Father and Sons

            After our class discussion of Father and Sons, I was fascinated by Nick’s interaction with his son. When Nick’s son questioned him about Nick’s father, Nick did not bash his dad or even show his bitterness towards him, even though he resented him. Nick swallowed his pride and talked proudly of his father saying, “He was a great hunter and fisherman and he had wonderful eyes.” He went on, “he shot very quickly and beautifully. I’d rather see him shoot than any man I ever knew.” When Nick said this, he showed great humility and respect for his father. I would contest that he showed great respect for the idea of fatherhood. Every father tries to create an aura around their dads and themselves to make his son look up to them. The sense of pride stemming from thinking your dad and grandfather and so on creates a special bond between a father and son. It makes a son feel important. It makes them feel they are part of something special. A close father and son relationship is a special bond that a son and even father can’t find anywhere else.

            After reading the short interchange between the father and son, I reflected on my own relationship with my dad and my dad’s relationship with his father. I believe one of the most important aspect of a happy father and son relationship is the father showing the son what a good father and son relationship is through the father’s own stories of his father and his relationship with him. I believe it is very important for a father to instill a sense of pride for his family to make the son feel like he is part of something unique and special. All sons want to emulate and be like their fathers in some way. With this belief, I will start on my father’s relationship with his dad.

            From my experiences with my dad, I can tell that he did not have the best relationship with his father growing up, but it was still a happy one. My grandpa was your typical working father, who worked constantly to provide for his family. Every day my grandpa woke up and went to work before my dad was awake and often came back late at night. My dad told me when I was older that his dad did not go to all of his sporting events or supported his many of his ventures as a kid, mainly because my grandpa was working. The moments my dad talks most fondly about are his trips to Colorado. As a kid, he my dad told me how great of a skier my grandpa was and how much fun he had with my grandpa on their skiing trips. He reminisced on their camping adventures, telling me his exciting and usually funny experiences with my grandpa. As a kid, I was enthralled by their mountain adventures. Those stories made me think highly of my own grandpa and dad, making me want to do similar things with my own dad so I can tell my son similar stories. I thought I was part of something special, a family full of funny, adventurous men.  Now that I am older, I notice how my dad never talked about stories at home or stories that didn’t occur on vacation. I can tell my grandpa wasn’t around much on a daily basis but they still managed to have a happy relationship, although it was limited by my grandpa’s work. As both my dad and grandpa age, they have become a lot closer, going to lunch almost every two weeks.

            Because of my dad’s experience with his dad, I believe that my father, son relationship with my dad is very strong. As a kid, my dad was at almost every sporting event or school event that parents attended. He was there supporting me, encouraging me from the stands. Not until my later in high school did I realize how important this was to me and how it enriched our relationship. On a day-to-day basis, he comes home from work to spend time with me and my two other siblings. I can tell he wants to spend time with us. He is always asking if my brother and me want to play golf or just hang out and watch a game together. He is a major presence in my life, and because of his presence, we have a great relationship. We talk almost every day and love to spend time with each other. I know when I am older that I will be able to tell my son a ton of stories about my dad and our experiences together. I will be able to instill a sense of pride to my son because of my dad’s presence in my life. I look up to my dad, my grandfather, and all other Lang men, and I hope my own son looks up to all the other Lang men and me.  I hope that my relationship with my son is as good as my relationship with my dad. 

Third Meeting with Adil

On Wednesday March 23^rd, I met with Adil once again at Barnes and Noble. Before meeting with Adil, I found myself to be more nervous than the last time. I was surprised because I thought the more and more we met the less and less my nerves would bother me.  The root of the anxiety, though, quickly became apparent. I didn’t know what to talk about. At our first meeting, we talked about his family and his hobbies. The second time we discussed his schoolwork, his past jobs, and his future aspirations. This meeting I didn’t know what we would talk about. I wanted to have a plan. I couldn’t think of anything, though. So, like any good college student, I winged it.  What I found was that it was our best, most interesting meeting yet.

            The conversation first started with Adil talking about his TOEFL test once again, but soon Adil started talking about Libya. He is very upset with what is going on in Libya. The conversation took a turn, and we started talking about religion, specifically how dominant religion is in Saudi Arabia and how this focus on religion makes the culture in the United States very different than culture in Saudi Arabia.

            When the conversation first started, Adil discussed how a few people he knows suffered from culture shocks when they first came to the United States. The biggest problems were seen in substance abuse. In Saudi Arabia, alcohol is not sold, and no one is allowed to drink. He told horror stories of people coming to the United States who started to drink, got kicked out of school, and sent back home. Other people he knew could not handle how people drank, went to clubs and bars, and did not pray five times a day. All of these people had such a culture shock that they quickly quite their studies and went back to Saudi Arabia, escaping the temptations found in another country. Adil, though, said has not had culture shock because of his frequent travels and his observance of Islam.

