Crazy Dream

When the stars come out and the moon shines bright, one begins to feel tired and restless. So we close our eyes and begin to doze off to a trance where our body is sleeping, but our mind is occupied thinking of weird thoughts that would never dare to cross your mind while you are awake. We begin to “Dream”, where your mind plays a movie like image, as if you are actually living it. Except this movie doesn’t have an exact script to follow, it jumps around and makes no sense. One minute you could be at a lake with a whole bunch of friends, then the next minute you are in a totally different place, like a dessert. Now I don’t mean this exact thing happens, but shows a good example of how extreme your dream could play out.

Take for instance a dream that I had the other night, where I was sleeping inside of a SUV (which I don’t own), then randomly I woke up and I saw people outside of the vehicle in the distance. But it’s as if I was scared because I was hiding, keeping low, so that they would not be able to see me. Then all of the sudden, I began to notice a whole bunch of people walk by the car. But then out of nowhere I ended up on top of some steps, leading up to my parent’s house. Standing there, just watching all these people walking towards me, wearing baseball jerseys from our family’s softball team. But once they get closer, it turns out to be a lot of my cousins and one of my ex’s (which it kind of figures, as he still hangs out with all of my cousins) I then hear a voice say to my ex “you’re not friends anymore” and it turns out to be my mom. However, out of nowhere I end up back at the car, just sitting on the doorway, talking to my cousin Louie. As we continue to talk, he hands me a gun, as if I know what I’m supposed to do with it. I then look at his face and it begins to disintegrate. But the dream comes to an end, as I then wake. More confused than ever, wondering why all these people were in it. Especially me holding a gun, wondering what I am doing with one.

Dreams are not always easy to understand, as they can have us more confused than ever, but every dream has an important message in it. Like Carl Jung said in his book Man and His Symbols “The images produced in dreams are much more picturesque and vivid than the concept and experience that are their waking counterparts. One of the reasons for this is that, in a dream, such concepts can express their unconscious meaning.” (Jung, 29) A dream tries to communicate with you through metaphors. As it did in my dream where the gun represented the issues that I have with my ex and my cousins, telling me that I need to kill the issues. For it is causing me to ruin relationships with people, when one does not need to harbor hate, but instead should learn to forgive and love. So when you dream in the future, remember to try and remember your dream, so that you could try to discover the meaning behind your movie.

Achieve Greatness

Have you ever sat there and though what you wanted out of life?  When you think of what an individual wants out of life, they try to achieve a goal. Whether they want to better their education and become more knowledgeable, or try to achieve the fame of becoming a movie star, or musician. Whatever it might be, that motivation and drive must come within one self. To want to better your life and achieve greatness, takes a great deal of commitment, but if you manage to commit to something, then you will be a lot happier within. Because in reality the only person that really knows what you are feeling, is you. You’re the person that dictates what you are going to be in life. I mean, sure there are always people on the outside that will try to influence you into being their pawn, in their game of chess. And what I mean by this is that no matter what you do someone will try to control you, or influence you into doing things that you don’t want to do. Kind of like when they say “Peer Pressure is a Bitch”, sometimes you say no, but that constant pressure from your friends sometimes kicks in and you just say “fuck it”. But one has to know how to control themselves, and know their own body, as you are the only one that can dictate the constraints that your body has to offer. When you don’t let outside influences get to you, then that is when you could achieve greatness. One must live for themselves and do what they want with life; because you are the only one that knows what makes you happy inside. How do you think that some of the greatest people to walk this earth get to where they are. Not because they let people run their lives, but because they set out to do something with their lives, and they achieved it. They knew what makes them happy, and what skills they have to try and achieve that goal. For instance, Mark Walberg achieved his goal of being an actor because he was determined to achieve greatness, not because someone influenced him, but because he knew inside, that he had the skills to star in a huge blockbuster hit. If one is determined to accomplish a goal, then with all their will power, they will be able to achieve it.

