Intepretation of State of the Planet passage

Robert Hass's state of the planet is a powerful poem about the way we treat our planet as well as a challenge to make a change. With lines like "we know we're going to die" and "the earth needs a dream of restoration" we see a sense of urgency in Hass's planet, we see a sense of urgency in the people as if he dreams of the planet and its people being one in nature, but sees that as too much of a task for us evovled humans " it must be a gift of evolution that humans can't sustain wonder. We'd never have gotten up from our knees if we could". Hass like us is searching, seeking, wondering what else is out there, he pokes fun at evolution, however it seems clear that Hass doesn't believe in God, but he wants a change. Like much of the World Hass feels that something is terribly wrong, the way we treat our planet is the same way we treat each other. We downgrade and destroy it each and everyday and we never stop to see the beauty of the world that is around us. Hass makes a statement "the earth needs a dream of restoration" and this needs as well as the rest of the text to be interpretated because we need to see what is hass communicating here? What is he telling us? What is he telling the Earth? One theory I have is that Hass sees the earth and us as one and he looks at the destruction of every day living on the Earth from both us and the planet and sees that we as mankind need a dream of restoration. What does that word mean? Restoration is the act of renewel, restoring or reastablishing, you see Hass is really challenging us in this short sentence to begin to restore things, to look at the way we have been doing things, the way we litter or what we even use and making a change because he sees that every little change makes a difference in thi world. Every little thing can bring on a new change. If we simply scan this passage we think it is a beautiful representation of the world and the way we are and that we say " we need to take some time and enjoy nature more" But this passage is a challenge, a challenge for you and me to take our voices and our hands and our thoughts and begin to dream of a clean and better world for people to live in. This text means a lot to me as I have grown up near the beach and the shear beauty of the beach at night as you watch the sun go down can blow your mind, it can put you in a different state of mind as you sit on the beach all day just basking in the sun and enjoying the sand with the music playing and hanging with friends and stuff but that day can be ruined as you look around and see the empty bottles and boxes and trash that people simply leave behind. It gets me so mad, so I see this and I read this passage and it makes you realize that you are not the only one that feels this way, that there is somebody out there who wants to see people treating this planet right. Sure him and I have different views on God as I look at the world as God's gift to us, I mean the trees, the plants, the water, the animals are all ours to have dominion over but if we don't treat that dominion with responsibility and if we don't take care of it then we shoot ourselves in the foot and we mistreat God's gift to us. The fact is that we should care more about the planet then the people of the world do, we should be the first ones to throw are trash away and to keep our environment clean, we should be involved in taking care of things and in making a difference in this world. We should give away the food we don't eat instead of throwing it away, we should make the change that others want to see. Its are calling to be Christ like, Its are calling to refocus and to change the "state of the planet".

Waiting for Godot

Random, Absurd, no build up or anything like that, just a play about nothing really, two guys waiting for something that never happens. These are all things that describe waiting for godot. This play about nothing has virtually endless possibilities to what it could mean and what the author might be implying about these two men and there situation. Godot is described like a big business man of sorts in which these two are offering some kind of prayer. Now a lot of biblical references and things about God are made in this sense throughout the story, there are some parts of this story that are just deep and have tons of meaning to it but then there are times when there is nothing really going on exept for randomess. I think this play reveals that there are somethings in life where the ending and the outcome aren't always what we expect and there are thousands of different outcomes at all times that could happen. One of the mysteries of the story is the tree and the way it changes overnight, it has leaves so it has live, it is no longer dead. Perhaps the characters waiting is producing life or maybe it is a metaphor for humanity, that we wait around and do nothing with are boredome, while God is always at work, always busy and always producing life. I chose to read this aloud to myself, taking on the role and different voices of each character to slowly but surely get into there thoughts and I liked the way that they interacted with eacho other, they didn't really pay attention while paying attention if that makes any sense. Overall I liked waiting for Godot it is different and out of the ordinary which seems in these times to be becoming normal, back that that was kind of "absurd" but today I think that in our post-modern culture we like things that our abstract and different because we are so use to the norm that a little different changes are perspective and sheds new light on things...

