Periods 1,2,3 The Skin of Our Teeth

“It was written on the eve of our entrance into the war and under strong emotion and I think it mostly comes alive under conditions of crisis. It has been often charged with being a bookish fantasia about history, full of rather bloodless schoolmasterish jokes. But to have seen it in Germany soon after the war, in the shattered churches and beerhalls that were serving as theaters, with audiences whose price of admission meant the loss of a meal and for whom it was of absorbing interest that there was a ‘recipe for grass soup that did not cause the diarrhea,’ was an experience that was not so cool.”
…Thorton Wilder, from “A Platform and a Passion or Two”


Write a journal on one of the following quotes: Submit it to turnitin.com
“Every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor edge of danger, whether it be a field, a home, or a country.” George Antrobus

“God forgive me, but I enjoyed the war. Everyone’s at his best in wartime.”

“When you’re at war, you think of a better life. When you’re at peace, you think of a more comfortable one.”


Choose one of the following ideas of philosophy and respond personally in journal form. Submit to turnitin.com
Spinoza: After experience had taught me that the common occurrences of daily life are vain and futile; and I saw that all the objects of my desire and fear were in themselves nothing good nor bad save insofar as the mind was affected by them; I at length determined to search out whether there was something truly good and communicable to man.
(Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher (1632-1677) who followed Plato and Aristotle in rejecting wealth, fame, and pleasure as criteria for the good life. Instead, he believed that the blend of arts and sciences was important for every society and affirmed existence, unity, and the infinitude of God and Nature.)

Plato: Then tell me, O Critias, how will a man choose the ruler that shall rule over him? Will he not choose a man who has first established order in himself, knowing that any decision that has its spring from anger or pride or vanity can be multiplied a thousandfold in its effects upon the citizens?

Aristotle: This good estate of the mind possessing its object in energy we call divine. This we mortals have occasionally and it is this energy which is pleasantest and best. But God has it always. It is wonderful in us; but in Him how much more wonderful.

From Genesis: In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth; And the Earth was waste and void; And the darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Lord said let there be light and there was Light.


You should have 2 journals submitted to turnitin.com