Sea Biscuit.

In the movie Sea Biscuit which I had never seen a man named Charles who is a self-made millionaire, has to deal with the accidental death of his young son by putting him into racing. He then comes into contact with a guy named Tom, who is a race horse who is adapting to life and the world around him. However he is impressed by Tom's abilities when it comes to horses. He then hires him as head trainer for his racing stable. When he is on the lookout for new horses he spots a small horse. His name is sea biscuit. he convinces Charles to buy him and sees something remarkable in him.
Sea biscuit would not let anyone ride him until one day the come in contact with a boy Red. Like Smith, Red has a gift working with difficult horses. He and Seabiscuit immediately trust each other, and Smith then hires him. Red and Sea Biscuit begin taking the gold and winning races left and right. They are unstoppable.
Sea biscuit becomes a quickly becomes national hero. This story is filled with such a great meaning and such a meaningful plot and summary.

I can see why books are made into movies. It gives them way more meaning and you can actually see what is going on like it is real life. However I do like books because you can use your imagination and that truly is a gift. Movies are a great part of literature and you can learn a lot by them too. Positive and negative. You take the good with the bad. I am glad I chose the movie I did because I learned a lot and I got to see the love that animal and man have. That type of connection is so amazing. And it gives the movie such deep meaning and such a type of love that no one really knows until they experience it. I enjoyed the movie a lot !

Interpretation

The story a very old man with enormous wings is a story that is really for children. The story is about a family that has a son who becomes very sick. After crabs completely took over their home where they had to kill and then dispose of them. Upon disposing them they came across a man; an angel. He is lying face down in the mud and has huge wings as if to come off as some sort of angel. The many however is old and can hardly function on his own. He is helped by then and kept outside where by morning the entire neighborhood has seen and heard about this so called "angel." The angel brings different types to all of the characters. Some seem to believe that he is just not an angel at all, while others believe that since their son is sick that he is the angel of death that is trying to come to get the little boy. But because the angel has struggled so much to get there he has become ill himself. The angel does not speak much in the story and kind of keeps to himself. The people are fascinated with him and bring him food, and in a way taunt him. The angel is quite and when he does speak it is as if he was a shipwreck sailor that washed aboard.

The things in the story that I want to point out are as follows.

At first I want to come to the conclusion that this man is in fact not an angel at all. He is quite possibly the angel of death or something with the devil. When I think of angel I think angelic and type of beauty that is so surreal, and the way this "angel" is described in the text I am not seeing that in the least. His wings are completely torn and tattered, and I believe by the words he says even when he speaks of Satan that he is some how intertwined with the devil himself. It makes sense that he appeared as the boy began to get sick. I don't necessarily believe that he was coming for the little boy, but I do believe he is a dark angel that does not mean good.

Another thing I want to point out is that the boy and the angel kept being sick at the same time. Or as the boy gradually got better, it was if the angel would be able to make it out on his own, but when the boy was completely sick the angel was the same way. I find this very ironic and I think in a different way the author was trying to tell the readers something without putting it right out there. Maybe this is his guardian angel and the worse off that he is the same is true for a the little boy, but it is just a guess.

I also want to point out the fact that the weather is also bad when the angel and boy are sick. It all seems to get better as the story continues. The boy becomes better and is able to go to school and all of a sudden the sun is out when it has been bad weather the entire time he has been ill. How ironic is that. That the weather just like the so called angel might actually have an effect on the boy and his health overall.

If you look all throughout the story you can finds things in which you can interpret and come to a conclusion about. My conclusion for this story is a lot of different things. I believe that the angel was coming but maybe not for the boy and he happened to be sick. Maybe he came to prove and make a point and let those know that in their minds they should think they never want to be in his position because he is a bad angel... I think that is involved with Satan. But I could be totally off base.. it is just my view on everything.

I believe that if we do not have interpretation that we are lost in our own words. If we cannot think outside the box and see a piece of art or literature in more than one way then we are so narrow minded. Everyone sees things completely different and the different interpretations you have I think the better off you are. Interpretations from a group and putting them all together is such an easier way to understand not only that person but the piece of literature as a whole. It is such a great way to start of discussion and to remember that you are never wrong in an interpretation but with everyones ideas together you can learn a lot more than just your own thoughts on the piece of literature.

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

The beginning of this story there is a man and wife whose child gets completely sick and they find this man in the field that turns out during the story is said to be an "angel." I like the part of this where it states, "He reminded them that the devil had the bad habit of making use of carnival tricks in order to confuse the unwary." How deep. You can see that in every day life, Satan gets ahold of us in trickery ways where he end up getting us to fall to his level. Then making it that much more challenging to come out of the dark hall in which you have fallen.

I was confused at points in this reading, thinking is this man really an angel? Or have the people just made this fabrication and made themselves believe he is. Maybe he is just a regular man who happened to be there when the child became sick. The whole entire town treats him and helps him as if this man is an angel, but I am still lost to know if he really is. The "angel" does not say much so I have speculation as the story continues.

However it does state that he has wings, but what is ironic is in the text it states, "or maybe he was just a Norwegian with wings." It is as though they contemplate the same thing that I do.

It seems strange that there would be such thing as an old angel unable to fly and do these things in which he needed to. The angel finally is able to go back out to flight, and I liked the ending to this story how it said,"he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea." The angel was gone for good, and no longer would she have to fool with it.

