Chronicles of Narnia

This will be my last post for this class. I just finished this book The voyage of the Dawn treader. I now understand literature in a sense that i did not before. I came to a realization that my life as a christian is a spiritual journey. I have heard this said so many times, but when i was reading this last chapter, literally 5 minutes ago, tears came down my face as i felt this peace come over me. It was the strangest thing. My life is a spiritual journey. I do not know how long it will take me to arrive to my destination, or the struggles that i have to face to get there, but i do know that i have an amazing bridge builder to help me get there. I understand that this is a growing process, in which i strive to become a better, more mature, spirit filled christian. In this story, Asland never left them alone to despair, but he was with them in the time of need. Christ is the lamb and the lion and he is with us when we need Him. He builds the bridge for us to get to our destination. In this story, Asland is filled with grace and compassion but also authority and respect. Jesus is the same way to me. I fear Him, i respect Him. But i have this love for him that i can not explain. He is my everything and i truly mean that. He has saved me, brought me from my deepest despair, and by his grace he is still with me. I stumble and i fall sometimes. Sometimes my ship gets off-course, however he is always there to guide me back on the right path. In my deep dark places, he sends the bird to comfort me and to give me peace. My life is no longer just a set of rules that i need to follow to be a good christian, but my life has a goal now. I am running a race to reach my destination. It is an adventure, a journey in which i am always maturing and becoming who Christ intended me to be. Christ is my guide for this journey. The amazing thing is that this journey almost never ends. I can always go to higher or deeper places. My walk with God is something new now. It is not a boring set of rules, but a journey. i am excited to see where God's path leads me. This journey will not be easy, but i keep picturing that beautiful scene from the end of this book where they reach the end of the journey. they made it to their goal. I remember feeling that this was so rewarding for them. They made it         through all of the trials and hard times. The spiritual journey is the same. Wow. the funny part is that i realized this through literature at three in the morning! I was not expecting this.

Interpretation - A Story about the Body

Adam Williams

Special Post II – Interpretation

A Story about the Body

By: Robert Hass

1.       A Story about the Body is about a man who thinks that he has fallen in love with an almost sixty-year-old woman. Both the younger man and the woman work at an artists’ colony during this summer. The woman was a Japanese painter, and the man was a composer. The woman’s art captivated the man, the way she moved her body and her hands. It states, “He loved her work, and her work was like the way she moved her body, used her hands, looked at him directly when she made amused and considered answers to his questions.” Then one night, after a concert, the woman abruptly says that she knows that the young man wants to ‘have her’ but she has to be honest with him and tell him that she has had a mastectomy on both breasts. Shocked, the man states that he cannot handle this and he walks away to his home. The very next morning, the man wakes up to find a blue bowl on the porch that looks like it is filled with rose petals, but when he looks deeper, he finds that it is filled with dead bees.

2.      I chose this story, because this story has a deep meaning behind it that needs to be brought to attention. Obviously, the bowl represents some deeper meaning than just a blue bowl filled with dead bees, but the question is what does it actually represent? What do the rose pedals represent? Why are they only on the surface? Does the bowl represent the man or the woman? We also have to understand the man’s motives. Where his motives bad? Was he actually in love with her? One thing that I needed to think about was his motives. The reasons stated in this story about his love for the women seemed to be real. However, they were not deep reasons for love. Also, there seems to be a common interpretation that one could think; this story is about a man who is shallow and evil. He is only interested in the physical beauty of the woman. However, I disagree and intend to bring out these interpretations.

3.        A Story about the Body could be about a man who thinks that he has fallen in love with a Japanese woman, based on superficial reasoning. Let’s start from the beginning. In this story, both of the characters work at an artists’ colony. It states that the man has been watching her for a week now, in which this is a very short period of time to fall in love with someone. It also states that the man is young and the woman is almost sixty. This makes me question why would a young man want a sixty-year-old woman? Is he lonely? Maybe the man is lonely and the woman is kinds and genuine. The man is captivated by her work. An artist usually draws or paints from the heart. What they paint or draw can represent who they are. So maybe the man is captivated by who she is and how she paints or demonstrates who she is. The man is also captivated by the way she moves her body. After thinking about this, why would a young man be captivated physically about a sixty year old woman who has had a double mastectomy? The point here is that the dead bees could represent the harsh facts about shallow love that focuses on the outer appearance of the individual, but I disagree. I think that the man is captivated by who the lady is, not by her looks. Now this leads to the part where he finds out about the double mastectomy. When she tells him that she has lost both of her breasts, it says that he lost his radiance. This tells me that the man was excited and he had the butterflies of love. But they flew away when he received this news. Why did they fly away? Was he shallow? Was he only interested because of outer beauty? I think not. The deeper meaning here could mean that he can’t handle the weirdness of her not having breasts. This makes me think of the disabled in our communities. We often treat them as if they have some disease and they are a different species. I believe that the man was not shallow in a physical sense, but he was shallow in the love sense. Obviously this was not true love, but it was not a physical love. The man just could not handle the weirdness of being with someone without breasts. The next morning, he finds a blue bowl that is filled with dead bees and has a covering of rose pedals. There is a lot that can be interpreted here and in many different ways. The blue bowl represents the individual being, weather it is the man or woman. In this case, I believe it was the woman that is being represented. Next, the rose pedals do not represent shallow outer beauty, because I believe that is a misinterpretation. I believe that the rose pedals are the inner beauty that the man saw in the woman; the paintings, her work, whom she was. The dead bees are the most important part of this interpretation. They represent the woman, because the story says that she swept them up from the corner of her studio. The studio is the same place that the man fell in love with her work. I believe that the bees represent her dark corners, the ugly places of life. I do not believe that the bees represent the man’s ugly inside, because he did not like her for her looks anyways. The theme of this story is that we all have the dead bees inside our bowls, some are worse than others, but we all have them. We all also have the rose pedals, or most of us, which represent our inner beauty, however, the inner beauty cannot cover up or hide the dead bees of our lives. We must learn to embrace them and accept them.

