ASTIKA GUPTA
1. What if we looked at all objects, people, thoughts, and things in the world this way?
If we were to look at all that is around us right from objects to people including abstract things like thoughts and feelings, we would have in depth understanding about each and every thing that is associated with us. In my opinion having a critical thinking mindset definitely helps us in weighing both sides of that thing equally. Critical thinking would enable us to look at a thing without having any pre conceived notions or biases which would in turn allow us to see some hidden aspects related to that thing which we would have missed otherwise. But practically speaking, it is too taxing to dissect each and every thing as it would take a lot of mental effort and would be draining for our brains. Hence, I believe that thinking critically to some extent would be beneficial versus not thinking critically at all and it would be less taxing versus thinking absolutely critically all the time. It is for us to
2. When would we need to look at the world this way?
Since it is not always possible for us to think critically and look at the world this way, we should decide for ourselves as individuals how far we could and should go while thinking critically to reap its benefits and where we should draw a line so that it doesn’t affect our mental well being. Also, we should prioritize things that our worthy of being looked at this way; things that are too important for us or those which actually mean something to us or people who actually matter to us. All other things that don’t fall in our personal scope or priority should not be looked at critically.
3. Has the meaning of this object changed?
Before performing a formal dissection to this key ring, it was just a key ring that had a key that opened my door and sometimes when I used to look at it closely, especially at the text “I love Mom”, it would remind me of my mom. After the dissection, I have looked at every aspect of it so closely, that it has changed its meaning for me in that the text “I love mom” has been actually associated with this key chain for me, now every time I look at it, because I have worked on it so closely it always reminds me of my mom and so I have attached more emotionally with this key chain. Also, the importance of the key that opens my house door has increased for me because I was forced to think about the consequences as to what would happen if I loose this key. Finally, the small Walgreens rewards card reminds me always about my pending grocery shopping and so these days my shopping is happening well in time. Overall this key chain is not only more emotionally valuable to me but also I now know that losing it would be very bad to me on many different levels.