My Life on Earth: Philosophizing Purpose and Place in the 21st Century
Reflection
Project Description
This project was intended to give us insight into our purpose and place in the the 21st Century through philosophical exploration. My personal direction with this project was to evaluate my thoughts on human experience. Specifically, I was trying to answer the essential question of how do I see the human experience shaping my outlook, and how I can manipulate my experience to make it the best it can be? The inspiration behind the direction I took with this project was one person, Jett. She was an amputee after a traumatic accident at work. I met her during my internship at a prosthetics lab. Her story was troubling, yet her response to her personal challenges was inspiring. I realized that her life was better because of how she saw the positive in her situations, versus seeing the negative.
New Insights
Through this project, I developed new insights into myself and my outlook on life's events. Lots of things in life are not up to us, but how we respond to those things is up to us. What I'm trying to say is when something happens, whether it be good or bad, the event should not define your character, rather your response defines your character. I through this project and my internship I gained a new respect for people that focus on the positive. These people seem to have discovered a secret - “Happiness is wanting what you have, not getting what you want.” I am not sure who said that, but it rings true. The following are Seven Practical Tips to Achieve a Positive Mindset:
Jett, the patient for whom I created a swim prosthetic so she could go swimming in Maui with her family, has adopted these principles and has found joy in the midst of what could have been misery. I learned a lot from Jett, and appreciate having had the opportunity to witness how she overcame her obstacles. I will utilize her techniques for achieving happiness throughout my life.
Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to Do
My intellectual quandaries are basic because they are limited by my struggle with this sort of philosophical thinking. I found this project difficult because I don’t enjoy thinking philosophically. This would put me in a place of wondering how I can gain from such a project. Indeed, I did gain from this project and think that that is possible in the future, but I do seem to put up barriers/have barriers inherently in place that keep me from seeking philosophical thoughts in general. Maybe this is a deficiency on my part, maybe it is just how I am wired. All this being said I would ask in the future as I approach projects like this:
Works Cited
Alton, Larry. “7 Ways to Make Positive Thinking a Habit.” SUCCESS, 18 Feb. 2019, www.success.com/7-practical-tips-to-achieve-a-positive-mindset/.
This project was intended to give us insight into our purpose and place in the the 21st Century through philosophical exploration. My personal direction with this project was to evaluate my thoughts on human experience. Specifically, I was trying to answer the essential question of how do I see the human experience shaping my outlook, and how I can manipulate my experience to make it the best it can be? The inspiration behind the direction I took with this project was one person, Jett. She was an amputee after a traumatic accident at work. I met her during my internship at a prosthetics lab. Her story was troubling, yet her response to her personal challenges was inspiring. I realized that her life was better because of how she saw the positive in her situations, versus seeing the negative.
New Insights
Through this project, I developed new insights into myself and my outlook on life's events. Lots of things in life are not up to us, but how we respond to those things is up to us. What I'm trying to say is when something happens, whether it be good or bad, the event should not define your character, rather your response defines your character. I through this project and my internship I gained a new respect for people that focus on the positive. These people seem to have discovered a secret - “Happiness is wanting what you have, not getting what you want.” I am not sure who said that, but it rings true. The following are Seven Practical Tips to Achieve a Positive Mindset:
- Start the day with positive affirmation.
- Focus on the good things, however small.
- Find humor in bad situations.
- Turn failures into lessons.
- Transform negative self-talk into positive self-talk.
- Focus on the present.
- Find positive friends, mentors, and co-workers.
Jett, the patient for whom I created a swim prosthetic so she could go swimming in Maui with her family, has adopted these principles and has found joy in the midst of what could have been misery. I learned a lot from Jett, and appreciate having had the opportunity to witness how she overcame her obstacles. I will utilize her techniques for achieving happiness throughout my life.
Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to Do
My intellectual quandaries are basic because they are limited by my struggle with this sort of philosophical thinking. I found this project difficult because I don’t enjoy thinking philosophically. This would put me in a place of wondering how I can gain from such a project. Indeed, I did gain from this project and think that that is possible in the future, but I do seem to put up barriers/have barriers inherently in place that keep me from seeking philosophical thoughts in general. Maybe this is a deficiency on my part, maybe it is just how I am wired. All this being said I would ask in the future as I approach projects like this:
- What is the purpose of this project? I am sure my teacher wouldn’t want to waste my time or their’s, so what is it they are asking me to learn?
- How can I face any challenge (in school or not) with a desire to find the positive in the negative?
- How do I utilize what I learned from Jett, to find joy in my life and help others find it in theirs?
- How can I incorporate some philosophical practices/thinking into my daily life when I struggle with not just seeing something for what it is?
Works Cited
Alton, Larry. “7 Ways to Make Positive Thinking a Habit.” SUCCESS, 18 Feb. 2019, www.success.com/7-practical-tips-to-achieve-a-positive-mindset/.
Personal Philosophy Paper
My personal philosophy on life can be summed up like this: Lots of things in life are not up to you, but what you do with those things is up to you. What I'm trying to say is when something happens, whether it be good or bad, the event should not define your character, rather your response defines your character.
A good example is if a co-worker accidentally crushes your leg with 20 tons of steel. What you do with your life after the incident is up to you. You can choose to sulk and become depressed and just stay at home accepting the bad hand you've been dealt, or you can choose to rebuild your life.
I interned at a prosthetic clinic and had the great fortune of meeting a very nice, positive, and confident amputee who lived through exactly the example I just gave. Her leg was crushed in a work accident and the doctors performed many surgeries to try and rebuild her leg. The attempts were unsuccessful. She lived with the remains of her dysfunctional leg for several years before learning she could have it amputated, and receive a prosthetic.
After her amputation and finally receiving her prosthesis she gained much more freedom than she had since the accident. She was able to walk correctly and do many things for herself that she was not able to do when she had her damaged leg. She is now the owner of a grocery store in Mancos and is able to lead a productive, rewarding life. She possesses an amazing attitude toward life and this perspective allowed her to overcome her challenges, on a daily and much broader basis.
Another good example this philosophy is the book 438 Days in which the main character is stranded at sea for 438 days. He faces almost certain death for much of this time and perseveres with a positive attitude, feeling grateful for even the small victories he had.
The story of the prosthetic patient and the book reflect my personal philosophy. I try to live by this with regards to my challenges and I appreciate watching/helping others who share this belief. In the patient’s case, the accident was out of her control but what she did afterward was up to her. She was able to gain back an acceptable quality of life which she had lost.
The moral of the story is that just because a bad thing happened doesn't mean it has to be bad forever. If you feel you've been dealt a difficult hand, think about the decisions you're making, consider altering your perspective, and see if you can turn the situation around.
A good example is if a co-worker accidentally crushes your leg with 20 tons of steel. What you do with your life after the incident is up to you. You can choose to sulk and become depressed and just stay at home accepting the bad hand you've been dealt, or you can choose to rebuild your life.
I interned at a prosthetic clinic and had the great fortune of meeting a very nice, positive, and confident amputee who lived through exactly the example I just gave. Her leg was crushed in a work accident and the doctors performed many surgeries to try and rebuild her leg. The attempts were unsuccessful. She lived with the remains of her dysfunctional leg for several years before learning she could have it amputated, and receive a prosthetic.
After her amputation and finally receiving her prosthesis she gained much more freedom than she had since the accident. She was able to walk correctly and do many things for herself that she was not able to do when she had her damaged leg. She is now the owner of a grocery store in Mancos and is able to lead a productive, rewarding life. She possesses an amazing attitude toward life and this perspective allowed her to overcome her challenges, on a daily and much broader basis.
Another good example this philosophy is the book 438 Days in which the main character is stranded at sea for 438 days. He faces almost certain death for much of this time and perseveres with a positive attitude, feeling grateful for even the small victories he had.
