Religion, Poverty and Wealth Essay Example for Free

Religion, Poverty and Wealth Essay Describe how followers of this religion may put their ideas into practice. Helping others is a big part of being a Christian, because of the importance of the commandment Love thy neighbour. Since the 19th Century, Christians have been setting up homes for the poor and needy. However recently there has been an increase in awareness of poorer people, putting more pressure on people to help others. A very popular way of helping others is by setting up, and giving to charities. There are many different charities, both Christian and non-Christian, which offer a wide range of help. The Church of England Childrens Society helps to better the lives of underprivileged children; The Hospice Movement aims to help the dying spend their last days in a loving, caring environment; the LArche Community helps disabled people. Christian Aid is one of the most famous Christian charities. It was set up in Britain and Ireland at the end of the Second World War, with its main aims being to improve the quality of peoples lives, particularly those of refugees who were struggling to cope with the aftermath of World War II. It also funded Churches to help repair damage caused by the war. Gradually over time, the work of Christian Aid began to involve other countries around the world. It now has an income of approximately à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½40 million a year, and there are forty churches in the United Kingdom and Ireland who are a part of Christian Aid. Most of the money, which they make through door-to-door collections and donations from members of the public and various churches, is put towards development work to help people in the long term. Another famous charitable organisation is The Samaritans. The Samaritans was set up in 1953 when Chad Varah, a priest, was horrified to find out that three suicides took place every day in London. He believed that the best way to help someone who was contemplating committing suicide was to talk to them. So he set up a phone in his church and advertised that people could phone for helpful advice if they were feeling suicidal. Today The Samaritans speak to 2 250 000 people a year. Aside from charities, many Christians feel that they should give a small percentage of their wages to help the less fortunate. Sir John Templeton grew up in a poor family on a farm in Tennessee. He was educated at both Yale and Oxford University, after which he became a financial consultant in New York. Throughout his life he gave 10% of his earnings to help the poor (a process called tithing). Eventually he became very wealthy running a multimillion dollar investment company, where he successfully managed funds for over two million people worldwide. In 1972 he started the Templeton prize to be awarded for progress in religion, which is worth more money than the Nobel Peace Prize. Fifteen years later he was knighted for services to philanthropy. In 1992, he sold his investment company for a colossal $400 million. He still gives money to support projects around the world which further understanding of spirituality and the importance of the human character. George Macleod felt so strongly about helping others that, in 1938, he formed a Christian Community on Iona, an island off of Scotland. He found volunteers to learn building, stone masonry and carpentry skills and together they rebuilt Ionas ruined abbey. After that he opened a centre to provide shelter for young people from across the world, and to allow them to live in a close community. The people of the community feel it is more important to live like this and share everything than to be rich and not live as closely. They take it in turns to cook, clean, garden and work away. When they are not working, they pray. This is very similar to the ideas expressed by Jesus according to the Bible. The first Christians followed Jesus teachings very closely. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Not only are there many passages in the Bible that tell Christians how to treat the poor, there are also some in the Old Testament. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear. Isaiah 58:6-8 Another example of how Christians helped the poor was the Liberation Theology movement. This started in the late 1960s when the poorer inhabitants of South American countries decided that they didnt want to be exploited any more. They made a decision to stand against the corrupt governments, with inspiration from the words of Jesus: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has appointed me to preach good news to the poor. The Christian followers of Liberation Theology try to fight out against poverty, lack of human rights and the exploitation of certain peoples. Many Priests, especially Oscar Romero, involved in this endanger their lives by speaking out against their government. Romero knew he was in danger, but felt that it was his Christian duty to fight against oppression and injustice. He was shot dead in March 1980 whilst conducting mass. In South America, many people see him as a great martyr. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them. All Christians feel it is their duty to God to help the poor and needy, and to be kind to those who need their kindness.

