Discussion about a Thinker vs. a Doer

 Although I would probably consider myself more of a thinker than a doer, the distinction between these two is not clear so in some ways I am a portion of both. I am not usually very impulsive and preferred to plan each step before I take it. For example, if someone asks me to come to their club after school, I am unlikely to say yes immediately but will more likely say "possibly" or "probably". I usually need at least twenty seconds to a minute to decide whether I actually want to go, whether it is beneficial to go, or whether I even can go based on current priorities. Also, when planning out my schedule for each coming year, it often takes me a long time to really decide what I want to do. In fact, I spend almost all of my time thinking or arguing in my head with actual dialogue. The reason I cannot entirely be called a thinker, and in fact nobody really can, is that eventually, thought leads to action. While it is possible for someone to spend most of his life in indecision, or to go from one rash decision to the other, these are rare extremes. Most people fall somewhere in the middle. Whenever I am thinking about school subjects or any topics of interest, I more greatly appreciate tangible results that come through "doing" something rather than just abstraction. The key in this balance as in many similar comparisons is to find the proper balance. To use Shakespeare as an example, Hamlet spends several days considering what to do about the message he has heard from the ghost of his father. Although Hamlet's father does go to great lengths to prevent his son from endless waffling, Hamlet demonstrates that at least when he has some prompting he can stimulate himself to action in a few days. When it comes to such a momentous decision, this is completely reasonable. In fact, meanwhile, Hamlet has been gathering more information to help him in his decision. This style of calculated action has much more merit then a whimsical lifestyle. As long as one can make up one's mind within a span of time comparable to the extent of the issue, and, just as importantly,adhere to it, any necessary delays will have been worth their time.

"The Clod and the Pebble" by William Blake

“The Clod and the Pebble” is a curious poem written by William Blake. It starts out with a description of love in the way that one would normally expect. It describes love as this selfless being who “seeketh not Itself to please.” Because “for another gives its ease,” Love “builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.” Basically, love permanently tips the balance in favor of life on Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” scale, which for Hamlet is dangerously tipped toward death. After a puzzling median set apart from the first and last stanzas, the image of Love is repeated with meticulous parallelism by a dissident pebble. The antiparallel third stanza replaces seeking “not Itself” for pleasure with “only Self,” switches “nor for itself hath any care” for “to bind another to its delight.” In the final line, this second image of Love causes Hell in the midst of Heaven. We learn that the “Clod of Clay” believes the former noble image of love while a “Pebble of the brook” believes the latter version. The significance of the clay may be that “trodden” by cattle probably along a road, it lays down its life into the dust for the comfort of the feet of others. The pebble, however, living in the beautiful comfort of his brook sees the clay’s position as undesirable and, given the opportunity, would try to “love” others by making them serve him. This analogy can be drawn so that the clay intersects the position of a common peasant with “true love” and the pebble the position of a noble with “false love.” A better explanation for the choice of pebble and clay may in fact be a reference to the Biblical and literary idea of having either a heart of clay that can be molded to Christ’s purposes and be merciful as compared to the heart of stone. In does indeed seem reasonable that the heart of soft moldable clay would have this first picture of “true love” while the hard and cold pebble in a stream would have a steely image of love as one of the tools of manipulation and evil. Since there is no explanation as to what is really love, we are left to wonder whether love really is as good as we make it out to be. Since most people will come to the conclusion that love must truly be the first stanza, the central purpose of the poem is to enhance the true meaning of love to the reader. The poem does this well by making us revile the latter false picture. Many readers will cling to the first image as I did by rereading it to remove the bad taste left in their mouth when they get to the end. Another curious feature of this poem is that the positive picture of love is framed by somewhat negative terms: “care, Hell’s despair.” The negative picture of love has positive words: “delight,” “Joys,” “Heaven.” This forces the reader to wonder why the first image of love is better? The author’s emphasis of the supernatural by ending each picture of love with references to “Heaven” and “Hell” signifies that without a spiritual explanation, there is no valid reason for us to settle on the first image of love.

