"Your life on Earth" Personal Philosophy Project:
Artist Statement: My personal philosophy ultimately comes down to being a good person. If your a good person, do your best to love your friends and family, and I guess cultivate happiness, then you will be happy and will lead a meaningful life. You get out what you put in. In regard to religion/spiritualism, I’d say I’m spiritual and not religious. I can’t put all my faith into something with as few facts as many religions have but I know that our existence isn’t the only form of life. I don’t have many ideas about the afterlife. That is one thing I don’t like about Christianity is you need to be devoted or follow the bible to get into heaven but I believe that if you’re truly a good person, even with whatever bad things or sins you’ve done in your life, then you should get into heaven.
I think if you're more spiritual, you acknowledge the dead, you acknowledge that there is another plane of existence, but you don’t need to devote yourself to anything. You can if you want. I think getting deep with your spirituality is great for some people but not for others. I think having something like a transcendental experience is perfectly possible, but it doesn’t just happen, you have to be in the right frame of mind, you have to meditate and find a level of peacefulness you’ve never found before. Ultimately I like to think that I’m in control of my experiences and my life and that I can dive deeper into things like my spirituality when I need to over the course of my life. At this point, I’m so young that I find the most meaning in my experiences. That is why I made this video of me and my friends skateboarding, and doing what we love, these are some of the things that bring me the most joy and fulfillment in my life. I want to look back on this time in my life and find meaning out of the experiences and good times I had.
I think if you're more spiritual, you acknowledge the dead, you acknowledge that there is another plane of existence, but you don’t need to devote yourself to anything. You can if you want. I think getting deep with your spirituality is great for some people but not for others. I think having something like a transcendental experience is perfectly possible, but it doesn’t just happen, you have to be in the right frame of mind, you have to meditate and find a level of peacefulness you’ve never found before. Ultimately I like to think that I’m in control of my experiences and my life and that I can dive deeper into things like my spirituality when I need to over the course of my life. At this point, I’m so young that I find the most meaning in my experiences. That is why I made this video of me and my friends skateboarding, and doing what we love, these are some of the things that bring me the most joy and fulfillment in my life. I want to look back on this time in my life and find meaning out of the experiences and good times I had.
Reflection: Paragraph 1: Project Description
My project answered this question: What does it mean to live a meaningful life? AND What gives your life meaning? I made a video that consisted of some of the things that make me happy and bring my life meaning. I made a video or “edit” for this project because I have lots of videos of me and my friends skateboarding and that is one of the things I am most passionate about. My personal philosophy has to do with personal experience and I feel that my project showed that well.
Paragraph 2: New Insights
One of the largest new insights I gained is I don’t associate religion and spirituality so closely anymore. I used to think if you're religious you're spiritual but they are very separate things. I realized I really don’t like diving into things like this when I don’t feel super ready or motivated to.
Paragraph 3: Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to Do
Honestly I don’t have any specific questions about my philosophy. I feel like this is the type of thing that you explore when you feel driven to explore it. My mom is pretty spiritual so I always will get into it with her and the rest of my family. I’ll explore my spirituality/philosophy more when I want to but I mean it’s good to think about it consistently.
My project answered this question: What does it mean to live a meaningful life? AND What gives your life meaning? I made a video that consisted of some of the things that make me happy and bring my life meaning. I made a video or “edit” for this project because I have lots of videos of me and my friends skateboarding and that is one of the things I am most passionate about. My personal philosophy has to do with personal experience and I feel that my project showed that well.
Paragraph 2: New Insights
One of the largest new insights I gained is I don’t associate religion and spirituality so closely anymore. I used to think if you're religious you're spiritual but they are very separate things. I realized I really don’t like diving into things like this when I don’t feel super ready or motivated to.
Paragraph 3: Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to Do
Honestly I don’t have any specific questions about my philosophy. I feel like this is the type of thing that you explore when you feel driven to explore it. My mom is pretty spiritual so I always will get into it with her and the rest of my family. I’ll explore my spirituality/philosophy more when I want to but I mean it’s good to think about it consistently.
Rhetoric and Ideology Project:
Tongass National Forest
Image from -
Canon, Gabrielle. “Trump Administration Advances Plan to Cut Protections for Largest National Forest.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Sept. 2020, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/24/tongass-national-forest-trump-administration-logging.
Image from -
Canon, Gabrielle. “Trump Administration Advances Plan to Cut Protections for Largest National Forest.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Sept. 2020, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/24/tongass-national-forest-trump-administration-logging.
Reflection:
- I wrote an open letter to President-Elect Biden and his incoming administration. I wrote the letter asking Biden to reverse Trump’s decision to remove the Roadless Rule from the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. I haven’t shared it with an audience yet. I’d like to send it to Biden or get it posted somewhere. I thought about posting it on my social media but that didn’t feel right. I felt posting it on my social media would take away from my ethos. How I will share it with it’s intended audience is something I have yet to figure out.
- My political perspective hasn’t changed. I’d say I understand the conservative perspective more than I did at the beginning of the semester but my views haven’t changed. I will say I feel more patriotic now than I did at the beginning of the semester. I’m more patriotic because of the things I’ve learned and the perspectives I’ve gained. But I really feel more patriotic because Biden was elected and Trump won’t represent our flag for much longer. I knew this but it was shown to me even more through the republican panel, it is that not all Trump supporters are what you see in the news.
- I have learned a lot about rhetoric, ideology, and the democratic experience. First, off I understand exactly what rhetoric is and how ideology plays into that, and how they both work on their own. I understand that there’s so much more that goes into the “democratic experiment” than what I previously thought and what is covered by most news sources. I realize that two extremes are usually shown in the news, a far left, and a far-right. That isn’t always the case, there are many republicans and democrats that share many perspectives and don’t always fight with each other. I learned that the smallest issue can sway someone from the right to the left or vise versa. It was solidified in my mind that our country is founded on good principles (that is in writing only) and if we make what our constitution and declaration of independence say to be true we can all be united.
- Rogerian rhetoric and a willingness to be disturbed are crucial to a democratic society. Those can translate to respect for each other and openness to other’s opinions. If you don’t bad-mouth someone’s beliefs but say them in a fair accurate way you won’t upset the other party. If you don’t instantly get defensive but hear people out and have adult conversations about a topic you will get much farther in what you’re doing. I think those two things are crucial to a democratic society.