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Wednesday, October 7C

Dear Unnamed Woman with Child

online comments
Personal Statement: Papa
By Alicia Adamczyk
"How powerful God bless you."

ssae1/9s13 science of it all: dancing with molly bYpaigepearcy

- USER: 82Grad

C'

"So a black homecoming is ok. But not a whitec
about no. White discrimination exists. You wantt
white people from social programs. then don't be
when we do the same."

Personal Statement: 3 a.m., welcome week.
By Jon Horford
"This is an incredible statement. A commentsr
requires a lot of thought and reflection, but to bes
those feelings into such a lucid and descriptive na
truly something special. Thanks for sharing, Jon.
to make a point to talk to you more in class."
- USER: Elliot Huckleberr

Unless you've been living under
one. How a rock for the past month, you've
to cut out heard Miley Cyrus' hit song "We
offended Can't Stop," and - by the transi-
tive property - if you've heard
USER: Teme said song, then you've also heard
the infamous line: "... dancing with
molly."
ts, I think we mly"
occasionally Cyrus isn't singing about danc-
rday. Al thev ng with the American Girl doll or
ratgitemiewho actress Molly Ringwald of "Sixteen
,specially here Candles" and Brat Pack fame. No,
,you-should she is, of course, singing about the
illegal amphetamine drug known
R: Erica Nagy on the streets as Molly, or in its
purer forms, as MDMA or Ecstasy.
Over the past two months, Molly
was cited for causing multiple
deaths, bringing the party drug
into the mainstream news. Olivia
y such as this Rotondo, a 20-year-old University
able to tailor of New Hampshire student, died
irrative is at the Electric Zoo music festival
I'll have to try in New York after uttering, "I just
took six hits of Molly," accordingto
The Daily Mail, causingthe festival
y Wills Begle to cancel its final day. The major
chemical used to make MDMA
comes from sassafras trees, the
same plant that gives us the harm-
less American classic - root beer.
However, Molly cannot be given
the same "harmless" moniker.
ragng Editor. Molly is a happy drug, a drug
iA~tthew Siovin that causes the user feelings of
euphoria. It does this through
y Editor:caltering brain chemistry and

increasingthe amount of serotonin
present to interact with serotonin
receptors.
Neurotransmitters are released
from neurons and cause cascad-
ing effects throughout the body,
resulting in symptoms like muscle
contraction or hormone releases.
When a neurotransmitter, like
serotonin, is released from a neu-
ron, it exists in the space between
the releasing neuron and the
receiving neuron as it searches
for the receptors that will allow
it to cause a specific effect. After
interacting with the receptors, it is
removed to avoid an overwhelming
and exaggerated response. Trans-
porters work to collect the neu-
rotransmitter and move it back into
the releasing neuron, eliminating it
from the space where it could cause
a cascade.
MDMA, Molly, Ecstasy - what-
ever you want to call it - binds to
the transporters so serotonin inter-
acts with receptors for a relatively
long time, causing an unnatural
response. Because serotonin influ-
ences some emotional pathways -
such as those controlling empathy
and happiness - users experience
a heightened sense of euphoria,
among other effects. But Molly
N0-T tHis
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"OT -TM s
I'AOIL(A
can change the brain chemistry
to a point that can make it impos-
sible to return to a normal level of
happiness through sensitization of
the receptors - when the recep-
tors no longer cause their expected
response due to repeated and long-
term exposure to serotonin - mak-
ing the drug highly addictive.
This can cause more issues,
since unnatural amounts of a brain
chemical isn'tgoing to be harmless.
Serotonion syndrome can result
from having too much serotonin
activity, and taking too much
Molly, as reported in the news late-
ly, can be fatal. Because the neu-
rotransmitter is involved in many
different physiological pathways,
when it causes problems in those
pathways the body can lose control.
Unfortunately the symptoms -
such as kidney failure, high blood
pressure and seizures - can have
a quick onset, making it difficult if
the situation is life threatening to
have adequate medical treatment.
The practice of cutting drugs
with other drugs also makes Molly
risky. MDMA is frequently cut
with another stimulant, methylone,
and sold also as Molly. Mixing
drugs compounds the likelihood
of detrimental effects. Though
Miley makes Molly sound harm-
less, perhaps Miley will be dancing
with a hospital stay instead of those
apathetic looking teddy bears next
time she parties with Molly.

