Public Service Announcement

Hello again!

Two years seems to have passed me by without writing much. It’s sad how fast time goes. Now I know the last several posts have been expository essays, but I haven’t been able to spend much time (or get motivated) to write anything new. These essays have been for my Honors Composition, Mythology, Greek Civilization, and Roman Civilization classes. I figure at some point I might have written on these topics anyway so I might as well just use the essays that I turned in for school.

The reason I have been so preoccupied this summer is because I have been finishing a final revision on my book: The Lo’hre Ala Jewel. This has been a work in progress since 2010 and I regret that I haven’t been able to finish it yet. However, my determination has been renewed after two years of living a normal college student life. Now I am ready to finish this damn thing and move on to the second book.  Here are brief synopses for the entire series first and then just book one.

The Lo’hre Ala Jewel:

Life is difficult. For Josh, Curt, and Bobby, they figure out the things they need to do to be considered an adult together as they run away from the home they have known, and flee to Chicago. Left with nothing but a few dollars and a rusty old van, they learn life’s lessons the hard way.

 Over the years, they make new friends and learn that betrayal is worse when it is someone you think you can trust. When they end up in Greece for some closure, they stumble upon a secret from beyond the creation of the known universe that holds the key to awareness itself . . .

And here’s for Book One:

Josh Carpenter is fourteen. He’s lived a stressed and lonesome life in Manhattan with his mother and obnoxious little sister since his parents’ divorce. He has no friends and wishes he could be anywhere but New York, continuously searching for an answer, for a way out, for a friend, and for some rationalization of what is to come.

 Josh doesn’t have “normal” dreams. Rather than forget the symbolic nature in his unconscious mind, however, he deciphers what it is trying to tell him and uses it as motivation for his life.

 When his Navy recruiter father, Tom, is transferred, Josh decides against staying with his mother to move with Tom to an insignificant town in Virginia. Relying only on his instincts, he allows his intuitiveness to mature, never thinking that he might just find exactly what he is looking for – And more beyond his wildest dreams . . .

I am currently looking for artwork for a cover and in-text illustrations. They should entail the abstract sensation of the Lo’hre Ala Jewel itself which, in the book, is the object which imbues sentience to life. The series gives a story of the jewel’s journey through the universe and where it ends up here on Earth. For any other inspiration and to submit a drawing, please email me at jamming_james227@yahoo.com.

Thanks! And I will post about publication soon!

The Father of Lies

History is one of those things that most people take for granted. Even modern history is just “what happened in the past.” The medium through which it is absorbed is irrelevant. Whether it is from watching the History Channel, reading a magazine, or taking a college class, the sources are all derived from the most highly regarded and recent data. Most history is verified through multiple primary or secondary sources. Yet the further back, the less certifiable the sources get. Herodotus has been deemed the “Father of History” for his unique approach of the day. Starting his account by saying, “May the great and wonderful deeds—some brought forth by the Hellenes, others by the barbarians—not go unsung; as well as the causes that led them to make war on each other.” (1.1) shows his determination to pass along what he himself has heard. Since Herodotus’ goal was to make history last for all time, we can interpret is thusly. In the context of history written at present, there are many fallacies inherent in The Histories. Upon further examination, it seems only logical to presume that many of Herodotus’ details have either been exaggerated or made up altogether.

Herodotus’ history has a very unique style. First, he looks at the big picture. Next, he breaks down the smaller details. Once a conflict arises or a decision is to be made, Herodotus inserts conversation between men who could not have kept records or passed on their exact words to anyone. This is something relatively new in history with the advent of recording technologies. For example, Xerxes supposedly dreams a man tells him to continue with the attack on Hellas before flying away (7.12.2, The Histories). This scenario could only have been described to Herodotus as rumor from some common-folk, perhaps from someone from the palace who witnessed Xerxes’ council afterward, or the more likely, it is fiction. Yet no matter which means is true, the plain fact is that the reliability of Herodotus’ sources is questionable. Usually history is extremely one sided, but Herodotus captures the reader’s attention by building upon both sides. Add in the conversations and the reader may very well feel as if he or she is experiencing what happened at Susa or Athens as Homer involves the reader/listener of his epics. But if there is anything we can learn from the adaptation of stories to different mediums is that any account written by one side is biased in some way, no matter how convincing.

The Persians have their share of deliberation and certainly have much of the spotlight in book seven. Before the Persian army even marches for Helles, Herodotus builds up the conflict leading up to the decision to go to war and then the counting of the troops. There is so much detail that the “Father of History” either interviewed someone from every nation and then counted all of the troops or he just liked the sound of his own quill and described them based on what animal skins might have been used for their armor. The emphasis on the Persians is not only in their number, but also of the different types of weapons and armor of the soldiers. The amount of diversity is mind-blowing, but for a region as large as the Persian Empire, such diversity would be expected. However, the precise detail would take more effort to acquire from a primary source. Even if Herodotus interviewed one person from the Persian Empire, the detail might be misconstrued. Therefore, the only way to record the truth would be to visit every nation in Persia which would be an enormous and nearly impossible task for someone of the fifth century B.C.

The Greek sources for the battles of Thermopylae and Salamis would have been more apt to divulge more reliable information. The problem here is that, since the Greeks won the major battles, they would want their deeds to make them look good for their honor and, so again, the question of reliability is back.

The philosophical movement in Greece was key to Herodotus’ inquiries. The predecessor to modern science was derived from observation and thought experiments. Basically, what one could not observe was explained through abstract metaphors. The Histories is a derivation of this concept where what was known from the Persians and the Greeks was pieced together with conversations, details, and whatever else was needed to advance to the next known fact.

Facts are facts and opinions are not. While The Histories is an exceptionally innovative work for its time, the plain fact is that there is little which can be proven except for the general outline of the Persian War. It may be compelling to embellish the story with intriguing intermediate plots, but according to today’s definition of history, Herodotus’ life work is no more verifiable than the book of Genesis. At least the Bible accurately uses names while Herodotus Hellenizes the names for his characters. In essence, The Histories does not do justice to the truth. To label Kamboujie as Cambyses, Kourosh as Kouros (Cyrus the Great), and Khashayar as Xerxes may be helpful for the tenses in Greek for a Greek audience, but still do not accurately portray the people in his story. Similarly, Ilium is known as Troy to the Achaeans just as the Greeks are subdivided to many different groups including the Danaans, the Achaeans, the Argives, Dorians, and Ionians just to name a few. To simplify the names just to please an audience is not what history is. How are contemporary students to know who is truly involved when Herodotus does not even tell us who he is really talking about? It seems he changes the names and adds to the action to capture a broader audience just like movies do today. So The Histories do not do justice to the true events, it is just a Hollywoodized version of the truth where the names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved. Herodotus did not write history. He destroyed it for everyone.

