T H E

C O M M O N

D E N O M I N A T O R

Dedicated to one of the most beautiful humans I know,

Jacquelyn Saunee.

HUMAN MAGAZINE:existing to encourage

all people to live their lives more intentionally,
in pursuit of their full human potential.

Just as nothing need to be added to gold to make

it appear beautiful, and if any earthy stains touch
it, they must be removed, so the soul needs nothing
added to it in order to be beautiful, by anxious
care and solicitude for the body must be removed
from it, and the disturbance of desire and fear just
be dispelled from it; then immediately the natural
beauty of the soul will shine out.
- Ficino

CONTRIBUTORS
LAURA HADGRAFT
Writer

AMANDA EL BASSIOUNRY, Ph.D

Writer
MARY MARGE LOCKER
Writer
BLAKELY BURNS
Artist
GABRIELLE SMITH
Artist

TABLE OF CONTENTS

9 Sugar, Sugar
11 All the Beauty
17 Sleep Happy
19 Social Safety Net
22 Loves Disguise

HUMAN
We are human. Puny, mortal, vulnerable, beautiful little
humans. We were created with hearts and minds for one
another. We are incomplete on our own. We spend our
days trying to grow in knowledge of the world, each other
and ourselves, and so often, we try and do this alone. So
often we make ourselves miserable reaching and reaching
to make our knowledge and our identities advance, never
being quite satisfied, because we just cant see it all. We
just cant have it all. We just cant know it all. But the thing
is, we do not possess the ability. We were not created for
self- sufficiency. We, on our own accord, cannot possibly
reach our potential as humans. We cannot possibly see the
world for what she truly is with only one set of eyes. That is why
we have each other... To challenge. To exchange perspectives.
To show compassion. To share. To love. All the beauty in
the world just appears to be white light without each other.
We were never meant to do this alone.
With all the Love I Know,
Gaillard Teague
Editor-in-Chief

Sugar, Sugar
Blame the cavemen for your sweet tooth. Those guys
started it all. In prehistoric times, food was all around a hot
commodity. They hunted, they gathered, but their next meal
was not always assured. Therefore, they relied pretty heavily
on sugar - the high calorie, high energy, little nutrient.
Anytime the prehistoric man could get his hands on a high
carb. food, they did. It just meant sustaining them for a little
bit longer.
Now, as evolution would have it (if you believe in that type
of thing), we modern-day-humans have a natural inclination
toward sugary things. Our bodies need it; and when we eat it,
our bodies love it.
Neuroscientist Nicole Avena explained in a TED-Ed video
the process of what happens to our brain when we eat sugar:
Anytime we consume food, the reward center in our brain is
activated, saying: Yes, this is good, you should probably do
that again.
And so we do.
Generally, the reward centers Yes! response diminishes
when we frequently eat a certain type of food. This is our
bodys way of encouraging us to eat a balanced diet.
However, sugary foods often have a different reaction in our
reward center. Instead of the Yes! response diminishing
with frequent or excessive consumption, it stays the same.
What this leads to is a similar response to what happens in
excessive drug and alcohol use: loss of control, cravings and
increased tolerance. These symptoms sound familiar?
Code name: addiction.
In essence, if we have the willpower to only indulge in
high sugary foods every once in awhile, they are basically

harmless. Unfortunately, for most Americans eating high

levels of sugar is not an every once in awhile kind of thing.
According to the USDA, in 2000, the average American
consumed about 52 teaspoons of added sugar during one
day. The recommended amount: 10 teaspoons
When your body receives more sugar than it needs as an
energy source, what happens? It is stored. As fat. In your body.
Cue some skinny French girl fact sharing that America is the
fattest country in the world, with 35 percent of all citizens
being legally obese.
So if the threat of obesity doesnt scare you off, what if I told
you too much sugar is altering the way you think?
A UCLA study on the effects of high fructose corn syrup
on the hippocampus, the memory storage unit of the brain,
tested rats ability to navigate their way through a maze after
consuming high fructose corn syrup. The researchers found
that the rats who were fed the fructose had a significantly
more difficult time navigating their way through the maze,
even though they had already learned the route six weeks
prior.
Comparing these rats with rats that were not exposed to the
fructose, the fructose fed rats showed a decline in synaptic
activity, or the process that allows one neuron to give a
chemical signal to another neuron. This negatively affected
the rats ability to think clearly and recall the maze route.
Essentially, what happened was that the rats increased
exposure to sugar caused the rats to develop a resistance to
insulin - the hormone that strengthens the synaptic activity.

