Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a traditional African philosophy.  It helps us understand how we ourselves have a relation with the world, and how we all have common bonds.  When we discover our bonds through interactions with other human beings we then discover our own human qualities. Ubuntu is a philosophy we should all live by to better understand others and the world around us.  Ubuntu means to me that the interactions I have with people can help me realize what makes me different from them, how we are the same, and qualities I admire from them that I would like to emitt from my personality as well.  So many things seperate us, but the beating of our hearts, the souls we have in our bodies, and even the opposable thumbs make the purity of us the same.  We are all vaariations of one in the same.  Jeremy Rifkin's Empatheic Nation explains how we all come from one place.  We live around the world in hundreds of different countries speaking thousands of languages, but when it boils down to it we come from one man.... one woman.... which should have us united as one.  Ubuntu speaks of us being united, and Rifkin believes that the human race will not survive without us being united.  It goes against our grain to be selfish and to care for only yourself,  it is our nature in the purest form to be united.  The ubuntu philosophy makes me wonder if our hearts tell us to care about others around us... why do we as humans continue to be self centered?  What makes us act the way we do?

Ebert and Ezra

The idea of internet companionship has always been a strange one to me.  Why would I waste my life being on the internet building friendships when I can use my time to build physical friendships in person? Yet, Ebert acknowledged something that has never come across my mind.  I've never felt lonely so how can I judge these people.  My parents never abused me, if I was sad I have a network of people to talk to, and generally I keep myself preoccupied with close friends where I don't feel alone.  Yet, many people in the world have an uncanny ability to feel alone when they are in a room full of people.  The articles written by Ezra Klein (Being fully human)and Roger Ebert (Lonely people and a meeting of solitude) have shown that people don't need to be alone to feel lonely.  It has revealed that loneliness comes from a disregard of the problems that have been circulating within there spirits by the people you come in contact with on a daily basis. So many people isolate themselves from their fears of being unacknowledged so that they don't have to be disappointed by the character of people being self absorbed.  The internet is not a home for people to live; Ezra showed in his articles thats it's a fantasy world for them to experience the reality that they wished upon themselves.

Roger Ebert a man of many words

This man is one of the strongest minded and most opinionated people on the planet Earth.  As on of the greatest movie critics of all time he understands underlying meanings and small details that make movies and even people great.  As a great man when you google his name you see Siskel and Ebert as well as his movie reviews, but as you scroll down you find an article that does not in title cherish his accomplishments but expose his current trials and tribulations: "Roger Ebert Cancer Battle."  A man with so much to say has lost his jaw and is unable to speak.  Yet even with the ability to talk being swept away from him he still is very much alive and well as he can still express his ideas and thoughts through paper and written post it notes. What would you say or not bother to say if everything is written or typed?  Would turn down the volume be words worth writing?  Or only your simplest and most sincere I love you.  Roger Ebert is a man in America who knows the value of words and the precious gift he has of expressing himself through words.  So for my humanities quest I can only wonder if Roger Ebert's ailment made him more enlightened about the world around him or has he drawn hope from his past or people of the past? The answer can be both as his ailment rendered him unable to speak and he became devoted to the idea of ideas, and it can also be because his past as a movie critic helps him crutch on the idea that your opinion is powerful and everyone deserves to be heard.  But who am I to force my OPINION on you? What do you think?

ME and my class

YO YO Yo what it be? Hi my name is Courtni Nicole France. This is my very first blog and I created it for my Gifted and Talented class! We are the most unique class you will ever face at the small school of Northern Burlington.  Our teachers like to say we drive the bus of our education, and we like being the drivers and taking control.  Now sometimes it appears that we are more "special" (in the not so great way) then we are gifted. Yet, each and everyone of the students in this class are unique and bring their own specialized opinion and view to any topic.  Speaking of topics our newest and most up to date one is about humanities and the human spirit. Now you may be wondering: What about humanities and the human spirit? I was thinking the exact same thing so now the bus of education is dropping me off and I'm taking my own little car down the road that I want to take now that I'm already in the general topic city.  I'm burning rubber to the place I want to go and I'm busting open the door to the museum of my quest: How does the past help evolve the emotions and decisions of modern humans.  Who knows what I will explore in my topic museum, but I'm ready to get my hands dirty and keep my mind open for knowledge!
   

The Human spirit

What makes humans do what they do?  What inspires hope in people?

About Me

This is my gt blog! My name is Courtni France.... don't call me Court because you play on a court but you don't play me! hahahahahaha.