Cathleen's Weblog

cathleenb — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 05:49:52 +0000

When I was looking for an article for my politics class the other day, I came across an article of a little girl that was killed. Her name was Riley Ann Sawyers and she was only two years old. Her mother beat her repeatedly then put her lifeless body into a tupperware container, put the container in a shed for months, then dumped it in a bay. Reading the article literally made me sick. How could someone even think about doing something like that to anyone, mostly someone so innocent and full of life. Last night while I was at my sister’s, I was watching my three year old niece playing with her new Dora Play-Doh set that my other sister had given her as an early birthday present. The tiniest things made her so happy and so amazed. I thought of the story I’d read the day before and couldn’t even understand what was going through that little girl’s mother’s head. How? Why? Kids are just so full of life and get so excited with the smallest things, why take that away from them? Just watching my nieces laughing and smiling makes me so happy. They’re so naive of everything that’s going on around them and are genuinely happy kids with no worries in the world. This little girl’s life was cut way too short, she barely even got a chance to live.

cathleenb — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:22:21 +0000

I was driving home from school or work one day and heard the song “Sweetest Girl” by Wyclef Jean and immediately thought that I could write a blog about it. Two lines really stuck out to me.

Cash rules everything around me

It drives the world crazy

So many things in the world are materialistic these days. Everything depends on whether or not you have the newest cellphone, newest ipod, newest clothes, and most expensive cars. Why? Does having all of these items make you a better person? I don’t think so. As Wyclef Jean says, “It drives the world crazy,” it really does. Everyone depends on money for everything. Their “wants” soon turn into “needs,” even though these items are not necessities and could easily be lived without. So many people work hours on top of hours to earn insane amounts of money, but where exactly does it get them? They can buy whatever they want, but are they really that well off? They’re at work constantly, leaving little to no time for their family or other activities they enjoy participating in, little amounts of sleep, and high levels of stress. To me, that’s not all that ideal.

cathleenb — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:16:46 +0000

A good life is a main argument.
-Ben Jonson

What exactly is a “good life”? The meaning is different for everyone, so the meaning of it can be argued about constantly. For some people, the idea of a good life might be having everything they could ever want. They believe that a good life is materialistic and having the best, most expensive things is key. Others may believe that happiness is the idea of a good life. How they reach this happiness is also different for each person. There isn’t just one meaning of the good life. An individual’s beliefs, views, morals, likes/dislikes, etc. lead to how they define having a “good life.”

success

cathleenb — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 04:23:41 +0000

In a world where broken dreams and lost hope is normal, where few souls truly find themselves and accomplish their goals, it is easy for our path to become cloudy and we might lose the road. The key to success in this issue however, is to run with blinders. We must follow our path with our heads forward and our minds on the future. We must ignore all those trying to hold us back and walk past them. We must step over obstacles we face unfazed and forget about them. We must keep our eyes on the prize and walk the path we have in front of us.
–Harrison Carnevale

The preceding quote is an excerpt from one of my friends college admissions essays. Tragically, he was killed in a car accident 8 days after graduation. I found his essay to be very inspiring. I think that success has a lot to do with living a good life. Success can vary from person to person. It can come from their job, family, friends, or interests/activities they are involved in. Becoming successful in whatever you find most important can make you truely happy. A lot of people think of being successful as having a career with a high salary, but I don’t see it that way. You can be successful without having as much money as someone else. If there is something that you want to do and know it will make you happy, go for it. Like Harry said, don’t let anyone hold you back. Follow your dreams and just be who you are. In some way, you will be successful one day.

‘the best things in life are free’

cathleenb — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 04:36:43 +0000

Lately, I’ve noticed that many songs refer to “the good life” and some are even titled “Good Life.” One of these songs is “Good Life” by Kanye West. Not only does the song have a good beat, good instrumentals and effects, and good vocals, but it also sends out a really good message. While most rap songs talk about drugs, drinking, and sex, [though this song does refer to these ideas, the song isn't based around them] the message is stronger than that. Kanye talks about cars and girls, but says that they aren’t necessary to have a good life, they’re an added bonus.

I feel like these are the most important lines of the song.

The good life, let’s go on a living’ spree
Shit they say the best things in life are free

Basically, everything that you really need to have a good life are free. You already have them. You don’t have to go out and buy thousands of dollars of things to make yourself happy. Loving and being loved, doing things you love, and being around people that care for you are what’s most important if you want to live happily and have a good life. How happy can you truely get with owning material items? Sure, they may provide instant excitement or happiness when you first purchase them and the first couple of weeks following the purchase, but what happens when you get bored of something? Is it a waste then? Surrounding yourself with people, not having to purchase anything to get the happiness, and having a long lasting happiness are what are important to have to have a good life.

friendship = the good life?

cathleenb — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:12:05 +0000

According to Aristotle, friendship is an essential component of the good life. In the article, it is said that Aristotle thinks of friendship kind of like self-love; you have to have a relationship with yourself before you can have a relationship with another person. The “features” of friendship that Aristotle described were that one friend wishes that their friend will do well and survive, they spend time with their friend, make the same choices, and share in the pleasure and pain of the outcomes of events. The stability of a virtuous person that is learned through friendship leads a person to having “the good life.” Through friendships, individuals learn a lot of things like sharing and differences of opinion, as well as build character. Aristotle believes that happiness and goodness are inextricable, you can’t have one without the other.

Is this true, do you have to have a strong friendship with someone to have a good life? I think that friendships do play a big role in having a good life. It’s in our human nature to want to have someone that you can depend on, someone that you choose to have a close relationship with that isn’t a part of your family. Friends help us to mold ourselves into who we are and give us different ideas on different aspects of life. Most people are the happiest when they are spending time with their friends, exchanging ideas and deciding on activities to do together.

The “Good Life”

cathleenb — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:57:52 +0000

While thinking about what to use for this blog, I remembered a song that I heard when I was babysitting my niece. She was watching a movie on the Disney Channel and a song called “Good Life” was in it. It’s a catchy song with a good meaning behind it.

If I were you I’d be taking it easy
Kick back and relax for a little while
We’ll all still be here tomorrow
Take time just to act like a little child
No matter what the world has in store for us
You got the ring that better get off of us
Reach out for a comfortable chair
Rejoice and throw your arms in the air

‘Cause it’s a good life so why y’all trippin’
The good life slippin’ away

The the point that is being made in lyrics is that everyone is taking everything so seriously these days. We live in a world where punctuality and work is all that most people worry about. No one is taking time to sit back and let things go for a little bit, which is what is needed.

Hollywood.

cathleenb — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:16:55 +0000

I found the blog Important life lessons brought to you by the movies to be interesting. It talks about how movies in Hollywood tend to be somewhat unrealistic and overplayed. The general gist of a lot of movies is that the hero survives and the bad guy dies, but how many times is this going to come up in movies? Can’t someone think of something more original? Another concept that is brought up is how women in movies always look as though they just applied make up, no matter what they had just been doing. How many women in real life wake up in the morning with pefectly applied make up and their hair done nicely? No one that I know.