            The conversation quickly went to how important religion is in Saudi Arabia and how important Islam is to Adil. Even though he is comfortable with is religion, he told me that he told himself not to talk about religion because the tension it causes, much like politics.  He explained different rules and customs. Adil explained how to greet another person, how to interact with women, how no alcohol is sold, and how everyone is supposed to five times a day. Even in America, Adil does not drink, he tries to greet everyone the way he was taught at home, and how he still prays five times a day and goes to the Mosque on Friday (Friday is like Sunday for Christians). What I thought was most interesting was his frustration with the portrayal of the Islamic religion. Throughout our conversation, he talked about how the media shows Islam in a very bad light. He believes that the Islamic religion shown in the media is very extreme. Adil went as far as to say that the Muslims shown are merely Muslim by name. They do observe and follow Islamic law and tradition. He, then, told me a few things that I thought was vey unique and interesting about an Islamic country.

            First, if Adil were to bring me to Saudi Arabia, no one can harm me because I am Adil’s friend. Islamic law says that everyone must respect me and treat me as their friend because I am Adil’s friend. Secondly, he told me about an important part of Islam is that there are no sacred people, like a priest or bishop is in Catholicism. Everyone is on the same level when it comes to religion. Anyone can lead prayer, and everyone is important to the community. Islam even goes as far as requiring wealthy Muslims to donate 2.5 percent of their earnings to the poor. Thirdly, an Islamic rule is that if anyone attains knowledge it is sinful to not share it with others.

            I really enjoyed his conversation about Islam because I have never interacted with a Muslim and discussed religion before. As I was learning about the Islamic faith, I thought there are a lot of interesting ideas, rules and traditions. I completely agree with Adil when he said that the media portrays Muslims in an unfavorable light. In many ways, Muslims follow the same ideals as Christians in America. After all, we share the same God and have many of the same prophets and biblical characters. The more we talked he even started asking about my own Catholic faith and how different parts of the church works. After our meeting, I felt like a learned a great deal and gained insight into another religion and culture.

Second Meeting with Adil (Forgot to Post Earlier)

            On Tuesday March 8th, I met with Adil Adolsari for the second time. This meeting, though, was much different than the last. To start, I was much less nervous. In fact, I was excited, even anxious to meet him.  I knew the awkward small talk part of these meetings would be gone, allowing us to get to know each other better. From the very start of the meeting, we started to get to know each other on a personal level, talking about our struggles, our past achievements, and our future goals.

            After arriving a few minutes late, I could tell Adil was disheveled and worried about something. I was hesitant, at first, to ask him what was wrong, but he shortly informed me why he was anxious and tense. He had the TOEFL test the next day. TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language. For Adil, the test is very hard, especially the section testing reading comprehension. In this section, students must read a passage and then answer questions about the passage. Adil said that he often times doesn’t even understand the passages, making it nearly impossible for him to answer the questions. He admitted the English language is very challenging for him.  However, the challenging part is not the writing, but, rather, it is listening and understanding different words and phrases. For an example, he cited the confusion over can and can’t. He simply can’t understand people when they say can or can’t because the “t” is not pronounced.  He, then, talked about phrases that made no sense to him, such “sick as a dog” or “is there a frog in your throat?” He, also, asked me what different words meant and how to use words in a sentence.

            Listening to him talk about his struggles made me think about how hard the English language really is and how being tested is very challenging. From my experience taking French, I understand how reading a passage in another language is difficult. I remember reading passages and having no idea what was being said or what the message was. However, I didn’t have great control over the French language.  Adil, though, seems like he understands the language fairly well. The English language has very tricky parts for someone who speaks it as a second language. Adil noted a variety of words that have different meanings, even though they sound the same. Because of this, I understand how hard these passages are and how deciphering what people are saying is difficult. As a person who speaks Englsih as a first language, I even have a hard time understanding passages and what people are saying. I can why he wishes that people would use pronunciation correctly and be more clear when they are talking.

            The next part of our conversation consisted of Adil showing me what he did in his past job in Saudi Arabia. His work was fascinating. He made designs, consisting of very small pieces of what could be described as tile, seen in hotels and offices. His work was intricate and creative. He was most proud of his work in the house of a person of nobility. I never understand who this person was because of the language barrier and the structure of the Saudi Arabia society, even though he tried to explain it to me multiple times. He showed me many pictures of his work and explained the difficulties that came with the job. He was very proud and loved what he did.

            I asked him why he quit and left for America, and he responded by telling me his dream for the future. He left Saudi Arabia and his job because he wanted to expand on what he has done. His dad and the other 80 workers employed at his former company are still running his business, but the line of work was no longer fit for him. He wanted to expand on his marketing skills and produce goods in America. He wants to society to no longer rely on the cheap labor in countries such as Saudi Arabia, believing that goods made there are low quality. Adil thinks that if more goods are produced in America that people from all over the world will buy them because of the higher quality. He isn’t sure what goods he wants to produce. He, though, believes that with effective marketing that these products will be bought around the world because it has America written on it.

            Because of the language barrier, I wasn’t able to completely understand his plan or his beliefs, but the description just stated was my best effort to describe what he was saying. Although his dream is very broad when he told it to me, Adil seemed very passionate. I could tell that he knew exactly what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it. His excitement about his dream was overwhelming at times. I look forward to meet with him next time to better understand his dream and how he did on the TOEFL exame.

