Sheryl Sandberg teaching about death and grieving (ISU#6)

1. While the experience of grief is profoundly personal, the bravery of those who haveSHARED their own experiences has helped pull me through.

2. I have gained a more profound understanding of what it is to be a mother, both through the depth of the agony I feel when my children scream and cry and from the connection my mother has to my pain.

3. I have learned that I never really knew what to say to others in need. I think I got this all wrong before; I tried to assure people that it would be okay.

4. I have learned some practical stuff that matters. I still hate every car that did not move to the side (for the ambulance), every person who cared more about arriving at their destination a few minutes earlier than making room for us to pass.

5. I have heard from too many women who lost a spouse and then had multiple rugs pulled out from under them. It seems so wrong to me that we abandon these women and their families when they are in greatest need.

6. I have learned to ask for help—and I have learned how much help I need. Those closest to me took over. They planned. They arranged. They told me where to sit and reminded me to eat.

7. I have learned that resilience can be learned. Personalization—realizing it is not my fault. Permanence—remembering that I won’t feel like this forever. Pervasiveness—the ability to compartmentalize is healthy.

8. One of my favorite cartoons of all time has an elephant in a room answering the phone, saying, “It’s the elephant.” Once I addressed the elephant, we were able to kick him out of the room.

9. My next birthday will beDEPRESSING as hell, but I am determined to celebrate it in my heart more than I have ever celebrated a birthday before.

http://www.thestar.com/life/2015/06/03/9-things-sheryl-sandberg-can-teach-us-about-death-and-grieving.html

    This articles explains how Sheryl Sandberg deals and copes with the death of her husband, Dan Goldberg. A few days after the death of her husband, Sheryl posts a facebook post on how she can teach others about death and grieving. She explains her ways of coping and undergoing this disastrous event. Sheryl teaches others not to give up on life after you lose a loved one because their is still more in life than grieving. She has explained how being able to talk to others can help her cope with this and be able to get passed some emotions. Another thing she has shared is being able to know a feeling like this wont last forever, that it will eventually go away. These things Sheryl Sandberg has shared connects to The Lovely Bones because in the end Susie's family begins to learn how to stop grieving, they begin to understand and accept Susie's death. They learn that it is not healthy to keep feeling this pain and it is important to move on. The family begins to work together and express their feelings to each other instead of keeping it to themselves, just like Sheryl shared in her post. I chose this article because I believe the situation in The Lovely Bones reflects and relates to Sheryl's post on grieving and death because of how both situations were handled. Eventually Sheryl and Susie's family begins to understand the concept of a loved one being gone forever. Therefore, I believe Sheryl post about death and grief can help many people, it shows that giving up and losing hope is not the answer. Just like in The Lovely Bones Susie's family did not let her death destroy them forever. 

The Lovely Bones #5

                                                                        

                                                           New Beginings

It's only the beginning now ...a pathway yet unknown At times the sound of other steps ...sometimes we walk alone The best beginnings of our lives May sometimes end in sorrow But even on our darkest days The sun will shine tomorrow. So we must do our very best Whatever life may bring And look beyond the winter chill To smell the breath of spring. Into each life will always come A time to start anew A new beginning for each heart As fresh as morning dew. Although the cares of life are great And hands are bowed so low The storms of life will leave behind The wonder of a rainbow. The years will never take away Our chance to start anew It's only the beginning now So dreams can still come true

   New Beginnings by Gertrude B. McClain, was an outstanding poem. I believe it represents the change and new beginnings of Susie and lives of her family. The poem explains that new beginnings mean a new lifestyle, and being able to do different things. Susie is now in Heaven, she is not living with her family and no longer has their support. She is left alone and has to cope with her new beginning in life. The Lovely Bones portrays a clear picture of a 13 year old girl entering the after life by herself, with no one by her side, Susie is starting a new day differently. Susie is walking, talking, smelling, touching and looking at things differently. She is in a changed world and starts her days differently than her family. Her family begins to learn how to cope with her death, they begin to learn the importance of finding happiness and start a new beginning with their lives. This poem reflects both Susie and her family as they became strong at the end, they all began to ignore the negative things that weakened them. Therefore, I believe this poem explains how every character in The Lovely Bones started a new beginning in their lives because they have learnt that nothing should stop them from giving up.They all did the best to move on and were able to start another chapter in their lives.