Some thoughts on Dr. Horrible

Dr. Horrible was a very interesting tragicomedy in deed. At first when I was watching it I wasn't really to interested in it because it just seemed kind of dumb. But then I started watching it and getting the story down I liked the irony in the movie as well as some of the comedy . The movie turned out to be pretty funny because Dr. Horrible is trying to be this super bad supervillan yet he is just horrible at what he does and his arch nemesis the hammer is this cocky super hero that is really dumb but really strong and everyone likes him a lot. The whole homeless thing I thought was horrible the way he made fun of homeless people yet supported the girl because he wanted to sleep with her. I thought the way he talked about the woman and all that was pretty ridiculous, but it proved that point that he really is an egotistical kind of guy. Dr. Horrible is in love with the girl that the hammer is talking about and comes up with a plan to defeat him once and for all. The comedy parts I liked was just how dumb both of the main characters were, it made it funny when they would talk to each other and interact. Overall I understand the plot and the storyline but I guess I just wasnt into the movie. The plot was really non-existent or entertaining, the comedy at some parts were just uncalled for and outrageous. Interesting to see though the different things that people write and think about.

Lake Bonny Park

" Dancing" By Tyler J. Maraia

The trees they dance as the wind blows
there leaves just whistle and they glow
the birds chirp and fly around
there beautiful noise fills the air with sound
the path gleams with a beautiful light
as the sun shines oh so bright
the trees they dance as the wind blows
why they dance nobody knows
perhaps they feel the creator as he walks on by
or maybe they just feel like dancing they don't even know why.

"Beauty"

Its beautiful the sky
as you sit and look up
the blue and the clouds
all puffy reflecting down on the ground below
the background of the trees and the beauty of the flowers
captures such a sweet sweet moment that cannot be sowered
step on the boardwalk and take a walk to the lake
and stop and admire the beauty for heavens sake
for God created the world for us to live
but its more than that its a gift from God
that he loved to Give.

These are just some of the thoughts that came to mind as I walked along and would occasionally pause to listen to nature. The walk was nice and the lake was breath taking. As I walked along I began to pray and just listen to the wind as it would blow through the trees and observe if maybe, just maybe I could hear something. I listened to two birds have a conversation as if they were asking each other how they were doing and how everything was. They were probably talking about where the food for the day was and the shelter for the night but just maybe just maybe it was more than that. Maybe it was a conversation about life and living and everything that birds do and maybe they were talking about God. About there creator, sort of exercising that "animal instinct". Who knows?

God in Nature

The beauty of nature should lead us toward believing that God is the divine source behind it all. I mean just watching an animal hunt, or eat or sleep and go through the natural beautiful motions that it goes through to survive should be an inspiration. As I was watching the Planet Earth DVD I thought of the story in Mathew 6 when Jesus is talking about us not worrying about what we eat or drink or what we wear because God takes care of the plants and animals so why wouldn't God take care of his own children. The movie was mind blowing wasnt it watching the glaciers and the oceans move they way they did and as questions I would argue that we should appreciate the creation of nature more than the people of the world do because to us it serves a bigger purpose than just something that happend out of nothing. Like us the trees were created to produce and the animals as well to bring life to this beautiful earth that only God could create. The fact that we are here is just a blessing. The poem we read was very deep and captured the destruction that we as people bring to this planet, he seemed very disgusted to the point of he himself giving up because he felt there was nothing left to do. Like so many people he is searching, trying to find something and bring people to this understanding. With him its not a question of what made it, its a quesition of How do we take care of it? For us I think we should ask What can we do to protect God's creation? Why aren't we caring so much about are planet I mean it is a gift from God there are ton's of things we should do. In romans 1 Paul says "8The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." I will leave it at that with a statement...Remember we do not worship nature, but the creator of nature but we should also take care of the creators creation as it is a gift to us as well..

