Anticipation Guide

1. The key to all emotional healing can be found in nature. Agree
2. Nature is filled with harsh cruelties. Agree
3. A person’s priorities should place family before work. Agree
4. Enjoying life is more important than pursuing fame, glory, and knowledge. Agree

Pursing fame, glory, and knowledge may give you happiness but at the end of the day you will find a sense of emptiness. You will reach a point where you will wonder 'is that all there is?' By pursuing fame, glory, and knowledge what you are actually doing is trying to be happy. You believe that once you're famous you'll be happy, once you've got glory you'll be happy, once you learn something you'll be happy.

The truth is that happiness lies in the moment. It lies in the here and now, it lies in appreciating what you have and in counting your blessings. if you're always trying to get something more then you will never be happy. Happiness will always be around the next corner.

On the other hand if you make being happy now your objective in life then whether you get fame or whether you get glory or knowledge or whatever else you might want to achieve, you'll be happy. This is because you will be enjoying life as you live it now, this very minute, not tomorrow or yesterday.

You could say that if you have glory or fame or knowledge then you can enjoy life. But what if you don't? That's why it is important to look at life the other way round.

5. Those born with social and financial advantages have a responsibility for those who are not. Agree
6. Ignorance is bliss. Disagree

This proverb is based on the idea that what you don't know can't hurt you. However, this is not entirely true. Supposing you're in a boat traveling along a river leading towards the Niagara Falls but you don't know that the Niagara Falls are around the corner. You might

be blissfully enjoying the scenery, the boat ride, the moment and the next thing you know you're over the falls and you're dead. In which case ignorance might have ben bliss for that particular moment but you're lack of knowledge for something eventually killed you.

In the same way people may be happier living in their own secluded world, maybe lying to themselves about some truth or rather, not willing to face reality, yet that truth, if they don't face up to it, might eventually destroy them so it's not such a good idea to be ignorant.

If a person for example doesn't know about advances in science, in medicine, in technology etc he might be blissfuly happy in one way but this lack of knowledge could also mean he is missing out on things that could also be making him happier.

7. The pursuit of knowledge is a volatile quest. Agree
8. Someone’s ego (over-inflated sense of self-worth or superiority) will cause a tragic fall. Agree
9. Children learn their behaviors by watching and mimicking adults. Agree
10. Most people are basically cruel. Agree
11. Society makes a person whatever he becomes. Disagree
12. The “disenfranchised man,” who finds himself unable to live within society for whatever reason, is someone for whom we should feel sympathy or reverence. Disagree
13. Rejection and mistreatment can manifest themselves in a person becoming rage-filled. Agree
14. If a person or an animal is treated with cruelty, he will respond to others in the same way. Agree
15. Those people we deem “monsters” in today’s society are merely misunderstood. Agree

Perspective Piece - To Kill a Mockingbird

I was sitting in the living room doing my embroidery when I heard Scout ask Atticus what rape is. She said she had asked Calpurnia who had told her to ask her father while on a trip to church with her. I put down my sewing to listen. I was surprised as to how Atticus had let these kids be brought up by Calpurnia. When Scout asked if she could go to Calpurnia’s house I just had to interrupt. I told her in no uncertain words that she certainly could not! I was not about to let my niece get too involved with Negros.

“I didn’t ask you!” the rude little girl replied.

Fortunately, Atticus took my side and made her apologize. He made it quite clear to her that she had to do whatever I told her to do for as long as I was in the house. But to my surprise he added that she also had to do whatever Calpurnia told her to do. That was a bit much in my view.

She apologized and stormed off into the bathroom. I took the opportunity to give Atticus a piece of my mind. I told him he had to get rid of Calpurnia.

“You’ve let things go on too long, Atticus, too long.”

“I don’t see any harm in letting her go out there. Cal’d look after her there as well as she does here.”

“Atticus, its all right to be soft-hearted, you’re an easy man, but you have a daughter to think of. A daughter who’s growing up.”

He claimed that’s who he was thinking about but how could he possibly be when he still insisted on keeping Calpurnia in the house.

“Don’t try to get around it. You’ve got to face it sooner or later and it might as well be tonight. We don’t need her now.”

Unfortunately, Atticus refused point blank. He said Calpurnia was part of their family and that I must accept things the way they are. What’s wrong with the man? Can’t he see that blacks and whites shouldn’t mix? Can’t he see that she could be a bad influence on the kids? This is what happens when your wife dies and you have no one and you don’t have a woman’s wisdom to guide you. He claimed that Calpurnia was like a mother to them but that’s ridiculous.