 |
| "Woman with a Mourning Shawl" (1885) by Vinent Van Gogh |
This chapter reckons with Nora’s grief and anger over her brother's death and in doing so illustrates how grief can rob us of our desire for life.
Have you ever felt this way, or seen it occur with someone else?
B.
What do you make of the assertion that we can't live without hurting people?
Responding to A, I know someone who lost their stepdad as a young kid, and then lost their great grandma, grandma, and grandpa all in high school. They were almost one of the only people in their family to graduate high school, but they had missed so much school to grieve that they had to drop out. They didn't want to live for some time. They do now, but they feel as though it's too late to get the education they dreamed of. They had wanted to go to college, but without a high school diploma but they don't believe it's possible.
ReplyDelete-Byron
I can understand that they might feel it is too late to get an education because society puts strict age restrictions on milestones, including what age someone should graduate, when in reality there are so many people that can't finish their education so they go back and get an education so they can have more opportunities available to them. I'm rooting for whoever you know! -Sydney Moody
DeleteIn response to question B:
ReplyDeleteThe assertion that we can’t live without hurting people is depressing. It’s sad to think about, but it’s honest. Just buying something from a store could hurt someone. We make different choices in our life that can affect anyone else in who knows how many ways. Maybe we can’t live without hurting people, but very rarely are you not also helping many others too. It’s a win-lose situation. Besides, we’re all human and make mistakes. What’s more important is that when you realize you hurt someone, you make it up to them.
I agree with you! There will always be someone who is hurt simply by our existence, but if we continue to carry that notion of being an emotional burden to those around us, we will be hurting ourselves in the process. Realizing how your decisions affect those around you can be helpful at times, but constantly living in fear of hurting those around us can hinder our ability to grow and mature through those moments. I do not believe that there is a way for someone to become their own person without hurting the feelings of at least one person. With this knowledge though, we can use our energy intentionally; The more good you put out into the world, the more you receive in return.
DeleteMy answer to question B- We would be really lucky to go throughout our life without hurting someone else. This is really impossible. Any decision we make we have could cause pain for someone else. We may make a stupid mistake and betray a friend or disappoint our parents by something we said. It is not something I enjoy to think about but it is real and I think it is important to recognize so we are more careful about the decisions we make.
ReplyDeleteResponding to A, I have felt this way before. I lost my stepdad on August 2nd of 2019, two weeks before the beginning of my freshman year of high school. It was very hard finding the motivation to do anything for a while. Eventually I started to pick myself up and push myself to succeed because I know that's what he would've wanted me to do. -Abigayle Shropshire
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteResponding to B: Although it is upsetting, there is truth in the fact that it is impossible to live without hurting people. Things people do on a daily basis such as word choice and basic decision making could lead to hurting others. Everybody interprets words and actions differently. A mere few words could be motivation to someone and an insult to another. Nobody is perfect and a world where people never hurt each other is a world that simply does not exist.
ReplyDelete- Zachary Idlett
B. I believe that we cannot go through our whole lives without hurting people. There are so many different things that trigger people in today’s society, and no matter what we do, we may end up triggering someone's feelings, whether it be an accident or not. Even though it is possible to be mindful of your actions and think about if you are hurting someone or not, you never know how sensitive to things someone may be. I think this question puts everything more into perspective with how much thought we should be putting into all of our actions that may be hurtful.
ReplyDeleteCarly Hendrickson
Hurting people is a natural action in life. No matter what we do sometimes, somewhere, someone is going to get hurt. With that being said we can try our best not to, and try our best to limit how painful it can be. Just because it’s a pessimistic sounding way of labeling a part of life doesn’t mean we have to take it that way. We should take it as a declaration of challenge. Look at it and try to change it. Try not to hurt people in your life by being the best you can be and realizing that if you do hurt someone, fix it.
ReplyDelete-Elliot Riden
Responding to B:
DeleteResponding to B. It is hard to completely understand, but I do think that it is impossible to live without hurting people. No matter what is done, in some way it will hurt another person. Whether that is a physical hurt or a mental hurt, it will happen no matter what. In my personal experience, I think it is fine to do things that are better for the person even though it may hurt others. An example of this is taking a job out of town, sure it may hurt family and friends to see their loved one leave, but in the end, it was better for the person to go and do good things at the other job.
