Different Day (3min story)

Milton Woods

Different day

Here I was sitting at the same old bus stop, going to the same old job that I've had for 20 years. I can remember the day like it was yesterday; I got my degree in accounting and it was the happiest day of my life. All I thought of was the money to be made in this career. The tremendous satisfaction of having a stable career and knowing without a shadow of a doubt where your paycheck is coming.  I guess its true what they say money can’t buy you happiness. Sure it was fun the first couple of years, great pay and benefits, but soon after my financial success I found myself wanting more. The painful confines of my desk had created a longing inside me for something more, some excitement, some wonderment, something spontaneous. The secure routine that I had so carefully created, now a tireless circle that I am so desperately trying to get out of. I started taking the bus about 10 years ago. Not because I didn’t have a car but to try to deviate from the routine that I had been following for years.  At first it seemed to work, you never know what you're going to encounter on public transportation. A fight here and there, a bird that you have never seen before, a casual conversation with a stranger. But after a while even the randomness of public transportation seemed to be routine. I suddenly began to make the realization that I never even wanted to be an accountant, I guess it was just kind of a formality that I would follow in my fathers footsteps. Thats all my parents ever wanted for me, a good, stable and conservative, career. In highschool my art teacher thought that I should take up art, I was a very skilled artist but my parents were certain that wouldn't be a very productive skill for my future; so in turn I thought that as well. But today setting a the bus stop was a little different as I notice a couple arguing outside of an open apartment window. They were not such a good looking couple, the man had a haggard look about him and the woman no different.

I could somewhat see inside their apartment, their  walls were spraypainted some type of graffiti art and I could see what looked like a camera on a tripod. From what I could see their apartment was a collection of objects that any person with an iota of style wouldn’t put in a room together. I pure disjointment of the room reminded me of an abstract painting that I had seen once when I was younger.They couple however were arguing about the rent and how they “will never get out of this city”. As chaotic as the scene was to me it was this sort of excitement that I had been craving. The pure pleasure of the unknown. I looked down at my briefcase and thought ,” the pure pleasure of the unknown.” I took out my phone and email my boss. I  start the email subject line “ My Letter of Resignation.”

Giving thanks

The classmate that I am thankful for is Aidan Lawson. I am thankful for him because he is a joy and pleasure to be around. He is a really funny dude and can always give me a reason to laugh. I l also am thankful for Aidan because he is a great teammate and is constantly pushing me to push myself to become better in track due to his competition, `even though I'm already better than him it is nice to have a guy that is too far from my level to inspire me to keep getting better. Aidan has given me countless moments of laughter and the confidence in the things he says is really amazing at many time hilarious. It like the words just flow out of his mouth and whatever comes out whether it be bad or good is hilarious. He is truly a unique character and for that I am thankful for him. I'm also thankful for Alan Nguyen because he is also a very funny dude. The things he says sometime really tickles. It's like when Alan says somethings he doesn't even know that it's funny. He is an accidental comedian. He just says things that happen to be funny. Overall I'm thankful for everyone in this class, but these are the people that I really felt should be mentioned.

Then he is Dead

So in the end Macbeth died after all the spectacle and after all the lies and confrontation Macbeth died while also proving the witches prophecy. What it really Macbeth fault? After all if the witches would have never told Macbeth about the prophecy he wouldn't have felt the need to make it come true. I actually feel sorry for Macbeth because he didn't ask for any of this to happen. I believe that if it wasn't for the witches none of this would have happened. However I still do give Macbeth some of the blame, he knew what he was doing when he committed all of those sins, he knew that his actions were wrong and yet I still feel very sorry for Macbeth because it;s almost as if he had no choice bu to commit these sins to his mysterious encounter with the witches and due to his wife's overwhelming influence. I think the story of Macbeth just shows how bad the world is and how a seemingly honorable and virtuous man can turn into an sinful monster, hungry for power. It shows just how difficult it is to remain  just in this world. I think this story perfectly illustrates that the hardest thing for a man to overcome in this world is to remain himself in a world that is constantly trying to change him. Although I feel sorry for Macbeth and how his life situation turned out I do believe that he deserved to die. He betrayed is friends, and abandoned all is past moral in as hast for power. Even in does it seemed as though Macbeth had no remorse for his actions. I think this story represents what many people go through in their daily lives, a constant struggle of power with one another. People content with their lives are introduced to something more or think of what else they could achieve and eventually become engulfed with the idea of more and greed and begin to stop at nothing to receive more and more luxuries even betraying their friends and family to get what they want. Macbeth became fascinated with the idea that the witches planted in his head and once he achieved his power he became hellbent on doing what ever he could to keep his power that he wrongfully took from Duncan in the first place. I believe Shakespeare wrote this play to advertise an aspect of human life that many of us fail to realize.

