Len Lai
Prof. Laura Sheehan
ESOL 0360
April 11, 2015
Reader-
Response to Walljaper
In
the essay, “Our Schedules, Our Selves” by Jay Walljasper explains how we manage
to become slaves of our schedules, and the way we think about our schedules. Walljasper
says, “We are not leading our lives, but merely following a dizzying timetable
of duties, commitments, demands, and options” (260). This essay was first
published in 2003. The author develops his thesis by explaining the reasons and
giving the solutions.
The
problem that is more common now than it was in 2003 is “Our own human desire
for more choices new experiences” (261). Nowadays, the technology is growing
very fast such as cell phone people want to have more time to explore something
new than the past. For example, Walljasper writes, “An expanding choice of
cultural offerings over recent decades and the liberating sense that each of us
can fully play a number of different social roles (worker, citizen, lover,
parent, artist, etc.) has opened up enriching and exciting opportunities”
(261).
The
solution that Walljasper discusses which is unrealistic is “time can make a big
difference in how you feel about your life, as other articles in this cover
section illustrate” (262). Making our schedules or plans helps us to manage our
time to have organized lives, but time cannot make a big difference in our
lives.
