Gayth Munther

Why Do Old Places Matter? Individual

Identity

Old places have a very strong connection

with ones identity because they serve as
landmarks of ones life experiences.
People seem to recognize intuitively the
way older places symbolize meaning,
significance, and memories.
Our identity is always changing as we gain
more experiences in life.
Although our identity with place changes
over time (and can be re-created in
different places), the places that form our
identity act as tangible objects that
support our identity.
When the places that are part of our
identity are threatened, lost or destroyed,
our identity may be damaged.

Due to my circumstances, I could not live

in a place for a long time to experience the
feelings that these old places have given
to the people. Rather I experienced a
different sensation, one of nostalgia. As a
child, my family moved to different houses
frequently (every two years) so I dont
have the sense of belonging to a place, a
place that identifies me. Most of my
memories are spread out all over many
places, some of which I can barely
remember. The places that I have lived in
are most-likely gone and for that reason I
dont place a sentimental value in the
places that identify me. Instead I carry the
memories and experiences I have had in
these places with me wherever I go. As I
grow and experience more things in life, I
look back at all the places that I remember
and I see different places. These places
still have the feeling of nostalgia but I
discover things about these places that I
never knew existed, I remember things
that I never thought about with the novice
mind that I had. So the places that identify
are not landmarks or tangible object,
but rather an ever-growing memory of
places that continue to identify me as I
change.

If I were in your position, I would definitely

feel very similar and instead carry the
memories with me vs. any tangible object.
I also agree that when you are not in a
house, town, or any given area for a long
period of time, its hard to tie connections
to it. Possibly as you grow older you can
find a sense of connection to a place for
the first time and know what it feels like to
not only create memories with it, but you
can tie emotions to wherever that may be.
Although you cannot remember every
place that you have lived, at least you
have the unique memories that you made
in each place to carry with you. Hopefully
you can also continue to remember all of
these different memories about all of
these different places to refresh your mind
and get a glimpse into the past of where
you used to live.

Gayth Munther
Identity as an Analytic Lens
Nature-identity: a state developed from
forces in nature.
Institution-identity: a position authorized
by authorities within institutions.
Discourse-identity: an individual trait
recognized in the discourse/ of/with
"rational" dialogue individuals.
Affinity-identity: experiences shared in
the practice of "affinity groups"
The way you see your identity is different
than the way others see yours.

I think that Nature-identity is the

shallowest of all the identities and it is the
one we have struggled with the most as
human beings. Race and gender always
come to mind when talking about Nidentity. All of us tend to put people in
groups and the easiest and most apparent
one is the way people look (i.e. skin color,
hair texture). Institution-identity is
probably the easiest one to identify
yourself with. The actions and
responsibilities that are expected from a
professor or an employee are given to you
and not the other way around so you can
carry out policies that institution want
with the authority of the institution
backing you up. On the other hand
Discourse and affinity identity is the most
difficult to identify yourself with because it
depends on what people think of you and
that is totally dependent on the people
themselves. For example, I identify myself
with people who love technology and
know a lot about it but someone whom
works in the technology field might think
that I know nothing about technology. It is
all about peoples perspective.

I remember the author also said that the

nature- identity isnt a good way to the
identity. To be honest, there are lots of
stereotype and prejudice exist between
the race and gender; however I think
people are now easily to understand the
different of the race and respect with each
other than the past.
For the second identity, I think we are the
one who have responsible and obligation
to recognize how we are by our
accomplishment and achievement.
The third and last identity may easily
affected the people who are more
educational and professional, but their
identity may spur you to have more
passion to reach a goal that you may clear
their misunderstanding in one day.

Natalie Chan

Gayth Munther
Shang and Dorwick
having two names was natural, like
speaking two languages or identifying
with two cultures. For kids, it was a way
of expressing our dual cultural
identities.
Eva wanted a simple name that can
identify here in both of her cultures.
language makes us who we are.
For me it's those who name.

Questions:
How does having two different identities
affect how you talk to people that know
from the perspective of one of those
identities?

Does speaking different languages affect

the way people see us as? Or vice versa?
Is it difficult to handle a situation where
you have to display two different
personalities at once?

I can certainly related to the author of the

first reading, as I am from Iraqi holding the
name Gayth. By being a part of many
cultures, I see that it is very convenient to
just have a different name that people of
that culture can call you. And it does not
alienate one culture or another for having
a name that does not belong or fit in with
the norm. As for the second reading, it
was very interesting to see how a word
can change someones life like that and it
was liberating for me, as I can speak
another language. A language with
different connotations for different words.
Furthermore, as each language develops
within my mind, I start to connect the two
languages in a combined cultural, social
and linguistic sense.

Yes, like what you said, I think having two

names are quite common when you have
different culture background. I am from
Hong Kong, and I also have a English name
in order to help me to get involve in
different country.
For the second reading, I think language is
definitely affect the attitude on how do
we see the world. Like someone can use
for insulting people, and someone can use
for sugarcoat. While we are using the
language, we need to understand What
do we want to say before we
communicate.
Natalie Chan

Gayth Munther
"Personal Stories in Alcoholics
Anonymous"
Alcoholics are labeled as alcoholic by
others when their behavior becomes
problematic by normal standards, not on
the basis of the volume of alcohol drunk or
the frequency of drunkenness.
You know you are an alcoholic not by how
much you drink but by how alcohol has
affected your relationships, job and life in
general.
The stories contribute to cultural
production is three ways: they objectify
cultural elements, they create a model for
what alcoholism is and what it means to
be an alcoholic, and they provide a
mediating device for self-understanding.
Normal drinker can control their drinking,
while alcoholic drinkers cannot; in order to
stop drinking, AA members must turn their
will and lives to a higher power.
Questions:
Is willpower alone enough to overcome
being addicted to alcohol? Or a higher
power is required?

We can see the alcoholic is just a label

that differs between cultures because
what is considered a normal behavior is
different. The connotations that our
society attaches to the word alcoholics
affect how these people are perceived and
how they are treated. I have made the
decision not to drink alcohol and that has
definitely affected how I view people who
drink in general. The definition of alcoholic
is a loose one so the stories of the old
timers help identify who is and is not an
alcoholic. Also identity is a critical to
recovery in this case. If you dont see
yourself as an alcoholic then you wont
recognize that you have a problem that
must be solved. As they have talked about
it in the reading, one must recognize that
the negative values attached to being an
alcoholic is less important than their
recovery.

I remember in the reading it stated that

alcoholism is an incurable disease and
once you identify yourself as an alcoholic,
that identity never goes away for the rest
of your life, even if you abstain from
alcohol forever. I thought that was
interesting because I thought that if you
were an alcoholic and you decide to give
up drinking forever then that identity of
being an alcoholic also goes away but I
guess not.
By Crista Putney
Notes:
But telling is an active process. It is a
process of construction.
Is telling the same as being or becoming?
No, telling is very different than being
because you can to paint a picture of
yourself that is completely different than
who you think you are.