Faux-clothing on the Spatula Clock

Introduction: This is a blog post. 

Starting Point: I start with all the points of reference I have accumulated over my life. Some of those include being Jewish, being white, being American, growing up middle-class, growing up in a small liberal town, etc...

What I Learned: I have learned lots of little facts and such from the readings, but those sorts of facts and external realities seem to trivial and mundane for this class. Perhaps because of my very open and diverse upbringing, I have found that I haven't learned anything new about myself and my worldview so far in this class. However I know that recently, although this may have more to do with college than this class, I have been able to recognize more and more the places and experiences in my childhood that were unique and shaped me into who I am. That understanding has been really interesting for me.

What I'd like to Learn More About: I think it would be interesting to learn more about actual philosophy and the actual ideas that have shaped cultures throughout history. This is a very self-centered class, focusing mostly on how we as individuals see the world, and, for all the discussion about how we got to be who we are, we haven't really been looking into the past or learning how the ideas that we have now developed. 

Conclusion: This has been a blogpost. 

Composting in Convex

INTRODUCTION:

I have always seen the world in a very empathetic way. Since I was a child I noticed and absorbed the emotions and feelings of other people around me. I was the kid who would take a spider outside rather than kill it. I try to understand where people are coming from and why they do what they do. That is the way I make sense of what is happening around me. 

STARTING POINTS:
Most of who I am and how I see the world has to do with my parents and how I grew up. On one side, I grew up in a family with a vegetable garden, a family where being outside was important, in an environment where my parents let me run free in the neighborhood, trusted I was ok, and the friend's house you were at when lunchtime rolled around was the house you ate at. It was an upbringing that helped shape me as a very open child, unafraid to have experiences and let information in. On the other side, I also grew up in a household full of emotions to absorb. My grandfather died when I was in Kindergarten, then my parents split when I was 8. This meant that a lot of my early years were spent surrounded by events that were only perceptible through emotions.

However I think the most defining event of my childhood, and in many ways, the most damaging 2 words I was ever told, was when my Kindergarten teachers insisted I "Don't Cry". In a class full of rowdy, troubled, and aggressive children, I quickly became overwhelmed and, unable to let out any of the feelings and emotions I was picking up on, turned them inside, shoved them down, and stopped letting myself deal with my own emotions. I still saw what others were feeling, but there wasn't any room for my own feelings. My own feelings were bad. It has taken most of my life to this point for me to process my own feelings as well as those around me. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

I think the idea of how we look at the world and how we understand it as having different categories and methods is helpful to be able to see balance and understand biases and flaws in your own views. I find it helpful to understand why I see things the way I see, versus my friend who may see things differently, or even myself seeing the same thing at a different time in my life.

CONCLUSION:
I frequently use emotions to understand the world, through a Spiritual WOK. I see other WOKs in other things I see in events and experiences I have.