According to New York Times Best Selling Author, Dr.

Joseph Mercola, Consuming large amounts of fructose
may block insulins ability to regulate how your brain cells
store and use sugar for the energy needed to fuel thoughts
and emotions.
Bottom line? Too much sugar decreases reaction time, the
ability to think, recollection of memories, and makes us all
around slower people.
Eating copious amounts of sugar can also have negative
side effects on our mood.
Research shows that there is a definite correlation between
heavy sugar consumption and having a higher risk for
depression and schizophrenia. According to the British
Journal of Psychology, researchers believe that this may
be due to sugars ability to suppress a part of a cascade of
proteins used to promote neuron growth called BDNF
(Brain Derived Neurotropihc Factor). A lax in BDNF
means a lax in antidepressants - an obvious characteristic
of both schizophrenic and depressed individuals,
according to scientopia.org.
More commonly, Psychology Today.com states that
the crash that generally follows high blood sugar can
cause immediate mood impairments such as: irritation,
confusion, anxiety and fatigue.
Sugar: its pretty necessary for survival, so no ones
asking you to forget about it. Instead, as in any healthy
relationship, know the implications of getting involved
with sugar.
Eat the doughnut, but maybe just one.

all the beauty

Beauty is not only a terrible thing

it is also a mysterious thing

There, God and the Devil strive for mastery,

and the battle ground

is the heart of men.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

13

14

In todays world of individualism, we are constantly pressured into comparison by

our differences: every person is different, no two the same. This being said, I also
believe that there are certain core attributes that are common to all human personscharacteristics deeply ingrained into us by mere virtue of being a human. It is these
commonalities that bring us together. These qualities allow us to share compassion,
express perspectives, and ultimately, that allow us to value our differences.
One of these unifying qualities is the desire for the beautiful.
This desire for beauty can be equated to the desire for an everlasting goodness. As
Plato suggests in his text Synposium, whether we recognize it or not, we all have an
innate desire for immortality.
Beauty is the closest thing we can achieve to that immortality here on earth. If we
desire beauty, we desire the procreation of beauty. And if we desire to create beauty,
we are desiring a greatness beyond ourselves - a goodness that transcends our mortal
human limitations.
In The Divine Comedy, Dantes lover, Beatrice, is the one that guides him to
Paradise the highest point a mortal can reach from the heavens.
It was Beatrices beauty that allowed Dante to have this experience- that drew him
outside of himself and granted him an encounter with the divine.
This is the essence of beauty.

W r i t t en B y L A U R A H A D G R A F T

eauty, for most people, is less of a concept and more

of a goal. A goal they have been taught to strive to
from a young age. But what exactly is beauty, and who
decides when a person has reached their goal of becoming
truly beautiful?

have control over what we find beautiful, and that we have to

take time to find the beauty in what seems to be ordinary.
For me, the place that I am first and foremost able to
recognize beauty is in authentic expression of emotion from
other people. I would argue that there is just as much beauty
in splotchy, tearstained cheeks as there is in uncontrollable
laughter, because both are genuine expressions of emotion.
There is nothing more beautiful than watching others
interact with the people and the world around them. Positive
human interaction motivates me to live my life in search
of such loving interactions myself. In my mind, that is the
epitome of beauty. Something that slyly but certainly inspires
us to be better version of ourselves.

We could give it some general definition, saying that to

be beautiful means to be aesthetically pleasing, or to be
beautiful means to be joyful, or to be beautiful means to be
perfect. In the grand scheme of things however, beauty is
much more abstract than that.
The word beauty itself evokes an emotional reaction and
a sense of something bigger than ourselves. It tells of a
concept that we, as humans, know we will never be able
to understand yet we long to do so anyway. The feelings
invoked by something beautiful such as a spectacular sunset
are indescribable, yet they inspire us to seek out other things
in our daily lives that can make us feel similarly.

Beauty can mean something different to each person, or it

can even mean a multitude of things to one person.
Beauty can be acceptance, compassion, nostalgia, personality,
peace and so much more. Beauty is all of these things, but
most importantly, beauty is a feeling. It is the feeling of a
light heart and heavy eyelids and a gentle smile. It is an
authentic expression of the human experience. It tells of
something that exists within us, yet is always just out of reach
inspiring us to climb higher. Beauty inspires beauty and, to
put it bluntly, beauty is nothing more and nothing less than
beautiful.

