Grass

This poem is short and sweet. At first glance, just by looking at the title, "Grass," I will be honest in saying I though that it might be about some illegal activity. After reading though, I discovered that it has a whole different meaning that is far from what I thought. Throughout the poem it mentions various places. These places are famous historical ones. By having knowledge of what took place at some, like Gettysburg and Waterloo, I inferred that what these places all have in common is a great loss of life. After each place is mentioned, the grass is mentioned as well, "I am grass; I cover all." Grass is a simple element of nature that is everywhere! The pattern in the poem leds to the belief that the poem's message suggests that the grass covers up the tragedies that happen in human nature. It literally does keep growing and overtime noone would know what horendous event took place on that land. Its almost as if nature is telling human nature to not worry "just let me do my work."

Harrison Bergeron

Wow, another sci-fi story. These are interesting to me sometimes. Although they seem on the surface to spout off shreds of ridiculousness or present reality in a version that is impossible to ever contemplate as real.... they can have some vital elements of truth in them. Harrison Bergeron is about a society that is equal to the extreme. Those that have advantages over others are required to wear something that inhibits them from displaying that advantage. For intstance, the very intelligent must wear the mental handicapp radio that transmits sounds in the ear of the person when their mental capacity is exceeding the standard of those around them. Performers, like dancers, must wear weights and masks, so no one can be deemed prettier or have more skill. This story is satirizing an element of our society that seems to be growing. We value equality in this country but how far should that go? Should we punish others for being better than us at something? In my opinion... no, we were all made as unique individuals with certain strengths and weaknesses that are special to that individual. Competition makes us stronger and taking that away would result in a stable society for sure but it would be a stable, stagnant society. No advancements in anything... technology, medicine, arts, ect. Our competition is what defines us. It helps us form the value of endurance. This story also pokes at the aspect that our society is slowly becoming devoid of thought. With all the new technoligies it seems that we are creating ways to decrease the use of are cognitive actions. Also, it could also mean that we are lazy and let others think for us, like our government or those that are superior to us. If this is the future of our society than it is just plain sad. I want to be able to think freely and I certainly would want to remember when and how my child died and so forth. Equality is an important aspect of our society that should be carried out. But the extent that the story drags it is way to far. Human beings need to be able to express themsevles. The society describe in the story would be extremely boring and sad to me in several aspects.

A Clean, Well Lighted Place

This story was short and sweet. I think it reminds us of what we take for granted. Most of us are surrounded by people that care for us and we forget that there are people that don't have that. Sometimes people just need another soul to converse with or just be in the presence of. That is what the cafe is. It is a place that is void of all the dirty corruption of the other late-night establishments. It is safe, clean and a place that one can feel comfortable and just feel wanted. The one waiter has grasped this concept and is appreciative that he is able to be that "soul" for others, but the other waiter can only worry about himself. He cannot see that sometimes it is good to give to others, especially when you come from a state of having plenty. This is demonstrated when the first waiter says that the old man in the cafe is "lonely." The second waiter says "he's lonely. I'm not lonely....." This is a total disregard for the old man and clearly shows that all he can think about is himself. The first waiter says " we are of two different kinds" He defines that it is not neccessarily what each other has and doesn't have, it is the fact that "Each night [the first waiter] is reluctant to close up because there may be someone who needs the cafe." I think we all could stand to be like the first waiter, at least for some of our time here. You never know when a smile or a simple salutation will give someone else the spirit to keep moving forward. We could all stand to relieve the focus off ourselves and be a little more selfless. This story was the first story we have read that did not deal with violence directly. Although it can be displayed as sad, it shows a classic example of how a simple action and multiply into whole multitude of kindness.