Transcending Slavery from Antiquity to Today

Slavery. The word itself has so many negative connotations that one cannot hear it without an unconscious twinge. This one word was what built civilizations in ancient times. Without it, one could argue that classical civilization would not have been nearly as advanced as it became. The slave class stabilized economies, which allowed citizens to delve into academics and develop philosophy, science, art, and many other “civilized” disciplines. But despite its contributions, slavery has had its negative side effects on society as well. With the use of slave labor in industry and farming, there was no need to develop technologies to replace such a simple method. On a human level, slavery has caused much psychological trauma for many peoples all around the world, instigated wars for human rights, and still remains hidden in the dregs of modern civilizations in the form of human trafficking.

Imagine living through a typical day when, all of a sudden, you are captured by strangers and forced into a life of hard labor, never to see your home or family again. This happens all over the world even today according to BBC News’s Adam Blenford – there are an estimated 800,000 people trafficked across borders every year (Blenford, US Trafficking Report Reveals ‘Modern Slavery’ Toll). A US trafficking report reveals ‘modern slavery’ toll at approximately 20.9 million people. This comes in an era of illegal slavery, but back in the days when Rome was the major superpower in the Mediterranean, it is estimated that nearly 30% of just Rome’s population were slaves.

There are many different ways to perceive slavery which differ even more across the ages. Today, most human trafficking consists of smuggling women to be sex-slaves or men and women laborers who are either criminals being rehabilitated (Blenford, US Trafficking Report Reveals ‘Modern Slavery’ Toll) or promised work and then, essentially, taken captive (Vozhdaeva, Vietnam Workers Kept Like Slaves at Factory in Russia). Modern “slaves” are not in the public view because of the legalities and the watchful eye of the U.N. Slave labor does not build societies anymore, but instead, slaves are forced to do much worse. Slavery in Republican and Imperial Rome had some similarities to today, but had many other uses since it was completely legal. Frontinus tells us of state-owned slaves that “There are two crews of slaves used to maintain the aqueducts: one belongs to the state, the other to the imperial household…” (The Aqueducts of Rome, 2.116). Other jobs for slaves included teaching, farm and mill work, housework, gladiator combat depending on their skills and training, and, typically for criminals, mining.

The treatment of slaves is and was different for every case. In Russia in 2012, 75 Vietnamese textile workers were “lured by promises of high salaries and guaranteed employment” (Vozhdaeva, Vietnam Workers Kept Like Slaves at Factory in Russia), but were charged a fee that they could never pay back due to low pay. “This meant that the longer they remained employed by the factory, the more debt they accumulated” (Vozhdaeva, Vietnam Workers Kept Like Slaves at Factory in Russia). Likewise, in Rome, farm slaves were typically regarded much less humanely than household slaves due to the proximity to working directly for the master (Seneca the Younger, Letters 47). However, there were many exceptions including this description by Pliny the Elder of Vedius Pollio’s punishment for his slaves: “He used to toss slaves sentenced to death into ponds of lampreys, not because wild animals on land were not capable of killing a slave, but because with any other type of animal he was not able to enjoy the sight of a man being torn to pieces, completely, in one moment” (Natural History, 9.39.77). Modern sex trafficking is unfortunate as their primary purpose is to be taken advantage of, yet in Roman times, women were frequently sexually abused even after performing their usual duties.

There are many cases of modern slavery which are not even known, so to compare just these few examples does not effectively encapsulate their jobs and treatment. On that same note, in Roman times, we have very little documented information on the treatment of slaves because, since they were only property, it did not matter what was done to them in a lot of cases. Yes there were harsh punishments for escapees and various other crimes, but in general, it is safe to assume that slaves were treated better then than now. Especially in Rome’s Imperial period, slaves began to receive some sympathy. Today, we cannot be sympathetic toward people we do not know are slaves. With as many people who go missing, we cannot assume if they are killed or trafficked into forced labor. All that can be done is to continue to look for those refugees who are held against their will and hope that one day, there will be no more slavery in the truest sense of the word. As society evolves, the means for economic growth become more benevolent, but that dismal past still lingers on. Here’s to a brighter future – where everyone is free.

 

Works Cited

Blenford, Adam. “US trafficking report reveals ‘modern slavery’ toll.” BBC News. Washington. British Broadcasting, 19 June, 2012. Web. 6 February, 2014.

Shelton, Jo-Ann. As the Romans Did. 2^nd edition. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. 1998. Print.

Vozhdaeva, Oxana. “Vietnam workers kept like slaves at factory in Russia.” BBC News. Russian. British Broadcasting, 10 August, 2012. Web. 6 February, 2014.

 

Primitive Desires

Blood. Swords, spears, wild animals, and ultimately death summarize the events on the sands of the Colosseum best. The gladiators of Ancient Rome were the tools of entertainment for so many spectators and at such a cost. They lived and died for the sake of others’ enjoyment. But while the first question is obviously “Why would they submit themselves to such a horrific fate?” the second is, more importantly, “What prompts this fascination in blood-lust?” Romans lived a larger-than-life existence at the height of the empire and it was through the eyes of the gladiators that they were able to push the limits of their own extravagant desires.

It would be an understatement to say that not all Romans led fortunate lives. The spectrum of social graces was so wide, ranging from meager slaves to extremely wealthy patricians. However, it was usually the poor who were expected to gratify the rich. In this regard, the gladiators had it both better and worse than some slaves. It was better that they existed for the entertainment of others instead of working their whole lives in forced menial labor. But it was worse for them that they were slated to kill or be killed in the sand.

Gladiators were typically trained slaves or ex-soldiers who were essentially actors on a deadly stage. The skits they performed were improvised. As with modern actors, certain gladiators had fans. Wall writings from Pompeii speak of two of them, “CELADUS, THE THRACIAN, MAKES ALL THE GIRLS SIGH;” and “CRESCENS, THE NET FIGHTER, HOLDS THE HEARTS OF ALL THE GIRLS” (Shelton, 352). These graffiti are testament to the admiration of specific gladiators, much like Maximus in the movie Gladiator, who was cheered as “The Spaniard” for his performances.

