The Barny That Can Be Named Is Not The Eternal Barny

"I love you, you love me, we're a happy family, with a great big hug, and a kiss from me to you, won't you say you love me too. I love you, you love me, we're best friends like friends should be, with a great big hug, and a kiss from me to you, won't you say you love me too!"

This song from every child's favorite T.V. show is my whole theme of my Tao Te Ching analysis. The Tao's teaching are as simple and easy as this song. 'I love you, you love me' that's it. As a child we are always filled with joy and happiness, not caring about a darn thing that anybody thinks or says about you, we can go one day to school in our underpants and a cape, and think it's the most normal thing in the world. We, as humans, are in an inevitable process which is called "life." Something that i find ironic about Barny is that, when we think about him we know hes the most loving and caring thing in the world, but in reality hes a dinosaur. For me dinosaurs are ferocious beasts that existed centuries ago.

Barny as we all may know taught kids about loving one another, "Treat people as you would want to be treated." In every episode that I ever saw he said this maxim. He taught us that we should never care what other people think about. Barny and the Tao relate in that they both try to teach us in ways that are very simple and very fast. They tell us very simple thoughts but they work, well at leats for me it did.

Tao teaches us to live life as it comes, never prepare for situations, 'go with the flow.' Barny teaches us this as well because he teaches us that we need to live life as if it were our last day, dance like no one is watching. I have a phrase which I think is essential to all my ideas, Carpe Diem, a saying bya latin poet named Horace. Carpe Diem simply means, sieze the day, it means that we should live life to its fullest, 'NEVER let anyone tell you that you can't do something in life, not even your on dad' (The Pursuit of Happiness).

We never really get the chance to think about how quickly life comes and goes and once you realize it, its too late. This is why every one should always sit down and just think about his/her goals in life, and try to pursue them. If I'm not mistaken there was an episode of Barny about this topic, there was a boy that wanted to become an astronaut and someone told him he couldn't. Barny told that boy that he could be anything he wanted to be if he tried and did everything possible to achieve it. Another topic that associates Barny with the Tao Te Ching is that they both had the same teaching methods, anti-war, anti-stress, and peace. The Tao also tended to teach about, not needing material things to live, I wrote a blog about this topic, in today's day and age people rate how well their doing in life by how many possessions they have, how many cars they have in their garage. I believe this is a misconception on their views of life. First of all we shouldnt judge or rate how well were doing in life, all we should care about its if were happy or not. I have a maxim that relates to the idea of being humble in life:

"He who makes a show is not enlightned...
He who boasts achieves nothing.
He who brags will not endure."

This is why Barny and the Tao have a relationship. They both have very non-complex teaching methods that are part of a much bigger picture but have an extremely big impact on people. This is what Mr. Tangen taught us, when we read books like Tao Te Ching, the way to really get the juice from it, is by analyzing every line as it it were its own book. Never pay attention to something specific while reading a book because by doing this you miss the real moral of it.

Why Is It So Addicting?

Go, is a very simple and fun game, even though it is simple it's a game of "critical thinking" it reminds me of the game Sudoku. You must always be attentive and watch out for the other persons move. The rules are simply the following:

1. A two player game (black or white) your objective is to eliminate your opponent, using chips.
2. The way you eliminate your opponent is to surround them with your chips and by doing this eliminating the chips inside.
3. Once you place your chip you are prohibited to remove it and set it down in another line.

These are the rules to play Go, this game ca teach much about life, for example you can't always attack your enemy directly you may have to go around and "out smart" him.

Wow! The Monalisa Does Look Great

When I was reading I realized that people have different points of view of any book you read and the same person may have different interpretations for the same book multiple times. For example Tao Te Ching can be read in many ways and each time you can have a different look at what you just read. Mr. Tangen taught us a way to read books and get all the juice from it, because the majority of people read books and just read it. They dont really look at the broad picture and Mr. Tangen taught us a way that we can look at the bigger picture and that it is to break up the lines and analyze them one by one. By doing this we can decode what each line conveys to us.

Tao Said This, Tao Said That, Why Can't We Just Live Our Way!

