...Joan Didion: What is Home? In Joan Didion’s essay “On Going Home” she writes about leading a double life. She feels like one person when she’s with her husband and daughter in Los Angeles, and a completely different person when back “home” surrounded by her childhood family in the Central Valley of California. During this particular trip, she begins to reflect on her life in Los Angeles. Didion contemplates the fact that she often feels uneasy around her husband, just like he feels uneasy being around her family. At a crossroad, she must decide not only who she is, and the life she wants, but also the kind of life she wants for her daughter. Her life in Los Angeles has cleansed her from her youth—one that was dusty and full of useless trinkets. She ponders the time her husband wrote the word “D-U-S-T” on those useless trinkets and she remembers her feelings of sadness and indignation. She says, “We live in dusty houses…filled with mementos quite without value to him” (139-40). The dust-covered trinkets signify what is important to her, or what needs to be addressed in her marriage. Yet, these objects just lay there waiting for someone to see them—for someone to dust them off and care for them—not unlike how Didion wishes her husband would see her and nurture her in their marriage. Didion wonders which of her two homes is normal or if they are both flawed. When she and her husband are with her family, he becomes apprehensive about her behavior, “…because once there I fall...
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...Being a manager is hard. Throughout his book, “Defining Moments”, Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. explains the challenges managers face when making decisions on a daily basis and provides a framework for how to tackle those challenges. Early on, Badaracco explains how decisions between right and right (as opposed to right and wrong) are often the most difficult. Decisions like this can be seen as ‘defining moments’ because, according to Badaracco, they reveal, test, and shape a manager’s personal values as well as those of their organization. They also cause managers to come away with ‘dirty hands’, the unfortunate side effect of choosing one ‘right’ option over the other. It is how Badaracco puts these decisions in perspective that sets this book apart from other ethical decision-making books. ‘Defining Moments’ goes on to introduce a few real world cases that exemplify right versus right dilemmas. These examples demonstrate certain challenges that manager’s face, as well as serve to impress upon the reader the idea that there is almost never a clear-cut solution. The first case is that of Steve Lewis, a black analyst asked to represent his company’s diversity at a special presentation. The issue lies in whether he should sacrifice his personal values to satisfy his company’s request. Lewis’ case reveals how conflicts of personal integrity and moral identity shape one’s ultimate decision. A lot of thought must be given to choices that involve a matter of personal values in terms of...
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...Life Defining Moments My friend & I were in the car, on our way to Glorietta 4 to catch movie with the rest of the group. She then asked me if some life-defining moments ever occurred. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about & I didn’t have a quick answer for that. I remember her telling me that one of her life defining moments was looking at a framed picture by her bedside, a picture of her and her gorgeous boyfriend, her arms around his neck, in a candid pose. Or something like that. I remember laughing, sine I could have thought of that too. She then explained that a life-defining moment was something you’d like to happen in the future no matter how far-off or crazy it might be. It was like a goal of some sort, but it’s just something conjured up to tickle the imagination. We didn’t dwell on that for long, for the conversation reverted to Harry Potter’s new adventures and the movie that were about to watch that afternoon. I totally forgot it, until a kabarkada now based in Seattle shared her own life-defining moment through e-groups, after that friend of mine (whom I watched the movie with) shared a brand-new one. They were all seeing themselves as successful IT Professionals in power suits rushing from their pad to their office in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. They were either carrying Loius Vitton bags or their slim Compaq notebooks, while talking with a client on their top-of-the-line mobile phones and the, most expensive Armani shades protecting their...
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...should play by. When I was a child, I learnt Chinese traditional wisdom, Confucianism, from my parents and elementary school. The core of Confucianism is humanity, to be altruistic, upright and courteous within the society, from which I got to know the rules I should honor. Never cheat. Be kind and honest. Don't do anything that will hurt others. These become the foundation of my moral compass. As I grow older, I have been introduced to other theories which cast light on the formation of my moral compass. According to Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill’s philosophy of Utilitarianism, the measure of right and wrong is to maximize happiness of maximized number. But when I tried to make decisions based on this theory, I met some problems. First, sometimes it’s impossible to transfer all the values into numbers to make comparison. Second, to achieve the maximized overall pleasure, I had to sacrifice the minority’s interests, which was unfair to them. As I was exposed to “Liberalism”, I found my answers. Every individual in the society deserves respect. Everyone has the right to choose freely, to live our life in the way we like, and to respect others for doing the same things. This part of Liberalism goes along with Confucianism; therefore I set my moral compass as “to respect every individual”. II. Moral Vision, Code and Fitness If I was asked to portray a picture to symbolize my moral vision, I would come up with a flying bird. A bird flying represents liberty. It can fly...
