Defining the Humanities

Defining the Humanities

Using words to help us make sense of our world and lives are from the stories and ideas of humanities. The humanities help us to know people who we never met, places we never visited, and ideas that never crossed our minds. When showing people how others lived and showing how people thought of life, the humanities can be helpful in deciding what is important to each person and how to make things better. Learning from other people can point out answers from right from wrong or what is true to our heritage and our history. The humanities help us face challenges together in our families, our communities, and as a nation.

Humanities include information in literature, music, dance, and in the art world. Human condition is what we learn from studying humanities. These studies can come from the study of history, literature, art, music, archeology, or any human endeavor (Aldama, 2008). Humanities have been identified of knowledge to examine or evaluate expressions through man's intricate mind. Humanities bring out a certain mode of teaching and learning that requires reasoning (Bod, Maat and Weststeijn, 2010). My interpretation of humanities is that they are the study of arts, music, and history; anything people could learn about the different cultures and scientific discoveries. The classic languages and literatures of ancient Rome and Greece help us understand the humanities (Edelman, 1995).

While I was deployed to Iraq from January 2005 until January 2006, I had the great pleasure to attend a Toby Keith concert for the troops. This is an artist that shows his patriotism and pride to our country. Toby Keith's has a tremendous amount of devotion to our counties men and woman of the armed forces. It is very clear of his devotion when we listen to songs such as, "American Soldier," and "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue." Soldiers who were there with me agreed that songs like those truly explain our trials and tribulations while serving in the armed forces. I saw the glow of happiness and pride on the faces of fellow service members during that concert to include myself.

Toby Keith to me always has been there for all our troops. He truly exemplifies love and pride toward our country and troops through his lyrics. The song "Made in America," symbolizes the institution of military, religion, family, and the economy. The most prominent symbol Toby Keith shows during all his concerts is the American flag. When he is singing these patriotic songs, the audiences will raise their American flags above his or her head with great pride. Listening to his songs while I was in Iraq gave me a better patriotic feeling even though I knew in my heart. It means much more knowing people like Toby Keith shares it with his audiences. Many times tears fell from my eyes, but they were tears of happiness.

I felt connected to many of Toby Keith's patriotic songs. Listening to his songs helped me think about the way things are today but also how things were in the past and what is to come for our future. After returning home from Iraq, I listened to the lyrics more carefully to get a better appreciation