Forgery is art.

Art is anything made, altered, or created by people that express certain emotions or things. It can range from bush trimming, to architecture, to cooking food. I don’t think intention matters at all in the case of art. A baby could accidentally knock over a can of pain that splashes into something beautiful. The intention to make that wasn’t there, but it’s still art. Beltracchi intended to make forgeries and profit off of them, but what he ended up making is still art.

I think authenticity doesn’t have any role in art. The idea and execution both play an equal role in defining art. But that’s just how I personally view art. Some people believe that the only thing that matters is the name of the artist, as we saw in the success of Beltracchi’s scheme. For example, if someone is really good at making life-like sketches, that is clearly art but maybe not super creative. But if someone has the idea to melt down a banana and use that to draw an apple, that is more of a crazy idea and a different kind of art than the other example. Art can take on many different forms and the very definition can change from person to person.

The value of art never made sense to me. Art is completely arbitrary, one person could love one painting while someone else thinks it’s terrible. The fact that we’ve assigned so much value to certain artists is crazy. As we saw in the video, most people just bought his paintings because they thought they were original works of famous artists. Only in one case did someone keep his art even knowing it was a “fake”, and I respect that person for buying something he truly liked. Most people believe that the authorship and provenance have more of an impact, which I heavily disagree with. While most artists are famous for a reason, that doesn’t mean we should just base our values off of that.

People make art for loads of different reasons, but that doesn’t affect the fact that it’s still art. I’m sure some painters paint in order to make a living, while others just do it for fun. Neither reason is necessarily wrong, just different. Making anything with deceptive intent is morally wrong but that doesn’t change what it is. For instance, someone could bake cup cakes with laxatives in them and give them to their enemies. While this is a questionable thing to do, the cupcakes are still food. The fake paintings might have lost monetary value when the ruse was discovered, but the actually “artistic value” should stay the same. I think that Beltracchi is definitely an authentic painter as he is insanely talented and can replicate so many styles of painting perfectly.

Knowledge will always be more valuable than innocence.

In Genesis, Adam and Eve lose their innocence but, in return, get to truly experience life. Adam and Eve become the first mortal humans that live freely with the knowledge that they will die, but that allows them to live. Gaining this knowledge is much better than living in the innocence of Eden. At first glance it might seem like the better option would be to stay in Eden, but one human lifetime is worth more than spending eternity in paradise. Emily Dickinson says, “How fair on looking back, the Day
We sauntered from the Door” in her poem “Eden is that old-fashioned House”. That was the “fair” day where humanity gained the knowledge of mortality and of the outside world. Knowledge is always better than the alternative. Knowledge allows us to change and move forward, while ignorance makes us stagnant. In Gilgamesh, Enkidu loses his innocence and goes from being a wild beast to a powerful human. Knowledge is what it means to be human. To be forever questioning and trying to understand the world around us is a solely human quality. Gilgamesh struggles with his mortality and even goes on an entire quest to find a way around it. But when he finds Utnapishtim, he realizes that his mortality is what makes life worth living. “There is no permanance.” This knowledge completely transforms Gilgamesh and he goes back home to become a great ruler. Without this knowledge, Gilgamesh would have lived his life in a completely different way and probably wouldn’t have found his purpose in life. The very fact that this story was created 4,000 years ago with the intent to educate people on how important their mortality is just shows how much knowledge means to humans. Oedipus’s ignorance is ultimately his downfall and leads to his entire family disaster. If Oedipus only had a little bit more humility and was able to see what was happening, he could have prevented it all. And while we could only look on in horror as he uncovers the truth, he is almost liberating himself. His entire life was a lie, and discovering that was probably the most painful yet necessary thing he ever did. Knowing the truth, no matter how bad or hurtful, is always better than living in the dark. Knowledge gives us power. In Lone Star, another train wreck of a scenario happens. Well, a few actually. But the one I am going to focus on is Sam and Pilar. Throughout the movie there is obvious tension between the two, but as we start to see their history get unravelled we realize what’s actually going on. And when they eventually figure it out, there is no going back. With their newfound knowledge, they make the decision to stay together. Although controversial in our class, I think this was the right choice. If they hadn’t figured out that they were half siblings, they would never have even been able to decide if that was the right thing to do. But knowledge gave them that power, and allowed them to be able to move on with their lives.