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...Unanswered In life, there is a set of questions that causes people to question their purpose in the world. These questions were designed to be simply that; questions. They have no answer and once the answer seems to become apparent, it changes into a defining moment, according to Jim Tilley. These defining moments that were once questions are the things that document our lives and how far we have come. Jim Tilley wrote the poem The Big Questions to talk about and parallel these things with everyday life. “The big questions are big only/ because they have never been answered (line 1/2).” Jim Tilley begins his poem The Big Questions, by posing a philosophical statement in which the audience begins to ponder what these questions might be. A typical big question that people face is what is my purpose here? Before reading the poem, I expected an answer to this question or at least another philosophical statement for afterthought. However, Tilley uses philosophy as well as humor to convey that there is not a concrete answer to these “big questions”. These “big questions” are only circumstantially large and will in time become unimportant. These big questions often have more depth to them than their philosophical nature. They can in turn be used to determine survival instincts and maturity. The example he uses is encountering a grizzly bear in the woods while hiking a trail. In most cases, when someone encounters a bear they have three options. The first and foremost being to run...
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... no color, no regrets, no anger, no disagreements, no pain, no shame and lots of hope. I never thought that “one million plus” strong black men could dare to come together from all over the United States with one purpose and one passion; atonement and reconciliation. Black October, The Missing Moment occurred in Washington, D.C. on October 16, 1995. This was a mission called Million Man March; led by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, of the Nation of Islam; on the National Mall. WE (Black Men) were all equal leaders that day of the original Million Man March. It was a significant moment in African American history, a “Missing Moment.” History has shown us time and time again that true change engages momentum when we experience a “defining moment.” As we continue to embrace the “defining moment” changes are destined to occur without much additional effort and progress will be realized. It is at this time we can look back and call the change that occurred as a defining moment, a pivotal moment, “Black October - The Missing Moment”...
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...Most Defining Moments in My Life Most people had at least one defining moment in their life, whenever it is getting their first pair of glasses to graduating elementary school or getting their first pet. Those moments are the ones who define us and help to shape our personalities and decisions. We all had pleasant events happen to us at some point in our lives, however we also had unpleasant and regretful events happening to us, whenever it was our fault or not. We all have a moment in your lives that we can surely say it changed our lives. So far, my life have been defined by my decisions and occurrences which helped me shape me into the person I am now. My life has been defined by unpleasant events which happened around my surroundings, the decisions I have made over the course of my life and the effect of others decisions over me....
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...diapers and car seats. So not my cup of tea. I was just starting my life and had just moved away from home to start college. This was my time to have fun, to find myself; this was my time to shine. Life, though, seems to have its own set of plans laid out for us; it’s just not what we expect, and when that curve ball gets thrown, well it’s usually a doozy. Life sure laid one on me that January day when everything changed and not in the best possible way. So I was going to be a mom. That word just didn’t fit right; I wasn’t supposed to have kids, plus, I didn’t even want kids. In “Alone on the Hilltop”, John (Fire) Lame Deer, tells us of his rite of passage. He is a sixteen year old Sioux Indian boy confined to a sacred hole dug into the side of a hilltop called a vision pit. He is left alone and scared for four days and nights, with no food or water and only a few small tokens left with him for strength and guidance. Lame Deer has a brightly colored star quilt that his grandmother made, and forty pieces of her own flesh to help him be strong. He also has with him a ceremonial pipe to help ease his fears and communicate with the Waken Tanka or “Great Spirit” in the spirit world. Being alone with only his small tokens, the earth and night sky are all part of the path he must take to find his “calling”, to become a medicine man like his grandfather before him. This is his path to becoming a man. Rites of passage are different for everyone, and although my rite of passage isn’t as...
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...With my Personal Story I believe that everything is an outcome of a previous action or choice. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking how I got where I am today, right now. Where did these friends come from? Why am I wearing these specific clothes today? How did I get here? It’s all because of something. This happens often in the little good and bad things in our everyday lives. One good example of this was when I was going to buy my laptop off of craigslist. My mom and I were driving over to go meet the seller at her house across town so we could negotiate and look at the laptop before we decided to actually purchase it. On the way we got held up in traffic and when we got to the seller someone else had stopped by. They didn’t buy the laptop so the seller might have got a little desperate and decided to only sell the laptop at 60$ as opposed to the original 100$ price tag. We were in great luck, my mom only had the money to buy the laptop; and with the extra $40 I was able to buy a mouse, headphones and a few other helpful accessories. Although this wasn’t a life-defining moment, it still was a great thing and i felt that luck was just going my way. I see things like this happen in variations and on similar or even...
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...around Christmas when my dad asked me to run an errand with him because his car had broken down. We got in the car and I drove normally. I was about to cross an intersection when the light turned yellow and was about to turn red, my dad told me to hit the break but my adolescent mind did exactly the opposite. I thought I had enough time to make it across, turns out I didn’t. I don’t remember much after that, everything happened so fast it all just seems like a really wicked dream. I woke up about 7 hours later in a hospital with my mother by my side crying her eyes out. I guess I was still heavily sedated that I couldn’t really move anything more than my eyelids. I wanted to move but my body was unresponsive. I just closed my eyes and went back to sleep. I awoke a day later and my mother told me my father had suffered serious injuries and was in intensive care and he might not make it. I could not help but feel responsible for what my dad was going through. If he died I would have to live with the memory that my irresponsible actions were the cause of his dead, I would forever be haunted with the fact that I killed my own father. We all have defining moments in our life, moments that change our future and redefine our past. It’s actually kind of sad that most of those moments have to hurt us or impact us in a negative manner. I guess it’s just human nature to wait until we get hurt to learn our lesson. I felt helpless as I could not do anything to aid my father I just stood...