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Dear Unnamed Woman with child,
(I am still painting you!)
When I was younger I found it difficult
to understand that my artwork could not
be seamlessly translated from my mind
onto the piece of paper or canvas that was
before me. I had trouble accepting that
something always got lost in translation.
Poetry and writing were no less risky;
even if I did manage to put my thoughts on
to the page in the right way, the meaning
of my work would inevitably vary from
reader to reader. I cannot forget the
frustration I felt one day in eighth grade
when, after readinga poem out loud to my
English class, a classmate raised his hand
and said, "Yeah ... what was that about?"
Nowadays, I find myself with an even
greater challenge: explaining a piece of art
that I myself have not fully given meaning
to.
It is a simple acrylic painting no bigger
than two and a half feet in length and
two feet in width. It sits high up on our
mantel in the dining room, half-finished
as it has been for two years now. It began
on a long weekend when I was 15.I had
been sorting through a vast collection
of National Geographic magazines in

our bookshelves when I came across an
article called "A Life Revealed." There
she was. A woman named Sharbat Gula
who had been photographed in 1985 in a
Pakistan refugee camp. The cover photo
that captured her haunting green eyes is
iconic. But the issue I picked up was more
recent: it was from 2002, the photographer
had gone back and photographed her 17
years later. The photos I saw of her were
startling, she looked as though she had
seen things well beyond her years. She
was still as sinister and striking as she had
been in her first photo but she had lost her
innocence. Ihad to paint her.
The painting that now sits in my dining
room has elicited many responses from
guests. Many don't understand it. Others
are startled by its religiosity. When they
look to me for an explanation, I can only
throw up my hands and tell them to make
what they will of it. It is the face of Sharbat
Gula, only she has a golden crown and she
is holding a child dressed in white. They
have halos surrounding them.
When I describe it now it sounds
undoubtedly religious, though I had
never intended for it to be such a strong
statement. I had only meant to paint her
face. The addition of the religious element

was an afterthought. It was simply meant translation of our art is not altogether a
to be a sort of what i? I saw her eyes on bad thing. Perhaps we should encourage
that cover, and I felt as though I was seeing ourselves to risk losing some of our
something divine, something that ought to artistic meaning in the act of translation.
be honored. She was so entrancing, yet so Because when we subject our art to
startling. That was all. It was not meant to different interpretations, we walk away
be any more or any less. with a richer understanding of our own
meaning. We are forced to ask ourselves
But after having to explain my intentions what we really mean. In doing so, we gain
to dozens of bewildered guests, I realized perspective in a way that could never be
that I was entirely aware of what I was achieved on our own.
making. I had made the painting with the
intention of questioning. This was a divine Translating meaning into art is a
woman, she had children when they went difficult and frustrating task. We must
back to visit her'- she was angelic but be willing to part with some parts of
not benevolent. She was what I imagined our vision. We must know that not all
Mary to be like - tough, wary, worn and of it-will be properly translated. But,
hypnotizing. Christian or not, she was we must also know that not all of our
divine. meaning can be entirely envisioned in
the beginning. Art is a living, breathing,
We can never be sure that each viewer evolving thing that we must be willing to
will arrive at the same conclusion as we open up to the world. We must be willing
do when we create artwork. It is an act to wait for it to come back to us, knowing
of courage and faith, it is like sending that once it does, the translation of
someone on a path to a destination without it will be all the more beautiful and
a map and hoping they notice the same comprehensive.
things along the way, hoping they feel the
same way upon arriving at that destination Sincerely,
- without any certainty that they will
make it there at all. Phoebe Young
But perhaps this risk of losing meaning in Phoebe Young is an LSA freshman.