completing college the easy way :: essays research papers

Completing our education is a goal many of us share. Finding the time to juggle classes, family life and a job seems to be the hard part. In today’s growing corporate world, more and more people are expanding their education. Searching to obtain a higher level of education, online classes seem to be the wave of the future. The growths in the technology field make achieving our goals seem almost too easy to be true.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Traditional schools offer many learning opportunities, not only to the young, but also to the adults looking to move forward with their careers. Many adults head off to college, hoping to reach personal goals by obtaining a higher level of education. With this goal in mind, many are looking for job opportunities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Higher levels of learning bring an achievement of not only personal goals, but also many gain financial opportunities that come with having a degree. Organizations are hiring individuals with educational backgrounds, to benefit their company. Having a high school degree in these changing times is not a big enough asset anymore.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Online learning is quickly becoming the wave of the future. Many traditional colleges are quickly adding online courses to keep in demand. Modern technology enables us to receive our education with out leaving our home or jobs. Today’s computers are holding large amounts of information making, those days of lugging books back and forth to the library a thing of the past.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Completing our jobs, taking care of families and now attending classes via the Internet makes college more acceptable to many individuals. Attending a class when it is convenient to ones schedule is creating an environment of educated adults who are benefiting the companies they work for.

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STUDY ABOUT 360-DEGREE EVALUATION: THE PROS AND CONS OF MULTI-SOURCE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL INTRODUCTION: In an organization employees are the important asset and play a significant role in the progress of an organization. Nowadays firms usually focus on the human capital in the form of the employees by giving them training, assisting them in career development and also work on performance management in order to keep the employees motivated and dedicated by giving them feedback through performance appraisals.Through these performance appraisals the employees are informed about their strengths that they can enhance and about their weaknesses that they can improve in the future. Multi-source performance appraisal or 360-degree evaluation is basically a process in which the feedback is collected from different people that interacts with employee like his supervisors, coworkers, bosses, can be stakeholders etc.It is an important tool for Human Resource Management as the feedback is collec ted through the questionnaires in which the employees are asked to rate the particular employee in his performance and behavior. Its main purpose is to provide a healthy feedback to the employee that can highlight his strong and weak points and also helps in the development and the training of the employee. The feedback that is collected from different people is discussed between the manager and the particular employee.In this performance appraisal method the identity of a person who is filling the survey form is not shared with that particular employee. It also gives an impression to the employee that what other people think of him as in traditional appraisal method only the supervisor of particular employee gives the feedback about his performance but now due to involvement of people from different departments and different levels make the assessment less subjective and may be more accurate and honest.If one person says something about the employee then their can be chances of bia sness but if many people says the same thing and without the influence of someone then we can say that their might be something wrong or something good about that particular person. As nothing is perfect in this world, which means that there are some pros and cons of 360 degree evaluation method. This paper highlights the advantages and disadvantages of multi-source performance appraisal and also mentions some recommendation that can be used while implementing this performance appraisal method.The main importance is given on the pros and cons of this method that can help the organization to decide whether to continue with the traditional appraisal method or to go with 360-degree evaluation method. ANALYSIS: The multi-source performance appraisal method plays a vital role for employees. It makes the employees to think about their attitude and behavior and about others perception about them. It also identifies the areas in which a particular employee performed well and also where he c ould not come up to the expectations.There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages of multi-source performance appraisal which are as follows: ?Advantages of Multi-Source Performance Appraisal Method: The main advantage of this method is that it provides feedback from different levels of organization and it is not restricted to supervisor or the manager as in the traditional performance appraisal method, as shown in the Appendix-I. In this method the employee is the centre of attention of all the people and the main goal of this method is to make the performance of that employee better than before as shown in Appendix-II.Due to the use of rating from different people, 360 degree evaluation method enhances the quality of the performance procedures and gives a detailed view. This method is useful to the supervisor as it can provide more authentic assessment of the performance of the employee and can help to eradicate the chances of biasness due to which it becomes easier for the sup ervisor to come to a certain conclusion related to that particular worker. Another advantage of this method is that through this