What hand decides your fate

He was clearly doing what was right in his own mind... but to the troops, it was like committing a sin and the only way to repent for it was to be punished.  I believe being beat nearly to death for any sort of crime is going too far.  After all, who are we to shed the blood of another man on the earth's ground. There are men out there who commit a myriad  of crimes, crimes in which are not seen as crimes but are worse like shedding another's blood for pure "nationalism", and are not even considered to be in the category of punishment. 
But that was just one punishment he endured within his whole journey through the hells and heavens of life.  This punishment, we could say, was one of many he would encounter after being thrown from his “paradise.”  A small peck on the lips was all that was needed to punish him for his life.  Was throwing him out into a cold world a truly just punishment?  Not to mention, Cunegonde was the one who initiated the kiss.  Fair?
Well, one wrong turn at the beginning, just a slight coincidence, and he is forever shunned from paradise. 
We can refer back to Adam and Eve… does banishing them from the perfect world seem like a just punishment for eating an apple from a “forbidden” tree… but if they were not to have eaten this apple, would we be existing here now? Or do you believe we would have been in a better place?  Do you believe Candid would have been in a better place than happening by some random chance to come in contact with a situation which would lead to punishments…

The world COULD live as one...

Socrates was a philosopher hundreds of years ago.  He philosophized what seemed to hold true for people at his time.  Now it is time to come to derive new philosophical ideas based on the new updated life we live in.  It would have to be someone who lives(d) an everyday life, seen the world at total chaos and at its most wondrous times.  It doesn't have to be someone who is sagacious or venerable. Some may even think song writers are philosophers, throwing in underlying meanings into their songs here and there, like John Lennon.

John Lennon had a very communist view of the world.  His ideas expanded through the sixties as riots and hippies filled the streets in America.  Many people were introduced to John Lennon when he was apart of the Beatles.  When they split up, John went his own direction to pursue his own music. 

Through the song Imagine, we see his philosophical views:  
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhkab_john-lennon-imagine_music 

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

It is a very strong view.  To live a life without heaven or hell, no religion, no government, or even possessions.  To live everyday as it comes, enjoy the beauty of life around us and to live united.  A world full of peace. But can this only just be a dream…

"The unexamined life is not worth living"

Through the developmental stages of life, we are only exposed to our parents and their thoughts and beliefs on life.  When we start attending school, we are introduced to the beliefs of our peers and teachers.  The school teachings are taught in a way to reflect our society and are centered around a certain way to perceive life or the ways we do things.  However, there is a time in life when we start to question the things we were told to believe as universal truths. 

            Take hold of this time in life.  Use it to a higher advantage by examining everything we were told and starting to muster our own opinions.  By developing our own beliefs we start to mold an individual in a society where we all label ourselves the same or segregate ourselves into groups.  We need to break away from a single view and broaden our minds.  

            So if we don’t take hold of this time and examine just what exactly is true to ourselves and what is something just put in our heads, we will lose a part of ourselves: our individuality.  The ideas and teachings we grew up knowing are of those of everyone around us.  We would be living in everyone else’s beliefs on life; Almost as if we did not exist in ourselves but through others eyes.  So to say our “second sight.”  We would just comply with this whatever everyone perceives to be right.

            Why go on living someone else’s life?

Eulogy

Courtney Barrios, daughter, sister, volleyball player, student.  Being all these things are not what makes who Courtney was.  It was how she viewed and lived her life.

Courtney Barrios once said never live life with regrets.  She took the situations she was in and instead of regretting making a choice, she learn from them.  She believed that everything in life happens for a reason and that life should be lived without regrets, otherwise real beauties in life will be missed.

Courtney stayed true to this.  Never once did I hear her complain about how she should have never done something.  It was more about how she could do it better the next time around.  And she always found the better way.And certainly, she would want us to look at her death not as a mourning, but as a situation which will contribute to our growth on this journey through life. 

She always was there for her friends and family.  She always wanted to know what was going on in their lives.  She felt that if they were ever stuck between a rock and a hard place that she would be the one they would come to.  She wanted to help her loved ones in any way possible, even if it was just sitting there quiet just to keep them company or giving girlfriends corny advice about how not to attract the wrong men.

The one thing she knows she would never regret was putting the smiles on the faces of her loved ones.  And so today, as we say our last words to our friend, daughter, lover, sister, lets put on a smile and show her just how happy we were to have had her in our lives.