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?

Old Man and the Sea

Reading the Old Man and the Sea by the lake in front of the library, the water fountain going in the background was such a peaceful time. The old man and the sea is just a great book so far, the discussion between the old man and the boy is the main focus and so you learn about the characters through there interaction with each other. I like the fact that the Old Man "Santiago" is just an old time fisherman who is whole life is waking up and fishing but its so much deeper than that( no pun intended)His understanding for life and the passion he feels is something to be revered and admired. He is more than just a salty old man he is a man that has vivid dreams of beautiful lands and peaceful places. You know I picture him being like a sort of vagabond like character, he would have like old smelly beat up clothes and he sleeps in a shack the book points out with not to much money at all and barely a place to lay his head but he would give people messages just by the simplicity in which he lives and how much he loves what he does and what he dreams about there is so much than just an old man and the sea.

The importance of Onions

Onion-A bulbous plant (Allium cepa) cultivated worldwide as a vegetable

An Onion travels a far way (The onion is believed to have originated in Asia, though it is likely that onions may have been growing wild on every continent. Dating back to 3500 BC, onions were one of the few foods that did not spoil during the winter months. Our ancestors must have recognized the vegetable's durability and began growing onions for food.The onion became more than just food after arriving in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the onion, believing that its spherical shape and concentric rings symbolized eternity. Of all the vegetables that had their images created from precious metals by Egyptian artists, only the onion was made out of gold.Today, onions are used in a variety of dishes and rank sixth among the world's leading vegetable crop)http://www.foodreference.com/html/fonions.html The onion is looked at as such a small thing in our society while in some country's that are very poor ship and sent it out to us to use for cooking. I thought it was interesting and weird that the Egyptians use to worship an onion. That just doesn't make too much sense but something so small was once worshiped is now a cooking ingredient in our society. Oh how the times change huh. This poem to me represented more than an onion. It represented the fact that everything has a deeper significance to it. A deeper meaning if you will. God doesn't just create random things, no they have a meaning, a certain context to them. The onion in this story could represent a forgotten child who is starving and has no one who cares for them. Or it could just be talking about a bulbous plant that we eat almost everyday.

Sacred Reading

The sacred reading exercise in Lit class was pretty interesting wouldn't you say? it kind of gave a whole new feel to reading a book or a text I should say. Certain things seem to jump off the page just listening to it in a meditative mode, you seem to catch the scene better and really feel and see what was going on as well as experience the live concert they put on. Listening to it and pausing after ward's let the text catch up to you and let your thoughts fully process. We are so used to reading something then asking a question and having a second to answer but this time we had a minute and we were just able to say aloud what stuck out to us and feel. I liked that a lot because as you begin to shout things out it seemed that many of us began to connect the dot's if you will of our feelings were similar. The text is a sad text about life and pain and hurt but the music, the music brings life, it brings hope it brings something that the people at the revival weren't fully able to bring and that is a sad but true statement to this text. Why? Why weren't the people singing the hymn at the revival able to bring the good news to the people listening like the blues did. I believe it's the fact that the blues hit there hearts and made them feel like they were alive again something that the revivalist preached about but didn't live out. Which is a good lesson to learn, We have to practice what we preach as well as keep to the truth and impact people with the word of God and the music that God has given us and entrusted us with to show people his love.

Joel by the Lake reading

The sun was up, the sky was blue, the lake moving with the wind and the wind blowing on our faces so lightly keeping us somewhat cool on such a hot day. As I stood out over the lake under the shadow of a beautiful tree reading Joel I felt myself transported back in time my imagination running wild of what Joel was feeling, Those emotions all tied up, perhaps bottled in until the correct time to let them out. Emotions of Pain, Sorrow and Sadness mixed with Angst, suspense and Joy makes up this reading of Joel. Reading it outside and out loud puts you in a different position than reading it just like you normally read a book in the bible, It helps certain things stick out more and hit you harder than before and can you imagine it. Your standing there on the lake and as you read the text " the stars get darker" you imagine and see in your mind the Sun sort of losing its glint and its not so light anymore and as the night comes you look up at the moon and see that it has a red tint to it but its not bloody yet. Is It? Its pretty wild all the imagery and different things that stick out in Joel, especially when he talks about the drunkards and the armies he is being so real about what people perhaps looked like. I experienced reading it and trying to put it all together in my head and imagine as if I was reading it maybe toward our generation What would I say? What would God want me to say? What would my emotions be?

Joel- Render your heart

Joel 2:12-14 "Even Now" declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning."(13) rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.(14) who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing."