Yet despite the individual popularity of the men themselves, another driving force of the games was money. Since most of the gladiators were slaves, the trade and/or rent of trained fighters was a booming market in the late first through the second centuries A.D. In the movie Gladiator, Proximo continually emphasized his means of income through the gladiators, like Maximus, who were able to please the crowd. Likewise, there is mention by Cicero about the cost of arena events: “And there were wild animal hunts…very expensive ones—no one can deny that” (Shelton, 354). Now there are two perspectives to consider here. First, that the owners of the gladiators, such as Proximo, were paid for the performances based on what the crowd paid. Second, the inevitable gambling that would have been instigated by betting on a favorite fighter. This allows for the conclusion that the show must go on and an ever changing program of events is what keeps the crowd happy and the money flowing in. Whenever money can be made, the means is sure to be popular.

The gladiators were essentially victims of the whims of the morbid Romans. Seneca describes his experience after any such event, “When I return from some spectacle, I am greedier, more aggressive, and more addicted to pleasurable sensation; I am more cruel and inhumane—all because I have been with other humans!” (Shelton, 355). This perspective draws upon the primitive survival instinct. Since the Roman citizens were, for all intents and purposes, safe from harm, they reveled in the battles-to-the-death down on the sand. To see with their own eyes the mutilation below gave a rush that only facing mortality could offer. In the movie, “The beating heart of Rome is … the sand of the Colosseum. [Commodus will] bring them death and they will love him for it” (Gracchus in Gladiator). In the movie, Commodus reinstated the gladiatorial games to distract the people with their blood-lust fantasies to make them love him. But more vividly, Augustine describes the experience that “As soon as [Alypius] saw the blood, he drank in the savagery. He did not turn away, but rather fixed his gaze on the sight, and swallowed the madness, and lost rational control” (Shelton, 358). Pulling from the depths of the human psyche, the instinctual primitive mind is still in control of human reaction. To submit to the sadistic ruse of the gladiator’s fights allowed the Romans to forget about the “civilized” life they led and feed upon the more ancient animalistic urges.

While the movie Gladiator is just a dramatized depiction of the true purpose and interpretation of the arena events, it pulls at the essence of Roman culture in a very real way. The profits and celebrity worship of the better gladiators fueled a slipping economy. The blood in the sand was a constant escape for citizens from the pressures of life and a way to face their inevitable mortality. To face death is nearly taboo in American culture. The only way to experience the thrill of it is through Hollywood’s twisted and commercialized plots or by undermining personal morals and the law. But Rome was of a different breed of civilizations; a boorish and archaic form of collective behavior. It was these desires that caused the gladiator fights to take over as the primary form of entertainment and win the crowd.

 

Works Cited

Gladiator. Dir. Ridley Scott. Universal, 2000. Film.

Shelton, Jo-Ann. As the Romans Did. 2^nd edition. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. 1998. Print.

Rome Under the Flavian and Severan Dynasties

The Flavian and Severan Dynasties were two of the most stable periods of the Roman Empire. In most of the two hundred years of imperial succession since the end of the Republic, there was discord and chaos. Many emperors were not fit for the job and most transitions began with yet another proscription list. There were some good times, a lot of stagnant times, and then there were downright dreadful times for the empire. But the Flavian and Severan Dynasties were some of the best years that the empire had seen since Augustus himself. Yes, there were a few classic instances of tyranny and betrayal in both dynasties, but overall it was smooth sailing compared to the worst of times. Each dynasty made its contribution to the empire in terms of expansionism, improvements in the military system, and changes in political procedure for everyone from free men to the position of emperor.

The Roman legions were the driving force of the mighty empire. Without the army, there would have been no Pax Romana and no roads to connect the settlements the soldiers built in the outlying provinces. They were the direct cause for the “Romanization” of the farthest reaches of the empire. This being the case, the army had to be respected and slightly feared by the emperors in order to accomplish their means. Continuing a discrete tradition, Domitian raised the infantry’s pay to 300 denarii per year (Shelton, 249 n 37) in light of the efficient economical expenditure of the Flavian Dynasty (Kamm, 71). Then a hundred years later, two consecutive emperors in the Severan Dynasty, Septimius Severus and Caracalla, raised the army’s pay to 450 and 675 denarii per year, respectively (Shelton, 249 n 37). And while this was a perk for the soldiers, it steered the empire into an economic crisis (Kamm, 193) in contrast to the stronger economy of the Flavian days. The only change in the imperial guard during the Flavian Dynasty was that Vespasian appointed his son, and eventual successor, Titus, as their commander after his return from conquering Judaea. However, Septimius Severus completely “disbanded the imperial guard and replaced with three of his own legions” (Kamm, 191) and “In A.D. 197 [he] lifted [the] prohibition on marriage” (Shelton, 264). Lastly, where the Flavian Dynasty did nothing to change the status of Roman prefects, Septimius Severus granted them greater jurisdiction over matters of criminal law in and around Rome and, similarly, to the commander of the new imperial guard. Spreading out the army and pushing Romanization to the furthest was one cause for the growth of the empire since provincial cities needed to be protected and as the legions marched on, their camps became new towns.

Augustus warned his successors of expanding the empire much further, but nevertheless, there were a few more additions during the Flavian and Severan Dynasties. While neither dynasty had direct intent to expand the empire (expect that the army needed to make money) into England, Wales, Scotland, or Germany, the Celtic and Germanic peoples continued to try the legions under the Flavian Dynasty. Vespasian was “responsible for taking the Isle of Wight” (Kamm, 65). Shortly afterward, he retaliated severely against the Jews, and advanced the northern front into Germany between the Rhine and Danube (Kamm, 66). The war with Judaea was one of the only continually troublesome spots, and Jerusalem persisted to be a problem throughout the Flavian Dynasty. Titus finally put down the Jewish revolt and sacked Jerusalem which was celebrated by building the infamous Arch of Titus (Kamm, 67). Domitian retreated from southern Scotland (Scarre, 67) because there was no wall built to protect the front yet. The area between the Rhine and Danube rivers had always been trouble for Rome, but the water gave much better protection from the outsiders (Scarre, 87). On the other hand, the Severan Dynasty was more focused on the eastern front. By the time Septimius Severus became emperor, the Jews were no longer a problem, but the Christians were gaining ground. Mesopotamia had been annexed and released, but Septimius Severus finally made it a permanent province. His successors, Caracalla and Macrinus, tried to push the boundaries further but were unsuccessful. This was the norm for the rest of the Severan Dynasty. After Julius Caesar’s addition of Gaul and Britain, there were no huge advancements of the empire, but small gains were made by both the Flavian and Severan Dynasties.

