Your Life on Earth: Philosophizing Purpose and Place in the #21C
Nothing Lasts Forever - Materialism Poem
I see the trees,
And the feelings of real things,
Although the flowers rot in my hands,
and the sun blurs in my eyes,
As I sink into the bottom of the Earth.
My heart aches for the things that are destroyed,
By our modern Earth.
Our world has been filled with the idea
That we have to be like everyone else,
And we are driven away from being our true selves.
Our true self, with no fake parts,
Now that is the key to happiness.
Could money really make us happy,
In such a politically glass world?
Where the trees are made of paper,
The oceans are filled with oil,
The land is filled with trash,
Is fortune really worth it?
You waste your earnings in attempt to gain material,
Yet there's suffering in the purest souls.
I look at this world in disgust,
I see it all around me.
Doesn’t this world sicken you?
Nothing lasts forever.
We all die in the end.
A first class seat and an economy seat,
They both crash when the plane goes down.
Everything Happens for a Reason - Religion Poem
When God created us,
He knew what he would see,
Beauty between you and me,
We all make mistakes,
But they happen for a reason,
To teach you a lesson.
How do I know if God is watching over me,
When I suffer a tragedy?
As long as the sun shines and the air flows into your lungs,
God is watching and protecting you.
God is with us through nature,
Each part of him in the grass,
In the grains of sand,
And in the beams of light.
Through God I can find the true meaning of my life,
Everyone has their own meaning,
Maybe it’s going into nature like Chris Mccandless,
Or through another person, like Harold and Maude.
Whichever it is,
We all are humans trying to make it in the world.
I see the trees,
And the feelings of real things,
Although the flowers rot in my hands,
and the sun blurs in my eyes,
As I sink into the bottom of the Earth.
My heart aches for the things that are destroyed,
By our modern Earth.
Our world has been filled with the idea
That we have to be like everyone else,
And we are driven away from being our true selves.
Our true self, with no fake parts,
Now that is the key to happiness.
Could money really make us happy,
In such a politically glass world?
Where the trees are made of paper,
The oceans are filled with oil,
The land is filled with trash,
Is fortune really worth it?
You waste your earnings in attempt to gain material,
Yet there's suffering in the purest souls.
I look at this world in disgust,
I see it all around me.
Doesn’t this world sicken you?
Nothing lasts forever.
We all die in the end.
A first class seat and an economy seat,
They both crash when the plane goes down.
Everything Happens for a Reason - Religion Poem
When God created us,
He knew what he would see,
Beauty between you and me,
We all make mistakes,
But they happen for a reason,
To teach you a lesson.
How do I know if God is watching over me,
When I suffer a tragedy?
As long as the sun shines and the air flows into your lungs,
God is watching and protecting you.
God is with us through nature,
Each part of him in the grass,
In the grains of sand,
And in the beams of light.
Through God I can find the true meaning of my life,
Everyone has their own meaning,
Maybe it’s going into nature like Chris Mccandless,
Or through another person, like Harold and Maude.
Whichever it is,
We all are humans trying to make it in the world.
Reflection
Project Description
In this project, we explored all the different beliefs, morals, and philosophies people have across the world, and along the way we simultaneously had formed our own philosophies. For the “Your Life on Earth: Philosophizing Purpose and Place in the #21C” project I got to work with my friend to build a beautiful collage that clearly showed our own personal philosophies, surrounding transcendentalism. We drew out a silhouette of a girl and divided it into 4 different panels, and on each paper, we did a collage symbolizing both of our philosophies. Two of the colleges symbolizes my personal philosophy, which is religion and materialism. My friend had her two collages, which symbolized nature and individualism. Along with this art piece, we had our own little poems. Our poems talked about our personal philosophies and was intertextual with the book, “Into the Wild.” I wanted people to walk away from my project knowing what gives my life meaning, which is one of the essential questions. I think through my poems I portrayed the point across. The inspiration behind why I decided to do a collage and poem was because I feel like I get across to people the best through my writing, and for the collage I wanted to try a new form of art, which rendered my decision to make a collage.
