Intellectual Wellness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Intellectual Wellness - Essay Example Essentially, intellectual wellness focuses on learning.  Any doing that assists an individual to explore the world around him or her, learn more regarding oneself or expand his or her mind in whichever way promotes healthy intellectual wellness.  One can accomplish the attainment and maintenance of self intellectual wellness in a number of ways including reading, participating in hobbies, learning new skills, appreciating art as well as being creative. In effect, every time one is learning something new regarding any of the other seven aspects of wellness, he or she is as well supporting his or her intellectual wellness (The 123 Feel Better Company, para2).   Patterson asserts that wellness does not only mean exploring one’s spirituality and emotional welfare, but it is also just as important to have a sharp, active mind. She quotes a book entitled Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which stresses that exercising the mind is a vital life practice as well as an important skill essential for a wealthy, flourishing life. In her view, while majority of people want an abundant life, just a few of them remember to keep their minds healthy, engaged and in good use. Although it is sometimes hard to accomplish this in the rush of life since to many it appears like an additional chore to engage their mind to think hard when there is already so much contending for their attention, having and maintaining a sharp, active mind is a vital ingredient for an abundant life. Beamans International points out that an intellectually well individual understands the fact that completion of formal education does not indicate the end of learning. Instead, he or she seeks to understand and discover other viewpoints and is able to construe and articulate what he or she thinks regarding what he or she has learnt. Individuals can take various actions in order to keep their minds engaged. He or she can join an organization from which he or she would receive for instance, a word,

The Muslim women are in the western world Essay

The Muslim women are in the western world - Essay Example This essay is based on my own cultural background. It will explore the reasons for honour killing. There are female artists in the West who have used the idea honour killing in their works. Artist, Hayv Kahraman’s work becomes significant because it represents the state of women who are exploited and abused. Women’s position is such that they are caught between what Islam preaches and what the cultural dictates. This is because, Asian families expose their daughters to the western culture; daughters are not given the same life chances and opportunities as sons. The Muslim children are left perplexed and confused and left to cope with this form of sexism. First generation Muslim women were forced to marry at a younger age: a time when they did not realize the need for emotional, physical or economical dependence, they were married off. It is a disturbing notion that women from several so-called Islamic households are only seen as somebody’s possession, who are giv en away at the time of marriage. While sons carry on the family name, hence they are given more importance in a family structure. A prevalent backward custom practiced by most parents is to keep daughters at home who may or may not dishonor the family’s name; they are not proponent to invest in their daughters’ well-being and instead consider it a waste of money eventually women are not encouraged to pursue their aspirations. They are believed to have only three roles - to be a dutiful wife, bear children, and serve her family. Times have changed; education is making a difference for the generation of today, letting women decide their own good. However, the education system propagates the western culture which is in direct contradiction with the ways of the East. Parents are not willing to accept that their daughters and sons have equal rights according to Islam. As a result, women feel the need to abandon their own Islamic beliefs and adopt those of the west. A Muslim woman’s position is such that she is helpless and cannot escape subjugation. Honor killings are committed if a woman is seen associating with the opposite sex she is assumed to put the family name to disgrace and is sentenced to death at the hands of her own family. The height of this injustice is such that women are the only ones who bear the burn of the honor killing. This essay will explore Hayv Kahraman’s works, which is rooted in the social context of Iraq’s Islamic society. She has managed to experiment with the ide a of honor killings and incorporate it into her work. Her work shows the reality of the honor killings in a subtle way, and also questions the justification of such acts from the world outside. The isolated and hidden nature of honor killings and other such injustices against women are perpetual in patriarchal society. It is an important investigation since it helps highlight the idea of such crimes with formal and aesthetic concerns. Main Body In a traditional society, men are thought to believe that women are an â€Å"object owned by the man who assumes responsibility for her behavior and her life† [Mirza, 2005]. Women are expected to meet the demands of their father, brother or husband and should be forcefully domesticated. Since Islam gives importance to husband and their well-being, women are made to believe that their sole purpose is to fulfil the wishes of her husband or she will not enter paradise. However, the same men who live by this rule of thumb forget that the v ery same religion has given women far more important rights to remember and practice. For example, â€Å"the role of mother is given a higher status in Islam, the Prophet said that Paradise lies under a mother’s feet† [Unknown, 2007]. In Islam women have property rights and the rights to own wealth, to work, to get an education, to run a business and have the freedom to choose who to marry. However, at home, parents make justifications for the way they treat their daughters. Sons are seen as the

