Friday, March 20, 2020

The Complete The Child Is Father of the Man Wordsworth Quote

The Complete The Child Is Father of the Man Wordsworth Quote William Wordsworth used the expression, The child is the father of the man in his famous 1802 poem, My Heart Leaps Up, also known as The Rainbow. This quote has made its  way into popular culture. What does it mean? My Heart Leaps Up My heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky:So was it when my life began;So is it now I am a man;So be it when I shall grow old,Or let me die!The Child is father of the Man;And I could wish my days to beBound each to each by natural piety. What Does the Poem Mean? Wordsworth uses the expression in a very positive sense, noting that seeing a rainbow produced awe and joy when he was a child, and he still felt those emotions as a grown man.  He hopes that these emotions will continue throughout his life, that he will retain that pure joy of youth. He also laments that he would rather die than lose that leap of the heart and youthful enthusiasm.   Also, note that Wordsworth was a lover of geometry, and the use of piety in the last line is a play on the number pi. In the story of Noah in the Bible, the rainbow was given by God as a sign of Gods promise that He would not again destroy the entire earth in a flood. It is the mark of a continuing covenant. That is signaled in the poem by the word bound. Modern Use of The Child Is Father of the Man While Wordsworth used the phrase to express hope that he would retain the joys of youth, we often see this expression used to imply the establishment of both positive and negative traits in youth.  In watching children at play, we notice that they demonstrate certain characteristics which may remain with them into adulthood. One interpretation- the nurture viewpoint- is that it is necessary to instill in children healthy attitudes and positive traits  so they grow up to become balanced individuals.  However, the nature viewpoint notes that children may be born with certain traits, as can be seen in studies of identical twins who were separated at birth. Different traits, attitudes, and experiences are influenced in different ways by both nature and nurture. Certainly, traumatic life experiences in youth inevitably occur which also influence us throughout life. Lessons learned both in positive and negative ways guide us all into adulthood, for better or worse. Other Appearances of the Quote The quote is paraphrased by Cormac McCarthy on the first page of the book Blood Meridian as the child the father of the  man. It also appears in the title of a song by the Beach Boys and an album by Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Production and Sale of Cigarettes Should Be Made Illegal

Production and Sale of Cigarettes Should Be Made Illegal Criminalize Cigarette Smoking Now! It used to be that everyone smoked. Seriously, 50 years ago, Americans (and those in many other countries around the world) smoked cigarettes like the world was ending. It was what people did; instead of killing time by playing on their iPhones, people used to light up. Rarely, then, would you see a group of people at a table without a cloud of smoke hovering over the table. Well, things have changed quite a bit in the last half-century; the use of cigarettes is less ubiquitous. Things have changed for the better, the healthier, that’s for sure. Today, one could argue that the production and sale of cigarettes should be made illegal, and with good reason. One reason to criminalize the production, sale and consumption of cigarettes is due to the fact that smoking tobacco has no medical value whatsoever. Research and science says its use is a major cause of cancer and other problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and others. Some people, on the contrary, smoke their entire lives without so much as a bad cough – but they are in the minority. Moderate alcohol consumption, rather, has been shown to thin blood, lower the heart rate and relax people. Tobacco does the complete opposite. The consumption and production and sale of tobacco should be made illegal because it’s quite unhealthy – more than that, it’s kills millions of people around the world each year. Secondly, tobacco is very addictive. Its main chemical is nicotine, a toxic colorless or yellowish, oily liquid, the chief active constituent of tobacco. It acts as a stimulant in small doses, but in larger amounts, it blocks the action of autonomic nerve and skeletal muscle cells. It’s so addictive that seasoned smokers can’t often go but just a few hours without a smoke and withdrawal symptoms are quite intense, though not as harsh as alcohol and opiates. If something is so addictive that people can’t go long without it and so addictive that people struggle for a lifetime trying to quit, then something so detrimental to one’s health should be made illegal, and not just illegal in a small sense: Repercussion for its use, possession, production and sale should result in dire penalties like extreme fines, jail time and criminal proceedings. Lastly, cigarette smokers often begin smoking in their adolescent years, when they’re caving in to peer pressure and a desire for popularity. They see the â€Å"cool kids† doing it, actors in films and TV shows smoking cigarettes – and they see people in everyday life doing it, too, mostly at public places, like benches, parks, outside of restaurants – all over their community. And so they think it is okay, like having a few drinks like adults do. But moderate alcohol consumption in adults has not been proven to affect one’s health negatively. Nonetheless, teens are impressionable and can’t make the best decisions on their own; that’s why they can’t vote or own a gun. They would be just too immature to consider their future and its negative consequences. Teens just don’t think about these things. Well, if the production and sale of cigarettes were to be made illegal, fewer teens would be seeking cigarettes, and less peopl e would begin smoking this addictive, unhealthy substance in the first place. They would not see it, so they would not want it. It’s something we don’t need, and this notion pertains especially to adolescents, who aren’t ready to think about their long-term health, their futures as grandparents, fathers and spouses. To conclude this argument, that the production and sale (and maybe even its possession and usage) of cigarettes be made illegal, it’s important to consider the facts: Tobacco is very unhealthy – it kills people; nicotine is heavily addictive, and young people want to do it. So, of course, fewer people are smoking today. But we’re forgetting one very important fact about smoking: how disgusting it is. Have you ever smoked? It’s pretty gross. The smoke smells like last night’s dinner burning to a black crisp on the kitchen stove, mixed with a long-decomposing corpse. On top of that, it turns your teeth, tongue and smoking fingertips the nasty, yellowish color of the nicotine. Even worse – a smoker’s clothes and hair always have the foul odor of stale cigarettes. These are just a few more reasons explaining why the production and sale of cigarettes should be made illegal in America.