Sunday, October 2, 2016

1. Since my name is a family name I have to assume it has a lot of importance, but I wouldn't say that it defines me.  I know that my dad's grandfather was the first and now I am the fourth. I also have a picture that hangs in my room with my name and my coat of arms. Although, I know it is a family name I have no idea where it comes from. I've been told Leverett is old French for rabbit so I have to assume I am a decedent of French knights or royalty but that doesn't really define me either. I think today with how mobile our societies are, we don't attach as much weight to the name of someone. We are judged by what we accomplish not what our ancestors have.

2. A time I have had a dilemma of being part of two things is in wrestling. In wrestling, whenever you win or lose a match it adds or subtracts anywhere from 2 to 6 points to the match score. At the end of the match, when all 14 weight classes have wrestled, the team with the highest match score wins. This make you have to think about how you win and how you lose. I have had to wrestle state top tens, people who were much better than me so my team wouldn't lose as many match points. This is a hard thing to do because I don’t really have a chance of beating these people. This means my first instinct is to not fight as hard because all it will do is delay the match. But, since my team needs me I have to fight through it.

Another interesting dilemma is when the team needs you to win but it has to be by a pin. I have been in a position where If I win my match by decision, my team will lose so I have to pin my opponent. This means that I have to put myself in riskier situation, risking my win, so that my team has a chance at winning. This is not as vexing a dilemma since I benefit from both outcomes so I have no reason not to try to win for my team, but it is still interesting to look at how different motives affect our actions.

2 comments:

  1. Ty, I totally agree with your statement with how a person is judged by their accomplishments and not their ancestor's. I see a lot of that here in America but back in Vietnam it's the other way which is pretty interesting. Additionally, I liked how you brought up wrestling because I can totally relate to that kind of feeling from having experience in playing sports before.

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  2. That's interesting, what you said about how there must be some importance of your name even if you don't know it. That makes me wonder if you even want that name. Do you like being connected with people you don't even know? Also, can you truly be "not defined" by a name that carries four generetion's worth of weight? And if we are judged by only what we accomplish and not what our ancestors have done like you said, then why have we thought of Hillary Clinton in automatic connection with her husband or North West in automatic connection with her parents? I think that family, as much as you may dislike this, is connected with us just because of our names.

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