Lit. Circle Response #3

Thinking in Pictures: Life with Autism. Temple Grandin.

Meeting #3. 123-184.

Summary:

In this section Grandin talks about the medication associated with autism. She talks about the new methods as well as the old. Afterwards she goes on to talk about autism and relationships and how autistic people see relationships in physical ways better than in mental ways. Then she goes into connecting with cows and how it helped her with her work; she was able to see things through the cows eyes and because of that she was able to accomplish more.

“One should not always be a watcher- the cold impersonal observer- but instead should participate” (Grandin, 153).

This is a quote from Temple; she talks about how autistic people often don't get involved but really should; people without autism are no different. There are always children that stay far away and just observe because they aren't courageous enough to participate. Children need to understand that they can not always be observers- they need to take part in things and become involved. Becoming involved is scary but it widens a person's horizons and lets one experience more than they ever could by just being an observer. Autistic children are often thought to be so different from normal children but they really aren't; they have the same problems that normal children do, like not fitting in and not being accepted, again as Temple says, one just has to step out and try something new and that problem is gone.

Captured Thought: Post-modern art

I never understood why people enjoyed a dot on a white canvas and why that was called art. After spending weeks learning about modern vs. post-modern art I finally realized why people liked this art. It is the only next step.
Artists have already shown everything that is visibly seen; now they have to dig deeper and show what we can't see with our eyes. Because we can't see these things with our eyes, people have the freedom to explore any type of image. Someone's personality can be represented by a black canvas or by millions of crazy colored paint splatters. There is no limit on that which we can not see.
Modern art is hard to accept for me, but knowing where it comes from definitely helps. It opens up doors to things that are otherwise impossible to represent. A persons feelings, personality, anything really.
Some modern art seems very simple as well but when you dig into it: not everyone can come up with a certain way of arranging colors and making it represent a certain feeling or emotion.
I will stay loyal to super photorealistic art as my choice of favorite, but i definitely understand now why many like modern art; it opens up a door that was previously closed shut.

Connection: Dreams and Einstein's dreams

Einstein's dreams, the novel, talks about different dreams that have a running theme through all of them. This theme is: time. If one reads each chapter separately, they really don't make much sense, nor do they when read together. The only thing that ties them all together is time and the way that each speaks of time.
My dreams often have a running theme through out them as well. They are colorful and random, super vivid, and more real than life but the thing that ties them all together is that they let me explore my hidden secrets. Things that I try to avoid in real life, come out in my dreams.
Some times having your secrets revealed in your dreams can be a good thing and some times they are too hard to face. If I am struggling with friends or enemies, I often have dreams that I am running away from something.
Couple of years back, I had the most vivid dream of me running away from my two enemies. They had guns and I didn't. It was snowy all over and there was one path that I could run on. I ran and ran and found some card board that I decided to hide under. As I'm sitting there, breathing like a long time smoker, one of my enemies runs up and points the gun at my forehead. In the blink of an eye she had shot me and next thing I know: I am laying in my bed, scared to open my eyes because I think that all I will see is white nothingness... in my mind, that was heaven. Finally I open my eyes only to be releaved to see my room in perfect silence and peace around me.
These dreams are hard to face, but after I do, normal life becomes much easier.
People who I don't want to think about come up in my dreams in ways that I want to see them, or the way that they are that I am trying to pretend is false.
Overall, just like in Einstein's dreams, my theme of facing hidden thoughts in my dreams is a very broad theme, just like time is in this novel. It leaves room for much imagination and makes me want to sleep forever just to see what my mind can create.
Dreams really are fascinating and it is a shame we can't always remember them.

Metacognition: First semester

This semester definitely did not turn Out how I thought it would. Shadow catcher taught me to pay more attention to languAge in books and I started to pay more attention to the double story lines. Sophie's world was the first book I ever read that was philosophy for teenagers and it let me remember much more information than I would from a normal class.
The videos that we watvhed were very random but all interesting in there own way. I learned much more than I thought I would this semester.

