The beach. The sand, the sun, the waves.
It can be the ideal place for enlightening ephiphanies.
A few weeks ago my friends and I felt a need to escape the monotony of the suburbs and find solitude at the beach. We only had one change of clothes and slept on the beach at night. On this particular April weekend it wasn’t technically vacation time yet so we found ourselves as one of the only groups of people there. Being away from Fairfax in such a secluded area costing me very little money forced me to consider the construction of our society and the true value of necessity of the things that we deem important. Is it important to attain more summer dresses for the upcoming season? Is it important to major in what my parents want me to, even though I don’t want to do that? Is it important that all of the houses in my neighborhood look like copies of each other? This American suburban culture, the only society I’ve ever lived in, has evolved into a society that has questionable priorities. This is the kind of society that is controlled by what the majority thinks is right and just as Henrik Ibsen explains in An Enemy of the People, “it is the wealthy folk, the old families in the town that have got us entirely in their hands” (Ibsen, 19). As money heavily influences politics and those with money are a part of the highest class in this American social hierarchy then the result is only a certain portion of the population is content with the order of priorities. As I lay in the sand with absolutely no worries on my mind I thought about how stressful Northern Virginia is in general with the traffic, the jobs, and the school. As we drove back and left the serenity of the beach behind I thought about how “corporations have acquired an undeserved advantage..over the public interest” (Orr, 4) through the power of their money. As citizens, we must regain the honor in democracy and establish the public’s interest. I feel like the public’s opinions have been pushed aside to many times. When I think of the beach, I think of peacefulness.
As a citizen, I would love to see that peacefulness in this area as well.
picture taken by Sarah Reyes
It can be the ideal place for enlightening ephiphanies.
A few weeks ago my friends and I felt a need to escape the monotony of the suburbs and find solitude at the beach. We only had one change of clothes and slept on the beach at night. On this particular April weekend it wasn’t technically vacation time yet so we found ourselves as one of the only groups of people there. Being away from Fairfax in such a secluded area costing me very little money forced me to consider the construction of our society and the true value of necessity of the things that we deem important. Is it important to attain more summer dresses for the upcoming season? Is it important to major in what my parents want me to, even though I don’t want to do that? Is it important that all of the houses in my neighborhood look like copies of each other? This American suburban culture, the only society I’ve ever lived in, has evolved into a society that has questionable priorities. This is the kind of society that is controlled by what the majority thinks is right and just as Henrik Ibsen explains in An Enemy of the People, “it is the wealthy folk, the old families in the town that have got us entirely in their hands” (Ibsen, 19). As money heavily influences politics and those with money are a part of the highest class in this American social hierarchy then the result is only a certain portion of the population is content with the order of priorities. As I lay in the sand with absolutely no worries on my mind I thought about how stressful Northern Virginia is in general with the traffic, the jobs, and the school. As we drove back and left the serenity of the beach behind I thought about how “corporations have acquired an undeserved advantage..over the public interest” (Orr, 4) through the power of their money. As citizens, we must regain the honor in democracy and establish the public’s interest. I feel like the public’s opinions have been pushed aside to many times. When I think of the beach, I think of peacefulness.
As a citizen, I would love to see that peacefulness in this area as well.
picture taken by Sarah Reyes
Chicago
Dallas
Walden Pond
I'll take the memories I have of these places with me through the depths of my travels as I'll continue to explore the nooks of the world and learn what I can in each place.
Works Cited:
1. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995.
2. Orr, D. W. Law of the Land. Orion, January/February
3. Ibsen, Henrik. An Enemy of the People. New York: Dover Publications, 1999.