My Growth Mindset

Caption from Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2007) Photograph from Cheezburger.com

My growth mindset often varies between subjects. Those to which I have a natural inclination (literature, political science, and mathematics) are those in which I have the most hope for improved knowledge. When it comes to those from which I'm disinclined (science, engineering, some business subjects), I consider myself as having little ability to improve and only the ability to memorize what's needed to pass.

The most difficult part of learning a relatively difficult subject is breaking through those early barriers. While I might eventually become better at a subject, the most difficult part is grasping those foundational concepts. Achieving this with difficult subjects can often take so long that I'm forced to juggle more advanced concepts while trying to solidify my more basic knowledge.

Of those classes I'm taking this semester, the ones about which I'm more concerned are those which require heavier memorization, such as marketing and my German language course. Analysis has always been one of my strong-suits, but memorizing numerous terms and then defining them accurately remains difficult.

One of my goals is to find a method with which I can more efficiently spend my time on those subjects that seem difficult now. Doing so in an organized, efficient way would help ensure that I get the basic concepts before having to move onto whatever is built on top of this foundation through the rest of the course. I think that by establishing a firm foundation, I can more easily work on the other, more difficult aspects of the subjects.

Starting the Semester Off Right

Organization has always been essential for me as a student. Without organization, my mind becomes a very frenetic place.

File cabinets in the Istituto agronomico per l'oltremare (2013)

Photograph by Francesco Bini (link)

Organization tip 1: Storing documents in one place
Keeping all of my work in one place is key for keeping my school life relatively stress-free. Rather than storing my documents on my laptop and being unable to access them while I'm out, I use Google Docs. Google Docs is great in that it has a simple interface, it's accessible wherever there's internet access, and it saves every single letter you type as soon as you type it. I had some bad experiences today using a computer in Bizzell Library. The computer crashed twice while I was on it. Fortunately, I was using Google Docs. Even if a sinkhole opened up and swallowed my computer, all of my files would still be available.

Organization tip 2: Folders, folders, folders
I've started to keep all of my bookmarks (be they videos on YouTube or links to class sites) in folders. Like my folders in Outlook and in Google Drive, the school-related folders are divided into my different classes. A year ago, my system of organizing bookmarks was, well, nonexistent, but now I feel much more organized and I'm able to access everything much more quickly.

Organization tip 3: Check the syllabus outside of syllabus week
I'll regularly check the syllabus of each class to make sure that my (not so fantastic) memory hasn't missed something. It also helps me get a clear picture of how I need to divide my time in the next few weeks.

Reading Options: PDE Ramayana

Ramayana edition choice: I have chosen to read the public domain edition of the Ramayana. Besides having easier access thereto, I have chosen to read this edition because of the variety of translations. While these chapters will be small, the translation do provide a general picture of how translations of the text have been handled in varying ways in the past.

What intrigues me most are the Buddhist folktales. I was completely unaware that Buddhism had its own folk literature, rather than being simply a system of philosophy and religious ideas. On a similar note, I'm also interested in the Amar Chitra Katha comic books. I would like to see exactly how the stories are not only translated for an English-speaking readership, but illustrated in a format that has its primary producers in the United States, thousands of miles away from where the stories originated.

"Buddha as Mendicant" by Abanindro Nath Tagore

Illustration from Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, 1914

My knowledge of mythology has come from a disparate list of sources. I have never read through the entirety of any books solely dedicated to mythology. On the other hand, I have read several books whose stories were influenced by the ancient mythologies. These include The Lord of the Rings and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. These stories take aspects of the mythology (such as the presence of centaurs or of gods and demigods in eternal conflict) and sown them into a separate narrative.

I stayed for several days in a relatively remote Buddhist monastery in South Korea. I'm interested in how a philosophical and religious system founded on the southern part of the continent could have traveled across international and geographical boundaries and established a firm foothold in numerous other countries. It seems likely that some aspect of Buddhism resonates with a significant number of people or that it is easily adaptable to the lifestyles and preexisting systems of thought in other regions.

Storybook Favorites: Deserts, sages, and beasts, oh my!

Storybook 1: A Hermit's Tales of the Himalayas (Link)

Topic: The topic of the story, that of a wise hermit teaching younger people, is a common theme in stories. Among these stories are The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham and The Karate Kid. Of those stories told by the hermit, I had no prior knowledge.

