Most of the profiles in Holding On were pretty short. Of those short profiles, in my opinion Mike Gashwarza's profile was one of the best ones. He was a religious leader for the Hopi Indian Reservation which is the oldest civilization on the continent. Also, he is the oldest person in the civilization. We should remember his traditional, fundamentalist views. Despite the temptations to allow electricity into the reservation, Gashwarza continues to hold on to the Reservation's traditional ways. He believes in the rain gods and that if they get electricity, the rain gods will give his people no more water. This just shows how much Gashwarza values his heritage and his beliefs. That's something we should all do. Not giving up your beliefs and holding onto your values is the most important theme from this profile. The writing is at its best in the third paragraph when Gashwarza is talking about the rain gods and why he resists running water and electricity. This absolutely relates to our world today because we just use electricity and running water without even thinking about it. If we all of a sudden lost these things, we probably wouldn't be able to survive. We should think about what we take for granted more often and be thankful for it because it could be taken away at any second.
Holding On has taught me several lessons. First, I learned to appreciate who you are and being an American. There are so many people in this country and we all have our own story. And this book has taught me to appreciate who you are and who other people are. The second value I hold from this book is to never give up your faith. So many profiles were about people who kept their faith in order to get by, no matter if it was faith in God or just themselves. Faith can get you through anything, and for me God and my faith in Christianity has gotten me through tough times in my life. Whether it be sadness, losing a family member, being scared, through all of it, my faith in Christ has gotten me through. This book is by far the best non-fiction book I have ever read. It has so many themes and so many lessons that are valuable and should be used in everyday life. This book has really opened up my eyes and made me appreciate being an American. We are all Americans and we should all hold on to our heritage and who we are, no matter who we turn out to be.
I totally agree with the lessons you got out of the book. There are so many lessons in this book its hard to pick just two. I also believe this is the best non-fiction book I've read as well.
ReplyDeleteI like that you bring up the fact that we should appreciate the we are and get to be Americans, a lot of people don't have the opportunity for freedom like we do, and I think unfortunately that a lot of Americans do take their freedoms for granted.
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