I loved this book! It is great for Westerners to read to get an idea of the religion. The age group of people who would be reading this book is going to familiar with Winnie the Pooh so it really makes it easy to follow. It also leaves an impact and makes the reader remember what this book is trying to tell when we have something to relate it to. These characters also serve as a standing point for the reader to project themselves to (for example I can see myself somewhat as Owl/Rabbit because they are always over analyzing situations). It’s kind of funny how I grew up watching Winnie the Pooh but never made the connection (obviously at that age how could I?) about how Pooh was so free and not worried about the different troubles the characters ran into. This can be shown with Hoff quoting Piglet saying, “Pooh hasn't much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly things and they turn out right”. This emphasizes the concept of P’u- the uncarved block that is so simple, yet will eventually lead to things working out.
The Busy Backson critique was very surprising (and my favorite part of the whole book). As Americans, who push the phrase “time is money”, this critique was a stab at how our society runs. "Everything has to be filled in, it seems- appointment books, hillsides, vacant lots- but when all the spaces are filled, the Loneliness really begins" (pg. 147). The world has become so distracted with things that do not pertain to religion or family (working, going to school, how to loose that freshman fifteen, planning the best way to support a future family) that we loose track of some of the basic concepts of life. What Hoff said is right, you cannot save time, you can only spend it. So if time has to be spent, why not do it in a relaxing way? Sure we can’t drop our lives and leave everything for faith/destiny to rule, but at the same time it is pointless to feel like we have to control everything. Time is always rushing by, whether we like it or not, so why not have fun while doing it? So "if you want to be healthy, just watch what a Busy Backson does and then do the opposite" (pg. 95). This critique is one that has really impacted me because I am definitely one of those people that is always trying to get as many things done within a short period of time.
For our class I feel Taoism was easier for us to comprehend. The ideals that Taoism enforces is something that I believe everybody wants to incorporate in their life and is therefore a good solution to the problem of American culture. Like in lecture, Professor Rasnic talked about how if you were given a huge sum of money (enough that you could live your life without having to work) what would you do? And if you thought I would take some crazy beach vacation- this was an indication that you have too much going on with your life. You need to relax. Although the extreme to which this ideology stretches about not planning anything is something that OCD Westerners cannot do, but it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to imply some of these ideals to a moderate level. It could help our people to be more satisfied with their life and in the long run help resolve medical problems that are stressed induced.
I agree that Taoism is probably the concept that we've studied that is the easiest for us to understand. The concept is something that everyone has come across at some point, even if they didn't know it was a Taoist one at the time. I think Americans realize that they need to apply these things to their life - being less controlling, busy, worrysome, etc. - but actually implementing them is a completely different story. I think many people may know that taking a break every now and then will make you more productive, but most don't really believe it deep down.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious how the "Bisy Backson" concept was surprising to you. However, I do agree with you about it being a huge insult to society.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those people that has a planner, my life is somewhat carefully and meticulously mapped out, and while I do spend a good bit of time at home, I get extremely bored doing so. It was refreshing to read the idea of just relaxing and enjoying time, and not feeling obligated to do things, which seems to be ingrained in me.