Is Odysseus a Hero??

Is a hero the guy flying around big cities, impossibly strong and wearing a cape with underwear over a spandex bodysuit? The guy who always arrives just in time to save the girl? Or can a hero simply be someone who always places the safety of others before their own? By definition, a hero is someone admired for their courage and nobleness. Odysseus may have had courage, yet he constantly placed his men in danger and cheated on his wife more than once; Therefore, Odysseus is not a hero.
“My men came pressing round me, pleading: `Why not take these cheeses, get them stowed, come back, throw open all the pens, and make a run for it? We'll drive the kids and lambs abroad. We say put out again on good salt water!' Ah, how sound that was! Yet, I refused. I wished to see the caveman, what he had to offer-no pretty sight, it turned out, for my friends.” Odysseus was a man of pride and sometimes, too much of it. His men proposed a perfectly safe plan, one in which everyone would get away unharmed, and Odysseus threw it down. He had to meet the Cyclops and by doing that he was putting his best men in danger-so much that by the end of their Cyclops encounter, he had lost half the men he had taken to the cave. His pride comes out once more as they leave the island and Odysseus mocks Cyclops and mockery is not the way of a true hero.
Besides his excess of pride, Odysseus is easily sidetracked from his main goal of getting home to his wife, Penelope, and his son. It was acceptable when he slept with Circe, the witch, for the freedom of his men. What is unacceptable, however, was for him to stay more than one night because she requested no more than that. There was no need for him to stay five nights which, in reality, turned out to be five years! Just as well, when Odysseus reached Calypso's island-alone-he was not obligated to sleep with her or even stay on her island; he stayed there by choice. On top of that, while he enjoyed the company of another woman , Penelope was weaving and unweaving her shrine every night in hopes of his return. A true hero would not give into temptations such as Circe and Calypso.

Without Choice

At night, they sleep on a wooden bed, no pillow, just a hole so that their hair can hang and not be ruined by sleep. In the mornings, they dress in elaborate kimono, with matching obi; a white powder covers their face and lips are often a bright shade of crimson. Growing up, they learn to play the shamisen, a small, guitar-like instrument, they are taught nagauta(singing), tea ceremony and dance. They are geisha. For centuries the geisha have entertained Japanese men at teahouses by dancing, singing or simply flirting with them. In these ways, a geisha is respected and held much higher than any prostitute.
Perhaps the biggest difference between a geisha and a prostitute is that geisha are well cultured in performing arts. In fact, the word “geisha” is Japanese for “artist”. When a girl begins training as a geisha, they practice the shamisen, singing and above all else, dance. Only the most attractive and promising young geisha are chosen to continue dance. Therefore, as Mameha tells Chiyo in Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, “ 'Dance has everything to do with it; if you look around at the most successful geisha in Gion, every one of them is a dancer.' ”(174) Sure, others may sing beautifully or play their shamisen well, but it is their dance that seems to capture the attention of a man.
On the other hand, there is no difference between a prostitute found in Japan and a prostitute in Paris. In the Japanese culture, however, a prostitute can be identified by certain aspects in their apparel. Chiyo's sister was sold into prostitution and when Chiyo visits her, she makes an observation, “They wore kimono and hair ornaments similar to a geisha, but their obi were tied in the front rather than in the back. I'd never seen this before and didn't understand it, but its the mark of a prostitute. A woman who must take her sash on and off all night can't be bothered with tying it behind her again and again.”(94) Also, the role of seduction differs extremely from the life of a prostitute to the life of a gieisha. The only thing a prostitute has to offer is their intimacy...from there, men can do what they choose with the girl.
Lastly, geisha were accepted and respected in the Japanese society because their traditional views of seduction were surprisingly quite relaxed. In fact, it was perfectly fine for married man to be in love with a geisha and for this reason, many geisha had a danna. Back in the 1940s and 50s, the word danna was used for the word “husband”, but because a geisha does not marry, their danna is someone who pays a very large amount to-in a way-take the geisha as his own. She is free to flirt and entertain other men, however, a geisha and her danna are usually quite attracted to one another and may meet a few nights each week on a very intimate level, and in return the geisha will have a steady income and often receives many extravagant gifts, like kimono. A geisha's reputation would be ruined if she acted as a prostitute, giving in to any man who wanted her company in bed. Chiyo learns, throughout her years in Gion, “A true geisha will never soil her reputation by making herself available to men on a nightly basis.”(171)
The bed of a prostitute is always occupied by two, although the partner may differ from one hour to the next. They live under poor conditions-selling all they have left. They wear their obi tied in front, clearly marking themselves for society. There is no escaping this terrifying position. A girl does not become a prostitute because they want to be, but because they have to be; and this may very well be the only similarity between a geisha and a prostitute, neither was ever given a choice.