Debate Modelled after "To Be or not To Be" Speech

To drive or to fly—that is the question: whether ‘tis better to undertake the course of more destinations or to take to the skies for the greater speed and to explore the far corners of the earth with ease. Though one may starve to purchase the thrill, yet the turbofan of a plane is awful in its power and grace that can bring its passengers wherever it pleases a dozen times faster than can its sister the combustion engine—ay, there is the rub, for in that blissful locomotion what obstacles bestrewn upon the earth threaten for a collision. Whether towers made by man or those by nature, great peril seems to envelope the flying machine—floating on air! Should it not fall? Both the terror that cannot be controlled and the terror that is controlling diminish the greatness of the flying beast. In the face of all of these does not the land vehicle with four wheels firmly embracing the solid ground prove much nobler in the mind? By no means. Gargling gas, the car grinds along the grade with no glorious speed. It stops at most every other object on the face of the earth: pedestrians, cars, lights, stop signs, lines of all shapes and sizes, medians, houses, trees. All of these impede and threaten without a moment’s reprieve with the imperative of incessant alert when on the mechanical bird of the sky, the time can be placed as one sees fit. But the gravity in the subject rests primarily in the three score greater danger per furlong of driving. What a fool is man, however, that he doth often prefer the former. Jurisdiction is the real rub, for when one sits on a plane in comparative safety, he frets that there may be a something bad coming at any moment which he cannot survey, but when in his car, he sees trouble and avoids it most incessantly. All the while he is in the car, he feels safety in his own power. Thus man prefers the dangers he can see to those invisible.

Hamlet 1.4-1.5

After Hamlet finishes his interview with the ghost of his father, his friends Horatio and Marcellus show up. At first they want Hamlet to tell them what happened, but Hamlet understands that they already know what happened, so he proceeds to force them to swear oaths by their swords that they will not tell. It is curious how much time and language Hamlet spends trying to get them to swear that they will keep what they have heard to themselves. He treats his friends like children when he charges them not to say “Well, well, we know,” “We could an if we would,” “if we list to speak,” or “There be an if they might.” The level of detail that he tells his friends to follow here is almost comical, but the tone of the moment with the Ghost constantly interjecting from the ether is ominously urgent. The Ghost of King Hamlet hints that he himself is not as blameless as our first impression from the first three scenes may have indicated (1.4.15-26). Although he does not specify what he has done, the Ghost tells the he is “doomed for a certain term to walk the night and for the day confined to fast in fires.” It is possible that King Hamlet wishes to make his charge against King Claudius more credible by the admission of his own faults, but the self-incrimination seems to be more of a gasp indicating the misery he is in and that he desperately needs to confide in someone. Hamlet is very confident that he must deal out revenge in his parting words to his father. It is true that it would be very difficult for him to tell a ghost who is none other than his father that he will not follow his wish to his face. Hamlet’s conviction may soften with time. When the Ghost says “cut off, even in the blossoms of my sin,” it seems to indicate that King Hamlet regrets not being able to confess or forgive before he died. The purgatory that this has caused him may actually have led him to need a scapegoat for his misery. The description of how he died, by poisoning, is essentially the same as might be dealt by a snake. The fact that the Ghost forbids Hamlet from touching Queen Gertrude despite her promiscuity in his eyes suggests that he still loves her or else he loves Hamlet too much to make him injure his own mother.

The poem “Constantly risking absurdity” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti compares a poet to an acrobat performing high in the air, which could probably be effectively classified as a trapeze artist. The originality of this connection makes it very meaningful. I must say that I have never compared a poet to a trapeze artist before. Ferlinghetti makes this connection to indicate the perilousness of the poet’s job in contrast ironically to the general view that the poet’s life is a calm, serene, and relaxed life. The shape of the poem relates directly to the first line that the poet is “constantly risking absurdity and death whenever he performs above the heads of his audience.” The lines of this poem appear in all manner of random places on the page. The poet “climbs on rime to a high wire of his own making.” In order to do his job effectively, a poet must create a sensational experience in the poem by bringing out extraordinary detail and unusual insight, but if he goes too deep or too far with his acumen, he will fall off of the rope and lose the “eyebeams” of a “sea of faces.” In other words, both the acrobat and the author risk losing the respect of their audience, which as shown by the phrase “balancing on eyebeams” is all that supports their professions. Ferlinghetti continues expressing the difficulty of creating meaningful experiences by pointing out that neither the poet nor the trapeze artist can afford to miss the “taut truth.” This phrase ingeniously uses two definitions of the word “taut”, one to indicate that the rope under an acrobat must be tight to support him, and another to refer to the importance of economy in structure and detail in poetry. The poet also expresses the idea that although the poet strives to climb up to “Beauty,” he “may or not” be able to catch her elusive form. This author also uses the word “gravity” to indicate both the impending plunge of “Beauty” and also the weighty significance of her move. The whole poem is essentially an epic metaphor with a tone that suggests a glorious and daring adventure.  The term “charleychaplin” alludes to the old character by that name for the purpose of indicating that this high and mighty task of the “super realist” poet does not suggest that the poet is extraordinary, but that he is an enterprising risk-taker.