Introduction: The introduction provides a clear explanation of how the middle section of the story is to unfold, while still allowing enough mystery to keep the reader in the dark. By presenting the stories through the hermit's voice, the mystery is prolonged.

Design: The photographs provided on several pages show, in the first instance, a picture of an older man who appears to be a sage, and, in the other instances, isolated dwellings in the mountains. These help increase the sense of mystery that the introduction has produced. They also add a sense of solitude or isolation to the setting. The other aspects of the page (those which are not photographs or text) do not add much to the atmosphere of the story. The home page presents only a photograph of the hermit, creating a sense of mystery that is sure to make readers want to discover who he is.

Leather-bound travel journal

Source: Pinterest

Storybook 2: Rama's Bestiary (Link)

Topic: The topic of mythological creatures is one that has interested me, but the specific beasts covered in this storybook are ones with which I am unfamiliar. The topic is interesting in that it provides a perspective on the mythological creatures that is different from the tradition third-person perspective of Indian epics. It provides one person's personal experiences of said creatures.

Introduction: The introduction is intriguing in that it has the same perspective as a "choose-your-own-adventure" novel. It provides a relatively concise background of the book and of the author. The last statements add to the story in that the book is presented as something lost, yet found by the occasional wanderer.

Design: The page provides sufficient images to create the sense of illustrations from a journal. Each part of the story is accompanied by images of the monsters or of the book. The use of loosely connected documents would provide further mystery to any story that I created.

A letter

Source: Wordpress

[Unfortunately, the author didn't provide a link to this image, but rather, to the web page hosting the image. I haven't been able to find the original image. The other images from this storybook appear to be copyrighted or to have restricted usage terms.]

Storybook 3: Greek Heroes (Link)

Topic: While I certainly can't call myself an expert on Greek mythology, I know more about its pantheon than that of Indian mythology. The mixture of Greek mythology and significantly more recent settings is not a now phenomenon. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Dante's Inferno. 

Introduction: The introduction is the story of a person who, while in a desert, finds a scroll which tells the story of several figures in Greek mythology. That this person, Joed, is starving only adds to the levels of interpretation; perhaps this person is only hallucinating that they have found the scroll.

Design: The desert photo adds to the sense of isolation and desolateness of the primary setting, while the addition of images of Greek gods adds to the sense of something ancient having been discovered.

Perseus and Medusa

Source: Greek Myths & Greek Mythology

Introduction to a Travel-Obsessed Bookworm

My travel obsession

Manhattan skyline, June 2016 (personal photo) 

Above all else, I love to travel. Trips to Colorado and New Mexico helped me gain an appreciation for the landscapes of the western U.S. I could never turn down a trip to Colorado, no matter how much it's snowing and how cold it is at the time. A trip to Washington made my desire to live in that state much stronger. Of course, no trip is complete without sampling the local wares. Fortunately for me, I've always enjoyed Mexican food, seafood, and coffee. It often seems that these states and I were matches made in heaven.

Over this summer, I traveled to New York City, which was, unsurprisingly, a much larger city than I'm used to. It lacks the sweeping landscapes of New Mexico or Washington, but the cityscapes are equally impressive. I'd be dishonest if I said the energy of that metropolis didn't hold some attraction for me, a lover of solitude and nature.


Eminently depressing books

Ever since I was in elementary school, I've been an enormous fan of reading. It seemed that whenever I wasn't in class or doing some extra-curricular activity (baseball, Cub Scouts, etc.), I could be found with a book in my hands. At that point, my interests tended towards the fantastic, rather than the realistic: each book typically had at least one alien, dragon, or troll.

In contrast, the list of books that I read this summer is one dominated by realistic fiction and nonfiction. Those books that I enjoyed reading the most this summer were the following:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

To summarize a novel of several hundred pages and of more complexity than I can hope to provide in a paragraph, the story centers on a woman who lives in an authoritarian, dystopian state. She is a slave to the state in that she is considered little more than a means with which to repopulate a society ravaged by pollution, among other man-made disasters. She is able to rebel against the strictures of the society, in her own minor ways. Given the relevancy of these issues, it was odd for me to consider to consider the fact that this book was written thirty years ago.