An Enemy of the People

An enemy of the people is a play about Dr. Stockmann a physician who discovers that the local water source, which happens to be the biggest source of his towns income is becoming polluted and has been polluted ever since it was built. Because of the fact that it was polluted people there and people who live there have been sick ever since. The play written by Henrick Isben is actually a play about the power and control of the masses(i.e. government) over the individual with a radical idea of truth. The whole play is a struggle, a deep dark struggle sometimes played off with comedy to keep the mood light, about Dr. Stockmann and his brother the mayor of the town fighting with one another over what to do. Dr. Stockmann rightfully wants to tell the people about the problem and get it fixed, however, his beaurocratic brother sees this as a big loss of money and doesn't want to invest in fixing it nor wants the people to know about it. The issue here is that there are many things in are society that we see everyday, injustices if you will that need to be fixed, starving children and people, pollution, all sorts of things and when we see these things we see a way to fix them but What if we don't have the power to do so? What if living for the one thing that you want to see change the world cost you everything? It cost Dr. Stockmann everything to follow his truth and undying desire to fix this thing, his family was in danger, they lost there jobs, there house, there money and all sorts of things as there family was cast out by the good law abiding members of society all because of one mans radical ideas. When he asked about the people who crucified Christ it really hit the audience because everyone in that moment was silence as they thought about it. What if we are the radicals of today? What if our ideas of what social change, and giving back to people and seeing this world changed are looked at as radical in the eyes of the higher powers of society and no matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we push we never see that change come about? What if it cost us everything to see this world change? To see that Kid and family on the streets get a chance to have a great life instead of a life of despair and depression. What if we gave it all so that one person's life can be changed? Would we? This play was a very powerful play and an eye opening play about how living what God has put in your heart can cost you everything. But I believe as Dr. Stockmann clearly portrays that it is better to follow that deep seeded never ending desire then to bow down to those who want to crush you. Keep pushing on..