feedback the top managers can make decisions related to the promotion or sometimes extermination of an employee.It also helps to highlight those areas in which the employee can be trained and it is also beneficial in the employee development. This appraisal method can be beneficial for those people who are in inferiority complex and underestimate themselves, to change their mindset and remain motivated after getting a positive feedback from their co-workers, bosses etc. One of the major benefits of this method is that it reduces the chance of discrimination as the feedback is collected from a very diverse group of individuals.It is an important tool to bring a change in the performance of an employee that result in organizational effectiveness. It is also beneficial in making the performance of the employee parallel with business values. Customer service m ay be improved by the front line employees by getting feedback from the customers through this method as this provide the opportunity to the employees to think on those areas where they are not performing well. Due to above advantages of multi-source performance appraisal method many big companies like Johnson and Johnson Limited, IBM , Xerox etc. se this method and are very successful in today’s competitive world as this method is more accurate and gives more reliable information than the traditional performance appraisal methods. ?Disadvantages of Multi-Source Performance Appraisal Method: This method had a lot of advantages but there are some disadvantages that may create doubt of whether to opt for this method or not. This method is quite complex and time taking and also very costly as it involves a lot of hassle to make the survey form filled from different people and conclude the ratings.This method can be dangerous and can produce very destructive results if it is not conducted properly and also if it is not done correctly then it can become a huge waste of time. This process can become difficult to handle and manage if there are too many people involved. One of the major disadvantages is that sometimes there are questionnaires in which the comments are not clearly understandable and needs some further explanation from those people who filled that form but due to anonymous feedback it is extremely difficult to trace out those people as a result of whom the results may not be so accurate or authentic.Human beings are major part of this method as every individual have personal preferences so there are chances that some people may rank a person in such a way so that an employee looks good or sometimes bad and may also some people got together and form a group and gave evaluation in favor or against of someone. This will probably occur in those conditions when there is no proper checking or supervision that how the questionnaires are being filled. RE COMMENDATIONS:Due to disadvantages of this method it can be difficult for an organization to select this performance appraisal method. So there are some recommendations that can help to control the pitfalls of this method. 360-degree evaluation method should be conducted carefully so that accurate results could be obtained. The managers who are supervising this whole procedure should identify those areas on which they want to collect information for a particular employee like questions related to leadership skills may be asked, or may be related to employee behavior with his subordinates etc.It should also be considered that the questionnaire should not be so long that it consumes a lot of time and the employees utilize most of their work time in filling the survey form. Employees should be trained in such a way that the people who are giving the feedback remain positive and practical rather than considering personal grudges and also those who received the feedback should take it in a constructive way even if it indicates some of the weaknesses of an employee.An employee can be given an option to choose the people from whom feedback he wants but the management has to make sure that they are not his friends or not so close to him. The manager or the supervisor who will communicate the feedback to the particular employee should deal him like a psychologist and should have some training that how to share the feedback with the employee so that he does not react very badly and not become demotivated from the feedback.There are some people who do not want to change themselves so if the appraisal is related to those employees then the supervisor should be careful in communicating the feedback and also try to share the feedback in such a way that he tries to change himself. The identities of the appraisers remain confidential but there should be some source of identification through which the management can identify the person if there is some problem in understanding the comments in their filled form. The employee whose performance is being measured should be treated with great respect and esteem.As the world is changing with the evolution of information technology and organizations are improving their technology in order to remain competitive, this performance appraisal method should be moved from the paper to the computerized system. Software should be installed in order to get online feedback of the multi-source performance appraisal, in this way employees can fill the form online and it will reduce the hassle and also lessen the time of conducting whole procedure. The feedback system should be aligned with the culture of an organization and also the rating instruments should be reliable so that accurate results could be obtained.CONCLUSION: The 360-degree feedback is used by many organizations as this process has become very famous in today’s’ world. This method involves the feedback from different people which can make the fe edback more reliable and authentic. Due to a lot of popularity of this method many organizations are now trying to adapt this method so that they could become more competitive in today’s global world. This tool should be used with a lot of care and responsibility so that the results that will be obtained should be authentic.

Did Wordsworth or Coleridge Have Greater Influence on...

