Artifact-TO BE USED FOR GROUP PROJECT!!!

"I'm thankful for..." project by my sister.

Artifact: This is a letter from my sister. For a project in school last year my sister had to do a project for thanksgiving entitled "I’m thankful for..." and she wrote that she was thankful for me being her big sister. She mailed this to me and it really made my day.

Analysis: Sibling love is something that isn't always outwardly demonstrated. In this situation, the letter came as a total surprise and made me realize how much my sister really loved me and missed me while I was away at college. It also showed me how she respected me and what she thought of me. Children (and adults) are always asked about what they are thankful for as thanksgiving time rolls around. People usually answer with thoughtful but common answers such as "my health" or "my family", but for my sister to demonstrate love for one specific person in such a way really shows the bonds and strength of the love that can form betwen siblings. Although one always says how they love their brother or sister, this is often expected because it is something society says you must feel, in this case however, the outward expression of love really touched me and shows the impact that one person can make on another.

How-to: Find sometype of word processing device (a computer, typewriter, etc.) and write a letter telling about something that you are thankful for on Thanksgiving. Print out the letter on white paper and hand it in for a grade.

Artifact-Wawa card from my mommy!

Wawa card from my mommy!

Wawa gift card... at the beginning of this semester things were not going so well for me. I talked to my mom one day and she knew how I was stressing out and how I was really broke since I had spent about $500 on books and supplies for my classes. a few days later I got a letter in the mail from her and along with it she sent me a gift card to Wawa (because she knows how I am addicted to coffee!) so I wouldn't have to spend all of my own money there and she sent me a card for the Jewish new year from my family. it was a small thing, but it really meant a lot to me. the object is a card, made of plastic, that can be swiped through a computer and used as cash to a specific place such as the convenience store, Wawa.

SATC!!!!

i just want to say how happy i am that cynthia nixon and sjp have finally won emmys because i LOVE sex and the city...and this class is about love, so i just wanted to share.

What is love? (baby dont hurt me....)

1. Make a list of "kinds" of love, or situations that seem to you to be about love...

This question somewhat bothered me, as did our discussion in the last class. I cannot for the life of me, decide what gives someone else the right to determine what is or is not love to another person. Love is such a strong term, and although this love may not be reciprocated (as with an object or a band) I can't seem to find a solid divider for what I think is "inside" and "outside" of the box. To help me with this, I decided to look for the dictionary definition of love to give me some insight so I could make my list.

love (lv) n.
1. A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.
2. A feeling of intense desire and attraction toward a person with whom one is disposed to make a pair; the emotion of sex and romance.
3.
a. Sexual passion.
b. Sexual intercourse.
c. A love affair.
4. An intense emotional attachment, as for a pet or treasured object.
5. A person who is the object of deep or intense affection or attraction; beloved. Often used as a term of endearment.
6. An expression of one's affection: Send him my love.
7.
a. A strong predilection or enthusiasm: a love of language.
b. The object of such an enthusiasm: The outdoors is her greatest love.
8. Love Mythology. Eros or Cupid.
9. often Love Christianity. Charity.
10. Sports. A zero score in tennis.
(source: dictionary.com)

Based on this definition and my own opinions, I can think of a few different love-type scenarios:

-first there's love for another person, obviously. i assume most people would associate this type of love with a family member, a lover/partner, possibly a friend. whether or not the person loves you back is another story, but then again, theres a difference as to whether you love a person or are in love with a person, or are lusting for a person but you call it love...i dont know.

-according to def. #4, love can be "An intense emotional attachment, as for a pet or treasured object." an object or a pet cannot love back (unless it is a mammalian pet of course) so i think that any object or animal can potentially be described as the target of one's love, as long as it has the passion and reason to back it up. i have trouble deciding that any one thing can or cannot be loved.

- def. #5 states love as "A person who is the object of deep or intense affection or attraction; beloved. Often used as a term of endearment. " I believe that this definition doesn't actually fit into my personal definition of love. i guess the "a person who is the object of deep or intense affection" is okay, but i dont consider a deep or intense attraction to fall into the category of love. attraction is just that...you are attracted to something...maybe because of how it looks, or acts, or its personality. but i dont think you can love something based on an "intense attraction". just my 2 cents.

