Section Four Siddhartha Blog

The quote I picked is, "Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish." This quote is pretty much the story of my life! This happens to me all the time! I will be thinking and have this fantastic idea but when I try to explain it I just sound like an idiot! I am not to great articulating what is going on in my head into word form. I am not really sure why but it is really annoying. For example, I have some friends who like to talk about theology and when we are talking about it I usually just sit there and listen because I do not want to say anything dumb or I might take back because that has happened a lot! But sometimes I think I have something good to throw into the conversation but only after sitting there forever a conjuring up how to say it exactly how I want but when I go to say what I want to say it comes out all weird and no one understand what I am trying to say. It might just be because once I am on the spot I get nervous and forget what I wanted to say. It gets sort of frustrating because it happens fairly often that my thoughts do not  go across how I planned it out in my head. As the quote says, "they always become...a little foolish." I do not think that I am the only one who has experienced at least I hope I am not the only one who has this happen. One reason this might happen is because when you think its not like talking. When I think I usually have visuals going thought my head along with words and its all processing a lot faster than I can talk. But when I have some great thoughts I will want to just get them out there for my friends to hear without actually thinking about the best way to state it. I will usually just come out and say it how I am thinking it in my head. One example I think that can relate to a lot of people is trying to tell someone about your dreams. Whenever someone tells me about their dream I am super lost mainly because that person is probably piecing together parts of the dream they remember so that it will make sense. When you dream its mainly just images kind of like watching a movie but its a movie that you will start to forget as soon as you wake up and start moving. And as the day progresses the dream gets harder and harder to remember eventually fading. This is sort of like thoughts in that you may have an idea one day try to explain it to some people they are just super confused and that thought may just fade never to be remembered. Another quote from the section that sort of relates to this is, "wisdom in not communicable." Now I sort of disagree with this quote because I think people can share wisdom with people through stories of their life or through telling a person seeking advice how they would handle a situation. But this wisdom might not be as clear when the person is explaining how they handled something and how they learned from it. This shows how the first quote is true talking about how thoughts are not as clear when they are spoken. This may be because people's thoughts are a totally different language then how they actually speak making it that much more difficult to communicate what they are thinking. Especially if you are person who thinks visually rather than a person who basically talks in their head. Now this might be easy for someone who is a good story teller because they communicate well with people and thinking visually would be just like a story but thinking visually could pose a problem for people who aren't that great at telling stories. I know both of these quotes are very true to me mainly because I am a horrible story teller when I am talking but when writing I am better at communicating what I want to say because I can go back and edit and have more time to think about what I am going to say rather then having to quick on my feet and come up with something to say on the spot.

Section Three Blog

The quote I chose to respond to was, "The world of appearances is transitory.  Our hair and our bodies are themselves transitory." I really like this quote because it is so true because everything will fade eventually. Like what you do with your life will only be remembered by the people you were around while you are alive and about 50 years after your death you probably will not be spoken of unless you do something notable. But appearance is the thing that will fade the most; people will remember your acts rather than how you appeared. So you can spend all the time you want on how you look and really it will not be remembered for very long at all. Instead of spending time on what you are going to wear today or next it would seem to be a better idea to take a look at what you are going to do through out the day. If you spend each day trying to do thing for people rather than making yourself look good you might be remembered. For example, if you were to help a community that suffered from hunger by providing them food I think people might be a lot more focused on the fact that you helped these people rather then how you looked when you are doing it. You can look at some of the people who are revered in history for the kind acts they did and see they were not wearing the greatest clothing. A few people that stick out to me would have to be Jesus and mother Teresa. Form what the Bible says Jesus was a pretty plain looking dude. I would also assume he was not the cleanest guy he walked around the Middle East with his disciples (who were guys) in a robe and sandals. I bet his robe was pretty dirty, he may have smelled kind of funny depending on the day you ran into him. Jesus' appearance did stop him from teaching revolutionary things, healing people and all of his acts. And when people talk about Jesus you usually hear about what he did rather than if he was wearing while he did it. As for mother Teresa all of the pictures I have seen of her she is decked out in jewelry, wearing all the latest fashions. I personally think people should learn from this and see that the way they dress wont impact how people remember them. It is all about what you are doing with your life. What you do will cause you be to remembered to a point. But unless you do something super note worthy you will probably be forgotten 30-50 years after your death due to the fact that the people who around you while you were alive will be dead. So if you want to be remembered and not just be a fading memory make your life mean something.

