Transcendentalism Part 2

The Situation: Chris, a college senior, has just been accepted to the best law school in the country. His parents, Sheila, his wife, and his brothers and sisters are very excited for Chris since he has wanted to become a lawyer for his entire life. Chris isn't so excited though. He has realized that he would rather be a high school teacher than a lawyer. Chris would have to go back to school to get his teaching certificate.

In this situation I would do just as a transcendentalist would. I believe you should follow your heart over logic. A transcendentalist would definitely go with their higher feeling or their enlightenment from god. I truly believe they lived off of gut feeling, quit like the hippie culture. If it feels good, then why not do it.

“Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world" I believe he is saying, that if you are happy and content with your own trade, no matter what it be, and you are truly happy with it, then you rule the world in your own way. Who cares what everybody else thinks or says of you, you are happy despite them and their blurry views on you.

Transcendentalism Part 1

I thoroughly enjoyed every one of these pieces of righting and would love to read more of them in the future. "Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson; was a very interesting piece of writing. It makes me want to go outside and take a new perspective on my surroundings. One has to admire life and Mother Nature as she is; not to get caught up in all the confusion of life but to some what revert back to childhood.

"To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature" The reason we know Ralph is a transcedentalist, is becuase he talks about rising above all and becoming one with nature. Becoming higher than any of his surrondings and closer to god. Others can see nature, but they can't transcend it. He becomes a fragment of nature to feel, see, and unify with his surrounding world.

"Self Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I could not agree with him enough in his essay. Emerson explains how man should not fall into what society thinks he should do, but of what would make him truly happy. Never blend in with society; you should stand out like a hot pink dot in a room full of black. Yes, people will not like you or even understand you but the ones that do, will be because of who you really truly are.

"To be great is to be misunderstood." This is so true in everyday life. Ralph transendeds above all his peers and actually had the courage to state his thoughts and opionins. He put his intuition on the line, unlike the abounding amount of cowards before him. He did not use logic, but his intuition. He felt that god spoke through him, and thats how he discovered his point of view.

"Resistance To Civil Government" by Henry David Thoreau. No men should be governed by their piers, especially when they succeed the intellligents of their peers. Who is to decide what is right or wrong, or what is just and in just. Everyone has different opinions. I believe we as the people should govern are self and not any elected official. Vote as town and not a country decision.

"The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at anytime what I think right. . . ." You see, its the same intuition I was speaking of earlier. Who cares about logic or other mens views. When you have god explaining logic to you, the highest thing or being there is. One couldn't have a better mentor than that.

This one's for Maudsley

Nicholas Wehunt
Classic City High School
Athens, Georgia
(706)351-1816



“It Took Courage”
(My algebra teacher is a superhero)

September 11, 2001 transformed the entire planet Earth like no act of war in the history of recorded mankind. Since that single violent moment, American heroes have needed to be men of steel, leaping tall buildings at a single bound -- flashy, colorful and possessing impossible powers. The fact that such heroes have received better headlines and reams of press cannot be argued. But behind the battles of political dogma and holy wars, suicide bombers and torture inflicted by American soldiers and Homeland interrogators, societies ground level contributors have been forced to continue the seemingly mundane task of trying to capture the fickle attention of today's American youth and prepare them for adulthood in such a hostile environment. Their nearly impossible dream is to rekindle desire and enthusiasm in a modern day student population which finds itself unable to care much about anything at all.

Thousands upon thousands of people around the globe had their lives and futures changed forever on 9/11. Here in Athens, Georgia, Dr. Maudsley was just such a person. A university ecology scientist Dr. Maudsley had been an ecology researcher at the University of Georgia for 35 years, most of this time before the field was even considered a science. For the last 15 years he was a contractor with the Environmental Protection Agency and supervised and environmental team for them. But after the strike by terrorists the Bush administration diverted much of Maudsley's funding for the war effort and those scientists remaining were often required to employ their skills in research for the defense department.

"Scientists suffered, but so did every one else," Maudsley explained. "The funding started to get cut back for the environment and one of the first places to take a hit was the Environmental Protection Agency. I was getting a little old for field work, collecting mud from a streams and water -- or sometimes having to catch live things. It could be physically tough and it was getting to me. In my case, the decision to find a different kind of work was made for me."

I told you that story to tell you this one. About five years ago the doctor decided to give teaching a chance because many of his associates had done so. He had already been a Boy Scout leader for over 30 years and boasted a great deal of experience working with community youth. Luckily for all of us here at Classic City High School, Principal Hunter decided to pick up the phone and give Maudsley the call. The good doctor of course answered that call.

