How I Stumbled Across Universal Literacy

I acquired, through being authority of some chats that, eventu onlyy, eachthing connects. I had always heard the same thing, Graduate from a healthy college and construe a cent living, and youll be happy and successful. Ha What a capitalistic, factory- produced, sprite tale to tell impressionable children, I thought. Nope, I was smarter than that. I would be the one to take the road less traveledto go against the mite and live my bear life the way I wanted to. by and by barely graduating high train with a GEED (or a GEED equivalent in truth ), I took off to LA to become a music-producer.I was going to be big. I learned the trade, worked inside multi- million dollar studios, and formed a band. I had It all figured out and I was going to how everybody that school was for fools. As with everything In life. This Intoxicating success did non last. I began to tincture just aboutthing was missing. Here I was, living the dream that I had imagined for myself, and yet, I didnt feel much fulfillment. Bills were stacking, the girlfriend was becoming distant, and the excitement of living on my throw slowly began to degrade with each passing day.Soon, I could no drawn-out make enough to afford living on my own. And so, I packed up and return home to the Bay Area. Life had defeated me, or so It felt, and I had to reevaluate what I wanted to do with mine. Thats when the unhoped happened I started going back to school again. I began taking courses poorly and I learned that, not wholly was I pretty good at most of the stuff, I rattling equald it. I put in that an obscure subject exchangeable calculus, could be applied to something even more obscure like computer programming. I learned lessons in fluid that helped me learn how to mixerize.Hell, if I took an extensive course on rock-paper-scissors, I could arise a hidden lesson that could ring true In another charter. I guess you could say I slowly realized how to learn, rather than what to learn. a fterward all, James Paul Gee writes in his paper, owing is a press of knowing how to proceed (go on) in specific social interactions (Discourse and Coloratura Studies in Reading, 196). Once I realized that I had a plethora of knowledge and life-experiences up my sleeve already, navigating through new areas in life began to be much more comfortable and rewarding.An unexpected part of life had showed up In my life as well holiness. If you had the reasons victimize with the Bible and how there couldnt possibly be a God. Openness projecting my stubbornness. I wanted to hear out what all these state in Christianity had to say. As I attended sermons, I checked all Judgments at the door and listened. I remember the words of a wise teacher I had in high school. He told us to empty our cupsto be ready to fill it with more knowledge. I found that what they preached in church was certainly applicable to somebody not religious at all.Instead of visual perception the religion as a brain-wa shing cult, I began to understand it as a form of volunteer-work. These people were here for help, or to help. How could I speak negatively anymore about something that humans should be doing for each other? I kicked up a gumption of humbleness from immersing myself in religious-discourse. It was not only Christianity that I researched. I started pouring my curiosities into Buddhism, Shamanism, and Islam. In all these religions, they teach a similar purpose healing. Heal yourself, heal others, and heal the Universe.Within you, without you. We are all one, yet amazingly anomalous. All these Faceable-queues pseudo babble started to make sense to me Trying new topics had given me a fulfillment that I except could not describe. I felt like a scientist, and that my field of study had now been shifted to understanding life. The doors that academic and religious discourse opened for me was like staring into a hallway that had even more interesting and bizarre doors to be opened. That w ould neer have been available to me had I not sense of smelled in their direction and remained open.James Paul Gee puts it very handsomely, Analogously, one empennage interchange the insight by taking successively deeper views of what interpretation means (Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, 540). At times, I washstand still feel dejected, depressed, or save opine lazy after having been through these types of situations onward, some many times worse, I learned that eventually, everything will urn out okay againit has to. Physics proves this, religion speaks of this, and there are sayings Im sure youve heard before like, the dawn is darkest before the day. Recognizing this helps me deal with the inevitable problems that we all share, and how to stress out in a healthy way. A big part of life for me is music. I would not have traveled to LA with such reckless abandon, were it not for the animosity and fuel that music provides me. I identified heavily with the punk-(counter )culture during my teenage years. I still do, but again, with a fresh perspective on the community. Punks look intimidating to a lot of people. They have messy hair, spikes in every direction on their clothing, and a penchant for destroying things.The irony is, these very people are often the ones who are insecure, bold, and most understanding. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, and some punks are Just dicks, but being surrounded by a culture of misfits where the majority of members inside felt they were not right for the mainstream discourse, led me to take a look at the way things were established. I saw a lot of paranoia in the community, and I had to face my own. permit me explain. Paranoia, on one end of the spectrum, can lead people to hope things like, in 1969, America staged the whole moon landing.Or that the Pope is really a lizard. But on the other end of the spectrum, complete naivet can lead people to believe that banks have your best interest in mind, or tha t marijuana causes death. Somewhere in between them is an inner-balance much like the yin and yang in Buddhism. I learned that I revealed when the people spreading an idea can learn to communicate well enough without offending anothers ideas. We mustiness listen to others as well, and learn to be dead to change our own ideas. How can we do this? How can I be sure that the strain red looks the same to me, as it does to you?And more importantly, how can we find a .. That reading and writing cannot be separated from consensus? Gee argues, speaking, listening, and interacting (Reading as dictated Language A Cognitively Perspective, 714). He makes a rather elegant point here in that it is not a matter of avenue smarts vs Book smarts, rather, it is a marriage of the two that is necessary for communication. Eventually, everything connects was said by Charles Names, a designer. An app on the phone called, Dots, A Game About Connecting, displays his recite prominently.Each time I play this game, I think about the many ways to accomplish one simple goal connect the dots. thither are ups and downs, lefts and rights. But there are also boxes and zigzags. The more unique ways you find to connect the dots, the easier and more fun the game becomes. knowledge many tools from hands-on life- experiences greatly increases the fulfillment I feel for them. They gain my confidence, encourage me to eat healthier, to do well in school, and to live happier with family. You can say Vie stopped rebelling like I used to, and to that, I would have to agree.But Im also rebelling against ignorance. Im rebelling against preconceived molds society can place on us, and Im rebelling against egoism. Its a never-ending pursuit, but its much more preferable to never pursuing. James Paul Gee says, . .The master discourse is not Just the sum of its parts, it is something also over and above them (Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, 537). Perhaps once weve connected all the dots, we are s till not done. We may never be done, and to me, that is an exciting thought.