War in the Val D'Orcia by Iris Origo

This book is part of the diary of a British expatriate who lived with her Italian husband on an estate, La Foce, in Tuscany during World War II. This book offers a glimpse of history that is far more personal than a history textbook spanning the entirety of the war on several countries and continents. Origo provides not only her perspective, but that of her estate's tenant farmers. Both her family and those of the farmers hid and assisted fugitives from fascist forces. Had one of these fugitives been discovered, the person or persons who had hidden them was destined to be murdered by the fascists.

Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories by Giovanni Verga

This book is a collection of short stories by a Sicilian author of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of the stories in this collection relate the experiences of Sicilian peasants and landowners. Southern Italy, has, at least for the past few centuries, been markedly poorer than northern Italy, so these stories present the poorest of the poor. Among the problems that these peasants must face are disease (most noticeably, malaria), drought, famine, and their callous, frequently oppressive socio-economic superiors. Given these circumstances, it becomes little wonder that so many southern Italians were immigrating to the United States in huge numbers during Verga's lifetime.

Looking through my recent reading list, it's an altogether depressing one. Of course, stories or narratives without conflict have relatively little chance of being compelling. In my opinion, the sharper the conflict, the more interesting the story. Perhaps this is why I've always been drawn to books which demonstrate the heights and depths of humanity.

Story: Protector of the Glade

"The Wolf and the Lamb": An oil painting by Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755) depicting the fable of the same name. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Protector of the Glade

The green, lush hill known as Good Grazing Hill, at least to the sheep who lived thereon, was once a happy place. Surrounding it on all sides was a dense forest. So thick was this forest that scarcely anyone tried to cross it. Such an adventure, the wise old sheep would say, was for the foolhardy and for those who thought they would make a delicious meal for the wolves and bears that lived in the forest.

So it was a tremendously shocking affair when one sheep decided that she would brave the dangers of the woods to see what lay beyond. Her mother and father were beside themselves with grief, already taking their daughter to be as dead as a plate of lamb chops. In truth, she felt more alive than she had ever been before. To brave unknown dangers and receive the attention of every sheep in the glade was an irresistible prospect.

And so, the following week, she set off. At first, the forest proved incredibly dark and she was startled every time a stick broke underhoof. She wasn't used to such rough going. She had to watch her every step and make sure she didn't trip. If she did, who knows if she would ever make it back?

Her confidence grew by the day. One day, following a dirt path, she almost thought that she could see the end of the forest. Suddenly, she heard a ferocious noise come from the farther down the path. She hid herself. The noise grew louder and she dared a peek around her hiding spot. Two scary creatures passed by. One had a long bushy tail, pointed ears, and sharp teeth. Just behind this oddity ran an even stranger beast. This one was much larger and had four legs, two arms, and two heads. The larger head made snorting sounds while the smaller head said yelled out commands to the small beast.

The lamb turned back around. At once, she was confronted with a creature which looked much like that smaller beast. This new creature had the same sharp teeth, the same pointed ears, and the same long tail, but it was much leaner and looked as though it hadn't eaten in days.

Frightened, the lamb asked, "Who are you? What were those? Where am I?"

This creature grinned, revealing two sets of yellow, sharp teeth. "I am a wolf. Those were a dog and a horse and a man."

"Three?" the lamb asked, perplexed.

The wolf's grin, already wide, grew tremendously so. "Yes, a man," he replied, "the creature on top of the horse."

"Where am I?"

"You're in a very dangerous place. Those beasts would eat you if they ever saw you."

"How do you know?"

"I've lived out here all my life. It's a truly terrible place. I shouldn't let you go farther onwards."

"No? But I've always wanted to see what lay beyond the forest."

"Trust me. It's in your best interest to head back. Where do you live?"

"I live on Good Grazing Hill with all of the other sheep. It's in the middle of the forest."

"What's it like?"

"It's perfectly safe. Everyone can eat and drink as much as they like. You look like you could eat something."

"Oh, yes, I could."

For several days, the sheep led the wolf back to Good Grazing Hill. Along the way, they stopped to eat grass. The wolf was visibly repulsed by the grass, but said to the lamb, "I'm simply not used to this type of foliage."

"The grass on our hill is much better," replied the lamb.