History of Art: Classical to Minimalism

History of Art: Classical to Minimalism 18th Century Neo Classical Neo classical art was the name given to the art, architecture sculpture that began emerging in the mid eighteenth century in Europe, it was the new age interpretation of classical art, taking its inspiration from stories and great works of art of the Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Johann Joachim Winkelmanns work The History of Ancient Art was one of the major inspirations for the rise of the neoclassical movement. Simplicity and symmetry are the stand out characteristics of the work done in this movement. Some of the famous artists include Pannini, Benjamin West and Jacques Louis David. The design is kept austere and linear and is much more accurate in its depiction of the ancient times. This was also driven by the recent excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii by Winkelmann. Winkelmann himself was a great admirer of the ancient civilizations and inspired artists to follow their style of art stating it contains a noble simplicity and a quiet grandeur he believed that the Greeks artists came as close to perfection as possible and by following them current artists could come close to an idealized depictions of natural form which has been stripped of transitory and individualistic aspects. One work or art which comes to fore as a true depiction of all that Neoclassical work stands for is, Oedipus and the Sphinx, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, painted in 1808 and reworked at in 1826 when it was finally completed. It is the depiction a scene from the Greek play Sophocles where Oedipus, is stopped in his tracks by a sphinx, who asks him a riddle, on answering correctly Oedipus won the kingdom of Thebes and a wife. The work is Oil on canvas. As is typical of that period the design is kept austere and linear. Oedipuss stance can be captured perfectly in horizontal and vertical lines, a typical neoclassical characteristic that uses balance and line to highlight beauty and harmony. Another striking feature is imperfectness of Oedipus which makes him a perfect depiction of human form as we all carry our imperfections in line with what Winkelmann said. The simplicity of the art can also be viewed as shedding the excesses of the Rocco movement. As this form emerged during the French Political and the English Industrial movement, it gives the impression of leaving behind frivolity and heading towards depicting a more serious form of human nature and philosophy. 19th Century Impressionistic Rebellious, vibrant, vivid are a few words that come to mind when discussing impressionistic art. Beginning in the mid nineteenth artists such as Degas, Morisot and Monet, began to break the norm of academic painting, by giving up on the detailed stillness of the academic painting and bringing in the restlessness of the world around us into art. The name impressionistic was coined from the inspiration behind the art, which is as the human eye sees it. Impressionist artists tried to capture movement as best as they could, for which they employed light as their favorite element, with different angles of accentuating light being used to depict movement in place and time. This was done with the help of free and short brush strokes of called broken strokes, colors were unmixed giving vibrancy to the design. The difference between impressionistic art and the art before it can be captured by looking at a tree outside the window, if we observe the tree closely we observe minute details and i f we look at it fleetingly we get a different impression. Thus the earlier art aimed to capture every details of the tree, impressionistic art would capture the tree as we will see it if we just casually look up while walking past it, a little hazy, a little blurred, swaying with the wind, with the light making the same green look like a million different colors. One of the most famous artists of this era was Claude Monet and his most famous work Soleil Levant or Sunrise, painted in 1872, oil on canvas. It is probably the work of art that gave rise to the term Impressionistic as it was described the impression of the harbor as Money saw it from the window. Another special feature of this work is the use of color makes the setting sun look more vibrant than the rest of the sky, but that is just the perception of the human eye, as a black and white copy of the painting proves that the sun just disappears into the sky, capturing the nature perfectly. 20th Century Surrealism As depicted by the name, Surrealism aims to blur the lines between dreams and reality. The main characteristics of this form of art are that the concepts and scenes chosen were illogical and strange to the point of being shocking in many cases, but they were drawn with photographic precision, such that they seemed to be picked out of some unnerving alternate reality. Elements used were surprise, drawing something so far removed from the viewers imagination such that oddity would drive them in, this was achieved in many cases by juxtaposing reality and fiction, good and evil, truth and falsehood and sometimes by breaking the sequence of actions that we automatically assume would follow a certain pattern. Surrealism was also believed to be inspired from the Dada movement which began in Europe after World war I. It was led by Parisian artists, still fresh from the horrors of The Great war attempting to leave reality behind, driven by the belief that bourgeois rationality in thought movement and action had brought the war upon them One of the more controversial artists of the movement was Andre Masson, for he used a technique viewed with skepticism by many, Auto- drawing or automatic drawing, he would go for days without food and water and use drugs to put himself in a trance like state do that the work of art is truly drawn from point in the mind between dreams and consciousness. This can be very clearly seen from his work also called Automatic Drawing, drawn in 1924, ink on paper, the vivid eyes seem to belong to creatures from some dreamlike state and curvy lines seem like an attempt to five them human form Late 20th Century Minimalist This form art was one of the very few that began by finding its footing in post-World War II America, often seen as an reaction to Abstract Expressionist art of the previous decade, minimalist art as suggested by the name aims to shed all the excesses carried by the design to bring out the true form. This can also be viewed as a reaction to modernism, that encourages society to shed it excesses or it can also be called as a reductionist form of art. Another way to understand it is that the art aims to expose the essence and it does by slowly removing all the non-essential forms incumbent upon the form. Many designs are depicted by geometric patterns where the edges are thin and sharp, and colors have not been used in modulation. This work of art is almost always the artists perception, derived from a personal experience, it need not follow any mathematical or lyrical sequence, and it is an attempt to present what is exactly as it is, as seen by the eyes of the artist Frank Stella was one of the earliest artists to take up the minimalistic form, her work Die Fahn Hoch! Painted in 1959, enamel on canvas is regarded as a forerunner of minimalist art. The painting on the outset seems like a simple collection of lines, it brings out many hidden meanings and interpretations on closer inspection. Another feature of this and many other paintings by Stella is that the title chosen would be ringing with emotions of temper and hatred like Die Fahn Hoch which is eerily similar to the Nazi title. By using such emotive titles for her simplistic interpretations, Stella lets irony do the talking. Though each form of art chosen above, on its own has broken the norm of the current age, Impressionistic art seems to be the most intriguing. It broke the norm of the day by bringing out, that the only purpose of art is not depiction of form, painting can be truly emotive and intriguing if perceptions and personal views are made to play a part in the final outcome, in many ways Impressionist Art laid the foundation for many other styles to come