ReplyDeleteResponding to B- I get what the meaning is in saying that you can't go through life without hurting people. I mean it is sad to think about it, but it is just the fact of life. We as a whole are broken people. Everyone is constantly messing up and in that messing up, often come hurting people. Many people hurt others unintentionaly. They never even notice that they hurt them. That is just life happening. No one can ever be perfect. What can be scary is when people go out of their way to hurt others. There should never be a reason for that and it can be the downfall of many people. There is too much good in life to be burdened with the bad. Hurt happens, what I think is most important is how we grow through the hurt.
ReplyDeleteResponding to B, hurting people throughout your life is somewhat inevitable.
ReplyDeleteEvery person is different and has their own way of dealing and interpreting things, so we can hurt each other, especially when there is miscommunication. Sometimes our emotions take over, and we could hurt others on purpose. Other times it’s not on purpose because everyone’s emotional/physical needs vary.
An example would be canceling/changing plans with someone because something else came up, although it was not intentional, this could emotionally hurt the person on the other line. It’s important to acknowledge these situations, talk them out, and grow from them. Our words and actions are more impactful than we might think, so it's important to take responsibility to make these scenarios less common.
In response to B:
ReplyDeleteI am in agreement; we cannot live our lives through and through without at some point hurting another person, whether that be a complete stranger or a significant person in our lives. Without sadness and pain, There is no happiness; these feelings go hand in hand; without one, the other is inexistent. However, the positive effects you have on someone's life should outweigh the negative ones you will inevitably cause.
I agree that we cannot go through our lives without hurting people. It is impossible to live in society without effecting others' lives, either in a positive or negative way. What matters is a person's intentions. - Matt Pittman
ReplyDeleteNot in the sense of someone's passing, but I have seen how people will lose their will with just the right few events. All it takes, like Nora Seed's life, is a really bad day. People like to say that there is some innate truths to the world, but the only truth is that death is certain as of August 11th, 2023 and that the world is infinitely random and incalculable in how miseries are delivered. Even in people I've seen who are suicidal, whether I've watched them relapse in their misery or fight on the road to recovery, who am I to describe what probed that grief?
ReplyDeleteB. My father has always somewhat disapproved of my artistic aspirations. Involuntarily, I have hurt people. Whether you intend it, don't intend it, or don't even realize it, there are infinitesimally small and infinitely large ways we hurt others, no matter our self-awareness. By buying a shirt for East Central University instead of giving clothes to the poor, I've upset moral philosopher Judy Singer. It is functionally impossible to live a tame and harmless life. And who's to say the people you hurt are harmless, either?
Set A:
ReplyDeleteI have seen this happen when someone at my school passed away unexpectedly. It was during Thanksgiving break, and I was at the school and saw his sister run out of the school when she found out. When we all came back to school, you could just feel how hopeless and sad everyone was. I have never seen or felt anything like it, but it was so unsettling and everyone felt that pit inside of them. Most of the teachers didn’t teach that day because they knew the kids wouldn’t be able to handle any work, especially with kids running out of the rooms crying because their classmate wasn’t sitting next to them. -Sydney Moody
Responding to A: Yes, I have been in Nora’s shoes. When I lost my father, I lost myself too. The grief was so immense that most days I wanted to shut everyone out -which I did- and give up.
ReplyDeleteTo answer part B, you will always hurt people. To live is to hurt, to hurt is to live. Hurt lets us know that we are alive.
B - I totally agree that you cannot live without hurting people. Every single action you make, could hurt someone, purposeful or not. Obviously if you do something bad, you are going to hurt someone, but even if you do a good thing, there is a high chance you are hurting someone. This made me think of the good place (spoilers) and how even if you did good things all the time, like Doug, you usually still hurt someone somewhere in the world. For example, there is nothing wrong with buying a shirt from the store. But what if that company was illegally using child labor. You are then, unintentionally hurting every single child that was used to make the shirt. There is no way to get around hurting people because we live in a messed up world.
ReplyDelete