I realize, my life is becoming a mess. I seemed motivated to do one thing. I seem to be accepting more than I can handle. I seem to be piling it all up. I think this could be bad. In reality, I can make it all stop. For now, I will just keep taking it in stride, doing what I can, when I can/want to do it.
Went out to Battle Creek with Nikki tonight. She has observed that fewer people hang out during the school year than in the summer. Because of this we have concluded that summer is much better than now. On the upside, the amount of time the two of us get to spend together just chatting has increased dramatically. I find it so cool to just sit and chat about life, our pasts, and even when we feel brave, our futures.
After our cool chat session and some walking, we headed over to the local coffee house and did some more talking. We were shortly joined by Derek and PK and began discussing things like Starlight and a new computer lab. This basically added an event to my adgenda for tommorow as well as some research between now and then. I think I love work. I think I love life. I think a lot of things.
So, what is it that keeps me going? Hope. Hope for what? A better tomorrow. What makes tomorrow better? more love. What is love? For heaven’s sake: ask Plato. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I wrote a brief thing on my reading of Plato. It was without structure or organization and was more of a freewrite. Very similiar to this website’s structure, but probably even more unorganized. I think for the sake of this entry, I will post it. Maybe I am crazy. For all you homework stealers who need something on this book, you can take it and submit it as your own, but only if nobody catches you doing it and you feel really really stupid. So without further delay: some of my worst homework.
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Plato’s Symposium brings into light many different views that I find intriguing about love, especially when related to other materials I have read about this same group of people. The first thing I found very curious was Phaedrus. I read a book titled Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which contained an alter ego that shared the same name as the Greek character. The name was derived from the similarities between the two characters. Both characters are seeking answers to concepts that are more than likely beyond their overall comprehension. In this way, I relate to Phaedrus’s struggle in looking for answers to what is Love and how should we praise it.
I also found it interesting in how these men described Love. Unlike today’s society, they were OK with homosexual relationships. They saw it as some form of teaching for young men. It was amazing to see how these great philosophers were so openly homosexual in scenes such as Alcibiades putting ribbons on Socrates and Agathon. It confounds me that this society is so much more openly accepting, and even thinks being gay is common, where today’s society is filled with intolerance and hate crimes. This shows how amazingly open to new ideas the Greeks were.
To this same point, I am amazed at both the level of rhetoric and logic that both Socrates and Agathon display towards the end. Agathon’s seems to be on the level of ‘creative’ thinking. He takes a perspective that no one else would take. He took the less obvious path to make his stand out. Socrates however used a strong appeal to logos to confuse those around him into making what he said sound deeply complex. He combined it with a story that appeals more towards pathos to create what some would call a perfect combo for relaying a point. It shows just how brilliant and powerful Socrates rhetoric could be, even when his ideas may not be his own.
At the same time, I found this book very oblique. I am not sure one can analysis Love with any sort of logic or pattern. In much the same way, I agree with some of the statements people like Phaedrus make such as, “it’s only the lovers who are willing to die for someone else.”(Plato 11). It seems to me that you can only look at love from a broad perspective and not apply any rules to any one person. For although I agree with Phaedrus on his statement, I find that this does not hold true to all. I am sure there are some people that would die for a stranger. I am sure there are some lovers who would not die for the other. I also realize that half of these statements have a twisted double meaning to them. Phaedrus’s statement could also mean that only the old will die for the young. That interpretation comes from lovers being the word for the older male and boyfriends being the word for the younger male. Needless to say, these somewhat half-drunk men come to some startling broad conclusions about love and life.
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Ok, so that was my paper. For those of you who might know me a little better. I consider myself Phaedrus from time to time. This is what lead to my belief that I should be as dumb as I can 99% of the time. Conclusions like these are obviously wrong, I know that, and that is what makes me Phaedrus. Isn’t that confusing?
Perhaps I will now play with this amazing compression software known as DivX and see just how well it will put BMW onto a cd for me. Here’s hoping! Everyone have a nice night!