Billy Budd Essay -- essays research papers

This story depicts how a certain innocent person was condemned and was sentenced to death for a crime he did but with an innocent motive. The story goes on around a certain person's life in a ship where he was said to be one of the crew. Billy as a character depicted in the story is a person whose innocence can not be changed into hatred for other people. Though his surrounding is full of people with evil motives, he is still into trusting them with full innocence. Evilness beyond comprehension Such evilness is beyond the main character's understanding, and his being weak causes him to lose his sense of defending himself. With this state of the character's condition, some people around him tend to abuse his weakness, such as the character which is depicted as an evil person in the story who?s Claggart. Claggart as an evil influence in the story caused Billy to use a brutal way to express Billy?s madness because he is speechless, Billy was then susceptible in making an attack due to the evil atmosphere on the ship. By Billy?s innocence, he was dragged to the wilderness of violence. It is beyond his comprehension that it is indeed the evil?s intention to ruin the goodness in his heart. Indeed the evilness had him off guard that had caused him to be condemned. The writer depicted his main character?s innocence as something to be really loved and liked by other people but also a personality which is something to be pitied about. Billy depicting Jesus Christ In simple but complex ways, the main character was said to be somehow depicting Jesus Christ?s sacrifice for the betterment of everyone. He was, as Jesus was condemned to death though they are both innocent. It is showed in the story that the main character?s in... ...could cause a certain person weakness and vulnerability that could be the main cause for him/her to be deprived by others by his own life. Thesis This story only tends to show the readers how difficult it is to live in this world full of evil forces thus a person like Billy is innocent about such thing. It depicts how a human would only suffer of his innocence in this kind of world. And that innocence is vulnerable to evilness and deprivation to life as the character was deprived of his life due to his innocence and lack of comprehension about evilness. Also that the law which is supposed to give justice, it is the one that deprives people by not considering a certain accused persons statement or side. The kind of law in the story is the one that manipulates a person to view the case in a right manner according to the true essence of justice (Melville, 1924).

