High school English teachers are the bane of smart children. They are the masters of doling out enormous quantities of busy work. Completely unnecessary, for some of us at least. Here we get to how public schools are so incredibly inefficient. And also how when we are not leaving that one kid behind who doesn't speak English and doesn't care about school, I would rather not be thrown under the bus everyday of school for my entire life. Yes, let's not get into that. So, even though I was in college level courses this past year, (or at least it was supposed to be English 101 and 102) I still did more busy work and colored more things with crayons than I have since 3rd grade. Anyway, I did learn to write much better which is the point of the class, but I will always resent busy work and those who give it. Here was one of those silly assignments that I hate which in the end turned out to be quite meaningful and helped me to understand myself better.
To care or not to care-that is the question:
Whether ‘tis simpler in the end to endure
The curves and switchbacks of having emotion,
Or to altercate with all of the people
And, plainly put, afflict them.
To wall, to block,
Feeling
-and by barricading emotion end
The distress and the thousand apprehensions
That everyone has
-that is a road
I have walked down before.
To barricade, to feel,
Nothing at all.
Yes, that’s the problem,
For without any of the bad feelings,
That everyone normally has,
We can have no good.
There’s the value
That makes the tangle of life worth living.
What kind of a person would endure all;
The misplaced blame, the stinging remarks,
The hurt of rejection, every injustice,
The contempt of those who don’t understand,
That all channel together to hurt,
When I do it to myself
Without any help?
Who would care a whit,
To cry and groan over painful emotions,
Unless the joys of brighter feelings,
Far outweighed each and every one
Of the aches, or afflictions
So that each of us would accept
Having both ends of the deal?
Thus we see emotion is definitely worth it.
And even though I could easily
Exist without the world of feelings
I could never have great satisfaction
Or experience the feelings of
Love and happiness.
