This Blessed House

February 1st – This Blessed House

In This Blessed House we get a brief glimpse into the relationship of newly weds Sanjeev and Twinkle. They are young, attractive, and successful but appear to be completely incompatible. The story is written from Sanjeev’s point of view which makes it very clear all the ways he believes his wife to be different from himself. Their differences are all the more highlighted by the briefness of their relationship. Relating to this is easy for me, I dated a girl for five and half years and sometimes it seemed we were newly weds. I realized in that relationship it’s give and take to make a long marriage or just a dating relationship work. As the story progresses its hard not to like Twinkle. She is happy and carefree. She enjoys life and all of its little surprises. For me I just wish I can find a girl like that, a person that has a care-free, spirit-free personality. Her husband on the other hand seems to suck the joy form everything. He alphabetizes his books and chooses to read about music instead of feeling about it. It’s as if the author wants the reader to pick a side as the story starts. Which in that regards, I wish the author didn’t do that. I like both characters even though I don’t know about the Christianity part for Sanjeev. I found it disrespectful that Sanjeev had a strong hatred for Christianity and everything I stand for. I know a lot of non-Christians especially back home in Jacksonville but none of them have the guts to say what Sanjeev says. I have a lot of Hindu friends and also just plain atheist and they don’t believe in God or Christ. One of the funniest things to me is Sanjeev calls the Christian material “Christian Paraphernalia” which comes across to me like a drug or something you would get high on. But in youth groups today and in my youth group I have heard Christ is my high and the connection I had with this story in that regards is just funny to me.

