Self and Community: Exploring the Anatomy of Modern Society

Hope: A Poem

The sky above is eternal, filled with stars shining bright,

hiding secrets of our origin and possibilities of life for every star above is a sun,

just like ours and the starlight we see has travelled light years to reach us.

Right before my eyes are my dreams,

shining bright in this eternal night sky that is my mind,

dark without the light of my dreams,

holding secrets of their origin in my words

for every word that I write is a star in my night sky.

I've been living in dark this whole time,

all I want is to fill my sky with starlight.

There are days I forget to exist in moments,

there are moments I try too hard to memorize

only to help me create when the time is right.

I want to answer all the questions but

I'd rather write it all and stay quiet for my art will survive.

The words in front of me were all denied when they were inside my mind,

I opened up the door for them and now I can't lie.

Shaping words into something that's much more beautiful

than what it takes to bring them to life is never easy,

but at the end of the day how can I not be true to my name

and stop myself from giving my words a beautiful shape?

Wide eyed gaze, time flies like clouds changing shapes,

seasons and years add numbers to the age,

I never grew up with early December's and New Year’s Day.

Changing paths and filling in the space,

this road less traveled leads to happiness worth the chase.

It's been a long time finding my way,

footprints on the sidewalk are moving forward,

and this time I'm not turning around or walking away.

I have come a long way, and this time I am here to stay.

Personal Reflection

The book is set in 1940s and based on a story creating a generational link between three generations. The story stars with Rafael Ullmann, a musician who was sent to a concentration camp set by the Nazi's. This trauma affected his childhood and took away all the affection and love he had for music. The story proceeds to focus on his daughter Annie Ullman, who finds herself trapped in a lonely cabin on a Canadian prairie. Three decades later, the story now describes the life of Anne's child Joe Hawker who's uncertain about his life and future until he finds a song written by his grandfather years ago (Bury, Wenzel & Woodyatt, 2019). This is my song is a journey from generation to generation, crossing three boundaries and reminding us to find our own music and sharing it with those who we love the most. 

The poem hope shares my struggle to find my voice, just like Rafael’s struggle to find a normal life. The poem speaks about the comfort of words and their effect on my life, just like Rafael found peace and a sense of safety in his songs and music during his life in concentration camp. The poem hope, compares my life with Rafael's life in suffocating concentration camps, as a life without purpose feels like a life lost and the mere thought of it is suffocating leaving you breathless and numb at times. I found hope in words and a sense of comfort. There are a lot of things about people that creatively inspires me to write, be it just a small conversation or a lifelong association (Allan, 2016). I've always been someone who has a hard time understanding emotions, mostly mine. At times when I feel as if the world around me is about to collapse or when I find myself trapped, just like Rafael trapped in a concentration camp, preparing for his world to collapse, I open an empty page and fill it with words I want to say, things I want to do and moments I want to lived right. Rafael living in a Holocaust must have ached for such moments of peace and careless living; he found his comfort in music and song just like I find my comfort in my words. I write because I love preserving moments and feelings that inspire me both creatively and personally.

Rafael sang because he wanted to live past some worst moments. I have this tendency to remember everything, and much as I hate it, I love it when I'm able to frame it all right. Rafael on the other hand, wanted to forget his suffering and he tried to achieve it by singing songs of hope and peace. I associate with words, they help me heal, they make me smile, they help me cry, and most importantly they help me understand all that's inside my mind. The poem is inspired from Rafael's perseverance and his love for music that helped him survive just like my words help me breathe, for every word that I write is a star in my night sky and without my words my sky is devoid of starlight (Floyd, 2019). I'm not saying I understand it all. I don't. I do try to figure it all out though and so I write. Rafael didn't understand his suffering nor did he had a clarity of life, he still believed in music. For a long time I was lost finding my direction, I was walking on the wrong road, I too didn't had a clarity of life, I still believe in words and they helped me discover my journey, my destination and a life I can truly call mine.

” Standing tall, defining landscapes, mountains rise above the surrounding space. In my head, my thoughts define my headspace as I try to rise above the mess and make amends, so easy to say. Rising above the ocean and reaching for the sky, blue is the season inside, reaching for the sunrise. Wilding, beats of my heart and my thoughts, tamed by my eyes, and once again, I'm ready for the climb.”

Catholic Social Thought

Solidarity: Solidarity is acceptance of the awareness of shared interests, creating unity and peace. This unity ties people together from different cultures and societies, having same or different ideologies. The world is full of inequality (Della, 2018); the humbleness within each one of us can help us learn the most valuable thought of including solidarity in our lives (Annett, 2016). The ones having resources can help the ones who are in need, the ones working for social justice can help the ones seeking justice, the ones wasting meals can serve the ones sleeping hungry and so on. Solidarity rises from within to help people who are without.

Teaching of common good: Every living person should have sufficient access to the resources in order to live an easy life that is also fulfilling. This can only be achieved when we work together for the common good of every individual living in the society be it human or the animals as they too have a right to live a fulfilling life (Okpaleke, 2020). Our whole ecosystem runs on balance and every living species are involved in the process of maintaining that balance. Once disturbed, the disturbance can result in mass extinction. The practice of common good will help maintain this balance and keep our society safe. 

References for Ecumenical Catholic Learning

Allan, D. (2016). Turn it up: That’s my song in that ad. In Thriving in a New World Economy (pp. 145-148). Springer, Cham.

Annett, A. (2016). Human flourishing, the common good, and Catholic social teaching. World happiness report, 2, 38-65.

Bury, S. M., Wenzel, M., & Woodyatt, L. (2019). Confusing hope and optimism when prospects are good: A matter of language pragmatics or conceptual equivalence?. Motivation and Emotion43(3), 483-492.

Della Porta, D. (2018). Solidarity mobilizations in the ‘refugee crisis’. London/New York: Macmillan Publishers Limited. doi, 10, 978-3.

Floyd, E. (2019). This Is My Song. The Choral Journal60(3), 102-103.

Okpaleke, I. P. (2020). Ecumenical Catholic Learning. Asian Horizons, 14(1), 209-224.

Remember, at the center of any academic work, lies clarity and evidence. Should you need further assistance, do look up to our Arts Assignment Help

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