Ender's Game: Which character do you admire the most?

Which Character do you admire the most?

    The character I admire the most in Ender’s Game is Valentine, I admire Valentine from the rest of the characters because I believe she is the only true person to Ender. Valentine shows a lot of love towards him, and I enjoyed reading the brother and sister bond because it shows how close they are to each other. She takes care and worries about Ender, she protects him from Peter and I enjoy reading about a character like her because it shows that not everyone in the world can be cruel. Valentine has also helped Ender even when he was in battle school, she wrote Ender letters to help him control himself and not get into any trouble. Also she was the one to convince Ender to go with her to colonize the bugger’s worlds, so that they can also search for a new world for them. It shows that Valentine brings the best out of Ender and encourages him to do the right things and to ignore the wrong. I also believe Valentines character is the best because of her great characteristics; she is kind, polite, respectful, caring and protective about Ender. This is why I admire Valentine the most.

Coping with Change (ISU#4)

The Lovely Bones



 The Lovely Bones portrays many themes and messages, it gradually builds up and also shows how Susie grows up as a character. In the beginning of the book Susie had nothing but hate and revenge, she wanted Mr.Harvey dead because of what he had done. She could not come up with a possible way to forgive what he had done, all that came to mind was revenge. As I was reading the begining of the book I felt anger and hate, I also wanted to see Mr Harvey to pay for what he commited because of how Susie was describing her family, friends, school and her life. But as I came to the end of the book my perspective changed because of how Susie explained wanting revenge is not the answer to to life, she grew as a character throughout the novel because she started to understand more. It shows how Susie is a dynamic character because she grows and matures as a character. Susie is a very strong, understanding, mature, courageous 15 year old, she beings to learn how to deal with this tragedy and be able to let go of the hate and revenge feeling.

Grief (ISU#3)

"You will lose someone you can’t live without,and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.”
― Anne Lamott

    This quotes relates to the book, The Lovely Bones, because the family deals with heart break and trauma towards the death of their daughter, Susie. Susie's family begins to slowly cope with her death. But at first it was extremely difficult for Susie's parents because they did not believe they can feel and live the way they use to. They were depressed, emotionally and physically ill due to the traumatic incident of Susie's death. It became a battle for the family, and they needed to be strong in order to keep themselves healthy and strong. Facing reality of their daughters death was the best thing to do, even though it was challenging and difficult for them to do. They felt empty and felt like everything and everyone is worthless, but the family slowly starts to pick themselves up and deal with this incident. They learn that sadness and loneliness will not help get through the pain, being able to be strong and learn how to cope with it, will help them. Therefore, the family begins to accept the change so they are able to work together to keep each other strong. 

    To me death is a scary word, it is the end in a persons life forever. Losing a love one can break and change one's actions and thoughts, they start acting out and start to become someone else. Death can cause a person to undergo many horrific things, like in this story the family did undergo horrific things. But they learned how to cope with it, they had their head held high and faced the change together because they know no matter what Susie will always be with them. 

Child Soldiers

Child Soldiers


Connections: What connections can you draw between the text and your own life or your other learning? Read the article "Teaching Kids to Kill" and describe any similarities or differences in the concepts.        

     A connection that I can make between the text and my learning is that I have heard and read many articles about children and their where a bouts in society. Children are at the age of violence and innocence. Children are innocent but are exposed to violent activities, this exposes their innocence and some develop to view the world as a violent and dangerous place. They may see violence as a way to show power and control, it changes the view points and actions of many kids. Innocence takes away from a child's thoughts, it makes the child clueless and it creates them to be influenced in negative ways. In the video, Ishmael talks about how the children are clueless and are easily taught to do criminal and violent things. Which also shows that children are very powerless and do not have the ability to gain the strength and power to take control. 