Short Story

February 8th -Short Story “Special Post #1”
Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to tonight’s game. This is you’re game of the week in high school baseball presented by Comcast sportsnet. This week we are in Jacksonville, Florida at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Baseball Grounds is home to the Jacksonville Suns, which is a minor league team affiliated with the Florida Marlins of Major League Baseball. The schools that are facing each other tonight have had a bitter sweet rival for many years. Tonight they will go head to head in a tough divisional match-up. Englewood High school Home of the Rams, will be the home team in tonight’s match-up and they are 9-3 on the season led by Coach Hart and behind the arms of Doug Hester and John Hayes. Englewood offense has been hot since the loss to Bolles School of Jacksonville. The offense is led by Derrick Jackson, Josh Dowling, and Johnny Higgins. The opponent for tonight’s match-up will be Wolfson High School Home of the Wolfpack, they are 10-2 on the season led by Coach Marabell and behind the offense of Richard Lucas and Brian Gilson. The Wolfpack pitching has been outstanding led by Greg Fountain. Richard Lucas, most likely a first to second draft prospect for the Major league draft coming up in June, will have an opportunity to show what he has tonight in front of many scouts. For years both programs have battled in a fierce rival and many pro baseball players have come out of these schools. From each school two have made it to the MLB “the show” as most people call it. The smell of freshly cut grass, the aroma of clay in the air and the fans going crazy; it’s just a baseball night in late May. Some would call this game one of the biggest not only for the standings in the division but for bragging rights around town. We just got word that tonight’s pitching duel will be on, as John Hayes and Greg Fountain will go head to head under the big lights of the Jacksonville Baseball Grounds. The attendance tonight is unbelievable. Tonight’s official count of the attendance is over thirteen hundred. These two pitchers have been unstoppable this season both pitchers have perfect records. John Hayes is 6-0 on the season with 83 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.18. Greg Fountain is 7-0 on the season with 78 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.34. John Hayes has a very strong defense behind him and that will try to counteract the powerful offense of the Wolfpack. Hayes said to us after the game “my nerves were going crazy until that first pitch I just got in a groove and was ready to go”. The Rams took the field at 7:00pm start time. The first pitch was on the way by the senior right hander John Hayes. First pitch was a strike and the fans were ecstatic. It was a great start to the game for the Rams and Wolfpack. As the game progress the tension grew tighter for each team. Words Flying, cleat spikes up on every slide, players getting hit. This is what you except from a bitter rival as this was. Some compare the rival to a Boston versus Yankees rival, just plain nasty playing. The love, the passion, and the will to win can drive you into doing stupid stuff like that sometimes; but at the same time can drive you to win the game. Both pitchers on the night have been flawless with Hayes throwing a 2 hit shutout so far with 1 hit by pitch “some say intentionally” and Fountain has been great as well with a 4 hit shutout so far and also 1 hit by pitch. Going into the bottom of the sixth inning the game is scoreless. Due up for the Rams will be Higgins, Hester, and Hayes “The three H’s”. Higgins with a 0-2 count turns on a curveball down the line for a base hit to right field. Hester comes up and bunts it down the third base line to the star prospect, Lucas fields the ball throws it to first and it gets away from the first baseman and the ball goes down the line. This puts the runners on second and third with no outs. Hayes is up, he has the opportunity to help himself out and also win this ball game. The pitch from Fountain to Hayes comes to the plate. Higgins takes off towards home as the stands of Jacksonville Baseball Grounds hold their breath, you can literally drop a pin and hear it hit the ground that’s how quiet it was. Then fans from Wolfson side scream along with their Coaches SQUEZZE!! SQUEZZE!!. Lucas sprints in from third base. Hayes squares around puts the ball down perfectly. Higgins slides in to home untouched. The umpire behind the plate screaming SAFE SAFE!!! Around 600 hundred fans of Englewood some students, parents, alumni and faculty are going crazy. The fans of Wolfson hang their heads in disappointment. All that’s left to do for the Rams is to shut down the Wolfpack offense once again. The game came to an end with an outstanding diving catch by Johnny Higgins and also Josh Dowling. John Hayes threw a complete two hit shutout and the celebration begins for the Englewood Rams. The Englewood Rams improve to 10-3 on the season and Hayes improves to 7-0 on the season. Outstanding pitching performance by both pitchers but unfortunately everyone can’t win. After the celebration at the Jacksonville Baseball Grounds, Englewood was outside the stadium talking to parents and friends. Jessica a long time friend of Hayes and many of the baseball players of Englewood got into a verbal argument with Brian Gilson one of the Wolfpack key players in the game. Gilson eventually pushed and made threats to Jessica and the boys of Englewood stood up. Hayes and catcher Eric Burney were the first to act on the situation. Hayes grabs Gilson by the throat and pushes him into a fence. Hayes was furious. Jessica was like a sister to Hayes and Gilson was actually a friend of Hayes as well. Gilson and Hayes grew up playing ball with each other at the local park in their neighborhood. Fans and parents br0ke up the little fight that was going and the boys of Englewood got onto their bus and drove back to their school. At this time Hayes gets a phone call from Jessica, she is screaming and yelling HELP!!! Please come HELP!!. The boys of Englewood rush to Jessica’s aid to find Gilson in front of her house throwing bottles and all kinds of stuff at the house and at Jessica’s car. Gilson runs into his car once he sees the multitudes of people coming after him. Hayes and many others punch or kick Gilson’s little Honda Accord. Glass shatters, dents are made to the car on the passenger and driving sides; making Gilson outraged. The next thing that comes up is very graphic and not suitable for all ages. Gilson calls for back up not just back up but for ABR which is one of Jacksonville’s most feared gangs. ABR stands for Albanian, Bosnian and Russian gang. The ABR members don’t care who they hurt or how they hurt them, as long as it gets done. The boys of Englewood decide to meet up with Gilson not knowing ABR was behind him. Around 11:30 at night after the win of the biggest game of the season for the Englewood Rams. The Rams experienced a night they won’t forget, as the boys of Englewood sit and wait for the arrival of Gilson. Gilson shows up with 20 cars full with at least 4 people in each. There were around 80 ABR members with bats, brass knuckles, lead pipes, beer bottles, knifes, and guns. Some Englewood boys got in their cars and sped off. Some were stuck by a truck driven by the girls. The girls were leaving when an ABR member jumped on their truck and distracted the driver making her swerve and hit a pole. Hitting the pole not only totaled her car but one of the ABR members was in critical condition and two Englewood boys were in critical condition as well. One member of the ABR was run over by an Englewood boy trying to leave the massacre behind. The damage was done to all the cars ABR destroyed every windshield smashing it with their feet and hands. Bullets were flying in the cool air until it found a home in the bodies of Josh Dowling and John Hayes. The two players from Englewood were hit and went straight to the ground. At this time Jacksonville Sheriff Officers (JSO) finally showed up after several calls to them were failed or thought of the Englewood boys were joking around. Jacksonville Sheriff Officers showed up right in time to stop the ABR from doing more damage. There was one cop that saved the lives of Josh Dowling and John Hayes until rescue was able to show up. The members of ABR were being apprehended down the road by ten to fifteen cops. When they finally got everyone in custody the gun was not found. There were tons of weapons that JSO found and accused Gilson for every one of them. At the hospital that night something changed Hayes, something his friends couldn’t describe or his family comprehend. Dowling was fine, his gunshot wound was a straight through shot right through his leg. Hayes’ gunshot wound was to the chest 5cm from his heart and 2cm from his main artillery. A near death experience shows a person that you have to thank God everyday for what you have and don’t take it for granted. John Hayes missed the rest of the season and Englewood lost in the playoffs to Gainesville in the opening round. Hayes tells us today “I don’t regret what happened to me, I don’t regret my past but I just look forward to what’s next and you just have to follow God.” In the interview with Hayes he says “he is not bitter at Gilson” but he even said “I would like to thank him for getting my life straight and I give him credit for helping me get there.” To the baseball celebration to the horror in one night the Englewood boys and the life of Hayes was unfolded and turned around. To this day ABR is strong within the Jacksonville community along with tons of other gangs. John Hayes plans to help the issue in Jacksonville by joining local charities and other organizations. To show young adults and kids that gangs are not the way to go and you could turn around and be set free. The main verse Hayes tells the kids is “to live is Christ, to die is gain.” What Hayes tries to get across to many young kids is that on the road of gang affiliation there’s only two options: six feet under the ground or in an 8 by 6 steel bar cell. Hayes tells them repeatedly “you choose not me, I have already chosen my course” What will you do?