- then there is "A strong predilection or enthusiasm: a love of language" in this case, bands and other such things could fall into the category of love. i still think that one can love a band in a particular circumstance. i do not think that this falls into the same category as attraction, but i do agree with this definition being a specific type of love.

of course you cannot just define love based on a dictionary definition. it is a feeling, one that covers much more than can be written down on paper. love is quite possibly the strongest emotion that someone can place on something, something that i believe is even stronger than hate in most senses. and i dont think that you can just say, well this has a limbic brain and this does not, so it cannot be loved. thats just really been bothering me. that you cannot express love for a material object because it cannot love back...i think that is still love in certain cases.

so i'm just gonna list a bunch of things that i associate with love. things that i think are worthy of the word love and can be loved, or do love, or celebrate love, or whatever i end up writing:
-weddings
-hospitals
-"first" objects: bike, tooth, big self-made purchase
-family (people, gatherings, etc.)
-milestones
-things handed down through generations
-life-changing/altering things
-pets
-lovers (current, old/ex)
-posessions that mark your status and how you got there
-achievements/things that mark them
-person that influenced something in your life
-friends
-something that helped you through a hard time and had meaning to you at a point in your life(poem, band, story, person, etc.)
-something that makes you happy and never fails to do that
-something that becomes an obsession: movie, show, song, etc.

i cannot think of much more to write right now, but i am very opinionated on this topic and i can't wait to talk about all of this stuff in class.

Why I could never live in solitary confinement.

Question 4: I read this question before even reading A General Theory of Love and began thinking about what it would be like to be in solitary confinement. I could not even imagine experiencing such a horror. Humans thrive off of contact with other humans; that is a fact. Save hermits, people need to have everyday interactions, whether it be with the cashier at the local WaWa or an intimate session with one's significant other. Of course I can not provide adequate reasoning for this except for the fact that I know that I need to be with other people or I would go crazy. Well, at least I couldn't provide any reason for this before reading A General Theory of Love . Starting on page 76, the authors begin to explain the "Anatomy of Love", which explains the steps of separation. They use the example of a puppy taken away from its mother and state that with this example you can "witness the universal mammalian reaction to the rupture of an attachment bond." Apparently the subject first goes through a stage called protest in which they experience both behavioral and physiological changes. While heart rate and body temp. both increase, so do the adrenaline levels and the levels of alertness. In addition, the levels of cortisol, the body's main stress hormone, increase about sixfold within 30 minutes of isolation. The individual also paces back and forth and goes through a period of heightened senses. After this protest phase comes despair, which comes with prolonged isolation. The individual becomes lethargic and "curls up into a despondent lump." Poor posture and sad facial expressions go along with this. Physiologically, the body's sleeping habits change with less REM sleep (dreams) and the individual will wake up more during the night. The amount of growth hormone dwindles and oxygen consumption and heart rate both decrease. Apparently, this loss of companionship can often lead to death or medical illness.
Evidently, this slow process of isolation can be attributed to the limbic brain that humans and other mammals possess. This sort of slow, tortures process that accompanies one being separated from all of society seems to be many times worse than any other type of torture that I could even imagine. Even a "slow" torture would be over with faster than all of this. I think if I was subjected to isolation in prison, it would drive me to madness. To mess with the mind in such a way is certainly a cruel and extreme form of punishment, something that I would consider to be much worse than physical abuse. This type of punishment not only leads to the terrible mind deterioration that one would probably associate with isolation, but it results in physical deterioration as well, something that I did not know was associated with confinement. I could not imagine a worse scenario to be put in than to be placed all alone, with only my own thoughts to accompany me. After reading this, I definitely know that I would rather be sentenced to die than to live by myself for the rest of my life.

First Post

Um...i really don't know how to use these things...so i'm gonna use this post just to try it out.