Oppositions
It is very interesting to be forced to find different oppositions that surround our every day life. Without this forced analysis, these oppositions are overlooked or quickly dealt without a second thought. Here are a couple oppositions and their resolutions I’ve found around me:
1.Climate vs. Enclosure
As the temperature is starting to change outside, so is the temperature inside our house. It’s become significantly colder inside because our house is poorly insulated. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even like to stay upstairs anymore; my favorite place isn’t so much my favorite place as of right now. Yes, we have turned on our heat for the winter; however, we are all college students so in an attempt to save whatever money we do have, the heat is turned on for a minimal amount of time.
Resolution
To resolve the heating and insulation issue we have tried to eliminate the cold from coming into the house. This last weekend we went out to Menard’s and purchased some indoor window film and lined all the windows in our house. So far it’s working wonderfully. This process is a nice and easy way to resolve the problem.
2.Performance vs. Entropy
Living with five other people, there are inevitably schedule conflicts. Usually when people walk in, other people walk out. When someone’s trying to sleep, other people are up and about. This latter example has actually caused a few fights within the house. Or if some of us are working on homework, others want to hang out and may become distracting. Here’s a specific example: my room is in the basement directly under the living room and just a few feet away from the washer and dryer. I’m constantly being woken up because people walk into the house and slam the door or someone’s having a party upstairs and I can’t sleep because it’s way too loud. The best is when I’m about to go to bed and someone starts doing their laundry at 3 o’clock in the morning. Mind you, the washer and dryer aren’t so quiet when it’s right outside the door. Or try doing your homework when four other people in the house aren’t; it’s hard to stay focused. Performance is definitely hindered when there is so much disorder. So what’s the resolution…
Resolution
Well, for us, it’s impossible to coordinate all of our schedules together. An important thing to remember is that I’m not the only person living in this house; there are four other people I have to consider. None of us can or should go around forcing other people to change their entire schedule to accommodate one person. So we envelop the opposition and allow the opposition to sculpt itself. The majority of us have accepted and just deal with the problem. I’ve somehow developed a way to ignore and block out most of the noise. If I’m doing homework and people are being distracting, I’ve just learned to force myself to go somewhere else. We all deal with the same problems. Most of us have come to terms with the schedule differences. It’s simply the way our us functions.