Kimo's Essay 5.21.09

Kimo Gray
5.17.09
English9
Mr. Salsich

Slave to Change
An Essay on the Transformation of Life


Change begets change begets change begets change (Tetracolon Climax). Whether we like it or not, things are constantly changing, be it the spring flowers or the inconvenient homework assignment. There is no easy way to map life’s system, no math equation to crunch the numbers and interpret our pre-determined fate, which is always more change. Change brings change but also opportunity, the opportunity to utilize what life has thrown at us and delve down new paths. One of the greatest 20th Century German poets(Appositive Phrase), Rainer Maria Rilke, expresses that “Life is transformation,” and we don’t have a choice in that matter.

It starts out as liquid, superheated and withheld under the earth, always shifting, anyways changing, always eager to escape its subterranean prison. And then, in a seismic moment it is free, and in time will solidify into a shape quite unlike its form today. From there, the millions of years will transform it further, until one fateful day it is excavated and chiseled into its slate like form, the garden stone. The garden stone is similar to us all, on the way it transforms throughout its lifetime. In its modern form, it is only reminiscent of a time long gone, when it was those ripples of superheated liquid. All of us change throughout our life, infant, toddler, child, teenager, adult, elder. These are the roles that we play in our life, each one different from the next. The stone itself is a constant to us, as though we change every day the stone life is so long that we will never see it change, only as a miraculous garden stone.

In Rilke’s passage, he talks about the difference between hands and eyes. With hands, we want to hold on to things and preserve them in our grasp so that they will be ours. “We do not acquire wealth,” Rilke states, “by letting something remain and wilt in our hands.” When studied, hands can be the window into the soul, from tapping on a desktop due to an annoyance, to holding someone in a loving embrace, to desperately hold on to the constants in our life, in a vain effort to negate transformation. In contrast, our eyes grant us the ability to fleet over things, to acknowledge their existence without the need to cling. Rilke describes the eyes as “so willing to grasp, so willing to relinquish,” for when our eyes see something that transfixes us we gaze and ponder into its magic, but in any instant our gaze can be swept away in an effort to experience the whole world. Though featured in a similar existence, the hands and eyes present different experiences, from a never ending grasp to a fleeting glance.

In my life I can relate to the simple message, “Life is transformation,” found in Rilke’s passage(Participial Phrase). Recently I learned that I would be moving to New Jersey early this summer. I have moved many times before this, but this has been the longest I have ever stayed in one place, and I appreciate all the good times I have had here. Though painful, I understand, as life has been difficult for my family lately, and perhaps this change will be a good thing. One thing I try to focus on is the constants in my life, such as my little brother. But even in all his love change can be found, as every day his body grows a little and his personality grows a lot. I know that with four kids in the house things will always be a whirlwind, but I know one thing will never change; the love that my family shares. Life is transformation, and for that it stinks, but it is from the ashes of an old life a new one emerges.

I often wonder about the great debate, Free Will vs. Destiny. Personally I would like to believe in Free Will, or the idea that you, and you alone determine your life. But on the opposite end of the spectrum is destiny, a term often romanticized and implying an all-controlling higher power. If anything, life itself is this higher power, this god that spontaneously hurl’s change in our path, like a bowling ball towards our neat little bowling pins. But I believe we are smarter than the bowling ball, and abstractly choose to have our hypothetical bowling pins turn to steel or to simply get up and walk away. We have no control over the what, when, where, or how of change, but what we do control is how it can affect us (Antithesis). For while “Life is transformation,” we are free to be whoever we want to be. The choice is ours, and while we may just be on a collision course with whatever crazy shenanigan life has up next for us, we will always have the free will to decide who we are. I think that’s a fair compromise.


Self-Assesment

1. Kimo Gray 5.21.09

2. I am working on omitting unnecessary words. I am also working on finding simple errors.

3. I think that my concluding paragraph is good. I also think that I used most of the tools well.

4. I think my first body paragraph may have been a bit aloof. I;m also unsure about my tetracolon climax,