Why do the good thing when you might get punished? Many people do the good thing even when they know that who “wins” and who “loses” is not in our control at all. It all depends on how you want to live your life. I think Job is showing us that we have complete free will over our life, but not on our success. Human nature wants there to be a neat ending for everything. It’s very easy to believe that bad people are punished, while the good people always get what they want. This is a childish belief, yet it is backed up by tons of literature and movies. Especially super hero and action movies usually show the good guys getting something, like fame or fortune, and the bad guys being locked in jail or defeated due to their bad actions. But it actuality, scenarios like what happened in Job do occur. Horrible things happen to people that don’t deserve them. The wisdom text is acknowledging this, but saying that it is still our choice if we want to do good or bad things.

Good people ought to be rewarded more than bad people. I think this is an idea many people can get behind and support. Some people believe this too much though, and just try to be kind in order to get something else. Job is trying to tell us to stay away from this and just genuinely be good people no matter the reward or benefit. My own good fortune is entirely luck. I was lucky enough to be born into a stable home in a great area, along with amazing parents. Given all these factors, I feel as though it’s my responsibility to be a good person. Humans should act kindly even if fortune doesn’t shine on them though. Some people live their lives bitterly, and probably curse god for their luck, while others take it in stride and make something out of it. God punishes Job to show humans this lesson. That their success isn’t dependent on who they are, life is just what they make of it.

Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden and knew nothing about the outside world. They had no idea what they were losing when they left, and how good their life was in Eden. The poem says, “Unconscious our returning, But discover it no more.” Adam and Eve could never return to Eden, even if they wanted to go back to paradise. They were banished forever. In exchange for that, humanity was able to exist so good(or maybe bad) things occured as a result of this. And yet Adam and Eve probably continue to think and search for Eden, as they still want paradise.

As people get older, they get further and further away from that childhood bliss of magical Christmas and simple life. Leaving for college is one of the biggest steps in this process. My home is one of the most important things to me, it’s where my dogs and my family are and where so many of my best memories have been made. I think one of the things I’m going to miss the most is my barn. I have a furnished barn where my buddies all come over and chill, and we’ve hung out there since 7th grade. That might never happen again after college, and I’m going to look back on paradise knowing I’ll never have that kind of chillaxing again. But I think the “sauntering from the Door” is a very important step in everyone’s life, and we just have to live in the moment and appreciate it. We can never go back.

My biggest fear is that my dog is going to forget who I am. I got a puppy over the summer, Murphy, and he’s such a good dude. He’s become such an important part of my life. I worry that he might be different when I come back to see him, or get sick or something else might happen to him. I just feel like I might miss out on so much time with him. Four years is a long time, especially since I might be going out West and coming home less frequently. I think everything will be okay though. Murphy will always be there for me, and college is going to be a chance for me to grow as a person.

The best advice I’ve ever received was when I was in a random town in the sticks of Massachusetts. I had driven two hours to meet up with my friend, Jayden, from Montana for lunch and a short hike. Before I’m going to get into the actual advice, I’m going to share what Jayden is like. I first met him when I got off my plane in Missoula, Montana. He had blond spikey hair beneath a baseball cap, wearing loose baggy jeans, and carrying his massive backpacking bag(which he later told me he had gotten for 40$ used at Goodwill). Jayden is the definition of chill, he legit only wore baggy jorts throughout a two-week backpacking trip through the Rockies. He became one of my closest buddies, and we both made a promise to keep in touch after the trip.

