XLII. Famous vs. Infamous - The Possible Intersection B/N Being Positive and Making a (Positive) Difference

“Famous” and “infamous” are essentially one and the same.

To be described as either is to be known, dually noted — to not be unknown nor obscure.

These adjectives differ in their connotation, however.

POSITIVE: When you are “famous”, you are celebrated, illustrious; you are commemorated and conferred  with acclaim.

NEGATIVE: When you’re “infamous”, you are disreputable, notorious, and scandalized.

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*Note that being famous and/or infamous cannot be neutral.

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NEUTRAL: To Make a Difference - Never Reflexive and absolutely no self-gain.

Making a difference neutrally is by practicing philanthropy, giving monetary donations, and getting your hair trimmed, (that is to say, less than an inch of hair is cut, such that the hairdresser does not make a profit since a more drastic and costlier haircut cannot occur seeing as you are getting your hair trimmed.)

POSITIVE: You can make a difference positively by either: 1. Preventing OR 2. Advancing.

Preventing an inhumane act from occurring and advancing a discipline of study through work ethic, commitment, discovery and advancing the day or life of someone else by comforting someone, offering moral support, opening the door for someone holding the average American amount of grocery (a lot), are all positive ways in which a difference is made.

NEGATIVE:

When you are attempting to make a difference but instead are serving no one but yourself, acting on a micro-scale, and are successful only in attracting attention, stirring emotion, and causing temporary controversy; temporary because your claimed cause for which you are acting is completely out of context.

(I didn’t realize that my university, situated in the Northeast of the United States of America suddenly shifted to the fulcrum between what historically is regarded as East and West.)

Don’t you want to make a difference?

A penny cannot make a difference and traveling to the most underprivileged of places and afterwards making a Facebook album of you surrounded by little kids in raggedy attire and matted hair cannot make a difference. Instead, you’re paving a path for a self-fulfilling prophecy: Time to update the Resume!

Sometimes Every second of everyday I wonder how I can make a difference and contribute to society.

The long-term and most profoundly fulfilling answer for me, is to practice medicine.

Visits to the hospital growing up were plenty but nowhere else did I have the peace of mind to know that I would be good as new just as soon as the person, hanger to the white coat and adorned with the stethoscope, would exam me.

Though this is not how everyone who falls ill feels, it is certainly what everyone who falls ill knows.

Regardless, how else can a positive difference be made if one did not want to become a physician, did not become a physician despite possibly wanting to be one (at first), and those like myself, who will not state the Hippocratic Oath for some time?

There are indeed plenty of other ways to make a positive difference.

The valid question is: Is making a positive difference preceded by the pre-requisite to be positive?

Even as far as medicine is concerned, being positive is considered a healthy mental state.

Constantly feeling unhappy is certainly not conducive to anything but making time seem prolonged so that the days seem to drag, causing headaches and irritability.

Laughter relieves stress, causes our musculature, especially our facial muscles to become elastic, relaxed, and consequently stretch, and causes us to breathe heavier thereby increasing our pulse that in turns circulates oxygen more efficiently than before.

I ask this question because I feel that in the past four years of college I have not made a positive difference and seeing as I am not going straight to medical school nor do I have the finances to travel and congregate the necessary resources that are required in making a positive difference, I feel I have arrived at a stalemate.

I have only acted within these four years in order to advance my intellect as well as establish a place in the realm of academia.

As I continued to dwell upon my inability to make a positive difference since being at Penn I realized another consistent theme since my dwelling became a box-like dormitory room:

I have been/am not very positive.

Is there a connection? Does society not respond to a lack of positivity?

It is true that when a stranger smiles at you while walking on the sidewalk, you smile back at them, despite two seconds earlier supporting a palpable grimace.

I think that, and this(below), are the answer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5ya8J-jyK4

Holler at your homefry-