Initial Impressions of Hamlet Characters 1.1-1.3

King Claudius seems to act mostly reasonably and somewhat like a father to Hamlet. He justifies his marriage to Queen Gertrude by its importance to the stability of the state and that others commended his action. He also reproves Prince Hamlet for the excessive sorrow by noting not only the similar plight of many others but also his near succession to the throne. The King wants Hamlet to treat him as a father. Queen Gertrude just seems to go along with her new husband, Claudius, and does not have a strong personality of her own yet. Prince Hamlet is very submissive in voice, but he despises the haste with which his mother married King Claudius. For this, he blames first and foremost his mother and shows no suspicion of foul play by the King. I must agree with King Claudius that Prince Hamlet is lacking judgement and manliness in his suffering after two months. Two months is too long for immobilizing sorrow. The sorrow may never go away, but it is simply foolish to suffer such extreme grief for more than a week or two. Besides, if Hamlet's adherence to the statutes of Scripture indicates that he and his father believed in the saving work of Christ, Hamlet should remember that his father is in a better place. As much as Hamlet would like to leave the world immediately, he ought to press forward toward the work that he is called to do on earth. The kingdom will eventually need his leadership. Nevertheless, he at least has the fortitude to listen to reason and forsake suicide. Even though King Claudius seems mostly sincere, he does seem mildly stilted in his attitude toward Hamlet and the deceased King Hamlet. The King is most certainly taking his own advice that the time is passed for extraordinary grief, but I would expect more emotion from the new King and Queen regarding the matter. In fact, Claudius' behavior seems somewhat awry as a whole probably only as a result of his lack of emotion.

Goals for Senior Year

1. Finish all college applications by the end of Thanksgiving Break. With nine applications to complete and fourteen weeks to complete them, this means that I must finish each application in approximately one and a half weeks.
2. Complete both MIT Open CourseWare classes that I am working on. 18.03, Differential Equations, needs to be completed by the end of the semester during D block and 18.02, Multivariable Calculus, which is already more than half way done, needs to be completed by the end of the year during available B blocks.
3. Achieve a senior year GPA of 4.8 by getting the following minimum class grades: AP Biology, A+; AP Statistics, A+; Honors Independent Study Math, A; AP Music Theory, A+; AP English Literature, A-. These should be attainable based on my transcript and initial previews of the class. More important than just the grades, however, in order to complete this goal, I must also make the effort to understand the material to such a degree that both my teachers and I feel that the grades were deserved.
4. Write two new iOS Applications. One will be the Lego Adventure board game assistant that I am currently working on and the other will probably be a rocket video game based on real physics and chemistry unlike many games on the market. In order to accomplish this goal, two to four hours must be spent each Saturday on the games. Preferably, I concentrate on one application at a time and release one by New Year's Day and the other before graduation.
5. Practice piano 12 hours per week. This divides up to 1.5 hours per weekday, 3 hours per Saturday and 1.5 hours per Sunday. Inevitably, days will be missed, but the important goal is not to skip more than one day at a time and to actually make sure that I am accomplishing something during each practice session. As a rule of thumb, each page should take 2 hours to learn and 1 hour to memorize.
6. Practice horn 7 hours per week. This divides up to 0.75 hours per weekday, 1.5 hours per Saturday and 0.75 hours per Sunday.
7. Run the 400m in less than 50 seconds and the 100m in less than 11 seconds. The way to accomplish this is to only rest one day per week, do burners at least twice a week, but preferably thrice, and make sure that in all workouts, I am never satisfied with going easy. Another important factor in achieving this goal is to get enough sleep (8 hours on a weekly average).
8. Earn a private pilot license. This goal is near the bottom because it is, out of all of these, the most far fetched. The most opportune time to do the training necessary for this license is in between the last day of school and the first summer activities. Two to three hours per day at one of the flight schools at Hanscom Field, which is only 23 minutes away, is enough to receive the license. The primary factor in whether or not I will be able to achieve this goal is whether or not I earn enough money through iOS app sales and other jobs/gifts.
9. Glorify God in everything I do and especially so in pursuit of these goals. This will be greatly helped by reading the Bible every day and I would like to finish reading through the Bible by the end of the school year.