What is Love?

I love you. You love me. We all grow up and have experience with the word love. In the first phrases we hear from our parents as well leave the womb are I love you but what does that mean. Webster's dictionary tells us that love means:

Main Entry: love
Function: noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Old English lufu; akin to Old High German luba love, Old English lēof dear, Latin lubēre, libēre to please
Date: before 12th century

1 a (1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties (2): attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests b: an assurance of love 2: warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion 3 a: the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration b (1): a beloved person : darling —often used as a term of endearment (2)British —used as an informal term of address4 a: unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: as (1): the fatherly concern of God for humankind (2): brotherly concern for others b: a person's adoration of God5: a god or personification of love6: an amorous episode : love affair7: the sexual embrace : copulation8: a score of zero (as in tennis)9capitalized Christian Science : god


The word is one with multiple uses and even more meanings. How can we know the word and use it when it is so ambiguous. I say the word at least 10 times a day but not everytime I say it does it possess the same meaning. I often wonder about love we use the word so freely but how do we know when we have reached love. Is it a one size fits all word where every person can say thats love and thats not? Do we really love our parents or is say I love you to them just a nicer way of saying thank you? I love my boyfriend but my love for my boyfriend is not the same as for my mom and dad. What is this feeling love? Can it be real or are we just making it all up?

I for one believe love is an internal feeling that is unprovoked by the outside but a feeling from within. It is a feeling so strong that it can not be clearly described and thus we call it love because love can be so many things. I believe that there is false love in this world because people do not know what it is and just say it out of obligation or because they think they are supposed to. But with these false cases of love there is also true and honest love. The feeling of love a parent expresses for a child at birth or the first time you know you love someone because you know it is way more like or a crush. Love is so big for being such a simple word. I intend to explore this word love for the sake of myself and those that I say it to everyday.

Why is it uncommon to graduate in four years at a four year college or university?

As I have entered my fourth year here at OU, I have noticed that I am a minority. Out of the students that I entered in with Fall 2005 I am one a few who are graduating May 2009. At OU it has come to my attention that the scholastic and financial structure of OU makes it so that without students taking firm control over their education the university has most of us on a 4.5-5 or even 6 year graduation track.

In this current economy and career environment students are looking to enter the job market as soon as possible in order to pay back the loans they have accumulated while being in college but other responsibilities that come with being in college get in the way. More than ever students have full time jobs, complicated or ever changing majors, or family responsibilities that slow their progression through college. On top of these issues universities are now asking students to take numerous general education classes outside of a student's major the lengthen their time and financial obligation to the university. When and why has going to college become a business that treats its students like helpless monopolized consumers?

As a college student I am no longer a person looking to better themselves. I am now a person who is obligated by career demands to go to college and then via the demands of the college I am obligated to be a slave to non-career related classes and varying fees. Being one of the lucky few who has escaped this black hole of confusion, frustration, and financial burden why is it my fellow scholastic brethren are bound to this cycle of strain and a false idea of 4 years and done?

Persuation

When it comes to persuasive texts I prefer statistics and examples. I do not prefer emotion because emotion can be manipulated and it can falsely invoked. As examples and statistics are cut and dry. They are clear and will support the point of the argument. An example can have diagrams or graphs that make you clearly understand the point that is being made. As a text maybe trying to persuade my opinion I need to know what they are taking about and what their point is and why I should see things they way they do. Emotion does not make this point. Emotion only pulls you in for interest but it is not truly convincing.

Writing

I have always wanted to document events in my life but I find that life gets in the way. I have been told that I am an elaborate storyteller but I have never taken the time to put pen to paper. Many would say this blog is the perfect opportunity to write. I have found that even with this weekly avenue the thoughts don't spring from my head to the page. I have numerous thoughts and ideas that could come to life through words but I can seem to open the vault and let them be free. I find that I can envision them and live them in my mind in vivid technicolor. Stories about my childhood, the adventures of my imaginary friends from when I was 4. I have so many great ideas and stories and descriptions of places and time periods that I could spew onto page, yet I lack the motivation or maybe I lack the freedom of creation to allow my words to be free. Maybe I am afraid that the brilliance I see in my mind's eye is not that bright in true light. I know no one will read this so I am free to just ramble on or stumble through fragmented and grammatically incorrect sentences. I can be free to express without worry until one day some decides to read this. We here goes. I hope you were entertained.

Standards and Expectations for Revising

My approach to revision is in a way that is both constructive to the writer and the reader. As in every text we should be clearly taken through the text I also believe that we should learn something new from every text. The text should not completely cater to the reader as it is the result of the writers hardwork. Based on the reading it was expressed that you should treat the writer the way you would like to be treated. I am agree with this statement but only so much that the writer is not overly critical or negative but it still serves my purpose. As I am dyslexic I appreciate when a reader catches my grammatical and spelling mistakes because I know there can be many. I expect that the reader will be indepth in their critics and make it so that it maintains my original thought yet emphasis it. My standards for revising will be simple. Revise the text as is and not compare it to anything else. Take the expectations that I have of my reader and treat them with the same courtesy.

On Writing

Stephen King takes an interesting position on writing. He shows how writing intertwines with real life make it come to life. To look at grammar as tools in a toolbox is an interesting take. It demystifies the rules and reasons for grammar. Discussing how it along with the tools are handed down from person to person is an interesting twist. I found that I could envision everything he had discussed and that he had made everything come clear. I never thought that a manual of sorts would be written in such a manner. However as simple and easy he made these ideas nothing jumped out at me throughly and made me have any specific thoughts.

