Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Must Read!

The non-fiction book I read was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. It follows their challenge to eat "locavore" style for a year--eating only foods that are grown locally, not shipped halfway around the country or world. With their small farm property in the Appalachians, the family of four managed to sustain themselves from spring to spring through gardening, tending their flock of chickens and turkeys, and buying from the local farmer's market. It's not a story of, "Do they make it," but rather, "HOW do they make it?"

The book caught my interest right away since I myself am an avid gardener. Although it's difficult to grow vegetables in my yard; about 90% of it is shaded by our elderly oaks and ashes. I could easily relate to Barbara's labor of love to manually de-weed between the thorny pumpkin and cucumber leaves, plucking those nasty finger-sized hornworms off of the tomato plants, canning the 54lbs of strawberries and 86 ears of corn, saving seeds, and the pure satisfaction that the taste indeed is richer than the watered-down lumps of plant matter found in supermarkets today.

I feel like the book did it's intended purpose: get me aware about where my food comes from and what it went through to reach me. I've pondered about the ethical issues surrounding both the meat and produce industry more than usual. Right now I feel like if I was given the choice, I'd go the extra mile to get organically grown produce to help the workers, soil, and ecosystem from the damaging conventional means of farming, especially if it was local.

Overall, this book is worth reading no matter your location on the reading spectrum. Both casual readers and inspiration-seeking readers can enjoy the story.

How the Internet Affects Our Mind's Mechanics

Nicholas Carr points out a startling phenomenon among internet users: people are beginning to have troubles concentrating on lengthier articles. All of the instantaneous access to information is changing the way our mind functions. As Maryanne Wolf puts it, we're changing "how" we read by changing "what" we read thanks to the plasticity of our brain.

What begins to worry me is what lies in the future of mankind. Google is doing to it's users what Frederick Taylor did to his employees--"systematize everything" to the point of maximum efficiency. When the article explained Google's aspirations for artificial intelligence, I began to wonder what benefits this brings to us as a species. It's hard to explain what the purpose of our existence is, but I believe it goes along the lines of enjoying life to it's fullest potential and to apply ourselves to the better of the world, not just civilization.

Our minds are vast, complex mechanisms. We can do more than retain knowledge; we can apply different concepts in different ways to create something new and original. We can feel satisfaction after applying ourselves and uncovering a different truth to ponder. An artificial intelligence (thus far) would have difficulty doing all of that. We should put forth the extra effort to not fall into the trap of "instant gratification" easy access to knowledge provides.

I find it funny that the general internet culture has implemented the "tl;dr" (which stands for "too long; didn't read") at the end of long posts.

tl;dr: you're just another statistic if you only read this!

Skunk Dreams: How Obstacles and Desires Explain the Plot

I don't think the story, Skunk Dreams by Louise Erdrich, is confusing if we consider her collection of stories mimicking the major theme involving obstacles and dreams. When Erdrich was young, she had no obstacles and was able to "freely" move about, settling in the football field like how the skunk moved about. She continued that life style while teaching poetry and living in those cheap motels.

As she mentioned,  "Without obstacles, the notion of development is inconceivable. There would be nothing to master." That lifestyle would nonetheless cause her to turn inward and ultimately settle in New Hampshire. The new scenery became obstacles to the vast open skies she was used to while in North Dakota. Hence, she was faced with the desire to get away and overcome the obstacles of the scenery.

Then she ultimately found peace and calm in the forest with the giant white pine. When they put up the whimsy fence, there was again a physical obstacle. This lead to the desire to overcome the fence, causing her to consider methods to overcome the fence. Eventually, she did manage enter the forest and wander the forest freely, like the skunk.

She ended the story with how she wanted to be the skunk--able to move freely without witnessing obstacles. Ultimately, it wasn't until she overcame the obstacles that she began behaving like a skunk.

Updike vs. Sontag: Views of 9/11

There are obvious contrasting views between the two article written by John Updike and Susan Sontag. Updike presented a first-person recollection of seeing the towers fall from his relative's apartment whereas Sontag critiqued how America handled the situation afterward.

Updike's article raised the question of limiting our freedoms--more specifically, freedom of motion. Should we cut back on some of those freedoms to better protect ourselves from future threats? An example Updike included: should we limit the people joining flight school in case someone decides to kamikaze attack the United States? I feel that limiting our freedoms won't solve anything. If a terrorist organization truly wanted to attack us again, they would think ahead and send the martyr to a pilot school in the UK instead, where they'd be more likely to pass the screening.

Sontag main point revolved with how we blindly followed what the government and media reported. She noted how people (who opposed the president) now supported Bush and his policies. I believe there's reason to that phenomenon. A single leader can better control a group or country of people faster than one whose subjected to multiple views and counter-views. If the most or all of congress follow the president's views completely, things move rapidly through the system and can quickly act upon the threat. However, in haste, things can be overlooked. I agree with Sontag that we needed to spend more time discussing the new policies and considering different ideas to prevent a mess in the future.