Spring Final

Empathetic teenagers are able to use failure as a learning tool to know what not to do when approaching success.  Empathy is the ability for a person to feel what someone else is going through, even if that someone is a complete stranger.  In the Empathic Civilization Ted Talk video, Jeremy Rifkin says “Empathy is grounded in the acknowledge of death and the celebration of life”(Empathic Civilization).  Teenagers that show empathy can acknowledge the stresses of life and use setbacks to maneuver through to the solution.  They often comprehend the material they are learning and know how to apply it rather than just memorizing to get by.  Ugo Uche, a licensed professional counselor, said, “teenagers who are empathetic tend to be more purpose driven and they intentionally succeed in their academics not because they are looking to make good grades, but in most subjects their goal is to understand the subject material and to utilize the knowledge as one of their ever increasing tools”(Ugo Uche).  Teenagers that are not empathetic show to be self-centered and are not able to take Failing as a learning experience, but rather as a negative impact on their lives.  “Teenagers who are more empathetic do a much better job in embracing failure, because there is little ego involved in their tasks, and setbacks while disappointing are rarely seen as a failures, but rather as a learning experience about an approach that does not work for the task at hand”(Ugo Uche).  Even though some people are not as empathetic as others, research shows that empathy is built into human nature by mirror neurons.  Humans are soft wired to help each other survive and prosper.  The problem is the act of accessing and using empathy from within one’s self.  Non-empathetic teenagers need to realize how beneficial empathy is to themselves and those around them; empathy is the tool to success.

            

Victor becomes like a salmon, he is able to swim through the hardships of Native Nations and losing his father to PTS.  The film Smoke Signals, directed by Chris Eyre, displays a contemporary native nation of the Coeur d’Alene, where Victor grows up with his friend Thomas in a world of poverty, alcoholism, and posttraumatic stress.  “You know there are some children who aren't really children at all, they're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some children who are just pillars of ash, that fall apart when you touch them... Victor and me, we were children of flame and ash”(Thomas-Smoke Signals).  Victor grows up with constant rage and anger of his dad’s drinking problem (the flame), where as Thomas becomes very naïve, but is weak to anyone that confronts him (ashes).  Arnold Joseph leaves Victor at a young age, and eventually passes away in Arizona.  Victor voyages out to Arizona with Thomas to amend his past with his father.  Along the trip, Thomas pushes Victor to the breaking point by triggering past memories of his father.  Thomas is trying to make Victor confront his past and tells him, “all I know is that when your father left your mother lost you too”(Thomas-Smoke Signals).  After a long journey home, Victor is able to understand what Thomas is telling him. He realizes that his father did not mean to leave; it wasn’t his fault.  It was because of the Vietnam War and the Oppression of Native Americans that caused Arnold Joseph to become an alcoholic and burn the house down.  He always wanted to come back, but he couldn’t, knowing that he had Thomas’s parent’s blood on his hands.  Victor comes back to his reservation with the ceremony complete. Victor is like a salmon because of his journey through confronting his past and the treatment of Native Nations.  He also realizes that the death of his father is meaningful and that it gives meaning to his life, like a salmon.  Salmon travel far distances up river, only to reproduce and die.  “In the end, it is their death that provides the gift of life”(National Geographic).  Victor eventually releases the ashes of his father off a bridge down a cascading waterfall.  Victor screams all of his frustration, anger and breaks down like ashes, only to rebuild his new life.