    A connection I can make between the text and my own life is I find myself always wanting to , teach, play and become a role model for my little cousins.  As they grow up they become more independent and loose their innocence but they still carry their violent thoughts. Society brings and develops more violent and criminal games, it somehow gives pleasure and joy to my little cousins. I see it as a way of teaching them how to become more dangerous and feel like they have the ability to reenact the video game. My little cousins are both 10 years old, ever since they have started watching action movies and playing video games, fighting is the answer to many things.The video games and the aggressive and abusive movies influence them into becoming more ‘powerful’,  and they see it as a funny idea. My cousins always show that they are powerful by their violent actions, they do not see it as a bad thing. They show power by the actions such as shooting, stabbing and killing. As a role model it is hard to explain to 10 year old boys that violence is not the answer to anything because they see it as an accomplishment. 

   In the article “ Teaching Kids to Kill” is similar to how my cousins display violence because in the article the kids are influenced by the media and are given false information about violence. They are influenced and are told violence is the solution.In both of these situations killing and hurting another is the answer in order to be safe and do the right thing. The difference in these two situations are that in the article it shows how children react to violence and how they contribute to real life violence. It is different because some kids bring the horrific actions that are displayed in the videos games to real life. 

Challenges: What ideas, positions, or assumptions do you want to challenge or argue with in the text?

   An idea that I would like to argue with is when the article says, “Fighting Back: Education, Legislation, Litigation," in the article is explains how the three concepts should decrease violent activity performed by children. I believe these three ideas should have impacted how children behave a long time ago. Parents should have control of what their child watch and what games they play, if the child is warned about the negative things they will not preform any kind of violent activity. Shouldn't education, legislation and ligation already be taught to them? I believe changes should have been made when the incident of Paducah, Kentucky had occurred, the child was a 14 year old boy who knew exactly how to use a gun. It shows how children are easily being taught all the bad and violent things, but not the good things to do. I believe changes should be made before any other incident may occur involving children and violence. 

Concepts: What key concepts or ideas do you think are important and worth holding on to from the text?

   I believe the key concepts or ideas that are important and are worth holding on to from the text is how children are influenced by everything on the t.v, internet, neighbourhood, video games , etc. I believe the “Virus of Violence” is spreading around due to the messages and actions that are being shown to children. Children are innocent and are easily influenced by what they see, and as they distinguish all the aggressive activities they believe it is okay for them to repeat the same. 

Changes: What changes in attitudes, thinking or action are suggested by the text, either for you or others?

    Changes in actions can be done that are suggested by the text is that, “We must work against child abuse, racism, poverty and children’s access to guns, and in rebuilding our families, but we must also take on the producers of media violence. The solution strategy that I submit for consideration is, “Education, legislation, litigation.” This shows that there are ways people can take initiative to help deal with children and violence. It shows that children and violence can end, if everyone can contribute in helping.    

Social Issue (ISU#2)

The one major social issue that has occurred in my isu book, The Lovely Bones, is death. In this novel a 14 year old girl, Susie, was raped and stabbed several times as she was coming back from school. Susie was raped by her neighbour, Mr. Harvey. She was raped in an open field but underground, she was not able to be heard or seen. Susie was not able to get any help or be able to escape the horrid incident. In this new article, it explains the incident about an 18-year-old girl who was raped at a bus stop. The teenager was casually waiting for her bus to arrive when the man grabs her and attacks the 18-year-old teenager, she was left there for dead, and was lying in blood. She was helpless and could not get any help or try to fight back. Both Susie and the 18-year-old teenager were helpless and were suffering from the horrid incident. They have experienced a traumatic incident that has effected them physically and emotionally. In both of these cases, the teenagers families were also affected and had to suffer a long time affect, it is mostly grief because of the feeling they get hearing about this horrifying incident. These two are alike because both of them experienced and went through a horrible and terrifying experience and have been effected. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2984902/Teenage-girl-left-dead-pool-blood-bus-stop-rape-attack-treated-attempted-murder.html


  I believe The Lovely Bones is a very well written novel, it is very touchy but also humorous as well. It creates a horrifying yet an entertaining and loving feel, and as a reader I enjoy the combination of genres because it keeps the story going. In this novel I have come across many social issues such as grief, loss, coping with change, and family structure. As I come across more social issues as I am reading, I then begin to make connections and relate back to stories and news articles that I have read. It becomes easier for me as a reader because these connections help me understand the novel better. In conclusion I am enjoying this book and I am learning new social problems that people in society face and how they may over come these changes and effects.