A VEry WEird Story With A DEep meaning

I chose to interpret A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children. This story is about a family, Pelayo and Elisenda, and their encounter with a creature that they think is an angel. The family does not know what to do with the angel so they put him in a chicken coop. They call in a Father, named Gonzaga, to help determine what to do with the angel. When the Father speaks to him in Latin and the angel does not reply, the father takes it as a sign that he is an imposter possibly sent by the devil. He decides to write a letter to the Papacy in Rome to ask what he should to with the angel. The family then decides to charge a fee to see the angel and they accumulate an enormous fortune that they use to build themselves a mansion. There is a part in the story when a circus comes through and there is a girl who has been turned into a spider because she disobeyed her parents. This is the part of the story where readers go WHAT? I indeed went WHAT when I read it. While in the cage, people plucked out his feathers thinking that they would heal them but instead weird things happened. The story ends with the angel growing back his wings and flying away which causes the mother, Elisenda, to let out a sigh of relief.

I believe this text needs to be interpreted because I do not believe people really understand what this story is about. This story, to me, has a deeper meaning than what most readers think. I think people read this story and go “wow that was weird.” But I think otherwise. Although it is weird, it had a deeper meaning to me. You have to really think and focus to really get its meaning. The true meaning can be missed if the reader of this story isn’t reading it deeply. This story is about recognizing an opportunity when it presents itself, or a blessing in disguise.

I believe this story is about how we take things for granted. The angel, I believe, was there for a reason and the family failed to learn and understand why he was there. Early in the story the neighbor says, “He must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down.” Maybe he was there to heel their child and I think he did because he got better after the angel arrived. I also believe this story is about appreciating things more than we do. This family had an angel come visit them and they treated him like he was an animal. They put him in a chicken coop for heavens sake. I would like to believe I would have taken him inside and taken care of it but instead they charged money to see him. He was an attraction to them not a celestial being to be honored and revered. The end of the story is probably the most important to me and to the story as a whole. The angel is flying away and Elisenda lets out a sigh of relief. She thought the angel was nothing but a nuisance, although he had provided a way to build a bigger house and healed their child of his cold. Maybe this was one of the reasons he was there – so that they could build a nicer house to keep out the craps. I think this is part of the story but not the full reason. People say that blessings come in disguise. Sometimes we may not realize that what we think is a nuisance is actually a blessing in disguise. Maybe this is the true meaning of the story.

I also found similarities between this story and the story of Job. They both endured pain and suffering. They both endured to the end. The author writes, “The angel was the only one who took no part in his own act.” It’s like Job. He had no control over what was happening to him but he endured. Just like the angel. They were both actors in a cruel situation but refused to be provoked.

I was doing some research on this story and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and found out why he incorporated the spider girl. He was attempting to show our human nature and our desire for attention. Marquez writes, “A spectacle like that, full of so much human truth and with such a fearful lesson, was bound to defeat without even trying that of a haughty angel who scarcely deigned to look at mortals.

I think my interpretation allows for further understanding of this story. I think most people would read and go wow what the heck did I just read, but if read slowly it has a deep meaning to it. Like I wrote earlier, the story is about appreciating things and not taking them for granted. It’s about realizing that things that seem like an annoyance could be a blessing. You have to understand why the angel was there to understand the deep meaning. By staying in the cage he allowed the family to raise enough money to build a bigger house. He also healed their child. My interpretation helps to appreciate the story for more than just a story. It’s a kind of philosophy. It’s something we should all take to heart. God puts people or circumstances in our life for a reason and we might not know why at the time. I think we need to live with more focus.

We, like Job and the angel, have to learn perseverance and endurance through tough situations. I think we can all learn a lesson from A Man with Very Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children. 

I really enjoyed reading this story. It grabbed my attention from the start and kept it throughout the story, which is a very hard thing to do. The people were shocked by the appearance of the angel at first. He did not look like what they imagined a normal angel would. He was dressed in rags and his wings had bugs in them. He had hardly any hair or teeth. He was unable to communicate with the people and when he didn’t speak Latin, Father Gonzaga thought he was an imposter. He smelt like a human. Father Gonzage was convinced he was a creature from Hell. Anyways, I’m not sure where I’m going with this but all this stuck out to me while reading this story. Maybe it’s that we judge people by how they look and how they smell and just assume we know what kind of person they are by these things. Maybe the Angel represents some of us. Down on our luck, everything is going wrong, we can’t seem to break out of our situation that we find our self in. We feel like we’re in a cage and everyone is looking at us and poking at us with sticks because we don’t fit into their idea of normal. We try to communicate with people but we just can’t seem to. Anyways, that’s just some of my interpretation.