4.      I believe that this story can be easily interpreted as a story about love based on physical looks. However I have a couple of facts to argue this interpretation. First, why would a young composer fall in love with a sixty year old woman, based on physical looks? If this were true, the man has to be older as well and therefore this would make the man seem like an immature teenager who loves based on looks. Second, the bowl represents the individual being, or the outer shell. We are all like the bowl in which we are filled with rose pedals and dead bees. If the interpretation is about physical shallowness, then why was the bowl not fancy or beautiful? The story states that it was a small blue bowl, and nothing more. The emphasis was on the inner part of that bowl, or what was inside of it. Therefore, this story is about the inner self, not physical love. Also, I believe that the bowl represented the woman, not the man, because the man was not an awful guy. Granite, this was not true love, but at least he was honest. If the story is based on physical love, then yes the bowl would represent the man, however it is based on inner beauty and the inner self of love. Therefore, the bowl represents the woman. Also, the bees were swept up from the corner of the same studio that she painted in. This shows me that she was almost hiding the nasty parts of her life and all that he saw was the beautiful paintings, not the bees. Altogether, the man has to accept the entire contents of the bowl; the good, the bad, and the ugly. He could not come to terms with this.

5.     I believe that this is an important lesson or interpretation of life and love. We all have our dead bees in our bowls which could represent our mistakes, hurts and pains. When we fall in love with someone, they must learn to accept all of the dead bees in our bowls, or else it will be a superficial love. We cannot just look at the rose pedals and think that is all we have with our loved ones. Every person has an ugly side to them, and every person has been through tough times and pains. For example, this woman has had a double mastectomy, in which her body is dying and it reminds me of the dead bees. However, true love has to accept this and love her for who she is. We need to look at beauty in a different way. It is great to cherish the beautiful things such as rose pedals, but we can also interpret the ugly things in life as beautiful. For example, good can come out of every situation. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

A Very old man, with Enormous wings

This story, A Very old man with enormous wings was a very interesting story. I found myself struggling with a few concepts. It is hard to read a story like this one and relate it to real life. For example, how do we read a story and try to grasp the meaning behind it, when we are thinking about an angel. None of us have actually seen an angel (that we know of) and we usually have a concept that the angels are beautiful and flawless in image. However, this angel was not beautiful. It was an old man, who was stuck in the mud. I had to learn to read these science fiction stories with an open mind, and it has helped. There were a couple of concepts that i really liked in this story. i learned to appreciate the fact that the angel was not beautiful. I learned to appreciate the fact that the angel did not fight to get free. One would think that the angel could use its supernatural powers to break free and leave. I think that the angel was there for a purpose, in which the angel was watching over the boy. The angel and the boy both got chicken pox at the same time. The main thing that i wish to talk about is about the beauty of the angel. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We tend to classify beauty as outward, majestic, stunning, and magnificent, radiant, and more wonderful adjectives. However, beauty is much deeper. Sometimes, beauty is the suddle things in our lives, such as a butterfly flying by, or the rain falling. We think rain is nasty, but to farmers, it is beautiful. We almost think of beauty as something we get out of something. That is mainly outward beauty. Life is beautiful and if we are thinking shallow about beauty, we will miss some of the great things that God has for us in our life. We can take for granite so much in our lives. Who catches an angel and takes it for granite? They profited off of this angel, make a skeptical of it, and they neglect it until the day that it flies away.

A Temple of the Holy Ghost.

A Temple of the Holy Ghost, by Flannery O'Connor, was a very a little confusing. In fact, this was probably one of the more intricate stories that we have read so far, but i think that i understood the theme. The story starts off with two girls, who are ditsy and kind of disrespectful, that are looking at their clothes and they called themselves temple one and temple two. The story also introduces the main character, who is called the child. The story never tells us her real name, pretty much all we know is that she is 12 years old and she can be ugly and nasty. We find out that the two older girls are being sent to a convent and they dont seem to like it. In fact, one of the more comical parts of the story is when Suzanne and Joanne are making fun of the nun who said that when a guys behaving inappropriately in the back seat of the car, they are supposed to say that they are a temple of the holy spirit! I did think that this part was hilarious even though they were mocking Christianity. One common theme that i noticed was that the child was very judgmental. I feel that christians today can be so judgmental when their brother or sister fall. There is a common saying which says that christians are the only people who shoot their wounded. This, unfortunately can be a true statement sometimes. The ugly in the child was when she was having her judgmental rants. For example, when she has her rant about the Catholic song, she calls the boys a big old church of God ox. She states that she is so happy that she is not a part of that church. I started to judge her, but then i checked myself and asked myself, do i do this too? The answer i found is that sometimes i do the same thing. I often judge people who call themselves christians, but they fall or they dont live the holy life. I learn that i pick apart others sometimes, especially when they struggle with the same things that i struggle with. It was cool to see this story make me think about my own life. 

The Ones Who walk away from Omelas

This is a strange story, written by Ursula K. LeGuin, that is about a city that seems very happy, almost like a utopia. The author paints a picture of a city that seems almost perfect. They do not have a king, no soldiers, hardly any laws, and everyone is happy, although they would not describe themselves as happy. The city is also beautiful and it does not seem greedy for money. The story flips when the author moves to the scene describing the "it" in the cellar closet. This child is the source of the happiness for the Omelas, and they know this. Some have come to accept this reality, others still shed tears because of the sad child in the cellar. For some reason, there were terms set, that the city would be destroyed in its beauty if it is allowed to see sunlight and be free. One has to give its life for the rest to have happiness. But some realize, is this really true happiness? Is this true freedom? I began to realize that this is not the happy perfect place. Others in the story realize this and they decide to leave the glorious city of Omelas. They decide that they can not accept the reality of the world around them. The main connection that i am making with this story, is that the Omelas represents the world in some ways. The world we live in is by far not an Utopia. But i am strictly talking about the non-christian world. We have to decide to make a difference and not follow the world. Media, MTV, Hollywood, this reminds me of Omelas. They ruin childrens minds and fill them up with filth and dirt and immorality. Then they profit off of. The secular world thrives off of exposing young people and filling their minds with dirt. The young people in turn keep buying the merchandise, clothing, music, movies, and they buy into the culture of popularity. This is probably not what the author interpreted and i am sure that there are other interpretations, but this is one possible connection in my mind.

