Utopia
By Cheryl Ray
First I need to say that it bothers me to call this life I envision for us all “Doesn’t Exist”, which is the original Latin meaning of Utopia. I find that to be self-fullfilling and I am grateful that Sir Thomas More named his seminal work Utopia, because I would hope it doesn’t exist. He wrote of slaves with gold chains as though it was a wonderful thing and it would make a perfect world. He described a world where the poor received an equal share of money once a year.
What he wrote about sounds naïve to us now. We abhor the concept of slavery and we ask WHY do we have a poor population if you are looking for a perfect world? HOWEVER, he was a mirror of his time and place, and he was brave enough to write it down. And the key message which was a plea to rethink the values of the time, is a sound one.
Most of my own writing from years past is slightly embarrassing. Even if it is skillful writing, it shows an innocent ignorance I can’t deny. And so, it is with this attitude, I am going to approach this writing assignment. Dear seniors, please try to make your Utopia a meaningful piece of work that expresses who you are and what you want in your community! Maybe this will be one of your FOUR evidences of learning in your portfolio! ;)
Questions?Please ask!