True Hospitality

When looking at the characters from the short story “The Guest”, one that really seemed to intrigue me was Daru. Because he was a man that was caring, kind, and respectful to anyone that was a guest in his home.  As well as it should be, because when someone comes to visit your home, it is only polite to offer them something to drink, or eat. Daru shows this very well in the story, because when Balducci first arrived to the classroom with the Arab, after their torturing walk through the rough snow, he offered the two some warm tea that he had begun to brew up at the first sight of their presence in the distance. Now that is truly hospitality. Something that many people today have seem to forgotten. Like the simple things, of just offering your guest a simple glass of water. It will truly make them feel wanted and respected.  As was demonstrated by the Arab, after he was left behind by Balducci, so that he could get transported to the next village, where he would get turned in for the murder of his cousin. However, Daru could not turn him in, instead, he gave the Arab hospitality and a place to sleep. So in return the Arab woke up the next morning before the break of dawn, and began to fold all of the bed sheets and clean the room. Which shows that if you are kind to people, they will be kind and respectful to you in return. Like they say “what goes around, comes around”, showing that if you are kind, or giving to people, it will come back around eventually, may not be then and there, but in some way, and someday it will get returned to you. Always be kind to people and love thy neighbor.   

Killing Culture

As human being’s we are all almost similar in many ways, even though we have all encountered different experiences. However, even though we are different in that retrospect, we all have the tendency to be narcissistic because when we talk to someone, rather than listening to what they have to say and engaging in an actual conversation, we are more in tuned to listening to ourselves by changing the subject so that we could relate to one another but with the sacrifice of not listening to what the other had to say. Guess you could say that we are a society that is very impatient in many ways. We want everything in our hands immediately, like if you want it to fall from the sky and into your lap. We have all evolved to be a different species in the sense that we don’t enjoy the simple things of life that they used to back in the early 20^th century. With technology we have become lazy and impatient because we are now used to having everything at your fingertips, like the I Phone, where you could pretty much do anything on it, from turning your car alarm off and on, to being able to order pizza from a simple application because we are now too lazy to pick up a phone and talk with someone personally. But not only with the phone are you starting to see it but with everything else in life as well, and it is hurting our culture. For instance, back then people used to cook every day and sit around a table together to discuss life and to be able to form a stronger bond with someone. But now people are too lazy to cook for themselves and their families, so they just go out to dinner or pick up some food to take home. Plus because of this people are more in tuned with themselves only rather than being a community.  

You could say that I am a victim of this culture killer. When I was younger I used to have food delivered to the house or go out to eat at restaurants on a daily basis. This obviously had a negative effect on my body, because it caused me to gain weight to whopping 295 pounds. Until one day I met this guy that began to notice this and called me out on it. Explained how I eat out to much and have to kick back on it. At first I was kind of resentful as to a guy coming in my life and telling me how to eat. But with time I realized that he was right because I was just eating myself to death. So I decided to change my life and began to cook more at the house. By doing this it allowed me to eat healthier while growing a closer bond with my family because we would help each other out in cooking all while having conversations. It really is an amazing thing because we started to have more family dinners which is extremely rare. And it allowed us to have more trust in each other, as we are an open family where we talk about everything and it gave us a moment in the day to be able to do that. We look at each other for advice when we have a problem, so not only did it make our family grow closer, but it allowed me to lose weight too because I was no longer eating all those greasy, unhealthy meals so periodically. It caused me to be more productive as well, because I now cook at least 3 times a week and usually feed my roommates. So we now have the opportunity to grow a close bond by sitting around the table and having a conversation. It allowed me to stop thinking all about myself and start thinking about others by just giving a little of your attention to them.  So finally I leave you with this, we have to change the way we live and stop being all about ourselves and try to consider the other people around us to live a happier life.

Groundhogs Cave

When you look at the message that the cave is trying to portray, and compare it to the movie Groundhogs Day, you will see a series of similarities. Simply because at the beginning of the movie you see how Phil is a cocky, self-centered jerk that only thought of himself. Only to disregard what other people think or feel. But once the first day passed, Phil began to experience Déjà vu, but in a different way. It was not like a psychological experience but rather him experiencing it every day. At first he began to do what he wanted, and get what he wanted without consequence. Like the time when he drove drunk after drinking at a bowling alley. As he took off he began to drive reckless and run from the cops, because he knew that there would be no consequence for his actions. But as the days went by he only began to study people in more than many ways. He began to find out information about people so that the next day he would have something in common with them, only to be able to seduce them. Which is not a bad thing, I guess. But in a way it only shows that he is trying to fulfill all of his inner most desires, to make himself feel better about having to re-live the same day over and over. So it’s a way to try and escape the misery of having to wake up to the same song at six in the morning every day. One person that he really tries to study though is Rita his producer. When he spends the whole day with her only to find out what she likes, which he only uses it against her to make himself sound like a better man than what he really is. But Rita was no dummy, she could see past him every night as he always managed to say the wrong thing, only to suffer the consequence of being slapped every time. Just like in the Cave, although, you try so hard to get out of the darkness, if you don’t do it right then you will just get brought right back to the bottom. As it shows in the movie, when he finally gets so depressed that he kidnaps Groundhog “Phil” to only go to a cliff and drive off it, killing both of them. But he is not successful as he keeps waking up every day. This only shows that his pain will still be there until he decides to change his life and better himself. Like the saying goes, you must hit the bottom, before you can make it to the top.


