The Growing Human Model

As infants we are all about the ground. We crawl, explore, and usually have our heads tilted towards the ground. We are all about instinct. It is nature for human beings to socialize with other human beings and other living things. So babies are fascinated with everyone and thing. But as we grow older, we use less instinct and more brain power. As we progress to adulthood, we our constantly looking forward, looking all around us to absorb as much as we can in our brains. This is called the "Growing Man" model, and we learned it in sociology class. This made me realize how much babies need attention, they actually need it for their brain to grow to its full potential. Especially in our society today, where we spend a lot of time isolated playing video games, watching tv, or being on the computer. People should start to make an effort to socialize more, it's what makes us human.

Doing "Nothing" is harder than it seems...

We had an assignment given a few weeks ago to find a public place and literally attempt to do absolutely nothing for 10 minutes. When most people think of "doing nothing" they don't take into consideration that even THINKING is doing something. So basically this was more of a 10 minute meditation, in which we tried to keep our minds clear of thought for 10 minutes. I performed this assignment in the middle of a mall. I picked this place because I like challenges, and what better of a challenge then to attempt to meditate in a place full of people socializing and moving, various types of different stores and shops, and different aromas filling the air. I stood still in the middle of an upstairs walkway, near the food court, and very close to one of those stands that sell certain products. To start off the meditation, I imagined hearing the constantly changing "buddah-bell" that is rung at the beginning of every sociology class. This helped me keep a clear mind even though people were zooming past me. This was until a sales associate from the stand nearby approached me probably to ask if I needed anything. But before he could ask me anything and fully break my meditation, I motioned my head away from him. This consumed about 1 minute of my assigned time. So in the end, I wasn't completely doing "nothing" for the 10 minutes. But this activity made me realize that no one is every really doing nothing, everything that is living is occurring. Things are constantly changed, very similar to the bell I imagined to help my meditation in the first place. This was a very interesting task and I will never think of the phrase "doing nothing" the same way ever again.

"How can you spare someone's feelings by denying them?"

In the movie "Tuesdays with Morrie," Mitch starts to feel uncomfortable when Morrie starts to tear up. Mitch attempts to look away or check his cell phone. Morrie all of a sudden confronts Mitch about this, he states "You feel uncomfortable right now, don't you." Mitch timidly admits his anxiety. His immediately stammers he didn't know quite what to do, he says he guess he was sparing Morrie's feelings. In our American culture today, certain behaviors such as sadness, anger, and embarrassment are seen as types of behaviors that should be spared. Sometimes this is true, but not the way most of our culture handles it. Denying someones feelings, because it makes you uncomfortable, is not the same as sparing them to make the other person feel better. Morrie teaches Mitch a lot about breaking certain taboo barriers in order to create bonding relationships. Societies create taboos, because they decide that a certain type of behavior makes their society uncomfortable. But taboos such as someone of old age "having to get their ass wiped for them" come into play, these are issues in which people have no control over. This isn't fair for someone's feelings to be denied or ignored just because something is happening to them, that is out of their control. I learned a lot more about respect when I heard this quote.

"Yoo bro...one sec dude, my moms callin'........Witam matki, jem teraz."

While entering Jr. High, among the many new friends I made, I met one kid who eventually came to be one of my very good friends entering High school. When I first met this kid I thought he had the coolest nickname, in fact I didn't know his real first name for while even after I was friends with him. I found out that the name everyone called him by was really his last name. I found this so interesting because I had never heard of a last name like that. When I first went to his house I figured out why it sounded so alien to me. He was Polish. Not like the people who say their half Polish and half Russian just because their great-great grandparents immigrated to America from foreign lands, but like his direct parents came here from Poland. When I first went into his house I witnessed a kid that spoke perfect English, talked just like me, speak in a completely foreign tongue, in perfect fluent Polish, to his parents. I almost found it humorous, this kid that was not a nerd, joked with the same immature humor as me and my friends, was bi-lingual. I was so fascinated by it. The first couple times my friends and I went to his house though, we felt a little uncomfortable. We were always taught that saying please and thank you were polite, but whenever we thanked his mom for something or said please she would give us a weird look. My friend would always laugh and tell me that his mom has no problem cooking or having us over so why would we add please or thank you, It wasn't like she was doing us a favor. It took getting used to, it was so different from how I was raised. What I went through is commonly known as "Culture Shock" in which, someone experiences a culture that is extremely different from there own. People have numerous different reactions to Culture Shock. Some may feel very awkward or uncomfortable, some may feel scared or anxious, and some may be fascinated in the uniqueness of the culture. It is important to incorporate Sociological Mindfulness into Culture Shock, to accept that your norm isn't the universal norm. A lot of the reason there is discrimination and racism, is because people are scared to accept this.