One of my classmates posed the question is wilderness free? I would like to pose the question is there even wilderness anymore? I feel like there is nature, but there is not really any wilderness anymore. Wilderness implies unexplored, adventure-filled desolate places like Mount Everest. Antarctica would count too. Nature on the other hand is still easily found. There is still forests and lakes and meadows that offer the opportunity to play in nature. The question is really not applicable. There isn't wilderness left to be free.
I liked the solution to slowing down life. Everyone should just take up gardening! It demands the gardener slow down and take a look at the bigger picture/consequences of actions. It helps you promote change with your own two hands and humbles you. It also gets you invested in the future. I wonder about farming (in the sense of keeping animals)? Does that have the same benefits? Is it the same as having a pet? I'm not sure having a pet does, but I think raising animals on a farm does have the desired effect. It is a much grander scale than the single pet.
“All good things are wild and free.” Henry David Thorough said this and I almost agree. I feel like all good things are natural but not necessarily wild.
The Mind Body Spirit connection was interesting to me. I agree with Gulick's theory that everything must be in balance. My life is living proof of this idea. My spirit is suffering and it has had a HUGE effect on my mind and body. I have so much less energy than I did before my brother died. I also can't carry an intelligent conversation anywhere near as long as I could a month ago. On good days, I have found that I'm not as worn out and I can concentrate longer and vice versa.
Generation that survived the great depression is much less into instant gratification and much more willing to wait for good things. This relates back to the gardening concept.
And now onto the concepts of the elderly...
We tend to think of the elderly as incapable, and not active members of society. My Great Grandmother lived to be 92 years old and until the last 2 years, she was fully capable. She lived in a retirement community in which everyone was required to have a door sign. If you didn't flip your door sign over in the morning, the staff would come to check on you. If you flipped your sign over, they would know you were capable and fine. She really enjoyed the freedom and she didn't feel like she was being babysat.
The fact that most Seniors think that they are the exception to the stereotypes we have of elderly is very humorous!
Thinking back to my Lifeguarding experience people we worried about the most were unsupervised elderly and children. Why do we treat senior citizens like they are children? They have a lot of life experiences to share!
What are your thoughts on getting older? I think getting the opportunity to grow old is a blessing! I hope to one day have children and I want them to know their grandparents. Old people have had so many diverse experiences that I have never had (nor probably will ever have). I can't picture myself as old yet, but I hope I get there one day!
How do your parents view retirement/getting older as they approach that age? My mother is of the opinion that she will never be old. She might have many years under her belt but she will never be old. She is 52 years young and refuses to believe that she will ever be old.
There is a plaque that hangs in my mother's office that I think sums up my final thoughts. It has 2 quotes on it:
"Never, never give up" -Winston Churchill
"Never, never grow up" -Dr. Seuss
Here's to growing old without growing up. Here's to a long, full life.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
WORDLE
This image was created at Wordle.net from my blog. It is a super neat website that takes words and turns them into a map of sorts. I am interested in seeing what this will look like at the end of the semester... I'll be sure to post that one too. :)
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Fun Theory
Chris showed us this video in RMP 490 the other day and I immensely enjoyed it. Then I stumbled upon in on youtube and remembered how neat it was. Hope you enjoy!
And then I found this one which I thought was also good. These videos make a very good point!
And one more :)
And then I found this one which I thought was also good. These videos make a very good point!
And one more :)
RMP 800 Post It: Pedlar et al.
Resumption Of Role Status Through Leisure In Later Life
-The Senior population has changed drastically in the past few decades (they live longer, they're more active, they have more money) and yet our view of the elderly has stayed relatively static. This has created a programming problem: Recreation Professionals use the old view of elderly to program events that today's senior citizens are not interested in.
-Role-Person misfit: the struggle a person goes through when the role he is expected to play does not line up with who he believes himself to be. This is happening more and more frequently with elderly folks.
-As programmers, we should get the senior community involved in planning the programming. This gets them invested in the programming and leads to more effective programming. This is an easy, effective solution to the Role-Person Misfit situation!