Did Wordsworth or Coleridge have greater influence on modern criticism? Answer: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and British Romanticism Introduction After a brief introduction of the period that will contrast the Romantics with the century that preceded them, we shall move on to analyze the great poetic, theoretical experiment that most consider the Ur text of British Romanticism: Lyrical Ballads. We shall explore both the unique plan of Lyrical Ballads, and the implications of that plan for literary theory. In this elaborate introductory summary, we shall consider the contributions of the British Romantic poets. Our texts will be: Wordsworths Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Coleridges Biographia Literaria, Shellys Defense of Poetry,†¦show more content†¦This is a radical, Romantic notion, which says that the individual, rather than society or God or anything else, should be at the center. So thats an origin or cause of Romanticism. French Revolution The second one often discussed, is the start of the French Revolution, the storm of the Bastille in 1789. That event offered the hope of not only internal and external freedom, but promised more radically that internal dreams could affect and even alter the external world. In other words, the French Revolution not only showed that we can throw off our chains, that we can change the world, but more radically, that an internal vision that people have, of freedom, can be taken and projected onto the world, changing it in accordance with their dreams. Thats very Romantic, as well see in this unit. Lyrical Ballads Finally, the third origin, which we are most interested in, is the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, and what it was followed within 1800, when a second edition was published, to which Wordsworth added a preface. Now in this lecture well look at the Lyrical Ballads of 1798, while the next lecture looks at the preface itself because the preface in some ways, really caused the revolution, even more than Lyrical Ballad, but well split them up. So why is Lyrical Ballads a third source? It championed new subjects for poetry, and a newShow MoreRelatedEssay about Romanticism1678 Words   |  7 Pagesemotional literary expressions of the past was to be a dominant note in Romanticism. (Frenz, Horst and Stallknecht, Newton P. pgs 70-73) Romanticism in English literature began in the 1790’s was the publication of Lyrical Ballads written by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Cloeridge. Wordsworth’s â€Å"Preface† to the second edition (1800) of Lyrical Ballads, in which he describes poetry as â€Å" the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,† became the manifesto of the English Romantic Movement in poetryRead MoreKubla Khan a Supernatural Poem8401 Words   |  34 Pagestransforming creative self and the aesthetics of becoming in Samuel Taylor Coleridge s Kubla Khan and Dejection: An Ode , by reassessing certain strands of Romantic visionary criticism and Deconstruction, which are two major cr itical positions in the reading and interpreting of Romantic poetry. The poetics of becoming and the creative process place the self in Coleridge s aesthetic and spiritual idealism in what I have called a constructive deferral, since none of his poetic texts demonstratesRead MoreSummary of She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways11655 Words   |  47 PagesLucy poems William Shuter, Portrait of William Wordsworth, 1798. Earliest known portrait of Wordsworth, painted in the year he wrote the first drafts of The Lucy poems[1] The Lucy poems are a series of five poems composed by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) between 1798 and 1801. All but one were first published during 1800 in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, a collaboration between Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that was both Wordsworths first major publicationRead MoreThe Function of Criticism at the Present Time12631 Words   |  51 PagesTHE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM AT THE PRESENT TIME Matthew Arnold THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM AT THE PRESENT TIME Table of Contents THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM AT THE PRESENT TIME.........................................................................1 Matthew Arnold.............................................................................................................................................1 i THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM AT THE PRESENT TIME Matthew Arnold This page copyright  © 2001 BlackmaskRead MoreCleanth Brookss Essay Irony as a Principle of Structure9125 Words   |  37 PagesLukà ¡cs (1923) Thursday, February 3, 2011 History amp; Class Consciousness: Preface by Georg Lukà ¡cs (1923) Share   History and Class Consciousness Preface THE collection and publication of these essays in book form is not intended to give them a greater importance as a whole than would be due to each individually. For the most part they are attempts, arising out of actual work for the party, to clarify the theoretical problems of the revolutionary movement in the mind ,of the author and his readersRead MoreElizabethan Era11072 Words   |  45 Pagesbustling taverns. PROSE FICTION. The period saw the beginning, among other things, of English prose fiction of something like the later modern type. First appeared a series of collections of short tales chiefly translated from Italian authors, to which tales the Italian name novella (novel) was applied. Most of the separate tales are crude or amateurish and have only historical interest, though as a class they furnished the plots for many Elizabethan dramas, including several of Shakespeares. The