Lake Bonnie Park

I went to Lake Bonny Park for this field trip, and I stayed there for at least 45 minutes yesterday at 5pm. I went with Erin and we walked around and found a place to sit in the grass by the lake. I spent about twenty minutes in silence and read the poems by Mary Oliver. I really liked a couple of them, especially the poem "Praying". As i read this, it reminded me that we are supposed to be real with God. Yes, we need to have respect and reverence for God as we pray, but to be honest and real with God is so important. If we are in a relationship with Christ and God the "father", then we should be real with God. I love to think of it like the Geicho commercials when they have a normal person telling their story, then they have a movie star with a deep voice and dramatic voice tell their story. The real honest version was the real story. We should pray in the same manner sometimes. Yes with reverence, but when  things are going rough, God wants the real truth and we should trust Him enough to be honest with Him (its not like he doesn't know what we are thinking anyways). The first lines in the poem "It doesn't have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot", tells it all. Also, i sat back and just watched the nature, and i was thinking that the poem made sense. Why should we try to spruce up our words to a God who is so majestic already and magnificent. His creation is beautiful and perfect, until we mess up. We have sinful nature and the Spirit of God is what makes us beautiful, not our majestic words. Just because we pray in a beautiful language that is spruced up, does not mean that it makes our prayers bigger. I would think, that a God who created everything so beautiful and perfect, is a God who wants the real person, the real truth with respect and reverence. Not a buttered up language that we try to make pretty with our words. We cannot flatter God, i mean LOOK AT WHAT HE CREATED! One question about Mary Oliver that came to my mind was why does she format her poems like this? She puts breaks in the middle of sentences and her lines are sporadic all over the page. In the poem "messenger", i absolutely loved the first line "My work is loving the world". Not much needs to be said about this, but if everyone's job was to love the world, I wonder how much better the world would be? Nature and creation is a good way to appreciate and be in Awe of God and when we love God, we have to love His creation. It is so beautiful and perfect in many ways. 

Awe of God

The crystal waters, The green grass

The tall trees, The chirping birds

All reminders of the Awe of God

My image in the water

Imago Dei?

My sinful nature 

verses mother nature

Imago Dei?

One purpose, one plan

One creator, One God

But Imago Dei?

What is 

imago Dei?

Is it the wonder of creation?

The image of God reflected upon the waters face?

In nature we see

Imago dei

Which makes me stand

In awe of Nature

In Awe of my Creator

Field trip to Circle B

The field trip to Circle B was a good experience, despite being completely dressed up with shirt and tie. I thought it was going to be more of a nature hike and woods area, but to my surprise, it was not. I liked it a lot, and i like what they do there at circle B. My favorite thing that we did was when we paused and took a minute to think and concentrate, by ourselves and quietly. This pause made me meditate on God's creation. I love looking in amazment and awe at God's beautiful creation and it reminds me how much of an artist that God is. I was also reminded of how God is so intracit, and how perfectly the ecosystem fits together, until we mess it up. I liked the note that Professor Corrigan gave us. I like how he said to be present in time that you read poems and meditate, because in a recent post, i said that i was not with it and i could not concentrate. I had a rough day and could not focus and Hass's poem made absolutely no sense. I just became more upset while i read it. Therefore, obviously i agree with this point. Another thing that i like is that i need to slow down. It seems that we are always in a hurry, as Americans. We want fast food, fast traffic, fast lines, we want things now, and for school i seem to hurry with my assignments and try to finish them as fast as possible. In poetry and literature, i should not be in a hurry. Its the same with reading my bible, because if i am focused on my time, i am not doing it justice. One thing that is not a problem for me is cultivating a sense of awe. Awe is a word that came to me when we paused at Circle B and meditated and just thought quietly. God has a funny way of Awing us on a day to day basis. Everything from beautiful oceans and forest and different lands to thunderstorms and rainbows. God has a way of Awing us to remind us of His glory and His wonder.
I want to talk really quick about two stories that these notes reminded me of. The first is when i sat on Clearwater Beach at night with Erin and we just looked at the stars over the ocean. I was so amazed as i thought about God's glory. I absolutely love looking at the stars and wondering about life and asking the deep questions of life. This is a great spiritual practice.
The second story is back when i was in Ohio last summer. I went to the lake erie beach to read my bible and i sat on the end of the pier. I was reading when i felt something inside of me tell me to look up and watch the seagulls flying over the water. I just watched for a couple of minutes, then i turned back to my bible. All of the sudden, the fish in Lake erie came up to the surface, like a hand was forcing them to the surface and they just flopped around. The Seagulls went crazy like a starving man in a buffet. Everyone on the beach stopped what they were doing and were amazed that the fish were giving themselves up. It was very bizzare, but a scripture came to my mind and it says that God even feeds the birds of the air, are we not more important. This is the time when i was decided weather or not to come to college. This moment made me trust in God, and now i am here today writing this. God is so good. But this is another great spiritual practice.

Othello

I attended Othello tonight at Polk Theater. It was very good, but it was kinda long. The actors and actresses from SEU were amazing and i was surprised at the talent level in the production. It definately had a lot of Shakespeare's methods and endings, as it had a tragic but justice ending. All in all, it was a good experience as me and my girlfriend got dressed up and we had a date night. Some of the dialogue was hard to understand as the language was very obsolete. A couple of the actors were excellent at pronouncing their words and making themselves clear. It was a good night.

