Flow of Dignity

"Self respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows
with the ability to say no to oneself."
- Abraham Joshua Heschel

On a more objective topic today, I'd like to discuss something that most women, little girls, and even men eventually must blunder about once in their life. Dresses/Skirts. On one side they can be wonderful to wear for they provide enough leg freedom that allows for us to roam free without any of the sort of restraint of fabric. Dresses/Skirts give this sense of comfort, it just hangs over the shoulders of your body draping down without any effort. In addition, going to the bathroom suddenly becomes a ten times less tedious task. Bunching up the ends of your dress as oppose to zipping down your pants serves to be quick, easy, and efficient. Also dresses/skirts are so helpful for formal events, to look nice, or even to have a break from pants, they never fail to effortlessly make you look cute.

However, the joy and perks of dresses/skirts can only go so far. In certain respects, depending on what kind of dress/skirt you have it can be the complete opposite. Sometimes, the attribute of being flowy can cause the dress to be carried to the wind too easily and end up in you losing a bit of your dignity. Take for example a breezy summer dress, that would fit the perks that we discussed without a doubt, as they are made to be flowy and relatively loose, but a fancy well fitted business dress would not. Zipping up the business dress in the first place is already a struggle, having to undo and redo that while in a public washroom would be horrendous. Having to either choose between two options: 1) Somehow try to awkwardly bring the tight ends of the dress upward and possibly destroy the integrity of the dress. 2) Undo the entire dress and redress while in a public washroom. Another thing that can be quite unpleasant about a dress/skirt is the way your thighs seem to touch. On hot summer days when nylons and pantyhose are not even a conceivable option, the "freedom" of your legs learns to come to terms that the barrier that has kept them apart in the past has also been their saviour from sticking together. Nothing is more frustrating and irritating then the feeling of when your thighs seem to stick together or the red splotch you get because one leg had been touching the other.

All in all, dresses for the most part are really fun articles of clothing and are very versatile. They can be more formal, and can be casual all at once. They can leave you uncomfortable in more ways then one, whether it be sticky thighs or bulky tight fits but nevertheless it is always in your power to choose which one you purchase. The level of comfortable depends on the person, but these were just general and common aspects of wearing one. I for one feel more comfortable being more dressy as oppose to casual, but that is my personal take. So whether you are a man in a quilt, a woman in a business suit, or a little girl in a new summer dress, it is hard to hold down your dignity but wonderful to feel free.

Here's a tip though- wearing spandex shorts underneath is always a sure-fire way of making you feel more comfortable wearing a dress/skirt, and can save your dignity!

Han Van

Pain worth Suffering

"Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before,                                                                                                  how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way,"       --Isak Dinesen

I know that the title may seem a bit alarming. Who would want to go through pain and suffering? To answer that, we all do. There are certain kinds of pain that we would define as worthy of suffering for because in the end it is beneficial. One example that comes to mind is child birth. Last weekend when my aunt came to my house for the Lunar New Year she brought along her new 2 month old daughter Katy. I for one have never really been a fan of children or even babies for that matter but as I saw her glimpse upward in wonder of the new world I realised something. Sure, the process of creating a child isn't painful but what comes after being impregnated can be. Carrying the child for months and months, giving up your life to make sure the one growing in you is okay. As my aunt's roots grew out from her frequently coloured hair, the look of her throat as she took a dry swallow as she watched others drink alcohol while she couldn't and her 00 jeans rapidly reaching a 14, I began to feel a bit of sympathy toward her as a defeated look came over her face being unable to buy or live the same way she use to. Literally, everything changes. Money goes toward different things, day to day activities revolve around others. Having children is consuming, and causes you to consume way more then you usually do too.

However, with all of that being said, when the baby came out it was like none of that mattered. It was worth the excruciatingly painful contractions as Oxytocin was released more and more, doubling the pain each time until the baby was out. In the moment where the parent holds their child for the very first time will never cease to amaze me. I always personally thought the whole idea of life was weird. We almost create life out of a spec and it slowly just grows within you, extracting parts of you and eventually comes out and grows just as big. The thought of life growing within me always gave me chills but truly is a miracle and wonder of this world in my eyes. The baby really becomes apart of you, and I feel as if it reflects who you are as well as you as a parent put a lot into how they grow up to be. So despite the fact that it may seem like your surrender your whole self for your child, I think in reality the energy and sense of self is going toward it to help it flourish and grow. So the realisation becomes that their first words outweigh the pain of the months of wearing maternity clothes. Their first steps outweigh all the things you couldn't do while pregnant. Their eager face on the first day of school and the warm proud feeling you get outweighs the unbelievable pain you went through to push the baby out. Their love, the love that they return to you in their high pitched innocent voice becomes worth all of that ten times over.

This is just one example, of pain and suffering that turns to benefit and perhaps in another blog post I'll touch on others but let's just leave this with a beautiful miracle for now. To wrap this up, I believe there is pain worth suffering, I truly do. Like child birth, the most wonderful thing comes out of all those long nights and sacrifices- life itself. So what I leave you is with, what could ever be worth more than life?

My cousin Katy at around 1 month old.

Rafiki from the Lion King showing everyone the miracle of life. 

Han Van 

Just the Beginning

So I really enjoy how we made blogs today. It is really is an easy and accessible way to blog. It's really late right now but I was hoping to find a nice design for my blog but still must work through some coding so it looks awful right now. I think my "theme" for my blog will relate to my url name (sunshinesplash) in a way that I'll blog about good things. To add a splash of sunshine to some sad or bad events. I like to think of things like that, in a brighter way. It really is inevitable for bad things to happen but I think there is always something you can take away from it. Or you can always have a certain outlook or perspective on it that can allow you to grow from it, or be able to move on. I like to think of the way in our history class in Grade 10, the way we learned about World War II. We learnt about all the horrible and awful things humanity sunk down to but at the end of it all even though the tally for horrendous things was far too high, there was still things like health care and a shake of realization for all of the world that seemed to be the start of something better. That of course can not even come close to justifying the war, but it was a different perspective on it. So even though some people may find making these blogs tedious and stupid let's say - it really is an accessible, easy, and efficient way of expressing ourselves publicly in a way that sometimes other things cannot convey. Just a brighter side about this blog. So even though my blog looks awful right now, that'll just leave me a task to do later on so I won't have to waste my time on trivial things and I can put my effort into something of good use! So here is hoping I'll be able to find some light in the dark abyss of the situations and topics I choose to ponder about on this blog this semester.

Han Van