This story made me think a lot about angels and about life. I recall when I was younger watching the show Touched By an Angel, and the angels not having wings in that program, they were people just like you and me. That angels could be right here among us doing deeds and helping us and we not even know it. But of course if we saw someone with large wings we would immediately assume they were not of human decent but possibly an angel.

I just could think of angels in numerous different ways. An angel could be your friend, your mother, someone there... that guiding source in your life. Or a real angel, sent from God. However we are all sent from God. It is a lot to think about, and comprehend.

Field Trip :)

So, today on the Field Trip I got a total new respect for people with disabilities. I have always had a soft heart for those that have disabilities, and I used to want to work with them until I changed to elementary education.

This field trip opened my eyes, as did the play that we are reading. It tied so much together. When we read the play in class out loud I found it humorous and I realize that as much as we laugh at them we should laugh at ourselves. It is not a making fun of them sort of way, its more in a loving way. We do humorous things and so do we. We laugh at ourselves and they laugh at themselves as well. We are just alike. The only thing different is they have incapability's. They are just like you and me. What I found so interesting was that at the field trip.. is the lady said that they are unaware of there disabilities. I thought how cool is that... it is as if they are aware, but they aren't. They are people just like us.. same feelings, emotions, and everything.

I have such a great respect for people that work with those are disabled and I have a new found respect for the place that we went here in Lakeland. I think it is so great that those people have somewhere to go and socialize because i think it is harder once they get out into the real world, and if they are own their own. It is harder for them to be in society that is for sure. They make friends there and they have so many activities and it seems as though they continue to learn and learn how to survive out in the real world. They have jobs they perform and they learn about the real world and what to do. It is a great opportunity for them, and teaches them a lot. It was a great experience and opportunity to go there and see the facility and I am glad that I went and learned what I did not al ready know.

Field Trip :)

I went and stayed for 40 minutes :)

A picture worth a thousand words

rests in a confusion, for those to see

someone raised to life, feelings of sympathy

unaware and too distant for concern,

upon skin-pale skin, i still gaze

Imagine the one who did this, lost

what they tried to get across

and the painting of such lovely colors:

blood red, violet, bright yellow

and fierce, nature green.

Framed like a window

to the artist's heart, you cannot see

all that is before is a painting to thee

and uncomprehending the meaning

offering what it can and must

to those who stop and stare

all around are a cries for prayer

And below him, are word printed over our world for

all eternity.

I had no idea that we had a museum of art. I was so excited I love stuff like this! It gives me such appreciation because I cannot do things like this. It intrigues me and makes me get excited like I should start some type of new hobby. I love that this class has opened my eyes to all that is around me and to become more aware when I am in a different place that there are so many things to explore and get to know. At the museum I re read all the literature and at first was quite eye opening I was looking at paintings and pictures and sculptures and reading and seeing that I can relate or pick things out a lot easier now. It was so weird, but I really enjoyed it. I loved seeing the different types of art there were. It's so weird to get into an artist head or at least to try to. To get that deep in a painting takes pure talent from God. I love the different interpretations people get when they look at paintings, and that is what my poem is sort of about. Because I may look at one type of painting and become quite sad, however someone else could really appreciate it and like the way it is done. I find this so neat, and I think that reading and art go hand in hand. They are identical and a way to keep ourselves in tuned with the world around us. I have such a huge appreciation for art, and now I am excited there is another place for me to go. I thought it was so neat, and I enjoyed being there. It was definitely a good experience to walk and see the different things the place had. I loved it all !

Transformation.

This article first got me thinking as soon as I saw the word Easter. Since Easter was just yesterday it was fresh in my mind. The quote said, "Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us." That got me thinking just like the author. I as the author had never heard it used as a verb. How inspiring and different. This introduced to me to Hopkin's and let me see him as an author/poet. I admit I am not big on literature unless it is something that is exciting and fun to me. It's not that I don't enjoy the things in literature class we read, because I sure do. I am just not the type of person that will do a lot of research to come across great poetry. It's like going through a lot of bad before you get to the good, and I don't have the patience for that. I am truly thankful for this class for broadening my horizons on literature and other forms of writing, and my own. In the article it also states we pray with poetry whether the biblical poetry of the psalms or non-biblical poetry open to Christian appropriation, we open ourselves to the possibilities of spiritual experience. I for one was someone who just read for the aesthetic pleasure which I see now is not what I should just focus on. There is more to a piece of literature than that. Going deep down in it can help me to better understand it and relate it to life and even God. A lot of the poetry we have read in class can be related to Christianity and God. Everything in itself is Christ alone, and when we read as spiritual people we are able to relate and connect to it in different ways. Just as we did with nature. And I can almost guarantee the works of art we have read were probably not all written by Christians but they still can be interpreted with a Christian outlook. I think this is awesome for the real world because even though they try to take Christianity out of everything it is still there and existing. Christ is all around us, we can't be blind to it. He's even in poetry. Everything relates back to him.

Darkness

"One can understand what hope is really about unless one wrestles with despair. The same is true about faith."

This statement struck me hard. It is so true. Throughout my life the more and more I have lost, or the more I have been through the more I turn to my faith. Others may not be the same, but this is true for myself. In life when something goes wrong I turn to faith.

