Lanyard

This week the class was assigned to read the poem Lanyard. This poem really challenged me to consider how I view my mom and made me question how much appreciation I really show her for all she has done for me. I am adopted, so in my case my mother did not actually give birth to me, but she has done everything a mother does for a child for me. She takes care of me when I am sick and help me solve a problem when I encounter one. She helps keep me out of trouble and from a young age, she has instilled valuable lifelong lessons in my life. When I think about it, what have I really done for her? I have made her little gifts growing up and I have tried to make her proud of the things I do in life, but it is hard to compare anything I have done for her to all the things she has done for me.

In the last line of the poem the author says that the “lanyard” is enough to make “us even”. The author is referring to his mom and I find this sentence highly unusual. How does a lanyard break even with everything the mom has given her son, including life? I would love to think that a present I give my mom will have some significance, but I do not ever think that I can make up for everything she has done for me in my life. My mother is truly irreplaceable. The poem talks about how mothers “give life”, “teach”, and care for their children. I can say in my case, that this is not always an easy job. I think that my mother and all mothers have done so much for their children and I think that nothing can ever really show what they mean to us. I think that children should thank their mothers for everything they do for them by trying to obey them and by showing them love and compassion everyday of their life. I truly believe that without my mom being my mom throughout my life, I would not be the person that I am today and will be in the future.

Harrison Bergeron

            In the story Harrison Bergeron the people are all equal to one another in every possible way. If a person has traits that may make them seem better off than others in the world’s eyes, they are required by law to wear handicaps. I found this part of the text to be the most challenging for me. As Christians, we know that God created everyone in his image and that everyone has a specific purpose. No one was created on accident. While reading this story I was very upset about the fact that these people’s lives were completely controlled, to the point that a couple could not even remember that their son had just died because of the handicaps that had been placed in their lives. This is the sad reality of what it would be like if the world was run by a single ruler or a group of rulers who had complete control over everyone on earth. This is a scary thought for me and this story made me realize that we as people need to make sure that nothing like this ever happens by not letting a situation get to this extreme.

            This story really challenges the way SEU’s culture thinks. At SEU students gifts and special abilities are encouraged to be used. God is the one who gives people talent and he says in the Bible that he wants us to use our talents to glorify him. In the story Harrison Bergeron, the people are not using their talents because they have been hidden by all if the handicaps that outweigh their talents. I think that Christians would not like reading this text because of the great difference between the way God instructs us to live our lives and the way these people are made to live their lives. I know that what was happening to these people was wrong and as I read the text I could not help but feel some anger and resentment for the way these people were being treated. When the son of the couple died and the mother could not even remember what she was crying about is the point at which how they were really living hit me. I found this part of the text to be very sad. I saw firsthand a glimpse into these people’s world and I did not like what I saw.