Tao Te Ching is it a life line that guides us? Tao has many similarities with Confucius in that they both try to guide us into being "gentleman" As I read Tao I noticed something very peculiar, paradox. Almost all of the maxims and lines have paradox in them, they say something and then say the cause of it "Yield and overcome; Bend and be straight; Empty and be full; Wear out and be new; Have little and gain; Have much and be confused". Throughout the course of human history their have been many foolish attempts to "try" to change how we humans live our lives, and thats what I'm getting at with this. Both Confucius and Tao's attempt to show us "the Way" as said in the Analects or the "path" as in Tao, humans will always live life how they want to live it, and I believe thats how it should be. We dont need some paper telling us whats wrong and whats right in our lives, I know that's pretty much what the Ten Commandments do but those are optional, God never FORCES us to comply with these set laws.

'What others teach, I also teach; that is: "A violent man will die a violent death!" This will be the essense of my teachings.'(Forty-Four) This mazim is completely and utterly incorrect. What happened to Jesus Christ our savior, he was a peaceful man that ONLY did good. And he was brutally and violently crucified by his own people. I totally disagree with this maxim, another example that may be used for this is Adolf Hitler, as you all may know he was an evil genuis if you will. Planning, Beginning, and Accomplishing one of the worlds or the worlds greatest genocide. He was a corrupted man and he died a very quick and nonpainful death.

Simple Sounds Sweet

Although it really doesn't mention this much in the Books 7-8+11, people are always trying to go through the shorter route or the one that takes the least energy in life. Nowadays people often look at the way their doing in life by the size of their wallet and I find that absolutely absurd. So does it mean if your not wealthy and drive around in a Mercedes- Benz that your not happy in life, absolutely not.
I think that nowadays people are inventing technological objects that make life "easier" for themselves, but I say that those people are just lazy. The Master said, "If wealth were something worth pursuing, then I would pursue it, even if that meant serving as an officer holding a whip at the entrance to a marketplace. Since it is not worth pursuing, however. I prefer to follow that which I love." (7.12) When I read this quote I felt it was entirely essential to my blog. The master enjoyed the humble and modest rather than the wealth and power.
This reminded me of a story that my religion teacher once told me of the importance of the meaning of gifts not the amount. "He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more then all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood." This story will stick with me where ever life will take me, because it has a deep moral to it, and that is that people in life will never care about the amount of money you put into something; just the amount of love or energy you put. This example works as well for home works, teachers don't care about amount, but of the quality.

Who is Perfect? Confucius.

Confucius had a very unique philosophy of a "gentleman." He uses teaching to convey what he thinks a gentleman should be with examples of ancient Japanese men. His main idea is to describe to us what is Good. What we should and should not do to achieve Goodness, I thought the way he displayed it was a little bit confusing. In Book Four he explains what we should do to be a gentleman and what are the consequences if we don't. In Book Five, as I stated before, he uses some examples of ancient men to show to us what is accepted as Good. What I didn't understand was that whenever he was asked if this person was Good he never knew, " The Master said, "In a state of one thousand chariots, Zilu could be employed to organize the collection of military taxes, but I do not know whether or not he is Good." In Book Six he judges others his "pedagogical goal is to install virtuous dispositions rather than impart abstract principles" it reminds me some what of Ishmael because the point of the book was to teach the man how to become a better "person".
What I didn't agree with Confucius is the way he put his rules he was very blunt, there was no other option. I believe that a role model should always have another alternative to his way of teaching. Is Confucius really the BEST role model?

How does Elie relate to our class?

