Meaning of Life and Happiness Essay Example for Free

Meaning of Life and Happiness Essay I do not think that there is a single person in the world who can say that knows what happiness actually is and, more importantly, that knows how to achieve it. We sometimes get the glimpse of pure happiness but those moments are so rare and so intense that we only recognise them too late. Each of us understands this feeling in a different way†¦I, for instance, see it as the one that can make you feel that there is no worry in life and nothing and nobody can hurt you anymore. For me, it is when you feel like you can do anything and forget about the past, the future, just enjoying the mere present. In my case, it is one of two feelings that can make you cry with all your heart†¦because it is too much for you to express in plain words or pointless gestures. â€Å"Tears are words that the heart can’t express† a wise man once said and could have never said it better, as happiness is that joy which is so strong that sometimes even hurts. However, I never remember the recipe for happiness and even if I did I do not think it would work again because one of its components is also hazard. Still, this does nt make me stop searching for it and devote it everything I do, I am and I achieve. Likewise, each person I’ve ever met, consciously or not, did the same†¦we want to get something, to become someone. Why? Not because that would make us feel miserable, but fulfilled and maybe a little bit more: happy. Hence, I strongly believe that happiness is the main purpose of our lives, the whole aim of our ephemeral existence. We are born happy and we want to die the same; this is the true ideal that we all crave for reaching. Money, wealth, knowledge mean nothing, without someone who cares about what you have achieved. Human beings, whether they like admitting it or not, need other human beings to share their secrets with, to share their joy or sorrow; as genuine joy can only become happiness if there is another person by your side. In other words, happiness is, in my opinion, the actual meaning of life; and life seems so complicated especially because we seldom get to its core, we almost never get to know what happiness feels like†¦and afterwards all that remains is an unclear memory of the moment and a wish of feeling it again.

The Poetry of Simon Armitage Essay -- Papers

The Poetry of Simon Armitage Simon Armitage was born in Marsden, West Yorkshire in 1963. He studied Geography at Portsmouth, and Psychology at Manchester, qualified as a social worker and worked for six years as a probation officer. He has also worked as a shelf stacker, disc jockey and lathe operator. He is now a freelance writer and broadcaster. His work includes song lyrics, plays and scripts for TV and radio. Armitage's first collection, Zoom, was published by Bloodaxe in 1989. Subsequent poetry books, all published by Faber, include Kid (1992), Book of Matches (1993), The Dead Sea Poems (1995), Moon Country (1996) and CloudCuckooLand(1997). Untitled Poem: "I am very bothered when I think..." This poem comes from Book of Matches, 1993. It appears to be based on memories of Armitage's schooldays. He says that: "most poetry has to come from personal experience of one kind or another." The first two lines actually come from a probation service questionnaire, but Armitage has chosen to use them in a different context. Here he tells the story of a science lab prank that went wrong. The person in the poem heated up a pair of tongs and then handed them to another person, presumably a girl. This girl innocently slipped them onto her fingers and was badly burnt. The doctor said that she would be "marked for eternity" by the ring-shaped scars. The narrator claims now that he was using this as a way of attracting her attention: "that was just my butterfingered way, at thirteen, of asking you if you would marry me." The language in stanza two emphasises this idea of a marriage proposal with words such as ... ... * What was the final demand? * What did the note of explanation say? From all these details we can guess what might have happened, but we cannot know for certain. But this does not matter: it's the thought processes involved that are more important. The structure of the poem is a series of rhyming couplets, although some of them are not complete rhymes. The opening couplet sets up a steady, regular rhythm. This is orderly and satisfying and perhaps suggests the "regularity of police methods". The longer lines have four beats and the shorter ones have two beats, until the last two lines, where the regular rhythm seems to break down. "That was everything" is ambiguous: it could mean that the list has finished, or it could mean that the ring is the item that was most important. It finishes off the poem.

