A is For Acceptance

"Treat others like you want to be treated" said my mother, my counselors, my teachers ever since preschool. I've heard this so much I often forget the idea behind it, I dwell on the humdrum it became instead of the truth dormant within it. As a matter of fact, in elementary school, I was often resentful of this motto, because frankly, even though I treated others how I wished to be treated, the idea was never reciprocated, and most often, it was thrown back in my face. I recollect the sense of isolation, of solitude, and I wish no kid ever had to feel that way. Nonetheless, I believe that however that experience hurt me as a child, it has made me a more accepting person. I seek to never, ever, ever, ever, ever, for all of eternity to injure someone like that. No matter a person's appearance, their countenance, their differences, there is a detectable humanity that compels us all to pursue affection, acceptance, and love. Instead of focusing on the dissimilitude between ourselves and others, it is imperative that we perceive the common qualities and aspirations we share. We need to surrender our "default setting" that dictates our view of others only in accordance to their purpose to ourselves, and realize that no one person is better than any other. Essentially, we must be more patient with each other, not lose consciousness of the repercussions of simple actions, such as sympathy and understanding, and yes, most of all acceptance.

The Pen Can Raise The Sword

The power of words often astounds me, enthralls me, captivates me in inquisitive wonder. I love them and cherish them, especially when they are formatted into novels.  Literature has molded me, obviously in my mind's eye positively, but sometimes I wonder about the reach of manipulative rhetoric. I begin to ponder, if the equivalent of Hitler was my professor, if I read constantly misguided, but seemingly accurate, novels that encouraged loathing towards a specific denomination such as homosexuals, if I was surrounded by ads urging me into a bigoted mindset, would I be? What is so terrifying is that I reckon I might. Most people would. That is the reach of language. It is the basis of justice and fairness in American government, but it could so easily be the venue of ignorance and hostility. Just as the simple, but convincing pamphlet, Common Sense, influenced an entire people to war, even if it was for good reason, language could just as easily incite chaos. When one considers it from British perspective it seems insane. How could a mini book induce so many to mutiny? Nothing more that the right compilation of letters, sentences, and pages did this. Which means that it could just as well impel another Holocaust to occur. The pen is is not only mightier than the sword, it can be what raises the sword and decapitates humanity.

Historia e a Estoria: History and A Story

Historia, is history in Portuguese. Estoria is a story. In Portuguese, these words are homonyms, and because of this,  I began to overanaylze their relationship, as I am prone to do. It is quite interesting, to say the least, the intrinsic connection between the two, when one thinks about it. History is what happened in the past: it is supposedly factual, concrete and indisputable. Oppositely, stories are narratives, "either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer" as defined by dictionary.com. Yet history isn't as incontestable as your history teacher makes you believe.  History can be a story, it can be distorted and viewed from differing perspectives. It can be told differently. For instance, the Civil War isn't always referred to as the Civil War, inside or outside the United States. In the South, it is called The War Between the States and, and in Brazil, it is called "A Guerra Civil Americana." Details can be lost in retellings, in faulty memories, in lack of primary sources. History depends on where and when you live, and it is the story of the past based on what the teller knows. History and Stories, they aren't as dissimilar as they initially appear.
 It must also be remarked the effect of stories, of words and literature, on history -  or history as we know it. Just from the colonial times, if Common Sense, if Patrick Henry's Speech In The Virginia Convention, if all the the pamphlets that helped the constitution pass, hadn't existed, would the United States stand as it does today? The domino effect says that even miniscule differences in time would have major effects, but I believe the nation would be especially be astronomically different if literature, if these stories, hadn't existed. Literature is essential to not only the social structure of today, but to the memory of the past and the lessons they hold that must be taught to each generation to come.

Hysteria Is Hysterical: The Irony of It

Often, too often, the people of the present look to the past and laugh. We look at their folly, their ineptness at combating the inevitable turns that human nature cause, their lack of technology, and their outdated beliefs, and scoff. We scoff, but what we fail to realize is that we, too, are imperfect, ignorant,  still blind to all the knowledge the universe still holds. We may be a little less blind, that is true, but we are still only seeing such an insignificant amount of the picture. We, too, have grave errors facing our time, that have simple solutions, if only we let go of our time's channeled view. Our future generations will surely belittle us for that. They'll say then what we do now: "Why didn't they do this? Why didn't they do that? I wouldn't have been such a moron. LOL." Or maybe we don't say it, but many of us certainly think it. Or worse, deep down, we secretly believe it. We assume that facing the same challenges, we will learn from the errors of our forefathers and do better, be better. But will we truly? Sometimes I wonder, because if the world becomes an unwarranted sphere of mania, due to such things as the swine flu, then how will it react to World War III? When the witch trials span the whole globe, and countries instead of people are at stake, will we be able to fight human nature, or will we be at the mercy of history's patterns?

WORLD WAR III (Alien Invasion)