State of the Planet

"A palo verde tree nearby, moss-green. Some Insect-eating bird with wing feathers the color Of a morning Sky perched on a limb of the tree. That blue, that green, the completely fierce Alertness of the Bird that can't know the amazement Of its being there, a human mind that somewhat does, Regarding a black outcrop of rock in the desert Near a sea, charcoal-black and dense, wave-worn, And all one thing: there's no life in it at all."
I decided to paint this part of the poem, because it really stuck out to me. I looked up what a palo verde tree was and tried to image that. The bird is on the branch just over the desert sand with the charcoal colored rocks. There is a sea next to it and above is the morning sky. This is a beautiful part of the poem so i tried my best to depict this. I hope i did it justice

Blog

Honestly, its two in the morning and i had a God awful day. I am trying to read this poem and i just cant focus. I feel stressed beyond belief and i am very frustrated with life. I understand this is not a blog about my life, but i decided to be real and honest and i would rather be honest and say i am not going to read this tonight, because i know i will not give it 100 percent. I will read it tomorrow, when i am calm and peaceful. I understand this might affect my grade, but i can not lie and i wont. If i want to get the best out of life and out of this class, i need to try my hardest. Thank you

Imago Dei -- Steve Fetke

Boys next door. Act II

The second act of Boys next door was very interesting. It was not as funny as the first act, however i kept telling myself that this would make a great movie. At the end of this play, i did not really see a moral, or theme or some 'insight into the world'. It was kind of a real life situation. I was a little shocked as Jack decided to leave and get a new job at the traveling agency. The author just randomly put that scene in there without a warning and i had to reread it to make sure it was saying what i thought it was saying. This part was very sad, because i felt compassion for the boys. They were loosing Jack, and Jack seemed to hold them together. Now they had to start all over with someone knew. Also, the scene with Barry's father was very sad. I felt so bad for Barry. He was so excited to see his father and he talked about it in almost every conversation that he had with someone. He went out and bought new shoes and got all dressed up to see his father who left him. Then his father walks in and physically beats him and curses him out. This was very disturbing and I felt compassion for him. It is sad, because this kind of thing actually happens in real life. His father got him some old chocolate and Barry doesnt even like chocolate. I wondered to myself," How lonely Barry must feel". then the saddest part is when Barry says to a closed door, "Dad, I am a pro golfer now". He just wanted to make his father happy. This also reminds me that they are human just like us and they have emotions just like us, (who are not mentally handicapped, because, after all, who is normal?) But i think that sometimes we tend to think that the mentally handicapped are some different species who we are intimidated by and tend to ignore. But they are humans just like us, who care. One thing that i saw was how Lucien tried so much to help Jack when he had a small cut on his finger. He was willing to do anything for him. But this just proves my point that they are just like us, they just have abnormal abnormalities than we have. One question that i did not get answered was why did Norman want to show Sheila the bathroom so bad?

The Boys next Door

This was a very interesting play in Act 1. As i started reading the story, i was very confused at to why arnold would by 9 boxes of weaties. As each character was introduced, i became more confused. It seemed that they were very slow, or honestly, weird. But then, Jack explains to the audience what is going on. It turns out that they are in fact mentally challenged. After i found this out, i thoroughly enjoyed reading this, because i learned more about each character as the story progressed. My favorite character is either Norbert or Barry. Barry was hillarious as he was trying to teach Mr. Hedges his golf lesson. I struggled with this some, because i kept asking myself if it was ok to laugh, because they were honestly hillarious. Is it okay to laugh at mentally challenged people? Most would say no, but for the story's sake, i laughed. Some parts i could not help it, especially because of the way that they think. It seems like it was almost impossible to have a conversation with one another, because each individual focused so much on what they were thinking instead of listening to the other one. For example, Barry kept talking about how his dad was comming home and Norbert kept talking about doughnuts and keys. Another interesting observation that i saw was that Norbert always wears his doughnut uniform. This tells me that he loves his job and it might be a major part of his identity. IT must make him proud. I still have not figured out what Arnolds infatuation with Weaties is. I thought that it was sad how the market took advantage of his disorder. Arnold seems to be the most complex character, as one can tell that he gets depressed easily. He seems to be almost normal sometimes, then he completely looses it by buying 9 boxes of weaties. We also get a good description of Jack, as we see that he is obviously a good man for doing what he does, as he seems to have the father role here in the story. All in all, this is a very well writen play, i just struggled with the moral part of should i laugh or not?

Sonny's Blues

First of all, i need to admit that this post is late, because i was sick last night and today. Unfortunately i was not able to complete this on time. When i read this story, i decided to read it backwards, by reading the story first, then the bio about the author, James Baldwin. Surprisingly, they were not much different. Maybe i should have read the bio first, because it would have provided better insight into the story as i was reading it. But either way, they were shockingly similar. Baldwin's story 'Sonny's Blues' was a very good image of how life can be. Just like the bio says, Baldwin paints a very vivid and intricate picture of how the pain of life can give us the blues. This story ties into everything that we have read so far into this course because it was real. This happens in real life. One of the most amazing things for me was the part that the bio states that James used to read to escape or to get away from the pain of life. In the story, sonny played the piano in a jazz band to get away from the pain of life. It seems also that one part of the story, when sonny was supposed to be going to school, but instead was playing music with his buddies at a white girls apartment, was an escape from life, or avoiding the drugs and pain of life. This story was very intricate and it can be very confusing as it takes you for a ride of sharp turns and hidden turns, but it was very cool to read. One thing that also came out in the story was the part about racism. The bio states that James dealt with this and his story deals with it as well. For example, sonny's dad's brother was killed by drunk white men in a car. This part of the story was very disturbing. One thing that i want to give credit to the author for, was his descriptions of the characters. In this story, you find out a little bit about each character as you are reading. The plot, problems, and the character, event the settings progress as you read the story. The more you read, the more you begin to understand what is going on and what is happening. The more you read, the more you get to know the characters and the plot. I found, like the book 'A Grief Observed', that there is a lot that can be taken away from this story. For example, the scene when sonny is playing piano at the club. The music that is being played is not just notes, but a life story that is floating through the air. There is pain and passion behind that music that is coming from that piano in this story. It was his way of expressing himself in life. I loved that theme in this book, as we all have different ways of expressing or venting our pain and problems in life.

