Terry Parker High School - Chieftain Yearbook (Jacksonville, FL)

Page 301 text:

It is more thiin the tubes, chain, wheels, and tires which arc involved in it's physical make-up. It posses an almost human-like soul which at limes makes it seem alive. To simply view the bicycle as a conglomeration of cold steel and rubber is to do it a grave injustice. Because of the personal involvment in utilizing the bike, bicycles reflect the feeling and the attitudes of the owner toward it more than any other machine. Many view the bike as just another means of transportation-they are missing the point. It is more often reduced to the role of child's play toy. Certainly a bike can physically be ridden between two places without a thought of the bike itself. However, it is likely that these children regard the bike as a temporary form of transportation to be disregarded later for a more practical means. They cannot understand the bike because they cannot see it as it really exists. The fault lies primarily with the manufacturers who turn out bikes by the millions as mere machines, 'nicy throw together inferior materials into a device that bears no more resemblance to a bicycle Ihun a toy car does to the real thing. It is indeed nothing more than a plavtoy. A true bicycle is made by hand with care and precision that arc at once evident to the discerning owner. The finest materials arc used not only to make a precision machine but to give it a personality. Why is the bike more than just a machine to its operator? The answer involves the unity between bike and rider: the bike becomes an extension of the two and they become one. Their personalities merge until it is impossible to distinguish the individual chamtcrictics of each. No machine involves its operator so completely and requires more of him than does the bike. Pedaling hard up a hill, flying down at high speed, steering to avoid obstacles: the bike and rider are one. Simply put. one really wonders whether the bicycle is carrying the man or the man is carrying the bicycle. Student Author: Bill Greene. Revolution is the tool of liberation for oppressed peoples. It is the execution of the right for all humanity to be free, the nght to control one's own life without interference by a government whose actions scree not the welfare of those governed but. rather, the welfare of those who govern. It manifests itself out of an extreme need, the need of freedom for people everywhere. The Rev-volution is the final alternative in the fight against oppression. When all other methods fail, a Revolution is the only hope. Those who oppress arc its victims, the members of the government who misuse the power invested in them by the people. Its purpose is justice, causing the government to answer for its crime against humanity. The cause of a People's Revolution is universal. It results from a government that refuses to yield to its responsibility of granting to the People what they want, freedom. Instead of being sensitive and responsive to the pleas of the governed, the government ignores them in favor of carrying out policies favorable to its own welfare. The People can tolerate this usurpation of their rights for only a limited time, all the while attempting to rid themselves of this injustice by working through the channels established by the government for the expression of grievances. When working through the system fails, the only alternative is Revolution. With the Revolution comes either total defeat or total victory. With defeat, the People's final hope for liberation has been destroyed. But the fruits of victory far our weigh the suffering of defeat. For with victory, the People's will has been carried out. No longer will the People be denied what is rightfully theirs, no longer will the government take priority over the governed. Student Author Mike Borkson. Potpourri. 297

Page 300 text:

The Affinity of the Procedures to Achieve Unity in Siddharta and Demian. The processes to cffccl an inner peace in Ihe main charaters of Siddharta and Demian arc directly parallel. The attainment of Siddharta's mundane nirvana is analogous to Sinclair's discernment of his inner knowledge. Considering some of their stages in achieving their goals. Sinclair and Siddharta arc facsimiles, differing only in their temporal settings. Demion, in this aspect, merely accentuates Siddharta. Siddharta's goal was to find Atman-inner peace. Correspondingly, Sinclair's main aim was to reach an inner knowledge or understanding of himself. Both wanted to conquer the illusion of time and space (moyaj: both strove for reconcilement of two extremes: Siddharta's sensual and spiritual worlds. and Sinclair's light and dark worlds. They desired unity. Siddharta experienced variant modes of life before he appeased his quest for nirvana. Born a Brahmin, he was instructed by his father by means of the ancient Bhagavad-Gita and Vedas. But he forsnked the traditional methods of Brahmin instruction because they had already passed on to him all of their wisdom: But still his intellect was not satisfied. his soul was not at peace ... So he joined the Samanas to quench his thirst for peace. But the ascetics also were stagnant since neither the eldest Student Author Shyam Parynani. Samana nor any of the others had achieved nirvana. '1110 Samanas completely ignored the sensual life: therefore. Siddharta encountered the physical or sensual form of life in the town. Under the mango tree he realized that he had become materialistic and content with small pleasures yet never really satisfied. immediately, he renounced the town, wandered into the forest, reached the river, and stopped there only because of fatigue and hunger. In this river, he unexpectedly perceived the harmony and symmetry of the two worlds-both perpetual, consummate, all-embracing, intrcgal. and indiscerptible. Thus he conquered mayo and empirically awakened to the philosophy that the elements of the extremes were ... the stream of events, the music of life. Congruenlly. Sinclair peered into the worlds of good and evil. As Siddharta left his home, so Sinclair abdicated the entity of his parents who slighted the dark world. Therefore, he entered the evil world by drinking and reveling at the boarding house: but this sensual existence accompanied by continual loneliness was also inconclusive. Corresponding to Siddharta's revelation, Sinclair accidentally found totality in his picture of the hawk ... clambering out of the terrestial shell. Demian. who had instnicted Sinclair by means of unorthodox parables, advised him about Abraxas. Then Sinclair realized through the picture and Demian that he must acknowledge Abraxas, which was the deification of the union of good and evil. In each book the symbols of one who understood the unison and amalgam of nature are analogous. In Siddharta the indicators of nirvana are the bcautific smile and ra- diance. Vasudeva's smile was radiant . . . and now the same smile appeared on Siddharta's face ... his Self had merged into unity.” Buddha also possessed the secret smile . . . reflecting a continous quiet, and unfading light, and invulnerable peace.” Similarity, in Demian the sign of Cain represented the process of becoming aware and . . . striving . . . toward achieving a more complete state of awareness. Demian. Frau Eva. and Sinclair bore this mark of Cain with the brightness which illuminated their foreheads. Comparatively, the two signs with their' radiance revealed the characters who strove for an understanding of their inner selves. Thus Siddharta and Sinclair attained their goal of self-knowledge and pacification. They had to live and endure the so-called distinct extremes of good and evil or spiritual and sensual entities. They discovered that there could be no distinction between the two worlds: man-made differentiation was but an illusion to conquer. The affirmed, the inseperability and perpetuity of life: they both became one who has found salvatU who is in harmony with the stream of events, with the stream of life . . . belonging to the unity of all things. They exhibited their awakenings through a special sign. There was no single, universal sign which signified nirvana, but no unique sign could be an indicator of unity since nirvana cannot be reached through a traditionally taught set-pattern. Each one must seek his own destiny through his own exclusive, atypical manner.

Page 302 text:

I am Sexy Blue I feel a soft. bluish-green. Your eardrums would accept me yellow. Swing me is seeing a blanket of red. I smell a rosey rose color. My taste is an awful green. But my actions are a Sexy Blue! Student Poet: Chuck Wolf. Reflections It is fast and sleek. It comes on strong. You are caught up in it long before you realize it. There is nothing like riding a wave and defying gravity. You are the master of the sea. Picture yourself locked in the green room. Where one false move means the difference between life and death But if you succeed it takes your breath. In and out. up the wall, down the wall, all over the face of the wave you leave strange patterns. You can feel the power rumbling beneath you. your body swings upwards to carry you up and above harm's way. Your board carries you to safety as you turn to paddle out into the ocean to once again defy death. Student Poet: Mark Morrison. Student Artist: Brian llyser. Medium: Macrame. 'lhe World Like a castle without walls this world seems to be like locks without keys so you cannot sec. Student Poet: Danny Kelly. 298