Reflection Letter

When I was seventeen I moved out of my parents house in Kenmore, WA where I grew up. After I graduated from high school, I worked at a Christian camp for a few months. A few months later, I went to a Bible school in New Zealand, where I was challenged on my views of society and my beliefs. For the last year and a half, I have been working as a plumber's apprentice. This semester I learned a lot about analyzing movies and how much there is to learn from watching these films. It was interesting to look at how poplar culture has progressed and changed our tradition. I don't think that my views of the themes discussed this quarter have changed, but rather the discussions and assignments have reinforced my opinion that today's concepts have continued to erode the moral and family values we used to hold. In doing so, they have destroyed a large and growing portion of respectable society.
When the quarter began, I had already researched and formed opinions about identity, community, and tradition. I found that the views of them have changed over the years, so all the discussions only leant support to what I've already found. Identity has grown from a very community-oriented view to a much more individualistic or "me first" attitude. This is a primary root of greed, selfishness and deceit, because one is distanced from how one's actions affect others. The ideas of community are directly related to the ideas about identity. As identity has become more individualistic, the ideas of community have become much more vague and withdrawn. This is very apparent in neighborhoods today, where most people don't know more than one or two other families that live on their street. It used to be that the neighborhood was a close-knit community that came around each other to help out when one of the members needed a hand. This was shown in the end of the movie Remember the Titans, when Boone's neighbors cheered him on in the finals. Tradition has changed from a formal, conservative view to a very "tolerant" and "open minded" view.
The effects of this change in the way we view community and tradition are seen in how many music lyrics now openly condone violence, licentiousness, and disrespect in general; clothing has become much more revealing; and promiscuity is much more prevalent. These aspects have had a destructive effect on the family unit and have shortened the average time that a relationship lasts. This is because the members in a relationship tend to be distracted by the physical aspects and many issues between the partners remain indiscussed. The tension this creates breaks up many relationships.
The changes have come with some positive affects as well, though. Equal rights are one of the biggest, along with many advances in medicine and psychology. The capitalism and the relative prosperity that our nation enjoys, as compared to the rest of the world, is one of the positive effects of the individualization of identity. In discussion board three, "The Museum of Me," it talked about how the Internet has been affecting our society and the relationships in it. While the essay had a negative tilt on it, we seemed to decide in the discussions that the ability to create and maintain relationships over long distances is a huge benefit to our society. Julie expressed in well in her post: "The people on those computers are conversing with someone at the other end. It's also a huge way of communicating with family and loved ones. It's much easier for me to shoot an email to my Grandma that it is to write the letter, buy the stamps and go to the post office." The way these ideas have changed over the years has both benefited and degraded our society in different ways. Each person has his or her own ideas about which effects are negative and which are positive, and whether the cost of one is worth the reward of the other. I'm sure that my opinion is readily apparent.
I tried to chose four of my writings that best displayed my opinions and personality. For my first writing that demonstrated my critical thinking skills I picked my first timed write Remember the Titans. That's pretty self-explanatory, I was simply analyzing it in respect to discrimination. The next work had to show my revision skills. My second blog relating to a community that I was apart of seemed to fit the bill. My essay on finger food had to do with a family tradition relating to food. This was a good choice for illustrating my awareness of audience and voice. The last one, my favorite, is all about my wallet and me. This work is a wonderful description of me and it exudes my voice.