Tiger Flowers Cemetery

A grief observed 3&4

What started out as a sad story, but real, turned into something more in my eyes. I was very surprised as in the middle of chapter 3, Lewis's mood and thoughts completely took a 180 turn. This book is completely filled with marvelous quotes cover to cover. One part of the book that i love was the part that he realized that his thoughts and emotions were almost selfish, in which he was not all at concerned with his feelings and his pain, but not H's pain that she went through when she died. He was talking about how he wished she could come back, but then he says something so profound. He says, "Could i have wished her anything worse? Having got once through death, to come back and then, at some later date, have all her dying to do over again? They call Stephen the first martyr. Hadn't Lazarus the rawer deal?" This quote really opened my eyes to something i have never thought about before. Obviously, anyone who has gone to church for some time has heard the miraculous story of Lazarus, and how amazing it was and how blessed he was to come back from the dead. But Lewis makes a great point. He has to die all over again! I am not sure if it would be worth the trip to the dead and back! then, he states some more profound statements as he talks about the bolted door of God. His origional mood was that God slammed the door in his face and that he bolted it from the inside when he was in desperate need. But now he thinks that he has drowned the voice of hope with his own screaming for help. He was trying to 'bang the door down', when God was ready to answer. It made me think of how often this happens in my life, when i think that God has not heard or responded or God does not 'show up', but the reality is that i have not opened my eyes or listened to his voice! Then Lewis wakes up one day and now he can see clearly because his vision is not blurred by tears. This whole story was absolutely amazing and i am glad to read something so raw and real. This is a real life situation that unfortunately we all will have to face at some point or another.
I attended tiger flowers cemetery today and i walked around peacefully and meditated for over 40 minutes. I took some pictures that i will post on here. This exercise brought this book to life. On one grave, i saw fresh purple flowers and i literally could see that part in the book when the man is going to the grave to take care of a loved ones grave. It was a strange feeling as i was putting myself into Lewis's shoes and thinking about what it would be like to visit my wife in the grave. Wow. i dont even want to comprehend this. One thing that really struck me was thinking about how we drive by cemeteries almost every day and we respect them, but they dont mean that much to us, until we have a loved one inside the cemetery. all of the sudden, that place has a new meaning, a reality to us. Lewis talks about this in his book, and actually going to the cemetery made me realize this reality. It was a positive experience.

A Grief Observed 1&2

It is hard to read this book, for many reasons. I am in a serious relationship right now and it is a horrible fear to loose her already, and obviously we are not even married! This is a grief that i cannot even begin to comprehend, nor do i want to. How can one handle loosing his soul mate and partner in life. They are your best friend and lover and partner. The thought of loosing that would be horrible and unbearable, but ironically that is a part of everyones life. Death is inevitable and it will happen to everyone. The common theme that i have found in all of our readings, at least most of them is reality. Most of these stories have a reality that is common with life. They are real stories that could happen to anyone and some of them have happened. Its funny because most of the time, we want to read about the flowery stories and the mushy gushy stuff in life, which that is great, but what about the real problems in life that we all will have to face? this is just like hollywood, which very rarely shows the real stories. Most of the time it is romantic stories or outrageously fake superhero stories. But i find that the most helpful readings and movies are the ones with real substance, ones that we can relate to. Unfortunately, there will come a time in my life when i will relate to C.S Lewis in this book, as someone close to me will inevitably pass away. The thing that i liked most about these two chapters is that C.S. Lewis is very real with God. He calls him an imbecile. Lewis is transparent in this reading and he is not afraid to let his feelings be known. There are many things in life that make us question God, and just like David did in Psalms, we can question Him and ask why? We might not get our answer now but we serve a God who allows us to be real with Him. Another intriuging part of the book is when Lewis is talking about the image of 'H' or his wife. He is creating an image based off of memories which are already blurred from seeing her in so many different angles and situations. He then goes on to say that if he could just see her alive again for 10 seconds, then the real image would appear, but the snow flakes would begin to fall again shorty after the real image was gone. This was so sad, because it is true. I can relate this story to mainly the song Franky and Johny and a couple of other readings about love. Love is amazing, but pain is something that is a part of life and suffering is something we all will face. Literature helps us cope with that pain by writing and reading about it. 

joel - images

Joel has a wonderful way of painting a picture when he writes this book. Right off the bat, he paints a picture of the locust. "What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten". Joel uses a couple of adjectives in this such as creeping, swarming, stripping. These adjectives are what make paint the picture. As i said in the last blog, Joel has a way of painting a picture using little words. "The herds of cattle wander aimlessly". This is another line that stuck out to me, maybe its because i used to work on a farm and i understand cattle somewhat, but i can literally picture herds of cattle just wandering in all directions, having no clue where to go. "For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness". In this line, i can picture the fire, devouring the wilderness, which i already picture as dry and easily burned. "The land is like the garden of Eden before them But a desolate wilderness behind them". I quoted this phrase last blog, but i had to do it again, because of the picture that is painted with these words. The garden of Eden is so beautiful, or so i would think, and it would be green and sunshine and wonderful. But a desolate wilderness sounds so baren and brown and dry. It sounds empty and lonely. "Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like war horses, so they run. With a noise as of chariots They leap on the tops of the mountains, Like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble, Like a mighty people arranged for battle". This quote obviously paints a picture. ""I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. "The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood". I have no idea what exactly each thing in this quote means such as the blood and the smoke, but it certainly paints an amazing picture. i can picture the columns of blood, smoke and fire. Fire is an amazing picture painter, as fire is vivid and bright. "Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears".  For some reason, this quote reminds me of a movie called Lord of the Rings. In this movie, the army beats the iron into spears and this quote painted a picture of this all over again in my mind. "The mountains will drip with sweet wine, And the hills will flow with milk". This quote seems to be the most magnificent of all of them, because i can see hills flowing with milk and mountains dripping with wine. I am almost certain that the author did not mean this literally, but it still makes an amazing image in the mind.

