Bewilderment by Fanny Howe

In this essay Fanny Howe introduces us to the word be wilderment. She describes how bewilderment works in our lives specially within our dreams. Bewilderment can be seen as something that has no beginning or end. Sometimes it is hard for us to express our bewilderment because it can cause confusion to the person who we are trying to explain it to. It is important for our lives to have a bit of bewilderment because it allows us as people to find out where they stand in the midst of confusion. For example being somewhere between believing in God or not believing in Him at all. Bewilderment also allows s to see things in different perspectives not just one. Certainty in the other hand is not being lost in ones own confusion but rather knowing what is going on and what will happen. Certainty is something that is important in our lives because it helps us prevent mistakes that are avoidable. If a person pays attention to the clues around him or her that something is not good for them, then they will be certain about it. Certainty can really help us long term wise but at the same time life would be a quite dull if we were always certain about things because we wouldn't feel the thrill that comes with taking risks.

Bewilderment

In the passage, Fanny Howe conveys how this simple term has much an elaborate meaning, “In the dictionary, to bewilder is “to cause to lose one’s sense of where one is”’ this isn’t something that can be easily understood nor should it be, because the whole concept portrayed in the passage is that we are never fully in the “know” that there are many incenses in our lives that we don’t understand what they mean or why they even appear in our lives.  Dreams and poetry are shown in the passage to be things they we don’t comprehend the meaning of them.  As for dreams, they may happen every night, but they aren’t always in a way that we understand, they can be weird and too complex for us to every figure out.  Poems are kind of the same, because you could have a room filled with people and have them all read the same poem, but get different meanings, “Each poem is a different take on an idea, an experience, each poem is another day, another mood, another revelation, another conversion” bewilderment “needs to unravel in order for it to be interpreted.”

                Also in the passage arises the idea of bewilderment in politics and poems.  This correlation explains how we in both aspects want it to be defined and have a straight forward answer or meaning, but often politics and poems happen to be the things in our lives that are the hardest to find a direct meaning to,  because we are all individuals that think and interrupt things in unique ways. That is what creates evolution and progress and inventions in life.  If we were always in a state that we definitely knew what the answer was and there was no room for individual interpretation, all the uniqueness and the beauty of difference wouldn’t exist in today’s world.  What would exist in a world without bewilderment, would be a loss of uncertainty and progression, this term  “will never lead you back to common sense, but will offer you a walk into a further wild place” , that place is our lives, it’s the where our minds find have the freedom to run wild and be uncertain.

Bewilderment & Logic

    The reading required plenty of abstract thinking to understand. The basis of the reading was how bewilderment can be poetic or politics. He tells us the importance of bewilderment but also of logic. He recites many poems and shows how bewilderment is a part of each poem. I like poetry like this because it can be interpreted many different ways depending on the person perspective. He talks about dreams and he says “The dreamer is aware that only everything else but this tiny dream exists and in this way the dream itself is free to act without restraint.” To me this means that because we know were dreaming, that consciousness allows are dreams to be very random. I think dreams is a prime example of how important bewilderment is. Dreams are confusing and in no way shape or form have to make sense or have valuable meaning but still it is a part of humans sleep cycle. If there was no purpose of dreams we wouldn't have them but we do showing that bewilderment is necessary. “He says that the politics of bewilderment goes to those who have little or no access to an audience or a government.” I thought this meant that people are often confused by politics because there is no clear cut answer to many of the thing that’s go on in our government. Everyone does not feel informed and that where the confusion derives from. This is where bewilderment serves as a negative because people would like solid answers solid and direct answers. This shows the importance of certainty in the world. We need a balance of certainty and bewilderment in the world to much of either is not ideal. My favorite part of the reading is the last sentence where he says “After all the point of art- like war- is show that life is worth living by showing that it isn't.” I metaphor use in this sentence is what makes it so amazing, by art and war both show how precious life is but the killing in war shows how valuable life is by showing how invaluable it is. 