Silly Bands, Really??

I think that schools took the right step in banning the Silly Bands.

Recently, even in the high schools, kids are trading, and playing with these animal shaped rubber band bracelets in class. I see it every day! They wear them on their wrists, and trade them amongst each other."I'll give you my flamingo for your dolphin?" and this goes on through out the days. However, and I'm willing to bet this occurs mostly in elementary schools, they have caused quite a distraction. Kids play with them during class-when they are supposed to be paying attention-and when they trade, they find that they just might want their seahorse back. Besides this, the Silly Bands are simply a fad. Next year, they are all going to wonder why they wore animal shaped rubber bands half way up their arms.

a product of bloggers block

This morning, I could not think of a thing to blog about...until I came along Bridget Fitzgerald's blog, and decided I would steal her idea. She wrote a little about the things she loves, and I thought that it was a brilliant idea because everyone loves different things, so here I go:

I love...

My family. They have always been there for me, no matter what. If I need my mom or dad to count my laps for me as they watch me run the two mile in track, I always know they will be somewhere near the finish line every time I pass by. The rest of my family is fantastic too, although I wish I saw my cousins more often.

Laughing. I will at almost anything. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who laughed, and sometimes I will think of something funny earlier in class and still laugh about it-but I can't help it and most of my friends feel the same way sometimes, so it all works out hahahaha(:

Running and crazy as it seems, I love distance running. Since I run cross country and track, I kind of have to. But there's something relaxing about going on a long, 8 mile run during summer, in the middle of nowhere(we did this at cross country camp last summer). There's also a great sense of accomplishment after every early-morning practices, again during the summer for cross country conditioning. I always feel happier when I have finished any sort of running whether its a long run or a track work out to build up speed.

Summer. I honestly dont know how the kids in China survive going to school year-round. With out summer, we would have absolutely nothing to look forward to! And I can't possibly imagine sitting in the school in the middle of July or August. Summer is when I spend days on end at the pool or with friends.

Baking. Baking is one of my favorite things to do when I'm at home. Some of my favorite things to bake are brownies and peanut butter cookies(the best cookie dough ever!!).My mom always made chocolate chip cookies when I was little, and I would always help her make them(but of course it was only because I knew I'd get some chocolate chips and cookie dough out of it). Now I actually like the baking part, but the love of cookie dough clearly hasn't changed.

Art. Anything creative, painting, drawing...I love it all. Ever since I was little I have loved it and someday I hope my career will involve art of some sort. When I draw, I don't know how much time passes by and when people ask me how long something took me, I absolutely no idea!

Friends. I don't know who I would be today if I didn't have the most amazing friends here with me. They too, like my family, will always be there for me. I have a group of best friends, and some are more like sisters to me. I know I can trust them with everything, and count on them for anything. We have been through a lot, and we would never want to lose each other.

I now have well over 400 words in this post, so I'm going to stop it here. Sometimes its fun to see really think about things that you love, even if they are really random.