During the imperial period, policies were constantly changing due to the inconsistencies of different emperors. Most notably was the division of humiliores (poor) vs. honestiores (rich). Class warfare became so fierce that there were harsher punishments for humiliores than the honestiores (Scarre, 71). In the Flavian Dynasty, this distinction was not as apparent, but Septimius Severus declared that veterans were to be given the status of honestiores for their service to the empire (Kamm, 191). This can be noted by their raise in pay, as mentioned above. Previous to the Flavians, teachers were not regarded any better than a typical working class laborer or freedman, but Vespasian “instituted the first salaried public professorship when he appointed Quintilian to a chair of literature and rhetoric. He also exempted all doctors and teachers of grammar and rhetoric from paying taxes…” (Kamm, 66). This is the first case of incentives for humiliores. Likewise, the Severan Dynasty had no such incentives. In Spain, Vespasian granted voting rights to citizens which spread the Romanization farther than ever before (Kamm, 66). Continuing this trend, Caracalla granted full citizenship to all free men in the empire. There is speculation as to his motives for doing so, but one sure fact was the financial crisis from increasing the pay of the military and the greater number of taxpayers was one way of rectifying this problem (Kamm, 193). Universal enfranchisement nullified the age old tradition of granting citizenship to auxiliary soldiers in the outlying provinces upon retirement: “Before A.D. 212, when the emperor Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all free people within the borders of the Roman Empire, service in the roman army was one way for provincials to acquire roman citizenship” (Shelton, 244 n 10). Titus might have proven himself to be efficient in war, but he also was given an opportunity shortly after becoming emperor to prove that he was worthwhile in the domestic sector as well when Mount Vesuvius erupted which he remedied by setting up a relief fund for the homeless and offering assistance for rebuilding as well as creating a team to direct the recovery in the affected area (Kamm, 70). There was no such comparison during the rule of the Severans. However, Septimius did build a new system of roads and forts around his hometown in Africa, but contributing money to his roots only took more money away from Italy and made the financial crisis worse for when Caracalla became emperor (Scarre, 90). Domitian, on the other hand, was not quite as nice as his brother. He ruthlessly taxed the Jews for practicing their own religion instead of the accepted state religion (Kamm, 71). Christians were also taxed for this same reason.

While no Roman emperor can be described as “wonderful”, there were a few who were pretty good at the job. Even though Augustus “takes the cake” for being the best, there were several decent runners-up in the Flavian and Severan Dynasties. Primarily, there were a lot of improvements in both but, like the Moon, everything has a dark side. Despite the emperors’ faults, much can be said about the quality of life in the empire and the gradual creep of the borders from the marching legions during these two periods. However, trouble lay on the horizon and it was becoming more apparent during the Severan Dynasty. The conflict with the Christians was only the beginning of the end for their long-standing pagan ways and the ritualistic state religion. The economic trouble would only get worse. The northern borders had pushed too far and it was only a matter of time before the barbarians struck back. In the end, the very idea that had strengthened the Republic, namely incorporating other cultures and perspectives, would be the Empire’s undoing. But the Flavians and Severans give us much to ponder. One of the biggest lingering questions being: What would have happened if they had been less hell-bent on expansionism, more diplomatic with the Germanic tribes (and was that even a possiblility?), and less critical of the Jews and Christians? Would the west have fallen and plunged into darkness or was it already too late?

 

Works Cited

Kamm, Anthony. The Romans: An Introduction, 2^nd edition. New York: Routledge. 2008. Print.

C. Scarre. The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome. New York: Penguin. 1995. Print.

Shelton, Jo-Ann. As the Romans Did. 2^nd edition. New York: Oxford Univ. Press 1998. Print.

To my friends: All that I need

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything. It has been even longer since I have written anything to share. I never meant for this blog to be about me, but more about ideas and speculation. However, it helps from time to time to post a reflective piece.

The last seven months or so have been so packed full of homework and cramming for tests. Sometimes I don’t even get my homework done or have a chance to study for a test. Needless to say, there have been a lot of ups and downs lately. A lot of my reflections from the time referred to in the post The Spirit of an Artist have finally had time to manifest themselves in my daily life. I could ramble on about my past, but I’ve done that before. For now, I just want to remark on how much I have progressed in this last year.

I had always been cynical, skeptical, and paranoid around and toward others. I still haven’t changed much, but I can now separate and react to stimuli “properly” that used to trigger my defenses. Now, I have managed to learn general social convention, empathy, and even how to incorporate strong emotions into the pre-existing logical framework that was my personality a year ago.

If you’ve read many of my more personal blogs, you might remember my constant attacks toward social conventions and norms. I just couldn’t understand why people did the things they do and responded to stimuli a certain way. In fact, I have spent most of my adult life watching people interact and trying to find logical patterns in their actions. Little did I know that there was no logical pattern to their behavior. Objectivity does not exist in human interaction. It has taken me ten years to find a basic conclusion and in order to understand it, I have had to put myself through various social experiments to test emotions.

Yeah I knew I had emotions. I just didn’t want to admit it. I was hoping I was better than the people whom I had been studying. Through my experiments, I had to rediscover my own emotions and push them past the limit. What I mean is that I had to experience yet another bad relationship to understand why I felt what I did and acted how I acted. But after reflection, I realized that I was now studying myself like I had once studied others. The big difference was that I was acting like them to understand them. So I guess in a way, the cliché “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” holds true. I nearly drove myself crazy playing the dating game in order to understand the irrationality behind the whole thing. Big lesson learned.

Empathy. One skill I knew I had but had forgotten how to use. One so strongly connected to emotion that I hadn’t noticed it. It seemed beyond me most of the time. How could I care about what other people did and believed if I thought it was all so irrational? But once I had rediscovered what I was feeling, I could begin to find causation for them. By understanding this causation, I could then piece together the same types of emotions for others. And in the end, the closer I was with someone, the easier it was to understand their predicament and sympathize with them.

