Friday, January 24, 2020
The Lotus And The Nile :: Botany
The Lotus And The Nile The blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulea) belongs to the Nymphaeaceae (Water-Lily) family. The blue lotus has several common names including: Egyptian lotus, blue water lily, and sacred lily of the Nile. It should not be confused with the "blue lily" or Agapanthus africanus, a plant of an entirely different genus (Anonymous, 1999). Be careful also not to confuse it with the Nymphaea lotus, which is the "white lotus". Fossils of this plant have been dated back to the Jurassic period, about 160 million years ago. Amazingly, the fossils suggest that the blue lotus has not changed much. Other records indicate wide dispersal of this flower before the Ice Age (Edwards, 1998). It is important to first explain a few things about the nature of the blue lotus. The blue lotus or water-lily, is a floating aquatic plant that is known for it's colorful and aromatic flowers. The leaves are waxy, leathery and dark green with a reddish-purple color underneath (Edwards, 1998). The genus Nymphaea includes both tropical and hardy (cold-tolerant) species. There are also night-bloomers and day-bloomers. The tropical day- bloomers are the lotus that was used by the Egyptians (Edwards, 1998). The flowers of many species of lotus have the shocking habit of folding their petals and sinking beneath the water's surface during the night and resurfacing the next day to bloom again (Philbrick and Les, 1996). Many ancient cultures found the blue lotus to be of great use and of esteemed status. In Asia and Africa, the blue lotus symbolized immortality in recognition of the plant's ability to survive and resprout after long droughts, and the seed's ability to remain viable for many years (Edwards, 1998). In China it was regarded as a religious symbol, and a symbol of feminine beauty. Similarly in India, it was compared with the human female form, and in their legends they believe that Brahma, their creator of the universe, sprang from a lotus-like blossom (Edwards, 1998). The Japanese saw a representation of purity and the juxtaposition of good and evil, and the Buddhist's have a prayer mentioning the lotus, "Omi! Mani padme hum!" which is interpreted as, "Oh!, the jewel in the lotus flower!" (Edwards, 1998). The Greeks also admired the blue lotus. They associated the flowers with the mythical nymphs and beautiful maidens thought to inhabit the forests and mountains (Edwards, 1998). The people of Ancient Egypt (Kemet), used the blue lotus extensively in their art and in their everyday uses.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Philosophy of Gender Essay
Some people aspire for successful lives, but I think success is overrated. What I’m trying to do is living my life according to what I think is right. This means learning not only inside the classroom, but also outside. This is because I believe that education inside the classroom is very limited, which is why we should take the initiative to control our education.            So I start my day by having breakfast. I also read the paper while eating. One must still be aware of the current political and social issues; we must never be isolated from society. These are the people’s issues, so we must not be isolated from what they are engaged in. We are working for a better society not for ourselves, but also for other people and the next generation, so we must be integrated with their issues.            After breakfast, I go to school. In school, aside from attending class, I talk to the personnel. I ask their opinion on issues. I ask how their lives are. Through this way, I get a perspective on how they think. It is very interesting because they are usually very outspoken. Sometimes, I learn so much more from them than the textbooks they make us read in class.            After class, I sometimes do volunteer work. I treat this as my â€Å"other class.†It supplements what I learn in class, and sometimes I get to apply what I learned inside the classroom as well. This class teaches me a lot, from relating with other people to critical thinking. Then I go home. I eat, study, then read. I may not have a lot of stuff, but I do have a lot of books. I love reading. This opens my mind to a lot of possibilities, as well as solutions. I also love reading about great odds being surpassed by ordinary people.            For a democracy to work, I think the citizens should be proactive people. For this to happen, they have to be trained even while in school. And this would entail letting them take control of their education, planning their own curriculum, carrying out their own lesson plan. When one speaks of a rational state of consciousness, one is talking of the state when one’s mind is consciously doing something, like crossing the street. This kind of state requires one’s full attention. When one speaks of non-rational consciousness, it is when one’s mind is engaging in an activity that one’s mind can do subconsciously; its whole attention is not on the activity. Habits and learned behavior fall under this state. An example would be tapping one’s foot. And when one talks of the irrational state, it is the state of being unconscious, such as sleeping deeply. When in this state, one is unaware of what is happening. Have you had your heart broken? I have, once. I loved her, but she left me. Maybe she thought the world is a better companion. I do not know. It has been years.            Her name was Lilith. She was a remarkable being, all magic and desire. She had hair that was like waterfalls cascading down to earth; fluid, wild, breath-taking, hypnotizing. Her body was like the hills and mountains of the earth, curvaceous and fertile. She also provided the intellectual stimulation that I needed. In my youth, I was too arrogant and stubborn to see that.            I had asked Father for a mate. I was lonely, and I had no one to share my experiences of naming and taking care of the creatures Father put under my care. I also wanted someone who would complement my efforts of organizing the whole of Creation, listening intently, while serving me a delicious meal. So I told the Father how lonely I was.            He made a mate, and called it woman. I accepted her, and we lived together. I thought we were going to be happy together forever in paradise. I made her wait on me, serve me, obey me. I wanted her to only wander when I was with her. I wanted her to do all the domestic duties, because I was busy managing the Garden of Eden.            We got along sometimes. Lilith, skilled with words, would contribute to my summary of what I did during the day, pointing out which names fitted the creature exactly. I thankfully used her suggestions, being inept with words, having been alone for some time. But mostly we fought day and night. We had different views on most things. She wanted to talk about how we feel; I could not successfully keep up with her analysis on why she is annoyed when the sheep just leaves its droppings lying around. She wanted to do things on her own; she could not understand that I was afraid of losing her, which is why I do not want her wandering off. She wanted the privilege of naming and managing the creatures in Creation; I could not make her understand that this was a job given to me, and she should try other activities in the Garden. She talked of how Eden could be made better; I would rather focus on the conditions now.            So we fought. She would not do the things I told her were her duties as my wife. She said she wanted to do other things. She could not understand that her declining means undermining my authority. I know I should not have shouted at her and pulled her hair, but she made me angry. So when she left, I did not go looking for her. We have had disputes before, and though it is unlike her to not talk the problem over, I decided to pay no heed.            But then, days after, she has not yet returned. So I told the Father of my concern. He sent messengers to her, but she would not yield. She would not come back to Eden, to me.
