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The role of grandparents in your child's life
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The role of grandparents in your child's life
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Personal Narrative- Grandpa and His Canoe
Smallville, USA is about thirty minutes from Nowhere, USA. Smallville is a small town for small town people. My grandfather was one of those small town people. He owned a small camp on a small lake near Smallville.
Kosoag Lake. From what I remember of the historical facts I gathered from growing up, asking questions, and pretending to listen, Kosoag Lake was earth. The lake was a part of Native American land flooded out for God knows what reason. In essence, it is a man-made lake, and that is why it is clean and beautiful. The water doesn’t contain oily swirls created by Mercury 250’s flying by as extreme sportists hang on for dear life. There is no room for that kind of foreplay here.
The water is deep yet dense with seaweed. Tree stumps lay patiently at the bottom of the clear water waiting for kids, who think they’re Jacques Cousteau, to discover with a mask and snorkel. Canoeing is the most exercise you’ll get off Kosoag Lake. To canoe across the entire lake would only take thirty minutes or so. Or one can paddle for a good 10 minutes and reach the only bar within miles of the winding, motor home populated, dead deer ridden roads: Kosoag Lake Inn. And this where it all began, or where it all ended.
First I’ll start from sort of the beginning, the beginning you should know about. My Grandfather; Papa; Grandpa Ryan; David; always smoked Camels. Camel non filters. His wife Nana; Grandma Ryan; Mildred; always smoked Pall Malls. Pall Mall filters. Nana passed away when I was young. I was watching Willow. I didn’t understand the movie and will never understand death.
Fast forward ten years...
Sitting at an empty seat at the Kosoag Lake Inn, where there will always be ...
... middle of paper ...
... decided that it was their time to leave camp forever. Everything was perfect and it was going to be from now on. Then that damn Reebok shoe, all dirty, dusty and worn in, caught my vision. The shoe was my grandfather’s.
No he wasn’t dreaming of aluminum canoes and velvet ducks inside. He had walked away without one shoe. If I was an optimist I’d say that Papa had walked away with one shoe. A dead man’s shoe can’t just walk back into life like it never left. If Papa wasn’t with his shoe, then the shoe becomes useless. The shoe can’t protect anything. It can’t make anything look or feel better. It can’t come here nor there. The shoe can’t come back to this life without it’s owner. And Papa wasn’t coming back with only one shoe. That would look much too asinine for a man of his stature.
I miss him dearly and in missing him, am afraid to make a few steps myself.
The lake itself plays a major role throughout the story, as it mirrors the characters almost exactly. For example, the lake is described as being “fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans” (125). The characters are also described as being “greasy” or “dangerous” several times, which ties the lake and the characters together through their similarities. The narrator explains, “We were bad. At night we went up to Greasy Lake” (124). This demonstrates the importance that the surroundings in which the main characters’ choose to be in is extremely important to the image that they reflect. At the beginning of the story, these characters’ images and specifically being “bad” is essentially all that mattered to them. “We wore torn up leather jackets…drank gin and grape juice…sniffed glue and ether and what somebody claimed was cocaine” (124). They went out of their ...
Greasy Lake was once beautiful and clear until the actions of humanity changed it to something that was filled with chaos and destruction. The Native Americans used to call Greasy lake Wakan, which was a reference to its clear waters (Boyle 570). The narrator says that, “Now it was fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of the bonfires” (Boyle 570). The lake acts a symbol because this was where the youth went to party and have the times of their lives. These characters went to Greasy Lake because to them, this was “nature” (Boyle 570). Moreover, the desolate lake could have been a representation of the people who went there in search of fun. The “bad” characters who visited Greasy Lake were associated with the transfiguration of the lake. This once beautiful lake was now a party site which, “…is associated with decay and destruction…”
Vannatta, Dennis “Greasy Lake.” Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition, 2004 MagillOnLiterature Plus. Web. 8 April 2006
This vacation spot White describes through memories of his boyhood days always seemed to be so wonderful no matter what had gone wrong. White recalls the time when "[his] father rolled over in a canoe" and another time when "[they] all got ringworm" but none of this mattered in the long run, after all, this was the best place on earth. To White the mountain lake is seen as "constant and trustworthy", and on the trip back there with his own son, White wondered if "time would have marred" the appearance of the lake. Thoughts of the time spent there summer after summer continued to revisit White throughout the trip and everything from thunderstorms to the stillness of the water
Despite the differences we share many similar diversions such as good quality time with our families. Arthur was known to spend countless hours reading and listening to music with his mom. Yet at the age of 6 Arthur had to face one of the most traumatic expierences of his life when he lost his mother, Matti Ashe, to a fatal case of toxemia while in labor. Similar to this experience I lost my grandfather at the age of five. Although I was impacted greatly it was not a loss as great as Arthurs loss of a loving mother. I Can recall the day it happened just as well as Arthur recalled the details of when he last saw his mother.
“The Prince”, by Niccolo Machiavelli, is a series of letters written to the current ruler of Italy, Lorenzo de’ Medici. These letters are a “how-to” guide on what to do and what not to do. He uses examples to further express his views on the subject. The main purpose was to inform the reader how to effectively rule and be an acceptable Prince. Any ruler who wishes to keep absolute control of his principality must use not only wisdom and skill, but cunning and cruelness through fear rather than love. Machiavelli writes this book as his summary of all the deeds of great men.
Lake Tahoe, an enormous expanse of clear, blue, fresh water surrounded by meadows and dense forests and rimmed by snow-capped peaks, is one of the world's great scenic and ecological wonders. Tahoe's water is world famous for its amazing clarity. Even today, one can see objects 70 feet below the surface, a clarity matched almost nowhere in the world. The Tahoe Basin had a slowly evolving and essentially balanced environment for thousands of years, with surrounding forests, meadows and marshlands helping to maintain the clarity and purity of the lake.