I don’t understand why the angel was there in the first place.  Why did they not like angels at this point in time? What celestial conspiracy had they survived? I thought it was pretty twisted to make money off of the angel. They charged people to look at it and treated it like an animal, no respect or honor at all.

I did really like this story it is probably my favorite.  

The Questions of Omelas

This story is unlike anything I have ever read before. I didn’t like the story in the beginning because it failed to get me interested in it. But as the story went on and it got to the part were it talks about the child locked in the closet with no window’s and has to sit in its own waste. This is the part of the story that I honed in on.

I was not sure what the author was getting at when she starting describing why the child was locked up in the closet but as I read I began see why. A world without evil would be a fairytale land. Without evil how could we really enjoy happiness?

Le Guin writes, Their bitter tears fry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality and to accept it.  Yet it is their tears and anger, the trying of their generosity and the acceptance of their helplessness, which are perhaps the true source of splendor of their lives . . . They know that they, like the child, are not free . . . It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture. . .

I think she saying that without a little bit of evil the whole town of Omelas could not exist. It’s almost like their entire existence is tied to the fate of the child. The child is what makes possible the splendor of Omelas, but at what cost?

Pain, sorrow, guilt, and evil are necessary to have joy, happiness, and beauty. Without ugly how would we know beauty? Without pain and sorrow how would we know joy or happiness?

I think these are the questions that the author is asking through this story. I leave you to answer them.

The Figurative Language of Phlippians

The Book of Philippians is probably my favorite book of the Bible because it is so encouraging. Paul is encouraging the Church in Philippi and uses some figurative language to do so. The figurative language is hard to spot, at least for me. I read it slowly and still came up pretty empty in finding some. He does talk about the fruits of righteousness, the cause of Christ, he mentions his imprisonment quite a few times. He says For me to live is Christ and to die is gain, which is kind of figurative language I think. He’s saying that either in life or death, He is happy and God’s Will will be done. His use of phrasing is almost poetic to me. It’s a true statement.

Paul writes

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests of others.”

I don’t see any figurative language in this but it’s a good scripture and is something people, especially politicians should read!!

Paul talks about how Jesus emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men. He refers to Jesus as becoming a common man so that we can see Jesus as a man who though was equal to God was also a simple man who faced the same things we face day to day.

Paul also talks about how every knee will bow. This is figurative in that he is referring to how people bow to kings and other authority figures. He’s showing that God is above everyone.

I tried to find more figurative language but my search came up empty. I love reading Philippians and it encourages me every time I read it. 

The Man Who Came To Dinner

The Man Who Came To Dinner, was an interesting play. I enjoyed most of the play but at some points during the play I lost interests. Some of the characters were just plain annoying. The Character, Lorraine Shledon, annoyed the daylights out of me. I enjoyed most of the other characters, especially Dan Prevett’s.

The main character, Mr. Whiteside, was a mean and pervasive man. He gets aggravated with almost every character. On the program there is a quote that sums up Mr. Whiteside: "Is there a man in the world who suffers as I do from the gross inadequacies of the human race?" Whiteside sees everybody’s inadequacies. He sees in the nurse her inadequacies to bring his medicine and take care of him on time. Maggie is inadequate because she fell in love.

I really enjoyed the character of Beverly Carlton. He was really funny and every time he came on stage I woke out of my boredom. I also enjoyed the crazy German doctor who brought Mr. Whiteside a roach farm. Banjo was also an awesome character. His horn cracked me up and every time he mocked Lorraine I lost it. My favorite part of the play was were they locked her up in the mummy sarcophagus and shipped her away.

The play was a little ruff. The cast seemed to be struggling through there lines and the play seemed rushed at certain points. I accredit sum of the mistakes to first night jitters. The play overall was a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. It was funny but lacked significant story for as long as it was. I lost interest at several points during the play. I felt myself wanting to sleep on more than one occasion.

I think I’ll watch the movie and see how it is.

11-11-2010

Dr. Fettke describes in his essay the differences between normal and abnormal as it refers to creation. Normal people are those who engage in normal relationship and communication with other humans and creation. He explains that for the mentally challenged this communication and relationship with other humans might be deemed abnormal because of their disability. He poses the question, “Just how are categories of normal and abnormal understood in the light of creation?” I have often pondered this question myself. Just what is normal and abnormal and who defines it. Dr. Fettke describes normal as being created in God’s image. I like this definition a lot, simply because we all are made in God’s image. It’s a beautiful thing to think about.