Dr. Maudsley continues to this day going down to the stream to collect samples -- sometimes "catching live things." Presently, the researcher is employed to find learning obstacles and thereby turn around wayward youngsters, who often have no idea why they should take an interest in their own education to begin with. It is a brave thing, indeed, to actually believe in the dreams and ambitions of teenagers and to not be afraid of the trying (and sometimes failing). He did something for me that he did not have to do at all -- he actually listened to my observations and concerns. He showed me a few tricks and taught me to relax and have a little fun with numbers. He picked me up and he taught me how to learn.

When you consider such moments and people in your own lives, remember more than the clearing of tall buildings at a single bound. My mild-mannered high school algebra teacher turned out to be a high school superhero. His rare attributes alone have helped enable this once hopeless student to reach higher and try harder to make big dreams and success possible. "Up, up, and away."

Oh the Romanticism

Part 2

"From an opening between the trees he (Rip) could overlook all the lower country for many a mile over rich woodland" This is romantic because it is explaining such beautiful land and you can imagine the Picturesque beauty in it, it makes you feel good inside. "Young Van Winkle once- old Van Winkle now!" They are stretching the imagination hear and now Rip has his beautiful daughter his haggard wife is gone and he can be lazy like he wants to. In my opinion the whole point of this story was to show how Rip went from un happy to on top of the world to give people hope in this world today and especially then. This would drive a realism believer up the wall. This tall tale is an imagination thing and nothing is real about it. The Realist didn't like this day dreamy kind of world, they wanted to express the real things that were going on like war, and death, and violence. Pretty much all the bad aspects of life that were real and going on at the time.

PART 3

“Thanatopsis”

This whole poem is a lovey dovey, but it also has its bitter points or its sad points. He's being very expressive and going into detail about the pain and love of it all. Theirs a lot of analogies but I was really confused by the whole poem; the way hes uses his words or what he's trying to say is confusing. I think though, he is trying to give hope to people even though life is so hard or devastating at that time. Romanticism is like finding the good out of a bad or scary thing. Like death for instance, death is a really scary thing, and with all these different thoughts and views on who’s going where and who’s better than whom. We all are one in the end and no ones better or less than any one else.

PART4

"The Ropewalk"

I believe the point to this poem is you can make anything in life fun or miserable. Always look to the brighter side of any and every situation in life, because you can find pleasure in anything, and don't ever forget you have an imagination. Theirs a lot of images that stand out to me in this poem. For instance, two fair maidens in a swing. I find my self thinking of girls a lot in work or anything else for that matter. This is a good example of romanticism because it's it all about the imagination and the unreal. like, When he was talking about the two maidens swinging over his head; their definitely wasn't maidens flying over his head, but wouldn't be cool if their was. That the point to all this, escape from reality. “While within this brain of mine cobwebs brighter and more fine by the busy wheel are spun.” He is talking about his imagination being more important than the task at hand. Don’t waste times on menial tasks of life but the things you like or you grow upon.

PART 5

THE PAINTING

This painting reminds me of romanticism because its so picturesque and beautiful. Like Mr. Sigmund explained to me earlier, in the time of all this romanticism righting life was hard. A common man would walk down the street and come by people’s feces and dead horses. That wasn’t the greatest sight to see. So, having a picture like this made people feel good, it gave them some hope of one day them being in a beautiful place like that.

The thoughts and feelings of old Rip Van Winkle

All together, this was a great story. I really enjoyed the whole plot of the story, the time travel and such. Rip Van Winkle was loved by most and and despised by one, his wife. Mrs. Van Winkle was a crude stay at home mom, or that’s the way Rip saw her. I'm sure she was a great wife; Rip was just really lazy and never kept his farm in good shape.

Rip had a dog named Wolf, and old Rip and wolf did everything together. One afternoon, Rip and Wolf went squirrel hunting in the mountains (That was Rips favorite thing to do). After a while of hunting, the two of them took a break on a log. Their, Rip feel a asleep and awoke later that night to old man screaming up the mountain side, toward him. Rip didn't recognize the man as one of his town friends but being a caring person he descended to the man and aided him. The man had a keg of liquor. The two men carried it up the mountain to a small amphitheater.

These men in the amphitheater in my mind looked like midgets with military uniforms drinking boos and playing ninepins. I believe, that afternoon, Rip ate some mushrooms out of his neighbors cow fields and fell into a coma for twenty years. Well, the story goes he woke up and it was twenty years later. His wife was dead, his dog didn't know him and his daughter was grown with a baby. Who, he lived the wrest of his old life with. I LOVE TALL TAILS, don't you?