New Insights
Throughout this project, I realized different things about myself that I never knew. I realized that negativity really affected my mood for the day. I realized I would take one bad thing that happened to me during the day and set the tone for the rest of the day. Now, after this project, I realize life is to short to let 10 minutes ruin the rest of the 24 hours in a day. I think because I realized this, I have a much more positive outlook on life and the beauty of it. After this project, I also have a new found love for nature. Reading the book, “Into the Wild,” inspired me to go outside more, get off my phone, and enjoy the sun on my skin. In the book, a man named Chris McCandless sets off into a journey to Alaska, taking nothing but a 5 pound bag of rice, some clothes, and a few dollars. Fortunately, Chris makes it to his destination, but he comes across some difficulties, and accidentally ends up eating poisonous berries in an effort to fill his stomach with food. Although Chris was born into a rich family, with a degree in law, he felt his life was still not fulfilling. You would think he would be fulfilled right? No, Chris found his happiness through traveling on foot, with no ones help, by himself, and Alaska. This impacted me because I realized how much of our world today is blinded by materialism. We see people on social media with lots of money, cars, beautiful bodies, and we strive to be like them. This book opened my eyes to the reality of the world. We do not need to act like someone we’re not just to fit in, we need to be ourselves.
Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to do
From this point on, I do not want to waste my life doing things I do not want to do in order to make people happy. I will not change my personality just to get someone to like me. I will embrace every good thing that happens to me, and strive from it. I will take everything bad that happens to me and make a lesson out of it. I believe God puts us into bad situations to see how we handle them. If we handled the bad situation, we are rewarded with something good. Everything that is unfortunate in your life is a lesson God is throwing at you. Every mistake you make, is a lesson to be learned. Everything happens for a reason, and every little thing that has ever happened to you has led up to this point right now. There’s many philosophic questions I still have to answer throughout my lifetime, and although I think I know a lot about myself right now, I know I still have a lot to learn. The questions I have of myself right now are:
What is the meaning of my life?
Why did God choose me?
How can I find true happiness in such a cruel world?
How can I become the greatest person I can be?
Does everything happen for a reason?
In this project, we explored all the different beliefs, morals, and philosophies people have across the world, and along the way we simultaneously had formed our own philosophies. For the “Your Life on Earth: Philosophizing Purpose and Place in the #21C” project I got to work with my friend to build a beautiful collage that clearly showed our own personal philosophies, surrounding transcendentalism. We drew out a silhouette of a girl and divided it into 4 different panels, and on each paper, we did a collage symbolizing both of our philosophies. Two of the colleges symbolizes my personal philosophy, which is religion and materialism. My friend had her two collages, which symbolized nature and individualism. Along with this art piece, we had our own little poems. Our poems talked about our personal philosophies and was intertextual with the book, “Into the Wild.” I wanted people to walk away from my project knowing what gives my life meaning, which is one of the essential questions. I think through my poems I portrayed the point across. The inspiration behind why I decided to do a collage and poem was because I feel like I get across to people the best through my writing, and for the collage I wanted to try a new form of art, which rendered my decision to make a collage.
New Insights
Throughout this project, I realized different things about myself that I never knew. I realized that negativity really affected my mood for the day. I realized I would take one bad thing that happened to me during the day and set the tone for the rest of the day. Now, after this project, I realize life is to short to let 10 minutes ruin the rest of the 24 hours in a day. I think because I realized this, I have a much more positive outlook on life and the beauty of it. After this project, I also have a new found love for nature. Reading the book, “Into the Wild,” inspired me to go outside more, get off my phone, and enjoy the sun on my skin. In the book, a man named Chris McCandless sets off into a journey to Alaska, taking nothing but a 5 pound bag of rice, some clothes, and a few dollars. Fortunately, Chris makes it to his destination, but he comes across some difficulties, and accidentally ends up eating poisonous berries in an effort to fill his stomach with food. Although Chris was born into a rich family, with a degree in law, he felt his life was still not fulfilling. You would think he would be fulfilled right? No, Chris found his happiness through traveling on foot, with no ones help, by himself, and Alaska. This impacted me because I realized how much of our world today is blinded by materialism. We see people on social media with lots of money, cars, beautiful bodies, and we strive to be like them. This book opened my eyes to the reality of the world. We do not need to act like someone we’re not just to fit in, we need to be ourselves.
Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to do
From this point on, I do not want to waste my life doing things I do not want to do in order to make people happy. I will not change my personality just to get someone to like me. I will embrace every good thing that happens to me, and strive from it. I will take everything bad that happens to me and make a lesson out of it. I believe God puts us into bad situations to see how we handle them. If we handled the bad situation, we are rewarded with something good. Everything that is unfortunate in your life is a lesson God is throwing at you. Every mistake you make, is a lesson to be learned. Everything happens for a reason, and every little thing that has ever happened to you has led up to this point right now. There’s many philosophic questions I still have to answer throughout my lifetime, and although I think I know a lot about myself right now, I know I still have a lot to learn. The questions I have of myself right now are:
What is the meaning of my life?
Why did God choose me?
How can I find true happiness in such a cruel world?
How can I become the greatest person I can be?
Does everything happen for a reason?