Dr. Fettke description of the “life force”. He explains that all have been created by God’s Spirit with their own unique “life force” that expresses God’s true intention for them. He believes that the disabled are marked by God in their creation and are not problems to be solved. Wow what a great point. It’s sad that the mentally disabled are defined by their disability. People just right them off without ever giving them a chance. They were created for a purpose because God does not make mistakes. Dr. Fettke writes that mental disabilities are not God’s  mistake or the product of human sin or demonic activity.

When I see and mentally challenged person, all I see is the disability. Its sad and I’m making a giant effort not to see just their disability. God has designed us all with a purpose. We are to fulfill that purpose to the best of our abilities. Mentally challenged people have a role to play and they are just as influential as you and me. So next time you see or meet a mentally challenged person make sure to smile. He’s always watching!

November 8 - Trip To Alliance

Today we took a trip to Alliance. I really enjoyed learning about all of the different things they offer for mentally disabled people. They offer them a chance to make money. They teach them skills that they can use to get a job out in the world. The educate them in everything from spelling to computers. One guy we saw loved nascar and he was watching a race when we came in the room. They are allowed a certain amount of time to serf the web. It's really cool to see mentally disabled people succeeding in life. They all seemed to have so much determination to succeed. I really think a lot of the workers at Alliance. Dealing with mentally challenged people is no easy task, it takes patience. The world is a lot better place because of them. I often wonder what life looks like through a mentally challenged person. They always seem so happy and care free.

Going to Alliance helped me visualize the play The Boys Next Door better. The play itself is pretty good. It is really funny and I thought of the movie the Ringer the entire time I was reading it. I had to read the whole thing today because I was behind but reading it all at the same time was helpful. Being around mentally challenged people really made me thankful that I am who I am. It made me appreciate the freedom that I have. I can go and come as I please and live my life the way I want to. Why is it that we forget to appreciate the little things in life? The ability to walk, talk, see, and hear. These are all important things that we forget are blessings. I know I take them for granted, we all do.

Prayer

I really enjoyed the poem called Praying. I have always struggled with prayer and how it works. I hear preachers saying these long elegant prayers and it always makes me think why? Why do you need to say all of those words? Does saying long and elegant prayers make someone better at praying? I think we make this simple act harder than it has to be. It is really simple. Mary Oliver says it best, “It doesn’t have to be the blue iris…” just say what’s on your mind. Don’t try and concoct a perfect prayer. I believe simple prayers have more impact. Prayer, to me, is more of a listening process than a speaking process.

The poem, The Uses of Sorrow, is short but sweet. At the beginning of this class, we talked a lot about sorrow and darkness, but I think these are two very important things. Through sorrow we can find joy. When a love one dies we find joy in that our love one is with the Father. Happiness in times of sorrow is often hard to find but if we look hard enough it will show itself. Mary Oliver writes, “It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.” Time heals all wounds and reveals lessons that were hard to learn at the time. It also interesting that under the title Oliver writes in parenthesis (In my sleep I dreamed this poem).

My favorite example of prayer is also the simplest:

Our Father in heaven, 
hallowed be your name. 
Your Kingdom come, 
your will be done, 
on earth as in heaven
 Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us. 
Lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil. 
For the kingdom, 
the power and the glory are yours. 
Now and for ever.

Amen.

Nature: The Ultimate Experience

On Sunday I visited Lake Bonny Park and stayed for 45 minutes. While there I took in all the sights. I love being around nature more than anything. I love the smells and the coolness of the breeze. While there I saw a bunch of ducks playing tag. It was really funny to watch. I also saw an alligator just chilling on the bank. Alligators are amazing creatures and they have been around for a very long time. There strength amazes me. I watched the fish in the lake swim near the shore. I would tap the water and they would scurry away only to return a few seconds later. It was close to sunset when I arrived so I sat and watched the sunset for a while. I really like watching sunsets. This one particularly looked like the sky was on fire. Earlier I saw a dragonfly eating a regular fly. No sooner had he finished than a bird swooped down and devoured him. It made me think about how cruel nature can be. Like most things it has its pretty side and its ugly side. Sometimes I think we ignore the ugly side of life and focus on the pretty side. I think it should be equal. How can we enjoy the pretty side without knowing that there is an ugly side? We repress it and forget about it, which I think a detriment rather than asset. I’m not saying that you have to enjoy or like the ugly side of live but you have to realize that it does exist, because in the end we all have to die.

On another note, life is a beautiful thing and nature helps me realize how beautiful it really is. I see God’s image in nature. He truly is a great artist.