Reading Actively

January 2oth – Active Reading Literature

In early years in life, you learn how to read but looking back I ponder on the idea of did I get the right teaching? The more I read in the book, the more furious I got, not only with myself but also teachers in the past. Questions like reading actively? When I was younger or really in high school too. I didn’t know what reading actively meant. Since reading these last couple of pages and the description it gives on reading actively. I have came to an understanding on what it really means. Not only can you read actively within the book but you can also paint or other expressions of what the text means. Like the saying in class and in English classes everywhere “Getting to know a story, a play, or a poem can be enjoyable in much the same way that getting to know another person is-if you take the time and put in the effort.” What my problem in the past was I wasn’t allowing myself enough time to read actively or just to engage at all. I rushed though the moments of literature I should have been paying attention. Depending on where you are at in life depends on what you get out of what you read is a common statement made by teachers and students. I believe that one hundred percent because this whole semester my life was turned upside down from wrecks to tragedies with my family and my best friends. The point in my life sucked and at the moment I didn’t feel like reading actively or really reading at all. In some regards I just wanted time to stop and let my wounds heal. But I have learned from the literature class and the essay at the beginning of the class that literature is part of your life. You are writing a page of your book everyday. So what I am trying to say is this reading actively depends on where you are in life and also how you read the text. Do you read the text with an open mind or do you close your mind to just what your selfish desires want. Doing this post over has been good not saying that what I did was right but sometimes there’s upsides to doing wrong. Meaning I have gotten more out of this post then before and truly didn’t think I would at all. This post has taught me to not only read literature I want but also engage in other literature such as This Blessed House, Old Man with Wings, traveling onion and so many more. The second thing that this post has taught me is to engage in other ways painting, acting a part of the text out, just actively reading every part of the stories.

Character Bless house

February 3rd – Character of This Blessed House


At twenty-seven years old Twinkle is a newly wed with a nearly completed masters thesis but still carries a youthful appearance that is, more than likely, a result of her easy going personality. She is obviously physically attractive, and is even described by her husbands’ friend as “wow.” Like most things in her life she regards her beauty rather matter-of-factly. This is apparent by her choice to dress in whatever is readily available. She has a similarly laid back attitude in the rest of her life. She is more than happy to ash her cigarette in the floor of her new home, cook with out a recipe and listlessly spend a day reading in bed. It is apparent that Twinkle is confident and comfortable with her self. She easily grabs, and holds, the attention of a room full of people who “admire” her at their housewarming, even asking to be called by her nickname “Twinkle” when her husband introduces her as “Tanima”. And, when necessary stand her ground against her husband and his uptight nature. Oddly, she finds levity in her husband’s controlled and methodical ways. She laughs it off when he repeatedly reminds her that they are “not Christian,” and playfully mocks his taste in music although she finds it unappealing. It seems she finds as much fascination in her spouses’ idiosyncrasies as she does the random, gaudy Christian souvenirs left behind in their home. Like everything in her life she has chosen to love her husband fully and with out exception, despite their incompatibilities. It appears all that she wants is to find happiness as easily as she has up to this point in her life. Her only obstacle may be her husband, Sanjeev, who is struggling to decide if he really loves her. He cannot accept her personality quarks as easily as she accepts his.

Poem

April 18th Poem at Lake Bonny


The clay beneath my feet bring me back to that place
Magnolia trees line the playground beside the field
The sweet smell of honeysuckle attract the bees on sunny days as this
My favorite place to watch the sunset is here, on these sacred benches
Here in this place, man and nature combine in respect
When the sun finally settles the cool wind blows through the trees
Hitting my face on the pitchers mound
Something else happens this night, moisture rushes in
Everyone runs for cove, except me
There is nothing like gracefully walking through the rain-soaked clay
It has a way of cleansing and making new
The Earth rejoices for the long-awaited downpour
Finally the savior has come to claim His land.
----John Hayes II

The Voyages of Dawn Treader

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader starts the way every book in the C.S. Lewis written Chronicles of Narnia starts; with children in the real world. This time, the Pevensies that will guide us through the book are only Lucy and Edmund, being the youngest of the original four, and the only ones still allowed to return to Narnia. Accompanying them this time is their unbearably dull and unimaginative cousin Eustace Scrubb. Eustace takes the mantle of the nonbeliever/skeptic that “needs” Narnia the most, so when he comes upon the Pevensies chatting about the Narnian look of a painting he immediately begins to complain. So when the kids go through the painting into the Narnia sea, it’s safe to say Eustace loses his mind. While the Pevensies are greeted by old friends with open arms, Eustace refuses to believe he’s in Narnia and spends the beginning of the trip asking for the English consultant. The group of friends that rescue the children from the water and welcome them is filled with some familiar faces. The most notable is Caspian, the hypothetical character of the previous novel in the series, and current ruler of a peace filled Narnia. The other big name is the rapier wielding Reepicheep, another hold over from the previous novel. This large talking mouse immediately takes interest in the constantly whining of Eustace and strikes up a budding friendship with him. Eustace and Lucy begin to speak with Caspian about the going ons of Narnia in the three Narnia years that have passed since the events of the last novel. Caspian goes into detail about the peaceful but expansionist conquests of the wilder parts of Narnia and lets the Pevensies in on his plans to find out the fates of the seven lost Narnian lords, sent away by Caspian’s evil uncle Miraz while he was still in power.

