HW#18

        Much unlike other family reunions over the years, the amount of people attending has dissipated due to small quarrels and scheduling problems but the approach on the holiday remains the same if not stronger. Despite how awful I thought the turkey was this particular thanksgiving, everyone still ate more than they could handle simply because of the day and its “significance” to them.

        This common belief that we must celebrate the supposed peace between the pilgrims and Indians (neither of which we are descendants of) gives a license to drink and break out the sweatpants in case you bloat from eating too much. If you think about it, why is this over-indulgence so important to us? I believe that through this eating in which we find comfort, we can find pleasure and some sort of fake strength to cope with any tribulations we may have.

        Having family members missing because of these problems forms an environment in which everyone knows what is wrong and they struggle to overcome it by dulling themselves with these quick cures.

HW#17

Death itself is a bit of a difficult subject for me. Despite most of my families unhealthy habits including my own, no one that I know has passed away. There have been the occasional deaths of very distant relative that have affected my parents; but no one that I have met or connected with has died. This new unit worries me a little because the truth is, I constantly think about how I will react when someone close to me dies. At the same time, I look forward to learning about the in’s and out’s our own culture’s perspective on death and illness as well as in other cultures. Unlike the majority of my family, I secretly believe death is a very sacred thing because it symbolizes not only the end of a life but the end of a piece of our human existence. Opposite to this slightly dramatic view of death, my ideas on how sickness (depending on its severity) should be treated. If I was bed-ridden in a hospital I would prefer powering through the sickness myself and having occasional visitor such as my immediate family and close friends instead of having constant visits from people I barely even know that only shower me with pity and only accomplish making me feel worse than I did originally.