Wk 3-Response-Soyeon Kim

This chapter reminds me of Eve’s apple in Garden Aden in the book of Genesis chapter 3 as well as the last verse in the book of Judges. (Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.)

People judge what is good or bad and everyone has different standards, which cause chaos in the world. Individuals are self-righteous and judge others according to their rules. Bible calls it “sin.” That’s why we fight, conflict and hurt each other. The only way to avoid is to humbly accept the fact that I can be wrong. According to Bible, human beings are born with the natural sin, the sin of wanting to be the judge of right and wrong, which has been ascended from Adam and Eve. It comes from self-righteousness and egocentric view. We are so egocentric that we don’t even realize how egocentric we are. No one is free from that sin. (Romans 3:10 as it is written: “There is no one who is righteous, not even one;) I am not being pessimistic here. After reading the passage above from the Art of Possibility, I saw that how natural it is to made judgments and come to negative conclusions on my own based on what I see in the present reality. I too often quickly come to negative, so called “realistic”, conclusions without realizing until I think twice with third point of view from other people.

For example, Catholic church banned Bob Dylan’s electric guitar bands because there were more than one musical part playing at a time. They thought it confuse the concept of unity in God. (Levitin, 2006) The church committee decided to ban certain kinds of music based on their perception and it no longer applies to the modern society. Music itself is not something that has good or evil. It’s people who plays and listens to the music and put good or evil intention or expression in it.

As I read this chapter of The Art of Possibility, I affirmed that I should watch out my decision or judgment on people or situations, especially the negative ones that I thought was realistic. It is continuation of last week’s reading that I was deciding someone’s future or potential too quick from my observation. I can be very wrong and I should open up my eyes to possibilities in others.

Soyeon- Your response really made me think. As this year at school is winding down I find myself making many decisions or judgments about how my class is behaving. The quote from the book is a powerful one. I do find myself saying thank you when everything is going well and asking why when things are tough. It makes me think that all things happen for a reason, the good and bad the ugly. I need to change my mind set back to positive and that everything happens for a reason and that I may not see the good in things at the time there is a reason.