But empathy isn’t sympathy. Understanding what someone is going through isn’t the same as just caring. I knew this would cause me problems so I put it on a back burner. It took a few more months and new friends to help me to understand empathy. There are a few specific friends who helped me to understand what it means to unconditionally appreciate someone’s situation whether it mattered to me or not. But having patience and active-listening were hard skills for me to build. It became a cycle: first I would build my confidence to approach new people, then I would try to act like I cared about them, then I began to care about them and they, me. Whether or not anyone became a good friend is irrelevant at this point because what matters is that it took lots of practice. After a while, I could truly care about the people I met and, thus, empathy was added to the list. Check!

Strong emotions have caused me heartache, sleepless nights, lack of appetite, more anxiety than usual. The list goes on. But in order to better control them, I needed to feel them at their strongest. What emotions come stronger than love and hate? Yes I will admit that I have indulged in the superlatives. For the longest time, I felt as if I should not be angry or hate and in doing so, I masked over what I was truly feeling and opted for apathy. I realize now that this was not the right thing to do. We still need to feel such strong emotions. What makes the difference is how we act upon them. Can we control our hatred of that certain person we just want to torment for their crassness? How can you have empathy and try to help someone who thinks they are better than everyone? Oh the bitter irony…

Ah and then there’s love. Trust. Humility. Compassion. Whatever other adjective you want to add to the list. It should never end. Love is a most wonderful emotion to feel. Yet such a tragic feeling when you look at it objectively. Most of the experiences we have with love never turn out well. And I am no exception. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you might find you get what you need. Mick Jagger said it right. At least the way I’m talking about love, this says it all. I don’t really have much else to say without telling the whole story.

Yeah I’ve learned a lot about people. I know I’ll never understand everything. But if there ever were a time we thought we knew everything, we should realize that’s not true at all. For until we understand that our journey takes us not only where we want to go, but where we don’t want to go as well as where we least expect, we’re stuck. Being stuck and feeling stagnant is one of the worst things we can experience. We should always feel like we’re doing something new and exciting. There should always be something new to learn and experience.

My journey hasn’t taken me very far from “home” so far, but I wasn’t ready to leave yet. Now that I understand not just who I want to be but my own feelings about it, I am that much closer to the next step. I could never do this alone. That was my biggest mistake for several years. I wanted to go it alone. But thanks to my best friends, my good friends, my old friends and new friends, I have what I need. What I want shouldn’t matter. It’s what I have that’s important. Thank you, friends, for everything. I love you all and couldn’t do this without you.

Fate and Ancient Greece: The Fall of Troy

The one constant in life is that, at some point, everyone must die. Of course, this is not exactly encouraging news but the rationalization of this concept has led to some very interesting beliefs and creative manifestations. In order to explain why we die, the notion of fate inevitably evolved. The myth goes that every mortal’s destiny was transposed as a string by the Moirae. At the moment of birth, a human’s “thread of life” was spun by Klotho and measured by Lakhesis. In the Greek world, nothing was set in stone and fate could be altered by choice, coercion of the Moirae, or direct intervention of the Olympian gods. When the experiences of a mortal’s life led to an end, the thread was cut by the most feared of the Moirae, Atropos (Moirae). The fates of cities and the progression of the world in general are not associated with strings, but are determined by the combined fates of the citizens. Fate plays a tremendous role in the Iliad and by looking at various other themes derived from ancient Greek morals, their heroes, gods and the interactions between them, we shall see how difficult it was for the Greeks to fulfill the inevitable destruction of Troy.

The Olympian gods, although unable to die, were still subject to the fate of the world in which they lived. Every god had his or her favorite city or person – perhaps more than one of each – and would take it personally when something (or someone) disrupted their “plans.” Sometimes conflict broke out between two or more gods over unexpected intervention, but mostly, the gods tried to remain on good terms. In the Iliad, the idea that the gods could affect the fates of mortals and cities is addressed. Zeus, as the upholder of justice and order, oversees the predetermined fate of Troy. Despite King Priam, and for that matter, Troy itself, being on Zeus’ A-list, Troy must be razed.

Why this conflict even started has to do with the first Greek moral on the list: xenia. Xenia used to be a most sacred tradition, and the consequence of forsaking this moral is what started the Trojan War. When Priam’s son, Paris, violated xenia by eloping with the wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus, he not only damned his family’s kleos – immortality in the memory of others through the acquisition of timé – but triggered all of Achaea to unite for war and invoked the wrath of fate (Bulfinch). With fate turned against Paris’ family and, subsequently, Troy, the stage is set for the end of the House of Priam. The Greeks lived by a different set of rules than we do today and defying those rules had dire consequences.

Next we address the all-important concept of a hero’s honor and why such allies as Achilles and Agamemnon turned against each other. From line one of the Iliad, Homer tells us that fate has decided how it will end. “Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses…, and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end. Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed, Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles” (Iliad, 1.1-8). It is difficult to say what Achilles’ fateful choices would have been had Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and brother to Menelaus, not taken as geras Chryseis, thus bringing Apollo’s plague. Upon resentfully returning her home and taking a loss on his own personal timé, Agamemnon demands Achilles’ geras. Achilles’ rage flares and he moves to kill his ally and commanding officer not knowing it was against fate. The immediate intervention of Pallas Athena stops Achilles from killing Agamemnon and destroying his true purpose (Iliad, 1.232-261). Only with Achilles’ cooperation can Agamemnon bring down the city of Troy, retrieve his brother’s wife, and right the violation of xenia.

A crucial characteristic that begins to develop in Achilles—against social norm—is that geras is temporary while kleos is essentially eternal. Achilles relents the geras Agamemnon wants, but backs out of the war and threatens to go home (Iliad, 1.394-405). A roundabout prayer to Zeus ensures that Agamemnon will suffer for his selfish actions (Iliad, 1.484-411). Hera is furious. “…I suspect you bowed your head in assent…you granted once and for all to exalt Achilles now and slaughter hordes of Achaeans pinned against their ships” (Iliad, 1.670-672). According to prophecy, Troy is supposed to be taken after ten years of war. If Achilles were to leave—or if Hera’s suspicions are true—Agamemnon’s remaining troops would not be able to sack the city and, being pinned down, they would ultimately lose the war. Achilles would live a long, peaceful, yet unremarkable, life without contributing to his family’s kleos. Fate teaches us that no human life or fabrication is eternal. However, actions speak stronger than, well, burnt bones in the ground. Honor from glory in battle is one of the most immortalizing aspects of ancient Greek life, hence why Achilles remains. When the Achaeans are backed up against their ships, Agamemnon realizes he needs Achilles’ help and offers him a multitude of geras to rejoin the battle with more timé than before, to which Achilles says, “…What do I need with honor such as that? I say my honor lies in the great decree of Zeus” (Iliad, 9.740-741). By this point, Achilles is aware of his choices and is on the verge of alienating himself from the Achaeans and the traditions he has known his whole life. But because of his quest for kleos, geras is no longer important to him.

