Mark Doty’s poem “At the Gym” dramatically expresses burdens as a common bond we share as human beings. The paths we take in life can be of great distress, but the outcome will determine the will of who we are. These paths are a “sign of where we’ve been” (line 11). Doty challenges us how to balance the weight of the world through self-confidence and consideration of others for guidance. According to Doty, this guidance can be found in common places.
Mark Doty does not specifically give an example of a burden, but states “some burden they’ve chosen this time” (line 7). This line suggests that decisions we make are a choice that lead us to certain paths in our lives; along the paths we take, we may journey through the unknown. We can
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When we have reached this point, it is a decision of what we do next. Do we stumble and fall, or continue to find the will to overcome? Doty acknowledges burdens may be too heavy to handle alone. He recommends attaining guidance, and direction from those around us; “who can say who’s added his heat to the nimbus of our intent” (line 20). Mark Doty ensures us, in trialing times, we are not alone. This line recognizes those who have helped us along the journey of life. Strengths of one can be weaknesses of another. Some can be dominant in chest exercises while others can be weak at shoulder workouts. Their dominance of a particular workout, however, did not come in an instant. It took continuous determination. In weight lifting, there are times you want to challenge yourself, and lift more than you know you can. During these times, assistance may be needed help pushing that weight the last few inches. A spotter will assist you to reach that goal. The experience of workouts, lead you to understand the mass of weight you can lift. In turn, you are able to grow stronger, and can lift much more than you could when you first
Susan Wolf, born in 1952, is widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th and 21st century. One of Wolf’s most renowned works is The meanings of Lives, which drew a lot of attention in the philosophical world for a number of questions that arose from it. Arguably her most widely debated and questioned assertion in The meanings of Lives is “If you care about yourself you’re living as if you’re the center of the universe, which is false.” This however I don’t not believe to be true. Every human being, no matter how successful or unsuccessful, has the right to care for them sleeves and not believe they are the center of the universe while doing so.
At the Gym, written by Mark Doty, dramatizes the conflict within the mind of a bodybuilder and his desire to change who and what he is. The speaker observes the routines of the bodybuilder bench-pressing at a local gym, and attempts to explain the driving force that compels him to change his appearance. The speaker illustrates the physical use of inanimate objects as the tools used for the “desired” transformation: “and hoist nothing that need be lifted” (5,6). However, coupled with “but some burden they’ve chosen this time” (7), the speaker takes the illustration beyond the physical use of the tools of transformation and delves into the bodybuilder’s mental state. The speaker ends by portraying the bodybuilder as an arrogant, muscular being with fragile feelings of insecurity.
“One learns of the pain of others by suffering one’s own pain, he would say, by turning inside oneself, by finding one’s...
Janie is a wise woman. She doesn’t get a chance to share her wisdom until the end of her life. Janie says, “Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons” (Hurston 191). She says this to her friend to let her know that people can not just live in the same place and expect to understand everything that goes on in the rest of the world. In the same conversation it takes a turn towards love as Janie says, “Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore” (Hurston 191). Janie emphasizes on the point that love is different for each person, and that people cant understand the way that others love. The last bit of wisdom she gives to Pheoby is the most profound peace, “It’s uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there” (Hurston 192). Janie tries to stress how important it is to experience things for your personal growth instead of trying to experience things through other people.
Struggle is not always selfmade. In Chris Cleave’s Little Bee (The Other Hand), Little Bee’s
... must bear. Perhaps when one feels the most needy is the time when he must free himself from those excesses that weigh him down and become like the soldiers in their dreams; "they gave themselves over to lightness, they were carried, they were purely borne" (22).
Christian encounters many people who try and lead him down a different path including Worldly Wiseman. Worldly Wiseman encourages Christian to take the get rid of his burden, and take the short, easy route to his destiny, instead of the long, hard route Christian is currently taking. Christian finds that even though the short route is described as ‘better’ by Wiseman, Christian knows that he needs to stay on his own route because he finds relief: “I don’t care what I meet in the way as long as I can also find deliverance from my burden” (Bunyan 16). Worldly Wiseman focuses his life on getting rid of all burdens, and focusing on worldly comforts. Christian, on the other hand, keeps his burden, and pushes th...
Having rules and setbacks are like guidelines guiding a person through a reality journey called life. Life has and is all about the challenges, overcoming one’s fear, and finding the determination, strength and courage to ____ what’s ahead (of us). Through the hardships that one endures, in th...
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will” (Shakespeare). In life we all have a route that we are supposed to follow to achieve our goal. Our attitude towards the path to achieve that goal is what will shape our ends. Our reactions to our obstacles we face are what are going to set us through the path. Shakespeare was trying to have an overall theme throughout his tragedies, to get through obstacles to keep continuing on the path to our overall achievement in life.
Although fitness centers and gyms may appear to be a place to break a sweat and work out with the intention of not being seen without makeup and in grungy clothes, this may not be the case, in particular when it comes to college gyms. Contrary to the findings Tamara L. Black displayed in her dissertation for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology from the University of California in Los Angeles, in which she depicts the situation of the classical fitness center as exercise dominated, after observations made while participating in the Boston College Recreational Complex, fitness centers may be more heavily focused on expressing sexual and social relations than for health related issues. Although she does not elaborate on this view of the gym, she does recognize that “popular media, cultural stereotypes, and some empirical literature depict gyms as places to meet people, where sexualized interactions are likely to take place, where bodies are on display as objects of desire” (pg. 40). This may be the perfect definition of the situation that I found in my observations. Shari L. Dworkin and Faye Linda Wachs, in Body Panic: Gender, Health, and the Selling of Fitness, acknowledge “mainstream media construct men as active and women as inactive. In this view, women are often shown as ‘being visually perfect’ and passive, immobile, and unchanging’” (pg. 40). Perhaps we have media to blame for this hyper-sexualization of a situation that was initially intended for self-fulfillment and health related practices.
counselor to help bring people out of their hurt and to look toward Jesus Christ our Savior
... by the stubbornness of Oedipus. This shows how fate and free will can take on mans happy life and turn it into sorrow.
Throughout this journey of life many outside forces manipulate whom all of us become. Who created my personal connotation? Through every relative, friend, and composition it boils down to me. I have taken all these beliefs and crammed them into a 6 feet, 2 inch frame. The real journey lays ahead, the journey from young adulthood to old age. I only pray this journey includes many travels and few destinations.
165) When Everyman takes on this journey he is taking account of his life what he has lived for up to this point.
In our fast passed and ever changing society, personal experiences built up over time and often make life difficult to deal with over time. Everyone has their own prospective on what is important and how they will tackle various problems they face from day to day. It is the responses to our harsh environment and experiences that can often manifest into feelings such as: anxiety, resentment and possibly guilt (Crabb, 1977). It is those that have negative experiences in life that seek out the help of counselors, to better understand and change the root of those problems. Each Christian counselor must carefully research and develop a counseling model which best aligns with their education level and spiritual beliefs. The following will be a summary of the models of counseling developed by Dr. Crabb and Dr. Hawkins, addressing the strengths and weaknesses of each model. Through this theory critique a Christian counselor should be able to identify and develop a strong foundation for their counseling theory and better serve their clients while maintaining a strong spiritual foundation.