A Puzzled Penguin

  He heard the phone starting to ring — once, twice, three times. At last, it stopped. Gatsby stood and stared across the Bay towards the green light. In his head, all he could hear was “You can’t repeat the past.”  For the first time, he stood still. He knew he couldn’t do anything. Gatsby was afraid to lose Daisy. His entire life was centered around Daisy, the longing to be with her, her status, and her money. But none of that mattered anymore. For the first time, he had self control. It felt good. He heard Nick's voice again: “You can’t repeat the past.”  This time, he didn’t argue back. Ever since he got back from the war, he thought of ways to get her attention, but none of that worked. He thought about calling her, he realized that there was nothing he could do. He put down the phone and went outside. The night air was cool and damp. He stood on his marble balcony and looked at the green light one last time. For years, the light amazed him. Now, it seemed like...

  The wealth gap in America is increasing — that's no secret. Just look at this income-based graph by the federal reserve. Over the past 10 years, the top 1% have tripled income, while the bottom 50% has stayed relatively consistent.  When asked about the increasing divide in wealth and power, the most common reaction is fear or anger. They might think that since the rich get richer, the poorer get poorer. Mind you, this is not my own saying. The Percy Bysshe Shelley attributed aphorism (I failed that vocab quiz too btw) says "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer."  In any expanding economy, wealth tends to concentrate first among those who create and take risks. When new technologies or markets, those risk takers get most of the rewards. After all, you reap what you sow. How could this be unfair? It is just a reward for the risk takers. Over time, the profits, income, and wealth slowly distribute back to the common people. Economists call this the Kuznets Cu...

  I recently had a friend that told me that they feel too lonely and dependent on their friends. As someone who usually has some type of suggestion when complaints are made, I felt quite useless at that moment. I didn’t know what to say because they seem to always be surrounded by friends and always at the center of attention. At this point, I became puzzled. How could someone who is so socially active (at least from the outside) feel lonely? There, I realized that loneliness isn't a lack of interactions from other people, it’s about the desired social connections they lack. Sometimes, the desire to be understood is the biggest desire one could want: a feeling that you are not alone. That story reminded me of Dvořák, especially his “American” string quartet and his “New World” symphony. When he composed these two pieces, he was living in the United States, which was far from his home in Europe. To everyone else, he was praised, admired, constantly surrounded by students and fellow ...