Tag: reflection
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According to the Academy, Kalen & Drew
Without music life would be a mistake. -Friedrich Nietzsche The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences is best known for the GRAMMY Awards. Each year the Recording Academy’s voting membership decides what artists and producers will be considered for and/or awarded a GRAMMY. Each voting member can vote in up to 15 categories, but the voting…
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“I am whatever I say I am”
“Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.” – Alan Watts It’s easy, but kind of pointless. My name is Kalen. I’m majoring in Strategic Communications. I like to read and write. I’m graduating next May. I think I’m pretty funny. I love to drink coffee and eat dessert. I have…
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The Advantage of Viewpoint
Within the political paradigm, the cultural concept, the religious routine, emphasis is placed on distinction. In an effort to maintain their identities, members of certain groups keep to themselves, lest they be tempted to a new way of thought. “Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling…
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More Than Meets The -I-
The need for community it an intrinsic human desire. When asked of the greatest commandment, Jesus said, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31. Written almost 1,000 years later, The Epic of…
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There is room
“Sometimes you have two children born at the same time; one is stillborn but the other one alive and healthy because the dead one gave the other a life transfusion in the womb and in essence sacrificed itself” Edwidge Danticat’s. Danticat likens discrimination, and the subsequent prejudice and oppression, caused by a perceived scarcity of…
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Friends and Familiarity
I’m not comfortable around dogs. I grew up an only child. I never had a dog, a cat, a gerbil or a parrot. I enjoyed the company or a few goldfish, but besides for that my interactions with animals were few. A dear friend of mine as three dogs- in her house! A black lab,…
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Give Me Gemeinschaft, or Give Me Greatness
gemeinschaft [German guh–mahyn-shahf-tuh n] Sociology. a society or group characterized chiefly by a strong sense of common identity, close personal relationships, and an attachment to traditional and sentimental concerns. We know the dangers of groupthink, the atrocities that occur, the prejudices it produces, the wars it wages and the inclusion it inhibits. Groupthink can be comfortable, it’s familiar and builds a sense of community at the expense of the exclusion of diversity. “Diversity, the act of thinking independently together.” …
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I’m my brother’s keeper, and my brother keeps me
After murdering his brother, God asks Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” Cain responds, “I don’t know.” Cain then turns his feigned oblivion into a universal question; a question asked by families, generations and nations of people throughout the course of history. In Genesis 4:9, Cain asks God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Perhaps both Cain’s and…
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………………….. The Moment of Youth
Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. 10 So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put…
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What I Learn, While I’m Learning
I’ve always been intrigued by new frames of thought; especially, in the fields of culture and communication. I’m entering my Junior year of university, and my second year as a Research and Assessment Intern for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. I’m responsible for studying cultural competency and leadership development theories and then creating assessments…
Kalen Nicole 