I, personally, have struggled and am still struggling to pin

down exactly what it means to be beautiful and honestly, I
think thats okay. If beauty was easily definable, there would
be no diversity. We regularly think that beautiful things are
beautiful because of the fact that they differ from what we
are used to. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder and
because of that, it is truly subjective. This also means that we

16

sle
ep
hap
py

Sleep: the not-so-secret-secret to a long and healthy life. We know its true, weve heard the rumors: sleep is in fact
vital for our survival. The evidence is there, and we know it, yet so many people, especially those in their teens and
young-adulthood, do not treat it as a medicine with guidelines. When our medicine bottle says:Take once a day with
a meal, we generally listen to it Right? So why is it not the same for sleep? Its a medicine like any other, and quite
possibly, the most important one out there.
According to the American Psychological Association,
Both psychologists and psychiatrists have been arguing for years that one of the most significant and overlooked
public health problems in the U.S. is that many American adults are chronically sleep deprived.

Some of the symptoms associated with sleep deprivation are easily detected with mere observation: irritation, memory
loss, weight gain, etc. These symptoms, though seemingly minor, can have drastic effects on our daily lives, affecting
our relationships, our productivity and our health. Yet, according to the Gallup polls, 40 percent of Americans are
receiving less than the recommended hours of sleep.
The observable effects are drastic enough, but what about the effects that are not as observable - the ones more deeply
rooted? The ones that can cause real damage to our psyche?

W r i t t en B y A M A N D A E L B A S S I O U N Y , Ph.D

In psychological research, sleep disturbances and depression

have been frequently studied and have been found to have a
relationship.

Studies have shown that insomnia is a risk factor for

developing depression and experiencing a recurrent
episode of a major depressive disorder (Ford & Kamerow,
1989). In comparison to those with regular sleep patterns,
those with disturbed patterns had the highest relative odds
of experiencing a major depressive episode in the next year
(Eaton, Badawi, & Melton, 1995). Consequently, it has
been recommended that treating those who suffer from
insomnia may help to prevent the onset of a subsequent
bout of depression (Franzen & Buysse, 2008).

Approximately 90 percent of people with depression also

experience disturbances in their sleeping patterns (Tsuno,
Besset, & Ritchie, 2005). These types of sleeping disturbances
include insomnia (Hamilton, 1989; Perlis, Giles, Buysse,
Thase, Tu, & Kupfer, 1997) and hypersomnia (Franzen &
Buysse, 2008). People who are depressed may experience
sleep disturbances because of one manifestation of
depression or as a side effect of antidepressant medications
(Franzen & Buysse, 2008).

In the elderly, sleep disturbances have been associated with

not only feeling depressed at the current time, but also as a
predictor of future depression (Livingston, Blizard, & Mann,
1993). Furthermore, it was also found that among the elderly
who were not experiencing any depression at the current
time that having issues with their sleeping patterns was the
best predictor of future depression (Livingston, Blizard, &
Mann, 1993).

While sleep disturbances are a common symptom of

depression, it has often been found that these individuals
had experienced issues with sleeping before a diagnosis of
depression or a recurrent bout of it (Ohayon & Roth, 2003).
Therefore, it seems that there is a bidirectional relationship
between sleep disturbances and depression, such that sleep
disturbances have been found in individuals before the onset
of depression and that depression has also been a cause of
sleep disturbances.

18

Artwork B y B L A K E L Y B U R N S

19

social
safety net
W r i t t en B y M. M. L O C K E R

So with all these new means of making our thoughts and

feelings known and our love and devotion felt, why does it
seem like weve lost the ability to communicate in person, or
through letters, or even, more and more, via actual phone
calls instead of texting? Because we have not, in fact, lost
the skills it takes to communicate. We are keeping in touch
like no one ever could before. We have actually only lost the
interest in communicating.

he first time I heard alcohol referred to as a

social lubricant, I probably thought it was
funny. But as time goes by in high school and
college and young adulthood, the desire to have
your experiences pre-determinedand by predetermined, I mean pre-relaxedgenerally fades toward a
desire for a more authentic experience
But another kind of social lubricant is the typical first-world
young persons dependence on technology. Our smartphone
becomes our Rolodex. Facebook becomes our address
book. Google alerts become our calendar. And for all the
organization these things might assist with, and all the stress
they might seem to relieve, must there not be something else
were sacrificing?

