Response: My Time and Place among the Cows
The essay talks about how simple cows are. Most of time you would think simple was a bad thing, but in this situation it is great. Cows don’t need all the stuff to be happy. They work with the simple ingredients of grass, water, and a dry shelter from wind and rain or the summer sun. But Dave Stewart points out that they make magic with those few and simple things. They are able to produce so much for us. We depend on them more then you would think. They make the wonderful thing called milk and dairy and they do it by pure ingredients. We put so much crap into our bodies and have all the latest technology, yet we can’t even make a major food group.
Dave Stewart also talks about how he feels cows stop time. We as natural humans are stressed and we end up losing time. But he explains when he watches his cows they are so tranquil and still, they make their time last.
He talks about what could have been. Dave was a quad student before he started milking cows. He states that as long as he continues to milk cows that burden is on his shoulder to deal with later in life. He now appreciates his responsibilities towards the cows and thanks them for reminding him of the things that really matter.
Response: Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace
Dani Weathers has been through a lot. She experienced the one thing that can really change a person, the loss of a loved one. Her father died from a motorcycle accident. She was already a very depressed girl, but when her dad died it sent her down a downward spiral. She began cutting and got more and more distant from her family and friends. This is something so hard to help. Because people that hurt themselves are nowhere near crazy. They just want to feel something even if it is pain. Dani says that the comment to get her to step up and change her self was one made by her ex-boyfriend; “It happened four years ago! Get over it already! Just move on!” She wasn’t going to get over it but it woke her up. She needed to deal with her problems a different way. She was so afraid of people thinking she was crazy or giving her pity that she was hurting herself. Reading her essay was a perfect example of people learning from their mistakes. Hopefully people will be able to read her essay and won’t have to learn from their mistake but from her guidance.
Response: I Will Take my Voice Back
Quique Aviles states that his addiction to crack will kill him, but performing and writing will save him. I agree with him 100%. Obviously if he was to go on in life with a crack addiction it would kill him. But in my personally opinion it isn’t as easy to just stop. You have to distract yourself. A great example with that is performing or writing. Luckily for Quique performing is his job, but he has such a drug problem that no one looks at him as an actor but as a junkie. I respect Quique for speaking up because he pointed out that admitting to his addiction is another way of saying actor suicide. He explains where he came from and the lack of support for his choice in career. He started to get evolved with acting as soon as crack became a known thing in D.C. The comment that stuck out to me was “Crack is a killer. Crack turns a ladybug in your house into a hungry rat. Crack transports you into paranoid obsession. You don’t sleep. You don’t eat. Your high lasts 10 to 15 seconds so you need to keep pumping your brain with this poison over and over again.” It is so true that it turns into this horrible thing and the high is so short, but people still need to have it. I understand addiction as far as someone who hasn’t experienced addiction can understand it. Quique said he went to rehab 3 times. The difference this time is that he is going to replace the drug with a hobby, performing/writing. I respect Quique Aviles so much for being the few that make it out.
Response: Come to My Table
This essay wasn’t as powerful, but Shannon Denney still made her point. She starts to talk about how she still thinks women should always make food for their family. And at first that outraged me, but then she explained in more detail on what she meant. She simply loves the power of food. Not so much for eating properties either. She loves how food can bring people together. She says that if she had to make a 5 star dinner every night just for her family to come to her table at 6 o’clock, then she would do it. I think it is actually refreshing that someone still idols family time that much in today society. I personally wish my family was still this way.
