And here is what I think about YOU... (HW #2: Blog Comments)

Bryam,

I thought your connections to Plato's allegory about the cave were outstanding. It shows that you have a deeper outstanding of the text by connecting to something we've learned in the past. Also, the connection to Plato is very valid by saying we must view the world through our own senses.

I also think for you to make such a vivid connection to another complicated text as you did, it further enhances Banach's ideas. It made me realize that there are a countless amount of ways to view this text just as there are countless amount of ways for us to view the world. It's simply mind boggling for me to see it first hand so quickly since we've been reading about it all week.

I think for you to develop your ideas more, you should make include an opinion in your post and try to make it clear. You had wonderful ideas but most of them were just begging for some personal input from you.

This post was as interesting as they come. It made me reflect and realize how we all view things differently on a smaller scale. Banach is absolutely right. Our minds are truly our own and Bryam, my good man, you made this apparent.

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Sandy Sandy Sandy,

Your last paragraph did it all for me. I completely agree that it's hard to identify one's TRUE self since we're always putting on these masks. Not to necessarily be "fake", but in order to hide insecurities or make others around you feel more comfortable. But since we are constantly doing this, you posed very good questions which all stood under the umbrella question of: How do we know who we really are? I thought your ability to pose such questions shows just how complex this reading is and also how thought-provoking it was.

I loved the connections to stories of your friends and how you thought there were enough humans in the world for emotions to overlap. I'll have to disagree (respectfully of course). While I agree on our core base feelings, I think it is impossible to tell whether two people feel the same way. Two people can go through identical situations and perhaps feel similar to one another and then that creates a connection. But to say they feel the same way, I think would be a little unfair.

I think to further develop your ideas, you can try adding more personal connections to your next post. The ones in here were so good and enjoyable that they left me wanting more so I think to add more personal connections would make the post feel a little more concrete and whole.

I absolutely adored this post. I thought it was nearly perfect. It not only addressed Banach's challenging concepts and your opinions on them but you also provoked the thoughts of the readers with your Banach-esque philosophies in the third paragraph. Very well done.

Let Me Bring This to the Light for You (HW #1)

In a middle school poetry class, Khadijah Allende got up and read a poem. The first line was, "Have you ever been alone in a room full of people?"

...No. I mean yes. Wait what?

Since she was a seventh grader and I was only in sixth, I figured she knew something about the world that I have yet to learn. Was this an actual feeling or just fancy wording? At the time, it was just fancy wording to me. A type of writing that I had yet to learn. But then time went by. Now six years later, I know the exact feeling of which she spoke. Apparently so does David Banach.

I have grown all too familiar of this feeling. But apparently this is not only a feeling but it is who we are. To realize that you're actually by yourself, the moment you realize it...it's such an exposed feeling. Like a dry leaf in late autumn. Like a flower has bloomed in the awakening of spring.

Nobody can understand truly what I feel. I am convinced of this. I wouldn't wish for anyone to feel the horrible things I've felt and if someone's felt my greatest sensations, they wouldn't feel at all authentic. To be "trapped in a dark room with no windows" might sound like a depressing setting but you feel things a lot better. It allows you to know yourself better and understand who you are as a being. People are distractions and can get you out this dark room. But luminosity is only a curse for your thoughts and feelings are as exclusive as the sun when you surround yourself with other humans.

As you may have guessed, I'm not ashamed of my pessimism. "Only [I] feel [my] pains, [my] pleasures, [my] hopes, and [my] fears immediately, subjectively, from the inside." I accept this fact and therefore accept my absolute individualism. With this comes the pessimism, depression, and, ultimately, the loneliness.

- Brandon Sanders

Pursuit of Happiness.