-Most people providing goods or services to elderly folks assume the person is incompetent which only serves to anger the senior. Most seniors are fully capable of reading/writing/finding their way around/etc.
-3 concepts that make seniors' recreation experiences more satisfying:
1. Opportunity to contribute
2. identifying common enthusiasms with other people
3. Opportunity to demonstrate capabilities
-Recreation for the elderly population is not "babysitting"! Too many people view it this way.
- "...research has linked a decline in life satisfaction to involvement in formal recreation activity..."
-I think we should allow seniors to try things in much the same way we allow a child to try to ride a bike: Offer a little bit of help, but let them try! If they can't do it, we can put the training wheels back on, but you never know what they are capable of until you let them try.
Questions:
1. Have you ever seen/created/participated in programming that was geared towards elderly but NOT hosted in a place specifically for elderly? Is the recreation industry really providing for the elderly?
2.Are we also ignoring other publics in our communities? UNH has North East passage to provide recreation to individuals with disabilities, but what about people with mental disabilities, veterans, people who are suffering from psychological issues, people who are fighting long term diseases, etc?
3. Do our perceptions of the elderly community being weak, sick, incapable, etc. limit what seniors think of themselves and their capabilities?
-The Senior population has changed drastically in the past few decades (they live longer, they're more active, they have more money) and yet our view of the elderly has stayed relatively static. This has created a programming problem: Recreation Professionals use the old view of elderly to program events that today's senior citizens are not interested in.
-Role-Person misfit: the struggle a person goes through when the role he is expected to play does not line up with who he believes himself to be. This is happening more and more frequently with elderly folks.
-As programmers, we should get the senior community involved in planning the programming. This gets them invested in the programming and leads to more effective programming. This is an easy, effective solution to the Role-Person Misfit situation!
-Most people providing goods or services to elderly folks assume the person is incompetent which only serves to anger the senior. Most seniors are fully capable of reading/writing/finding their way around/etc.
-3 concepts that make seniors' recreation experiences more satisfying:
1. Opportunity to contribute
2. identifying common enthusiasms with other people
3. Opportunity to demonstrate capabilities
-Recreation for the elderly population is not "babysitting"! Too many people view it this way.
- "...research has linked a decline in life satisfaction to involvement in formal recreation activity..."
-I think we should allow seniors to try things in much the same way we allow a child to try to ride a bike: Offer a little bit of help, but let them try! If they can't do it, we can put the training wheels back on, but you never know what they are capable of until you let them try.
Questions:
1. Have you ever seen/created/participated in programming that was geared towards elderly but NOT hosted in a place specifically for elderly? Is the recreation industry really providing for the elderly?
2.Are we also ignoring other publics in our communities? UNH has North East passage to provide recreation to individuals with disabilities, but what about people with mental disabilities, veterans, people who are suffering from psychological issues, people who are fighting long term diseases, etc?
3. Do our perceptions of the elderly community being weak, sick, incapable, etc. limit what seniors think of themselves and their capabilities?
RMP 800: 10/20/09 Reflection
I found it very interesting that the happiness surveys show that it is not just Americans who show a dip in happiness in the past 50 years (subjective well being has dropped in plenty of developed countries); Amish don’t fall into this dissatisfaction. It wasn't brought up in class but I did find it interesting that nations considered to be developed were the ones becoming increasingly dissatisfied with life.
We also discussed the idea that leisure is freedom and opportunity as well as control. I found this an interesting (but true!) paradox as well. Don't parents use leisure to control their children (You can't go play until you've eaten everything on your plate)?
Will leisure stay the same or will it completely change in this century? I think our ideas about it (it is important, it has benefits, etc) will stay the same but what we feel is leisure will change. Facebook for example has become more of a task than leisure, but then again baseball has been around for a long time and it’s still considered leisure. I think even baseball is morphing though. For example, 30 years ago, I think more adults were playing baseball whereas today, adults watch baseball.