Joel

There are quite a few lines in the book of Joel that really strike me. Some of them are beautiful, others are gloomy but yet they still stand out. This minor prophet has a wonderful style of writing that really captures his feelings and his emotions in his writing. You can literally feel his sadness and a mixture of fear and other emotions when you read this book. "The land is like the garden of Eden before them But a desolate wilderness behind them". This is a wonderful line in the book of Joel, because the description is phenominal. In my opinion, one cannot get more descriptive as describing something so beautiful as the garden of Eden then going all the way to the opposite end of saying that there is a desolate wilderness behind them. This is a short sentence as well, and this is surprising, because it is so very descriptive and it paints the picture so vividly. "Like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble, Like a mighty people arranged for battle. Before them the people are in anguish". This is another series of lines that is absolutely amazing, because the descriptions are so vivid. Joel does not use extravagant wording to make his point, but he paints a picture in the readers mind. "Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions".  This is a very famous and popular series of lines in the book of Joel as God promises His outpouring of the Holy Spirit. However, reading it as a poem or literature sense shows me hope and joy in these lines. I mean, look at the lines! Old men will dream dreams! Young men will see visions! That is full of hope and joy and a bright future in times of trouble and sorrow for Israel. That line moves me now, but i can only imagine how beautiful it must have been for Israel while they were in exile and in trouble. "Let the weak say, I am a might man!". Here is another powerful and hopeful line, in which the weak will say i am strong. This just brings more hope and light to the darkness of the times. "The LORD roars from Zion", this is a beautiful line. This displays that we serve a mighty and a powerful God as Joel is talking about the Day of the Lord. He then follows that with a statement that says, the heavens and the earth tremble. This displays the power of God and that Israel is at His mercy. This is so beautiful, as throughout this whole book, Joel does an amazing job in displaying his point so vividly, without using many words. This is an extremely short book in the bible, however it is so powerful, because of the message, and the way it was composed. It turns out, I thought i was doing a literature homework assignment, however i was doing a devotion! I loved it.

The Colonel

I picked this story to talk about, because it was very confusing. There were parts in this story that i had absolutely no idea what the author was talking about. For example, "The moon swung bare on its black cord over the house". After i read this i thought maybe that it means it was dark and it was night time. Im not sure though. Also, "Broken bottles were embedded in the walls around the house to scoop the kneecaps from a man's legs or cut his hands to lace". Now this is a weird sentence. I can not figure out if this was a metaphorical statement or a literal statement. Either way, its very graphic. We also know from the story that the house or the people who owned the house were rich because they had a rack of lamb and a maid. Then there is a sentence that says it had become difficult to govern. This makes me wonder if the character was a governor, however, the character is a colonel, but it would help if i knew what that meant.  Then it just jumps like a kid with ADD, and it says "the parrot said hello on the terrace". This story is very choppy. It almost seems like a full day is told in a matter of two minutes of reading. Then the story jumps to the colonel dumping ear halves to the table. This is very graphic and gross. It made me wonder what in the world am i reading. I do like how the author states "There is no other way to say this". Even the author, who is in first person, realizes that this story is bizarre. then it goes to the last lines which are very interesting. "Some of the ears on the floor caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the ears on the floor were pressed to the ground." Obviously the author is trying to say something that is deeper than the words originally mean. I am having a hard time trying to figure out what she is saying at the end. This end line defines the rest of the story, but i am not sure in what way. I hope that we get to discuss this in class, because i am very intrigued to figure out what is going on here.