The Epicist Poem

The Sun is Red with Anger

The water reflects its anguish

The fish swim back and forth;

Trying to escape its rage

The flowers are consumed in its glory

As it shines from on high

The sun is red like blood

Death looms like a spirit on the water

The Firefly eats his still warm prey

As the bird watches closely

He swoops in to devour the once proud predator

O’ how nature can be cruel

The trees sway against the violent wind

They beg to be released from its grip

The ducks swim to and fro

In the suns scorching heat

They plunge beneath the water to escape

Don’t go whistled the bird

You must see the moon tonight

Death comes to us all

State of the Planet

This poem was really hard to get into. The rhythm of it is also really hard to get. This kind of poetry is at the bottom of my list of texts we have read for this class. To help me try, key word, try to understand it I did some preliminary research. Throughout this poem, Hass repeatedly refers to Lucretius who was a Roman poet and philosopher who wrote a poem called On the Nature of the Universe. I did some research on this poem as well and found out that Lucretius was trying to discredit the belief that the gods created the world and universe or interfered in anyway. He presented evidence that the universe could be explained by natural phenomena. Lucretius said, “the regular but purposeless motions and interactions of tiny atoms in empty space.” The gods had nothing to do with it. In my research it seems to me that Hass believes that Lucretius presented this in his poem. The following passage seems to be his basis:

The book will try to give the child the wonder of how, in our time, we understand life cam to be: Stuff flung off from the sun, the molten core still pouring sometimes rivers of black basalt across the earth from the old fountains of its origin. A hundred million years of clouds, sulfurous rain. The long cooling. There is no silence in the world like the 

silence of rock before life was.

Hass, in this verse, portrays himself as an evolutionist. I could not find any support to prove that he is. But I picked up on evolutionists’ tones and this is where I got my conclusion. Another passage seems to confirm my conclusion.

Cells divided and reproduced. From where? Why? Then bacterium grew green pigment. That was the essential miracle.

Reading for Transformation

In reading this assignment I found a few things that interested me. First, McAloon talks about how Lectio Divinia works. I had never heard of lectio divinia before I came to school here. My best friend Bryan was the first person to explain it to me. I found it very intriguing to say the least. The first time I tried it was a great experience and profound. It helps to understand scripture and to focus on reading and praying. Focusing on reading the Bible and praying in difficult to me because I have an undiagnosed case of A.D.D. haha, but lectio divinia helps me to clear my mind and focus on what I’m doing. Reading a text thoroughly, running it over and over in your mind, is how we get something from the text that is being read. Say your studying for a test and you think just because you read over your notes you are prepared for the test. You take the test and afterwards you forget everything that you studied because all you were doing was memorizing and regurgitating information. I’m not saying to use lectio divinia to study, but then again I am, albeit, a different form of it.

Moving on. When it comes to poetry some poems are harder to understand than others. I tend to shy away from poems that hard to understand. My favorite poem is called For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon, and it is about the soldiers who died in the First World War. It is not a difficult poem to understand or to read. My favorite passage reads,

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. 
At the going down of the sun and in the morning 
We will remember them.”

I think this passage can be applied to all soldiers that fall in battle because we must never for get their sacrifice. 

Sonny's Blues

Sonny’s blues tells an intriguing story of two African American brothers who come to understand each other through their own experiences. The story features through its two main characters the two different sides of the African-American experience in the 1950s. The storyteller has integrated himself into the white society as best he can but he still feel’s like he does not belong. He still feel’s the sting of racism and the limits imposed on him because of his color. He is aggravated that he cannot be who he wants to be just because he his black. But his brother, Sonny, never tried to integrate himself into white society and this caused him to have to find an outlet for his pain and suffering that his permanent status of being inferior has placed upon him. His outlet turned out to be music; especially the kind developed by other African-Americans, such as the blues. Through playing music, Sonny could loose his suffering and make it into something beautiful.

I am a history major and I am currently in a class where we are discussing the Civil Rights movement and the African-American experience in the 50s and 60s. This story is fiction but it is very true in the sense that it conveys a very real reality. Being an African-American during those times was extremely tough. All the violence that was taking place out in public with hardly any repercussions from the law. Studying the history during this time period helped me while reading this story because I could really see what the environment was where this was taking place.

I think we all have a way to deal with our hurts and sufferings. You have to find a constructive way to get things out. Some people choose crime or violence to enact suffering on others and through this they feel gratified because now someone else is suffering. Others choose more peaceful and constructive means, such as music and writing. This is how Sonny dealt with his suffering.