Critical Essay on ‘Follower’ Essay

A poem which explores the problems of growing older is the poem ‘Follower’ by Seamus Heaney. This poem is about Heaney’s childhood memories of his father working on the farm ploughing the land. Heaney talks very highly of his father and creates the impression of a very strong man who was an expert at what he done and a man who was his son’s hero. It also talks about how Heaney used to follow his dad around as he worked and how he dreamed of growing up and ploughing like his dad. However, there is a twist at the end of the poem and Heaney goes from talking about how he was an annoyance to his dad when he was younger but now his dad is the annoyance to him as he is now old. In the first stanza, Heaney talks about his father and his work. He is talking very highly of his father and says, â€Å"The horses strained at his clicking tongue† This quote shows how his father was a man who was extremely good at his work as it shows how his father could control numerous strong farm animals perfectly and with ease just by clicking his tongue, a very hard thing to do using reasonable force never mind just by a simple gesture such of the click of his tongue. The image the reader gathers from this quote goes well with the image of a strong, well-built man that we get when Heaney writes, â€Å"His shoulders globed like a full sail strung† These two quotes together give a very good impression of Heaney’s dad. Together they give the impression that his dad was a very heroic figure to him and that he aspired to be like him. It gives the image of the perfect male, a strong, graceful man that was an expert at his profession and that was an idol to his son. However, these hero-like images of his father when he was younger are dismissed later on in the poem when Heaney writes about how his dad is no longer the big strong man that is an idol to younger males but the complete opposite, someone who is annoying and in the way of him rather than being someone who he looks up to, follows around and aspires to be. These positive quotes of the young strong man and the negative image created by the last stanza go hand in hand to show the problems of growing older. The same kind of idea of the negative points of growing older are continued in to the second stanza when Heaney continues to talk about how his dad was so much of an idol to him and how his dad was someone to be looked up to and to aspire to be like when he was younger and in his prime in this stanza. This time Heaney says, â€Å"An expert. He would set the wing† This is a very powerful line. The short sentence of only two words to start off the stanza is very effective as it gives the impression that his father wasn’t only very good at his job but he was an expert, he was the best. This is once again showing how his father was so much of an idol to him and that he was a very respectable stereotypical perfect father when he was younger as it shows how good his father was at his job. The second part of the line shows that his father knew exactly what he was doing and gives us the impression that his father took his job very seriously and that he was very precise and concentrated when doing anything in his job such as setting the wing. The idea of his dad being so good at his job and being able to do it with ease is continued when Heaney writes, â€Å"The sod rolled over without breaking. At the headrig, with a single pluck† The quotes ‘without breaking’ and ‘with a single pluck’ reinforce the idea that his dad was an ‘expert’ at his job as they show that he could do hard work with ease and that he knew exactly what he was doing and that he could do it perfectly if he could turn soil without it even breaking and control his animals with a ‘single pluck‘. Once again it is the negative image of his father given in the last stanza as he is older that shows the negative effects of growing older as it is so different from the image you gather from the first two stanzas alone about how good his father was at his job and how strong his father was and how much of an idol his father was to him when he was younger. The image of his father being so strong and good at his job in his youth is continued throughout the next three stanzas. The idea of him being an expert and being someone to look up to who was strong and almost perfect is continued through the continued use of quotes such as, â€Å"the sweating team† This shows that the work was not easy. If the team of strong farm horses that where doing the job were sweating and tired you could only imagine how much sweat and effort Heaney’s father would have to put in to the work. It then continues to talk about his expertise in the job as it says things such as, â€Å"Narrowed and angled at the ground, Mapping the furrow exactly.† The first line shows how his father took his work very seriously and that he was very precise in what he done and that he made sure he done it to a good standard therefore he had to concentrate greatly on what he was doing. The second line also reinstates the fact that he was an expert at his work as it shows how he mapped the furrow in his head and made sure it was exact once again showing that he took it very seriously and had pride in his work. Heaney then goes on to write, â€Å"Sometimes he rode me on his back† This gives the impression that his father was the ultimate as he has talked about how hard his work was when he wrote about the ‘sweating team’ and he was talked about how much effort and concentration that he had to put in to his work but he says how he still even managed to carry his little son on his back while he did all of this. Something that would make the work even more harder and longer and would make it harder to concentrate but he still did it. However, all these quotes can be compared to the last three or so lines that show the real problems of growing older. Althought he had listed all of these positive things and even said how he literally followed in his fathers footsteps all day, he finishes of the poem by saying, â€Å"But today It is my father who keeps stumbling Behind me, and will not go away.† This really highlights the problem of growing older as it shows how people can just disregard someone when they get old regardless of what they thought of them when they were younger. Although Heaney had idolised his dad when he was young and wanted to be exactly like him and used to stumble behind his father and annoy him, now that it is Heaney in the position of having his father stumbling behind him and relying on him, Heaney doesn’t even want to know him. This is actually quite a sad ending to the poem as it really does highlight the problems of growing older as it shows how it seems that once you are older and start relying on those younger than you who once relied in you they don’t want to know you. So, as you can see, the author, Seamus Heaney has been very successful at exploring the problems of growing older in his poem ‘Follower’. Heaney does this by writing the vast majority of the poem about positive points about his dad when he was younger making him out to be a hero but then introducing a cruel twist in the last stanza about how even though he once idolised his dad and relied on him now that his dad relies on Heaney, he doesn’t want to know him.