However do I have enough faith to do as the article states, "go sell everything you have and follow me.." Do I have that much faith that God will take and provide for me. I question my faith at times, but who really hasn't been so caught up that they have. Someone perfect, that's for sure. This article gave me a lot of insight and made me look at myself from the outside in. I never really thought of darkness in the way that Professor Corrigan stated in this text. It was much more deep than I could have ever imagined. It's a sort of confronting to yourself and looking at your life and your views on worldly type things. But then as the text states, "It's not about facing that darkness, but the hope in your spiritual life.." I have hope that Jesus will return for me and I have hope that I will live out such a life that I will return to live with him again. Everything about this article made me think.

My favorite quote out of it was, "In facing darkness we face our personal capacity for darkness.." How much more true could that statement be. It is true for a lot in our lives. It is what we can handle and what we choose to handle. Once we face it we can accept it and change it and move beyond it in certain circumstances.

Darkness does not define us, nor should it scare us. It should make us step back and think, and help to improve on our lives.

Lake Bonny Park.

The soft touch, the gentle sound

I close my eyes, embrace

The touch, the feel, the thought

Pushed by the Spring breeze.

It is as if hand that gently caresses my cheek
And as quickly as it appears,
It is gone.

The feel, the warmth the site

I look up, embrace

Pushed by the beam

The beaming sun

It is as if Heaven opened my eyes

And as quickly as it appears,

It is gone.

The look, the way, the feel

nature as a whole

Pushed away

By the world

And as quickly as it is here,

It is gone.

Lake Bonny was a different experience for me. I went there for an hour and a half and the experience was not only deep, but I also had a lot of peace and serenity. I came to appreciate the site of nature. It is something that I do care for granted. I think the poem I wrote after the trip was how I felt.. it is as if something so great and wonderful, we embrace that and welcome that and then it is gone. Like the other day, and this is true for Florida quite frequently. The weather changes dramatically !! One minute it is sunny and the next it is pouring rain. Then you can see the sun peaking through the clouds. This is how I felt this day. It is as if everything in life, you take it for granted, and then in an instant in a second it's gone. Imagine a world with no sunlight, no breeze on a hot summer's day. How different would your life be. How different would you be. Nature has such a huge impact on us and we don't even realize it. We need to remember to look back and look at God's creation and how beautiful it is, and how thankful we should be. The world is a beautiful place. It made me look at myself and the way I treat the Earth, and how much that I actually treat it. It was so peaceful being at Lake Bonny, and just sitting there listening to all that is in nature. It was quite windy but I enjoyed just being there and thinking and pondering, and reading the poems. I looked at nature in a whole different view then I had before. It was such a beautiful experience.

Poems

I have always found it hard to read and relate to poems. Everyone can take something different out of it, and it may not necessarily be what the poet wanted you to feel. I for one can relate to this upon reading all these selections of poems. The different way that authors write can be quite different, and you may not see it the way in which they do. For example we are taking a field trip tomorrow and then writing a poem to share on our blogs. We will all gather something different from this field trip, and then we will capture it in a poem. The other people in the class may not understand that poem or may not even agree or see that the way we did. It can be difficult to read poems, but it can be a beautiful experience as well. In this selections of poems I loved the way the Earth was described differently. I also felt it was different for the different types of climates each of these poets were from. They all kind of related but each had a different tone and feeling. In one of the poems it speaks of being able to feel God like in nature and then not so much. I feel that it is stating or trying to show the reader that everything is God made, and when you don't see it that way or treat it that the further and further you get from your Heavenly Father. Poems can teach us a lot just like a story, but they can also go a lot deeper. I think with poetry you can become more open, and even if it doesn't make sense to someone else it makes sense to you in your mind. It is how you see it. Poetry is an expression of oneself, and an exploration of the feelings you have. So it should be interesting going on this field trip and experiencing feelings and emotions and then putting them down on a piece of paper. It is something I used to thoroughly enjoy, and I'm pretty excited to explore that creativity again.

State of the Planet

This poem in a way made sense to me. I am not sure I completely understood what the author was trying to say, but I will go ahead and give my brief summary on it. This is how I saw and viewed the poem, and how it kind of came together for me. So, we live in this world... but do we really know this world... this Earth as much as we think we do? We go around from place to place being in the outdoors, but do we ever stop to look around and see what beautiful creations God has laid out for us on this Earth today. The way the poem beautifully described the Earth in its wonderful description made me stop and think when was the last time I actually look at the world in this way. It's such a beautiful thing, but then again something beautiful we take for granted every day. If we didn't we wouldn't treat the world in which we did. Which also shows throughout the poem. We wouldn't pollute and harm our Earth if we actually truly cared and saw the beauty in which it held.

The poem says, " your people, the ones you taught the world to love"

that hit me hard, maybe not in the way the author meant for me to but it did. I see it this way that here we are on this Earth and to make the most of it but to have a beautiful life here on it. We love ourselves we love our lives so we should love the Earth. Treat the Earth as if it would be gone tomorrow.

I gained quite a respect for the Earth my senior year when I took a trip to an island with my class and we saw the Earth just like it is. We woke up every morning at 5 for the sunrise, we didn't shower... it was about us the Earth and learning and loving together. That type of thing can bring people together better yet it can bring the world together. The world is a beautiful place, but so are the people that live on it. Its all beautiful what God created and thats what he intended to do. Make a beautiful place with beautiful people.

Learning Community

MATTHEW 7:12: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you . . .”

This is a powerful scripture. It it as if how you are treated will be how you are treated. As if the respect you show your class mates, will the respect that you will get from them. The same thing with your professors. This gives the learning environment a more peaceful feel, and helps the classroom run more smoothly. This can even go as far as the real world. The respect that you want should be the respect that you give to other people.