The ship from the painting that the children fell into was Caspian’s ship, the so-called Dawn Treader, and the transportation for the entirety of the novel. The first stop on their trip to discern the fates of the seven lost Lords is the Lonely Islands. The Lonely Islands were conquered for Narnia by the Pevensies when the first ruled over the land, but have since fallen into the hands of slave traders and pirates. As the approach the Island, Caspian and the children are captured by slavers and brought to market. Even though Narnian law forbids slavery, the market for it has flourished in the lonely islands. While no one in particular finds themselves interested in purchasing the wimpy looking and whiny Eustace, Caspian is bought up before he even makes it to the sale block. It turns out that the purchaser of Caspian is actually the first of the seven missing Lords, and one of the closest to Caspian, Lord Bern. Bern, along with Caspian, manages to free the rest of the children and overthrow the tyrannical and governor Gumpas, supplanting and replacing him with Lord Bern whom he names the Duke of the Lonely Islands.
The Second Island that the end up on is deserted, and while the rest of the crew sets out to find supplies and materials to fix the ship with, Eustace sneaks off to hide and get out of work. What happens to Eustace on this Island is the first of the “seven deadly sins” oriented tasks that approach each of our heroes; namely greed. Eustace stumbles upon the den of a Dragon and immediately stuffs his pockets with gold and jewels. But the bracelet he puts on his arm turn him into a Dragon. While in the guise of the Dragon, he comes to realize how awful he was and uses his new found strength to help fix the ship, causing Aslan (the Godly Lion of Narnia) to turn him back into a boy. Liked talk about in class Aslan ripped off layers of skin or sins you can say. When I was reading Steve Fettke “The Spirit of God Hovered” I came across on page 3 where social value is conveyed in Paul’s expression in Colossians. “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator.” I just thought the connection was neccasary to add to Dawn Treader. But anyways the story goes on. Caspian, upon seeing the band on the Eustace Dragon, realizes that the band belonged to the second of the Lost Lords and the crew returns to the sea in search of the next island.
The remainder of the book deals with the remaining five missing Lords. Caspian and Edmund find themselves dealing with their own greed on an island with a looking pool that turns anything submerged in it to gold, where the find out this pool took the life of the third Lost Lord. On and Island filled with invisible one footed buffoons called duffers, Lucy deal with her own vice of vanity by using a spell of beauty. Aslan however comes to her a guides her away from that destructive path.The fourth lost Lord is found on an Island constantly shrouded in darkness. They meet Lord Rhoop here, a man at the edge of his sanity due to the strangeness of the Island. Now, having found the fate of four of the Lost Lords, Caspian and crew set out beyond the edges of the known seas and this begins to splinter the crew who is already tired from the stress filled voyage. But when they come across the Island of the Star, morale is raised, due highly to the fact that all the remaining lost Lords are found there. The Lords however are in a enchanted sleep and the crew struggles to figure out a way to awaken them. As if summoned by their plight, and “Star” descends down upon them, and impresses upon them that the only way to awaken the remaining lords is travel to the very real “edge of the world” and leave a member of the crew behind. Leaving a member behind reminds me of the movie Armageddon. As the approach the edge of the world, the children, and Reepicheep set out, leaving Caspian behind only because Aslan said so. Sometimes God does that with our lives just tells us to go or stay or even go away from things. I think I can make a general conclusion to this meaning following God’s will for your life. So, Reepicheep valiantly offers himself up as the crew member to stay behind. Aslan then appears to the children and send them home, proclaiming that Edmund and Lucy won’t be returning. When the children all return home at the end of the book, everyone remarks the very noticeable changes in Eustace, brought upon by his adventures in Narnia.

Special Post #2

1. When I think how far the onion has traveled
just to enter my stew today, I could kneel and praise
all small forgotten miracles,
crackly paper peeling on the drainboard,
pearly layers in smooth agreement,
the way knife enters onion
and onion falls apart on the chopping block,
a history revealed.