Fast forward to a month after we get back from our trip, I’m buying a double-stuffed buffalo chicken calzone in some random pizza shop with Jayden. We get our food and walk over to a beautiful pond that he’d talked about a lot during the trip. We sat down in the grass and just talked for a few hours. I started to talk about my future, how unsure I was of it, and if I was making the right decisions. Jayden replied, saying, “Life has a way of working itself out, so don’t worry about then, just live life now”. This might sound like a hippie or “stoner” approach, but I realized the worth behind his words. Let tomorrow you take care of tomorrow’s problems. A few weeks ago I called Jayden to see how he was doing. He’s going to college out in Montana, and said he’s the happiest he’s ever been. While he might not be going to Princeton or Yale, Jayden said he finally found his people and is genuinely enjoying his life.

This advice really helped ground me in my decisions. I stopped second-guessing myself and decided to pursue something I knew I would enjoy. This advice is honestly what made me apply to three different schools out West. While they’re not the “best academically”, I know I can make what I want with it. I would much rather spend my life doing something I love and enjoying every second than make 6+ figures and die “rich”. This advice has even more value to me because of the memories I share with Jayden. I experienced this advice firsthand with him when we stayed up super late talking the night before a massive hike. We knew that it was a bad idea, but we knew we only had a few more days to see each other, so we made the best of it.

Quoting Bilbo Baggins, “You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you’ll be swept off to.” I think this quotation is really wise. It reminds us that life is constantly moving all around us and we make the best of it. Sometimes opportunity just falls into our laps(or knocks on our door in Bilbo’s case), and it’s up to us what to do with it.

By the end of my life, I want to have gone on a long backpacking trip through New Zealand. This is for a few reasons. When my grandpa was younger he went there and hiked all through the country, and talks about it to this day. He’s turning 90 in a few years and I want to be like him when I’m that old. He lives by himself, but is active in his church and has befriended the chipmunk population on his property. New Zealand is also just naturally beautiful and I want to hike the same trails that Frodo and Sam walked. I think another thing that not many people talk about is what they want their old age to look like. I want mine to be relaxing, spending my time in a small cabin somewhere in the mountains, beside a calm river full of trout. I want to have too much time on my hands, and take up wood carving and reading books that I’ve meant to all my life. I also want to have a small garden and chickens I can tend to. Before this, however, I want to have made a positive impact on the world. Even on a small scale, I want to help preserve the environment in some way. I plan to pursue this goal by studying environmental science hope to get a degree in this field. I want to work somewhere that motivates me and actually make a difference in the world. At the very least, I want to get personal joy from it. The fourth thing I want is to explore the world and experience as much as I can. Meeting new people and hearing their stories, seeing the natural beauty of the world, and eating food from all over. The last thing I want is love and happiness. Everyone wants this, and for just reason. We all want to be loved and to ultimately live a happy life. Many people go about this the wrong way and choose to pursue money and nice cars, while ignoring their happiness. Our society is structured in a way that encourages this over personal peace.

One quality I want to be remembered the extent to which I love the natural world. Humans forget that we are also animals and belong outside living our days naturally. At this point in time, I don’t believe it’s possible for us to become fully re-immersed in nature, but people can realize that we have a duty to our planet.

These things are all important to me because they shape how I see my future life going. We, as humans, need to have goals in mind and know what we want out of life. The clearer that is for you the happier and more content you will be. Everyone in this world is mortal. This means that we all have limited time to live our lives. In the grand scheme of the Earth, we are such a small blip that there’s no point in doing something we don’t love or enjoy. Show kindness and understanding whenever you can, and respect our natural world.

“There is no permanence”(106). Humans will all die eventually. This is the beauty of humanity, as it allows us to truly care and experience life. It allows us to grow and change and have so many different emotions. We all know, whether we like to think about it or not, that our lives will end and we will cease to exist. The fact that all humans are mortal allows us to truly live and be free. Gilgamesh discovered this for himself, as we see him devoting the rest of his life to his people. We only have a short time to do what we love and have fun, and yet some of us forget that. Some people become obsessed with money and power and allow that to take over their lives. A classic example of this is Scruge. He gives up young love and happiness for money and depression, and when given a second chance he seizes it and lives as if he might die tomorrow. This is a good lesson that many people, especially in our current world, could learn from.