Billy Collins

After reading Billy Collins, I found myself really enjoying his poetry, actually wanting to read more. Most of the time, I do not like poetry. I often find it to be long and annoying. I usually can’t tell you a theme, unless I read a poem three or four times. I appreciate the art of poetry. I can’t fathom the skill and talent it takes to write the deep, complicated poems with seemingly endless amount of detail that points to a theme. I just usually don’t enjoy that type of poetry. (I also may still be bitter about reading an endless amount of poetry senior in high school) However, Billy Collins poetry is very enjoyable. He has a unique ability to make poetry simple. And, the simplicity of his poems reveals his wittiness and cleverness. 

            My favorite poem of his that shows off his skill is “Introduction to Poetry”. By chance, this was the first poem I read from his collection of works. This poem was a great way to be introduced to Billy Collins. He tells his readers to enjoy poetry, not to beat out a life-altering theme. He even said, “I want them to water-ski across the surface of a poem waving at the author’s name on the shore.” This stuck out to me because I have always been the person who would force themes into poems. I had to find a deeper meaning in every poem. At one point last year in my senior English class, if I could not figure out the theme of a poem, I would simply find one of my collection of themes in my mind and make it apply in some way to the poem. Collins, though, tells us to make poetry simple. He wants the reader to enjoy his works. With this attitude, I would contend that a reader gets more out of a poem than if a reader is forced to find themes in poems he does not enjoy.  Reading this poem set a wonderful stage for the rest of his works.

            The next poem I really enjoyed was “Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House”. In this poem, Collins is apparently very angry at a dog that is barking constantly. By the end of the poem, though, Collins says the dog is part of Beethoven’s symphony. I enjoyed this poem mainly because of the cleverness and simple idea. I’m guessing that most people at some time in their life have been annoyed with a barking dog. Collins takes this simple idea of annoyance and creates a clever and humorous idea of the dog being in a symphony. He makes something obnoxious and takes a different approach, finding the good, not the bad.  He says that “Beethoven included a part of barking dog” and that “other musicians listen in respectful silence to the famous barking dog solo.”  I really enjoyed how he took an idea that everyone can relate to and twist it in a way that readers can find humor and enjoyment.

            There are many poems like the two I mentioned before that display Collins ability to take a simple idea and turn into a thought provoking, entertaining piece that provides vivid and clever detail and imagery. I look forward to reading more of his poems and listening to him during his book reading.

Library Research

            On Thursday, March 3^rd, I went to the library and read the May 30^th 1937 edition and the May 30^th 1927 edition of Time Magazine. When I first looked at the magazine, I was fascinated by the design and structure.   In high school, I was on the school newspaper and learned about different styles of writing and design. What I found in the Time Magazine was very different than any style that I was taught. Instead of a central thematic design on a page, there were merely blocks of text with a picture or two. It was vey organized and structured.  On pages with advertisements, the design was chaotic with no real structure. Advertisements were placed seemingly everywhere. The advertisements were drastically different in appearance then than they are now. Even the products being advertised were incredibly different.  Although the advertisements then and now are displayed differently, the message is often the same. The advertisements that stood out to me the most were the ones about exercising. Like current advertisements, the exercising ads were urging people to take care of their bodies and walk, instead of driving cars everywhere.

            Beyond the design and advertisements, I thought the articles were very interesting, most notably the one about Russia.  In 1937, the Russians caught German spies working on trains and railroads and wreaking havoc on transportation. The most shocking part of the article was its discussion on catching and punishing the German spies.  Although many spies were caught, the article made it sound like people were accusing others of being spies, often times with little evidence. For those that were caught, the punishment was public execution. One official even said that the spies should, “Pay with gallons of blood for every drop of worker’s blood they shed.” I thought this article was particularly interesting because I could feel the tension between Germany and Russia, which would eventually lead to World War II.  I also enjoyed the piece because I did not know that German spies were caught in Russia and sentenced to public execution.

            In the 1927 edition of Time Magazine, an article I found interesting was about Charles Lindberg, the first person to fly from New York to Paris. The article was the longest piece I have ever seen in a magazine, spanning almost 5 whole pages. It discussed every aspect of his flight, including information about who was paying for the flight and what the plane was like. The overall tone of the piece was filled with adoration. The article deemed him an American hero and praised him throughout the piece for his historic achievement. It is funny to read articles like this now because flying from New York to Paris is such a common thing. 

Many common things were discussed and praised for its novelty, including a minimum wage law and new inventions for cars. I enjoyed reading about these things because I could see how much America has grown and developed since that time period. One article that showed how much America has grown discussed a dangerous driver who was speeding. The whole article intrigued me because I wanted to know how fast the driver was going. At the very end of the piece, I finally found out – the driver was going 45 miles per hour.  Now people go 45 miles per hour all the time. This article, like many parts of the magazine, provided insights into the time period in which modernism era was taking place. By reading different articles and viewing advertisements, I learned about American society and how much we have grown in over 70 years.