And I would never scold the onion
for causing tears.
It is right that tears fall
for something small and forgotten.
How at meal, we sit to eat,
commenting on texture of meat or herbal aroma
but never on the translucence of onion,
now limp, now divided,
or its traditionally honorable career:
For the sake of others,
disappear.
2. This story needs to be interpreted because it’s important to our lives. We should respect the onion just like we respect our life. Even if we don’t like onions, they’re over 5000 years old and have a history to share. There’s a deeper meaning behind this poem that I feel needs to be shared because it is easy to look past this poem.
3. From the beginning line of the traveling onion, “When I think how far the onion has traveled”, I begin to think about my own life. When I think about my life and think of how I have been through everything I’ve been through it makes my own travels seem first line worthy. Our travels make us who we are, and it’s the traveling we’ve done that bring importance and meaning to our lives. And to know that our traveling is not yet finished gives more meaning to our lives, and the life of a simple onion. I’m not sure what an onion has had to go through in the stages of development and I highly doubt it has truly been anything like the life I have had, but even in our difference we are both part of God’s creations. When it says “All small forgotten miracles” it makes me reflect on the forgotten miracles I’ve had in my life. At a point I think of miracles like just being alive. It’s a huge miracle but we forget it. We forget that we take breathes every day. There have been so many times that I take things for granted and do not even realize it. I miss the beauty nature sometimes has to offer, or the story an onion has to tell. One of my favorite lines in the traveling onion is “pearly layers in smooth agreement” party because of the way it sounds. It has a ring to it that feels good falling from my tongue. And later on it says “a history revealed” just like the layers in agreement, it’s the years of our life that we have. The layers represent the years on this earth. Just like a tree has rings, sitting on the bench at Circle B Nature Reserve and someone asking about how to tell the year of a tree. Just like a knife enters an onion or they send a needle through the tree, that’s what God does with our lives, he’s are sharpening tool, he’s everything. “A history revealed” Those are probably the three strongest words in the whole poem. I look back on the history of onions and it’s like a story. It is like our life exposed. I may hate onions but I respect what they do and in my eyes I respect what they stand for. Many people especially in our class and the world don’t understand the true meaning of an onion in the grasp of an onion meaning life.
4. Just like us, in the way that we want to create a legacy in whatever you do whether it is in sports like Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan, or in business like Jack Welch or Jim Collins, or in poetry like William Shakespeare, onions too leave a legacy. When I was researching onions I found out more about what Naomi was saying about onions being worshipped in Egypt. In the temples of gods, onions are always present. What the Egyptians saw in the onions were eternal life in the anatomy of onion because of its layers. Just like the years of our life we have our moments, we have our days that shake us to the core and make us cry. She says in the poem “I would never scold an onion for causing tears.” When I think about that it was hard to come up with an analogy of what I could say to this to be honest. And I’ve been thinking and thinking and the scolding of an onion could be the stress of our life. It could be the trials we go through, it could be demons we face. The one that’s close to me right now is the fallen heart feeling that I rushed right through the moments that I should have been paying attention. Looking back on the years or layers of my life I wish I took time to recognize some of the layers that I have missed. The moments of where my grandma could give advice or the walls I built up didn’t push the ones I really cared away; the moments where I let my addictions control my life. No matter how careful I was, there was a sense that I had missed something, just like a stew needs onions to reach to taste of perfection, I realize I missed a couple layers of onions in my life. It’s a feeling under my skin that I didn’t experience it at all.

5. Interpreting the story of the onion matters to me because onions are something I work with everyday and I tend to cry like a baby when I cut them. After reading the poem I had to cut onions the next morning. I actually went through it and did what professor Corrigan did in class. I spent extra time with it. In doing so I spent too much time with it and the day didn’t go so good but me cutting the onion symbolized the life I’m about to lead, or layer of life which graduating college and going to a new beginning. The onion has really opened my eyes in a way that I didn’t think an onion could do. I’ve always looked at it as nasty and gross and now I look at it with purpose.

6. 952 without poem 1071 with poem.

7. Numbers 11:5, www.foodreference.com/html/onions-history-of-onions.html. I talked about the sources in the paper I didn’t know if you wanted to know more or just the citations. So I just did the citations.

The temple

I went into this story with an open mind and I actually enjoyed this story. “A temple of the Holy Ghost was an interesting and good read. I liked the metaphor on pg 89 where it says “the poor soul is so lonesome she’ll even ride in that car that smells like the last circle of Hell.” I just liked this line in the story; I just thought it was neat. On page 94 she talks about martyrdom and what she could handle or not. It says “She could stand to be shot but not burned in oil. She didn't know if she could stand to be burned in oil or not.” She didn’t know if she could stand to rip apart by lions or not” The lions liking her too much reminds me of Daniel in the lion’s den in Daniel Chapter 6:1 -28 where Daniel is thrown into the lion’s den but God oh so dependable delivered Daniel out of the den. Daniel faith lives today I don’t know about you but I want to be like Daniel every day. Have the faith he had. The child is choosing her death which really doesn’t happen in a martyrdom situation if so it would be pre mediated so it would be martyrdom. Jesus was martyrdom beyond belief in my eyes being rip to shreds by cat of nail tails then had to carry across on his back , then nails driven into his hands with so much force his wrist breaks. Let’s not forget the crown of thrones oh wait and the spear through the side. Just like Dainel faced his fear and also Biel faced his fear and I think how Jesus faced his fear we need to do the same. Our greatest potential is through our greatest fears.