The Prohibition Era and the Creation of NASCAR

NASCAR is the world famous acronym for â€Å"National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.†NASCAR racing stands prominently in the front line of the American sports today. NASCAR is an authorizing body which arranges several types of racing all over the country the country. The most famous ones are Craftsman Truck Series, Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series.[1]AN OVERVIEWThe creation of NASCAR traces back its roots in history. The creation of NASCAR traces back to its roots deep in the history. It goes back to1794 almost a century before the first automobile came into being. It was the time of â€Å"Whiskey Rebellion†. This rebellion was actually a protest by frontier farmers against a federal tax levied on whiskey. Despite paying the tax they built secret stills, prepared and started supplying their product secretly.[2] There began the origin of NASCAR. In this paper this history is presented decade wise.Decade 1(1920-1933)On 16th January 1920 the â€Å"Volstead Act† was imposed all over United States. The manufacture, sale, export and import of alcohol were banned under this act.[3]In the Prohibition period of the 1920's and early 30's, the underground marketing of whiskey, or â€Å"moonshine running† began to rise. Moonshine is a primitive term in English for illegal transportation of liquor, and gradually gave birth to moonshine/ moonshine runners or rum runners. These moonshiners were commonly known as â€Å"Bootleggers†. These people who confidentially used to supply whiskey from their underground stills illegally to hundreds of markets all over the Southeast. Their t high speeds driving at night because of the risk of police encounter was quite dangerous. It gradually turned into race competitions between the bootleggers which usually resulted in lose of life or imprisonment.When bootlegging developed, the bootleggers started to race among themselves to check the speed of their cars. They used to have these races on Sunday afternoons and then the same car was used to smuggle moonshine at Sunday night. Unavoidably, these races and moonshine cars became extremely popular in general public. It even continued after the end of the prohibition era in 1933 on repeal of the Volstead Act.[4]Decade 2 (1938-1950):In 1938 William H.G. Bill France held a race on Daytona Beach, Florida and NASCAR came into being. With the beginning of World War II brought stock car racing came to an end but it again grew after the war but there were no appropriate rules and the proper organization. Soon Bill realized the importance of growth of stock car racing and consequently to start a formal official organization the National Association for Stock Car Auto  Racing (NASCAR) in 1947.In the supervision of Bill France Senior and afterwards his  son, Bill France  Junior NASCAR has turned into a rapidly growing  sport in the  1990s.The first race sanctioned by NASCAR held on the  beach course at  Daytona in Fe bruary 1948. The next year NASCAR  began the racing division of NASCAR called â€Å"Strictly  Stock† division,  now identified as the Winston Cup Series. The first race by â€Å"Strictly Stock† contributed a $5,000  purse and held  in southern Florida on a two-mile circular course followed by150-mile race at the three-quarter-mile Charlotte  Speedway. The first NASCAR race on newly made Darlington  International Speedway was held in 1959 in South Carolina.[5]The NASCAR is flourishing since then till todayCurrent DecadeAs compared to the last decade NAS CAR racing has achieved the fore front of spectator sports in America, both live and in television telecasts. â€Å"The Fiftieth Season† of NASCAR was celebrated I 1998 which received great public attendance and an immense coverage by the media which clearly shows the great development and popularity of NASCAR not only in United States but across the world s well.[6]ConclusionAfter going through the history of creation and growth of NASCAR, the link between the prohibition era in the United States and the creation of NASCAR has been vividly depicted. The role played by the bootleggers/ rumrunners/moonshiners is inevitable in the origin of NASCAR. Certain schools of thoughts in United States still assume them as heroes who fought against injustice and undue taxation no matter they were treated as criminals or smugglers. They believe that America was built by them.[7]Neal Thompson has written a book â€Å"Driving with the Devils† about the moonshiners. Charles Danoff reviews the book and says that people may find â€Å"Driving with the Devil†over sympathizing the southern bootleggers regardless the fact that they were criminals anyhow. But without this deep sympathy the story could never be told. The author treats Bill France as a dictator.Danoff is of the opinion that France family may tell this story in any manner they want, but its an undeniable fact that NASCAR did not came into being in 1940s as its website says. Its origin was conceived sometimes two decade earlier.[8]ReferencesRumrunners,Moonshiners,Bootleggers  Accessed March 10, 2008The Chicago Bootleggers: The Hollow Men of NASCAR from  Ã‚     Ã‚  http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/inthemeantime/contentview.asp?c=201755 Accessed March 10, 2008  The History of NASCAR  Accessed March 10, 2008What is NASCAR.About.com: Car Racinghttp://nascar.about.com/ Accessed March 10, 2008Ziewacz Lawrence E.The Country Music- NASCAR Connection. Country Music 2001, Charles K.Wolfe and James E. Akenson[1] What is NASCAR? About.com [2]The History of NASCAR [3] Rumrunners and Prohibition [4] The History of NASCAR [5] The History of NASCAR [6] The Country Music-NASCAR Connection [7] Rumrunners,Moonshiners,Bootleggers( http://www.history.com/index.jsp) [8] The Chicago Sports Review: Bootleggers: The Hollow Men of NASCAR

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