I also liked the idea that leisure is an octopus with its tentacles in movies/travel/food/clothes/etc. It is a very great analogy to all the disciplines that leisure can include. I could argue that almost everything could be one of the octopus's tentacles. I might not like eating brussel sprouts, but someone out there does and so eating brussel sprouts is leisure for them. You might not like running, but someone else does so it is leisure to them.
I'm not sure I completely agree with the thought that education is one of the best indicators of leisure preferences. I think we put too much emphasis on this. Yes, it does corelate with income (to some extent) and income has an effect on what you can afford to do, but that's too long of a chain to support. Especially since more and more people are going to college these days. By the time I finish school, I will have 2 degrees but one of my favorite things to do for leisure is go swing. I don't think that's something that correlates with my education level.
Our discussion on the loss of newspaper, being replaced by blogs either of specialists or with academic focus left an important idea out. Yes, they might write blogs, but what about the senior population? Technology is changing our leisure and forgetting about the older population! Have we done anything recently for elderly recreation? Kindle is the only thing I can really think of.
Finally, the quote from About A Boy was interesting. “This is an island age.” Is the age old adage "No man is an island" true still? Is there a point where you appreciate being an island? I think today's technology makes it a lot easier to be an island for longer periods of time, but I think the idea still rings true for the most part. In Texas, fences are built 8ft high creating island homes. The community does not interact the way the community in New England does. Each house creates it's own family island. Did we trade community for safety when we moved out of the cities and into the suburbs? I think some places did, while others did not. The places that are not the most tech-savy are the ones who still find the sense of community.
We also discussed the idea that leisure is freedom and opportunity as well as control. I found this an interesting (but true!) paradox as well. Don't parents use leisure to control their children (You can't go play until you've eaten everything on your plate)?
Will leisure stay the same or will it completely change in this century? I think our ideas about it (it is important, it has benefits, etc) will stay the same but what we feel is leisure will change. Facebook for example has become more of a task than leisure, but then again baseball has been around for a long time and it’s still considered leisure. I think even baseball is morphing though. For example, 30 years ago, I think more adults were playing baseball whereas today, adults watch baseball.
I also liked the idea that leisure is an octopus with its tentacles in movies/travel/food/clothes/etc. It is a very great analogy to all the disciplines that leisure can include. I could argue that almost everything could be one of the octopus's tentacles. I might not like eating brussel sprouts, but someone out there does and so eating brussel sprouts is leisure for them. You might not like running, but someone else does so it is leisure to them.
I'm not sure I completely agree with the thought that education is one of the best indicators of leisure preferences. I think we put too much emphasis on this. Yes, it does corelate with income (to some extent) and income has an effect on what you can afford to do, but that's too long of a chain to support. Especially since more and more people are going to college these days. By the time I finish school, I will have 2 degrees but one of my favorite things to do for leisure is go swing. I don't think that's something that correlates with my education level.
Our discussion on the loss of newspaper, being replaced by blogs either of specialists or with academic focus left an important idea out. Yes, they might write blogs, but what about the senior population? Technology is changing our leisure and forgetting about the older population! Have we done anything recently for elderly recreation? Kindle is the only thing I can really think of.
Finally, the quote from About A Boy was interesting. “This is an island age.” Is the age old adage "No man is an island" true still? Is there a point where you appreciate being an island? I think today's technology makes it a lot easier to be an island for longer periods of time, but I think the idea still rings true for the most part. In Texas, fences are built 8ft high creating island homes. The community does not interact the way the community in New England does. Each house creates it's own family island. Did we trade community for safety when we moved out of the cities and into the suburbs? I think some places did, while others did not. The places that are not the most tech-savy are the ones who still find the sense of community.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
In Loving Memory
This post is not for anyone else. You can read it if you want, I don't care. This post is about getting into words all the thoughts that have been going through my head since early this afternoon. I can't say them out loud because it hurts too much.
To my RMP girls.... sorry. No post. It was in the plans for this afternoon but life has a way of throwing plans out the window.
