Dorie & Human Nature

Today, Monday, October 7, 2013, we looked at the interesting poem called Dorie Off To Atlanta by Mark Halliday. The reason I describe this poem as weird is because it followed no usual rhyming scheme, form, or meter. This is the exact reason why Mr. Delacruz showed us this poem, because of it’s unconventionality. It was very choppy and hard to read. Honestly, I didn’t like it! It seemed pointless and stupid. How could an over simplistic, unintelligent sounding, error filled paragraphs of words be considered art? The quote, “But anyway. I was telling you about Marcie. Yeah. So I said to her, I said, Marcie, this one seems different, y’know?” highlights the interruptive nature of the poem. Due to the seemingly pointless meaning and difficulty to read, I quickly turned my nose up to Dorie Off To Atlanta.

My dislike of Mark Halliday’s poem was quickly reversed once the class began discussing whether it should be considered poetry or not. Ms. Natalie Zunker made some exceptional arguments when she remarked that Dorie Off To Atlanta captured the beauty in everyday life. She mentioned that maybe Mark Halliday was riding on a bus to Atlanta, and listened to the conversation of a woman talking on the phone to her friend Marcie about sex, so he decided to write a poem about it. I specifically keened in on this point Natalie made because it made me think of the short, choppy conversations I have with my friends while on the phone. These conversations I have with the people who I care enough about to delve my life’s events to sound similar to that described in Dorie Off To Atlanta: full of inside jokes, slang, and incorrect grammar. Thanks to Ms. Zunker’s contribution to the class discussion, my viewpoint on Dorie Off To Atlanta shifted from one of despise to one of appreciation for the wonderful snapshot of everyday interactions between human beings.

After discussing Dorie Off To Atlanta, we moved on to talk about the nature of human beings. I rather liked this discussion because it revealed what people believed about humans and it showed me a little bit more about the personality of my classmates. Someone observed that humans are extremely selfish, whether conscious or unconscious. This made me really contemplate human actions further. More specifically, I really thought about the idea of karma, because it is something I try to follow daily. Karma is the idea that there is an eternal cycle of actions and reactions, so good deeds will bring good things and vice versa. Even though it may not seem selfish, you try to do the right thing to ultimately benefit yourself. Despite the lurking selfishness, I believe karma is a wonderful because it promotes helping those around you and doing the right thing. I refuse to give up my karma ways, even if it is me being unconsciously selfish. Another example is trying to act unselfish. By acting overly unselfish, humans attempt to further their self -image, thus benefiting themselves! Man alive! When isn’t a human selfish?