What Is Robustness in Statistics

In statistics, the  term robust or robustness refers to the strength of a statistical model, tests, and procedures according to the specific conditions of the statistical analysis a study hopes to achieve. Given that these conditions of a study are met, the models can be verified to be true through the use of mathematical proofs. Many models are based upon ideal situations that do not exist when working with real-world data, and, as a result, the model may provide correct results even if the conditions are not met exactly. Robust statistics, therefore, are any statistics that yield good performance when data is drawn from a wide range of probability distributions that are largely unaffected by outliers or small departures from model assumptions in a given dataset. In other words, a robust statistic is resistant to errors in the results. One way to observe a commonly held robust statistical procedure, one needs to look no further than t-procedures, which use hypothesis tests to determine the most accurate statistical predictions. Observing T-Procedures For an example of robustness, we will consider t-procedures, which include the confidence interval  for a population mean with unknown population standard deviation as well as hypothesis tests about the population mean. The use of t-procedures assumes the following: The set of data that we are working with is a simple random sample of the population.The population that we have sampled from is normally distributed. In practice with real-life examples, statisticians rarely have a population that is normally distributed, so the question instead becomes, â€Å"How robust are our t-procedures?† In general the condition that we have a simple random sample is more important than the condition that we have sampled from a normally distributed population; the reason for this is that the central limit theorem ensures a sampling distribution that is approximately normal — the greater our sample size, the closer that the sampling distribution of the sample mean is to being normal. How T-Procedures Function as Robust Statistics So robustness for t-procedures hinges on sample size and the distribution of our sample. Considerations for this include: If the samples size is large, meaning that we have 40 or more observations, then t-procedures can be used even with distributions that are skewed.If the sample size is between 15 and 40, then we can use t-procedures for any shaped distribution, unless there are outliers or a high degree of skewness.If the sample size is less than 15, then we can use t- procedures for data that have no outliers, a single peak, and are nearly symmetric. In most cases, robustness has been established through technical work in mathematical statistics, and, fortunately, we do not necessarily need to do these advanced mathematical  calculations in order to properly utilize them; we only need to understand what the overall guidelines are for the robustness of our specific statistical method. T-procedures function as robust statistics because they typically yield good performance per these models by factoring in the size of the sample into the basis for applying the procedure.

Cell Phones Are Ordinary Today - 1670 Words

Cell phones are ordinary today. Very nearly everybody has one. My grandma conveys an iPhone and my dad – a man who once swore he d never convey a telephone with him anyplace – slaps a Samsung Galaxy S III with an OtterBox case on his hip each morning. It wasn t generally so. I was the main individual at my secondary school – educators and organization included – with a cell phone. To start with, I had the Moto Q, then the BlackBerry Pearl 8130, trailed by the Curve 8330. Furthermore, that is the place my story started, in 2006, taking lesson notes (read: playing Brick Breaker and Asteroids) on an incredible QWERTY console about a large portion of the palm s extent of my hand. Trust it or not, cell phone history backtracks over 10 years before that. Things were †¦ intriguing in those days. In the first place, what is a cell phone? Turns out, the real definition, regardless of the source, is very ambiguous. Merriam-Webster compactly calls a cell phone a PDA that incorporates extra programming capacities (as email or an Internet program). Oxford Dictionaries, then again, gets somewhat more exact by saying a cell phone has