TOW #20 – The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

        While all the others fret, hesitate, or calculate, Pooh just is how he is. This “way of the Pooh” guide is how Benjamin Hoff, winner of an American Book Award, teaches the general audience—who may also be Winnie-the-Pooh fans—the basics of Taoism. To many, the concept seems simple until you try to think about it, and so Hoff goes about showing his audience the way of Taoism without attempting to explain every detail of it, for that would just be confusing, of course.

“When you work with Wu Wei [‘Taoism in action’], you put the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole. No stress, no struggle. Egotistical Desire tries to force the round peg into the square hole and the square peg into the round hole. Cleverness tries to devise craftier ways of making pegs fit where they don’t belong. Knowledge tries to figure out why round pegs fit round holes, but not square holes. Wu Wei doesn’t try. It doesn’t think about it. It just does it. And when it does, it doesn’t appear to do much of anything. But Things Get Done.

       Through analogies such as these, using both this simple peg-hole scenario as well as various scenarios with Pooh, Hoff show how Taoism is neither something that can simply be explained nor something that should be explained because, as Hoff mentioned, it would only jumble the idea and make it more confusing than it has to be when we attempt to completely wrap our minds around it. He is able to define the way of Taoism without directly stating it, and the point is to simply get the gist of it, so others can apply it to their lives as well. Pooh represents a symbol for Taoism, a physical entity for readers to visualize more clearly while simultaneously providing many examples, and with this Benjamin Hoff can effectively convey what Taoism is as well as argue how Pooh is indeed Taoist.

TOW #19 – “Why Fast Food Isn’t Cheaper Than Healthy Food” by Tim Harlan

Founder of DrGourmet.com, Tim Harlan, shares with general family audience, perhaps those in lower social classes, that the choice to eat healthy is not necessarily more expensive than fast food. Through various examples, he proves just how much better eating healthy can be despite getting less calories, and he debunks the pre-existing myth for his audience who most likely believes fast food to be a quicker and cheaper option.

With many comparisons of varying meals and options that people may buy or prefer, Harlan attacks the argument for fast food through the prices first. He uses an imaginary family of four, the average family size in America, and first offers the fast food option. For example, he states that, for the usual meal a family might order at McDonald’s, he would rack up the price to about $14.00. “For that money,” he states, “you get almost nothing of nutritive value, but bland white bread, greasy burgers and fries with a sugary soda.” He then compares the amount of healthier food choices that could be bought with that same amount of money, and he asserts the idea that it will actually produce more food for the family than the fast food choice, with leftovers to save for later. His comparisons also go after the difference in nutrients provided to sustain the body, with the fast food choices severely lacking in their contents aside from “refined carbohydrates”. By tackling both of these ideas, he proves to his audience the benefits of eating healthy rather than buying junk food under the pretense of it being cheaper.

Harlan also debunks the rebuttal of there simply being no time to cook. Cooking a chicken, through adding up all the estimated preparation times, would take altogether 15 minutes to cook. Harlan does not miss the opportunity to compare this to the fast food option with the statement: “You might stand in line that long at a fast food joint”. By addressing these common counterpoints and comparing the reality of it to the healthier food choices, Harlan successfully establishes and conveys this idea of healthy eating actually being much more beneficial than fast food. The only remaining problem would be whether the audience, the busy American families, actually follow through with the push to transition. 

TOW #18 – “Animals are not Clowns” by Acção Animal and LPDA (Visual)

             On the topic of animal rights, two Portuguese organizations, Acção Animal and Liga Portuguesa dos Direitos do Animal (LPDA), combined to form a campaign against the use of animals in circuses. Their campaign goes after the abuse animals face as well as the depression they deal with as a result of being trained to do all sorts of tricks for the amusement of the public with no true freedom to simply live as an animal should.

            The first and most noticeable argument against circus animals is the subject itself. The tiger is controlled by puppet strings in a spot light, and the animal obviously does not seem happy, but it gets after this idea of circuses using animals how they see fit and restricting their freedom. The sight would most importantly evoke pity in the viewer and only enforces the argument to end the use of animals in the circus. Coupled with blue background giving the entire image a somber look, the audience will feel inclined to follow the much smaller text at the bottom of the ad: “support animal free circuses”.

            The tiger may be the most noticeable, but the words crossing its belly also stick out as an effective tool to emotionally persuade the audience into essentially boycotting the use of animals in a circus. “The show musn’t go on” is a twist on a well-known and often used phrase which usually conveyed the idea of never giving up. Now, with the tiger simply left as a puppet for the circus, the two organizations are attempting to fight for the opposite; the end of the show and animal rights.

IRB Intro #3 – The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

“While Eeyore frets… and Piglet hesitates… and Rabbit calculates… and Owl pontificates… Pooh just is.” – Benjamin Hoff

            Benjamin Hoff’s philosophy-based book is essentially an introduction to Taoism for Westerners through the use of the popular fictional character Winnie-the-Pooh. From the back of the book alone, the origin of the quote, I can already infer the general idea of Taoism as one in which a person simply goes with the flow and allows themselves to simply exist without so much stress. As I read this, I hope to learn more about the Eastern belief system as well find an opportunity to apply it to my life as well since the lifestyle already seems more preferable compared to the constant worrying the others clearly do without it.

TOW #17 – “Against Headphones” by Virginia Heffernan

With worry for our generation, completely reasonable given one in five teenagers suffer from slight hearing loss today, Virginia Heffernan addresses the widely popular use of headphones and why we should use them in moderation. Heffernan goes back into the origin of headphones as well as their intended use to block out commotion for controlled auditory experiences before connecting them to today’s society in order to argue against them. While the author speaks to their own, older generation who may be more concerned over their child blasting loud music than the actual child might be, the argument does not fail to at least speak somewhat to teens who may be looking in on the subject from the ‘outside’.

Heffernan begins the article by grabbing the audience’s attention with a simple statistic: “One in five teenagers in America can’t hear rustles or whispers, according to a study published in August in The Journal of the American Medical Association”. This could seem urgent not only to a fretting parent or other adult figure, but as teens ourselves we could also become worried due to the possibility of being part of that 20% in danger of acquiring hearing loss without realizing it. This prompts both direct and indirect audiences to read through the rest of the article either for an explanation on how or for a simple solution that could be attempted to reduce the auditory damages.

Perhaps knowing the complete removal of earbuds from our daily lives would be an unreasonable call to action, Heffernan’s conclusion is not one of completely banning earbuds, but it is simply one that seeks more of a compromise despite the overall negative connotation the article gives to earbuds through this connection with hearing loss and antisocial behavior. This compromise, on the grounds of “protecting [our] brains” while not completely shooting down the idea of “escapism” when listening to music, makes the argument seem a bit more reasonable for the younger audience looking in as the topic of discussion.