Roots of War

Root of War Seminar Reflection

By: CJ Harrison

#1: Reaction

During the seminar I really liked how Nollie said at the end of the seminar that there is beauty in the forest because there is no social stuff or there is also no really society where everything has to be like what we do and have people running around and yelling, it's just all quiet. I thought that was a great way to get away from beauty because thats when your all bye yourself and you can actually think and be alone without people bothering you or having people get in your head and make it hard for you to concentrate on one thing. For me the forest is a way to get away from everything that's bothering you so that you have time to think about things by yourself in a lonely place where there's no noise.

#2: what is the relationship between beauty and risk?

For me the relationship between between beauty and risk is that you risk beauty when you love something so much that you would die for it like the moth. The moth risked all of his life for one moment of beauty and said that they are like humans and their society is like ours which is really hard to believe because were nothing like the moth. Most human beings have common sense and tend to use it in times like what the moth is doing. We stop and think of the consequence instead of going full on and letting that thought pass right through our brain and go for one moment of beauty. Or as I should say is that we tend to think of the “risk” and make sure we do or don't want to do that thing that pulls us in. For example: doing drugs like cigarettes, people like to pull us into that because it makes you look cool but the risk is that you have a really high chance of getting cancer and loosing your life to it. So that's what I think the resemblance between beauty and risk.

#3: React to the last stanza. Do you have a passion like this? Why/why not? Pros and cons.

I think the last stanza is saying that when the moth is doing it's best to get a moment of beauty and die than to live a long time, when the moth dies the cockroach wishes he had something that bad that he would die for it. I would have to say that I don't have a passion like that. The reason why I don't is because I haven't figured it out yet. When I have found the object, thing, bug, maybe even species, then I have that passion. Finally I would have to say that having this passion is a really good goal to get to, but at the same time if you die for that thing then your throwing your life away for someone else. I mean it's awesome that you would want to do that but if you were a homeless person you might die for a nice house, and frankly that''s not a good thing cause your dieing for someone else to take your home on earth that you died for. So there's always an up side and a down side to dieing for something you want so much.

#4: who do you agree with more? The cockroach or the moth?

I would agree more with the cockroach because unlike the moth the cockroach has common sense. If you think about it the moth is dieing for beauty, which may be a good thing and some people might agree with that depending on their personality and what they think of the story. For me, I want to live life at the fullest because I like the way I live and I like being alive and doing things outdoors and indoors. And some people would rather die because they've made horrible decisions in their life and the only way out of it is to die, they think. But life is full of surprises and you have to live to see them. For example: the cockroach thinks the moth has no sense when the moth says “I would rather die in a moment of beauty, than to live for a long time” which I think is a bad decision because your throwing your life away to die for a moment of beauty. If you were to think deeper about it, you could make having beauty a long term goal or a short term goal, however long you want to make it and once you've accomplished that goal you don't have just one moment, you have the whole rest of your life to enjoy it and use it however you want. And that's why I agree with the cockroach, and just to through this in there, in the very last stanza, the cockroach says “but at the same time I wish there was something I wanted as badly as he wanted to fry himself” which I think is a perfect goal to get to beauty cause that sets a goal for him to want something that badly then he can stick with it and when it comes to the time where he gets too old and dies then that is the perfect time to wish for that cause you already lived your life at the fullest and you still get that wish that you wanted. So in the end, that's my overall agreement with the cockroach.