Siddhartha Section Two

I picked the quote, "one can beg, buy, be presented with and find love in the streets, but it can never be stolen." I would have to completely disagree with this statement because I don't think can beg or buy real and genuine love. I think that you beg and guy things that can give you instant gratification that you might think is love at that given moment. But when you look back on it you will realize what you bought or begged for really wasn't love at all. What you think is love that you pay for is forced and if love is forced it is no longer love. And if you beg for love someone might act like they love you but really they will fake it or it might just be sympathy because they feel bad for you. I do think that someone can present love to you genuinely and it can be real but then you have to make a choice of if you will accept it or not. And that whole part about finding love in the streets could be true. Maybe you run into stranger and then you hit it off and begin to date and then fall in love. But if you in the streets and you are paying for that love its not real and you aren't going to find it there. Lastly I disagree with the part of the quote that says, "but it can never be stolen." I think your love can be stolen by many things. For example all the accounts of people cheating on their spouses or leaving their spouse for another person because they fell in love with them. I personally think that is messed up because once you find love I think you should continue to pursue that person who you love as long as the feeling is mutual other wise it might be a little weird. And if you are someone who is trying to steal someone who is already in love you should stop because stealing love isn't a good thing. You should look for love in another place. Another example of love being stolen is a biblical one. Take the Jews for example, they would love God and obey The Law because they loved God and wanted to serve Him. But their love of God was easily stolen by false gods they that would carve from wood.

Sid. Section One

     "He had begun to feel that the love of his father and mother and also the love of his friend Govinda, would not always make him happy, give him peace, satisfy him." This quote from the book seems to describe Siddhartha's personality quite well from what we have read so far. I say this because he seems not to be happy with anything in life. As the quote states Siddhartha began to feel like he wouldn't be satisfied with the love of any of the people who were the closest to him so he leaves home. After he leaves home to be with the Sadamans he still did no find satisfaction there so he moved on and went to listen to the teachings of the Buddha. After listening to the teachings of the Buddha Siddhartha still was not satisfied. And I really think that is how he is going to spend a large portion of this book, just seeking happiness but never really finding it. I think that most people can relate to this search as well. Everyone wants to find the thing that will make them the most happy in life for example having a great job, making loads of cash, having a family, playing a professional sport, owning the best things and the list goes on and on. Everyone just wants to get a hold of this thing called happiness. I think this quest for happiness is never ending because happiness is a very temporary emotional state. For example, Christmas morning you wake up earlyand wake up everyone else in the house so that you can open up your presents. Once everyone is awake you shred that paper and there is that remote controll car you have been asking for since summer time! For the next couple days all you do is play with that remote controll car and it just makes you the happiest person ever and then as the days go on playing with the car seems to be not as fun. Then the feeling happiness fades and it may come back if you wait a couple months then play with the car again but its never the same. This is really how it is for everyone maybe its ntoa  remote controll car but you just plug whatever it is you think will make you happy into the remote controll car.

Biography

Name: Kellon Benson
Birthday: 6/10/1994
Hometown: Ellensburg
Job: Amature Freelance Photographer
Internet Access at home:Yes
What is your attitude towards reading: I like reading but its not something I usually do in my free time. When I don't really read stories. I like books that have peoples thoughts in them. For example I recently read a book called Erasing Hell by Francis Chan.
What is your attitude towards writing: I really like journalism writing and I am some what of a fan of fictional narrative writing.
What is your attitude towards public speaking: I am not big on public speaking because I am not the greatest at talking. I mix my words up or they get all jumbled together. It can be funny but not in front of people I don't know that well.
What is your attitude towards English class in general: I have really enjoyed English class in the past years of high school so I am pretty excited for this coming semester of English.
What are your career plans after high school: After high school I have a few ideas of what I want to do but nothing is set in stone. One of the things I want to do is be an intern for a youth pastor in town or go to Seattle and be sound, lighting audio visual intern at a church called Mars Hill. Another idea of mine is to go to community college for two years and then head to a university for photography, graphic art, marketing, networking or something in those fields. Those are my plans for now but like I said nothing is set in stone.
Favorite Movie: I have a lot of movies I really like. But most of my favorite movies are directed by Christopher Nolan.
Favorite Book: If I had to pick one book that I would read the rest of my life it would probably be the Bible. never gets old.
Favorite Video Game: I cant really narrow it down to one. Halo Reach for the game play, all of the Assassins Creed games for the story, and there are a ton more but I will leave it at that.
Favorite Color: Don't really have one.
Favorite Sport: Favorite two sports to play non-competitively with friends would be basketball or soccer.
Favorite Sports Team: I don't really watch sports so I don't have a favorite time.
Favorite Activities out side of school: I really like just hanging out with my friends having bon fire while listening to music, going to the lake and whatever else comes to mind.
Favorite Food: I cant pick a food but my favorite foods together would be steak; a baked potato with sour cream, topped with  bacon bits and a glass of milk.
Favorite Quote: "Duh, winning" mainly because it makes me laugh and its really fun respond to any question with.
If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go and why: I would go to Minneapolis, Minnesota in the summer time. Mainly because that is where my brother lives and I love hanging out with him, my sister in-law and their kids and the rest of my sister in-law's family.