Outside The Box

Emily Sturdevant

Dr. Owens

English 100

February 5, 2007

Outside the Box

The topic of this paper was intended to make us think beyond our relative daily thoughts, and force us to think Ð''outside the box' into a realm of critical and analytical driven insight. Our attention is focused on these three words, enlightened self-interest, which by definition have no correlation, but when examined off the pages of texts and through real life experiences their interactions are deeply tied. In the few class sessions I have been to, the one major thing I've learned or became exposed to was the thought that, a word is defined by a bunch of other words and those words only define or hold up to the thought or speech of the contemporary. For instance the word cool sixty years ago was associated with weather and temperature, where as of today it's meaning has expanded to describe a sensation, state of being or used as a form of slang, such as, that's a cool dress. I know this concept of words might not be as impressive to you as it was to me for the first time, but I never paid much attention to how language was conceived and its accumulation throughout the years. Point being words are what you make them and define them to be.

I'll now focus my attention on the term enlightened, the first of three words I'll be analyzing. But before I do let me tell you a story. All through my childhood and into my early teens, I had what one would label as a Ð''Stepford' mentality, and so much so to the point of being naively submissive. I accepted all that was told to me as being fact and absolute truth without ever questioning its validity or consequence. This mentality stuck with me all through grade school but gradually began to change around my sophomore and junior years of high school as I became more aware of the world around me and who I was as an individual. This awareness during that stage of my life was an enlightened experience that changed how I viewed myself as a person and how I have a duty to protect my mind from manipulation and distortions. For me this term enlightened was an experience, a change in thought and awareness to my surroundings. Although this was how it applied to me in this scenario, in general to be enlightened is to come to a realization of truth versus what isn't, and in doing so becomes beneficial in some way or another to the one who had the revelation. Many would confuse this statement to be somewhat of a positive or should I say optimistic and happy occurrence. Although it very might be, a truth can be a crushing truth that still benefits you but not in the way one might have hoped. For instance many children believe in Santa Clause and their parents sometimes spend years in nurturing this idea into what the children believe to be a reality, a truth. Then the time comes whether it be accidental or not, the child is enlightened and learns the truth of their one holiday that brings them the most joy and happiness, the one they put so much effort into trying to be good little children. Everything they ever thought to be true about Santa Clause was all a lie from the little elves, to the North Pole, from the flying reindeer to that fat jolly old man wearing the beautiful red suit. It's an enlightened moment when, in a child's mind, the world stops moving. But let's think about this logically. In this moment the truth that Santa Clause is an over exaggerated and commercialized tale of a man who once was a long time ago is finally revealed. Not only that but the benefits which at the time may not seem that great, in the long run are much nicer than the alternative. For instance you don't run the risk of finding out about Santa's lie at school in fifth or sixth grade from your peers through harsh ridicule and teasing and it's hopefully at a reasonable age where the learning of Santa isn't to traumatizing. In the end the term enlightened is one of self-interest for the reason that it affects one's own life.

On that note, I'll shift my attention to the other two words of our topic that have conjoined as one creating something I like to call a tri-meaning term, self-interest. The first part of the conjoined word, self, has many various meanings but is most commonly referred to as one's own existence. But a deeper look into the word self, pops the question of what exactly is the term self a description of? One of the many meanings of the term self refers to the mind, which in