Muslim Night Essay

An event called ‘Muslim Night’ was held on Saturday, May 7, at MLIC 3rd Floor, IUJ. This annual event starting from 7 pm was initiated and implemented by Muslim Student Association (MSA). Some of students at IUJ come from Muslim countries; they are from Soth East countries : Indonesia and Malaysia; Middle East : Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan; South Asia : Bangladesh, Pakistan; and Africa Sudan. Those countries have a value or culture influenced by Islam. Entitled ‘Muslim heritage in our world’, the event is expected to be cross-cultural understanding and value sharing for Muslim. Muslim culture has many heritages to the world, especially some inventions that still used till today. The inventions are from many aspects such as economy, science, engineer,etc. A short opening speech was delivered by Professor Ahmed. He said that more than 3 billion people in the world hold Islam. â€Å"This contributes significant influence to enrich world culture† added he. Islamic values cannot be separated from the way of Muslim life. Islam which means submission brings peaceful to any human beings. This is reflected from Islamic greeting ‘Assalamual’aikum’ which means to give peace upon to the addressee. The President of MSA – Nur Adib Najamuddin in this occasion said that †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ (mohon diisi ya mas, maaf waktu saya lagi moto di luar) President of IUJ, Masakatsu Mori through his email is welcome this event. However, he was absent due to his scheduled appointments in Tokyo. This event is open for all IUJ’s community. More than 250 participants – student, staff, and faculty members were joining in. Much information about Islamic values and culture are available in the form of booklet and poster. Nasheed song describing Islamic culture was heard during the event. The Muslim Night 2011 provided some activities such as (1) a short movie presentation with the title â€Å"1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets’ which tells about pioneering scientists and engineers from the history of Muslim civilization, such as Al Zahrawi, Al Jazari, and others. The film starred by Sir Ben Kinsley has won Cannes Festival France 2010 for best educational film and New York Film Festival 2010 as the best movie. (2) Islamic corner provided a free writing name in Arabic calligraphy for the participants and it was recorded that almost 200 participants wanted to be written their name in Arabic, (3) and ethnic food and drinks from various Muslim countries, such as South East Asia, Middle Asia, and South Asia.