Blog#3: Animals

For this post I read the story "April in Paris" in the same David Sedaris book (pages 204-217). This story talks about how much impact animals have on convincing people of things. Sedaris brought up the example of after Katrina. There were incessant news stories about the horrible disaster, with phone numbers to call to and donate flashing across the screen. But what if they had had a puppy on the TV? Would they have made more money? Honestly, I think they would have. One example that comes to mind is the charity 'Helping Paws'. I was recently at a benefit dinner for this organization because my aunt is involved with them. They were telling about all the large companies that had recently chosen them as their charitable initiative for the year. As much as aid dogs are a very good cause, I am sure that they were only chosen because they are animals. To get these donations, the company brings in one of these dogs to do a demonstration. The dog is very talented, and also adorable and loving. Also, it is frankly much more enjoyable spending the evening at a benefit dinner for cute animals with people telling about how these dogs changed their lives than to learn about the next horrible disease that is killing thousands and ripping families apart. Sedaris brings up the point of how much people connect to animals, which is very true. They have cute little faces and touch your heart. To me, this idea that animals impact people more than human suffering is very frightening. I love animals as much as anyone else, I'm a vegetarian who tries to avoid animal products whenever possible, yet I believe that humans should come before, or at least equal to, humans. But in the end the best advice comes from Sedaris when he recommends to include animals on advertisements for non animal-related charities.

Blog#2: Be Careful What you Wish for

For this post, I read another story from the same collection, “When you are Engulfed in Flames” by David Sedaris. The story that I read, called “What I Learned” (pages 71-81), was one of the few stories written by Sedaris that is fiction rather than nonfiction. This story was about a man who went through Princeton, telling his dad that he was going to major in patricide. Despite his father’s extreme excitement over this idea, he does not kill his father, at least in the literal sense of the word. He majors in literature, but remains unemployed for several years after graduation. He eventually writes books, telling true stories about his family. His parents are mortified. They claim that he is killing them, to which the son replies, “But I thought that’s what you wanted?”(80). His mother replies, “We did, but not this way” (81). Despite how unrealistic this story is, it conveys an important message: be careful what you wish for. Because this man’s parents had show such an interest in being killed by their son, he may have felt that he could do anything to them. After all, if they wanted him to kill them, they obviously wouldn’t care about a little embarrassment. Because of this, a book was published that made them the laughing stock of the neighborhood. We can learn for this fictional story about watching what we wish for, as well as making sure that other people understand what we want and what is okay for them to do in regards to things that affect us.

*My blog wasn't posting before, but I have it worked out now, so I just reposted my first post onto my blog*

Blog#1: Startled to death?

I read the first story of "When You are Engulfed in Flames" by David Sedaris. This includes pages 1-10. This section starts off talking about germs, then goes on to talk about a fact that was thrown out during a discussion: every 5,000 children are startled to death. I don't think that it is important whether or not this fact is true, it leads to interesting thoughts. Everyone wants to avoid anything that could hurt them in this world, which is why we wash our hands, eat healthy, and don't try dangerous stunts. So if being startled to death was on the list of things that could kill us, would people try to avoid things that would startle them? In the book, David Sedaris raises the example "All right, now, Caitlin Two, when we get home a great many people are going to jump out from behind the furniture and yell 'Happy Birthday!' I'm telling you now because I don't want you to get too worked up about it" (10). While this example is somewhat a joke, I do wonder what the result of such a fear could be. Would people truly try to avoid surprise? Surprise is something so uncontrollable. With the exception of an occasional practical joke meant to create a feeling of surprise, surprise generally just happen, with humans having no say in the matter. What could humans do to avoid surprise? They would need to always be fully prepared for everything. Teacher would not be able to give pop quizzes. Would people go so far as to install motion detectors in rooms so that they would know when somebody entered? What about video cameras? I highly doubt that this will ever become an issue, yet it is still interesting to ponder, especially in light of humans’ track record for trying to keep themselves safe.

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