SIMUN

The Wednesday that SIMUN started, I was a nervous wreck. I had done all my research, answered all the prep questions, and yet I didn’t think I was going to be ready to debate with a group on the topics. I really prefer not to talk in front of a bunch of people, and that’s what SIMUN is, basically. What really scared me was whether or not I could answer the questions people would through at me after I had given a speech.
I’m pretty sure the first day of SIMUN, for me, was a fail. The most difficult part is when your country has absolutely nothing to do with the situation and could probably care less whether Google decides to pull out of China or not. I had Zimbabwe, you see, and it rarely had any connection to the scenario at hand. That is, until the very last day. As SIMUN came to a close, my group had one scenario left and it involved the 2008 Presidential Elections in Zimbabwe, in which I was required to speak many times. The hardest part for me, was figuring out what position my country would take on each situation. Of course I had my own opinions of everything and I found it difficult when I agreed with one thing and then I would realize that Zimbabwe would not agree so I had to fight against my own thought sometimes, not just other countries.
In order to prepare myself for SIMUN I did a lot of research on my country, Zimbabwe. This helped a lot in understanding your own country and to help you consider what type of sides your country would be taking during SIMUN. Although, what helped me the most was definitely the prep questions we were given before SIMUN. On the first day of SIMUN I soon realized that those questions were the base of which our discussion topics were built! They were very helpful to me because rather than just throwing random topics at you for a scenario, you really knew and understood what has been going on.
To better prepare myself for next year I really need to think about the questions I might ask the other delegates as well as moves I might make as my country to get more involved in situations that do not directly affect my country. I needed to have asked more questions this time, and looking back I can see that. I was a little worried, with it being my first SIMUN experience, my questions would not make sense or have much importance to the crisis and then I heard people asking questions very similar to those I had already thought of.

SIMUN blog

Responding as a delegate from Zimbabwe:

Zimbabwe would agree that it is a good idea for the U.S. to secure the nuclear materials in Pakistan. I can see that if these materials were to get into the wrong hands, such as those of Al Qaida or the Taliban, the world would have a very big problem. Therefore, Zimbabwe believes that any extra help in securing these weapons would be a good thing for Pakistan and it would ensure that no terrorist groups get a hold of such powerful weapons.

According to “Pakistan's Nuke Materials AT Great Risk” from www.npr.com, “Pakistan's stockpile faces “immense” threats and is the world's least secure from theft or attack.” Seeing that the United States is a very advanced nation, Zimbabwe believes it would be very helpful to the Pakistan people and government to secure these weapons from outsiders. And, although Zimbabwe is not a fan of the United States, Pakistan is one of their few allies and can see that this is what's best for the nation.

As I stated before, if the nuclear weapons were to fall into the hands of terrorist organizations like the Taliban or Al Qaida, the world would have an extremely large problem. Not only would it affect the countries around Pakistan or just the U.S. but it would bring everyone into the picture and the world could fall into chaos. I do not believe anyone of the other delegates would want this to happen, I certainly would not since Zimbabwe has its own instability to cope with, it does not need war on top of it and we would feel obligated help and keep close ties with our ally, Pakistan.Zimbabwe hopes that with the help of the United States, they will be able to secure the nuclear weapons because if they are able to successfully keep them out of the Taliban's reach, we will be able to keep the rest of the world safe as well.

A few weeks ago I began Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. It is the story of a young girl named Chiyo, who is sold to an okiya-where geisha live-as a maid because her mother is almost dead and her father cannot support Chiyo and her older sister. She begins training to become a geisha; although she can only think of her family and her sister, whom she had been separated from. She tries to run a way, but does not succeed and is no longer allowed to learn to be a geisha and is forced to be a maid. As she grows older, however, she became recognized by her rare, blue-grey eyes and a very well-known and successful geisha, Mameha, and she is soon on the road to becoming a geisha once again.
What amazes me about this book is how different the culture is in Gion, a district in Kyoto, Japan. Young girls are taken away from their families and sold to a geisha house in order to become a geisha. Now, one may wonder, what is a geisha? A geisha is a Japanese girl who is trained all her life specifically to entertain men. They start training at a young age and learn how to pour tea or sake properly for men, dance, tell stories and even how to play an instrument called a shamisen. As girls grow older, they find an older, successful geisha to be their “older sister” who will help them become successful, and share their knowledge with the young or “novice geisha”. The most successful geisha of Gion are extremely respected by the women in Kyoto, many give very deep bows to the geisha as they walk through town-and all they do is entertain men.
I find it so interesting how different to cultures can be so different. If this occurred here, in the United States, people would be appalled. Women have so many more rights here, and have so much respect for themselves. Besides that, children here would not be sold at a young age to do what the geisha do. Right now, I am at a point in the book where Chiyo is exactly my age and I could not imagine having to do all that she does to be successful.