Category: lifeissublime

E03: Critical Reading-LifeisSublime

Section 8

“She hasn’t seen any other therapist, or a therapist trained to deal with PTSD—Brannan knows what a difference that makes, since the volunteer therapist she tried briefly herself spent more time asking her to explain a “bad PTSD day” than how Caleb’s symptoms were affecting the family.”

  • “or a therapist trained to deal with PTSD-“- this is putting emphasis on the fact that this child hasn’t been helped from a specialist she needs to see
  • “volunteer therapist she tried”- implying that Brannan has seen a therapist, a volunteer therapist
  • “spent more time asking her to explain a ‘bad PTSD day’ than how Caleb’s symptoms were affecting the family.”- this statement is referring to the kind of help the therapist was giving Brannan, asking her more about herself then the affect of what is happening, leading Brannan to believe this is affective in treatment and wants that for her daughter

“Katie was not covered by the VA under Caleb’s disability; actually, she wasn’t covered by any insurance at all half the time, since the Vineses aren’t poor enough for subsidized health care and the Blue Cross gap insurance maxes out at six months a year. “

  • “actually she wasn’t covered by any insurance at all half the time,”- again the author is putting more of an emphasis to Katie’s wellbeing by starting with the fact that she’s not covered and ending in not being covered most of the time
  • “since the Vineses aren’t poor enough for subsidized health care”- their family isn’t qualified for the lowest form of health care because they exceed the financial requirement
  • “the Blue Cross gap insurance maxes out at six months a year.”- this is implying to how much money it is to have Blue Cross insurance, the Vineses can’t afford it

“I’m not for taking her somewhere and getting her labeled. I’d rather work on it in softer ways,” like lots of talks about coping skills, and an art class where she can express her feelings, “until we have to. And I’m hoping we won’t have to.”

  • “and getting her labeled.”- Brannan is talking about taking Katie to a therapist and having her daughter diagnosed with PTSD, this could cause some problems for her child that she wants to avoid
  • “I’d rather work on it in softer ways,”- Brannan means taking her daughter to art class to express her feelings and learn coping skills to deal with her aggression
  • “And I’m hoping we don’t have to.”- Brannan doesn’t want Katie to go through all that comes with therapy: the label, the stress, interference with school and her childhood

“Certainly she seems better than some other PTSD vets’ kids Brannan knows, who scream and sob and rock back and forth at the sound of a single loud noise, or who try to commit suicide even before they’re out of middle school.”

  • “she seems better than some other PTSD vet’s kids Brannan knows,”- Katie isn’t as bad as she could be, there are other children from war vets who are worse than she is currently
  • “who scream and sob and rock back and forth at the sound of a single loud noise,”- what might happen to kids of war vets that are worse than Katie, the sound of a loud noise could trigger a reaction like screaming or crying
  • “who try to commit suicide before they’re out of middle school.”- implying that some kids have suicidal attempts because of their secondary PTSD from their parent

“Brannan is a force of keeping her family together.”

  • this statement is referring to Brannan being the person that keeps the family together
  • she keeps them on tract and gets done what needs to be done
  • she takes care of both Katie and Caleb

“That’s typical parent stuff, but Brannan also keeps Caleb on his regimen of 12 pills—antidepressants, anti-anxiety, sleep aids, pain meds, nerve meds, stomach meds—plus weekly therapy, and sometimes weekly physical therapy for a cartilage-lacking knee and the several disintegrating disks in his spine, products of the degenerative joint disease lots of guys are coming back with maybe from enduring all the bomb blasts, and speech therapy for the TBI, and continuing tests for a cyst in his chest and his 48-percent-functional lungs.”

  • “Brannan also keeps Caleb on his regimen of 12 pills-“- in addition to helping her daughter, Brannan makes sure that Caleb takes all the pills he need to take: for depression, anxiety, help with sleep, pain medication, medication to help with nerves, and stomach medication for nausea
  • “plus weekly therapy,”- Caleb is seeking treatment for his PTSD from serving in the military
  • “weekly physical therapy for cartilage-lacking knee and the serval disintegrating disks in his spine,”- Caleb also goes to physical therapy for some injuries he got in the war, he has a lack of cartilage in his knee and a couple of disks in his spine that don’t allow his to move in the right way
  •  “products of the degenerative joint disease lots of guys are coming back with maybe from enduring all the bomb blasts,”- this is making a claim that some men from war are returning with degenerative joint disease as a result of being around bomb blasts
  • “and speech therapy for the TBI”- a TBI is a traumatic brain injury, where speech can in fact be affected, like it has for Caleb
  • “continuing testing for a cyst in his chest”- this cyst could be cancerous so the continued testing could be to check if it is
  • “his 48-percent-functional lungs.”- Caleb’s lungs are only working 48 perfect out of the normal 100 percent

“She used the skills she learned as an assistant to a state Supreme Court justice and running a small newspaper to navigate Caleb’s maze of paperwork with the VA, and the paperwork for the bankruptcy they had to declare while they were waiting years for his disability benefits to come through.”