For me becoming a teacher this is a big deal because the respect that I will give my students will be the respect they will give me in return.

Respect is a huge deal, and can change not only a classroom but a society.

Students can help a classroom be more dynamic and run smoothly if they just do as the teacher asks. If a class prepares before hand and does the things that the teacher asks of them then the teacher will not have to go back and re teach things in which he/she did before the next class meeting.

In this class we are required to do a lot of work outside of the classroom. Then are class meetings are filled with discussions and learning from one another. I feel that is the best way to learn. You do something alone, and then you come together as a group and you discuss exactly what you learned. Different ideas are thrown out and they are bounced off of each other and they can be enhanced in the classroom setting.

I like the rules, guidelines and how the class is designed to help us learn. It helps me put a lot of effort into the posts and readings and then bring together my ideas within a group.

Story.

Scarlett is running late to school, star bucks in hand she parks her 2009 Lexus in the last space in the back of the school parking lot. She walks hands by her side phone in hand into school then forces a smile tucks her hair behind her ear and sits down prime and properly in her chair. Her friends would describe her as flawless, outgoing, a stranger she never met. Scarlett hid her life, no one really knew her. She hid behind her high dollar clothes, her nice car, and smile. Behind all of that she was dying inside. She was crying out, but no one could hear her. To her classmates, her friends, her teachers she had it all. She had the boyfriend, she was captain of the cheering team, she had the looks, the personality, and she had THE LIFE. She walked the halls with confidence and demeanor that no one could match. Her presence and beauty were like no other. Her laugh was contagious, and her personality made others come out of their shell. She was nothing short of perfect… so one would think.

Ring… Ring… Ring… a muffled voice then answer, heeelllooooo. “Dad is that you?” Scarlett whispered into the phone, “Dad where are you?” His slurred words then answered, “I’m at the barrrrr, I’m fineeee, be home soon.” (CLICK, and the phone call was over) The phone dropped and tears fell down her cheek. Scarlett’s mom looked at her for an answer. “He’s still at the bar mom,” Scarlett said through her tears and sniffles. Scarlett’s mom was married to an alcoholic. She had been married to him for twenty years and had been through it all. A man that recovered from being a crack, coke, and drug user to a man that was drinking himself to death. Scarlett hugged her mom because that is all she knew to do. She held her mother as they both cried. This is the life Scarlett knew. This is the only life she ever knew. Go to school, go to cheering, come home and spend time with her mom and brother. Then came the worst, the return of her father to come prancing in only to start argument after argument. It was the only thing she knew. To Scarlett her life was normal. From an outsider looking in that would not be the case. Scarlett’s father finally returned home, and here it was the ritual fight between her parents. Scarlett with her angry aggression grabbed her father’s arm with her tiny arms and pulled him away from her mother. With her blue eyes tearing up, she begged and pleaded with her dad to leave her alone, to not hurt her, at least not this night. The 100-pound girl jumped in the middle of her parents getting torn every which way and falling to the floor screaming. “STOP STOP,” she yelled. Scarlett had broken her perfectly manicured nails and scrapped her knee on the floor. Her mother dropped to the floor and held Scarlett as she shook and rocked back and forth screaming a prayer out. Scarlett looked up at her father, tears in her baby blue eyes, makeup smeared all over her face and screamed, “I HATE YOU!” Her father stumbled drunken out of the house and to his car; to not only jeopardize his life but others. Scarlett lay on the floor rubbing her leg and shaking in her mother’s arms. “Mom I can’t live this life anymore, I can’t.” Scarlett’s soft voice cracked and shook and she was covered in sweat and her knee still bleeding. She was mentally and physically exhausted along with her mother. After containing herself she went to the bathroom and washed off her makeup that had drizzled down her smooth clear skin. She looked at herself, at her life. She looked at her mother sitting in her makeup chair tears and trembles all over her body. Scarlett knew at that moment all she could do is pray. Pray for a new way a new life a new beginning. Pray for her father to find God and himself and discover something more out of life. She wiped off her face and looked in the mirror at a girl her and her family only knew. The girl that broke easily the girl that cried on a regular basis. The girl who was afraid to walk into her house the girl who dreaded going home. The girl that was scared for her life, her mother’s life, and even her father’s. She fell asleep next to her mother clinching the phone close to her hand and that night praying her father was okay.

She woke up that morning to a frantic mother still trying to find her husband. Scarlett got up got ready and covered her knee with a new pair of seven jeans. Her long blonde hair put into perfect curls and her makeup flawless than ever. She looked in the mirror tried cracking a smile and felt tears creep up in the bottom of her eyes. She breathed in and out and then composed herself. She told her mother goodbye and told her everything would be okay. She grabbed a star bucks on the way to school blared her music and pulled into her usual spot. She got into class and sat in her usual seat, where two girls complimented how she looked today. “Scarlett you are always so beautiful you are so lucky.” Scarlett just smiled and thanked them for the compliment. The more class went on the more she heard the two girls talking how perfect Scarlett’s life was and how she was so lucky. She got everything she had everything and she was just perfect. Scarlett looked down at her knee and rubbed it. She put her pencil in her hand and saw on her long skinny fingers the perfectly manicured nails with a chip from the night before incident. She crossed her arms and slouched as if to cry, and just dropped her head. As one girl tapped her and said, “What is it like to be you, so perfect righttt?” Scarlett turned around got red in the face and teary eyed and said, “My life isn’t what it seems, and there’s more that meets the eye. You see part of me, not all of me.” The girl’s just looked at Scarlett because in that instant a brave small girl confident and poised broke down and fell to her desk head first and started balling. Through her teary eyes she peered and flashbacked to last night. The room was silent and all eyes were on Scarlett. The perfect poised flawless girl had broken, but what the class didn’t know is that she had always been broken.