Spades

Spades

“Is this shirt too tight?” I asked Mel. The blue, Hollister, t-shirt was gripping my arms like it was holding on for dear life. “You look like a teenage boy trying to show off his muscles, but the problem is that you are missing a key element”, replied Mel. She always does that, like why can’t she just give the honest answer without all that dumb sarcasm. It’s funny, I have been married to that woman for 10 years and she still thinks that I like sarcastic answers or something. “Thanks babe” is all I replied. This is a big night for me, in fact one of the biggest I have had in a while. I have not seen Luis in a year. “You need to relax honey” Mel said to me. “I just hope that he doesn’t drive his new BMW over here”. “Why do you care so much? Is that all that matters to you?” asked Mel. She doesn’t get it. Luis was my college best friend. We even had the same majors, but he got the better grades. It didn’t matter how hard I tried, he just beat me every time. He seemed to always find favor. I remember asking myself, “What is he doing right that I am doing wrong?” “No! That is not all that matters to me. I am just nervous. He has not seen the new house yet, and I am still driving that old clunker”, I said to Mel as she put on the fourth layer of makeup. Why does she wear so much stupid makeup? If I got a penny for every piece of makeup that she bought, I would be filthy rich.  Luis always had the nice cars. His dad is a doctor, and his mom is a nurse. So yeah, they had money, and Luis reaped the benefits in college. For most of my college career I did not have a car, so Luis drove me around. “Don’t worry about it Roger. All we are doing is having a game night with some old college friends, and nothing more. Besides, you know that Luis does not think like that. After all, he is a pastor like you are” Mel said to me as she was putting on the dark purple eye shadow. I met Mel my freshman year in college and we fell in love. It was an amazing time of my life, and at the same time, Luis met Beth and they fell in love. We were all great friends, despite the differences that we had. Those were the glory days, when I was a stud and I actually had the ‘element’. I just wished that Mel wasn’t so tall, but she loves me so that’s what matters. Mel was a knock out in college. She was 5-8 and he had the most amazing blonde hair, but that’s the irony of marriage and the phrase ‘oh the glory days’.  “I just hope we win, ha-ha. We used to dominate in spades, so don’t let me down”, I said to Mel with a grin on my face. Luis turned out to be a great pastor. He is now the pastor of a Non-Denominational church in New York City. Can you believe that? A thirty- two year old pastor of a church that has a 5,000 member congregation. What am I? Just a youth pastor of thirteen students at the local church. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but as usual Luis is more successful than I am. “Ding, Dong”. Ugh here is the moment I have been dreading. I opened the door to a man who was tall and thin dressed in a sharp, pined-stripped, black suit and behind him was his brand new silver metallic, fully loaded, BMW. Beth was wearing a black silk dress that flowed flawlessly on her body. They seemed like that have not changed at all since the last time I saw them, heck, even since college. Luis won homecoming king our senior year. He was the popular one. “You look great Roger. It was so nice of you and Mel to invite us over for a game night” said Luis. I began to wonder, why would they get so dressed up to come over and play games? Beth brought her home-made apple pie for the game night. The deal was that they bring something and we will cook something as well. But wow, that apple pie smelled so delicious. I wish that Mel knew how to cook that good. “Thank you Luis! Come on inside” I said. Part of me wished I could just slam the door in his face. I have been avoiding this pride swallowing day since the last time I ran into my former best friend. We sat down at my small dining room table to play spades. I thought to myself, “this is it; I get my chance to finally beat them in something.” Mel just kept messing up though, she kept bidding too high and she made us loose points every round. Luis and Beth had amazing chemistry though as they bid perfect every time. Each round that went by, I felt my level of jealousy and anger rise, like someone turning up the heat on the stove with the boiling pot of water on it. I was about to explode. Years and years of frustration and anger as my best friend just beat me time and time again in the game of life. His house was bigger, his car was nicer, his job was powerful and influential, his wife is beautiful, and he even has children. In every area that I failed, Luis succeeded, and in every area that I succeeded, Luis beat me. He had it all but so did I; I just did not realize that the true blessings in life were right in front of me. Was I blinded by what I could not see or was it just a normal game of spades?

Sanjeev

The first time i read this story, i judged Sanjeev for not treating his wife the right way. He seemed to be very caught up in his image and it seemed that he did not care at all about his wifes feelings. The second time i read the story, i noticed a couple of little things. For example, right in the beginning of the story, the first thing that Sanjeev says is to throw away the statue.  Then he argues with his wife a little, by saying that she never cooks with vinegar. All throughout this story, he seems to be talking about his wifes cooking, as if he is not content with it. So right off the bat, the reader gets a sense that Sanjeev seems very critical and almost bitter. Sanjeev also seems to be very sarcastic, as in the second page, he tells her that the 'scheme' seems to be working on her. Also, one phrase that stuck out to me was that Sanjeev states that he will tolerate her for now. He just does not seem to be very happy. Sanjeev also seems to listen to depressing music, and it seems that he doesnt know much about it, becuase the story says that he is reading it. One part of the story, when his wife is on the phone, he talks about how she is delighted about the little things and it makes him feel stupid. Another passage states that he feels short when she wears heals. it almost seems that he is very insecure in himself and in his marriage. One thing that i noticed was that Sanjeev states that he had never been in love before. He also states that he did not think that his relationship with his wife is love, and he does not know what love was, but he knows that this could not be it. this made me feel compassion for Sanjeev, but i think that he loves her more than he realizes, because he is indian and he is letting her put up statues of Christianity and Christ. That seems like its a little something like love to me. Sanjeev seems insecure and he wants to impress others. But I see a little change in him as the story progresses as i feel that he realizes that he loves her more and more.

This Blessed House

After reading and rereading this story, i can honestly say that i have not read anything quite like this. The author, Jhumpa Lahiri, does a very interesting job in writing this story. The more the reader gets involved in this story, the more the readers sees the little details that change the meaning. I loved how this story was almost like getting to know someone, in which as the reader reads this story, we see how Sanjeev and his newly wed wife Twinkle have a interesting marriage. I liked how the reader gets to know the character as the read the story. also, she does an amazing job when she describes different scenes in this story, for example, the way she describes his music that he listens too. i found it very interesting in the way that she choose to end this story as she simply states that he follows her into the room. i almost interpret that as she is saying that Twinkle leads the marriage, because the whole story she gets her way. Sanjeev has an actual indian history and is clearly not a Christian, and Twinkle is also clearly not a christian and a good clue to this is that she states that they are not christians and she smokes (which does not define a Christian). I almost feel compassionate for Sanjeev as he seems to be in a bad situation. it seems that he is slowly finding out that love takes a lot of compromise, but it seems that Twinkle does not want to compromise at all. i like that this story seems real. this seems like a real life situation and this type of situation probably happens every day. In marriage, i highly doubt that the couple will agree on everything that comes up, however it is how a couple deals with the problems and situations that make them great. one question that this text brought to my mind was; did he regret marrying twinkle? At one point in this story, it seems that he is actually regretting his marriage as he looks back to the women that his mother introduced him too. Also, one thing that caught my attention was that twinkle never said that she loved him back, and she is the one who was in a loving relationship before. that would scare me if i was Sanjeev. Also, Sanjeev really seems to be caught up in his image as he really strives to keep his house clean and he cares so much about his reputation. As a whole, this story was not dark, but it was not uplifting either. I think that this story was a real life situation that one can learn a lot from.