Elie Wiesel's trilling and jaw-dropping novel is a fascinating story between a jewish father and son's fight for survival. Seperated from their family at the beginning of the Holocaust and sent to different concentration camps, each time showing how much each one cares for the other, if it's giving up your portion of bread for the day becuase your father is sick and in need of it well so be it, or if its caring your son through the snow because his feet are hurting a little less than yours are well so be it. The novel is centered around a jewish boys fight in the inevitable genocide also known as the Holocaust. Who is faced to overcome many body bruising tasks. The character is confronted with many obstacles and through out the story has to find something or someone to believe in, and that was his fuel; his energy; his inspiration to perservere inspite the harsh conditions. It also may relate because each protagonist begins to question the existance God in some point of the story, each one questions their faith. For example in Night when Elie begins to ponder if there is in fact a God who cares and whatches over his so called "sons", because he can't comprehend that if there was a true and good God that he would allow the Nazi to do such cruel things.
We are presented the same situation in Job when Satan is granted permission to test Jobs "faith", after Satan inflicts Job with the horrible skin sore, Job curses God comparing his life with light and dark.
The way Elie expressed himself, was a very important factor to the novel, he made me feel at least, that I was a jew, and made me feel hate towards the Nazi. Even though I learned that many of the SS soldiers that were part of the massacre, weren't vicious creatures, they had a family and felt compassion for the jews. What they lacked in was the strenght to go against Hitler's word and his followers, they were afraid to say "No!" I will not be part of this horrible expirnment. I remember while I was reading I couldn't keep my eyes from the pages, I remember vividly that I would go to sleep angry, thinking about how much the jews were tortured, how much they suffered, for the religion they followed, and many were born into that religion and didn't practice it at all.
It reminded me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the way he expresses his thoughts on paper, almost like the real thing. Gabo has a way with words that makes you feel like your present in the moment, that you can feel the emotions running in you, thats how I felt as I was sailing across the adventure that Elie Wiesel exposes with his award winning Night.

God and his "Favorite" Angel

When I read Job, I suddenly realized that the entire chapter is a big dispute between God and Satan. They quibble over power, Job was first chosen or blessed by God and Satan began to feel jealous. Satan is completely envious of Gods power and so wants some for himself, he "tries" to accomplish this by manipulating Job and making him miserable. Satan asks God to give him a chance to prove that Job is unfaithful and had no credibility. He sends Job four messages saying: livestock, servants, and ten children have all died due to marauding invaders or natural catastrophes. When Job hears this he tears up all his clothing, shaves his head, and wakes up early in the morning; praying to God. God is not impressed with Satan's attempt, but Satan asks for another chance, God agrees. Satan then afflicts terrible skin sores onto Job, this agrivates him and makes him unhappy. He then begins to compare his life with the darkness and the light. He wants to demoralize Job because he believes that God had too many followers already and is jealous of this.
This reminds me of the Saul and David story, God had first given the power to Saul. When God saw that he had made the mistake of giving the power to Saul instead of David as said to be divine and born to be a king. He takes the powers from Saul and bestows them upon David. This action causes much envy, jealousy, and hatred towards David that he begins to become prvoked by the idea of killing David.

Barack...Hitler???

While listening to Barack Obama's acceptance speech, I thought of a curious comparison. Could Barack's speech be the same type of speech that Adolf Hitler gave Germany when it was going through the Great Depression? Well, Germany at the time as you all may know was in its greatest economical crisis, after being one of the world powers in WWI it was in its lowest economical status. Men and women were out of jobs, children forced to work in factories, everyday getting infections and not having the correct support or medical attention they needed. Ofcourse, it is logical that if a man, already known in politics comes to you and tells you that he will give back the power Germany deserves, that he will restore everything that Germany once stood for, you will follow him instantly, and thats exactly what he did, he never said that it was going to be a good world power.In a way we cant say that he lied to his people, he gave Germany power again, he gave Germany the attention it wanted. And we can sit here and argue that Hitler was an evil mind, always looking for touble, and that he never accomplished anything, well your wrong he accomplished his goal in MANY ways he got what he needed to be done, he successfully accomplished his goal of remembering his name.
We can relate this to our lives and situations today, America, land of the free and home of the brave is in its lowest economical status or is in dire need for help. If a man (Obama) comes to us and tell us that he will restore what AMERICA stands for, then your going to vote for him almost instantly. As Obama said, "The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans, Democrats and Republicans, have built, and we are here to restore that legacy." Again, let me stress this to you, "We are here to RESTORE that legacy." This is a direct comparison of what Hitler said almost 6 decades ago to his hopeless Germans. The funny thing is that Hitler new the game, he new that he would be elected as leader if he gave the people what they wanted to hear, and I'm no expert in politics but thats it really what Obama is trying to do, hes giving Americans hope, hes giving them something to fall back on after these eight horrible years of presidency that George W. Bush has given us.