Top-full Of direst cruelty”

In the play Macbeth Lady Macbeth says "and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty" meaning that she wants her entire body engulfed with this evil riding her of her sort of natural feminine and caring qualities. I find this line very striking and a little disturbing due to the fact that she seems to invite evil into her body. This is not just disturbing because she wants evil to literally fill her from head to toe, but she is a women and in that time it was unheard of for a woman to take on qualities of roles of a man not to mention a full on invitation for evil to evade her body. This line to be shows that Lady Macbeth is not your traditional women not even your traditional human, from this line it almost seems as though she is pure evil. I think this line also shows the power of greed and money because from the story I can assume Lady Macbeth was an ordinary woman and when she learns of Macbeth's possible new found power she shows how evil a person can become when encountered with a new opportunity for power. That is assuming that she was an ordinary woman before, but due to her reaction of the knowledge that Macbeth has shared with her I do not believe that she was an ordinary woman in fact I believe that Lady Macbeth is quite evil and is just out for power, any way she can get it.  Sure I person would become a little more sinful of greedy when approached with an opportunity for powered but all out invitation for evil to engulf your body is a little much. I believe Lady Macbeth might just be a good old Gold Digger who jumps on any opportunity for power and wealth which could be the reason she is with Macbeth in the first place. I am very curious to see how the rest of this story plays out with Lady Macbeth.

No new tale to tell

                 The Canterbury tale that I want to talk about is  the Pardoners Tale. I think that the concept that greed is the root of evil is very important in this story. I can remember when I was little I use the hear the term greed was the root of all evil but I never really quite understood it. Looking back I now realize that if you trace every evil aspect of human life you can effectively draw it back to greed which is a key concept in the pardoner's tale. In this story this drunk sinful men go around idiotically looking for death. They go about harassing the old man trying to achieve some type of glory or praise , but upon finding the gold coins they abandon there mission to take the gold coins. From this alone you can see that the three men are filled with greed/sin/evil. To me these type of people deep down are evil, there only purpose life is too seek out and receive some type of praise , glory or riches. For instance in the story it states that as soon as the 3 men in the story saw the gold they immediately forgot about the real reason they were out harassing the old man, this shows that finding death and saving there people wasn't all that important to them, they just wanted to be praise and revered and since they found the gold they felt that they didn't need that praise anymore. I found it very interesting that once they found the gold that they became greedy of each other. I like this story a lot because in the beginning the soldiers are looking for death and in the end they find it. I feel as if the old man is a symbol for God because he seems wise and ultimately knows where those particular men will find death.

Truth

         I think that truth is an important idea this story Grendel, because in this the truth differs from  person to person. I can relate to how truth is used in this story to the real world because in the life people mostly identify the truth the story that is most widely accepted or form the source that the story came from. The truth can very from person to person and depending on the person's level of respect and trust one person's story may be accepted by more people than a person of little  authority or respect. In Grendel the Shaper is a person of respect and trust and therefore the things he says is taken as true without a second thought of it being otherwise false. The Shaper tell stories of the origins of good and evil which cause everyone else to see Grendel as this evil creature without giving him a chance. To Grendel this did not seem to be truth he wasn't born with a drive just to be evil and kill, in fact when he saw how the humans interacted with each other and thought of it as horrible and evil. In this story the perceived truth is a very powerful concept and in my opinion can dictate the very nature of our being and effects everyone.

Modern Day Beowulf

I think that a modern day Beowulf is Martin Luther King. I say he would be the eqivulent to Beowulf because he fought evil and went against evil and what it stood for. He believed not just in racial equality but in human equality and in peace. He like Beowulf fought for his kinsmen, Martin Luther King fought not just for the black man but for other races and the common man alike. He also fought in the name of god and used god as an element of his teachers in an effort to fight off the racism and the evils off the world. Martin King also died for his cause just like Beowulf died for his cause while battling, they both believed that they could conquer the presents of evil. I also believe that the character concept of Superman is similar to Beowulf because they both literally fight against evil and they both are given traits of a god like symbol. Superman as well as Martin Luther King  possess the ability, charisma, and courage to stand up against evil and to do whatever it takes to abolish it, even if it means risking theirs for the betterment of their people.