Character Story : The Night I will never forget

The smoke filled the broken down rock and roll house on bourbon street, a little shack that usually consisted of all kinds of blue’s players and anybody with a little bit of soul and a little bit of groove in their blood. Yeah they preferred only the best but sometime’s you’d go in there and here the local thinking he could play when really he was the average Joe with a guitar and a dream but on some nights, the greats would come through, guy’s like Stevie Ray Vaughn and BB King would come in, order themselves a cocktail and jam for hours on end and the place would be packed out. Guys decked out in their pin striped suits and fedora’s with a big old cigar in their mouth, some just smoking it to blend in some knowing what good taste is smoking one slowly and enjoying every last inch of it. Ribs and BBQ cooking from the big smoker in the back added a little spice to the night and if the food and the drinks and the music weren’t enough for yeah there would always be the beautiful woman you would have under your arm. It was like a necessity, a woman, an ice cold soda for the non-drinkers, a big plate of food and some of the best blue’s music you would ever hear. It was more than just music you know, it was something unexplainable, watching a man pour his heart out on the stage through his guitar and leaving it all out there for you to reach out and grab a hold of your story, that’s what it was about at least, a story, a story about loving and living and woman and heartbreak and everything in between. Song’s about going to heaven and trying to live right on earth and it all just seemed to go together. It all just flowed. I remember one night walking out of the blue’s club and seeing this gentlemen on the corner he had a fedora on with a black pinstripe suit that was ripped up and looked kind of worn and torn, he was tan with an unshaved beard and frizzy hair and he was just standing there outside the club with a soda in his hand relaxing, he was just bobbing his head around and when I went to ask him what he was doing he made an immediate “shhh” sound and told me to listen. So I listened and I watched him as he took a sip out of the can and started singing the song that Stevie Ray Vaughn was jamming too, it was the “Sky is Cryin” and this mysterious man who told me to “shhh” begin singing it word for word in a beautiful voice he sang “The sky is cryin….” he held “I can see the tears roll down the street”…He was just sort of lost at that point, lost in his past, lost in his thoughts, lost in anything perhaps but he became found again. He kept singing that song and after he got done he had a tear rolling down his cheek and he looked at me all funny as if I hadn’t seen him cryin and he said “ The names Flack” I said “hello the name’s Roy” “I am” I began and he just sort of cut me off and started talking. “You were in there” he replied with a stern voice “ yeah” I replied “You understand the blues”, “I guess so”, “ you guess so”, “ well yeah I mean the lyrics and the playing they are about hard times and pain and sorrow” I replied wondering why he is asking me questions about the blues?” “Son let me tell you something “ I guess he didn’t realize that I was 25 and he looked like he had maybe 20 years on me but maybe he was younger, but he was rough looking maybe he was one of those people who was young but lived a rough lifestyle or maybe he just didn‘t care about appearance, go ahead. “Go ahead sir” he looked at me, “Go ahead sir” I replied. He began “ The blue’s aint just about a feeling, they are about a deep deep deep he emphasized, sense of trying to get something out that you just can’t seem to get out of you, whether it be how much you love or don’t love somebody or some kind of pain or some kind of hard time that you went through or something” he continued “ and you know what else, God loves the blues, he does, he does let me tell you, God loves the blues my boy.” “At this point I thought maybe that wasn’t soda that Flack was drinking, maybe it was juice as the boys in the club called it” “ and you know what else Flack said, “ you don’t need the drankin or the smoking or the woman or the drugs to get the feeling you get when you go into that club, no, what you need is some Jesus, some Soda, a good ole girl from the church and most of all a heart ready to be poured into and you ready for some blues.” he spoke with a southern bluesy kind of draw and when he talked his face sort of began to light up and he slowly went into conversations of how he heard the greatest of them all over and over again and how the one’s who died sounded so good and that it was a shame that I missed out on such a good crew but that perhaps one day I will be up in a beautiful place listening to the blues singers, some of em at least he said. I looked at him like he was crazy, is he talking about heaven and seeing old blues singer’s in heaven, that’s a peculiar thought, I thought. “I have been all over the world my boy, I use to be a pastor down at a little church around the way and God just kind of took me from there to all over the place with my wife and we did the lord’s work that’s why you won’t be finding me in there he said pointing at the bar, all that drinking and smoking and woman coming in there clad the way they are, you can save that I just, I just want the music you know why.” “ Why I said” “Because it makes me remember the day’s where I had all that, the day’s where I had my church and my new suits, my wife and we would travel and I would just speak and preach the word in the church’s without air conditioning and afterward we would get some BBQ and just fellowship, yeah those were the day’s” he sort of slipped away at that moment as if he had left his body and was transported to another place“ sir” I said, catching his attention again “ Where are you from?” “I’m from a place that you can’t see yet nor have you ever been” “excuse me” I said Flack looked dead at me and tilted his hat back a bit and said “ come on follow me” “to where” I said. “I’m going to take you to hear some real blue’s” he leaned in and said with a huge smiling that