Interesting fact but Joel means "Yahweh is God" http://bible.org/seriespage/joel,
Joel calls for utter destruction and death to rain over Israel and he uses an invasion of Locusts to represent an invasion of Israel which plays a very important part in the return of God's kingdom and the restoring of the temple. Joel and Whitman have a similarity in the fact that both talk about death like a fact of life. To Joel and Whitman death is coming, to Joel from God and Whitman well its inevitable and a fact of life but Joel has more hope I believe because he talks about rendering your heart (Joel 2:12-14) as if to give some hope to the people that you still have a chance, that when the days of wrath and death and destruction come upon us like a plague of locust you will still have a chance to repent and return to God but he says Render your hearts. Render as defined by dictionary.com has many meanings but I like this one the best "to present for consideration,approval, payment, action." Joel is basically saying to the people to repent and allow for God to take there hearts and allow God to use them and always to keep and stay with God. The locusts represent a very small part of what God can do. Joel was prophesying over a future and time when disasters worst then Locusts would come. Whitman understands the mortal death that we see everyday but Joel looked ahead to the spiritual realm of things and I believe Walt Whitman did too I think he was more for now then for the future.

Cemetery and Walt Whitman

"To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle"-Walt Whitman

In Walt Whitman poem When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, he describes his very feelings of death and in those reflects on life. Walt Whitman faces the inevitable uncertainty of death. But Toward the end of the poem he starts to praise death almost excepting it entirely and appreciating it, in line 140 he says "But praise! Praise!Praise! for the sure-en winding arms of cool-enfolding death". I love Walt Whitman words there, Sure-En winding Arms of cool-enfolding death gives death such a personification of a person wrapping there arms around you and that's a wild vivid thought. Walking around the cemetery reminded me of just how mortal I was, Not thinking I was immortal or something but you know what I mean. Several Thoughts floated through my head one in particular was in the cemetery across the street by where the angel was... There was a path which split and the path in the middle went straight and led to a building, for what I don't know what it was for but It was there and I got this imagery of walking toward heaven the roads on the side being the fork in the road and the path leading straight leading toward heavens gate, I think I had a moment. The angel statue was beautiful and reminded me of maybe when you die the angels carry your spirit to heaven or come and watch over you. Who knows? I also thought about what it would look like when the "dead in Christ rise" I mean won't that be wild, being in a cemetery and seeing people coming out of the graves or maybe it won't be like that. The whole thing I learned was that death is a certainty but staying dead isn't. I mean think about it we are promised eternal life with Christ in a place of peace, heaven, a city where God's glory dwells. Revelation 21 says " I saw a new heaven and a new Earth, I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, Keep reading and it says Now the dwelling was with men, and he will live with them. Isn't that amazing that we will be in eternity dwelling with God and we can all say to each other hey do you remember when.... To finish this up I just would like to say that we don't need to fear death it is a reality and sometimes that very reality I think will always be hard to grasp, watching a loved one die or a child or whatever you may see can make you upset, sad, scared and worried but we serve a God who defeated death long ago and has promised us life eternal full of peace and joy and love and happiness forever and ever. Just like Walt Whitman said night and day journeys a coffin but in reality night and day another soul reaches eternity. Which side of eternity do we plan on being in?

Tuscana Restaruante Eating and talking lit

Eating and talking about lit was a different experience in and of itself. I really enjoyed it, I mean having meaningful conversation and good food was a nice thing and a good time. We talked about the hobbit and did some ritels which were a good time trying to figure out and then we talked about various literature and what effects us and discovered some similarities and differences about each other through what we read. We talked about movies as literature and realized that movies tend to keep out some of the best parts of the book, they don't go through the entire book completely. WE talked about alien movies and different things. A great discussion on C.S. Lewis and Tolkien went on as well. The food was delicious and the conversation was equally as satisfying. This experience was cool and opened our eyes up to the normal every day conversations that could happen and do happen over literature in all shapes in sizes, books, movies and music.

Night City and Facing the Darkness...

In Night City by Elizabeth Bishop we see a very dark scene, along with Howl we get a vivid image of something that has gone terribly wrong. The world moving toward a place far from what God originally intended is the overall themes of these two stories. Questioning Hope in such a dark and dying world I mean in Howl you see people who are dying of drug addictions, Suicide and who are just plain crazy. Compassion plays a big role in Howl as the author is feeling for these people, you can feel the heartache that this author is feeling for these people as he sees and isn't that the same heartache Jesus has when he looks at the broken and abused being mistreated by the Pharisees. We have to have compassion on those people (Isaiah 58) and not just have compassion but to reach out and clothe these people and help them find Jesus and that's where there hope and freedom where come from. When I look at the Night City poem I see sort of a post apocalyptic city in ruins, People moving along the street hastily and scared of the fact that all is gone. She is looking at a well to do person weeping by himself and just like I said in class its like she can imagine him with all these people having friends and wealth and now just like the city he is in ruins. I like the fact that she could also be alluding to the fact that the world is in ruins or heading that way.