It’s because of this mortality that people get up every day and get stuff done. We all know that we could die at any point, whether from a fluke accident like a car crash or a disease, or maybe from the thousands of nuclear missiles scattered around the world just sitting in wait. Anyway, we all know that life will end, whether today, tomorrow, or in 60 years. We know there’s nothing that we can do to prevent that. We can try, but we will fail. Once people accept that, they will live much more freely and happily, and take comfort in their mortality.

There is no “goal” in life. So why are we all here, what gives life meaning? None of us were given the choice to have a life, but we are all very thankful for it(I hope). We are here to make the most of our lives and do what makes us happy. Far too many people get caught up in life and try to create standards on what success in life is. People are too quick to judge the guy living the van life who might not have everything planned out, or maybe that’s just what makes him happy. In a show, Jujutsu Kaisen, the main character’s grandpa dies and tells his grandson to make sure that when he dies he is surrounded by friends and loved ones. People that we love give life meaning, along with a few other things. Doing the things we love and being who we want to be all make-up what our lives are. But these don’t really give life meaning, it’s the fact that we are all mortal and have finite time to expirience life. Some people understand this, and others do not.

Humans love order and habit. This is seen in Gilgamesh, as humans naturally have the urge to follow the strong. As well, we share stories and pass down knowledge to future generations which allows people and ideas to never die. Thousands of years ago, there existed a man who possessed enormous strength. Despite this, Gilgamesh was scared to die and went on a quest to look for eternal life, but he failed. He actually did suceed in eternal life however. Gilgamesh has lived for thousands of years in stone tablets and now in people’s minds, and will most likely continue living for a long while yet. Humans gain immortality from stories.

Heroes are people who are different from everyone else. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo has resistance to the Ring, and in Star Wars, Luke is strong in the force. Heroes aren’t held to the same standards as “normal people”. Nobody really talks about how Frodo didn’t actually want to destroy the Ring in the end, they just talk about how heroic he was in the journey. This sounds like a relatively harmless thing, yet it can be more complex. Gilgamesh is a classic hero, but he was able to do anything he wanted to. He could have any woman he wants, do what he wants, and still gets idolized and is seen as a hero. It all comes back to the fact that heroes are different than the normal in some way, whether they’re stronger, braver, or just special.

We often just want to see the good in heroes that we don’t recognize all the bad. There is a very fine line between heroes and villains. Using Star Wars as an example, Darth Vadar is idolized in a fearful way by the dark side, all because he has the ability to kill people at will. How is that anything different from a hero? From his point of view, he is just doing what he thinks is best for the Galaxy. This reminds me of Thanos. He is a villain, but what he was doing was debatably for the good of the Universe, albeit in a very bad way. But when I was watching Endgame, I was rooting for the Avengers. Why? I think this is all due to how everything is portrayed. It’s easy to read a story and root for the good guys when everything is black or white, but when it gets grey(which it usually is), it gets much harder to support “heroes”.

Women are definitely heroes, they just aren’t recognized or talked about as much. This is due to the history of heroes. The original heroes were very strong men like Herucles and Gilgamesh, and for a really long time that stayed the norm. But fairly recently this changed, and women heroines have grown in popularity and support. People have realized that women can and do show qualities of heros and support the greater good. Heroes are people that take action in order to help others. Heroes were created to inspire people to be better and to give them hope of some sort

I think that we do need heroes in our imperfect world, but in a world where everyone got along heroes would just cause trouble. I believe that heroes and villains are just people who are special in some way or form. Theoretically, if everyone was the same, there would be no conflict and no need for heroes. This world would be happy, which agrees with what Berolt Brecht said. History has shaped this idea of what a hero is and comparing someone like Gilgamesh to the Scarlet Witch shows how much heroes have changed through the ages.

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