Anthropomorphism, or the attribution of human characteristics to inorganic things, is a large part of Greek belief and is applicable not only to natural phenomena such as weather, spirits in trees and rivers, but even the armor a soldier wears. A hero’s armor represents much more than just protection and, in the case of Achilles’ extraordinary armor, turns out to be the catalyst which sparks the tragic end of the Iliad (Shmoop Editorial Team). When the Trojans advance far enough to burn one of the Achaean ships, Patroclus dons Achilles’ famous armor which scares Hector’s troops enough to scatter. In fact, the effect of Patroclus’ genius plan is that the Trojans are pushed back to the Scaean Gate. But this is where fate kicks into overdrive. Zeus pushes Achilles’ dearest friend into battle with Hector, a fight that only Hector—aided by Apollo—walks away from with Achilles’ armor as well as a fresh boost to his ego (Iliad, 16.914-1012). If we consider that the armor Hector has stolen has an allegiance to Achilles, Hector should certainly be afraid of the ultimate consequence of wearing it.

As it turns out, Hector’s fate is to wear the incompatible armor in his confrontation with Achilles, who wears his new, fancier armor made by Hephaestus. Hector faces Achilles one-on-one to prove to his city, and overwhelming ego, that he is Troy’s hero. The word kleos ringing in his head, he willingly martyrs himself. “The rest of [Hector’s] flesh seemed all encased in armor, burnished, brazen—Achilles’ armor that Hector stripped from strong Patroclus when he killed him—true, but one spot lay exposed…” (Iliad, 22.379-382). And so Achilles assumes his fate and ensures the eventual sacking of Troy by avenging his dear friend.

Compassion, mourning and, ultimately, forgiveness form the most emotional and unexpected twist to a war story, but every story needs something startling before the end. The honor code dictates that a killed Achaean should be avenged and a proper burial ceremony was required for a soul’s passage to Hades. Achilles violates this right for the house of Priam and takes out his pain from losing Patroclus on Hector’s dead body (Iliad, 22.466-476). But despite Achilles’ rage, the gods push him beyond his rebellious and grieving persona by making him realize that he needs to forgive Hector and release the body to Priam. Only by accepting his situation can both sides grieve their losses and let the inevitable war continue. For now, fate calls for the walls of Troy to crumble.

The fates of Hector, Troy, and Achilles have fascinated listeners and readers for almost 3000 years, but there will always be new conjectures about it. Though it may seem odd that Homer lets Achilles and Hector know their fates, as an oral tradition it can be easily reasoned out. The original audiences would have known the story well. By incorporating a deeper level of understanding of the characters, the audience (and eventually readers) become much more absorbed into the conflicts they are involved in. Predetermined fate may or may not be a real part of life, but it certainly is real in our imaginations. And for some people, that is enough to believe that they are destined for something specific and strive to do good, or perhaps bad, things. If an ancient tradition such as the Iliad can inspire imagination, creativity, and benevolent aspirations, perhaps fate is more real than we might think.

Bibliography

Bulfinch, Thomas. The Myths of Greece and Rome. NY: Penguin Books, 1981. Print.

Garrison, Patricia. “How Achilles and Hector Respond to Similar Situations.” Patricia Garrison’s Web Pages. Central Washington University, 2013. Web. 18 Sep. 2013. http://www.cwu.edu/~garrisop/sample_midterm_papers.pdf

Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. NY: Penguin Books, 1990. Print.

Jordan, Herbert. “Chance, Gods, and Fate.” The Iliad of Homer. University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. Web. 18 Sep. 2013. http://www.iliadtranslation.com/fate.html

Leonard, Scott and Michael McClure. Myth and Knowing. NY: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Print.

“Moirae.” Theoi Greek Mythology: Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature & Art. Amazon, 2011. Web. 18 Sep. 2013. http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Moirai.html

Morris, Ian and Barry B. Powell. The Greeks: History, Culture, and Society. 2^nd ed. Boston, 2010. Print.

Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth. 7^th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.

Shmoop Editorial Team. “The Iliad Themes” Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 18 Sep. 2013.

Sienkewicz, Tom. “The Gods in The Iliad.” Department of Classics. Monmouth College, 2003. Web. 18 Sep. 2013. http://department.monm.edu/classics/courses/clas210/coursedocuments/epic/godsintheiliad.htm

“Themes, Motifs & Symbols.” SparkNotes. B&N, 2013. Web. 18 Sep. 2013. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/iliad/themes.html

Ancient Greek Married Life: Gods and Humans

Monogamous marriage has been typical of western culture for thousands of years. Not only does this concept pervade nearly all affluent countries, but their traditions as well. In relating to Greek myth specifically – one of the earliest instances of inspiration that sparked the evolution of the world we live in today – nothing is more apparent than the relationship between Zeus and Hera. Yet even though the king and queen of the Olympian gods set strange examples for Greek life, a lot of which was questioned by followers of the now dead pagan religion, the Greeks followed the example as set forth by their epic pantheon. The interactions of the most highly-worshipped Greek couple of old are still remarkably reminiscent of those of a typical Greek married couple.

Within the Iliad are the ploys of Zeus and Hera in their attempt to answer prayers while not changing the fate of the city of Ilium, as well as the ensuing quarrels along the way. Achilles, pressed by his rage at Agamemnon, set in motion a most daunting fate for the Achaeans by pleading to Zeus. Hera, having seen Zeus’ nod to Thetis to concede this new plan, clearly has no problem expressing herself to her husband. “Who’s this who’s plotting with you to set the divine agenda? You never miss a chance of waiting till I’m out of sight to publish some scheme that you two have secretly plotted already, and you haven’t got the guts to tell me what you have in mind!” she says in book 1.539-542 (Powell, 157). Perhaps this remark is triggered by jealousy but this is highly reminiscent of almost any married couple when the husband makes an important decision without first discussing it with his wife. Zeus, however, is not willing to let Hera have the last word. “Woman, you’re always suspicious. You never miss a thing. A lot of good it will do if you make me angrier still—if you go on with your nagging, it will be a cold day for you! That’s the way things are, because that’s the way I want them,” he says in book 1.561-564 (Powell, 158). While things seem to be getting out of hand, Zeus does have the last say as he is the king of the gods. This type of definitive end to a decisive conversation between a mortal couple would not be met well on the wife’s side. These extremes are common in the Iliad and only just begin to represent the full nature of the Greek gods and humans.

