"Ease the Burden: Filing a Personal Injury Claim"
The other driver was clearly texting, and swerved into your lane. Now your right leg is broken in two places, and the car insurance only covers vehicular damage. What do you do about the hospital bills? How are you going to commute to work while the car is in the shop? Even after a couple days, that residual lower back pain is becoming a larger problem. It is extremely challenging to navigate the emotional and physical transformations that happen after being injured, and the most important thing is to look after your health. Nevertheless, when this time comes, you may want to file a personal injury claim.
1. Gather Evidence
It is important to consider who you are filing the claim against. If the opposing party is a corporation or business, there is a specific order to the steps you must take. However, between individuals, there is no definitive succession to the steps. The first thing to do in either case is to collect proof of the event: who caused what, and what damage has been done. Unfortunately, accessing traffic camera footage is difficult without a subpoena from a lawyer. However, any photographs of the accident, and harm it caused will be useful. Other information on how the accident negatively affected your life, such as documentation of work leave, hospital bills, and testimonials from those who witnessed the event will definitely help to substantiate your personal injury claim. Once this information is collected, it is time to begin the paperwork.
2. Be Timely
It may be difficult to start the filing process immediately following an accident, but it is important to begin as soon as possible. When filing against a government agency or employee, the acceptable window of time to register your claim is thirty days to one year.
3. Hire a Professional
Filing can be done without legal representation, but the chances of receiving compensation are much greater if you hire a qualified lawyer. This process can be daunting, but with the help of a professional, the paperwork will be done correctly, and the proper channels utilized. Things may seem overwhelming or even hopeless, but the reparations acquired through filing a personal injury claim will ease the burden fiscally, and mentally. The way you feel now does not need to be permanent.
"Much Ado About Nothing"
Much ado About Nothing is a well-written play that was a joy to watch on stage. It is interesting to learn about a different part of Italy, and how life can be incredibly similar when it comes to the emotions of people. Being completely honest, the comedy was difficult to watch at times. I found the characters Claudio and Hero exhibit a lot of qualities that my own wife Desdemona and I shared when we were alive. Although the merry war between Beatrice and Benedict was very funny, and kept me laughing despite my periodic discomfort. Their relationship also reminded me of Desdemona and my marriage in contrast, because their discourse was almost that of equals. I did not listen to Desdemona during the short time before her death, and I killed her because of my ignorance.
Other characters that were interesting to watch were Dogberry and his police watchmen. Lines like in act four scene two of Much Ado About Nothing, Dogberry says,”Oh, if only the sexton had recorded that I’m an ass!”, I almost burst out laughing! Shakespeare did a good job satirizing some of the flaws in local government, and Dogberry provides a wonderful vehicle with which to uncover the plot against poor fair Hero. The play needed a ray of hope after Claudio is deceived by Don John and Borachio, and publicly accuses Hero of not being pure sexually. Hero is distraught, Beatrice outraged, and Leonato basically says he would rather kill his daughter them let her live with the shame,”Did I thinkst thou would not quickly die, thought I thy Spirits were stronger than thy shames, myself would, on the rearward of reproaches, strike at thy life.”
The production began to worry me, and I even checked the front of the play bulletin given to me at the theatre entrance to make sure Much Ado was indeed a comedy. My nerves were very tight when Don John put his plan into motion, and I was in need of alleviation in the plot. Don Jon reminds me of Iago in a way, his treachery and revenge for loved ones especially. Mostly, however I found myself very thankful that Don John was not considered an honest man before he hatched his plan. His evil deeds would have surely caused more of a problem if those around him thought him as honest as I thought Iago to be. Those helping Don John: Borachio and Margaret, resembled some of the fools who unwittingly helped Iago. Roderigo helps Iago because he is infatuated with Desdemona, and for his knowledge of the plan he reminds me of Borachio. The part of Margaret called Amelia back to my mind, how important their parts were in the vengeance of evil men, and how little they knew of it as they acted.
I now realize that women must have a more respected standing in our society! If the male characters in Much Ado About Nothingbelieved the women, much of the hullabaloo of the play would not exist, and although that would not be as entertaining, it would definitely be less stressful for those involved. If the men I surrounded myself with when I was alive listened to fair Desdemona when confronted on all sides by treachery, she would perhaps still breathe. It is a giant blessing that Don John is not thought of as an honest man, he is a villain and a coward and… frankly he is just not as cunning as Iago was. Iago would have murdered Borachio and Margaret before allowing them to disclose his mind, just as he did Roderigo. The last thing I cannot help but think about after viewing Much Ado About Nothing is how I wished during my lifetime, that I realized how much being an outsider in Venice affected my life there. Although my position in the eyes of certain politicians was powerful, many of those around me did not respect me because I was different, and the one person who did respect me most, Desdemona, was also an outsider due to her gender. To a large extent, the women in my life probably understood being disrespected better than I gave them credit for. I Othello, am very sad for that. The play ended happily, Hero with Claudio and Beatrice with Benedict, the way it should be. Maybe in another lifetime, far away from here I believed Desdemona in her purity, and we a living happily as well.
