Tuesdays with Morrie

Prompt is family.

To be honest I'm not really sure what to make of Morries opinion of having kids and being married and raising children. (Because having kids and then raising them are two completely different things) I don't like kids. I have to younger cousins who are five and three, and everyone on their moms side of the family is that age as well while their dads side of the family (us) are in collage with the acception of myself and Sarah, who is a freshman.
On my cousins birthdays their moms side of the family comes over as well, so its just small children everywhere and its loud and exhausting and messy. I really don't want that. If I do ever end up having kids in my life I'm adopting teenagers, because for all I know I won't even be able to have kids with the person I choose to commit myself to.
Another thing is I really don't get the point of marriage. Like, the relationship you have with that person doesn't change, it's just a legal document. Sure, the perks and legal implications are a plus but other than the fact that you've found a person you want to share those perks with I don't really see it as any kind of milestone in life. It's not even me not wanting to be tied down because if your getting married it shouldn't feel like your being tied down. If it feels like that you shouldn't be getting married. Like that trope with guys that marriage is the worst thing ever like; thats not healthy. That's not a healthy relationship like at all.
But you know, whatever ends up happening to me in my adult family life I've got how to raise kids down moral-wise pretty much and what I want in a relationship is down packed so it'll end up fine probably.
Probably.

Tuesdays with Morrie

I'm liking Tuesdays With Morrie so far, which is kind of surprising because I really don't normally like non-fiction. For me reading is for getting away from real life, so reading about real life to get away from real life is really counter productive. Essentially what I am getting at is I wouldn't have read this on my own most likely. Same with Night and To Kill A Mockingbird.
I do like it though, I'm not even quite sure why. It just seems to flow nicely, I think, and it's illustrated well without going into too much detail. I can get a proper picture of what is going on and then it goes back to dialogue or the authors thoughts. The descriptions don't go by too quickly before I can make my picture and they don't linger to after. It's balanced and I like that.
To be honest I'm actually kind of glad that what we're dealing with is ALS, because what I initially dreaded was Alzheimer's. Watching someone you know mentally erode to me is worse than watching their body erode. If it was a choice between the two I'd rather have ALS. Either way I won't be able to do things myself, and I'd rather have it be because of physical limitations than the fact that I cannot remember how to do the things to take care of myself. I also think it would cause the people I know less grief, because I would still die knowing them.

Anyway let us get to the more lighthearted things I would like to accomplish at some point in my life.

• Top goal is to get something published before I die. I'm sure none of you are surprised that this is on my list what so ever.
• Be able to own a large plot of land and build my own house on it. 
• Be financially stable enough so that whenever I see a post somewhere from people who need money donated so they can pay medical bills or so they can get out of a dangerous place or so they can pay rent and stay out of said dangerous place, I can donate a pretty substantial chunk of currency without even having to think twice. 
• Buy a drawing tablet and good quality tablet pen so that I can dabble in digital art. (The list as to why is endless don't even get me started)
• Have enough money to fix up our current house so its sellable and so my Mom and Dad can move into a nicer wider bungalow. Or I can build one for them because that would work too and my mom would be able to plan out her garden space exactly.
• Have an esty shop

Life Is Beautiful 4-16-15

The main three parallels between Night and Life Is Beautiful are how they both start with before the holocaust effected their lives, and ended with Liberation, how the father dies right before liberation, and how the main focus is the father-son bonding. A huge contrast however are the tones of the two.

While Night has a sort of hopeless, fighting to survive, melancholy feel to it, Life Is Beautiful  is rather upbeat and humorous. This difference is caused by the age of the sons in the story. Elie from Night is 15, so he notices everything that is happening and will not ignore all of the terrible things that are going on. He is also working age because the camp thinks he is 18, so he is also suffering from hard labor.
Joshua from Life Is Beautiful however is only five years old, and ran away from the showers where he would have otherwise have been killed with all of the other children. He's in hiding and has been told by his father that this is a whole big game. He can't be outside of the barracks so he doesn't see much. What his father tells him about what is going on is a complete lie because his father wants him to stay innocent despite everything that is going on. He never doubts his father because when he hears things from the adults his father tells him that they're just trying to make him get out of the game so they'll get first prize instead of him. He also tells Joshua that all of the other children are hiding as part of the game aswell. Throughout the entire time they are at the Concentration Camp Guido's entire mission is to shield Joshua from the horrors that are truly going on. Him keeping Joshua safe from all of this is the reason why the movie is so light-hearted in places despite the facts. Because of the ten-year difference in the sons, the fathers survive with them by using different methods. These different methods and what the sons are experiencing are causing the drastic difference in tone.

Life is actually quite beautiful throughout the entire film despite what everything the characters are going through. The most obvious example of life being beautiful would be at the beginning when Guido is trying to win Dora's heart. The atmosphere is light, the music is cheerful, the colors are warm and bright; things are going well.  During their time in the camp though all three of them are pretty well off. Sure, Dora is separated, but Guido finds ways to reach out to her so she knows that he and Joshua are okay. He finds the intercom and speaks to her through it, saying that they are fine. Then he has the oportunity to play a record on a gramaphone, and finds a song from a musical they were both at. He plays it out the window to her. Even though Guido himself did not survive, the moment where Joshua is reunited with Dora is the moment at the end where life is very beautiful. 

Night: Elies Changes

In the beginning of Night Elie is a devout Jew, and wants to be able to studie the cabbala, but his father refuses to let him because he thinks that his son is too young. "During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple,"(Wiesel 1). He is twelve when he asks, and most men began to studie the cabbala at around thirty, He studies and talks with Moshe the Beadle about these things instead. Once they enter the concentration camp however, he sees such horrible sights that he cannot believe that his god would allow this to happen. Akiba the Drummer says that "God is testing us. He wants to find out whether we can dominate out base instincts and kill the Satan within us. We have no right to despair. And if he punishes us relentlessly, it's a sign that He loves us all the more,"(Wiesel 42). But Elie still has begun to doubt his gods absolute justice. How could he just stand by and let all of these horrible things happen after all. Eventually towards the end even Akiba looses faith and dies. The only reason Elie had to fight on was because he couldn't leave his father alone. “I was his only support”

His relationship with his father grows far closer during imprisonment than it was before everything happened. “He rarely displayed his feelings, even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with his own kin”(Wiesel 2) During their time in the camps they are each others only support when other sons turn on their fathers. On one of the trains they are given bread, and one beats their father to death for a slice without a second thought. Another time, during a death march, a Rabbis son leaves him behind when he realizes his father is starting to fall back in the line and go slower. Even when Wiesels father is struck down with dysentery he brings him rations of his own food and keeps watch over him when he can, even though its a lost cause and he should be taking his fathers rations for his own benefit. They stick with one another until his father dies, which is something a lot of families didn't do because of the hostile 'every man for himself' environment.