Character.

Characters can easily be described as people or figures in a story. They have a much bigger role than that. A character speaks to its audience, but better yet it speaks to the author that is writing the story. It is the coming alive of characters that keeps readers and writers intrigued on what is happening. On page 113 it states, " If we do not conceive of characters as people we can know, these characters will seem artificial, unconvincing and uninteresting." This becomes true. Think back to how many times you read a book and you either engage in it or not by whether or not you can relate to it. The more you can relate to something the more real and alive it will become for you. You can experience character through literature, and even film. A character can start out as someone little and tiny in the piece or work and then take a turn and become something more. When reading a piece or seeing a movie you often times gain feelings for the characters. It is simple intuition that people want to gain and gather more information about a character. On page 123, it states, "Artists build from more mundane materials; may artists work from subjects quite literally close to home: family, friends, jobs, and so on." This shows that a lot of what is done in writing and in films comes personally from an artists background which in return the people tuning in can relate to a lot more. We engage with characters just as we engage with people. Characters serve a variety of functions and it is not always the case that we will know the characters as well as we had hoped in a piece of literature. There are many types of characters: round, flat, and stock. Round characters possess a complex psychology. Those seem the most intriguing to me. Dig deep to see exactly what the character is feeling. It is always fun to picture a character outside of the movie or the piece of literature as if they really do exist. Characters are a big part of our world of literature and film and its no wonder we engage in films and literature because of characters of course.

Sonny.

I was not in class on Monday, so I am aware that probably a lot more in depth conversation happened in the class that I missed.

Upon reading Sonny's Blues I was sure it was going to be just another story about love, life, death, and just depressing. As all the selections have been in class, but I have also appreciated every piece of work we have read. The story is about a guy Sonny who lives a bad life, but the one things he has meaning for in his life is his music. This seems so real to me how amazing for one person to be living for one thing in life that means that much to them. I came to understand that although he lived a life not up to par that he still touched people. He touched people from his music, and changed them forever. Isn't that what we are supposed to do in every day life. Touch people make a difference? Touch a life, bring them closer to Christ. Although I do not think Sonny was bringing souls to Christ, I believe through his music with whoever it was it touched people, and most importantly gave him something to live for. Gave him a purpose and a reason. I can relate this to the passion that God has for each and everyone one of us. Just as we put our passions into other things such as music, dance, literature; God wants us to be passionate about him. He wants to be that thing in our life that we can touch and bring people to. I feel that was the biggest connection for me through the story. This story connected with all of the rest of the stories we read in class, but I feel it had a bigger meaning. Life is short and we need to remember to live our passions, but to live those passions through Christ who those passions are not possible unless through him.

The Play.

On Friday night I went to the play on campus. At first I was reluctant and not sure as to what the play was about, and as I entered into the room all I saw were girls with bright colored clothes and make up that caught my eye. Little did I know the play would have nothing to do with the girls and what I was thinking it would have been about. I was unaware of what it would be like, and then it started. When the main character came out and it came to my attention that he was sick I was interested as to how the story would turn out. During the beginning I was unaware as to the girl dancers in the background but then I became aware that they were just mocking andmaking fun of everyhting that was going on play. I found it comical but at the same time very sad and grieving. The man was dying and there was so much going on that he was unaware about. His wife was just concerned about when he was going to pass and how much money she was going to be getting. This relates in a lot of ways to all the stories we have been reading in class that deal with love and death. Because that is pretty much all we have been reading in class. It has taught me a lot of how people are in real life. Even though we live in our Christian world where it is not always perfect, we still are unaware of what goes on in the world where people are just like the wife was in this play. People really are that way. This play made me sad for the man, but for a lot of other reasons. The daughter was being forced into something she did not want and the entire time the girls behind were mocking everythinng. It is as if they knew everything but no one else did. It kind of put a twist on things and made me laugh a lot during the entire thing. I enjoyed the play because of how comical and sad it was at the same time. It brought literature to life and let some of the stories and poems we have read in class come alive through action.

Guide to commenting.

Well.. since this was a un-promted blog and last class all we pretty much talked about was the guide to blogging I figured I would give my insight over the whole thing. After much review of the guide to blogging I have seen that blogging is a little bit more than I have seen it this entire time. Blogging is not just writing, just like literature is not just words. You can take blogging to a whole other form, with pictures, videos, and artwork. Throughout this class I have taken my blogs as just my thoughts... but it is more than that. You should be taking your thoughts and as you write them you should engage with the text and take meaning from all of it. My thoughts can turn something into something that can I can re read and then interpret later. Now that I am looking back at my blogs I see that I have grown with my blogs and have gone deeper in meaning each time that I have blogged. Each one is quite different, although they do not have a big range of difference they are different. Some are major insights and some just my thoughts written out. The re reading of Guide to Blogging has opened my eyes on how to make my guides to come better and to use my resources and thoughts to produce more meaningful and engaging blogs.

Blogging.