  • “She used the skills she learned as an assistant to a state Supreme Court justice”- Brannan has gained skills by working as an assistant to a Supreme Court justice, these skills help her better help Caleb
  • “running a small newspaper to navigate Caleb’s maze of paperwork with the VA,”- Brannan also ran a small newspaper which has helped her gain skills to keep Caleb’s paperwork with the VA organized/ better understand them
  • “and the paperworks for bankruptcy they had to declare while they were waiting years for his disability benefits to come through.”- the Vineses have declared bankruptcy in anticipation for disability benefits that Caleb is entitled to but hasn’t received yet

“She also works for the VA now, essentially, having been—after a good deal more complicated paperwork, visits, and assessments—enrolled in its new caregiver program, which can pay spouses or other family members of disabled vets who have to take care of them full time, in Brannan’s case $400 a week.”

  • “She also works for the VA now,”-  Brannan now works the VA which should help her with Caleb
  • “enrolling in its new caregiver program, which can pay spouses or other family members of the disabled vets who have to take care of the full time.”- Brannan now works in the caregiver program with the VA, this pays her to take care of Caleb full time
  • “in Brannan’s case $400 a week.”- Brannan gets paid $400 a week to take care of Caleb through the VA caregiver program

Summaries- Life is Sublime

1.    Penis envy and the female Oedipus complex: A Plea to Reawaken an Ineffectual Debate By: Siegfried Zepf,  Dietmar Seel

It seems counterintuitive that people would consider Sigmund Freud to be the father of psychology. With crazy theories and concepts, it’s a wonder why this man wasn’t just labeled as crazy but as the founder and creator of psychoanalysis. One of the biggest controversial theories Freud ever published was his theory on Penis Envy. Freud thought that little girls, like little boys, have a very potentiate sex drive. Penis Envy was his way of explaining the sex drive that the girls had. Throughout the years his theory has been argued and studied. A handful of female psychologists have made it a point to prove this theory wrong. For starters, Freud was very back-and-forth with his thoughts on what a little girl experienced making his claims to be wobbly to begin with. His theory was also put up against other theories that don’t single gender out. Others find his theories to be symbolic to other psychological factors and concepts.

http://guilfordjournals.com.ezproxy.rowan.edu/doi/pdf/10.1521/prev.2016.103.3.397

2.  Freud’s Not Dead; He’s Just Really Hard to Find by: Susan Krauss Whitebourne Ph.D

It seems counterintuitive that Sigmund Freud is consider to be the father of psychology, but there are many psychologist out there that claim his theories still hold truth. Even though Freud is known for his more erotic theories with sexual drive, that’s not all he is known for. Sigmund Freud was the first psychologist to analyze dreams and the unconscious and his findings/theories are still being used by psychologist today. With many people making an opinion on his work, Freud’s concepts are being used in practices and have become a jumping point for a lot of other theories in psychology today.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201205/freud-s-not-dead-he-s-just-really-hard-find

3.  Sigmund Freud: Life, Work and Theories by: Alina Bradford

It seems counterintuitive that the father of Psychology was originally a biologist, but he in fact was. To understand the theories, you first need to understand the man behind the theories. Sigmund Freud lived in the mid 1800s under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was raised in Vienna and had 6 children, one of which became a psychologist in order to prove her father wrong about his idea of Penis Envy in little girls. Sigmund Freud lived a fairly normal life until he stepped into the world of psychology, creating psychoanalysis. He worked with many of his own children, as well as the children in the neighborhood. Sigmund Frued’s life can give insight on the theories he had created.

https://www.livescience.com/54723-sigmund-freud-biography.html

 

Visual Rhetoric Rewrite-LifeisSublime

The video I have decided to analyze is a 35 second video called Saved by the Scan.

0:00- The image is of  woman who is climbing a mountain. It seems to be cold where she is because she is wearing a jacket and boots from this point of view. The mountain has grass and dirty but the color is almost gray, giving off that cold feeling. The woman is alone, climbing this mountain with no safety precautions at all. In the background are more mountains.