The sheep of Good Grazing Hill were wary of the wolf. He didn't look like anything they'd ever seen. It wasn't until the wolf had told them of the dangers beyond the forest that they trusted him. Casting aside their usual egalitarianism, they gave to the wolf the title of Protector of the Glade. He was to watch over them and, in return receive the choicest plots of grass.

Every few days, the wolf would go out into the forest to see what was going on. Each time he came back from these expeditions, his assessments would become grimmer, until one day he said that the humans had almost found their glade. In return for this warning and his continuing protection, they granted him all of the land west of Good Drinking Stream.

One day, while the wolf was drinking from this stream, the lamb who had led him to the glade appeared farther down the hill. The lamb was taking a few sips from the water. The wolf appeared unhappy, but in truth, he found this "intrusion" a great thing.

"You, little lamb, what are you doing? Why are you fouling up my water? Do you not know that this is my stream?"

"Protector Wolf, this stream belongs to everyone. And how am I fouling up your water? I am drinking downstream from you."

"Well, then, why did you try to stop me from becoming Protector of the Glade? Why did you spread dreadful rumors about me then?"

"That isn't true. I was the one who called for you to be elected Protector of the Glade. I have always supported you."

"Then you must not have supported me enough."

With that, the wolf grabbed the lamb with his sharp teeth. Before he could gobble her up, the lamb cried, "A tyrant will use any excuse to get what they truly crave."

Author's Note

My story is based on Aesop's fable, "The Wolf and the Lamb." At the beginning of this story, a wolf is drinking at a stream. He looks up and discovers that a lamb is drinking from the same stream. He accuses the lamb of fouling up his water. The lamb says that she couldn't have done so, since she is drinking downstream from the wolf. The wolf then accuses the lamb of calling him bad names a year ago. The lamb replies that she is only six months old. The wolf says he doesn't care and that, if it wasn't the lamb who insulted him, it must have been her father. With this, the wolf eats the lamb. With its dying breath, the lamb says, "Any excuse will serve a tyrant" (28).

By introducing the circumstances in which the wolf had come to power, I gave to the beast's plans a more insidious perspective. It seems to me that tyrants rarely appear on day one as out-and-out tyrants. Typically, they offer promises of safety and warnings of dangers should they not be put in power. In placing the eating of the lamb (no doubt the beginning of the wolf's feast) at the end of the story, I showed that the road towards tyranny can be a long one, and that those who once supported the tyrant may be eaten themselves.

Bibliography

Jacobs, Joseph. "The Wolf and the Lamb." The Fables of Aesop. The Edward Publishing Co. pp. 27-28. Web link.

Rome and the Vatican, My Favorite Places

Rome and the Vatican

Piazza Venezia, as seen from the Altare della Patria, Rome.

Photograph taken by Markus Bernet (2004). Source: Wikimedia Commons

Although I spent only a few days in Rome, it took only a few days to decide that the Eternal City was one of my favorite places. My experience of Rome came in the form of an OU study abroad program in the summer of 2014. We were led through much of the city by a professor who seemed to know everything about anything you could point out, be it an obscurely positioned building in some narrow back street or the Coliseum. Had I visited Rome sans scholar, my experience would have been far less rich.

Fortunately for anyone visiting Rome, a knowledgeable tour guide isn't necessary. Should a visitor have only a general picture of Italian history, as I did, an appreciation of artwork, architecture, and engineering will suffice. I couldn't help but be struck by the idea that I was walking the same streets and passing through the same doorways as innumerable emperors, writers, and artists.

A trip to Rome is all very well and good. However, to visit this city without visiting the Vatican is equivalent to having antipasti at every meal, but never a primo. On the way to the Sistine Chapel, visitors are almost rushed past masterpieces that would be the centerpieces for numerous other museums. As beautiful as the Sistine Chapel was, a place more awe-inspiring was only a few minutes away. If I had to pick a favorite place more specific than Rome or the Vatican, it would be St. Peter's Basilica. That the basilica is enormous certainly helps to make it a marvelous place, but the art therein was what held my attention the longest. It was with bittersweet feelings that I had to turn away from Michelangelo's Pietà and return to Rome. To leave such artistic genius was a disappointment, but to have ever seen it was an extraordinary experience.