Reflection 6

I would have to say that the majority of my friendships fit under the pleasure category.  I'm a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity on campus and along with considering each of its members as my brother, I consider each a friend.  After classes everyday I spend my free time hanging out with my brothers.  No matter what we are doing be it watching T.V., playing video games,  talking about random issues and topics, or partaking in certain beverages, I enjoy every minute of it.  I truly believe that I have a friendship of pleasure with each and everyone of them.  When thinking of a virtuous friendship my mind lands on one person.  She has been my best friend for almost 2 years now and whenever I think of her I only wish the absolute best for her well being.  I think in order for our friendship to become a friendship of virtue we just have to become a little closer and more open with each other, but due to certain circumstances we might be looked upon negatively by certain people.  Without going into detail, the barrier we would have to pass to get to this level would require us to possibly sacrifice other friendships.
All my life and even up until now I have been hardcore pro-life.  When I was 17 years old I was faced with a choice.  I had got my then girlfriend pregnant and the option to take her to a clinic was on the table.  Even though I had always been die hard against abortion, my young mind had wondered to the option that would solve my situation the quickest.  Ultimately, she and I decided the best option would be to keep the baby and now this fall I will watch my 5 year old son attend his first day of kindergarten.  What I saw when I was presented with that choice was that abortion was the easiest way out of a tight situation, but after watching my son grow for the past 5 years I know that our choice was the right choice.

Reflective Essay 3

One problem that has started becoming a recent theme in superhero stories is the idea that the superhero is to blame for the city's problems.  Well at least this is something that I find in the Batman comics and movies.  For example the movie, "The Dark Knight", initially the Joker comes onto the scene to do guess what, take down Batman.  Now I admit that Batman and the Joker have had a special relationship throughout the years, but when that film ends the Joker just comes out and says, "you won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness and I won't kill you because you're just too much fun."  When the villain says this to the hero in a comic book or movie I'm reading I wonder to myself what is going through the hero's head.  Does he feel remorse or regret for putting on his mask?  Recently, I read "Batman: The Killing Joke", this graphic novel is the first Batman text to have any sort of origin story for the joker and is in fact one of Tim Burton's major inspiration for making the 1989 Batman movie.  In the story the Joker shoots a Barbara Gordon in the spine, paralyzing her, and kidnaps and tortures Commissioner Gordon just to prove a point to Batman.  So if Batman had not existed would the Joker have done any of those awful things?  I think that it is ideas and thoughts like this that torture superheros when they hang up the cape for the night.  I'll leave you with this thought, in "The Dark Knight Returns" Batman had hung up the cap for 10 years and decides to return.  Hanging out in good old Arkham Asylum the Joker sees on the T.V. that Batman has returned to crime fighting so what does the Joker do, he escapes the asylum and creates a plot to draw Batman's attention.  So maybe this is just Batman and the Joker's relationship, but these two are the only example I can think of off the top of my head and I firmly believe that almost every superhero deals with this dilemma from time to time.