Art Therapy! Friday, P2 [Week 6]

[flashesforinfo.livejournal.com]

Today there were magazines. Everywhere. Magazines and newspapers and old movie posters, and leaflets and a number of other paper-based products. Near them was also a stack of regular blank cardboard and glue, paint and glitter.

“Today is collage day,” Angela announced, once everyone had arrived. “Flick through all the reading material, and if something draws you, rip it out. Maybe it’s things you like, maybe things you can’t stand, maybe it's just words. It doesn’t matter. Once you’ve got yourself a good collection, you’ll be turning it into collage, or a poem, or a ransom note or something else. The choice is yours.”

“If you want something you don’t see around, just ask. Otherwise, this should be a nice easy day for you guys.”

Surviving Life at Court, Friday, 6/15

[halfman-lion.livejournal.com]

"I apologize for last week," Tyrion said, once the students were gathered. "I was unavoidably detained. I trust my absence didn't cause too many problems. Today, we are going to discuss house arms and mottoes. House arms are the thing printed on the banner that soldiers take into battle. They are designed to be bold and recognizable from a distance. House words are more internal; they're a saying representing the strength of your family. In many worlds, this is a key bit of how you present yourself in a formal situation."

He took a few steps back toward an overhead projector, and sketched a rough red square with a recognizable, but rough, lion standing on his hind legs in the center on a slide. "'Hear Me Roar," he said, and wrote the phrase out. "That is the arms and words of House Lannister. And no, my folk aren't lionkeepers, it's a metaphor."

He moved to another slide, drew a black squid against a yellow rectangle, and wrote We do not sow beside it. "That is House Greyjoy. They rule over a set of bleak islands, hence the kraken and the motto."

A third slide got a green shield, with a gold flower and the words Growing Strong. "House Tyrell. Very rich people from one of the most prosperous bits of my world."

He stopped there. "You get the idea, I hope. Your motto and arms should encapsulate who you wish to be perceived as, far more than representing who you have been. We're all on equal ground here. You have colored paper, bits of cloth, and things to write with in the back of the room. Please prepare a house shield and motto to present at the end of class."

Practical Philosophy, Friday

[endsthegame]

"Happiness," Ender said, "Is both a complicated and a simple affair. I can't say I'm any kind of expert on it - I don't think most of us are. If you are, congratulations. Make sure you've got as few regrets as you can."

He poked at the grass with his foot. "It's such a hard thing to define, though many have tried," he continued. "Chemists and biologists would tell you it's a function of a chemical called dopamine, which controls your ability to experience pleasure and motivation. A Hallmark card - it's a type of card you can send to people in the mail with a pre-printed message - might tell you it's being with someone you love, or having a warm plate of cookies."

He sounded a little wry.

"But regardless of what it is - chemistry, cookies, comforts, companionship - a good portion of society, or at least the society I'm from, is devoted to figuring out how to attain it. There's a well-known adage that money can't buy happiness. A nearly equally well-known adage states that it 'sure helps'. It certainly strips you of worries and limits-- but is an absence of worry and an absence of boundaries genuinely what makes us happy?"

He smiled. "Maybe it stems from family, from meeting a partner, falling in love. Chemists would tell you that's technically a different piece of engineering, I think - a chemical called oxytocin, though I could be wrong. For many, a relationship can be a source of stability and fulfillment, though for others, it might feel like a trap, a requirement of society. Again, though, the question is: is stability and emotional fulfillment the essence of happiness? It certainly sounds more like it - but it might actually make happiness harder for those who try this avenue and yet never seem to reach either."

"So maybe it's just knowing your needs and fulfilling them," he noted. "Though could we characterize happiness as the absence of want? That might sound more like contentment - if there's genuinely a difference between the two."

He shrugged. "It's a complicated affair," he said, "and maybe it's a little too ethereal for what this class purports to do. But it's worth thinking about, I think, if simply to understand ourselves a little better."

Ender was not going to touch the issue of whether some people deserved happiness with a ten foot pole, though it wasn't far from his mind. Instead, he fell quiet, and waited for someone else to speak.