The ones that walked away

After reading the story of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” I was first shocked at the child in the basement and the second that people happiness came from the child every day. While the child was beaten and torment other people lives were amazing full with happiness. To be honest when reading this story I couldn’t think about anything else but Jesus and how the sacrifice he made so everyone can be happy and have the life they want. I guess when I was reading this story over and over again I kept on getting different views or perspectives. Ideas popped up in my mind about third world countries and poverty in Africa or even city here in the United States. This story raised a lot of questions for me like why didn’t the ones that walked away help the child, they saw that the child was hurting and they didn’t do anything? And also why did the ones that saw the child deprived just keep living in their beautiful city? How could someone just keep doing life knowing the child is being tormented like that? I have tried to put myself in both situations thinking would I just keep doing life or would I just walk away. I think the easiest thing would be just keep doing life. I mean, you are in city full of happiness let’s just let the child be our sacrifice. If I do that do I tell the child thank you for being sacrifice because after all he’s taking out pain? Kind of like Jesus took the pain on the cross. Or how the little countries of Haiti and Dominican republic and many more sacrifice their resorts for us so that we can be happy. Their again with that that’s how they make a living. There’s a phrase that is said a lot No pain No Gain. The child took the pain for the people, so that the people had the gain. Wow stop think about that Jesus took our pain so we could gain heaven and eternal life. But as always after writing a post in class the whole meaning of the story will be different and I will think different or be open to other perspectives.

Old Man

This story is the reason I really don’t like literature sometimes especially because I have to read this makes me despise literature more and more each day. I love reading about things I enjoy such as baseball or any sports and about business or leadership. To be honest everything we have read I liked in some way this is the only one that I didn’t like at all. It was to unrealistic for me. I didn’t believe any of it. If I think of an angel I think of glorious, pure creature. But I could also see some angels just being cool and down to earth. If I wanted to be an angel I wanna be the down to earth one that would straight up chill. Them throwing stones at it reminded me of the bible with people got stones. That connection was pretty cool. Some of the stuff in the story kinda lined up with the bible in some ways but then you get to the spider thing and that threw me through some loops and it was just weird. And the crabs, it puzzles me how the crabs give the child a fever. That’s puzzled me more than anything. Kind of ridiculous. It kinda reminded me of freak show when they put him in the chicken coop and it kinda reminded me of how they made a mockery of him and put him with the lowest of lows and nailed him to the cross. I don’t know if Jesus was ever stoned so I’ll have to research more on that. And if you read this post and you know you could save me the time and just tell me. The chicken coop kinda reminded me of, in some weird way, of Daniel and the lions den because the chickens could have done a lot worse and they didn’t. I guess it kinda reminds me of the feeling that Daniel had.

Othello

Othello
I attended the Othello Sunday evening, I do have a comment about it they talked old English but used a cell phone kind of weird. I really don’t like old English talking.

Trip to Circle B Reserve

Trip to Circle B Reserve
I was thinking about this and I took a lot of pictures at the Circle B reserve and I wanted to paint a big canvas picture of the swamplands. The picture would capture the restoration efforts of the Polk county natural resources division. I was happy that will help out a little bit in pulling weeds it felt good to help out with their efforts. The scariest moment of the trip was the guide the blonde one I forgot her name, said “Yea their palm tree disease going around” all I could think of is my tuition going sky high because of the disease of palm trees. The only down fall to the trip was I had this imagery of seeing a big alligator and I didn’t. Sad face to that. I really like the poem reading in the seating area right outside the swamp lands. When we read the poem their I felt like I could look around and try to connect better with what it is saying also just feel the breezy air go right in your face was pretty cool. I have never seen a bald eagle until this trip and let me tell you that was amazing. I liked how they respected the bald eagle even though Polk county wants to restore the land that’s right next to the bald eagle they won’t smoke him out or anything. Shows they care and I thought that was pretty cool. I wish we did this earlier in the school year so we could have a chance to go on hike maybe that would be sweet. I have been on a hike but I think reading a poem or a story would make me greatly appreciate the nature better on the hike. In saying that, next time I go hiking I will read a poem or something on nature.

Poems in Nature

Poems of Nature
“I know a lot of fancy words. I tear them from my heart and my tongue. Then I pray.” My favorite line if I can say it ever. I just like how it says I know a lot of fancy words but even knowing this I still have to go deep into my heart and tear them out. I relate this line to like the onion poem we did at the beginning of the year. Just like this line you have to go deep and search what you want o say or pray. The onion like layers of your life and the more layers you go the sweeter the onion gets. Even knowing fancy words won’t make the pray better it just sounds good and if you’re trying to sound good is it really what God wants out of you. Sitting here observing the rain first I will say I’m kind of scared the lighting is fierce and the thunder rolls and shakes my truck. This was good coming to lake bonny park the only thing is I can’t get away from the ball fields. I feel I am one with nature when I play ball the smell of the grass, the touch of the clay hitting your body. When it rains like this being on the field is amazing hear the rain hitting home plate and the field turning into a swamp land. lol kind of a lot better drainage on the field though. I want to say thank you for giving this assignment I usually don’t say this much so take it for what it is worth. I really liked this whole thing being one with nature reading it’s relaxing. I don’t feel no stress and that’s a good thing. Lord God, mercy is in your hands, pour me a little.

