Ravit's Blog

 It was only when Abraham had attained what he wanted most, a son, that God made him foraske it. It was only when George was on the verge of fulfilling their dream that their plans failed. It was only when Jane loved Rochester the most that morality compelled her to leave him. In all situations, the decision-makers--Abraham, George, and Jane--had to make a choice. And a difficult choice. All three made the morally correct and meaninful choice: the choice to leave behind what they loved in the interest of something bigger of meaningful. In two out of the three cases, they who chose right were given back the object they unhesitatingly sacrificed. Abraham was spared the difficult decision of killing his son by the hand of an angel, and Jane, after willing herself away from her master against the wishes of her heart and nearly dying in the process, was reunited with Rochester. But, what about George? He... shot Lennie. His joint dream with Lennie now would never be fulfilled, at least ...

 I watched the movie "Mud" yesterday. Mud is a naive person, naive enough to believe in the purity of his girlfriend, and to never doubt that she would ever think of forsaking him. But Juniper forsakes Mud. Mud's world loses its simple goodness. When Mud works on the boat, enlisting Ellis and Neckbone for help, he executes a plan. He strives to carry out a series of steps, culminating in him fleeing from the police and his home. Nearing the end of that plan, Mud's realization that Juniper does not love Mud enough to run away with him causes him to doubt something he had never doubted before: the difficulty of maintaining a relationship, and potential asymmetry that exists throughout its lifetime. Mud never gets to fulfill his plan. Like George and Lennie.

 I remember a story from my 11th grade Literature class. I and some other classmates were put into a small group. I had told a classmate a fun fact I remembered about the Robert Frost, concerning his poem "The Road Not Taken". The fun fact was as follows--that Frost, when asked about his poem, shared that he had not intended his poem to be ascribed the deep meaning that was given to it. "Over-analyzing" seemed ridiculous to me. I mean, what meaning could a work of literature or art truly carry, other than by coincidence, that wasn't what the creator or author originally consciously intended? I was therefore rather surprised to hear Dr. Peterson, in his recent interview of his illustrator Juliette Fogra, claim that certain works of art carry deeper but powerful meanings that cannot themselves be expressed by the originator. Then I thought about the nature of dreams. Dreams are typically not controlled at the conscious level. But they are certainly not irrelevant ...

 The tendency of the mind to centralize the present is an interesting phenomenon. To be concrete, when I think of my life, as I would when someone would ask me the question "Who are you?", I would think about my present self--my current lifestyle, goals, interests, and ambitions. Sometimes, I wonder whether in answering that question, I would underrepresent my past self, say five years ago, which was the same in many ways as my present self, but also different in important ways. Five years ago, I had different interests. I used to watch more TV downstairs and be less active. I lived in a less structured way, and had little in the way of a daily routine. But I was also more competitive. And made friends more easily as well. I wanted to be a doctor. Now I'm a CS major. In the past five years, there are days I can reflect on with pride, for having successfully executed an uncomfortable goal, such as studying for APs in my second year of high school, or reviewing a painful La...

Would we get anywhere if it weren't for pressure? Seriously. Social pressure. Pressure at school. Pressure at work. I mean it's uncomfortable, but isn't that exactly what enables us to get stuff done? I suppose, it is first important to establish what is meant by pressure. For the purposes of this brief discussion, let's say that pressure constitutes external regulation, such as reinforcement or punishment, or action (or inaction) or behavior (or lack thereof). It's clear that pressure can make stuff get done. We had a 10-15 "historical fiction" paper due for history class in 10th grade. I saved the majority of my rough draft revisions for the morning of the due date. Though that was quite uncomfortable, and I'd like to think that my experience with that encouraged me *not* to procrastinate, it's nevertheless impressive to look back upon what I was able to accomplish within one hour by waking up extra early around 5:30 to make my changes before lea...

 In Of Mice and Men, George in Lennie fall in love with a dream they have--a dream to one day become financially independent and run their own peace of land. Their captivation with their dream is great, and they begin pooling together money and making plans. Their plan is beautiful and exciting, but one that is never achieved. It is a plan that George is forced to suddenly and unhesitatingly sacrifice after coming so dramatically close to achieving, when he shoots Lennie in the head. He shoots Lennie, his beloved companion, who like a child, gave him a sense of responsibility and purpose. As George himself often says in frustration to Lennie, his responsibility for Lennie is the reason that he forsakes other pleasures. Caring for Lennie is a responsibility left behind to George by Lennie's aunt, and it is a responsibility that George takes upon his shoulder and faithfully executes by saving Lennie from predicaments, guiding and instructing him, and not leaving the side of Lennie. L...

 I probably won't be able to give this post as much time as I was originally intending for a topic of this nature, but let's have at it. I watched the movie Pursuit of Happyness  today. It was a touching tale of a man named Chris who struggles with family and finance and finally digs himself out of his hole through diligence and truth of character--who, like a human, made mistakes, such as recklessly investing his life savings into scanners, which he thought he could sell easily, and not upholding his relationship with his wife. But like a noble human, and like God as depicted in Christianity, sacrificed and toiled and suffered. As part of his pursuit to become a stockbroker, Chris loses his home, his money, and his shoe (haha!). I think it's not fair to call these sacrifices, since these were taken from him involuntarily. But, Chris makes difficult decisions nonetheless. He sacrifices his comfort and leisure time, and dedicates the time he could have spent in self-pity and...