0:01- In the first second she is moving up the mountain. Seeming to struggle slightly. There is fog around her. Not much as changed.

0:02- In this time the video is zoomed in on the woman, but her face is blocked by her arm, leaving room for interpretation on her emotional state. She is looking down, at her footing I assume. Her jacket isn’t really a winter coat but a light jean jacket. She has bracelets on her arm and her hair is red.

0:03- The woman is now looking up. She seems to be looking at where ever it is she is climbing towards. Her facial expression is hard to read. The way I’m taking her facial expression is she is tired of the climb.

0:04- The perceptive of the camera changes and now we are looking at the woman from down the mountain. She is not climbing on grass and dirt, but on a mountain of cigarettes. The fog is now clearly smoke. The woman is still struggling up the hill.

0:05- The woman is still climbing the cigarette filled mountain side. She looks up a little bit but we can not see her whole face just yet.

0:06- In this second, the camera zooms in on her hand (or many her foot) that is pushing through all these cigarette. The odd thing is that most of these cigarettes are full cigarettes, not all just cigarette butts. She is pushing through them.

0:07- In this second I find out that is was her foot in the previous second. The pile of cigarettes that she stepped on falls down the mountain as she continues to climb.

0:08- The mountain is now getting steeper. The cigarettes are falling all around her and it seems hard to keep her footing. Smoke is still rising from the mountain, as she tries to hold on and push her way up.

0:09- In this second the woman puts her foot up on a ledge on the mountain in order to go up.

0:10-  The camera focuses on her hand now as she digs it into the side of the cigarette mountain. The cigarettes are sticking out of dirty.

0:11- In this second we can see the other arm/hand planting into the side of the mountain in the background of the first. Moving up.

0:12- The camera is now on her face again. She seems tired and looks as though she is working very hard to get to the top of this mountain.

0:13- This second is almost the same as the last, expect the woman has turned her head to look more at what is in front of her rather than what is up head. I would assume she is looking where to put her hand this time.

0:14- The camera shifts again, and now we are looking at the woman from underneath her. We can see the direction in which she is climbing in, but not a destination. The mountain seems even more steep as last time.

0:15- This second is similar to the last. The woman has moved her leg up to keep climbing.

0:16- In this second the woman is now at the top of the mountain. She slowly is standing up to make the last couple of steps up the mountain. There is nothing at the top.

0:17-  This second is the same as the last. The woman making her final step to reach the very top of the mountain made of cigarettes.

0:18- Now the camera is zoomed in on her face. She seems to realize she is at the top but doesn’t have an expression showing if she is happy or sad. Again she looks tired. In the upper left corner there is a box of text that reads “You stopped smoking”.

0:19- The woman looks more over to her right, as if looking at the view. The text extends to now read in full, “You stopped smoking now start screening”. The woman seems to be content.

0:20- In this second she blinked and started to form a smile. The smile is not all the way there yet, but it looks like a smile one would make after they have accomplished something stressful.

0:21- She now smiles and looks directly at the camera as is starts to zoom out. She is standing on the center on the top of the mountain. Throughout the while video no grass was visible, expect for now it seems as though she is standing on some.

0:22- The camera continues to zoom out as the woman continues to smile. Standing tall.

0:23- The camera is still zooming out, showing the mountain a little bit more. The woman is still smiling.

0:24- Again, still zooming out, while she continues to stand on the top of this mountain smiling.

0:25- The image on the screen changes and is now what I think is a MRI machine or a Catscan machine. Words appear above it saying, “Talk to your doctor of learn more at”. In this second the other part of information is not visible yet.

0:26- The website at which to learn more at appears, savedbythescan.org. On the bottom of the image are organizations affiliated with this movement: the American Lung Association, Lung Force, and of course Ad Council.

0:27- This information stays the image for this second.

0:28- The same information is on the screen, but now it seems as though the camera is moving closer to the machine being shown.

0:29: The camera is moving closer to the machine, with the same information as before.

0:30-The video ends, advertising another video about how this one was made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds3oCZYvtB8

 

 

Stone Money—LifeisSublime

P1. The first time I was exposed to this topic of money, my first thought was that money ruled the world. It has the power to give authority,  power to provide a desirable lifestyle, and is the one thing, that I believe, separates society.  So when I heard about the Island of Money and the concept they have on it, I was very intrigued to look deeper into it. I wanted to find the answer to the question, ‘is money just a concept?’ and compare it to the way that Americans see this “concept” or actuality of the paper dollar bill we all pass around. The first thing I looked into was the currency for a small island on the Pacific Ocean called Yap. Then I listened to a podcast of Brazil’s economic downfall and what they did to save it. After that I looked into the economy for America and compared it to what I have learned in order to answer the question while also relating it to what I know as an American.  Through all this research I was able to open my mind and see what money is really all about.