Post 13 October 2010

So I'm sitting in my room reading over the material that we either read in class or on our own. All of them have there own uniqueness. Some are comical, some are sad, some are reflective, and some are more serious. The two poems by Elizabeth Bishop are interesting because both are completely different. In the poem Five Flights Up she says, “He and the bird know everything is answered, all is taken care of, no need to ask again.” When I read this and think about how carefree animals act. They know the sun will come up. We as humans and more importantly as Christians know that God has it all worked out. We can trust in him because He has created the universe and if we just trust Him everything will go as planned.

The other poem is hard for me to understand. It’s dark and gloomy. The one line that stuck out to me is, “The city burns guilt. –For guilt-disposal the central heat must be this intense.” When visualize this I see an intense fire destroying everything in its path. The line that says For guilt disposal the central heat must be intense , I think this could mean the purging of sin like in the Old Testament Days.

Moving on. The play Sure Thing , is a really funny story to me especially because when we read it out loud I got to be the bell. Anyways, I like this story because of its meaning. We all at some point wish we had a bell that would reset things when we screw up or need a second chance.

I was reading Professor Corrigan’s Notes on Character and found that I agree with him that plot and character are not fully separable. Character’s usually drive the plot. 

Short Story

A Confederate Soldiers Story: July 3, 1863

Private Thomas Jackson was a Confederate Soldier who had been fighting since the beginning of the war in 1861. He was not a tall man, standing at about 5’ 9”. He had green eyes and a strongly shaped forehead. He was of light complexion because of his Scottish heritage. His parents had come over to America in 1852 to make a better life for their son. Thomas was ten years old when he made the journey with his parents. When they arrived they found a country tearing itself apart over the issue of slavery. His family made their way down south and settled in lower Alabama and started a farm there. Thomas loved it there and grew extremely fond of the area. The hilly terrain and numerous lakes and streams teamed with adventure. But as the years rolled by the rising talks of war engulfed the whole South. Alabama was adamantly pro-slavery along with the other states that decided to secede from the Union. Thomas was not for or against slavery; he saw it as the economic system of the South, but as the cloud of war descended over America, Thomas felt he had to defend his state and his way of life. Thomas cast his lot with the Confederacy and pledged his life to defend his state.

Thomas now found himself near a little town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg. He had been fighting there for two days, but on this day he was told, “they where going to send the Yankee’s packing on the way back to Washington.” He was part of General George Picketts Division and under the command of General Armistead. Thomas and his fellow soldiers where sitting inside a tree line about three-quarters of a mile away from Cemetery Ridge. This was there objective. At about one o’clock the Confederate guns opened up and Thomas would recall later in his years that is sounded, “like a thunder storm.” Thomas and his buddies where talking about how the Yankee’s must be catching hell up there. It made them confident that when it came their time to charge that the Yank’s up on that hill would be ready to retreat.

In reality Thomas and his friends were scared. As the cannon fire continued, Thomas got quiet and leaned back against a tree thinking that this could be his last charge. He began to think about his parents back home in Alabama and wished he could see them one last time. The reality of battle during the Civil War was brutal. He knew that most of his friends would not make it to the ridge. He began to pray to God for protection. He was being overwhelmed by dear but then General Pickett came riding in on his horse and gave us a short speech that motivated us and gave us the confidence we where beginning lose.

We all loved General Armistead and he always knew how to keep our spirits up. His uncle was one of the men that defended Fort McKinley. He was from Virginia and so were all the soldiers in his division. Thomas had joined them after his unit had been decimated during the Battle of Antietam. He was welcomed and grew to love his comrades. They all knew their jobs and did them without question. Thomas was fighting in a cause he believed was right, and so were his comrades.

The cannon’s suddenly stopped and the order was given to rise up. We arose and dressed our lines and prepared for what was to come. We formed a line of battle and checked each others equipment, making sure nothing was lose. Losing your ammunition pouch would make for a bad day. As we were preparing for the coming battle, General Pickett appeared again. He shouted, “Rise up, Rise up, Remember today that you are from old VIRGINIA!” We all shouted and cheered because we believed that we could conquer any foe now. We were confident. The drummers start their beat and we began to move forward. The waiting was over it was time to advance and take the ridge and we knew we could do it. No Yankee was going to stop us.

As we marched forward the artillery boys cheered us on. They where waving their red hats in the air in a circle. They had done their job now it was the infantry’s turn. As we advanced we encountered the smoke from the artillery barrage, which was thick, and quite a few of us coughed. The anxiety was now beginning to rise. To say weren’t scared would be a lie. Any soldier will tell to that being scared is a good thing. We could see the Yank’s now. They were behind a stone wall. Then all of a sudden their cannons roared to life. The first shot his to the left of our formation and created a giant whole in the formation it hit, but they quickly dressed up the whole. Now artillery shells were falling all around us. Smoke was everywhere. Soldiers screaming in pain but we weren’t about to be stopped. We pressed forward hard and fast. Our vision was impaired because of the smoke but we just kept pressing forward.