So from that day forward Phil decided to change his perspective on this dark place and started to treat people with more respect. He started to give the homeless man all his money, bring coffee and pastries to Rita and Larry, ask people about their lives, change a tire for some old ladies when they got a flat, rescue a kid from falling off a tree, learns how to play the piano, and even tries to revive an old man from dying. He started to do so much that he began to think less of himself, but rather more of others. Finally everyone began to love him, where he ultimately starts to love himself. Once he discovers himself, then Rita begins to fall in love with him. Where he finally sees the light, to where he wakes up the next day next to Rita in bed. With Phil stating that “Anything different is good”, which is so true. Because if you look at it as being stuck in the cave which is dark place, like depression. Then it’s a process to get yourself out, but it’s doable. This ultimately builds you as a character to be able to withstand tough situations, and become a better person.

Stuck in a Dark Cave

Stuck in a Dark Cave

In Plato’s Cave there are many metaphors that get brought up. Like the main one being a cave. You could say that the cave represents many different parts of today’s society like we discussed in class. Like the government, media, culture, parents, religion, society, or even just yourself. But the worst cave to be in is within yourself. This could take forms in many different ways but the most common one is the form of depression. Many people go thru depression for several different reasons like losing a loved one to breaking up with someone.

One way that I am able to relate to this scenario is that when I broke up with my boyfriend it was the worst feeling in the world. Not because I felt like I lost the one person that I truly cared about and could see myself with for the rest of my life, but rather because I felt alone, with no one to turn to. It was a new chapter in my life because I moved out to San Francisco for school shortly after where I knew no one. So I did not have that comfort of opening up to someone that would comfort me. It was like being in a Cave where you don’t see the light but rather a complete darkness surrounding you. A place where nobody want to be. Feeling trapped in your mind with the constant question of you asking yourself, “How could I do something like that? Am I really a bad person?” but whatever it may be there always has to be a way out of the cave thru some type of hole. Though some holes might be tighter and more difficult to squeeze out of, there has to be a way to escape. Even if you are chained up you have to make that effort to get out of there and join society. It may take you weeks, months, or even years but the mission has to be done, so that you could survive and be happy. It took me several months to really get out of my slump, mainly because the transition was so hard.

It felt like Plato, like when he explained how he walked towards the light he suffered a sharp pain, and that the glare will distress him, plus he will be unable to see the realities of which his former state he had seen his shadow. Which it is like that because when you first try to walk towards that light it will be extremely difficult. As, you will go thru many obstacles but you have to keep at it, because your eyes will eventually adjust to the light and things will get better. So you must keep your head up and keep on trying because it is a battle in itself. For me it took me a year to finally be done with him for good because it was like I kept on seeing the bottom of the cave rather than the light ahead of it. So remember the light at the end of the tunnel is the best thing that you could see. Keep walking towards it as life will get better.

True Lies

True Lies

What is Truth? Is it really the whole truth? Some may say so, while others may think not. Truth is a form of how people see it in their own eyes to justify their beliefs in a way that they think is right. But is it really the truth? As it is said, “Beware of the half-truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half” by an unknown source. Which is true in many ways, You may think that what you have is the truth. But in fact it could be the total opposite. For instance, in today’s society there are many people who don’t know how to tell the truth but rather only know how to lie in a compulsive manner.



There is a man that I know that no matter what he does he could never tell you the complete truth, there always has to be some type of little twist to his story to make it seem more exciting. When in fact there does not need to be any sort of lying because no one cares if the truth is not intriguing. People grow more respect for an individual when one is truthful with one another, rather than lying out your teeth. When one tends to lie a lot then people begin to lose all respect for that person because they do not know if their word is ever valid anymore. So in that case being true with someone is one of the most important things. Not only for the sake of other people having trust in you, but for yourself as well.



When one lies they are only lying to others but in reality they are lying to themselves, therefor, one begins to question themselves in a way where they begin to feel bad. But also in a way that drives them crazy because like it is said by Mark Twain “if you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything” Which is so true because when you make up a lie then you have to remember what you said because although you might not remember it in a month from now the person that you told it to might. And if they catch you in a lie, then their trust for you begins to diminish.