Courage

I have always valued courage as one of the most important qualities one could possess. Although somewhat irrelevant, one of my favorite movies, the first movie I ever saw in theaters, has always been the Lion King, which has strong themes of Simba (also my cats name) overcoming fears, and being courageous in the face of adversity. However, the line between stupidity and courage is fine. The courage we most often talk about, moral courage, involves acting righteously even when your all alone. This is what seperates Martin Luther King, who was courageous, and Hitler who was simply crazy. To elaborate, Courage does not just mean doing crazy, dangerous things. If I jump off a bridge, I do not necessarily have courage. For these actions to be courageous there has to be a greater reason behind it. If I jump off that bridge to save a group of children, I may then be considered courageous. I believe is somewhere in all of us. Every time you sacrifice something, or stand up for family or a friend, you are showing your courage. In fact, I would consider the parent working 12 hours a day to support his family much more courageous than a sniper shooting down an enemy plane.
I suppose I see courage all of the time. Although we most often associate courage with adults, I think it is actually most evident in young children. It always seems like the children are the ones who want to help people, and sacrifice time and money for others, while the adults are more likely to shrug it off, and leave someone helpless. The reason we hear about the adults more often is because they are the ones with enough resources to get things done, but if you gave children those same resources, there would be much more generosity and courage. After all, doesn't every kid dream of being a superhero? In my own life, I see courage in school when kids stick up for others. Especially in high school and below, sticking up for a kid takes a lot of courage. Kids in school are always under the impression that they have to throw their "less cool" friends under the bus in order to make cooler friends and gain social standing. However, I have found exactly the opposite. It actually seems that the coolest kids I know are friends with everyone. It takes courage to stand up to a cooler friend while defending someone. At home I see it through my grandparents, aunts, parents, siblings, etc who are constantly arguing, pushing, and fighting for their fellow family to become successful and happy.
Now that I think about it, one of the most important ambitions and goals in my life has always been to be a selfless courageous person. Everyone leaves a mark on the world, and if in my life I am able to help at least a few people, and stay stern and strong in my beliefs then I think I could be happy anywhere.

Being Mr. Mannion

In today's society, parents often emphasize the limitless possibilities the future can hold for their kids. However, this is not always the case, some parents give their kids a clear path to a clear goal. For example, some parents may tell their kids to "follow your dreams, you can be successful at anything you put your mind to" while others may be more precise, telling their children from a very early age that they are going to be a lawyer or doctor, making all of the moves to ensure their children's success.

But does doing this really increase your childs chances of success? Which method do you think is better? How will, or how do you parent your children? What have your parents done to make you successful?


Write about it.

Avoiding Conflicts

I will start this one off by telling you that avoiding conflict is impossible, which is not always entirely bad. However, there are certain "strategies" that I can use to experience as little conflict as possible, and water down conflict when I do encounter it. First of all, you have to learn to roll with the punches. Being able to recognize mistakes, and accept the consequences of these mistakes is key to avoiding all kinds of conflict. Many people tend to be stubborn, which only escalates the argument, and therefore the conflict. Somewhere, there must be compromise. Some people tend to simply ignore the people or problem at hand. This is equally as problematic. Ignoring a problem merely puts it aside for a period of time, it almost never erases the problem completely. Sure, since we were very little we have been told "if someone is bullying you, just ignore them", but it is never that easy. When ignored, most people's anger will only escalate until they are recognized. Then there are the kind of people who do whatever the problem or person asks them to do. At face value this seems to solve the problem, but inside the damage is done. I have found the best way minimize conflict in my life is to accept mistakes, face things head on, and then move on.
The things I've explained are great for dealing with the problems once they've come, but is there a way to avoid it all together, like a conflict vaccination? Well, I think I've come across the closest thing. Like most kids, I spent much of my life so far trying to impress people. This meant doing some things, and saying things that got me into sticky situations. Although these situations were stressful, I could never say I would take them back because they taught me my most valuable lesson. Never say or do anything that you may end up regretting. I can't say I stick to this all of the time, as I am somewhat spontaneous, but when I do the results are always positive. The idea is pretty simple, so simple that many overlook it.
One way that you can avoid conflict, both personal and social, is never lie. I can say I have drastically changed through high school. If you went back to a freshman me, you could probably catch me lying to the teacher after forgetting a homework or assignment. After a while though, I learned that making up a believable lie is often more work then the work itself, and besides teachers seem to know whether your lying or not no matter what you say, and most don't even care. I've learned that by not lying, awkwardness is avoided, and being truthful tends to actually get you more respect. After realizing this in school, I applied this to my personal life, and never looked back. If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to answer.
As far as siblings go, it is funny to see my brother learning the same things that I did. He has the same attitude that I did in middle school. He is always too stubborn to admit he was wrong, and even more stubborn to fix it. Even funnier is how scared he is of what people think. He is just as argument prone as I was, and just as quick to lose them. I help as much as I can with good advice, but for the most part it is best that experience be his teacher, not me.

Visit a Historical Time

I am inclined to say that if I could go back to any "historical" time in history, I would go back to the beginning of the marking period so I could do all of the blogs I neglected to do, but truth is I don't like looking back, I prefer looking forward. However, if I could go back to any period of time, I guess it would be Jesus Christ era Jerusalem. At first I thought I might want to visit the end of Mesozoic era to see what really killed off the dinosaurs, but that seemed too unrelated to our world today. Then I thought I would want to go to one of the world wars, but that seemed too recent, and already too well documented. The reason I finally settled of Jesus Christ era Jerusalem is it's obscurity. Little fact is actually known of this era. Most of what we think we know is based off of the bible, which is not exactly the most reliable source. After all, this same book contains stories of great worldwide floods, and human creation, many of which have basically been proven wrong in modern history. I spent my freshmen year attending Monsignor Donovan High School, where religion was a required course. Coming from a family where religion is pretty much ignored, this experience was extremely interesting to me. I could see how faithful many of the staff were to their religion, and how unfaithful others were. My history teacher once told us "To be honest, since working at this school, I have basically dropped my religion." Funny thing is, same thing happened to me. However, I can't help but wonder, what if who was Jesus Christ? The life, and possible identity of Jesus Christ is one of the most puzzling, not to mention one of the most influential mysteries in our history. His story has saved lived, as well as started wars. Countless numbers of people have died fighting for his ideals, and vice versa, even though there is not even factual content large enough to prove his mere existence. I suppose if I were to visit this place in time, I would devote my entire time attempting to see Jesus Christ, and find the line between what is fact, and what is fiction. Winston Churchill once said "History is written by the victors", and in a culture mostly dominated by Christianity, those lines become blurry. I guess the real reason I would want to play detective in Jesus Christ Era Jerusalem is to finally close the book on my beliefs. It is easy to blindly believe something, it is much harder to blindly disprove something. Without proof, I really do not know what to believe, I can only guess. For most however, this would not matter, and many would not want to know. After my one year stint at catholic school, the most important thing I was taught in religion class is that often in the bible, the themes are what matter, not the truth of the stories.