Trip to AFI

When going to AFI well first started off crazy I was about 30 to 45 mins late because of our great Lakeland Police Department. When I first walked in to the café I was still at little shaking from the Police but as soon as I walked in I saw Nate talking to JB and Tyrone so I went and sat by them. Tyrone wow what a amazing individual so funny, and I was a little surprised with his handshakes they were very firm to be so little hands. JB reminded me of Barry in a way but instead of golf it was basketball. The greatest moment I had was seeing him shoot a piece of trash in the trash can and when he made it his eyes lit up and his hands raised and the biggest smile. I don’t cry often but JB touched me just seeing how happy he was and also gave me a reality check I complain about a lot of stuff and not one time I hear Tyrone or JB say anything negative. I was going to paint a picture again but I figure I did two in a row with the act one and two; I should probably do blog writing. The picture I would have painted would have been of our reading group. Watching them read was touching and makes me want to help them no matter what I have to do. That’s why I’m going to set up a fundraiser for AFI haven’t really decided what I want to do yet either a golf tournament or a marathon. Listening to what that lady had to say about the funding killed my heart. To tell you the truth I am disgusted the church community or southeastern hasn’t step up to help. I gain a lot of knowledge from this trip and met some of the greatest people. I will never forget JB and Tyrone and I plan on returning to see them soon.

Act I and II The Boys Next Door

This Picture shows how I looked at the Act. Golf bag with a wood lesson sign and the donuts shop sign. The reason the house is black is because as a society and especially the church mental disable people have been black out or not even there or just ignore them.

This shows the mental institution where Barry was located white building but with black windows because i think it like a prison so i put black windows.

Cementary

The Spirit of God Hovered

Reading the Fettke article on “The spirit of God Hovered” gave me a better insight on how a parent of the Christian faith looks at mental disability children. I have always wondered if having a kid of mental disability would wreck the spirit of God in the parents’ lives living with the question why our child? God doesn’t like us? As I can see and also loudly stated by Fetteke I am just glad I have a son. He actually thanks God for his son that shows so much about his faith to God. If I was in the same situation I don’t know how I could handle it. Back in High school we had a mentally disabled wing with about 30 to 40 teens. I went in there a lot to hang out with one of the teachers because she was one of my mom’s friends anyways watching her with the teens was heart wrenching. Even at the time when I wasn’t a Christian I questioned why did God create this? And to think that the church community didn’t help that much with Fettke’s son shows why church today is not growing but is depleting. Some churches only care about themselves and not helping other people. I think the church lost their way being honest it shouldn’t be called a church; it should be called a business meeting. I can relate to Fettke in a since where the church didn’t want to help and then gossiped about my past. For a while I hated church because of that and I would think Fettke at the time thought the same thing. Here at SEU we had a mentally disable manger for baseball his name was AJ and the greatest time I had on that field was when he ran around the bases with the biggest smile and started to say I did it screaming I did it, I did it. My heart was heavy, My eyes were wet but I couldn’t help but to celebrate with him at home plate and all the other guys felt the same way.

Painting of Cementary

Sonny Blues

Reading this story usually one doesn’t get emotional or by any means starts to cry. The emotion I felt while reading this story was overwhelming almost unbearable. Reading about the addiction to drugs was hard and just like the flashbacks in the book I had rapid flashbacks in my head causing me to just not read this at all for a while. I didn’t grow up in the civil rights movement I don’t know the feeling of having your family torture in a way by white men. The closes thing I can relate is a drug deal gone badly. See I was addicted to not only pills, cocaine, and weed but I was a seller too. Heroin is one I didn’t use recreational but I had a form of it in hospitals, probably most people have had a form of it and they didn’t even know. Heroin so addicting and powerful because of the morphine mixed with the opium poppy. When getting off drugs, the withdraws are intense and usually you don’t make it with a good support system. This is kind of weird for me because I can relate to Sonny and then also to his older brother. While coming to southeastern, there have been plenty of my friends gone to jail for possession or under the influence of sometime type of drug. One that hit me hard like in the story, I guess we could be considered brothers in a way. Reason being I can relate is we made a promise to get out together to leave from the trap. Well it worked for me and not for him. I guess you can say I was pissed at him for a while when I heard what happen but after snacks was killed I reached out to him and he did the same. I can connect to this story in so many ways. There were plenty more tragedy events that happen that pushed us closer and now his ironically in the army shaped up and fighting for our freedom.

Cementaries and Painting

"I went to the Lakeview, Roselawn and Tiger Flowers cemetery complex for this fieldtrip, and I stayed there for at least 40 minutes. In the time of reflection I decided to paint my emtions out express them in a way I really havent before. Since I dont have a camera of any sort i cant show my picture but I am working on that part as I write this. If all else fails I'm just bringing it to class tomorrow.