The advancement of technology has changed how society spreads their knowledge and their ideas (Press Pause Play). There are many different ways people communicate:  intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, and mass communication.  All of these types of communication include a source, a channel, and a receiver.  The channel is how information gets from one to another, whether it’s by talking, writing, drawing, texting, calling, etc.  This allows for culture to spread through society.  Today, there are countless more channels to communicate through, channels that allow mass communication like social media.  Writing letters or post cards is becoming a lost art because of the access to electronic mail.  The availability of technology in this age has been greater than ever before.  People without the greatest economical standpoint can make a name for themselves.  One only needs a smart phone to write a book, take pictures, create film, or even draw.  David Girhammar says, “I would not be where I am today if I lived 15 years ago, because I was in the age of the specialist”(Press Pause Play).  One can now publish a book or post their own music by themselves online and become their own boss without larger companies interfering; A third party is not needed to be involved to distribute ones art by taking a percent profit from the artist.  Anybody with an imagination can create whatever he or she wants and share it with the world.  Moby says, “The human spirit when it’s allowed to become made manifest through art invariably is going to create greatness.  It almost doesn’t matter what the medium is…when humans make things, they tend to make interesting things”(Press pause play). With all the different kinds of technology and social media, almost anyone can express themselves anyway they want to.  However, the more accessible technology becomes to everyone, the more saturated society becomes of the images and ideas around them.  Seth Godin, in his Ted Talk video about how to get your ideas spread, explains how to make one’s idea stand out.  “In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff…when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones”(Seth Godin).  Using new technology allows soceity to communicate to people when they are half way around the world.  Seth Godin shows how to spread one’s ideas through technology in a successful way. 

For every problem Joe encountered, he was able to use social media and the empathy of others to survive.  In the film Craigslist Joe, Joe does an experiment on whether he could live for a month by only using craigslist Joe to get food and shelter.  Joe goes on to show how random people came to help in at times of need because of the empathy they had for him.  The empathy that was conveyed between Joe and all the people he met on his journey started because of social media.  “The most inspiring experience of my life…The generosity of people and the stories they share and the connections I’ve made in one month is so deep”(Craigslist Joe).  Joe meets all kinds of people from different cultures and communities and is able to connect with all of them, even though he is much different.  Some say social media may be distracting, but it has so much more potential to be beneficial to everyone.  In an article about how social media builds empathy, Elizabeth Tenety says, “many younger Americans see social media as a place where they find meaning.  A 2013 study found that teenagers often feel that social media helps them to deepen their relationship with others”(Washington Post).  Social media actually empowers us to bond as one to invent and create strong relationships.  Although social media can show depressing and negative actions of other people, it allows us to feel and help for those in need.  Rainie says, “In the grand scheme of communities and society, there’s probably a pretty good case to make that being aware of the good and the bad just makes you a little bit better a friend and a little bit more tuned into what’s going on around you”(Washington Post).  Social Media has given the world more opportunities for people to empathize with each other, bringing society closer together then ever before.

The laguna Pueblo culture learn to change their ceremonies throughout time to adapt to current society.  A ceremony is a series of transitions that helps one get to a better state of mind.  In the novel Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko describes Tayo’s ceremony of healing from white oppression and PTS. There were many obstacles and distractions along Tayo’s journey, including drugs, alcohol, friends, and family.  Tayo learns that western medicine is only a temporary way out from facing life challenges.  “…the thick white skin that had enclosed him, silencing the sensations of living, the love as well as the grief; and he had been left with only the hum of the tissues that enclosed him.  He never knew how long he had been lost there, in that hospital in Los Angeles”(Silko 213).  The medicine acted like a scapegoat from his PTS and only made his problems larger.  Alcohol acts in the same way, by clouding Tayo’s mind from the war in the Philippians and the deaths of Josiah and Rocky. With the help of Old Betonie and Ts’eh, Tayo becomes at balance with himself.  Tayo is able to see past the witchery of the world and realizes that in order to heal, one needs community, storytelling, and nature.  “He cried the relief he felt at finally seeing the pattern, the way all the stories fit together-the old stories, the war stories, their stories-to become the story that was still being told.  He was not crazy; he had never been crazy.  He had only seen and heard the world as it always was: no boundaries, only transitions through all distances and time”(Silko 229).  Tayo understands that as the world changes, one must transition through with it.  Suzanne M. Austgen explains how ceremonies change due to white contact on Pueblo Myth and Ritual.  Frank Waters states in Austgen’s paper that, “For here as nowhere else has the conflict been fought so bitterly, and have the opposing principles approached so closely a fusion. At that fusion there will arise the new faith for which we are crying so desperately"(The Effects of White Contact on Pueblo Myth and Ritual).  This quote means that Native Nations need to integrate and adapt to the changing of their surroundings.