Saturday, October 13, 2012
To readers:
I will be posting my blogs on this url for a few weeks http://room116sold.blogspot.com/. They are all on the book "Sold" by Patricia McCormick. Will be writing back on this blog in around mid November.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
"Bitter Sweet" needs more sugar.
If what I know of life is "bitter sweet" then it definitely needs more sugar.
I have just started reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet written by Jamie Ford and even in this small bit that I have read, this book has really made me feel some strong emotions (especially the "bitter" ones). It is set in 1986 and starts with 56 year old Henry Lee (a Chinese American) standing in front of the Panama hotel ( "once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown" as quoted in the book) as the new owner uncovers the findings of belongings from Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. When the owner brings out a Japanese parasol as one of the belongings, Henry recounts the memories of him and Keiko, a Japanese girl in his childhood during the years of the war. After that the book jumps in and out of the years of the war (his childhood) and present day.
A lot of this book, talks about the war and the tensions between people (Japanese Americans and Americans) during those years. It is quite sad to think that from the faults of others, many can be judged with no reason but the fault of others. To me, I think that everyone deserves at least a chance and that it isn't fair when people don't give them one. Why should someone who have done nothing wrong be blamed for an issue that someone else had caused. There are always exceptions in the world and we should all acknowledge their existence. People are not items on a shelf and since we aren't we should not have labels, especially ones that are wrong. Whats the point of "profiles" if people have one created for others already? Why understand others if you already think you understand them? One cannot categorize another: oh you're this race or look, you must act like this, for nothing can truly define someone. I can't even define myself so why are there people who think they know who I am?
I have met many who say they know who someone else "is" and what they've gone through but the fact is that everything changes. In one second an entire life can change but really, no course is ever constant. Choices are not concrete, they're like strings, delicate and flexible, swaying each time a wind blows, and choices, are what makes one's path their own. Even if a list was given to us with every answer to every choice we were to make, that does not mean it would be followed. Sure, there are those who try to follow it but just because some do, that doesn't mean the rest of us will and we should not go into thinking that everyone would. Its a very difficult thing to do, trying to not think you understand someone but the only way to not do that is to actually try and understand others better. Surprises will come up and we should all just keep "understanding" to know that there is always more that we do not understand.
Some people will never understand why there is always more to understand and that's alright. If they can't understand us, understand them. There will always be people who make life more "bitter" but it doesn't have to be that way. Life isn't bitter. Its not sweet but it shouldn't be bitter. Something so precious as life can't be bitter and that's why many things, like the title of this book says, are bitter sweet. Bitter in some ways, sweet in others, it will all balance out in the end.
Life is made of bitter and sweet, but if this life as we know it is already bitter sweet, I think we could all help and add a bit more sugar.
Opinions are the mirrors of the world for they help us all reflect. Please feel welcome to add yours.
I have just started reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet written by Jamie Ford and even in this small bit that I have read, this book has really made me feel some strong emotions (especially the "bitter" ones). It is set in 1986 and starts with 56 year old Henry Lee (a Chinese American) standing in front of the Panama hotel ( "once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown" as quoted in the book) as the new owner uncovers the findings of belongings from Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. When the owner brings out a Japanese parasol as one of the belongings, Henry recounts the memories of him and Keiko, a Japanese girl in his childhood during the years of the war. After that the book jumps in and out of the years of the war (his childhood) and present day.
A lot of this book, talks about the war and the tensions between people (Japanese Americans and Americans) during those years. It is quite sad to think that from the faults of others, many can be judged with no reason but the fault of others. To me, I think that everyone deserves at least a chance and that it isn't fair when people don't give them one. Why should someone who have done nothing wrong be blamed for an issue that someone else had caused. There are always exceptions in the world and we should all acknowledge their existence. People are not items on a shelf and since we aren't we should not have labels, especially ones that are wrong. Whats the point of "profiles" if people have one created for others already? Why understand others if you already think you understand them? One cannot categorize another: oh you're this race or look, you must act like this, for nothing can truly define someone. I can't even define myself so why are there people who think they know who I am?
I have met many who say they know who someone else "is" and what they've gone through but the fact is that everything changes. In one second an entire life can change but really, no course is ever constant. Choices are not concrete, they're like strings, delicate and flexible, swaying each time a wind blows, and choices, are what makes one's path their own. Even if a list was given to us with every answer to every choice we were to make, that does not mean it would be followed. Sure, there are those who try to follow it but just because some do, that doesn't mean the rest of us will and we should not go into thinking that everyone would. Its a very difficult thing to do, trying to not think you understand someone but the only way to not do that is to actually try and understand others better. Surprises will come up and we should all just keep "understanding" to know that there is always more that we do not understand.
Some people will never understand why there is always more to understand and that's alright. If they can't understand us, understand them. There will always be people who make life more "bitter" but it doesn't have to be that way. Life isn't bitter. Its not sweet but it shouldn't be bitter. Something so precious as life can't be bitter and that's why many things, like the title of this book says, are bitter sweet. Bitter in some ways, sweet in others, it will all balance out in the end.
Life is made of bitter and sweet, but if this life as we know it is already bitter sweet, I think we could all help and add a bit more sugar.
Opinions are the mirrors of the world for they help us all reflect. Please feel welcome to add yours.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Aren't We All Blue?
If blue means gay and gay means different and we're all different aren't we all blue?