Reading for Transformation

This was a very interesting piece of work as Francis X. McAloon believes that there is a spiritual connection with poetry and spirituality. I must say that have not thought of poetry in this way before, as in high school it was a common assignment to descern what the reading meant and interpret the usless poem. One thing that I notice was that he had three different techniques in which he used to read poetry which were talked about in the chapter in the Anthology book. They are: the world of the text, the world behind the text, and the world before the text. This is pretty much the same as what the author said in the Anthology book. I agree with this statement. Also, one thing that i found interesting was his devotional time. When one thinks of devotions, they probably dont think of poetry, or at least I never did. The only poetry read was from the book of Psalms. Its funny how we read the bible, especially books like Psalms and the Songs of Solomon, and we dont even realize that we are reading poetry. Those books are very profound and very poetic. One thing that i am noticing a common trend in Literature and English, is that the text must be engaged. We must have a conversation with the text and i completely agree with that. One thing that i have a difficult time understanding is how the author believes that poetry is so important and it would almost seem that his life is centered around it. I am honestly not sure if it is important or not. I know that i enjoy writing and reading it, but i have never put it on the level of devotional. But one thing that i have noticed is that my appreciation for literature seems to be growing as this class progresses daily.

What we talk about when we talk about love

Wow, what a story. Raymond Carver uses a very interesting style of language as he tells this story. This seems like an autobiography, and the story itself seemed very choppy, but it flowed in the same time frame throughout. One of the things that i would give Carver praise on, is the way that he depicts his characters, especially Mel. Right off the bat he states that he is a Cardiologist and 'can talk', which makes the reader assume that he is kind of arrogant or a know-it-all. As i was was reading this story, one of the main things that i noticed was how Terri and Mel have a bitter past. Carver does a great job in depicting the image that they are not over each others past. One thing that i am having a difficult time with, is what is the main point of this story? It seems that Mel has a twisted version of love because of the past relationships. One of the points could be that love is what we think it means. For Terri, she said that Ed loved her, even though he physically abused her and violently dragged her around the room. This was his way of showing her love, but for Mel, he thought that this was absurd and that it was not even remotely close to love. Also, we see the idea of 'the one' in this story. I have had many friends ask me if I believe that there is 'one' person for you to fall in love with. Obviously, Mel thinks that we can love many people, as he states that if someone dies in a marriage, the other party will quickly fall in love and find a replacement. This story as a whole seemed dark and kind of ironically depressing. Mel is kind and gently at first, then towards the end of the story, he is dropping 'F' bombs all over the place. He seems also to be an alcoholic. I also saw another idea in this story as Nick and Laura seem to have a wonderful relationship, as they are 'still on the honeymoon', while Mel and Terri seem to be stuck in all of their past and hurt in relationships. The ending of this story blew my mind and even after re-reading that passage, i still have no idea why it ended like that. It said the room went dark and it was silent. This part left me very confused and it did not help with the theme of the story as it added to the confusion. I really hope we are able to discuss this in class tomorrow as i would like to see what my peers think that this ending might have meant.

Active Reading

"What you get out of what you read is determined by how you read it." Before I read this chapter, I would not have necessarily agreed with this statement. Usually, or at least before college, I thought of reading as simply a process in which one reads the words off of the page and there is nothing more to it than that. I would read a couple of books here and there, but usually when I did this, I would not process it or actively read it. But now that I have fully read this chapter, I do believe that one can actively read and should actively read, because it is not a difficult process. Most of the tools or ways to actively read I have already done. For example, I usually annotate or take notes. However, this chapter also talked about relating to past experiences and mythology and religion. As I was reading that part, I realized how much I relate to that, because I love books about grace and forgiveness and religion. This is because God has shown me so much grace and forgiveness in my life that I want to read more and more about this topic. Also, this chapter showed me how to look deeply at the character and analyze them. I subconsciously did this before, but now I realize that it is important to actually engage the author and each character. Also, one thing that I learned was to pay more attention to the title, because the title has significant importance and might provide insight to the literature at hand. Also, something that I did not know that cross referencing in literature existed. I thought that was for dictionaries and encyclopedias, but after I thought about that section I realized that this tool is used more than one might think. This statement that I quoted at the beginning of this blog, is very true and important. Literature is something that has tended to bring frustration in my past, however this statement tells me that this can be different. I have a tendency to read exactly what is on the page and not to think deeper unless it is obvious. This chapter provided many tools that I can and will apply to my reading as I work on becoming an active reader instead of a passive reader.

My Literary Profile

My earliest childhood memory of Literature is obviously bedtime stories and children's' books. My mom used to read me books such as 'Little Engine that could' and 'Thomas the Tank engine' and other stories like those. Its funny, as I look back, I am reminded how I used to have such a vivid imagination. I could picture myself in those stories as my mom read the words off of the pages. In middle school, I read the novel "Hatchet". I loved that story, because of the amazing adventures. I also loved the series "A series of Unfortunate Events" and "The Chronicles of Narnia". Those stories really provoked my imagination and captured my attention. Recently however, i have not read as much, because my attention has shifted to real life Literature, such as religious books and books that I can learn from that are relevant to my major. However, these books do not provoke my imagination as much as the old stories did. I was a little surprised when i read the essay for this course, as i was when I read the English II essay, because my expectations were not what was outlined in this essay. I do not have the best memories from high school in Literature. It was always so boring and it was exactly like the first model in the essay: read textbooks, listen to lectures, take exams. This is the perfect modal which temporarily ruined my experience in Literature. However, I am excited for this class now because of the 'journey' that we are  going to take with Literature. Just like English II, I have a good feeling that this class will be fun and exciting, because it is not set up traditionally. This essay made me remember that Literature is a part of life, in the music we listen to, and the TV we watch, and the movies we see, and the stories we tell. I am excited to take this journey to learn how to read better and to absorb the text better. I also love how Professor Corrigan states that we need to strive to be transformed in what we do. To learn something that we didn't know before, just like in English II, the purpose is to have a dialog with each other to learn more about life.