"Omeros, a Self-Aware Text Requires an Active Reader"
In my Studies in Verse course, opinions differed on how the other students interpreted the intertexts, and references to other art in Omeros by Derek Walcott. If I am remembering correctly, some of my peers agreed that musical, or pop culture references could be more impactful and relatable than allusions to other books. Although my major is Creative Writing, and minor, World Literature, I do not read a lot of poetry on the regular. After analyzing Walcott so much this semester, I realized that most likely, Omeros would have never come into my life if it was not for Studies in Verse. In other words, I would not have read Omeros for pleasure. I do not know how it translates for someone else, but Omeros alerts me to the fact that to get any full meaning, I needed to study it. The reader of Omeros must be willing to search out definitions of words and explanations of things she does not know. If Walcott’s form and content did not provide context for references, they would not stand out and most readers would probably skip right over them. By holding its reader to a high standard of participation, Omeros is self-aware. Derek Walcott’s epic poem knows it needs an active reader, so there are plenty of in-text references used as hints to go grab a dictionary or get online. Omeros is almost a living and breathing creature, conscious of personal goals, and the perpetuation of favorable conditions in which to achieve them.
Music is a highly subjective universal force, and Walcott takes advantage of this. Knowing that a reader would relate more with a well-known pop culture/music icon, Walcott references “Buffalo Soldier”(161) by Bob Marley not only by name, but with “the smoky buffalo, a black rider” (161), four stanzas into chapter thirty-one. I decided to read it out loud to my partner, to see if they could glean anything about the text as a whole from only hearing one section. They commented on race and ethnicity being a theme in Omeros, and even though they have not read the text, that is obviously correct:
,but the systems’ beat
Thudded in Achille’s head that replayed the echo,
As he washed the canoe, of Marley reggae–
“Buffalo soldier,”
Thud. “Heart of America.”
Thud-thud. Mop and pail. He could not rub it away.
Between the soft thud of surf the bass beat wider,
(W. 161)
The indications of race in the “Heart of America. Thud-thud. Mop and pail.”(161) work with the theme of colonialism in Omeros. The Heart of America could be a call to the Heart of Africa, where much of the St. Lucian culture and population originated. The audience even gets to experience some of the rhythm and “thud”(161) of “Buffalo Soldier” (161), and the widening “bass beat”(161). By interpreting a sense for us, the readers gains hearing. Adding more sensory language is a sure way to relate more with a reader, the biggest reason being the emotional connection that deepens when something is seen, felt, and heard. It is interesting that someone who has not read Omeros can tell that much about the text by just one reference. Musical references invoke a deep chord with most of humanity, every culture has its own original music. The power of using a well known musical reference such as “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away”(34) by the Beatles much earlier, in chapter six, allows the audience to empathize with the character, just like the Marley reference. In chapter six we are reading of Helen, and her unexpected pregnancy. It is important the audience know how hard it is for Helen to identify her troubles, and then try to decide how to work bettering her circumstances- and a lyrical reference is perfect for this. All of this aside, when I played “Buffalo Soldier” on Youtube, because I had not heard of it, the music and lyrics combined made the passage in Omeros stick in my memory, maybe not forever but enough to use it in a paper.