the capacity perform a hefty portion of the elements of a PC, commonly having a moderately expansive screen and a working framework equipped for running universally useful applications. In any case, there is an almost negligible difference between what is and isn t a cell phone nowadays, regardless of the fact that the purported moronic orShow MoreRelatedEssay On Registering Empowers767 Words   |  4 Pagesstatement Mobile computing may be used will depict those use about registering gadgets - which Concerning illustration a standard interface Previously, A percentage manifestation with An vital information schema - same time a long way starting with the ordinary, altered working natures domain. Portable registering improvement empowers those portable master to: 1. Create; 2. Access; 3. Methodology; 4. Store; Whats more 5. Correspondence majority of the data without being obliged with An absolute zone.Read MoreCell Phones And Its Impact On Society1575 Words   |  7 Pagesthe father of the cell phone Martin Cooper, over 90% of people, just in the United States, possess his creation in their pockets (Mobile Technology Fact Sheet). Little did he know that these com plex devices could grow to their current demand and start to pose a danger to society. Cell phones are a detrimental technology that is disrupting our way of life. The creator of the mobile phone, Martin Cooper, had an interesting history leading him up to the invention of the cell phone. Born on DecemberRead MoreCell Phones And Its Effect On Our Lives1612 Words   |  7 PagesFollowing the time when the mid 1980s, phones have been rapidly moving their route into our commonplace lives, particularly with the presentation of cam telephones in the early part of the new thousand years. As cells develop they have more of an effect on our commonplace lives and I need to exactly how much they are affecting. Similarly as with new engineering in whatever other structure, phones have changed enormously over their generally short life compasses. As these progressions happen, soRead MoreHow Cell Phones Can Harm Children921 Words   |  4 PagesHow Cell Phones Can Harm Children As of 2013, cell phones rank number one for causes of car accidents, yet it seems almost impossible to go anywhere without seeing a cell phone in a person’s hand or attached to their ear (â€Å"Two-thirds of Adults Use a Cell Phone†). In the past thirty years, cell phones have started to pop up everywhere and have increased tremendously in popularity since. Worldwide, almost five million cell phones are in use today (â€Å"Cell Phone Use Linked†). Many parents understandRead MoreAbused Innovation In Frankenstein1267 Words   |  6 Pagesdangerous itself, however, if misued or abused, it can potentially threaten society. Victor Frankenstein’s misuse of science and technology resulted in precarious dilemmas. Because of his ignorance, Frankenstein pushed his knowledge to levels that the ordinary person is not able to control. He created a monster that would go on to create great mischief throughout Frankenstein’s homeland. Frankenstein provoked the deaths of virtuous members of his own family. Elizabeth, William, Justine, and Henry all diedRead MoreDigital Technology Essay1466 Words   |  6 Pagesindividuals rely upon phone exchanges to do commitments including their individual data and identity. Outrageous computerized resources by law breakers and fear based oppressors around the world have encouraged in uncovering issues of the direness for extreme security systems to ensure assurance and data security. The examination will deal with a watchful evaluation of mobile phones despite their surfacing in the overall population. Rapidly analyzing the verifiable scenery of phones is urgent in understandingRead MoreOff the Hook Essay1270 Words   |  6 Pagescreated mobile phones to take with us wherever we go, making life easier but increasing the danger that lurks in its signals. Despite their hidden hazards, phones are a â€Å"must have† item and gain popularity because of their high-tech nature. They are continuously upgraded and sit upon a podium for all to see and add to their wish list. Majority of people would admit to owning a cell phone whereas in past history, most did not even have a telephone, implying that we are attached to our cells and cannotRead MoreCell Phones : Pro Vs. Con1025 Words   |  5 PagesCell Phones: Pro vs. Con Cell phones have come a long way since April 3, 1973 when the first phone was invented. The first call in history was made that day by Motorola employee Martin Cooper, as he stood next to a 900 MHz base station in New York City and phoned to the headquarters of Bell Labs in New Jersey (The Cellphone Turns 40: Remembering Martin Cooper’s Historic Call). Since that day, cell phones have evolved to become what is now a all-in-one master piece. A current cell phone removes theRead MoreThe Negative Impact Of Cell Phones On Society1074 Words   |  5 PagesToday phones are an important part of society. Everybody seems to have a phone, people can generally observe somebody messaging, on the internet or just