The story of the prosthetic patient and the book reflect my personal philosophy. I try to live by this with regards to my challenges and I appreciate watching/helping others who share this belief. In the patient’s case, the accident was out of her control but what she did afterward was up to her. She was able to gain back an acceptable quality of life which she had lost.
The moral of the story is that just because a bad thing happened doesn't mean it has to be bad forever. If you feel you've been dealt a difficult hand, think about the decisions you're making, consider altering your perspective, and see if you can turn the situation around.
The Ethics and Chemistry of Food and Cooking
REFLECTION
In this project, we studied both the ethics of food in America and the chemistry behind many foods. The humanities aspect focused on how certain methods of acquiring or growing food affect the environment and the health and well-being of the consumer. The chemistry perspective for this project evaluated things like what makes food taste good, why we cook food, and how cooking affects food macroscopically.
The interdisciplinary nature of this project was a challenge for me because I felt that there was very little carry over between the two classes. We were studying the same topic “food” but I didn’t see much else that connected the two projects. It was interesting to think of two different aspects of the same subject, but it also got confusing because it was hard to compartmentalize the classes and their assignments.
Studying food academically has caused me to think more deeply about what I eat and to understand the real cost of what I am eating. Before I thought cheap food was just cheap. It turns out that cheap food is expensive in other ways. When food is cheap it often means that the processing of that food releases significantly more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Also, cheap food is generally highly processed and thus has had the majority of the nutritional value removed. This causes the food to not have much value to us at all nutritionally and actually, may be harmful. More expensive foods are generally more ethically sourced, with less damage to the environment and more benefit to the consumer. The academic evaluation of the chemical makeup of foods themselves and the chemistry involved in cooking was interesting. Prior to this project, I had no idea what the words on the nutritional labels meant. Now I understand the different types of fats and what nutrient information means on the food packaging. The knowledge I gained in this project (from both humanities and chemistry) will change my food choices in the future based on ethics and in an effort to maintain and enhance my health.
The interdisciplinary nature of this project was a challenge for me because I felt that there was very little carry over between the two classes. We were studying the same topic “food” but I didn’t see much else that connected the two projects. It was interesting to think of two different aspects of the same subject, but it also got confusing because it was hard to compartmentalize the classes and their assignments.
Studying food academically has caused me to think more deeply about what I eat and to understand the real cost of what I am eating. Before I thought cheap food was just cheap. It turns out that cheap food is expensive in other ways. When food is cheap it often means that the processing of that food releases significantly more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Also, cheap food is generally highly processed and thus has had the majority of the nutritional value removed. This causes the food to not have much value to us at all nutritionally and actually, may be harmful. More expensive foods are generally more ethically sourced, with less damage to the environment and more benefit to the consumer. The academic evaluation of the chemical makeup of foods themselves and the chemistry involved in cooking was interesting. Prior to this project, I had no idea what the words on the nutritional labels meant. Now I understand the different types of fats and what nutrient information means on the food packaging. The knowledge I gained in this project (from both humanities and chemistry) will change my food choices in the future based on ethics and in an effort to maintain and enhance my health.
Food Ethics Essay
Fishing For Food
It's 2 a.m. and I roll out of my bunk only having slept 4 hours. I stumble into the galley and grab a quick snack before heading out on the deck and putting on my rain gear. At 2:29 we have the buoys all ready to go and just waiting for the clock to hit 2:30. When the imaginary bell sounds the net flies out and wild Alaskan salmon begin to pile up in our net. Oh, and when I say wild I mean WILD, they didn't start life in the Hatchery and they certainly didn't live their entire life in a pen.
Farmed fish have so many negative aspects it is hard to grasp. To start they have to dye the fish meat with pink dye to make them look like wild salmon. These fish live in a monoculture which is also not good for their health, which in turn is not good for your health. They are fed things like fish oil and smaller fish, ground-up chicken feathers, poultry litter (yes, that's poop), genetically modified yeast, soybeans, and chicken fat. This is the reason the meat has to be dyed. Wild salmon gets its color from eating krill and shrimp. The food a farmed fish is fed gives it's meet a gray color, and to top it all off... if one or many farmed fish escape captivity they can destroy the entire ecosystems because they often carry diseases from living in a monoculture.