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Opinion on Abortion Essay - 1156 Words
Opinion on Abortion Abortion is when a foetus is expelled from its mothers womb before the pregnancy reaches full term (usually 40 weeks). The abortion act says that a woman can have an abortion if the pregnancy would put her in danger, or if the baby was so handicapped that it could not survive independently and it would have no quality of life. The act also says that these reasons for abortion are accepted whereas a woman who simply did not want another child would not be allowed to abort her pregnancy. Many Christians oppose abortion. Two reasons that they give for this are because they believe that life begins at conception and so to abort an embryo would be considered as murder. They†¦show more content†¦Some passages of the Bible also teach that God has planned each being and planted them in the womb: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together In my mothers womb. This backs up the Christians point of view giving a strong argument for abortion and reasons using references from the Bible and what God seemingly wanted. Some churches would believe abortion to be allowed because there are some situations where the most loving thing to do would be to abort the pregnancy. One situation would be where the mother is endangered by the pregnancy and a possible effect of this would be the death of both the mother and the child. The most loving thing to do in the situation would be to save the mother by aborting the foetus. The United Reformed church believes that there is a difference between an undeveloped embryo and a foetus about to be born. They would not think of a few-week-old embryo as a child. They believe that sometimes abortion is necessary but that it should be taken seriously. Another possible scenario would be mother pregnant with the child of a rapist. This is a tough question, but would you keep the baby or not? The Church of England would allow an abortion because of the trauma involved with raising the child and the father.Show MoreRelatedA Opinion On Abortion And Abortion897 Words  |  4 PagesEveryone has a different opinion on abortion. According to the Merriam- Webster dictionary, an abortion is â€Å"the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus, spontaneous expulsion of a human fetus during the first 12 weeks of gestation, induced expulsion of a human fetus, expulsion of a fetus by a domestic animal often due to infection at any time before completion of pregnancy.†Abortion is, and always will be a controversialRead MoreEssay on Opinion on Abortion1141 Words  | 5 PagesOpinion on Abortion My own opinion of abortion is very varied. There are so many different reasons for abortions. Every woman who has had one will have had reasons. 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There appears to be a spectrumRead MoreArgumentative Essay On Abortion1546 Words  | 7 Pagesmother.†Abortion is the way of ending pregnancy by removing the fetus or embryo before it can survive outside the matrix, which can also allow women to choose whether they want to become a mother or not. However, people have developed the controversy about abortions. Abortion debate is an ongoing debate which has involved moral, legal, biological and religious status of the induced abortion. In this controversy, there are two groups emerged. The gro up of people who hold the opinion that abortion shouldRead MoreAmerican History: Fighting for the Freedom of Choice763 Words  | 3 PagesAbortions being made illegal in the late 1880’s created a lot of â€Å"underground†abortion procedures. The abortions performed were not safe, they were expensive, and often time’s male doctors would force women to have intimate relations with them before the procedure. In the 1950s, about a million illegal abortions a year were performed in the U.S., and over a thousand of those women died each year as a result. It wasn’t until the civil rights and antiwar movements in the 1960’s that women began toRead More Abortion Essay1082 Words  | 5 Pages ABORTION Abortion, in my opinion, has been one of the largest debataable issues in American Society. There are so many aspects and views to examine before one can even begin to form their own opinion. In order to discuss an important issue such as abortion, we must first understand what it means. Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy before the fetus has developed and grown enough to live outside the mother. When abortion happens naturally before the 20th week it is called a spontaneous abortion
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