We came to a road near the ridge, which had a wooden fence on both sides, this made for a killing ground. It slowed us down because we had to climb over the top while the whole time the Yank’s were shooting at us with their cannons. Then came the rifle fire which raked our lines up and down. The first volley took a heavy toll including my friend John Poe,but we returned the fire with much effectiveness. We continued to press forward and made it to the stonewall where we met the Yank’s in close combat, but our break through didn’t last long. They reinforced and we where forced to retreat. We had almost won the day but the great toll of life inflicted during our advance kept us from victory.

I lost my best friend John along with almost my entire division. The loss of life on that day was beyond imagination. I will never forget the day I took part in “Pickett’s Charge”. The nightmares haunt me to this day. I can still hear the screams of the wounded and dying. 

People Watching

Last Wednesday I did my people watching and found it fun and creepy. People are really funny to watch, their mannerisms especially. I was watching this one guy who every ten to fifteen seconds would fix his hair in the window at the cafe or in his phone. He had the Justin Bieber haircut so he would swish it. It was very amusing. I also found a few things at FireFall that were interesting. During praise and worship whenever the music got louder more people would raise their hands but as the music faded the hands starting to fall. I'm not criticizing people and they way they worship I just found it interesting. Does the music have to be loud and of good quality to take part in it? That's how it seemed during FireFall and Chapel for that matter. But getting off my soap box I enjoy people watching but not in the creepy way. I was sitting in the Library last Tuesday and I noticed that at least half of everybody in there was on facebook or doing something else besides homework. Most people were on youtube but I'm guilty of this to.

Watching people allows you to see who someone is without ever even talking to them. You have to be an active watcher though. Taking notes on how people react to certain people and certain situation helps put together a picture of certain person. You can tell if someone is a dominant personality or a passive personality. You can tell if the person dislikes something or someone by watching their facial expressions. People generally express their emotions about something by using gestures or facial expressions. This is very prevalent while watching people. And so I leave you with this, watching people is interesting but a little creepy.

Painting Project

Last Thursday in class we had to paint a picture using a passage from the book of Joel. I was not looking forward to it because I really suck at drawing and painting. I have a extremely big imagination but I can't put what's in my head on paper with any kind of resemblance. I chose to paint the passage that talked about how there will be wonders in the sky; blood, fire, and column's of smoke. I pictured in my head a sunset. The kind that look like the picture described in the passage. I tried to put it on paper but failed miserably but like professor Corrigan said it's not about the way it turns out it's the process that matters. I painted my picture the best I could and then I sat there visualizing the passage in my head. In my head I could see the picture that Joel was describing it was so beautiful but scary at the same time. Then I read a little further and started imagining the part that describes the valley of decision. I pictured two huge mountains with a valley in between them. I pictured thousands of people coming over the tops of the mountains and through the valley and God was sitting at the very edge of the valley. Reading scripture while imagining it is a great way to really get what is being described. It allows you to really relate with what's going on. I guess what I'm getting at is that imagery is very important when reading the Bible and Literature in general. It makes reading enjoyable for me. I'm a history major so I have to read a lot. I use the same process when reading it, I like trying to imagine myself at historical events. It's pretty cool and nerdy at the same time, but that's me.

My Painting

This is my masterpiece!

Destruction then Redemption 9-23-2010

Yesterday in class we discussed the book of Joel. I have honestly never read it until Monday. Anyways, yesterday we talked about how a lot of the Old Testament is in poetry and that you can get different meaning from one scripture. One thing that we I and others have to be careful with is taking scripture out of context. Reading before and after a scripture gives you more of a sense of the situation taking place. Professor Corrigan talked about how you can't take certain scriptures and live them out because some scriptures don't make any sense out of context. There is wisdom in this.

We also went outside yesterday to read the book of Joel to the World, I mean the lake and ducks and trees and you get the picture. I was skeptic at first but as I sat by the lake on the grass I began to read in a quiet voice the beginning of Joel. I looked around at the world around me and imagined what it would look like if locusts and fire had decimated everything in sight. The tree's would be burned and all the grass devoured, the lake would be dried up and nothing would be left but death and destruction. It's amazing how my imagination works because it what I was imagining looked so real. The image of Blood, fire and columns of smoke reminded me of sunsets. Then, I read the end of Joel where God was saying repent and I will save you from your enemies. The story of redemption. It's a reoccurring theme in the Old Testament; sin then redemption, sin then redemption. You can see God's master plan all throughout the OT. A Message of Hope.