Machiavelli's life was very interesting. He lived a nondescript childhood in Florence, and his main political experience in his youth was watching Savanarola from afar. Soon after Savanarola was executed, Machiavelli entered the Florentine government as a secretary. His position quickly rose, however, and was soon engaging in diplomatic missions. He met many of the important politicians of the day, such as the Pope and the King of France, but none had more impact on him than a prince of the Papal States, Cesare Borgia. Borgia was a cunning, cruel man, very much like the one portrayed in The Prince. Machiavelli did not truly like Borgia's policies, but he thought that with a ruler like Borgia the Florentines could unite Italy, which was Machiavelli's goal throughout his life. Unfortunately for Machiavelli, he was dismissed from office when the Medici came to rule Florence and the Republic was overthrown. The lack of a job forced him to switch to writing about politics instead of being active. His diplomatic missions were his last official government positions.
There are many facts that are unknown about dreams and their meanings. For centuries, philosophers and scientists have tried to understand the meaning of dreams. They have all been fascinated by the fact that the content of dreams may have meanings relating to one's life. Are dreams just thoughts in people's minds, or are dreams in fact representations of different areas in people's lives? Dreams represent many different areas of one's life in physical, emotional, and mental ways. Dreams can relay to people facts about their lives that they are not even aware of. There are also many ways that dreams can help cure different physical, emotional, and mental problems in one's life. This paper will discuss dreams and their meanings, and ways of interpreting a dream using such methods as hypnotherapy and psychoanalysis therapy that can help a person in physical, mental, and emotional ways. The first fact that will be discussed is what dreams are and how they work for people in allowing the person to discover more about himself. Dreams can be defined as "a conscious series of images that occur during sleep" (Collier's, vol. 8). Dreams are usually very vivid in color and imagery. They reveal to the dreamer different wishes, concerns, and worries that he or she has. Dreams usually reflect every part of who the dreamer is. The content of the person's dream is usually made up according to how old the dreamer is and how educated the he or she is (Collier's, vol. 8). Dreams are not planned out or thought up. The unconscious part of the mind brings out bits and pieces of information in the dreamer's mind and places them together. According to Encarta, dreams are almost always visual. Forty to fifty percent of dreams have some form of communication present in them and a very small percentage of dreams give the dreamer the ability to use his or her five senses (Encarta). Dreams allow one to take a closer look into his mind and himself in a quest for self-discovery. Dreams can be used to solve all different types of problems. In Sigmund Freud's book, The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud states: "As regards the dream, all the troubles of waking life are transferred by it to the sleeping state […]" (Freud 113). They relay things about a person that the person may not be able to see.
The pathway was for people who rode their bikes or for people who walked. The pathway was right outside my house and it split into two different directions. If you went straight and walked about seven minutes, it would lead you right into the town of Sylvan Lake but if you were to take the curving pathway, it would lead you to a community pool. If you were to walk from my house, to the town, and look in front of you, you would see a lot of little shops, side by side. The shops ranged anywhere from ice cream shops, to surfing shops, to clothing shops. Right beside the shops, was the lake that surrounded the whole town of Sylvan lake. I couldn’t believe that I had a beach right outside my house and that you could literally walk from my house, to the beach in just a bathing suit. If you were to do that in Ottawa, you would surely be looked at differently but here it was
One day in Tennessee, I came to the rescue of my brother. We finally got to our cabin after eight hours of driving plus stops. Tennessee is really nice because there are mountains and lots of green trees. The waterfalls are beautiful, too. My family’s cabin had two rooms and three beds. It also had a hot tub on the deck and a great view. On the third day my dad, brother, dog, and I went on a walk on a path by rocky walls. On the way we saw a wooden wagon that was old. My brother and I got in it for my dad to take a picture. Suddenly, my brother got stung by a bee! It hurt his arm, which felt like a needle poking you in the arm. I walked him back up to our cabin where he could get the first aid-kit. I handed him medicine and a band aid, then
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli isn't about one man's ways to feed his power hungry mindset through gluttony, nor is it just explaining altercations between a nation's states. This writing is regarding to how one's self-confidence can make them become powerful in a society and also, the way morals and politics differ and can be separate in a government. Originally, Machiavelli wrote The Prince to gain support from Lorenzo de' Medici, who during the era, was governor of Florence. As meant as writing for how a society should be run, this book has been read by many peoples around the world who want to have better knowledge of the perfect stability of beliefs and politics required to run a good civilization.
I have been very fortunate to have known my maternal and paternal grandparents and great-grandparents. We enjoy a close family and always have. Sadly, my first experience with a close death was when my paternal grandma died at the age of sixty-four of colon cancer. I was in the ninth grade when she died and hers’ was the first wake and funeral I had experienced. I remember having nightmares for weeks after the funeral. As I grew older, I lost my
There are many theories about dream interpretations. These theories help gain a better understanding of an individual’s dream, and may help with the hidden messages. Although Freud’s and Jung’s dream theories are outmoded, they contributed in the rise of the study of dreams in psychology.
Knowing what is dream, let us explore how the concept of dream first comes about. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was considered the father of dreams. Dr. Freud’s began analyzing dream in order to understand the different aspects of personality as they relate to pathology. He believes that nothing can occur by chance. At every level of our unconscious mind, every thought is being motivated. Dr. Freud’s theories are based on the idea of repressed longing and the desires that cannot be expressed in a social setting. Dream allow...