Metacognition- Get organized

I decided that for my organizing project I was going to clean my room. I have had piles of clothes lying all around my room and everything has been in a complete jumble. I had been having problems finding things for the past week as well so it seems like the right thing to organize.

Before I started I definitely was not excited. Having to get up and actually do something seems so annoying and tiresome. Once I finally got up and got into cleaning everything seemed to come much faster. After a while it actually became kind of fun. I shut myself in my room and cleaned everything. Sometimes i even found interesting things, like an old collection of clay dolls I made when I was little.
Once I had finished I felt very accomplished. I mean, cleaning a room is a pretty big deal!

My head felt much better, as if I had organized it instead of my room. Everything now had a place and I knew where that place was, felt good.

Cleaning my room is always the last thing on my list but now I know that as much of a hassle as it is- it does help. It cleans up your head and makes it easier to think. The amount of clutter in my room had affects how my head was, now that everything was organized in my room- everything seemed organized in my head as well. It also lets you think during the process of cleaning. I came up with lots of good ideas while cleaning- sadly I no longer remember them but at the time, they were very good.
Definitely will make cleaning my room a weekly event.

Change of mind: Living forever

Never ending life always seems to be desirable, something that we want but can never reach.. Now people are saying that it possibly is not impossible.. maybe we can live forever.. so now we think. Would it work? Would we want to?
I always thought I would want my family and I to live forever. Never having to face the sad reality of losing those you love but now I keep thinking about it and it does not seem as appealing anymore.
I think that there is only so much that can be done in your life and that there is a point where you complete everything you wanted to and then pass. Having no choice to die, having to stay alive forever even after you completed what you wanted will get old. I would not want that to happen so therefore I would rather set the age I live to. Not eternal life, just as long as I need to complete what I wanted.

Another problem I thought about when thinking about eternal life was- where would we find all the space to sustain everyone? The population would only grow therefore meaning that we would need more supplies and more area to sustain everybody.
Eternal life seems as a good idea when just thinking about a couple of people; once you start looking at everybody who will want to live- you only see that soon enough there wont be much room for anyone, causing us to have to move to other planets.
I don't know the answer to the question "do you want to live forever" because there are reasons I want to and others that make me think I don't. Before life is eternal there need to be ground rules set up.

Captured Thought: Change is not possible

Recently I have been having trouble with my boyfriend... actually we broke up. So this made me think about men and if they are even capable of change. Through long processing and hours of thought I have decided that they are, but trying to change someone in high school, especially a boy, is crazy talk. It is impossible.
This is one of those "Now I get it!" moments. I spent hours sitting and wondering why things couldn't be perfect and now I realize why.
Even though they were tiny changes, I tried to change him in high school and when you think about that from the other person's point of view, it makes sense why they would get angered. Some random person comes into your life and thinks that they know how to run your life better than you do, obviously you are going to get angered because you think that you know yourself better than anyone.
My intentions were good, I only wanted things for the better but he was happy with his life even though he wasn't going anywhere with it.
Changes need to be subconscious. Like with a child. Children learn through watching their parent's behaviours; if their parents say please and thank you, then the child will put that into their subconscious and say those things as well, without even noticing.
You can't tell a person, do this or don't do this- you need to show them through action that doing this, pays off in the end. I showed him that doing your work and striving to do well does pay off in the end and he took that in and now does it for himself. Yet whenever I tried to tell him something, a wall was put up as if I was a parent trying to control him.
I've seen people change. My dad for example. Through years of being with my mom, he changed from being very impatient and bad tempered to having a very good temper and being very charitable. This happens through lots of time and effort and can not be done in one day.
In high school we try to do things as fast as possible, get things done so we can go out and play. Not all things in this world are like that and relationships are one of those things you can't fly through. A relationship needs time and energy but also needs space. Through the "I miss you" process, people start to listen to each other more and get closer to each other on a deeper level.

That right there was my "Now I get it!" moment, well, at least that was about 2% of it. :]