P2. The island of Yap is a small, barely visible island located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It gets a lot of attention, despite it’s size, because of their currency and how they operate their exchanges of money. People of this island don’t hold wallets with paper money on them, but instead use big carvings of rocks in the shape of circles as money. These rocks are carved from limestone and have been the islands currency for decades. No one when it started, but the people of this island have been using the possession of the stones to rank the wealthy. One story in particular comes to mind when discussing whether or not this may be something physical, like giant stones being traded throughout the island, or if it is in fact a concept that we can learn from Yap. There was stone, so beautiful and big that is was considered the nicest stone the island had. Apparently, on the way back to the land, from carving it, the men on the boat dropped it overboard and the stone suck to the bottom, unretrievable by anyone. The family that had this stone made did not fret over not having the stone in their possession, for everyone in the village knew it was theirs. This stone has been traded and owned many times, without actually being present to stand it’s own in these trades and payments. That’s where the concept part comes from. The fact that these people on this island are able to still use this currency without actually having the proof, because it’s at the bottom of the ocean, makes the question come alive. For this particular situation I would have to give it to the idea of money/currency rather than physical possession. “Yes I have the money, not with me, but you know I have it because I said so and all the people in the village know I do”. It honestly makes you think in depth about what money, whether it be a stone or paper, has to do with our society and everyday living. For the people of the island of Yap, money is no more than knowing what you have and what you don’t and to me that is a powerful point/concept to have.

P3. Very different from the people of Yap and their stone currency, Brazil was facing an economic downfall with 80 percent of inflation making it unbearable to support oneself/a family with the currency. It wasn’t until four men from graduate school came together and came up with a way to change the game of money exchange in Brazil. They came up with a way to literally trick the system and in the end saved the economy and stopped the inflation, allowing 20 million people to rise from poverty. The inflation was making all the prices rise on almost everything from essentials to groceries. The URV’s were created on a virtual base, valuing to the cruezeiros whenever the value went up. One URV could equal 10 cruezeiros or 20 depending on the inflation, but people didn’t know that. This system was created in order to install faith back in the currency in the people living through the inflation, and it worked. The URVs values eventually became stable and they became the new currency for Brazil. This was interesting because these people still had money in their hands, but they didn’t know the value of what they had. Like the people at Yap, they just knew that they had money to spend and pass around, focusing more on the trade concept and having faith in what was being exchanges. I took this as a concept as well because the value wasn’t always there, but they were worth the same every time. People grew to accept it, going off of something that wasn’t real. Brazil used a fake currency, that rock was on the ocean floor, same thing.

P4. To make this more relatable I looked up the economy that America has been facing for the past decade and tried to compare it to both Yap and Brazil. In America we pass around paper bills that supposably are worth, or were worth gold (gold being the most valuable thing on the Earth at one point). Paper versus gold. Then it occurred to me that not everyone gets paper dollars, physical, but paper checks that claim that money is known as yours, non-physical. That is the same as having a URV that is claiming to be something when you never actually see the physical worth of it, it’s just numbers on a piece of paper, or more recently, digits that change when you check your bank accounts. Having money “known as yours” sounds very similar to having that rock in the water but still knowing that the worth of it is yours. Comparing what I know from the island of Yap and Brazil, this isn’t an uncommon thing. I do believe that money is a concept.

P5. The way I thought of money has changed. I still think that money has power and does provide a certain social status, but after learning what I now know I believe money is a concept. The concept of money was created to replace physical trade making it more convenient and “reliable”. The people of Yap show us that no matter where the money is, in the ocean or in the bank, as long as we know it’s ours it’s worth something. The Brazilian people showed us that the value isn’t important unless you make it about that; that money is set but goes up and down so often that it might as well all be fake. I have changed my mind on money and do believe that the concept was something we as humans have created in order to set social status and property ownership.  

Works Cited

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” n.d. Diss. Hoover Institution, Stanford     University, 1991.

“The Invention of Money.” This American Life. N.p., n.d. Web

Thomas, M. (2014, October 13). What a stronger dollar means for the economy. Retrieved September 10, 2017, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-will-a-strengthening-dollar-affect-the-us-economy/