Blogging is definitely changed my perspective on literature just through these last few weeks. I have found through the blogging we have done in class that it has helped me to engage more in the literature that we read. It has taken me deep inside myself, and the literature and come out with new discoveries. In the prompts we are given for our blogs we are required to dig deep into the text and come out with meanings we never knew before were there. We not only have to find meaning we have to be able to back up what we say and have support with our interpretations. Outside of the blogging we have engaged within literature through field trips and activities. We then build on the things we do in class and wrap it up within our blog. Our blog is where we can put all our thoughts out there and how exactly we feel about everything that we are reading in class. However most of the things we have read in class have been pretty depressing in each of the texts you can pull something out in which you can expand upon. With all of this it has helped me to see literature in a whole different perspective. I don’t just read and not dig deep within a text now. I see now that there are many different ways to engage in or relate to a piece of literature even if it is depressing. The more I relate it to my life or see it in a different perspective (like reading other people from the class’ blogs) I have a better understanding of the text. Reading others blogs helps me to see something that I had not seen before and it takes me back to the text to reevaluate how I read it and did not get that out of it. This class has completely changed my reading and understanding of literature and I like the fact that it has.

Cemetery Field Trip.

Picture Proof.

This week with the cemetery field trip, and when I first had heard about it I did not find it all that weird. In a way I did, because going to a cemetery where I do not know the people buried there seemed quite odd to me. I don't find it odd to ponder or better yet read at a cemetery, because I have done it since I was able to drive. Okay, not daily, I don't want to sound weird or anything, but my Papa died when I was just ten and as soon as I was able to drive as much as I could in my busy lifestyle I would go by the cemetery where he was laid to rest and I read or I talk or I've written in my journal. It's kind of hard for me to admit that, because some people really don't understand how therapeutic it is for me, and how peaceful it feels for me to go there and sort of feel my Papa's spirit as if he is there with me. It took me awhile to actually admit to my parents where I was going randomly, and when they heard they looked at my in a weird way.. but I guess everyone is different. I guess it is just a way for me to feel some sort of connection with him even if he is passed away.

A cemetery is a very quite and peaceful place. It's so hard to even imagine how many people are buried under the ground you are walking over. I try not to walk over the graves because I feel that is disrespectful. I just sat by a tree and pondered for the time about life, and death. I then began reading the assigned reading and it kind of hit me hard. It is sad. I felt a different type of connection. It is as if I realized life is for the living.. but death is for the dead. Which seems pretty self explanatory, but as I sat there it's like I thought about how many people's graves probably don't get a visit from time to time. Or a flower for condolence placed by it... and then I began to think about life after death. It seemed as though for the first time in forever I actually was at a silent place where my thoughts could come to me one by one. It was kind of interesting to say the least. It was as if I saw a cemetery in a whole new light. Not as even though I didn't know anyone, that I found it creepy. I felt sadness, concern, and love for the deceased. I felt a lot of emotions, but I can say that I learned a lot from this experience.

The Traveling Onion

When first reading the traveling onion I wrote this...

My interpretation of this poem is at first I found it weird that a person would actually write about an onion. The word choice was very unique and as the poem continued I found that the onion had a deeper meaning to the author than I have ever even known or felt about an onion.

When asked to then pick a line from the poem this is the line I chose...

" For the sake of others, disappear.."

I was confused as to who was disappearing, was it the onion.. the person eating the onion.. the author or who?

After speaking with my partner we came to the conclusion that this poem did in fact have a higher meaning than we saw at first read.

I then wrote again that I saw now that those who used onions for a worship object was very important unlike what it was to me. You could pull apart the pieces of this poem just as you can pull a part the pieces of the onion and have it be different pieces that shape your life. You can pull the pieces and cut them up and pull them apart but they are still pieces in your life.

I enjoyed reading this poem in class, with all the different discussions and parts to it. I believe that this helped me better understand the poem. I love poetry but a lot of the times it is hard for me to understand exactly what the author is saying. Getting everyone else's opinions and reading aloud the poem multiple times, and then having the concluding activity made me di sect the poem which I had never done before. It helped me look at it in a totally different way, and help me understand its meaning.

Joel.

I always feel that when you read a piece of literature aloud it always seem to hit you differently than when you read it silently. I also enjoy the fact of hearing other people read it, it helps me to understand it more than I did before. Hearing another person's voice is always different than your own, and will hit you differently than your own voice did. Instead of us sitting at our desks and reading aloud I liked the different atmosphere even if it was just on the floor of the room. Going outside would have been such a different feeling. Whether we would have read to one another or just spoke out loud to what was around us. I feel that scripture in any way can touch us in so many different ways, and sometimes we forget to get ourselves out of our comfort zone and dive in deeper into scripture. I believe the more people read themselves and the more they read with other scripture the better they become at understand it. The more engaged they will become, and they will have a deeper appreciation for it. I find this true when I do Bible study alone there is a different feeling than when I have people with me. When I am alone it is a time for me and God to have a one on one conversation. When I am in a small group I feel that you feed off one another and the discussion can turn into something that you had never even thought of before. Taking scripture and putting it into a different kind of setting and tone can help us understand it and to really fully appreciate it for everything that it is worth. I enjoyed reading aloud scripture with the class, I liked the feeling of the spirit I thought entered the room. It was amazing.

Joel and Left Behind.

When reading the entire passage of Joel I think back to the time when The Left Behind series was huge, and that is what I read. In the passage of Joel it talks about the return of Christ, and who of his people will be ready to be judged on that day. It also explains ways to be prepared for that coming day. I just flashback to that time when all I read was the Left Behind series, and just being frightened. Not necessarily for myself but for those who will be indeed left behind. In the text, and these books the place it describes after Christ has come is not one I would want to stick around for. Terror is the first thing that comes to mind, and loneliness.

