The World I See, the World You See, and the World We See.

WARNING: LONG article.... :}
For this week's assignment, we are to choose a news article which reflects the world we see. We then are to choose 2-3 people to share, who are not students and we do not see often. As they tell us the world that we do not see, we are to give them three quotes:

"who we are at the core is love itself."
"We were born with one purpose: to love and be loved."
"As we change, the world will change with us."
"The world we see reflects the people we've become. If we do not like what we see in the world, we must face what we don't like within ourselves."

First off, the article I have chose is Lysacek Wins the Gold with Style from The New York Times and the people I have chosen to share with are my aunt and my mom. The reason I chose the article was that it is the only somewhat positive article I can find on the home page of NY Times. I have already looked through tons of headlines from my online news subscriber, however other than something the gov. did wrong, tragedies at Haiti, or Kennedy's love letters, I couldn't find anything close to being positive. I am not saying that I am not interested in what the gov. did wrong or tragedies in Haiti, (def. not interested in Kennedy's love letter though) they just don't reflect the world I see.

I believe amidst all the problems and pain that cover the world, heart warming and caring tales are what reflect the world I see and believe in. I believe that there is still goodness in everyone's heart, they just don't make it to the news headlines.

Secondly, I chose my relatives as candidates to discuss mainly because previous candidates have all some troubles.... This made me realize that people are definitely more and more busy. I originally wanted to take this as a chance to reconnect with some old friend who entered the job market early, however they seemed just as busy, if not busier, than college students. At first they were all eager to help, yet when it really came down to discussing, things just didn't work out as well. I was even hoping to ask my brother instead of my mother, since I figured my mother and I would have similar views. My 8th grader brother turned out to be too busy doing math hw, and was again unavailable. I think it is rather sad that it is so hard to have people (including myself) slow down and stop, just to talk about love and the world we live in.

Anyhow, moving to the good stuff...The first response from my aunt about the article was, she was wondering what would be Lysacek's reactions if he didn't win Gold. In a way, she thinks that Lysacek had less stress since he wasn't expected to win, thus overall result in him being more able to perform well. On the other hand, Plushenko, the anticipated Gold medalist had more stress and probably inversely affected his performance. I then told her my main view on the article was that sometimes people set a goal and work hard to achieve it, and the process in reaching the goal is already a success in itself. I think going through the process itself can offer so many learning experiences, that the end result seems like the icing on a cake. (a seven thinking pattern? *laugh*) such as when one is writing a research paper for a scholarship, the knowledge that one gained during the research can be more significant than actually winning the scholarship.

My aunt agreed with me on that part, however she joking said Plushenko didn't seem to feel that way, since the words coming our of his mouth is rather sour. Though, she also thinks that to achieve your goal, you much be aggressive and take the first step. Looking at a bigger picture, she also agreed on wanting to see more heartwarming news. (She then proceeded to tell me a story of an old man cooking noodles everyday for a female crippled and stray dog with three puppies. The news then reached an organization in Europe.) She thought that it would be much nicer if the news can enact more love within our hearts and carry it out in our daily lives. News should encourage love and support the love within our core, hence changing the world little by little. My aunt thought that many it is hard for people to know themselves, in fact we often see ourselves through other people's eyes. Hence if the news offered us a better view, people will be more motivated. She agreed with me that love is a learning experience. It is just like when parents can try their hardest to tell their child something, yet the child may never learn it without experiencing for him or herself. (which I thought was a great analogy)

ON the other hand... (this entry is getting long) my mother had quite an intense reaction I didn't quite expect. She didn't think either Lysacek or Plushenko were happy. She thinks the Olympic, like many different systems, urge people to compete to an extreme and cause unhappiness. My mom believes that competing for a ranking to the point where even .5 matters, while the athletes have sacrificed so much just seem rather pointless. She thought the genuine spirit of the Olympics were lost. If systems like these don't help society improve, then it is not created with the love for the world in mind. Then it is time to relook at what is wrong and tweak it back.