The Secrets of Love

Wow! The secrets of love, the idea of knowing the secrets of love goes hand and hand with being a liar. Anybody who tells you that they know "the secrets of love" is probably the biggest liar you know. We can't know the secrets of love or how Love works. However, we can read the symposium in hopes to get some insight, but even the old men (claiming to know all the tricks of Love) don't fully understand love even though they certainly seem to think they do. Part of moving up the rungs of the latter comes with age, I'm slowly starting to learn this as I'm getting older and slowing down. (I'm not saying I'm old) I can't help but find that the most helpful insight, in the syposium, is from a woman. If you want to learn about women, listen to them! Maybe that's why Socrate knows so much, because he listens very well.

"Shallow Hal Wants a Gal"

Pausanias said many things that made me stop and then think about how his portion of the bull session relates to us as students. One thing that jumped out at me was the line: "Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul,...(11 Plato Symposium). Anyone who has ever watched Shallow Hal knows what this quote is all about. For those that haven't seen it I'll give you a quick plot summary: Hal (Jack Black) is a man who is extremely shallow he is only capable of judging people based on their exterior appearance and not on their interior appearance. One day he runs into Tony Robins who hypnotises Hal so that the exterior appearance of women matches their interior appearance. How wonderful of a trance to be under, imagine how many babes beyond belief would be walking the streets. However, I fear we would see ugly beyond what we know ugly to be today. Go to the movie store and rent Shallow Hal, and you'll know what I'm talking about. This again just affirms that "all that is the past possesses the present. Prof. Sexson told us one day in class not to go for the "hunk" but to go for the person who makes us laugh, but what if we could have both?(figuratively speaking, I'm not in the market for any hunks.)

Bad Days

When talking about bad days Prof. Sexson told us that at some point we would all have to experience being witness to death or to have someone near to us die. Unfortunately I feel like I have already been exposed to quite enough; my senior year of high school was set to be outstanding full of fun, sports, and friends. But that all came crashing down one night(literally) on home coming. It was fall and we had just left the dance, my friend Kelly who was a year younger than me had just had surgery and so he was on crutches, I put my arm around him and said good bye, not knowing it would be the last time. The next morning I woke up at my friend Ian's house to his mom touching me on the back to wake me and Ian up to tell us that Kelly had died the night before in a car accident. I later found out that he had hung upside down in the passenger seat while he bled out.
Three semesters ago as I was working on a job site in Logan Montana, the welding crew from Colorado was up to finish the rest of the chimney caps. Bill was the man welding and I knew him very little, but he told me excited he was to finish this last chimney cap so he could get back home to see his thirteen year old daughter because he had been away for so long doing this job. On the last chimney cap Bill fell from the ladder landing on his head on the concrete pad below. When I rushed over I saw something that no person should have to see(and I'll spare the details) and I froze, everything went blurry and I couldn't hear a word. We were removed from our job and we all went to counseling, but the image is hard for me to erase.
At the end of this last semester while I was hunting in eastern Montana we got word from my mom that my Cousin Travis had died in a motorcycle accident. Travis was an amateur race car driver and was very good,he was always winning and was even awarded driver of the year awards. He was driving what is referred to as a crotch rocket (a really fast street bike) he leaded it too far over going around a corner and caught his foot peg on the pavement.
Now for the latest. At the beginning of the semester a friend of mine Travis Engstrom died in an avalanche in Cooke City Montana. I only knew Travis for a short while, but he was one of those people you are instantly friends with. The worst part is that I knew Travis through a friend of mine whom I had grown up with, his name is Nick. Nick's sister Kelly was married to Travis, Nick's family and I have always been close. Kelly unfortunately had to stand by and watch as her husband was swallowed up by the avalanche, he of course went up the hill for one more run. Travis and Kelly had just had a baby in August his name is Kaden, he was born premature so he could spend a little more time with his dad.

All of these days were bad days. Luckily not all these people died on the same day like in Antigone or think I could very possibly have lost my mind. Is it because all these deaths happen so unexpectedly that we consider them to be more painful? Antigone seemed fully aware that she would die, so to me it begs the question: Does knowing someone is on their way to meet death soften the blow? Or does delaying and dragging death out only prolong misery and suffering for those who are left behind?

My Dog Steve

I would like to intoroduce you all to my dog Steve. He likes to study with me. He sleeps a lot. This is Steve!

"Bing again, first shot out of the cannon."

When we talk about Groundhog Day we are talking about rituals that we all do time and time again. Phil has the opportunity to change events day after day, but on the same day. Many of us do the same things from year to year. This got me thinking, my friend Cassi's birthday is on Groundhog day every year and every year she celebrates her birthday. Each year there maybe several things she changes in order to have the perfect celebration. Just like Phil, in the movie, we have the chance to change what we do accordingly. This can be seen in dating or marriage, people in relationships are constantly learning things about the other person. I'm sure Professor Sexson knows this after celebrating his wedding anniversary on Groundhog Day (how fitting) I have absolute confidence that Prof. Sexson has whittled his anniversary celebration down to perfection. Every year when Phil pokes his head out from his winter slumber, Prof. Sexson and Cassi are already scheming on their perfect celebrations.