Theme plus the things they carried part 2

So theme is defined as a readers take or the overall moral of a story. It's where we get the moral of little red riding hood from when we dive into the text and see what really lies behind all the metaphors and such. Theme can be anything from love and death to friendship and lies. Theme is not really limited and sometimes isn't supposed to be discovered. There can be more than one theme to a story just like The things they carried had many many themes, some strong themes of death and love but also of mayhem and memories. When we look at the story of The things they carried when compared to Little Red Riding hood Death plays a role in both stories. Little red riding hood more of a moral message of be careful who you trust with the things they carried being a message of "moral" or "no moral" in war. Love is represented by the lieuntenent looking at the pic and little red riding hood loves her grandmother. If you ask me I think Love and Death are probably pretty much represented in most literature, movies, art work things like that because well those are the two biggest themes of life or at least the most important themes of life in which we think about these things everyday because whether we are off at war or being decieved by a wolf we face them every day.

The Things They Carried and so much more...

This story was really good. Its the story of soldiers and what they really carry? Sure its things like Guns and health supply's and everything in between but its love letters, its personal thoughts and other things that make you realize not only the effects of war but also the depth of love and pain in which a man feels. I like in the end how Lieutenant Cross figures out that what men fight for isn't honor and anything else like that but its to not have dishonor in there lives. Their very pride has led many of them to this place of certain death and yet they have become so cold to death it is another joke to them, another game to play, another thing to make light of. All of this chaos and mayhem is going on and lieutenant cross can only see one thing can only feel one thing and that's his love for a girl named Martha yet it is a sad love because he feels like she doesn't love him which could be true or far from the truth. As the book describes these men are losing there minds daily, the blood, destruction and mayhem of war has put them in another mind state and because of this maybe Cross doesn't realize that she really does love him. He burns her pictures and letters trying to convince himself that he could let her go but doesn't he love her so much he can't burn her out of his head and heart no matter what. He just wants to be in this place of peace, in her chest as the book puts it, but he can't, this war, this world whatever it is in the way. Will he ever get back to her? Will she continue writing him? If he dies what kind of reaction will she have? These are all questions I wish we could see answered but like every good writer the author just keeps us guessing.

Intro LIt first post get to know me....

Hello my name is Tyler J. Maraia I am 20 years old and decided to take Lit because I love Writing and want to expand my knowledge on how to become a better writer. I like writing because it can take you to places and remind you of things and help you understand the true feelings behind and beyond the typical seeing, feeling, touching and tasting of everyday life. My earliest memories of Lit come from my 3rd grade teacher Mr. Droke. We wrote stories and I came up with a character called TYLER PRIVATE EYE and he was like an action/mystery kind of guy and went on all sorts of wild adventures. I wrote all the way up until about the middle of High School or less and then I kind of let it go and became more of a note writer/journaler/Blogger and did some poetry but always have had the yearning to write and get emotions on paper. My most recent memories would be my composition 1 and 2 class at Saint Petersburg College and I loved just learning about the various poets and writers of our day that takes me up to this class. My Most Significant Text is probably Honestly Shakespeare and I just say that because it was some of the hardest stuff to read and understand simply because of the old language. We read through the play and took care of all of that. Lit matters because it is another way to communicate to people and get a message out. Sometime Lit doesn't matter because the author will simply write something without any thought that it will impact or do anything for anybody else.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a story of 4 people each of who have similar but different issues going on. It's a break down of 2 couples, one couple is the deeply in love, we love each other because we just do couple and the other is the married been through hard times couple. My initial reaction to this story was bewilderment as I listened to Terri's story, Terri is telling her husband how much her crazy ex husband who blew his brains out love her and there is this whole discussion of what is TRUE LOVE? I find it interesting that Mel criticizes deeply Terri's Ex Husband when he himself makes a statement or two or three about killing his wife and wishing she was dead and hating her. The room is full of conversation and drinking which toward the end of the story begins to create tension that is so thin you can cut it with a knife. Mel tells his wife Terri to shut up just for once. Terri is trying to play the happy go lucky gal who puts up with the drinking just to basically keep Mel from not losing his temper which brought me to this question? Does Terri make Men crazy because both the guys she has been with seem very tense and one of them was psycho and the other one is borderline crazy. Now the main character sort of has the narrator role he just kind of sits back drinks his drink and listens and sees the expressions on the peoples faces, he admires his gal Laura and thinks the world of her and Mel is his best friend so he just sort of puts up with him and his antic's. Are they dying or close to death? What does the light slowly fading away with almost every page turn represent? What exactly is True Love and does it have a definition? We know Love from 1 Corinthians 13 but do these people exemplify that. I would have to say no, they see love as just a simple object that if lucky enough you fall in love and stay with one person but as Mel puts it one of us could leave and the other could move on and be happy and thats alright with him. So this to me is sort of a twisted perspective and outlook on love and I think in the long run they all yearn for the " old People" who were hurt not because of being broken up in the hospital but because they couldn't see each other.