I remember in the left behind series when people were just disappearing out of no where. In planes, in cars, or just in their rooms. It seems so surreal but at the same time eye opening. Think about where you will be when Christ returns. Will you be ready? Or will you need more time? This seems so real to me, and something that I may not think about day to day. I mean I pray, and read my scriptures, but I am I really at that relationship point with Christ. Am I walking with Christ, or am I falling behind. I need to remember that I shouldn't just choose day to day when I will walk in the light of Christ, because I do not know when he will be returning to this Earth. I need to be prepared and to daily seek his guidance in everything that I do. Joel just made me look into my own life, and see where I really stand as far as my walk with Christ... I could be completely off base, but that is what I gather from the section I read of Joel.

The Things They Carried.

I sympathize with Lieutenant Jimmy Cross at the beginning of the selection because of his love for Martha. The way the author describes the Lieutenant just thinking of her lips upon the envelope and knowing they were there. Just brought chills to my body. Imagine being away at war, and that is your joy your utter happiness to receive a letter from the woman you love. War, I think is taken so lightly. I believe that from day to day it does not cross peoples minds that even today we are at war. At this time someone's brother, or father, or grandfather is dying so that inevitably we can live. Just because the war is not happening in our backyards, we cannot be naive. So when this selection states how happy the Lieutenant was every time he received something from Martha is touched my heart. And how hard it must be for her to have the man she loves off to war. I cannot even fathom such a selfless act soldiers do for us everyday.

This text is quite interesting in that it gets you thinking about all the supplies, tools, and stuff the soldiers carried. What do you think you would carry? What has significance to you. To some it was a picture, to others something to protect themselves. But what do these items turn into once you are gone. Like in the selection, when a man passed away from being shot, a jacket he carried was the exact jacket used to wrap him up so the other men could carry him. Do you think that would change what you carried. Would you carry something else? Did those men even think about what they carried? To everyone something they carried was different, and each had a significance to one another. I find this story touching and I think to myself... would I ever fight in war even though I am a girl. Or what would I carry around with me taking into regard there is a lot of walking involved. Such an interesting thought...

Grief Observed.

In the first and second chapters of a Grief Observed they completely struck me. I see that C.S. Lewis is up and down with his emotions with the fact that his wife has just passed away. I can understand why he feels the way that he does. Just losing my uncle a month ago, I feel that I have questioned God. I have wondered why me. I have also wondered a lot about what Lewis talks about in chapter two. He questions Christian’s faith, and he wonders where exactly you go when you pass from this Earth. It is like a Christian you have so much faith in what comes after this life, but in reality we really do not know what comes after this life. What we are to expect? I guess this shows our faith in Christ to trust what happens to us after this life is over. C.S. Lewis was right when he stated that it is not bad for those who leaves this Earth but it is bad for those who are left behind. I find this true since my Uncle just passed away. I felt myself happy because I knew that he was free of pain and that he was in a better place, but it is just awful that I have to go on with my life without him. And just like in chapter four when Lewis said that he was forgetting the image his wife. I see it this way. When I left the hospital after my uncle passed I just remember driving my car and looking at the world around me. Everything was still going on, life still goes on. Even though right at that moment my life was in devastation, everything else was still going on around me. It has only been a month since my uncle passed away and the image of him is still with me, but I know as time goes on not seeing his face will soon fade. It is a sad thing to think about but I go on with my life knowing that he is in a better place and he is free of pain. C.S. Lewis is so deep and makes me think the more and more I read, and I begin to see my emotions in a different way and I like to see his emotions and what he feels about not only faith but death too.

After prayers, lie cold.

This is the poem that I brought to class today to share in my group...

After Prayers, Lie Cold

by, C.S. Lewis

Arise my body, my small body, we have striven
Enough, and He is merciful; we are forgiven.
Arise small body, puppet-like and pale, and go,
White as the bed-clothes into bed, and cold as snow,
Undress with small, cold fingers and put out the light,
And be alone, hush'd mortal, in the sacred night,
-A meadow whipt flat with the rain, a cup
Emptied and clean, a garment washed and folded up,
Faded in colour, thinned almost to raggedness
By dirt and by the washing of that dirtiness.
Be not too quickly warm again. Lie cold; consent
To weariness' and pardon's watery element.
Drink up the bitter water, breathe the chilly death;
Soon enough comes the riot of our blood and breath.

I don't know what it is about this poem, but it really touches my heart. My mother read this poem to me when I was in High School and I was feeling as though God could not hear me when I prayed. Although I see this poem in a different light than I did when I was younger, I still can pick things out of it and interpret it differently each time I read it. At the beginning of this poem C.S Lewis is on fire with God, and shows how through Christ and prayer we are forgiven. I hold this all to me true. Prayer is such a simple, yet powerful thing. I feel that at the beginning of this poem C.S. Lewis is telling the reader to get into prayer... and inclose yourself in however you need to become close with God and get his guidance. Prayer is something so meaningful that it can turn so much around for you.. so much as your faith to your life. But then in a change of pass C.S. Lewis totally throws the poem for a loop. From going to such a strong opening to now making prayer and people seem so lifeless. When he states that "arise small body, puppet like and pale..." It makes me think that we are just going with the motions of this world and not really getting what God intended for us to get out of it. There is only so much that God can do as our father, but we have to meet him half way. It is as though prayer stopped within the poem, and without it the body became frail and lifeless among the Earth. It then states about becoming cleansed and new, and I see this as Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. Because we are all sinners, we sin every day... and there is no changing that. We can only better ourselves. We get so wrapped up in other things that we tend to forget why we are washed cleaned, and how is it that those stains are removed for us. It was all because of Jesus Christ. I think this poem also relates to death and to life. It could be like people that have prayer in their lives... actually choose life... but those who do not have it or Christ have chosen death. This I see to be true... if you just look at a person's life who has Christ opposed to one that doesn't there is quite a difference in the type of life and level of happiness each has. This poem can be interpreted numerous other ways... but this is just my thought on it ! :))

