Thursday, February 4, 2016

Journal Three: Kristen

Part One: So far I think that the readings from Holding On are very interesting to say the least. The variety of different people and stories are kind of mind blowing. One minute you can be reading stories about people involved in civil rights movements and the next minute you could be reading about a doors salesman. That is what I love about this book though. It doesn't just tell stories about Heroes, but about just regular old Joe's as well. I think that the strengths of Holding On are how David Isay and Harvey Wang are able to capture these peoples lives and hopes in dreams in just a couple of pages. Another strength I think the book has is that even the shortest stories can have just as much impact as the longer ones. While I have been reading each story I have tried to underline lines that tend to summarize the whole story and lines that really made an impact on my thinking.
Part Two: One of the profiles that stuck out to me was the one about Tommie Bass (Folk Doctor). Bass was a herbist and he spent around seventy-two years digging up herbs and discovering what different herbs did to help people. Something very refreshing about this profile was that Bass had many people come to him to help them with their illnesses and Bass never wanted nor expected anything in return. One gentleman offered him five dollars, which was a good bit back then, to give him tea made from herbs to cure his daughter. Bass basically laughed at the poor man for thinking that he would take money just to save a little girls life. It shows how genuine and honest Bass was. He didn't care about money. He more cared about learning more and more and helping anybody that he came across. One phrase that stood out to me because it just made me laugh was, "I been into it, you see, for around seventy-two years. If a fella' don't learn something in that time, he might just as well quit!"

2 comments:

  1. I think that it was very interesting that he was able to capture people even in the shorter ones. I wish those ones could have been longer but I think that for being shorter profiles he provided us with enough detail to make us understand.

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  2. I thought this story was also very interesting because he did what he loved for seventy-two years and did get much out of it. I love his quote too because through out your life you should learn something.

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