Seduction is a large part of relationships in general, but in marriage (though not limited only to married couples) it can also be used as a tool. Using sex to get one’s way is not a new concept. In fact, Hera employs this devious tactic when she realizes that Zeus’ plan was to punish her beloved Greeks. With Aphrodite’s help, Hera distracts Zeus from the war. “Come with me, my Hera. We two will lie down in love. Desire for goddess or mortal has never so flooded my heart or made it thump in my chest as now my passion for you” (14.314-316, Powell, 150). After draping flowers around the bed, Zeus loses himself in lust for his wife and pays no heed toward the Greeks advances, helped by Zeus’ brother, Poseidon. When Zeus falls asleep, Hera leaves to aid the God of Earthquakes and Pallas Athena, but upon awaking, the God of Storms realizes his wife’s true scheme. “I should have known! It was your dirty trick that put lord Hector out of the way and made his army panic!” he says (15.14-15, Powell, 150). This ploy not only escalates the whole war, but draws in more immortals to the aid of one side or the other. In real life, husbands are just as guilty as their wives of seducing each other with ulterior motives. Though nothing could compare to the epic distraction technique Hera uses, the sentiment is still applicable to mortal Greeks.

Another part of married life that comes up in the Iliad is the mistreatment of women. Zeus gets angry with Hera when she questions his tactics and threatens her. “Sit down, shut up, and listen to what I am going to say. Not all the gods on Olympus will give you a bit of assistance if I get sore and lay my irresistible hands upon you!” he says, which frightens her into giving up her inquiry in book 1.565-567 (Powell, 158). For Greeks, this type of threat would not have been out of place as the man had a much higher role in the family than today, but the consequences would have only been physical or mental abuse. However, for a couple such as the king and queen of the gods, such a threat would not have been taken lightly as Zeus had followed through with such anger in the past. As the strongest deity in Greece, Zeus’ punishment of Hera was ignored by the other gods for fear of their own wellbeing. Nothing could compare to what humans are capable of.

The study of literature is highly subjective. What a person believes and has experienced in life will very likely determine what he or she draws from any given book. For something as old and eccentric as the Iliad is in its portrayal of the even older Bronze Age Greeks and their gods, it is still possible to relate something as specific as human marriage behaviors. Though we will most likely never know how to react in every situation with a significant other, reflection and collaboration would, no doubt, improve upon this. What makes this even more curious is that while society’s treatment of women has matured greatly over the last 2700 years since the Iliad has been in print, the interactions of even the most widely known couple in myth in the Western world are still highly relevant to a certain degree. In all probability, we will always argue whether the Trojan war ever really happened, but, regardless, we can still enjoy what it may teach us. If the Iliad has expanded anyone’s understanding of the complexities of human pride, the importance of formalities, or even the consequences of spousal conflict, its purpose has been realized.

Works Cited

The Iliad. Trans by Herbert M. Howe. In Classical Myth. 7^th Edit. Barry B. Powell. Boston: Pearson. 2012. Print.

Inspiration

A normal day; the typical routine and no particular plan to differ from it. See the same people or sometimes new ones. Greet them. Hide from them. It depends on my mood. Sometimes I drift away from it all. I don’t intend to. Sometimes the thoughts just start coming from somewhere. Or nowhere. I don’t know where. Whether they are about what or who I see depends on my mood. I could be trying inadvertently to escape from what I see around me. It may not matter. But when it hits me, I have no choice but to listen. I repeat the thoughts over and over in my mind until I think I’m going mad. Sometimes it’s just chaos. Sometimes it’s so abstract that I can’t draw any meaning from it. Sometimes the chaos and anonymity evolves through the repetitions into something relatively coherent. This change of rationality allows me to flow with it. Control it. Whatever it may be, I may decide it important enough and feel compelled to give it a more physical form in order to remember it in the future. Perhaps this is what I might become known for or could work with it for years to come. Who knows? Maybe another string of chaotic and abstract thoughts are on their way and the one I just manipulated into coherent form could be lost forever.

Evolution of the Universe

Endless myths and legends have been told over the ages about the Sun and stars. At one time, they were gods and givers of life. We have always been intrigued by them as we ponder our ultimate place in the universe. However, it wasn’t until just recently that the stars were realized to be similar to our Sun. Astrophysics has taken the assumptions from the romantic to the physical and now describes these enormous and wondrous phenomena as so much more than the producers of light and life. The fundamental concepts happening inside of stars seem simple when you only consider that atoms are melded together, but when one considers the implications, all of science is given something more to ponder. The gravity of the situation is that, as stars consist primarily of hydrogen, the universe isn’t only filled with hydrogen. Where do the rest of the elements come from? Fusion is the answer.

The amount of energy a star gives off depends on one thing: fuel. The color and size of a star are directly determined by the amount of fuel. Stars reflect different colors depending on the amount of heat energy they produce. Red being the coldest, blue the hottest. Also, the larger the star, the faster it will burn through its fuel and die. This is caused by the increased mass and, thus, gravitational pull of atoms. The higher the pressure, the faster fusion happens. Our Sun, which is a medium-sized, yellow star, has a projected total lifespan of approximately 10 billion years. However, the determining factor of a star’s lifetime is the amount of fuel inherently present in a star when it ignites.

Hydrogen is the simplest atom in the universe: one proton and one electron. These seemingly simple “building blocks” of the elements were created moments after the theorized Big Bang once the temperature of the new universe dropped enough for the four fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces) to split from the previous, relatively uniform state and the quadrupole, as discovered by George Smoot in the early 1990’s, emerged (Smoot). This phase transition of forces allowed hydrogen atoms to coalesce, which is important when one considers the surface of stars consist of plasma.

Plasma is an echo of the initial phase transition in stars that mirrors what was possible in the first moments after the Big Bang. However, the early universe was much hotter and denser. Matter transitions to plasma when it reaches such a great temperature that the electromagnetic force can no longer hold the negative electrons to their positive nuclei. This ionized matter has a specific appearance to it which can be seen in a flame, but the corona of the Sun is the most appropriate example.