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...Social Issues Race and Ethnicity Defining Race and Ethnicity Robert Cogg * Race is a very real topic in American society. Although race is a subject that is not easily and very scarcely talked about, the conversation is much needed and should be addressed at a much more frequency. Race and ethnicity come up in some way, shape, fashion or form in our everyday lives whether we like it or not. I will define what both race and ethnicity mean to me and how these terms are important in our society. Defining Race and Ethnicity Being that I am an African American male, race and ethnicity are very relevant in my everyday life. I have been discriminated against, and hired, both because of my race. I have been denied and accepted on the basis of my race. Ethnicity is defined as an ethnic group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or assumed- sharing cultural characteristics. Race is defined as the categorization of humans into populations or ancestral groups on the basis of various sets of heritable characteristics. This being understood, systematically and historically my race is that of a discriminated one. History has shown that African Americans suffered slavery, and still suffer the effects of slavery to this day. This is what makes race and ethnicity relevant to me. In my everyday life I may have to list my race at any moment. If I fill out a job application I am asked my race and ethnicity. If race doesn’t matter...
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...Defining Race and Ethnicity Robert Cogg * Race is a very real topic in American society. Although race is a subject that is not easily and very scarcely talked about, the conversation is much needed and should be addressed at a much more frequency. Race and ethnicity come up in some way, shape, fashion or form in our everyday lives whether we like it or not. I will define what both race and ethnicity mean to me and how these terms are important in our society. Defining Race and Ethnicity Being that I am an African American male, race and ethnicity are very relevant in my everyday life. I have been discriminated against, and hired, both because of my race. I have been denied and accepted on the basis of my race. Ethnicity is defined as an ethnic group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or assumed- sharing cultural characteristics. Race is defined as the categorization of humans into populations or ancestral groups on the basis of various sets of heritable characteristics. This being understood, systematically and historically my race is that of a discriminated one. History has shown that African Americans suffered slavery, and still suffer the effects of slavery to this day. This is what makes race and ethnicity relevant to me. In my everyday life I may have to list my race at any moment. If I fill out a job application I am asked my race and ethnicity. If race doesn’t matter, then why am I asked? If there...
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...different”- Gary Chapman Very few moments can define a man’s life and the path he takes. December 18, 2012 was one of those defining moments in my life. It was no longer just about me and my needs, yes I worried about my wife and family, but they could take care of themselves. The day my son was born had to be one of the most exciting and scariest days of my life. I didn’t know what to expect, how I was supposed to care for this little human being. A split second changed my life forever. Until that moment happened I had no idea what my life was going to be like having someone that depended on me for their every need. When my wife told me she was pregnant, I was excited, but it just seemed surreal. I went to the doctor appointments, I was there for the ultrasounds. I was ecstatic the first time I felt him kick. My wife had complications so I was at the hospital every time the doctor sent her for observations. In the months leading up to my son’s birth I was there every step of the way, but I was just an observer. My wife was doing it all, nothing for me really changed. The day started out like any other induction day for millions of other parents. We arrived at the hospital bright and early, my wife filled out some paperwork, the nurses hooked up her iv, started the Pitocin drip, and her labor began. The rest of the morning, afternoon and early afternoon was a lot of waiting. Nurses and the doctor came in and out checking on my wife and the baby. My wife’s mom and sister came...
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...our vision is limited to how far our eyes can see. But the higher I get, the wider my perspective becomes. I can now see a broader picture of the path I have set for myself. Actually, I can clearly see the two parallel paths that have led me to who I am today. I remember my first high. I was about two years old, a precocious child you might say! This defining moment would shape the direction I would take going forward. I was hooked after my first try. My parents, quite progressive, did everything they could to fuel my addiction. This meant exposing me to “adult” venues such as bars, concert halls and festivals. It’s amazing how many people are searching for their high in such places. This passion has...
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...The war to end all wars... on terrorism. The Iraq war was terrible, no one could have seen what was going to happen.So many countries went along with the US, but Canada said no. My thesis is that saying no to the Iraq war was a defining moment for canada because the war was unpopular in Canada and no UN approval, it forced the US to realize that Canada was not the 51 state, and the war did nothing but destabilize Iraq. This is how Canada listen to its people and decide not to go to Iraq. Canada has always been an ally of the US since we became independent from the UK. From WW2 to the persian gulf war and even the invasion of afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. But, Canada did not join the Iraq war because it did not have the UN approval it...
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