Reading scripture out-loud helped me catch words or phrases that I might not have grasped if I read it to myself.

Joel Chapter 1

I have actually never read the book of Joel before today. Joel is writing Israel to tell them that they must repent of their sins or else the locusts will be but a taste of God's wrath. He refers to the locusts as an actual marching army to give us a vivid picture of what is taking place. Joel is appealing to the priests and people of the land to fast and humble themselves before God. If they will but respond to his calling he will give them material and spiritual blessings. I like the way that Joel uses verbal imagery to allow his readers to get vivid images in their head. When I read this I could literally see the desolation to the land of Israel. I could see the swarms of locusts devouring everything in their paths. I imagined the part where God said He will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke.

My favorite passages of this chapter are:
"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "Return to me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments " Now return to the LORD you God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting evil. Our God is so gracious and loves us more than we can ever imagine.

The practical application of this book is to remember that without repentance, judgement will be swift and thorough. We should not put our trust in our material possessions but in God Himself. At times God may use pain, sorrow, or other avenues to get our attention, but His mercy and grace never fails. God provided us a way to gain eternal life through His son, Jesus Christ.

Cemetery Trip

On Sunday I went to the Lakeview, Roselawn and Tiger Flowers cemetery complex for this field trip, and I stayed for at least 40 minutes. I haven't visited a cemetery since my Aunt Stella died 4 summers ago of cancer. I loved her so much and she was my favorite. Our family used to go stay once a month with them in Port St. Joe. I really miss her.

Going to a cemetery made me think, "how are these people remembered?" How will I be remembered? I want to live a life that changes the world somehow. I want to make my stamp on this earth. I am going into the U.S. Army when I graduate in the spring and I know that in this profession I could lose my life, and I am prepared to give my life for my country if need be. I came across a few graves that the ending date was 1944. I wondered if these men gave there lives over seas to defeat Hitler or the Japanese. I also came across a bunch of names who lived through the Civil Rights movement. What a world that must have been? Different water fountains, different bathrooms, white's only restaurants. That's a world most of us don't even know about.

Saturday was the 9th anniversary of 9/11. Over 3,000 people lost their lives in about a 3 hour span, that's more deaths than the U.S. suffered at Pearl Harbor. This summer I was lucky enough to get to visit Manhattan and see ground zero. It really got to me. Being there were all those people lost their lives. How will they be remembered many years from now? I hope everyone said a prayer for the families.

What will your dash mean? How will people remember you? Will your life have made a difference?

A Grief Observed 9-13

At the beginning of Chapter three, Lewis talks about how he is struggling with his feelings. He is tired of just "feeling" so he tries thinking for a change. H.'s death has made him doubt everything he believed in and now he is struggling with the thought that he never believed it in the first place. I have had this happen to me before. We think we have it all figured out and everything is going great in then something happens that makes us doubt what we thought we believed. Lewis refers to this faith a being like a deck of cards.  Everything is fine and dandy until our faith is tested and then it just falls apart. God did promise that we would suffer in this life and he said blessed are those who mourn but when something bad happens to us we seem to forget what we had bargained for. Our faith must be truly grounded if we are survive the times when bad things happen to us. We must be planted firmly in good soil. Lewis says, "I thought I trusted the rope until it mattered to me whether it would bear me." Such a true statement, but it doesn't have to. We have a rope, so to speak, that we can trust to hold us when it matters.

Lewis talks about him calling God a Cosmic Sadist not as an expression of thought but as of hatred. You that feeling when you get back at someone when they have done something to make you mad. You feel good after it but only for a little while. You soon see the error of your ways and man up and apologize. You can say what you think but what you think doesn't mean it is necessarily true. We all lash out with our emotions just to get that high of feeing better but it isn't the right way to react. Maturity is a painful process but ultimately necessary to deal with people and situations in an adult way.

9/8/2010

Yesterday we met in the cafeteria for class which was really cool. At my table we talked a lot about J.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and how they have made their impact on literature. We discussed who was the better writer and we came up with this conclusion. C.S. Lewis was the better thinker in terms of philosophy and theology but Tolkien was a better dreamer and story teller. I mean he came up with an entire world and new languages for each race to speak. I'm not taking away from Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia ,but in my opinion, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was just stunning. He had an imagination that I can only dream off. I remember reading both the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series as a young teenager. The story takes you in and you almost become part of the story. I haven't to this day found a better book on fiction than Tolkien's the Hobbit and LOTR. 