Generally speaking, stars begin as nebulae, which are composed of clouds of hydrogen gas. The clouds coalesce and, as the amount of matter increases per volume, the force of gravity increases and eventually atoms of hydrogen are compressed under high gravitational pressure. When there is enough hydrogen in a small enough volume of space to heat to upwards of 10 million degrees Kelvin, the star will ignite and begin fusing hydrogen. Fusion happens when the ionized matter in the core of a star is heated to such a high temperature that the nuclei of atoms forget about the electromagnetic force and are pressed so close together that the strong nuclear force takes over and creates a new atom: helium (Kirkpatrick). Named after the Greek word for the Sun, Helios, helium is truly a physical marvel. The implications of a phenomenon like helium stretch into wonder when we consider the next few steps of the process.

The characteristic size and color of a star typifies it for as long as the hydrogen lasts to fuel it. As the hydrogen atoms fuse together, the protons and electrons combine, but the mass of a helium atom is slightly less than that of two hydrogen atoms. The radius of a hydrogen atom is 0.79 Ǻ whereas the radius of a helium atom is 0.49Ǻ. According to Einstein’s equation E = mc², since the masses are different, energy must be given off when they combine thus, stars produce heat, radiation, and photons, which are massless packets of energy and the carrier boson of the electromagnetic force. Once the majority of the hydrogen is used in the core of a star, the nuclei of helium, better known as alpha particles, begins to fuse together to create the heavier elements.

When the element being fused changes in a star, it warms up. Throughout a star’s lifetime, it will continually increase in temperature and size. But in spite of the increase of energy output, a star’s core becomes steadily more unstable. As new elements are formed, the constant pressure changes and pockets of higher and lower density begin to develop. A star can only create so many elements before this instability is too much.

As a star begins to fuse three alpha particles together, called the triple-alpha process, an enormous shockwave is emitted as the mass differential between helium and the product, carbon, is drastic (Eid). The radius of a carbon atom is only 0.91Ǻ, which makes carbon a third smaller than the three helium atoms. Yet after the star begins to produce carbon, the release of energy is significantly less, thus, its red color.  This process is repeated once the core consists of carbon and surrounded by helium until equilibrium can no longer be sustained.

The characteristic color and size of stars change when they begin to fuse hydrogen in its outer layers and eventually alpha particles. We perceive color as relative to the frequency at which photons are emitted by electrons and, as plasma is a strange substance to work with, the rules change a little with stars. Large stars burn through their hydrogen quickly, and their core temperature increases so much that the force of gravity cannot contain their thermal pressure variance and, thus, they expel their outer layers before all of their fuel is used and they die. Smaller stars, such as our Sun, will fuse their entire core into helium and begin to fuse the rest of the hydrogen in the surrounding layers at a higher temperature while compensating its size by turning into a red giant.

Many things can lead to the death of a star. A star will start to shed its outer layers as the triple-alpha process is initiated, and most of its mass will escape into space. The largest stars will begin to die in this way. They burn through their fuel so fast that they cannot maintain equilibrium and, thus, the thermal pressure pushing outwards cannot be contained by gravity. The core of these enormous stars becomes a black hole. Stars like our Sun will begin to fuse carbon and become a red giant. Continuing to heat up and expand to maintain equilibrium, a medium-sized star will fuse larger and larger elements until it can no longer remain stable. The outer layers will shoot away from the core. What is left will be a white dwarf star. These nearly Earth-sized embers consist of many different elements, but the most common is a smoldering core of carbon. Eventually, our Sun will be nothing more than a slowly cooling ultra-dense ball of charcoal, better known as a diamond. If a star survives long enough to being producing iron, the result is a Type 1A supernova (Riddle).

No matter what happens, a star will always shed its outer layers into a somewhat smaller nebula than it formed from. The remaining hydrogen will coalesce into a new star. The other elements which were created in the now dead furnace will combine into rocks and, eventually, planets.

At the center of nearly every galaxy is a supermassive black hole (Klessen). This has been theorized to be the remnants of an enormous star from a previous iteration. The spiral galaxies which form around these black holes would then have to be the elements created within the old stars. Since the universe is expanding and the amount of matter/energy is constant, the scale of the stars we see is changing. Based on the conjecture of the old stars, there very well could have been a center of the universe with just a few solar systems.

The old universe is something that we have trouble seeing because of the limited scope of our telescopes. Even by looking out at the stars, we are looking back in time as galaxies were billions of years ago it is still difficult to clearly see the first galaxies from the first few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. Yet as we consider this hypothesis, we are forgetting the most important thing: we are stardust. We are made within the furnaces of stars. This proves that, at one time in the past, there was an even larger star in this sector of space. For us to exist at all, we need to appreciate the process of star creation and death. From the death of something so great as a star comes the rest of the universe. Without them, there would be only hydrogen, and it would exist in complete darkness. Thankfully for us, the four fundamental forces act as they do. Gravity pulls matter together. Electromagnetism pushes it back apart. And once the pressure and temperature are great enough, the strong and weak nuclear forces allow matter to become more complex through fusion.

While we consider the scientific aspect of elemental genesis, the romantic seems to become even more evident. The fact that we exist at all is a great mystery as far as physicists are concerned.  How we are able to ponder our existence is much more thrilling. We wouldn’t be able to do it at all if it weren’t for the perfection we experience in the cosmos. Sure there may be phenomena out there we may never discover. There are so many dangers in this universe that could easily destroy us all. But whether we are alone in this universe or not, our greatest achievement is to wonder. Only by actively appreciating the universe in which we exist can we ever hope to understand why we are here in the first place.

 

 

List of sources

Eid, Mounib El. “Astrophysics: The Process of Carbon Creation.” Nature 433.7022 (2005): 117+. General Science Collection. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.

Kirkpatrick, R. C. “A Tutorial on Ignition and Gain for Small Fusion Targets.” AIP Conference Proceedings 1154.1 (2009): 95-122. Academic Search Elite. Web. 23 Nov. 2012.

Klessen, Ralf S. et al. “The Formation of Supermassive Black Holes in the First Galaxies.” AIP Conference Proceedings 1294.1 (2010): 246-249. Academic Search Elite. Web. 16 Nov. 2012.

Riddle, Bob. “End of the Line for a Star like Ours.” Science Scope 33.6 (2010): 70. Science Reference Center. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.

Smoot, George, and Keay Davidson. Wrinkles in Time. New York City: William Morrow & Company, 1994. Print.