (Luke 6:29-35)

I found these quotes interesting because they are all about giving and I believe that when you do good things for people, not only are you making them happy but making yourself happy as well. The first quote is saying that this woman gave what she could to help others despite being in poverty which I find very noble. The second quote basically says to help people because it is the right thing to do and not expect a reward or anything from it. If you expect something out of it, not only are you going to be disappointed when you don’t receive something, but it also takes away from your own happiness. You should give and help people as much as you can because that’s what you should do to be a good person. I believe this is very true. You should help others because it is the right thing to do.

[commonplacehuman]

Commonplace #3

The Art of Happiness

“When I say that pleasure is the goal of living, I mean the pleasure that in freedom from bodily pain and mental agitation.” -Epicurus 

I love how this quote puts Epicurus’ thoughts on happiness into perspective. He is saying that you need to live simply and in the moment. His idea says to live simply, but if you live too simply then you won’t be happy. His ideas are very interesting and reminds me of a “go with the flow” type of person. This quote speaks a lot about his idea of happiness. In order to be happy, you need to seek pleasure but not to be greedy about it. Seek simple pleasures. 

Ten Steps to Happiness

“True happiness is contentment, and that is only obtained through activities that are not fleeting.” -Bint Ahmad

Ahmad’s ideas come from his Islamic belief system. I like this quote because it sums up how he feels about what Allah feels about people. He believes that you need to take care of your body and the only way to be truly happy is to live in accordance with Allah. I find that interesting because he wants you to live a life that thinks of things in a long term perspective meaning whatever Allah has planned for you. He doesn’t want you to be materialistic. Whatever life you are living, Allah gave it to you for a reason and you should be grateful and find comfort in Allah.