Memoir

Prior to reading this article and getting to this section in class I never knew there was the difference between memoir and autobiography. In reading the article this confusion of the genre is shared by many. Truly after reading this article I find I have trouble approaching this blog. Do I document my feelings or just summate the article? This conflict of feelings is comparable to the battle memoir versus autobiography. I can see how the genre of memoir can bring you in because it is a snapshot of someone's life. It allows you to experience the moment, the emotions, and the essence of the overall experience. This type of writing draws people in and gives them an intense moment of passion and not some long drawn out series of play by play, of mostly exaggerated lives. The memoir has blossomed as a genre because it connects , while the autobiography tends to drag you on a ride that you might not want to be on. While each moment is individual in memoir, it has a general appeal because it can happen to anyone versus you can not live out someone's entire life. I am confused by what I was supposed to be getting from this article, maybe it was supposed to inspire this a memoir of the feelings invoked by this article. I hope you enjoyed the ride or at least formed the same questions the arose after I read the Yagoda article.

When it comes to writing in the voice of another I can understand how a person can take on and even portray the character precisely. As an observer of a person you idolize that person and create an image that encompasses the public image of that person or group. In life we create references when it comes to women, a woman or cluster of women will come to mind. As Harrison, speaks of his mother and aunts, they are his reference cluster. It is because he knows them and has observed them he is able to characterize them in a believable fashion. The sense that he gets from them will be conveyed because he knows what is like to preceive them and how he wants the audience to receive his character.

An example would be transexuals, they convey men or women as they see them or believe they are. They take on their personas and live out their lifestories. I mean we all live out personas and embodiements of idols. As long as the proper steps are taken to take on both the inward and outward influences of the subject, a person can speak in the voice of another. So writing in the first person of another is very possible because we have created the image and idea in our mind it is just a matter of conveying it.

The Ecstacy of Influence

In the current society we live fast and don't fact check. We have become dependent on the easy access of Wikipedia, no longer searching above and beyond but only for what comes easiest. In the article, discovering what came first and what influenced what has not been a method that is widespread. If anything we only begin to research and investigate when money and or notoriety is involved. For instance Napster, offered a service that allowed people to obtain free music without giving the necessary royalties to the artists. While some felt that there was no wrong doing here others saw this as a complete disregard to personal property. This line is also true for literary plagiarism.

We are currently in an environment where we no longer respect property, language, or people. We are given the tools that allow us to use these various mediums, but in an environment where time is money, who has the time or energy. As sad as it maybe I know very few people who know how to properly use italics or quotation marks, so when it comes to quoting and giving credit so people may not give credit where credit is due. This lack of usage I believe contributes to "accidental" borrowing.

People like to believe that they are so original and they are the first to think up specific ideas but we live in a society where we don't give nor know how to give credit. We do not absorb ideas through osmosis, we instead believe if we rephrase or put our own spin on things that makes it ours. We must realize that we have to give credit where credit is due. It is when we begin to do this that creative exchanges will be more acceptable and less suspicious. We must be willing to openly celebrate our influences so they in turn we can be celebrated.

Blogging

I feel the need to write this. I am not one to consistently document my life or write in a diary. I am not a person to talk about things but instead I live them. I am having a hard time with this blogging thing but I am trying.....next week I will have more to say.

The Tower of Babel

Grammar it is a strange and funny thing. When you begin to string sentences together the last thing you think about are the technicalities. Martinsen addresses the intricacies of grammar stripping away the frightening veneer. Yet, I still find myself sucked into the world of text and abbreviations. As important as it is to be clear in thought and presentation, I find it so easy to leap into my mind's simplicities and do it my way.

In a world where the old practices are slowly being choked away, I find that in the case of grammar it holds importance but it needs evolution. The changes that have arrived over the years may spit on old tradition but it fits into the current life and times. We live fast and lose no longer possessing the time and patience to thoroughly weld the art of grammar. Who has the time to ponder a comma? I am not a person who can perfectly place a comma nor use or nor, a semi colon, or proper structures correctly. I am one to write from the heart and fly by the seat of my pants. Yet I reach the end of this message and I feel like a grammatical dork? (LOL)

Write Till You Drop

Often in my life as a college student I feel DOA (Dead on Arrival). I feel as if I am constantly searching for new inspiration and new energy in order to get through another day. As a college student I am constantly faced with assignments and deadlines, not all I am passionate about. Yet, I have to struggle to find some tiny bit of passion to pour into the many pages of every assignment. Though I am not always successful it is during the moments when I can muster up that passion and truly engage with the assignment or idea that it seems I have too much to say.

In Annie Dillard's, "Write Till You Drop," I can identify with the feeling of being truly enthralled in a subject. The feeling of being emotionally and physically attracted and moved by something leading you to drain your life force in order to express it. Having to literally write as if you are going to go braindead because if you don't put it all out there. If it seems as if you left something out you will literally go crazy or die. I can understand the passion and the struggle and yet I find myself, at the point where my idea has died and anything else would just be a half-hearted attempt at false passion. So to save the reader from ramblings and redundant statements I must cease and leave room for pondering.

The End.