Happy Endings

This is such an ironic title for this type of story... there were no happy endings !!! I do not necessarily believe in happy endings... I believe more in happy right now. It seems much more logical when it comes down to it. In this literature text it just showed that you can interpret a happy ending to whatever you want it to be. Happy is whatever you make it. Happiness and love is different to every person. This text just showed reality. What do people usually read texts for? For a happy ending right...? Well.. a happy ending that does not seem real. I mean we as girls are set up for a happy ending at a young age. We still hope for prince charming, don't we ? It seems so real to us.. and one day we will find that. But in society is that all real life, will there be no struggles, and when you're down in the dumps will prince charming rescue you on his horse. No, this is not reality... its a mere fairy tale that gets into our brains and makes us hope for things that are merely an illusion. However, taking your life and enjoying it to its fullest and helping others along the way could in fact be your happy ending. Everyone's ideal happy ending could be totally different. I just feel that reality is not a happy ending... or at least not the type of happy ending that the movies portray. If like were like the movies and every ending was happy then we wouldn't have the sadness and sorrow that we do.

In this text it just shows reality. I know that some people may live in a bubble and think that none of these things happen, but it is REAL LIFE. People cheat, people lie, people are not perfect. We have to stop focusing on the happy ever after... and worry about the happy right now In the long run it will turn out to our advantage. Love ties into this sort of text because you see a woman just being with a man who is obviously using her to his advantage. I see this kind of behavior from men, and it makes me disgusted with them over all. And to think that a woman would just stay with a man because she has no self worth just blows my mind. Woman allow men to treat them this way, and therefore men feel that they can get away with it. If women didn't so passionately want that happy ending... would things be different? I believe so.

What We Talk about When we Talk about Love

"Say what you want to, but I know it was," Terri said. "It may sound crazy to you, but it's true just the same. People are different, Mel. Sure, sometimes he may have acted crazy. Okay. But he loved me. In his own way maybe, but he loved me. There was love there, Mel. Don't say there wasn't."

At the begging of this exert it really hit me to a different point. Of course I believe and see that Terri's lover was crazy and had problems that caused him to act in the manner he did, but it touches me because it is really sad. Just as Terri's lover killed himself, my grandfather did the same thing. And I completely understand that there are people that take their lives because they are simply misunderstood and mentally ill, and something triggers them and they end up taking their lives. It is such a sad thing to think about because when something is more powerful than you can over come and you end up taking your life because of it. It just breaks me heart, just like it did when I found out my grandfather had way before I was even born. My grandfather was not mentally ill, but did commit suicide because of love. I think that with some people like my grandfather, they long for this big huge word they have heard about all their lives and then they find it and it is taken from them in the blink of an eye and what they thought would last forever did the exact opposite. I know that this whole story was not just about this one phrase about love, and the suicide aspect of it. I just could I guess relate to what it was trying to say about Terri's ex lover. What a sad and tragic thing to not only be mentally ill and take your life, but to never really know love.

I also look at this exert in another way. The word love is a whole different meaning to a lot of people. One person's view on love can completely be different from another's. Love to some if showing it, and to others its just a word. It just depends on the person I think. In the text I see that Terri thought that even though her lover did things such as beat her and terrorize her she still knew that deep down he loved her. Or, with Mel and Laura. They try so hard to prove to Terri what love really is. With stories and opinions, but really do Mel and Laura really know what love is either.

I think a powerful statement in this text is, " What do any of us really know about love..?"

I do not think there is a more powerful statement. When do we actually fall in love? When do we find love... or when does love find us? Is there a certain age where we fall in love... or is there no falling or just love. I do not think anyone can really answer that question. I think it all has to do with the personal experiences and how someone views such a thing as love, and or being in love. Love to me is a funny thing, because so many different people view it differently. But something as simple as love, you think it wouldn't have to be so complicating, but it ends up being that way. If people just started listening to their own hearts and minds about what they think and truly feel about love they would not need the opinion of others to suffice them.

I enjoyed this text because it showed the different views of love and what others thought of it. It got me thinking about what I really think about love and how I view it as a person.

My earliest memories of literature were when I was in Kindergarten and every night my parents would let me choose out of this huge book of stories what I wanted to hear before bed time. This book included bed time stories, nursery rhymes, and everything that would pertain to a child of that age. My most recent memories of literature would be when I was taking my humanities class last year. We looked at literature in a whole other way in forms of art, song, and writing. This gave me a greater appreciation and understanding of literature as a whole. The most significant text I can say that I have read (even if it does sound cliche) is the Bible. There is no other text or piece of work with more meaning to me. Literature matters because is keeps society going, and it helps us to grow in every day life. If we aren't growing and learning then what really is our point. It does not matter in the ways of tabloids and press, because that is not a way to really be making literature count in your every day life for something.