Getting a universally bad reputation because of a few stupid teenagers happens because human curiosity is naturally drawn to negativity. Do we ever get noticed in that way for doing simple acts of kindness? No! Maybe life is fair, Chris, but the people in it aren't a lot of the time. Maybe adults are really scared to death of us losing the pure innocence we are born with. Which by the way can go either way as far as us being born good or bad. So they mistakenly seize on our faults in an attempt to "reform" us, thus the treating us like children. Obviously, people are far less perfect than we'd like to think them.

Have you ever had somone you idolize fall from their pedestal; you see that oh, dang, they are human... Because of the mistakes adults made, they are afraid of us reliving their mistakes, causing teenagers to rebel and make more mistakes, thus becoming a crappy cycle. And then we chafe and fight and messup our own lives because many teenagers cant cope with anything because they are spoiled brats. Why do people gravitate toward negativity? I think it is because we want to make ourselves seem superior. "She did really well here, buuuut she flatted here, or she missed a step, or she told a lie...
"
It's stupid and a waste of energy and only a short term fix. Why do we bother?

I am challengign you two (and me too) let's go a whole day and not point out a mistake someone makes, not burn them, but boost others up, and boister their self esteem to, and i think we'll find that we feel better too. DO you wanna do it? Name the day.

I ACCEPT! mostly because i am the target of some people's burns...ahem. Ring a bell Chloe? but i think we should definately do it and get as many people involved as we can. How about next week sometime?

Amy, you only get burned because we love you and not your face.JUST KIDDING. WE LOVE YOU. Anyway, what about you Chris? why do you guys think this might be difficult? and chris, colton does count as someone you can't make fun of at all

hey i want in on this

Ok, J, have you read Hero yet? it is going through the Evan Book Club at the moment? Do you ever feel that you are judged prematurely and unfairly? I know I do. It is a lot like in Hero when Thom judges Scarlett without knowing her story.

yea sometimes i feel judged prmaturely i heard it more when i was cheerleading cause you know how that goes, but i had great friends that would stick up for me. and i would reccommened falling man but fare warning it has sexual scenes in it and its very eye opening

Sweet-o, then i will do that, in all my spare time. lol You we all love you and dont listen to some of the cheerleaders (particularly that Tiffany, jk). I feel most judged in honor choir because there are a couple of gilrs who really dont know me and they dont want too, they just want their opinion to stand. And frosh trans, because i am the oldest kid in there and when i make an error it is a big deal to the froshes. you know what i mean?

blah to you chloe!

That's mature. just because i am intelligent and literate... Just kidding. It's just common sense and emotion and LIFE.

so i pretty much think your tooo smart and your page makes mine look like a pre schooler did it! get not smart so i can catch up

Do you need help with it? What did you read?

I like your comment about people in protector roles having such tremendous responsibility. Maybe it has something to do with Chris' comment about people in vulnerable moments. It's a matter of respect and compassion and responsibility and honor to protect others or prepare them to move through whatever it is they face.

People who are vulnerable feel that they need a protector and the protectors get pressure; it is a relationship that is natural. Everyone needs to take at turn in both positions. The problem happens to arrive when people take advantage of that. example:

boy 1 and girl break up --} girl feels sad and enter boy 2 --} boy 2 acts like prince charming and vulnerable girl falls for him --} boy 2 gets girl in bed --} boy 2 dumps girl and she feels even worse.

The protector became the jerk

chloe, i totally agree with that.(not from personal experience of course) but thats why i've head or boy 1 and girl break up-------> girls falls for boy 2(same thing)------> boy 2 is all sweet and makes girl fall for him and he promises to spend the rest of his life with her-------> then he rips out her heart and stomps on it! (personal experience)

ya, the whole thing just happened to one of my really close friends and she is a mess! protectors are good, jerks are not and girls can be jerks too

It may be helpful to note that we can all be jerks, but just because we are jerks once (or more than once) doesn't mean we must always be so or must stay the way we are. We can grow and change and be transformed.

Of course everyone can be a jerk, it's part of human nature (creation? divine plan?) that we all have emotion and we choose, though sometimes unconsciously, what to do with that emotion or "pull." In the Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth has every right to be angry and betrayed, but does he have the right to enact the revenge, and is it healthy to be that obsessed with something? It goes back to that conversation we had about the death penelty, where do we draw the line? Chillingworth died because he couldn't lose and gain forgiveness. Pathetic, right?

ok so the book you just read sounds like a good book, was it?

it was ok. it made me appreciate what i have and what i've been given. but personally, the quotes i picked were the high points and the book continually went between bliss and really high points to really rocky and boring parts, i wish it had been more consistent with the writing styles. plus it took me forever to read because i couldnt get into it.
but you should read it it makes you appreciate little things like life and gifts etc (like breathing lol)

lol i already do apperciate breathing, ha i don't need to read a book to tell me that! and i already do because a ton of people i know don't have what i have so yea, lol

yea, that's whats good about the 30 hour famine it really reminds you that no matter how hungry you are, there are people living and dying everday because of something you are doing voluntarily. that's why its really important to me to do that every year. because it's not about me it's about saving people's (mostly children) lives

yea it sounds kinda fun because your helping people but i don't know if i could do it... i like food WAY too much to completely give it up

it's really not that hard. the last 1/2 hr is the worst because people start to bring in food for the feast and we can smell it. lol we hang out and do service projects etc and we did a door 2 door food drive and spread the word about what we're doing and why. it's powerful

i bet, lol i still like my food way too much lol if i could eat one huge meal before and after than i might be alright

that's what we do. lunch right before and it's a big lunch!!! lol

"Reality is as irrestible as a club and I was clubbed into the cellar before I got the hint." I absolutely love this. (Nouns and verbs) Reality is as irrestible as a club! I am failing to remove the cover of the book from my mind. The face of a man, meshed in with the american flag, perhaps the American way? or dream?