"Am I blue?" by Bruce Coville is a short story that I read that I find quite fascinating. It talks a lot about the prejudice towards gay people and focuses on how a boy named Vincent, who started from being ashamed/unhappy of who he might have been (that he might have been gay), to growing an understanding of why it didn't matter (or at least that's what I think he ended up understanding). This change in Vincent is what made me think about what this story really implied and that is what I want to share with you all today!
In the story, Vincent's fairy godfather (yes, he met his/a fairy godfather who would help him) made all the people who were gay, blue for a day. That way "...all the straights would have to stop imagining that they didn't know any gay people" (quoted from story). That quote is something that I find done too much - denial. People deny whatever truth they don't like everyday. Assumption- "You may be (gay), you may not. The point is, you're getting picked on because people think you are" (another quote from the story)- another thing that people do every day. Both these actions whether one is aware of it or not, can lead to serious consequences that one may regret only after they've done it.
Prejudice is also a big part of this story. People in this world have always had prejudice towards certain things that make some people so called "different". The topic of being gay or lesbian is one that pops up very often. Sometimes the prejudice can be very obvious, sometimes not. For example, when people say "oh its alright to be different" it sounds perfectly fine to the majority of us doesn't it? Well in my opinion, that phrase already has a prejudice and those who say it may not even understand why. What makes someone different? What gives us the right to label someone as dif-fer-ent? Truth is, you might as well label everyone you see as different. We are all different. Everything around us is different. If differences were not there, that, would be an issue. "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind"-a quote by Dr. Seuss that I think is very true but is very much neglected in the world we live in. "Be yourself", a phrase commonly said, but is it really put into practice? Why do people still feel ashamed of who they are. No one should ever be unhappy with themselves as long as they have done their best,- and that includes their best of seeing the beauty of each and every one of us including their own. If they have done that then it shouldn't matter what others say. There will always be those who choose to see only the things that divide them from the rest (or others from the majority) but it doesn't matter, because no matter what reason it is that we were made the way we were, there is a reason, and that is all that counts.
We should all be proud of what we have accomplished and what we are capable of. We should all see that we are all different and yet still the same. You don't see gold being turned to steel, or jewels turned into dust, so why is it that we make our self so plain to achieve this so called "happiness"? If this is what true happiness is then I don't want it. I don't need it. I've changed myself too much that I regret it but I have already forgotten how to find the true "me". Hopefully you will all realize that trying to "blend" gives one no joy for I definitely got none.
Be proud to be the reason some people smile each day. We are all worth a chance and we should all strive to get it but if that chance is not worth us, don't waste what we already have. Be proud to be you, and definitely be proud to be "blue".
Feel free to comment.
"Am I blue?" by Bruce Coville is a short story that I read that I find quite fascinating. It talks a lot about the prejudice towards gay people and focuses on how a boy named Vincent, who started from being ashamed/unhappy of who he might have been (that he might have been gay), to growing an understanding of why it didn't matter (or at least that's what I think he ended up understanding). This change in Vincent is what made me think about what this story really implied and that is what I want to share with you all today!
In the story, Vincent's fairy godfather (yes, he met his/a fairy godfather who would help him) made all the people who were gay, blue for a day. That way "...all the straights would have to stop imagining that they didn't know any gay people" (quoted from story). That quote is something that I find done too much - denial. People deny whatever truth they don't like everyday. Assumption- "You may be (gay), you may not. The point is, you're getting picked on because people think you are" (another quote from the story)- another thing that people do every day. Both these actions whether one is aware of it or not, can lead to serious consequences that one may regret only after they've done it.
Prejudice is also a big part of this story. People in this world have always had prejudice towards certain things that make some people so called "different". The topic of being gay or lesbian is one that pops up very often. Sometimes the prejudice can be very obvious, sometimes not. For example, when people say "oh its alright to be different" it sounds perfectly fine to the majority of us doesn't it? Well in my opinion, that phrase already has a prejudice and those who say it may not even understand why. What makes someone different? What gives us the right to label someone as dif-fer-ent? Truth is, you might as well label everyone you see as different. We are all different. Everything around us is different. If differences were not there, that, would be an issue. "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind"-a quote by Dr. Seuss that I think is very true but is very much neglected in the world we live in. "Be yourself", a phrase commonly said, but is it really put into practice? Why do people still feel ashamed of who they are. No one should ever be unhappy with themselves as long as they have done their best,- and that includes their best of seeing the beauty of each and every one of us including their own. If they have done that then it shouldn't matter what others say. There will always be those who choose to see only the things that divide them from the rest (or others from the majority) but it doesn't matter, because no matter what reason it is that we were made the way we were, there is a reason, and that is all that counts.
We should all be proud of what we have accomplished and what we are capable of. We should all see that we are all different and yet still the same. You don't see gold being turned to steel, or jewels turned into dust, so why is it that we make our self so plain to achieve this so called "happiness"? If this is what true happiness is then I don't want it. I don't need it. I've changed myself too much that I regret it but I have already forgotten how to find the true "me". Hopefully you will all realize that trying to "blend" gives one no joy for I definitely got none.
Be proud to be the reason some people smile each day. We are all worth a chance and we should all strive to get it but if that chance is not worth us, don't waste what we already have. Be proud to be you, and definitely be proud to be "blue".
Feel free to comment.
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