Parents instinctively talk to boys and girls differently; however, I believe that it goes past just instincts and reflects their own personal wants. Most fathers want their son to be interested in sports and be there little tough guy, but is this pushing conformity on the child? The world does not easily except change or admire differences and because of this most strive to conform to be accepted. It is understandable to why parents would try and teach children how to act to be accepted or well liked, but when does this go too far, are we forgetting embracing uniqueness? Do boys do certain things and act certain way in comparison to girls because of following others they look up to or is it encrypted in their DNA? I wonder if a group of boys and girls grew up together without the influence of others telling them how to act, if they would act what is characterized as a boy or girl.

the news

The news at one point in American History was an agent of truth. A completely journalistic endeavor whose main purpose was to inform the people. Humble hosts from Walter Kronkite to to Edward Murrow to Dan Rather would be invited into a majority of Americans homes and they were told the TRUTH. Today the first aim is not truth, but ratings. And unfortunately for America fear delivers the best ratings of all.

I think death is a very taboo topic in our society. I think it is understandable to be afraid to loose people from our lives. I think the movie trys to explain that the person is never truely gone because you still have their memories, but I believe that sadness comes with the inablility to make new memories. I disagree with the need to have something that represent an after life and although it might make the thought of death more depressing I believe that you live and you die and that is it. I think people are too individualistic on how they percieve death, becaue truely death is not about the person that is dying, but the people that live on that that person has affected.

Volunteering

In our society it is advertised to help. The reason to volunteer is to feel better about ourselves and the reason to donate money is to get some sort of reward gift, doesn't that just seem wrong? Shouldn't we just help to help? I'm not saying that its not a constructive thing to do to make yourself feel like a better person, but why can't we do a completly altruistic act. Has our society really become so individualistic that we can only look at how our actions affect our own lives? Maybe it's just human nature, but it seems that over time our lives have become more seperate and we are solely concerned about what affects only us. I also believe that it intertwines with the concepts of religion. Religion teaches that you to be good person for some ultimate reason, depending on what religion you practice, but simply put, be good and you'll go to heaven or treat people right becuase what goes around comes around, but shouldn't there be more. Aren't we more compassionate and complex than to only concern ourselves with our own lives? We are all so concerned with our ultimate outcome, but when people remember who you are they do not think of your life in terms of how you lived it but how you have affected them, I guess it's just all a big circle.