I love that line too: it is so important because that's how life is. Sometimes we need to get smacked outside the head to get the point, metaphorically or literally.

I think the cover is interesting because it comments (or satirizes) the American dream and way. In the time, everyone talked about how unified the country was, the novel really points out how messed up things were. I think the cover definately satirizes that.

The great American dream. Everyone wants it, but can anyone get that perfect life? it reminds me of a song that talks about this guy that put everything he had into getting that American Dream, but he lost his family because he was so focused on work and having the most stuff. One of the lines in the song is: "They used to say whoever dies with the most toys wins, but if he loses his soul, what has he gained in the end?"

VEERY nice. that seems to be what america is about: having toys. wouldn't it be cool to go back and try to fix all those mistakes that put us in this recession. I think the recession was caused by people buying things they couldnt afford just because they wanted them. who really NEEDS four cars? we're in the 20s in history: the introduction of easy credit and loans and I sit there thinking STUPID STUPID STUPID!! anyway, what do you think?

Chloe i completely agree with you. there is a greater simplicity to life itself that is way beyond who has what or who has more. it seems like the world these days and the "american dream" is all a contest to see who is better, and people get so ingulfed in the attention that they recieve for what they have that costs money that they forget about what means the most to them. Family which i think is the american dream to me. what you have that you didnt have to pay one cent for!!!! OOOO and of course your friends!

Really great stuff here. I am still thinking about the cover of the book. Do people become invisible because of the American Dream? or do they forget what the American Dream is because the black (or red, white, and blue) veil of a superficial and materialistic world has compromised their view of what is important? Stephanie- "The great American dream. Everyone wants it, but can anyone get that perfect life?" is a question that many people don't ask themselves. My answer would be to say no, no one can get that perfect life. But in turn I feel that the perfect life is understanding that life is not going to be perfect. So in reality the only way to have a perfect life is to embrace the imperfection and still strive for happiness. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder, and if someone feels like they need a million dollars worth of toys to be perfect then that is there gig. And it is only makes my perfect that much more perfect for me because it causes me to evaluate how much I feel those toys and that lifestyle are pertinent to my perfect. Dustin- Family and Friends are also my American Dream. What you have that you didn't have to pay one cent for!!! great stuff. In relation to that, What do you have that you would't sell for any amount of money? There is a greater simplicity in life than who has what or who has more ( again, great stuff). It seems to me that throughout life I have realized it is often the person with the least that has the most. Chloe- you commented that we are in the 20's in history. Another weird book connection. The great depression was what started the economic fall of America as well as the rest of the world during the time when the allegorically presented historical events in Animal Farm took place.

went over 2000 characters again--HA and Janzen, Carey, and Telford said I couldn't write 30 pages on one quote from Ethan Frome. Continued from previous quote---I mentioned on my page about the brilliance and blindness of man. "I sit there thinking STUPID STUPID STUPID!! " I agree, is someone going have to write a book about animals, so that people in sixty years can look back at us and say what a bunch of idiots.

In response to your comment that 'perfection is in the eyes of the beholder and that if someone feels like they need a million dollars worth of toys to be perfect then that is there gig', i have to disagree. From my standpoint, perfection is in the eyes of God. He sets the standard for what is perfect. And your right, we can never reach that point of perfection, on our own. That's why there's Jesus. He was perfect so through Him, we can be perfect. If the guy who thought a million dollars would make his life perfect and got that million dollars but didn't grasp the concept of Jesus, then he'll still be miserable. Because what he has isn't enough to satisfy. That's the thing about the American Dream. People chase it after it with everything the have, and it ends up owning them because they can never get enough. Only God's enough. People should start chasing the God Dream.

Which of these books did you read for this project?

i read the invisible man. stephanie, i disagree a little bit with you. I mean, you are right 100% but you are forgetting that when people love something maybe they'll see it as perfect. There's a song and the lyric is "Do I love you because you're beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you?" And I think it's true, and both positive and negative. I think people can see others as perfect according to their emotions. And back to the American Dream of Stuff and Competition, i think maybe the recession got so far out of hand was because people didn't want to see that there was a problem until they were hit with the "Reality Stick." The American dream is suppossed to be freedom and family and belief and trust, but it has been morphed into a consumer oriented society. Why do you think that is?

just because someone sees something as perfect, does that necessarily mean it is? i see where you're coming from though too. like if someone loves someone, that someone they love is perfect for them. They won't be completely perfect, cause no one obviously is perfectly perfect, but they love them anyway. in that respect, i agree.

perfection is a complete illusion. People who say someone they love is perfect is either overlooking their faults (scary) or else embracing them, thinking that the flaws are all the more endearing.

I like what you say about the struggle between good and evil. Was it W.B. Yeats who wrote the poem "Love and Death"? As some have said, there are only two stories--Love and Death. They would fit into this struggle between good and evil. Do you think that good (love) triumphs in the end?

Not necessarily. Good doesn't always win this is the real world and sometimes the bad guys win. But in the long run Final judgement and all that, good wins.