making a quick call. Many detect these to be greatly helpful assets for everyday life; however, the vast majority do not stop to consider the negative impacts that mobile phones could have on someone well being and living. In the last 15 years, nothing has impacted society like cell phones. Cell phones were once was an item of luxury has now becomeRead MoreHow Technology Has Changed Today1447 Words   |  6 Pagesas the personal computer, the cell phone, electronic games, TVs, and even watches have changed completely. The ways that they have exceeded expectations is truly unbelievable. Home technology has taken a gigantic step since the 1970s as not only has the performance improved, but more families have begun to feel a necessity to have these appliances. In 1977 the Apple 2 Computer was released to the public. What was then considered an â€Å"ordinary computer for ordinary people† is now seen only in museums

Equestrian Farms Rebuild a Broken Mind and a Fractured Heart free essay sample

The need for an open mind and welcoming thoughts is great when walking into any type of barn. If one walks into a barn with a mindset that is trapped and fixed, they are only going to notice the things they want to notice. They will not see what makes barns special places for the people in them or understand the reasons why these barns are so loved. If one thinks a barn is going to be dirty, then it’s going to be dirty. However, if one does not have premade notions before they enter, they may see the beautiful wonders I see. They may get a glimpse of how barns have altered who I am, and how barns in Hadley and Acton have taught me how to love and take care of myself. But for those things to be seen, a mind has to be kept open and ready for any situation ahead of them. Some people will walk into a beautifully renovated barn and think, wow, everyone who boards here must be rich, arrogant â€Å"equestrians†. If that were the case, I would have walked right out. I would not have explored the dusty tack room up the still creaky stairs or the small office, with a window so large it does not seem to actually fit the wall, in which the atmosphere is warm and friendly with a hint of sophistication. If these people thought they were truly above the world, I would have turned around and never looked back. I would never have wanted to interact with riders who looked down upon me because I was inexperienced or be viewed as one of those ‘arrogant equestrians’ because of their upscale barn. Yet, what I saw were people who cared deeply for their horses and built strong relationships with them. I had always assumed that animals just lived in a cold and musty barn, but fortunately I was wrong and developed relationships of my own. Acton is the home of a renowned dressage barn, and though it is not where I reside or come from, it is still a place very close to my heart. In this barn, only I can see the stains where tears dripped as Jigger was put down. Only I notice the small cracks in the arena mirror when Saphron threw Sally off and the steps I climbed to reach the saddle for my first ride. Others may be enamored by the intricate lights hanging over each horse stall or the ribbons on display showing only the prestige of the riders’ discipline. When I see the lights I notice the way they illuminate each horse and when I glance at the ribbons nailed to the wall I see each riders’ dedication. I look at them and they remind me of the kind of person I strive to be: persistent until I achieve my goals. I’ve reached my own goals of gaining self worth and understanding how to cope with things in a way that’s healthy and not destructive. It’s taken awhile, but my persistence and det ermination have gotten me there. I had heard about this barn in November of 2014 from a friend who suffered from mental illnesses similar to mine at the time. She said it had helped her and I told my mother, who then brought me to meet the barn owner, Jane, and the both of us thought it would be a wonderful idea to ride horses. In this barn, I would learn about connections, boundaries, and esteem through the silent communication between a rider and horse. My journey began with a rescue thoroughbred, Tucker, and I rode him constantly. He was the one I had learned to communicate better with, but when I first met Tucker, he was stubborn and lazy; I had to show him what I wanted with my body movements while riding to tell him what I wanted him to do, as if I didn’t, he would do as he pleased. When we fell into one rhythm together, I was finally able to understand the importance of expressing my thoughts. I would relax and so would he. This way, he also taught me how to cope when I was tense and afraid. He caused me to be open and let my feelings out when I wanted to keep them locked up inside. We were beautiful together when we rode as one being.One day his owner decided to take him away. I never knew why and it was agonizing to say goodbye before I left for school. When I brought him back to the grazing field, we stood next to each other and he let me twist his knotted mane through my