As the net starts to come in we prepare ourselves for the real work, removing the fish from the net. We use gill nets to catch our fish, which means the fish individually swim into little holes in the net and become come stuck by their gills. As we pick, the fish begin to pile up so I get down on my hands and knees and begin bleeding them. This is a process where we cut their gills which causes the fish to bleed out. This process causes the meat to stay fresher and better-looking longer. I then put the fish in a hold full of cold refrigerated sea water which is also intended to keep the meat fresher. Then just a short time later the buoy comes on board and we prepare for another set.
We will spend the next seven and a half hours repeating this process over and over and over. Once the opener ends (a time frame determined by Alaska Fish and Game in which we are allowed to fish) we get ready to deliver our catch. We slowly motor up the river to meet our custom processor. She takes the fish and stores it on ice for the short ride to her facility where they then have all the fish processed in just a few hours. It is then vacuum sealed and flash frozen in 50 lb boxes. These boxes are then loaded into a shipping container which has been fitted with a freezer unit to keep all the fish frozen for their long journey south. This is placed on a barge to Seattle and it is then put in another freezer container and driven from Seattle to Colorado where we sell it.
The thing about our fish that holds appeal to me, and most of our customers, is that we know exactly what happens to our fish every step of the way from ocean to plate. We know that it was well treated, it is all natural, wild caught and sustainable.
I have been commercial fishing in Bristol Bay Alaska for eight summers. We take pride in our fishery because we are keeping the fish population in Bristol Bay healthy by maintaining a regulated number of salmon going up river to spawn. Once the maximum number of fish go upriver to spawn it is dangerous to the health of the ecosystem to let more fish go up the river. This salmon fishery is the largest natural sustainable salmon fishery in the world with over 62 million fish returning to Bristol Bay in 2018 alone, and 21 million salmon made it to their natal streams to spawn. I fish to make money, but at the same time, I like to know that I am helping the salmon population be healthy for future years - it’s not all about the money for me. The fish we bring to Durango to sell are the healthiest, best-treated fish people can buy, and their purchases support sustainable fisheries and bring fish straight from the ocean to the table.
It's 2 a.m. and I roll out of my bunk only having slept 4 hours. I stumble into the galley and grab a quick snack before heading out on the deck and putting on my rain gear. At 2:29 we have the buoys all ready to go and just waiting for the clock to hit 2:30. When the imaginary bell sounds the net flies out and wild Alaskan salmon begin to pile up in our net. Oh, and when I say wild I mean WILD, they didn't start life in the Hatchery and they certainly didn't live their entire life in a pen.
Farmed fish have so many negative aspects it is hard to grasp. To start they have to dye the fish meat with pink dye to make them look like wild salmon. These fish live in a monoculture which is also not good for their health, which in turn is not good for your health. They are fed things like fish oil and smaller fish, ground-up chicken feathers, poultry litter (yes, that's poop), genetically modified yeast, soybeans, and chicken fat. This is the reason the meat has to be dyed. Wild salmon gets its color from eating krill and shrimp. The food a farmed fish is fed gives it's meet a gray color, and to top it all off... if one or many farmed fish escape captivity they can destroy the entire ecosystems because they often carry diseases from living in a monoculture.
As the net starts to come in we prepare ourselves for the real work, removing the fish from the net. We use gill nets to catch our fish, which means the fish individually swim into little holes in the net and become come stuck by their gills. As we pick, the fish begin to pile up so I get down on my hands and knees and begin bleeding them. This is a process where we cut their gills which causes the fish to bleed out. This process causes the meat to stay fresher and better-looking longer. I then put the fish in a hold full of cold refrigerated sea water which is also intended to keep the meat fresher. Then just a short time later the buoy comes on board and we prepare for another set.