Bewilderment

In the reading there were many weird examples of how bewilderment could be poetic or politics. There were many instances where he showed how humans get bewildered in their own thoughts and feelings toward certain situations. He also explains how religion and history and how many times we have been bewildered throughout it in politics. He gave us a series of poems to describe how bewilderment is poetic, allowing us to see with confusing ways poems come together is creativity and great work is formed through bewilderment. In my own words, the word bewilderment is defined as the state of being confused to a point where things you were certain about before was looked at differently and is now uncertain of. Bewilderment can mean different things to different people but the actual definition of bewilderment is, according to dictionary.com "a confusing maze or tangle, as of objects or conditions..." Showing it could be a wide range of things to be bewildered by, like objects and conditions, for example physical and mental ways of viewing bewilderment. As we have previously discussed in class certainty is more important to our lives because it brings about a sort of peace of mind and organization.  It allows us to look at things and have a game plan for what will come next without the hassle of surprise. Certainty also can be a bad thing because if there were no uncertainty there would be nothing invented. Creative people take chances, maybe everything is not perfect at first when inventing things but they are tested multiple times until they are perfect. Bewilderment can be also known as uncertainty on a much larger scale. Bewilderment has many different levels and although you can be in that state momentarily or for the rest of your life it comes a time where it does come in handy to help discover the new and improved things that come about. The balance of the two determined the world around us, too much of one without the other could be chaotic to everyone surrounding because you are born with bewilderness or without it but however you are is essential to the world.

Determinism

You can see parallels almost immediately between " Is Everything Determined?" and the "Parable of the Kingdom: The Ten Virgins". Stephen Hawking wrote " the grand unified theory that determines everything in the universe raises man difficulties." this is similar to when God turned away the foolish virgins for being presumptuous that they knew when to meet the bridegroom. It is similar in the fact that Stephen Hawking and the parable seem to agree that everything being determined is unbelievable. Hawking even questions it so far as saying " can one really believe God chose all the trivial details like who should be on the cover of Cosmopolitan". I personally think that we all choose our own path, I also believe that God takes the choices we made and uses them to determine whether or not we are worthy to enter heaven. If everything was pre- determined there would be no point in heaven or hell, all of our lives would be essentially obsolete. I feel as if Hawking also believes this, he mentions that if everything is determined then how can we punish people for doing bad things? I agree with this determinism seems like a flawed idea to me, I also believe that science and religion both disprove it.

Parables/ Determinism

Both the “Parables of the Kingdom” written by Jesus and “Is Everything Determined?” written by Stephen Hawking deal with trying how humans try to make sense of the universe we live in and make sense of God. Both of these readings were challenging for me, and I found it quite difficult to find parallels between the two of them. In Stephen Hawking’s “Is Everything Determined?” Hawking lengthily explains all the different ways we could explain predestination, he touches on quantum mechanics and mentions a lot of different theories and even acknowledges God and his place in the scientific world of these theories. He goes farther into his discussion by brining in the concept of free will and what it means in a world where people believe determinism; Hawking says, “if everything is determined by the laws of science, then free will must be an illusion and if we don’t have free will, what is the basis for our responsibility of our actions? We don’t punish people for crimes if they are insane, because we have decided that they can’t help it. But if we are all determined by a grand unified theory, none of us can help what we do, so why should anyone be held responsible for what they do?” This lengthy quote explains the flaw in our thinking when it comes to determinism, how can we hold anyone accountable for their actions if they are programmed to commit the act? This brings us to where Jesus’s “Parables of the Kingdom” intersects with “Is Everything Determined?” At the end of Hawking’s essay he writes “In summary the title of this essay was a question: Is everything determined? The answer is yes, it is. But it might as well not be, because we can never know what is determined.” This is similar to “The Ten Virgins” because the last line of the parable says “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” meaning that we will never truly know what is going to happen in the future, we can only prepare for the present which is the same as what Stephen Hawking says in “Is Everything Determined?”

"Is Everything Determined?" and "Parables of the Kingdom"

I think that the views expressed in “Is Everything Determined” and “The Ten Virgins” are similar because they both touch on the subject of uncertainty.  Stephen Hawking believes “the uncertainty principle of quantum physics means that there is not just a single history for the universe but a whole family of possible histories.” These different multiple histories lead to the randomness in our lives.  “The Ten Virgins” parable teaches us that we must be prepared for uncertainty. When the foolish virgins asked God to open the door, He said, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” This means that the time of Jesus’ return is uncertain. The foolish virgins did not bring any oil to light their lamps; therefore, they were not prepared for his return. The way the views are expressed in these readings are very different. Hawking’s ideas on determinism are written out like a persuasive essay.  He presents us with an argument, makes claims, explains why his claims are true, and then he summarizes his argument in a conclusion. He also takes a scientific approach when explaining whether or not everything is determined. For instance, he uses evolution and the development of DNA as examples to help him explain whether or not anything we say is determined by theory. The parables are much more spiritual and religious.  They place a lot of emphasis on God and how He can determine different outcomes throughout our lives.