almost engulfed his face. We stepped around the corner and walked for what seemed like a mile past burning trash cans, bottles littered the street and signs began to look crooked, but we finally got to what appeared to be a little shack that was falling apart, the windows were busted out, the roof had been falling apart, the paint must’ve chipped decades ago and the door barely looked like it was hinged right and Flack opened it up and there sat a stand-up bass in all it‘s beauty, the wood was old and the strings looked like they were about to fall off , a drum set and a guitar that had been occupied by two gentlemen already. “Roy” meet the gang, this here is “ slim” the best guitar player you will ever meet and this here is well just call him “Sammy”. These two men as well were dressed sort of like vagabonds but then again some how I just ended up in this little shack and was ready to hear some music not really caring about what they looked like or appeared to be like . Flack went over to that big old base and started playing it, he began with a smooth bass line that was just so powerful and the drums picked up and then the guitar came ripping through the scene and the dust flew off the bass and next thing you know I was caught up in a whirlwind of blues and soul and taken back, my heart was leaping as this music just hit me in the deepest cores and it was so different it was like they were playing with a purpose not just playing, they had meaning to bouncing off of each other, each player told a story through there instrument and after they were done they wiped off there sweat filled faces and slapped each other a high five and it was the best one hour session I had ever heard in my life, even up to this day. “Well” Flack said. “ Man , Sir, that was awesome, why don’t you ever play at that club up there you guys would kill it” “ No, No we don’t play in public” “ well, why not” “because you see the guys in public they are so good no doubt about it but a part of us blues players get’s lost when we go public with our music, but when the music is straight from our hearts at the time, not written down, not promoted it still stays real.” “ well” I said “ That’s a shame Flack because you are missing out.” “ No” Flack said. “You are” here Roy come with me let‘s walk back to the blues club and I will explain to you on the way“ I don’t understand” I said as we walked down the street. “Roy you still haven’t learned your lesson have you Son” “no’ and why do you keep calling me son” “ Because your like a son to me, well, actually more like a brother” “I’ve only known you for like 2 hours flack” “No” and “Yes” you have known me for only 2 hours but I have been around you your whole life, always waiting there out front of that blues club, Always making sure you didn’t reach your limit, always watching over your shoulder” “ what are you, some kind of stalker,” “No , I am your guardian angel, Can’t you tell, I mean , I dress like you, I don’t smoke and drink, which by the way you need to quit, and I won’t go to those places that are bad but I will stand out front and always keep an eye on you to make sure that you are doing ok, every night when you are sleeping I stand out front of your house and just play my bass and groove to the sound of your protection” I didn’t know what to say at this point, I felt like running or maybe calling the cops but at the same time I had an overwhelming sense of peace in my life for the first time. “Roy, when I was a pastor and I lost my wife things got hard for me, God, studying my word and playing music, the blues, were the only things that could help me cope, When it came time for the lord to take me I asked him “If I could stay here and watch over just one more person until I go to heaven? And God said “I knew you would say that, and that’s why I have chosen Roy for you to watch over, but, he won’t be born for another 100 years or so-so, you will have to stay on the earth and make sure that everything goes according to the plan so that he gets there on time, So here I am, your guardian angel, a bass playing, blues loving, suit wearing..” “wait wait wait, I said “ if you’re an angel what’s with the suit and all that stuff and why a shack and everything else and why me?” “ the suit because God gave me style, it’s a 100 years old so yeah it’s pretty rough looking, the shack because I got all I need and oh yeah by the way where else are you going to play with guitar slim and Sam Carr” My jaw dropped. “ yeah that’s right son the legends themselves God Chose you because he loves you and oh yeah who do you think started blues, well at least who do you think put the idea of blue‘s on someone‘s heart, that‘s right it was God using me to do it, your guardian angel Flack(Fully living abundantly caring kindly) Flack ” “Well I only have so much time to tell you what I needed to tell you because I have gotten you hear to this point you ready, number 1, always keep your eyes and heart on God because since you will be preaching one day you are going to need to have his wisdom, number 2 start working harder at what you want to be this story should be a good first page for the book you are working on and number 3, enjoy this life always putting God first, fall in love, have some kids, fill them with God and Love and never desire any riches or anything in this world but always keep your eyes and heart focused on the next. Oh yeah and I will always be watching and right around the corner so don’t do anything stupid and God say’s high by the way”. At that he was gone except for the little bass chords I could hear playing in my head and the occasional sip out of the soda pop can and every once in a while I thought I felt his hat on my head. That night was just a night at a club, listening to some music but it quickly became a night that I will never forget. A night that a meant my destiny and realized what I was supposed to do for the kingdom. A night where an angel and a sinner had a conversation about God and Music and about love and living and about everything in between. Yeah that night, I will never forget it. Well that’s the first chapter of my book what do you think?