We will spend the next seven and a half hours repeating this process over and over and over. Once the opener ends (a time frame determined by Alaska Fish and Game in which we are allowed to fish) we get ready to deliver our catch. We slowly motor up the river to meet our custom processor. She takes the fish and stores it on ice for the short ride to her facility where they then have all the fish processed in just a few hours. It is then vacuum sealed and flash frozen in 50 lb boxes. These boxes are then loaded into a shipping container which has been fitted with a freezer unit to keep all the fish frozen for their long journey south. This is placed on a barge to Seattle and it is then put in another freezer container and driven from Seattle to Colorado where we sell it.
The thing about our fish that holds appeal to me, and most of our customers, is that we know exactly what happens to our fish every step of the way from ocean to plate. We know that it was well treated, it is all natural, wild caught and sustainable.
I have been commercial fishing in Bristol Bay Alaska for eight summers. We take pride in our fishery because we are keeping the fish population in Bristol Bay healthy by maintaining a regulated number of salmon going up river to spawn. Once the maximum number of fish go upriver to spawn it is dangerous to the health of the ecosystem to let more fish go up the river. This salmon fishery is the largest natural sustainable salmon fishery in the world with over 62 million fish returning to Bristol Bay in 2018 alone, and 21 million salmon made it to their natal streams to spawn. I fish to make money, but at the same time, I like to know that I am helping the salmon population be healthy for future years - it’s not all about the money for me. The fish we bring to Durango to sell are the healthiest, best-treated fish people can buy, and their purchases support sustainable fisheries and bring fish straight from the ocean to the table.
Chemistry Reflection
Chemistry of Food & Cooking: Sausage Gravy
The cooking process transforms food macroscopically. In my experiment the longer I cooked my gravy the more viscous it became. With this, I learned that a fluid with large viscosity resists motion because its molecular makeup gives it increased internal friction. When I heated the flour-water mixture, the water evaporated causing the starch in the flour to cling together more vigorously.
I made three mixtures each with equal amounts of flour and water, and each with a different amount of sausage. The more sausage I added, the longer I had to cook the mixture to achieve the same viscosity. This is because the sausage added mass to the mixture, and this increased mass required more thermal energy to evaporate enough water to achieve the same viscosity.
Cooking is essentially doing science in that you are using heat to cause chemical reactions within foods or between ingredients. The chemical reactions, in theory, improve the overall taste of the food and can make it easier to digest and utilize the nutrients. In my house sometimes these chemical reactions do not result in better taste, similar to poorly designed or executed science experiments that do not have a beneficial result or are dangerous. Sometimes the food I cook is on the verge of being classified as a dangerous science experiment.
The cook and the food scientist are similar in that they both work with food. These careers are different in that a food scientist’s job is to determine the nutritional content of food and to determine what can make processed foods taste good. A cook combines various ingredients to enhance the taste of foods and make the eating experience enjoyable.
The cooking process transforms food macroscopically. In my experiment the longer I cooked my gravy the more viscous it became. With this, I learned that a fluid with large viscosity resists motion because its molecular makeup gives it increased internal friction. When I heated the flour-water mixture, the water evaporated causing the starch in the flour to cling together more vigorously.
I made three mixtures each with equal amounts of flour and water, and each with a different amount of sausage. The more sausage I added, the longer I had to cook the mixture to achieve the same viscosity. This is because the sausage added mass to the mixture, and this increased mass required more thermal energy to evaporate enough water to achieve the same viscosity.
Cooking is essentially doing science in that you are using heat to cause chemical reactions within foods or between ingredients. The chemical reactions, in theory, improve the overall taste of the food and can make it easier to digest and utilize the nutrients. In my house sometimes these chemical reactions do not result in better taste, similar to poorly designed or executed science experiments that do not have a beneficial result or are dangerous. Sometimes the food I cook is on the verge of being classified as a dangerous science experiment.
The cook and the food scientist are similar in that they both work with food. These careers are different in that a food scientist’s job is to determine the nutritional content of food and to determine what can make processed foods taste good. A cook combines various ingredients to enhance the taste of foods and make the eating experience enjoyable.