fingers. I gave him one last hug, allowing the warmth and love of his body to flood my own. In that field, unaware of what was going to happen, I gave him a soft kiss on the nose and told him he was the one I had grown to love. Saying goodbye was hard. This wasn’t simply because of my love for Tucker; it was because I was parting with the creature who had taught me how to speak again. I was cutting away a part of myself, the part of myself that was broken and never knew how to cope. I was leaving the destructive part with Tucker, the piece of me that had hurt myself and didn’t stop until he had taught me how to. Saying goodbye to him in that field was saying goodbye to the girl who ran away from her problems and fears and it hurt. This barn was the first place I had to acknowledge my problems. Though I see the barn as a place to escape from the harsh world around me, I do not necessarily use it as one. Walking through the barn, I am able to compare it to myself. When workers are cleaning and tending to the horses, it makes me realize I need to take care of myself to keep a healthy state; the barn cannot run without people to maintain it and I cannot function without putting myself first sometimes. When the pathways are dusty they remind me of how I let my mind cloud sometimes and I need to clear it up so the reasonable thoughts can get through. Then there is the beauty of the barn. The beauty of riders and their horses dancing along to music in a freestyle. What I’ve always seen as ugly and horrid in the mirror was just like the dusty floors- a clouded view, yet this beauty of the barn has allowed me to realize there’s also beauty in myself. Some people will walk into a barn that looks as if it’s on the brink of death and say to themselves, these people clearly don’t have money. I can’t believe they even own this place! If I continued to think disdainful thoughts towards the barn, as I originally had, I would be just like all of the other prejudicial people I deplore. But in having even a single faulty thought of the old barn, I had become one of those people. I had, in that moment, established a connection between themselves and me. The same people who disapprove and judge a barn based on its exterior solely are the ones who have not gotten the chance to see what its entirety is surprisingly about. In Hadley, what people perceive is a barn barely salvaged or horses too stubborn and old to ride. I began riding here in the fall of freshman year. My first ride here took place in its indoor arena, which looks corporate at a glance, but I recall the time a horse threw me off and broke my back. He was the first horse I had ridden at Hadley and I had grown very fond of him. After every lesson I would thank him for letting me ride. He knew how to calm me down by leaning his head on my shoulder and though he was certainly not the easiest horse to catch, it was these times I knew he loved me like I loved him. When together, we spoke in head nods and whinnies, scratching, snorting and whimpers. It was a relationship I’d never had before and I felt loved. Sadly, he had lost my trust, but it’s making its way back. The fall had broken my back, but it also broke the relationship I had with Patriot. Most people would look at him after that and add their mislead image of the barn to decide to leave and go elsewhere, but I was not going to back out because of the bad situation. Because of that experience I’m learning to trust again in a new, cautious way. I do not just accept people into my life. I take a look and analyze their actions and how they speak before I make a decision to trust them. I have to know a person first, or even a horse for that matter, before I can open up and let them into my thoughts and feelings. I cannot develop trust with someone if I think they are going to break it. These barns and the experiences that accompanied have changed my perspective on myself and the world. I realize now I must be grateful for the things I have as they could vanish in an instant. The world can be a devastating place or one of love; It’s how you choose to see it. I discovered that I have more love, forgiveness, and empathy in me than anyone thought. Horses and their homes are the same as people and theirs when a parallel is drawn between a barn world and ours. Whether each barn prompts heartache or a small loss of certainty, they are a source of comfort in the least expected place. Companionship with a horse is a special kind of relationship you cannot find anywhere but in a barn. Horses are enchanting, elegant, forgiving, and judge me for who I am in the moment, not by the mistakes I’ve made in the past. They love me not for my appearance, but for how I speak to them with a soft, loving voice and pet them gently in between the ears. This companionship I had anxiously sought for and could not find with people is what drew me to horses and the barns I now cherish and adore. A barn that is new and a barn that is old- they will enchant and alter one’s perception if a moment is taken to step inside the wooden doors with welcoming thoughts.