People expect things to be easier: we should be able to

get a date by scrolling, or swiping. We should be able to
assess someones bests and worsts by clicking through
their tagged photos. We are allowed to assume a red cup
indicates a drinking problem, or that three shared pictures
in a row means those two are dating. Why put forth the
effort, or express even the smallest interest, in making these
connections in a more personal, or more substantial way?

Plenty of people have expert opinions about this. Plenty of

people seem to pity thisour generation for its inability to
communicate. We appear to be losing what many outsiderslooking-in might consider a great skill. Yet we have a better
means of communication than ever before: instead of wishing
and hoping an overstuffed letter to a friend abroad might
actually make it through Customs, we can send an email, or,
for a more gratifying response-time and less rules regarding
grammar, a Facebook message. We can Skype a loved one a
world away. We can tweet a sick friend a video to cheer her up.

Real relationships, with others or the world around us,

require effort, and some inevitable difficulty, and always
a certain level of awkwardness. Authentic experiences of
people, places, and things require that a certain amount of
attention be paid to each moment, each gesture, and each
word exchanged. Because data brings us what we want from
the material world, or the informational world, with just
one click, why shouldnt the things that make life best (our
relationships, for instance) also be available instantaneously?

20

You no longer have to ask someone when his birthday is,

or if she is going to that party on Friday. We have become
content to look at our phones instead of venturing deeper
into a room to shake hands and make bad jokes. We have
the ability, but we lack the desire. In a world of instant
gratification, we know no longer (maybe have the patience
to make the effort-only because it parallels your claim of
instant gratification) know how to make the effort.
We worry about PERCEPTION and IMAGE and
COMPATIBILITY. We obsess over the construction of a
profile, of a personality, of a proper witty one-liner for a bio.
When we obsess over our real lives, off the profile and off
the data plan, it is often about how we will measure up to the
image of ourselves weve created.
Ive recently thought about that cute phrase social
lubricant, which once had made me laugh, and now makes
me reappraise my surroundings. A phone or even just an
internet connection provides that same safety net that
alcohol used to, or still doesthat same shrugging-off of
responsibility, that same device (yet this device is literal) to
urge one toward a realm of social comfort without effort.
Our over-examined, ever-conscious generation knows
how to communicate. It just doesnt remember why we
should bother.

21

LOVES
DISGUISE

23

Because to truly love means not only desiring that those

we love become better than they are but that they become
the best of who they are.

This is exactly why love is a manifestation of that ultimate

expression. Because to truly love means not only desiring
that those we love become better than they are, but that they
become the best of who they are.

The universe is vast and full of forces beyond our control that
dictate the conditions of our existences. In many respects, we
humans are but mere whispers in the reality of what is, yet
it is ourselves and others like us that bring significance and
purpose to living.

When you look at our world, it is easy to conclude that

humanity can be pretty terrible at love. What we often see
are relationships that are not cultivating for the others
ultimate good but instead fixated on something much more
instantaneous, and thus, something much more temporary.

Mountains and oceans and constellations and pizza, would

all mean nothing if we didnt have fellow human to delight
in it with. Yet, these creatures, these humans that have such
inexplicable significance to our lives, are what we often treat
with the most carelessness.

We have robbed love of her true meaning and masked her

behind the guise of something more like niceness.

The ultimate expression of our humanity is love. No other

mortal thing possesses the ability to love in the way we do;
primarily, the kind of love that is manifested through our
freedom to choose.

Being nice does not promote the ultimate good but rather
the immediate good. It is a servant to our emotions; it brings
about happiness, generally making both the supplier and the
receiver feel good. Niceness folds to animosity, confrontation
and aggression. Niceness is gentle, sweet, comforting,
accommodating. Niceness feeds our desire for acceptance,
saturates our egos, rubs our backs and says: everything will
be alright.

Other creatures are not graced with this competence. They

can certainly show affection: our dogs lick our faces, our cats
rub our legs, tigers protect their mates and monkeys care
for their babies, but to these creatures, their expression of
affection is instinctual - not a true application of the capacity
to love.