Where the musical references bring out the empathetic side of the reader, literary and historical ones can be less impactful, if the reader even notices them. In chapter thirty-nine of Omeros the allusion to Joyce or “Mr. Joyce”(201) is very literary, and therefore possibly higher brow. The average person reading this text without the ability to research would not understand this reference. It is pretty clear that an allusion is made, because “Mr. Joyce” is not a phrase people use in jest, or an archetypical name with a context attached to it like “Bloody Mary”, or “Daniel Boone”. Joyce has not been seen as character yet in this way, and he is not an iconic pop culture figure- at least in the present day. In chapter thirty-five of Omeros, Walcott references “the Trail of Tears” (177) by allowing a travel guide to tell the readers that it started “Somewhere over there” (177). The ignorance in that statement shows how vague and removed white american history is from native american history, not to mention the capitalism implied by the word “guide”, and the person who is undoubtedly being paid for said “guidance”:
“Somewhere over there,” said my guide, “the Trail of Tears
started.” I leant towards the crystalline creek. Pines
shaded it. Then I made myself hear the water’s
language around the rocks in its clear-running lines
and its small shelving falls with their eddies, “Choctaws,”
“Creeks,” “Choctaws,” and I thought of the Greek revival
carried past the names of towns with columned porches,
and how Greek it was, the necessary evil
of slavery, in the catalogue of Georgia’s
marble past,”
(177)
The themes in Omeros of colonialism and racism are perpetuated in this section heavily. The ignorance of the guide, and their blasé attitude toward a Native American tragedy is a quality of whiteness Walcott chooses to focus on purposefully. White people rewrite history to fit their wants and needs. Walcott tries to make the point that race, colonialism, and imperialism have contorted everything, most importantly humanity itself, and our artwork. This concept in literature is something one only analyzes to this degree in a classroom setting, and I would argue a college or university classroom. In this section, Walcott begins with “the Trail of Tears” (177), the tone of the language changes and the reader leans “towards the crystalline creek. Pines/shaded it.” (177). We are now speaking the “water’s language” (177), this is how Walcott empathizes and pays homage to the path down which the United States government forced multiple Native American Tribes, including the “Choctaws” (177), and the “Creeks” (177) from eighteen twenties to the eighteen forties. Even if the reader is not familiar with the event, it is clear the language has changed, and that Walcott is trying to prove a point. Walcott equates the United States South and the past slavery there to the Greeks, calling the “towns with columned porches,… in the catalogue of Georgia’s marble past,”(177), a “revival”(177). The importance of this section could very well be lost on the reader. Would someone who is not willing to study the text actually know that when Derek Walcott writes “the bundles of women moving in ragged bands/like those on the wharf,”(177) he has momentarily travelled back to St. Lucia? Thus, iterating the connective fibers between colonialism and perpetually every culture? I do not think so, the huge parallel could be lost.
Much of this discussion has been purely my own opinion, but it is necessary to find some real data on how readers view Omeros. There is a website called Goodreads, for literary-minded people to catalogue their reading experiences in a social media environment. Users of the site can view, comment and rate titles in each others “libraries”. Derek Walcott is listed on the site, and there are one thousand five hundred thirty-two reviews of Omeros. Although this is only a small number of reviews considering how many individuals have read Walcott’s epic, it is still a good indication of what kind of readers decide on their own to pick up Omeros. The users of Goodreads are written-word enthusiasts, they long to be enticed and even challenged by the authors they approach. Out of those of fifteen hundred reviews, eighty-nine percent enjoyed the book, rating Omeros at three stars out of five, or higher. Thirty-eight percent of readers rated the epic poem at five stars, the highest rating a user can give an author. This supports my theory that Walcott’s Omeros draws a more literary crowd. I understand that not everyone on Goodreads may consider herself a literary type, or a writer, or possibly even someone who likes books. But whatever type of person they are, users of Goodreads decided to become members, and rate titles. If we look at the text-only reviews available for Omeros on Goodreads, the poem receives the same laud. One elderly user commented in summer 2016 that “Most novels tell their story in more or less linear fashion, but poetry works not by explanation but by evocation—and at that, Walcott is a master.” which is very similar to a young reader saying of Omeros, “a story that was sometimes hard to follow. But that’s poetry for you!” also this year. These two reviews both coincide with the belief that Derek Walcott purposely confuses his narrative, he builds up reliability with the audience just to break it down and start all over. I would hazard a guess that the shifting narrative of Omeros is a large part of why it repels lazy readers who need immediate satisfaction and clarity from a text. Walcott deters readers who do not want to be challenged by what, and how he writes.
Omeros is a self-aware text. Self-aware in how the content projects itself as literary and educated. Derek Walcott takes license with allusions, references, and rhythm to build an experience in his writing. Walcott uses his literary knowledge to entice readers who are willing to have their smart phone handy while reading; ready to define references. Omeros calls attention to other works of art, and events: literature, visual mixed media, music, and historical circumstances. In a time before the average adult in the United States carried a computer on their person, when Omeros was published in nineteen ninety for example, what did readers do when they came across something they did not understand? We could guess from the popularity and staying power of Omeros, that those who picked it up knew very soon after starting, that they needed to have a dictionary handy. In a sense, Omeros encouraged the average reader to take the next step, and research what they were reading. Derek Walcott’s epic poem is not written for reading pleasure, unless that pleasure comes from approaching a large text to learn and study.
Work Cited:
Walcott, Derek. “Omeros”. The Noonday Press. 1990.