My brother died today. I don't know how to exist in a world without him. As much as he teased me when we were little, he was my hero. And I love him. And the past 5 or so years, he's been a better friend than almost everyone else. I don't know how to exist with out him in my life. He's my big brother.
It was a car accident in the early hours of the morning. The police told my parents he died on impact and that's better because he didn't suffer any. Its funny how people think that. I use to think that too. Its not better. It doesn't make anything better at all. Trust me. Its not ok. Don't say it to anyone ever. It won't help. It makes things worse.
I can't quite figure out how the world is still turning. It shouldn't be.
I keep having the stupidest thoughts go through my head. The same few: 1) when I get married 5 or 10 years from now, he's supposed to be there to walk my mom down the aisle. And 2) I don't know how Mom and Dad and Teri are going to survive thanksgiving since I'll still be here and he won't be there. And 3) I'm still hanging his stocking up at Christmas. I refuse to not.
And those 3 little letters people put next to the name of a friend who has died. I can't say or write them. They don't belong anywhere near his name. The just don't.
I'm angry but I don't know who or what to be angry with. It isn't fair. He was 25 and had just gotten a big promotion at work. He was planning to come visit me soon. Its not fair.
Every so often, I can't get my head around the concept. I just can't grasp it and so it doesn't exist. But then I catch hold again and start crying again.
To everyone that has called/texted/facebooked, thanks. I know I haven't answered much of it. I can't yet. The fact that you did helps me in a little way. I appreciate knowing that someone other than me thinks Bryan was something special. He totally was.
All prayers are greatly appreciated.
"And there is all this pressure cause everyone is hovering around me waiting for me to do something. Or say something, or flip out, or yell and cry some more and I'm happy to play my part. I'm happy to say the lines and do whatever it is that I'm supposed to be doing if it will make everyone feel more comfortable. But I don't- I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be this person. I don't- I don't know who this person is."
In loving memory of Bryan Patrick Thies
4/16/84 - 10/4/09
To my RMP girls.... sorry. No post. It was in the plans for this afternoon but life has a way of throwing plans out the window.
My brother died today. I don't know how to exist in a world without him. As much as he teased me when we were little, he was my hero. And I love him. And the past 5 or so years, he's been a better friend than almost everyone else. I don't know how to exist with out him in my life. He's my big brother.
It was a car accident in the early hours of the morning. The police told my parents he died on impact and that's better because he didn't suffer any. Its funny how people think that. I use to think that too. Its not better. It doesn't make anything better at all. Trust me. Its not ok. Don't say it to anyone ever. It won't help. It makes things worse.
I can't quite figure out how the world is still turning. It shouldn't be.
I keep having the stupidest thoughts go through my head. The same few: 1) when I get married 5 or 10 years from now, he's supposed to be there to walk my mom down the aisle. And 2) I don't know how Mom and Dad and Teri are going to survive thanksgiving since I'll still be here and he won't be there. And 3) I'm still hanging his stocking up at Christmas. I refuse to not.
And those 3 little letters people put next to the name of a friend who has died. I can't say or write them. They don't belong anywhere near his name. The just don't.
I'm angry but I don't know who or what to be angry with. It isn't fair. He was 25 and had just gotten a big promotion at work. He was planning to come visit me soon. Its not fair.
Every so often, I can't get my head around the concept. I just can't grasp it and so it doesn't exist. But then I catch hold again and start crying again.
To everyone that has called/texted/facebooked, thanks. I know I haven't answered much of it. I can't yet. The fact that you did helps me in a little way. I appreciate knowing that someone other than me thinks Bryan was something special. He totally was.
All prayers are greatly appreciated.
"And there is all this pressure cause everyone is hovering around me waiting for me to do something. Or say something, or flip out, or yell and cry some more and I'm happy to play my part. I'm happy to say the lines and do whatever it is that I'm supposed to be doing if it will make everyone feel more comfortable. But I don't- I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be this person. I don't- I don't know who this person is."
In loving memory of Bryan Patrick Thies
4/16/84 - 10/4/09
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