Being nice does not suppress human flourishing. Niceness

softens negativity, brings encouragement to doubtfulness,
and can often cultivate authentic love. However, being nice
and being loving are not synonymous, nor are they of equal
importance. Niceness should always take the backseat to true
authentic love, unfortunately, what society frequently reflects
is the opposite.

And thats what it comes down to: the fact that true love is
not just affection, nor is it the natural instinct to care for
another, but rather a conscious choice of promoting the
ultimate good.
In Super Humanity in Scientific American, Robert M.
Sapolsky states,You could call it the ultimate expression of
humanitys singular drive to aspire to be better than we are.

24

Niceness - a word that derives form the latin word nescisus,

which means ignorant or incapable- is driving the bus, and
love is somewhere in row 6.

The children, looking at what these two men offer them,

must decide which of them is guilty. As children, the
choice is obvious: they are not going to convict the one that
pleases them the most, but instead the one that causes them
the most discomfort Even if the discomfort leads to their
ultimate good.

If we truly love another we have to surrender our emotions,

looking beyond to the ultimate good. This is part of what
makes love so difficult. We, as humans, are so dependent on
our emotions in so many ways, but we have to let go in order
to be truly free to love.

Platos point in bringing up this argument is that to express

love, which is in alliance with the ultimate good, is not always
what immediately feels the best.

An example may be one Plato pointed to in his book

Gorgias. In one scene of the book, Plato draws an allegory
of a two men in trial in front of a jury of children.

This is very much reflected in the way our society encourages

us to treat each other. We are slaves to the immediate good,
and unfortunately this unhealthy loyalty is ruining our
relationships.

The first of the men was a doctor.

Looking at the role of a doctor, we know that a doctor always
has the patients ultimate health in mind. The doctor looks
to serve the patient in any way that furthers his health, and
many times this comes at the cost of discomfort. Many
times, a doctor must inflict pain in some way: shots, painful
medical procedures, medication with displeasing side effects,
in order to achieve the patients ultimate health.

Love is not a play on emotions; it should not be reduced to a

thing that simply makes us, and the people we are loving, feel
satisfied.
Love exists so we can work together to accomplish the
absolute good of each other and, ultimately, the absolute
good of humanity.

The second man, a baker, merely looks to serve a customers

immediate pleasures and emotions. A baker, generally, prepares
food that most health experts would not find ideal for ultimate
human flourishing. A baker, in the most general sense, cares
nothing for a customers blood sugar, or BMI, or hormones. For
the most part, bakers care about giving customers what they
want, and the niceness-driven bus stops there.

25

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Completing a project such as this one requires that you put a certain amount of trust in people other than yourself, and I very quickly
learned that this is much more easily said than done.
Day by day, the beautiful humans around me began to swoop in and offer me the encouragement I needed to make this a successful
project. It was not until this project was drawing towards the end that I understood a beautiful reality: I absolutely positively could never
have completed this project on my own.
The very thing that I once considered to be my biggest hindrance was, in reality, the most crucial component to my success : humans.
How foolish I was to think I would be better off to do this alone. With that I would like to thank:
My parents, for their love and support. For helping me think straight and feeding me.
Mr. Randy Osmon at Gwins Commercial Printing, for being so generously accommodating and printing this magazine at no cost.
For my beautiful roommates, Madeleine Ackels, Emily Wellmeier and Jacquelyn Saunee: for putting up with my untidiness, for letting me
eat your food, for offering me your prayers, words and love.
For my lovely models Maddie Perseghin and Abby Coakley: for using your beauty and kind hearts for a good cause.
For Dr. Babington: for always giving me advice, knowledge and encouragement.
For Blakely Burns: For drawing a picture for me even though your life is probably more insane than mine.
For Gabrielle Smith: For painting me this most beautiful watercolor.
For my brilliant editors: Elizabeth Briggs, Gabrielle Smith, Emily Wellmeier, Rachel Robertson and Lindsey Frechou.
For my talented writers: Laura Hadgraft, Dr. El Bassiouny and Mary Marge Locker. Yall saved my life.
For anyone and everyone who listened to me rant, gave me advice, helped me with a task, and got me through senior seminar. I cannot
adequately express my gratitude.

Despite its hardships, its hidden mysteries, its

suffering and its inevitable frailty, this mortal life
is a most beautiful thing, a marvel ever new and
moving, an event worthy of being exalted in joy
and glory- St. John Paul II