Friday-ish Post

Fat

When a man dies of starvation in the United States it's a real trick,
since calories are everywhere, waiting to be picked up
and put back in play, burned off and added to entropy.
We seem to pride ourselves on our food, and our practice
of discarding food, which is probably fine, since it gives the homeless
something to do. The dumpsters have ladders on the outside
to encourage clambering up to peer over the edge
like a toy boat in a stream, hovering just before it plunges
over the cascade. But should they take the plunge into the manky smells
they will note there is no such convenience to help them out.
Peeking in is encouraged, and it's sure sometimes there will be
that treasure glinting back up at you. They put it there to tempt you,
the expiration date just yesterday, and not even old enough
to start changing colors or smells. Its nutrition information
says it has calories galore, and who cares the vitamin percentages
dwindle in reverse proportion to the percentage of daily value
of saturated fat? It's a trap. It shouldn't be a surprise.
I mean, they didn't even put a ladder on the inside.

Poem:
Since I missed my update for Friday, I thought I'd do my “in the style of another poet” poem for today. I have a number of poetry books on my shelf, and I was planning on doing one in the style of Lawrence Raab, whose book The Probable World I greatly enjoyed. But then I realized the reason I enjoy it is because we have similar styles and views on a lot of things. So I wound up opening a book I have for my poetry class this semester for the first time. It's called Inseminating the Elephant. I'm not really sure was was going through the author's head when she called it that. Who wants to admit they're reading a book with that title? But anyway, that's the style I tried to imitate. Some things that are different from the way I normally write: sentences ending in the middle of a line
longer lines in general
obscure analogies
talking about death in a casual way
train of thought style
uncommon descriptive words

Observation:
In my Philosophy of Law class there are two people in the front of the room. One is obviously the professor, but the other is a sign language interpreter, which is something I was not really expecting. Now, I sit in the front row, and I happen to be on the side of the deaf girl, so I am uniquely positioned to make a few comments on the situation. Obviously, I have nothing to say against the idea of there being a deaf person in the class. But if I'm not allowed to do things unrelated to class because the people around me might find it distracting, what should be said of having a person right in front of me gesticulating wildly? Granted, it's not like she chose to be deaf, and it's not like this introductory class requires my undivided attention, but if I'm frequently busy watching the sign language communication, and I can only assume I'm not the only one thoroughly intrigued.
And as long as I'm on the topic of special accommodations, I guess I'll mention the fact that the teacher requested that someone take notes in a carbon-sheeted notebook so the girl could have a copy. But the teacher already writes all of the important things on the chalk board. So I'm not sure what the deaf girl is actually doing all class. She doesn't have to take notes and she doesn't have to participate. It probably sounds like I dislike her being in class. This is not the case. I just wanted to point out some things that people might not be considering.
On that same line, I want to talk about some other things this has made me think of. The first is that knowing sign language must be pretty awesome. It's so easy to talk without people knowing what you're saying. For all I know, the translator person is saying funny jokes about how awful I dress. Then it occurred to me that while there are some fun sides to sign language, it must suck occasionally. Like, whenever you want to do something with your hands, it means you're essentially mute for the duration you want to be, for instance, writing something down. Also, it was quickly made evident that some things are just really cumbersome for sign language. The teacher made some point about mathematical constants, and to illustrate it she put the equations for gravitational attraction saying “gravitational force equals the product of the two masses times the universal gravitational constant divided by the distance squared.” As she said that, I looked at the interpreter-person in the front of the room. She looked so depressed.

Exercise:
"Grandpa Is Backing Out..."
Grandpa should not be driving. But no one dares to hide the car keys. What happens this time? Write the scene.

Rich old men have the fastest cars to ever travel ten below the speed limit. That is, except for Herbert. Herbert isn't about to let all that money go to waste. He spent half on his car, and put half aside for speeding tickets and, should the need arise, bail. When I watch from across the street (usually from the relative safety of my living room), I wince every time the garage door opens. Before it's even two thirds of the way up, out tears the Ferrari Enzo, glaringly red, with sunglasses doing their best to hide the wrinkles behind the steering wheel. A mashing of gears ensues, and a thunderous noise later he has disappeared from view, though the black number eleven he has left behind remains a testament to his takeoff. Screeches, honks, and dull roar echo back over the housetops, and I am impressed by the fact that all of these fade without the din of sirens being added to the mix. “Huh. He doesn't usually make it quite that far,” I remark to myself as I turn away from the window. We'll see if upon his return he has the patience to wait for the garage door to open all the way. Last time he didn't quite, and there's still a bit of a red streak along the bottom of the door.

Me:
I'm okay, I guess. I'm afraid class being back in session means that my thoughts have turned away from the interesting things going on around me and toward the interesting things going on in my head. So all that's really been preoccupying my time has been silly philosophy, none of which is interesting enough to include here. Examples of topics include what makes “acting” distinct from other ways of “doing,” the difference between rationality and reasonability, and the idea of diversity. The most interesting of these might be diversity, since in class we were discussing whether or not diversity could be something that could be forced. We had just concluded that at least some types of diversity were necessary (a conclusion I'm still not quite sure I agree with, though I can see why people might think so), and that led to the question of what would happen if diversity stopped occurring naturally. Like, what if we all grew so homogenized that it wasn't quite natural to think of ourselves as a diverse populace? Could we force people into diversity in order to maintain the discourse many think is necessary for any sort of progress?
Speaking of diversity, I learned that one of the biggest determining factors for a person's opinion on gay rights is whether or not they know a homosexual. A person who comes in close contact with someone who identifies as gay is incredibly more likely to vote for things like gay marriage and anti-discrimination legislature. This probably seems obvious, but it made me think of how many people are afraid to come out to the people they know. Because of this fact, though, when a person stays in the closet, not only are they making themselves unhappy, they are making it harder for people like them. According to factual sources (Wikipedia), between two and thirteen percent of people identify as homosexual. Now, even taking a number near the bottom of that range, say five percent, means that if every homosexual made their orientation known, and if everyone had twenty close friends/family members, everyone would support gay rights legislation. Obviously these leaps in conclusions are incorrect due to population distribution and peoples' standards for friend selection (among many other things), but I still think that fact should lend encouragement to the people out there who are struggling.