C.S Lewis- Chapter One and Two

I have experienced alot of death within my short life and have had many counselors talk to me about death and how to handle it. However, none of them ever discribed or dipicted the grave in the manner or used the images quite like C.S Lewis did in these first two chapters of the book. In the past four years, since I arrived at Southeastern University, I have lost around fifteen friends due to many different situations. The image of death has been dead to me and has not meant alot, until I began to explore the writings of C.S Lewis and started to view them with an open-mind. I feel that C.S Lewis is dealing with greif. For example, what I mean is that I can only imageine losing a wife, and how hard that would be, and in some regrads that may be unbearable. Relationships that are with a serious girlfriend or a wife would be the type of situation that would hit me the hardest and would cause the most pain. When losing a serious relationship I can relate completely, just recently I was in a relationship for five and half years and the pain of breaking up was tremedous on me. I had my doubts of what was going on? Why is that happening? and I had the same doubts when I lost my friends. I look back at it and say Why did you let that happen God? Why?. The toughest thing I had to overcome when facing the death of some of my freinds was the fact that I was trying to get them out of the stuff that they were in. To this day I still ask Why? Why didnt you let me turn them around first? These chapters has made my brain go into overload thinking about death and to be honest I really dont like it. Going thursday to the grave won't be to hard because I'm not seeing my friends or family members graves but I will have the image of their grave in my mind while I am looking at someones elses. It will be hard but with God I will be strong.

Book of Joel- Images

There penlty of images I get from the book of joel. The main one is "return to me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeeping and mourning, and your rend your heart and not your garments. The image I have in my mind is the day that the lord comes back when we finally see the master of creation. First I have to say I cant wait till that day. hopefully it comes soon so maybe i wont have to finish classes this semster. lol. The descrpitive with weeping and mourning becasuse when I see my daddy( Lord) I'm going to cry, jump, twist and turn but also mourn for the people that are left behind. This image of the lord with his arms open and taking me in even with the garments of my past he still forgives. I am glad my God is in control.

The Colonel

Both of these stories were good and not to bad to read either. When choosing one to write on I had to go with “The Colonel”, it had so many descriptive imagery and also similes. I love when a poet or author make vivid imagery of what he or she is writing about. It keeps me in the story and also helps me critical analysis it better. The story of “The Colonel” first started with describing the place which was in his house this is true, I see his wife with coffee, and his son went out, the daughter filling her nails. In my mind I can see this as matter of fact I can feel the story unfolding in front of my eyes. This is a really good vivid image the composer gave us. The part that made me laugh was about the steel grate on the windows like a liquor store, back home in Jacksonville 95 percent of homes of grate because of break-ins. So that was another thing I can picture and felt like I was touching it as she was describing it. The gold bell to call the maid reminded me of Fresh prince of Bel-Air with Jeffery was called by Will with a bell. “My friend said to me with his eyes. Say nothing” before southeastern and before I knew Christ there was a rule I followed when I was in a lot of stuff. Say nothing or don’t snitch. The story gave me a lot of flashbacks for some reason. Human ears look like dried peaches, when I read that I looked in a mirror to see if my ears looks like dried preaches because there again the vivid imagery was so strong, it was just there and powerful. The last sentence got me the ears pressed to the ground I must have read this sentence ten to fifteen times trying to find a deeper meaning to get what the writer meant. The only thing I came up with is he did not won’t others to know what he was saying. I am probably wrong in that but oh well. Overall this was a good story and I got a lot of meaning out of it. The vivid imagery and descriptive details are what got my attention the whole story.

Literary Profile

The earliest memories of literature were really not there. I didn’t have any nursery rhymes or bedtime stories to my knowledge. It was always just get your butt to bed.  I do remember one bedtime story to think about it but it was with my friend’s mom but not really SEU appropriate so I can really describe it. Lately I have been reading Jim Collins books like Good to Great, How the Mighty Fall, Built to Last. The most significant text would Good to Great where Jim Collins talks about the school bus analogy in business. Collins says, “People are not your most important asset. The right people are.” He uses the analogy of a bus driver to while describing how to create a winning team within your organization. He recommends that you first get the right people on the bus, and then you get the wrong people off the bus, then the right people in the right seats, and then figure out where you want to drive that bus. Hire people with characteristics you cannot easily instill. Focus on who you are paying, not how. He also recommends analyzing someone’s character, work ethic, intelligence, and dedication to their values before deeply analyzing credentials and practical skills. This is stuck with me so much since in May I’m taking over a company reading this literature has really changed everything. My favorite part is really the opening of the essay “Literature is a thing you do as part of life.” Recently like I said this has become so real to me. I use to hate literature but a little more each day I’m starting to turn around. “What you get out of what you read depends on what you read and where you are in your life when you read it. Most importantly, what you get out of your reading depends on how you read. One of the main things you can learn in this class is how to read so as to get the most out of your reading.” Professor Corrigan nailed this one on the head to be honest I can’t wait to dive in on this course and become engaged and critical analysis literature in various ways.