Thanksgiving or Food and Football?

Thanksgiving has been a traditional holiday that has been celebrated in the United States for decades. The meaning of Thanksgiving is for families to get together and give thanks for eachother and all that they have. I dont know about everyone else, but I feel like the meaning of Thanksgiving is getting lost. My extended family got together at my house on Thanksgiving. Turkey, gravvy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie were served like many other American families, but I dont think i heard one person say what they are thankful for. My cousins and uncles went to the basement and ate there with the television so they could watch football, and I was upstairs with my sister eating and catching up about school and friends while the women sat in the living room talking about recipies for Thanksgiving food. I realized as the night came to an end that I had got to see my family, but it wasn't really different than any other family reunion. I wonder if other families, like mine, seemed to be forgetting the whole jist of THANKSgiving. I can't help but wonder, what will happen in the future, like with the changes of Halloween over the years, will the values of Thanksgiving change as years pass? Will it just be another day of the year where families eat a big dinner? What will this day be like twenty years from now? Today, not many people talk about the pilgrims and indians, and they were the ones who originated this holiday. What else will change about our society as time goes on?

CAN THIS SERIOUSLY WORK??

Today I was having a conversation with my parents and my sister. My sister is in college and having a hard time deciding what she wants her major to be. My mom suggested that she take a personality test called the Myers- Briggs test and another one that she knew of that informed the test-taker what career they would be best in. Personally, I have taken a few personality tests to tell me what kind of a person I am (introvert or extrovert, what kind of a learner, etc.) and I thought they were kind of interesting. Then I started thinking about the fact that there was supposedly a test you could take that would tell you what your career should be. Can a test of only a hundred questions truely be able to grasp one's strengths and weaknesses well enough in order to tell them what they should be doing for the rest of their life? I dont think something like this would honestly be able to decide what career a person would be best and most satisfied with for their entire life. What do you think? Do you know someone who has based life decisions from results of something like these kinds of tests?

Take a personality test and see if it is right about you.

is it partriotic?

I had a conversation with my friends dad the other day and I thought what he had to say was very interesting. We got into a discussion about the election. We were speaking about how some people are not happy that Obama was elected and how they think he will not be capable of leading this country. My friend's dad told me openly that he voted for McCain and thought he would have been a better leader. I asked him if he was upset about the outcome. He responded by saying "So what. So I wanted McCain to win and he didn't, but now I've got to be a patriotic American. I have to support our president even if it isnt the man i voted for. He is our leader." I thought this was very interesting considering the fact that many people who don't support certain politicians campaign against them. Sure, many people out there who voted for McCain may be upset that he was not ellected, but does that give people the right to not support Obama? Is it unpatriotic to express negative thoughts towards our new president? Should the people who did not vote him into office silence their negative voices and support him even if they dont believe in some of the things he does?

What ever happened to the old-fashion newspaper?

In class today, we went on a small tangent talking about the Chicago Sun Times, and then we started talking about newspapers in general. The newspaper industry is quickly declining as a result of the advances in technology. When I looked for information pertaining to the election, I'd open up a browser window on my computer and look at articles posted on Google or Yahoo or Comcast. I may have glanced at the articles on the front page of the paper, however I never opened it up and sat down to read the content. My grandpa always came over and would read our newspaper front to back because in past decades, the radio and newspaper were the only source of news they had. Today, we have the internet, cell phones, and television channels with news on at just about every hour of the day. The demand for papers have gone down an incredible amount and this just really got me thinking about what will happen in the next few decades with technology. In the past few years, Apple came out with new technology that is sensitive to touch and can hold tons of music as well as act as a cell phone and a camera. Today we have Bluetooth technology, where not only is there no cord to your phone, but you dont even need to hold your phone to your ear in order to talk to someone. Cars can now be electrically powered, televisions and desktop computers can be as thin as a stack of a few papers. Our world is technologically advancing before our eyes. What next? What will they come up with from here? Will the things people thought were absurdly impossible years ago be accessible in the next few decades?

what America EXPECTS from Obama

"Change has come to America" Barack Obama stated in his victory speech. Obama represents change in the white house. He is young, past presidents are usually older. He has reform plans the change the country. The most obvious one, he is African American. All over the news is the word EXPECTATIONS. Obama has made the nation believe that his new ideas are right for the country, even though they may be somewhat "out there", his confidence has made us believe that they will bring a bright future to our country and we have trusted him to do so. Obama made many promises in his campaign speeches to bring the country out of the economic crisis, pull out of the war in Iraq, better health care programs, tax cuts and we are EXPECTING him to deliver. Obama says he is prepared to provide our country with the changes and reforms necessary. However, we do need to understand that we are still in perilous times and just because Obama is a new face in the white house doesn't mean the country's future will be bright. I am very curious to see what Obama does in the white house and the effects his actions on the country.



What do you think Obama will be able to accomplish as our president?
Do you he will fulfill the EXPECTATIONS or fall short?

Halloween or All Hallows Eve????

After seeing everyone at school dressed up in their costumes and then watching little kids running around my neighborhood trick or treating, I wondered, what is Halloween? I mean i understand that it is a day for people to dress up in scary costumes and go trick or treating for candy, but why do we do this? I went online and read a little bit about the history of Halloween and how this somewhat absurd holiday came to be. October 31st is the last day of the Celtic calendar and it honors the dead. Halloween was called All Hallows Eve years back and has been celebrated for over 2000 years! the Celtic culture had a feast on October 31st called the feast of Samhain which honors the dead. This feast ended the past year and began a new one. Back in this time, it was believed that the dead souls would roam the streets of the village at night. Those souls that were thought to be evil were offered treats that were left out on doorsteps so they would pass and guarentee that the next seasonal harvest would be abundant. The custom of leaving the treats on doorsteps eventually turned into what we now call trick or treating! After reading more about this I realized that there were many myths and legends about the celebration of All Hallows Eve and at one point this was a very serious holiday whereas today it just seems to be one for the joy of little children.

The evolution of All Hallows Eve into what we celebrate today as Halloween reminded me of the discussions we have been having in class about the Puritans and their religion. Today, as we read about the Puritans and their beliefs in witchcraft and the way they found a person guilty for participation in the "works of the devil", we are amazed at their absurd beliefs and trials. This is very similar to our views of All Hallows Eve. We no longer believe in the existence of dead souls walking the streets at night and warding them off with gifts and treats. The views of these two common occurences in the past are thought of in such different ways today.

This makes me question what people will think of us in a few hundred years? Will they call some of the things we do absurd?