C.S. Lewis is probably the most influential writer in my life. His book Mere Christianity has helped me hammer out my believes. I've always had a problem with just accepting what people say when it comes to Christian beliefs. His book laid out the Christian foundations in way that I could understand them. He goes into great detail to lay out principles by which you can follow his thinking. He talks about in Mere Christianity how Christianity is the only true way to find God, but he also talks about how some religions are closer to being right than others. He uses a mathematics example to explain. In a math problem there is only one right answer but some answers are closer to being right than others. I agree with Mr. Lewis on this point. Burning religious books and scriptures is not the way we are supposed to act. 

Blog 9/6/2010

The author's start off chapter three by talking about the importance of theme. They explain that summarizing a story message or putting a poem into a statement jeopardizes the meaning of both. This is a true statement. To really understand and know what the author's original intent was is extremely important when reading anything.

Little Red Riding Hood
I never thought that this fairy tale had a moral story in it. I always thought of it as simply a fairy tale told to children but reading the author's explanation of the moral i totally see it. The moral is basically: beware of any strangers who just happen's to walk by. They may seem nice and pleasant but down deep their just like every other wolf... dangerous. The story has a gruesome ending but it is justified by the message of the story, beware of smooth talking men.

When the Message is Unwanted
Last semester in my history class we actually watched Triumph of the Will. It was a brilliant propaganda film. It showed Germans that Hitler was their savior and he was going to make Germany great again. During this time in Germany things were going terrible for everyone. The economy was in shambles and no one had any answers to the mounting problems, but then came Hitler riding in to save the day. At the beginning of the film Hitler descends from the sky aboard an airplane which personifies his coming out of heaven to make things right. Riefenstahl uses disciplined workers who look like soldiers and beautiful landscape shots to glorify the Nazi party. This is a great example of how film, and for that case any form of media, can be used to achieve any outcome wanted. One advantage Riefenstahl and the Nazi party had was that Germany was in shambles at the time of the film so the people of Germany were willing to accept any form of government as long as it made things better. Appealing to the emotions of people is an outlet writers and the media use quite often.

What We Talk about When We Talk about Love

This story is an attempt to define what love really is. Mel at one point talks about how if he or his wife Terri died, whichever one was left alive would grieve for a little while and then probably fall in love all over again. This is a very true assumption because I have seen it happen to people. I thought was very interesting that both couples were previously married. Mel talks about he really loved his ex-wife but now he hates her guts. He asks. "what happened to that love?" No one in the story can say. I don't have an answer for this, but I have asked other people that have divorced someone else and they said that the love just ran out. I have been taught my life that beauty is only skin deep and this statement is as true today as it has always been. A relationship Can Not be based on looks alone. There has to be a deeper connection. A connection that is so strong mentally as well as physically that it can bind people together. Love is an extremely complicated but yet a simple thing if and when you meet that special someone.
Terri's story was an all to often story-abusive husbands and the so called love they have for their wife's. Terri explains that her ex really did love her but it was not a healthy love. He probably did love her at one time but somewhere along the road he went looney.
The story of the old couple really got me thinking. The love that the old man had for is wife is the kind of love I want to have for my wife when I do find her. He got depressed just because he couldn't see her. That is what I believe love looks like. I believe that is what love is.

Literary Profile

My earliest memories of literature was hearing my mom tell me the story of Robin Hood.   I remember the very first time she told it to me. I was captured by the story of a robber who was the good guy in the story. He stole from rich King Richard so that he could help the poor and needy. It captured my young imagination and it has been that way ever since. I frequently read it and it brings back many memories from my childhood. The story has influenced my life to this day. I also remember reading Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit for the first time. Both books are in my opinion the pieces of literature out there, but that's just me. I used to have dreams that I was different characters in the stories. The one thing that I love most about Literature is that you have to use your imagination. It allows you to have a unique look at a character or a place in the book you are reading. I think the most significant piece of literature that I have read would have to be C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. This book had a profound impact on my life. It helped me understand what Christianity really is and how to apply it to my life. It is a great guide to living a Christian life. I believe literature is extremely important because it can change and will change your life. It allows us to escape the pressures of everyday life and use our imaginations. It lets us leave this world and enter another were almost anything can happen. Literature can teach us valuable lessons about life, and can help others cope with the death of a friend or family member. It can bring you closer to God and help us through trials and difficulties that we face. I'll end with a quote from C.S. Lewis:
            “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”