The Last Post

This first picture is of me at the start of ninth grade. I wrote my first essay for Sage (that over the summer one about What I Believe) using unicycling as a metaphor. I don’t remember what it was a metaphor for at this point. That seems like a good lesson about how what seems super important at the time, often isn’t in the long run. 

I would tell my ninth grade self to follow my heart and pay attention to what I enjoy, and when it is no longer enjoyable, look for other options. I would also make clear that things are often really different than what you think they will be, and that you can’t imagine what the future will be, so make sure you enjoy the present and make decisions that are true to yourself. I’d also say: yes, it turns out you can pull off turquoise hair (like I have in this twelfth grade picture at the Getty Museum gardens), so go for it!

To Clone or Not to Clone, That is the Question

I was not that impressed by either set of arguments related to human cloning because I think it is probably a more complex issue than a short FAQ can answer. But I do believe that science’s ability to do something sometimes runs ahead of whether or not it should do it. For instance, the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb: J. Robert Oppenheimer really regretted being the father of the atomic bomb later. 

I don’t think cloning would destroy the world, but Never Let Me Go raises one of the biggest objections, which is that human beings are generally not kind to people they consider inferior. I could imagine that there would be serious concerns about how we treat cloned people. The characters in the book so far seem mostly resigned to their fate as donors, but they were raised that way with no other options. Unlike in the novel, I think that it is more likely scientists would work to clone individual organs rather than whole human beings – in terms of organ donation, that seems like a much better option. 

Cold Moment Down Under

My cold moment was when I lived in Australia. One morning we went out to the local bagel shop to go get breakfast, and everyone in the shop was wearing Orthodox Jewish clothing. That’s when it hit me that that was the only area where I had seen any Jewish people in Australia outside of my family. I found out that Jews in Australia all lived in the same neighborhood and went to Jewish schools. All the bagel stores were on one street in that part of the city. It made me realize that being Jewish in Australia meant something different than it does in the U.S., where it isn’t really a big deal. 

A Beautiful Life

When Waddington talks about “the richest in beauty is the beautiful life,” he is not talking about how people look on the outside. He is saying that people who live an authentic, happy, fulfilling life are the beautiful people. The nuns, who live in poverty, and who risk dying, are the people who are the most beautiful. They are helping people, fighting against the “chaos” of life.

This relates to the title of The Painted Veil because it affirms that what matters is not the beautiful decorations someone might have on the outside, what matters is whether they are an honorable, good, and internally beautiful person. Kitty seemed to have learned some of this in China, especially when she found fulfillment in working with the orphans and nuns. But I’m not sure how long this lesson will really last, since she was unable to keep that sense of decency and honor for long once she returned to Hong Kong.

Arrogant Colonizers

The quotation by Wole Soyinka that "Colonialism bred an innate arrogance, but when you undertake that sort of imperial adventure, that arrogance gives way to a feeling of accommodativeness. You take pride in your openness" seems like a reasonable statement.

Some of the characters, like Kitty and Deputy Commissioner Waddington certainly seem to be arrogant. Waddington, while he knows a lot about Mei-tan-fu, drinks a lot, likes to eat (except salad), and he seems to spend a lot of time with Kitty, rather than the community. I could see him thinking that he is open and accommodating, but he seems more condescending about the local people. Kitty seems like she is developing some understanding and emotions after her visit to the nuns and her awakening to beauty. She wants to help the nuns, but it seems to be about making up for her actions, not true selflessness. 

All in all, Soyinka’s statement seems potentially accurate, that Maugham is arrogantly using the idea of the purity and differentness of the colonialial setting to lead to changes in the colonizer, rather than caring about the colonized’s perspective.

Veils May be There for a Reason

The choice of W. Somerset Maugham to take the title of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem for his novel, The Painted Veil seems very appropriate after reading Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem. Shelley is writing about how the way that life seems on the surface is not how people really are underneath. This seems very appropriate to the storyof Kitty who is very concerned about appearances, and marrying well, and seeming important, but who is really very shallow underneath. She is upset with her husband for reading about science and history, rather than being entertaining at parties. When Shelley writes about the way that "Fear/ And Hope" are "twin Destinies", it reminded me of Kitty's mother who hoped for what she deemed a good marriage for her daughter, but feared that her daughter was growing old and losing her beauty so she would be passed over by all the men who would help her move up in society.

Both the poem and the novel seem kind of pessimistic about human nature and life. In the poem, truth is unattainable and perhaps it is better not to look under the painted veil. From what we have read of the novel so far, it seems like life underneath the painted veil is filled with shallow, mostly dishonest or unhappy people. Even Kitty's husband, who married for love, knew that Kitty didn't love him and was willing to settle for that. So both the poem and the novel, at least so far, seem to not have much faith in how people live their lives.

Of rats and men

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. – Oscar Wilde

I chose this Oscar Wilde quotation because I agree that we can get so caught up in following the rules and doing what we are supposed to that we don’t step back and ask why we are following this path. We are just existing, instead of really thinking about what it would mean to enjoy every day and not necessarily do what is expected of us or what is defined as success.

As a senior, I think about this a lot lately: I am tired of my life being sleep, school, homework, over and over again. And the whole goal is just to get to college and take more classes with more homework and more tests and probably less sleep. Does this really lead to happiness? Is it living or existing in a framework someone else created?

The girls in the podcast seemed pretty typical, talking about when to post, waiting for likes, and the same comment of “you’re so pretty” over and over. It was an interesting dissection of what other people comment as a way to understand your social world and diagram how people relate to each other. I thought the podcast made social media sound less pointless than adults usually think it is.