Sometimes I am just absolutely floored by the creativity in the world. Sometimes, when I’m lucky, I get to watch this creativity first hand. I’ve had this privilege recently and it’s been so amazing to be a part of.
I recently reentered the theatre world (something that has been regrettably missing in my life since junior high). I was in a community production of Fiddler on the Roof this fall and I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved the experience. I’ve missed being in a show so much and now I’m firmly addicted again. Alas, the theatre bug hath bit me once again. This show was something special. It certainly helped that it’s one of my very favorite shows ever. I mean the material is just so rich and it was really great to be working with it again. But there was just a magic about the experience. The people were so great. We really became a family. I know that’s cliché but whatever. It is what it is. I truly and honestly love those people and not seeing them every day is killing me. There was just good energy.
Also, this show was directed by an AMAZING professional director (and Julliard grad, btw) from the Twin Cities. He had a real heart for this show and such a great vision of what he wanted it to be and it was such a great honor to be a part of making that vision a reality. He was so in depth and into every detail, every aspect of the show and from personal opinion and reviews I got, it paid off. I mean…just…WOW. He was fabulous. Also, our Tevye was a professional actor from the cities and I tell you what, that man was amazing. Like…if I could just pick his brain for a day…oh man. He was just so in it all the time. So in the zone. Like he…I don’t know. He was just so on and professional and talented. It was a very cool learning experience. I was so blessed to be able to work with these two incredibly talented men.
Of for the love of Pete, I’m getting all emotional. Gosh darn it.
Earlier tonight I attended a show on campus. It was a combination of magic, dance and comedy and it was so cool! It was basically the vision of one student who then collaborated with other amazingly talented students on campus. The show was called night games and it was basically about letting go and returning to that place of simplicity and wonder that is childhood. It was about remembering that there is magic in the world if we just stop and look around once and a while. Seriously it was so cool. The combination of dance and magic and sound and acting was so creative and well thought out. It just blows me away sometimes that people can come up with these ideas, and then even more so when they actually make them a reality. Usually, to be honest, magic kind of pisses me off because I want to figure it out and I can’t and it irks me to no end. But tonight I was really able to let go and sit in awe. Awe of the tricks of illusion, yes because they were superb and mind blowing. But it was more than that. It was awe of the talent, creativity and passion of my fellow students, some of whom I have had the pleasure of getting to know in my time here on campus. I don’t know, it just really reminded me of how beautiful the world is.
Finally (I know, long blog today), I went down to the basement of my building tonight to get Cheetos from the vending machine and as I was passing a couple of the rooms I noticed the artwork the girls living there had put up on the walls outside their rooms. It was a mixture of photography and chalk drawing they’d done and as I took a moment to really look at it I was again simply blown away. Seriously. There is so much beauty in the world and so many people with such great creative ways of capturing that beauty.
Eh. Reading that back it sounds a bit cheesy. But I honestly mean it. I have been surprised in such a pleasant way so many times over the past month or two at how amazing people can be. It’s been fun.
Also, on a side (but somewhat related) note; Matt Doyle is extraordinarily talented. He has such honesty in his voice when he sings. The emotion comes from a very real place and you can hear it when you listen to him. I think the most important part of any art form is honesty. So yeah…just sayin’. I’m a huge fan. :)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
God Don't Make No Trash
So I’ve been listening to Bare almost obsessively for the past week. If you don’t know it, it’s a fabulous musical about two guys, Peter and Jason, who are carrying out a closeted romance at a Catholic boarding school. There’s way more to it than that, but that is the general baseline. It’s extraordinarily heartbreaking and beautiful and I recommend it to everybody.
Anyway, the show has really gotten me thinking. One of the central tensions of the show is obviously the catholic church's condemnation of homosexuality. Peter and Jason spend a good portion of the show trying to reconcile their feelings with their faith and looking for empathy from the church. In the end, the church fails them and the result is fatal. I won’t give away the ending, but let’s just say it’s not a happy one. We’ll leave it at that. I think the failure of the Catholic Church in this show mirrors the failure of the church as a whole. This isn’t about Catholicism or Evangelicalism or any denomination. It’s about the church—the body of Christ—and how deeply we’ve failed the world.
Our failure is that we have forgotten to love. We get so caught up in what makes us different, on the tiny details, on what is a sin and what isn’t that we lose sight of the bigger picture. Don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty of it too because, God knows, I love to argue about anything and everything. But I think we all need to take a step back and remember that this isn’t about doctrine or rules or traditions or who is right. It’s about people. But we forget that. We get so focused on arguing about pro choice vs. pro life that we fail to help with pregnancy prevention and improving options for people with babies they simply cannot keep. We get so caught up in insisting that homosexuality is a sin (actually I remain extraordinarily unconvinced but that is a different matter) that we forget that these are human beings with real feelings, fears and hurts. Whether it’s right or wrong, they don’t need condemnation, they need empathy! We’re playing with people’s lives here and if we fail to love them because of doctrine or tradition then their blood is on our hands.
Now I love to study theology and dig into all of these nitty gritty little things. I mean heck, I’m a theology major. But sometimes I think we need to step back from the academic side and remember that all these issues we bicker over aren’t scholastic issues. They’re human issues. It’s about real people with real emotions and struggles. Lives are so fragile. We need to be so much more careful about we say and do to people, especially in God’s name. After all, God is love. If the things we are doing are not done in love then we have no place pasting God’s name on them.
So that’s where I am right now. I think we can all work on loving better. Remember: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
Nothing matters more than love. We need to start loving everyone, no matter who they are, where they come from, what they are going through or what they've done (or are still doing). Because in the words of one of Bare's characters, Sister Chantelle, "God don't make no trash".
Anyway, the show has really gotten me thinking. One of the central tensions of the show is obviously the catholic church's condemnation of homosexuality. Peter and Jason spend a good portion of the show trying to reconcile their feelings with their faith and looking for empathy from the church. In the end, the church fails them and the result is fatal. I won’t give away the ending, but let’s just say it’s not a happy one. We’ll leave it at that. I think the failure of the Catholic Church in this show mirrors the failure of the church as a whole. This isn’t about Catholicism or Evangelicalism or any denomination. It’s about the church—the body of Christ—and how deeply we’ve failed the world.
Our failure is that we have forgotten to love. We get so caught up in what makes us different, on the tiny details, on what is a sin and what isn’t that we lose sight of the bigger picture. Don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty of it too because, God knows, I love to argue about anything and everything. But I think we all need to take a step back and remember that this isn’t about doctrine or rules or traditions or who is right. It’s about people. But we forget that. We get so focused on arguing about pro choice vs. pro life that we fail to help with pregnancy prevention and improving options for people with babies they simply cannot keep. We get so caught up in insisting that homosexuality is a sin (actually I remain extraordinarily unconvinced but that is a different matter) that we forget that these are human beings with real feelings, fears and hurts. Whether it’s right or wrong, they don’t need condemnation, they need empathy! We’re playing with people’s lives here and if we fail to love them because of doctrine or tradition then their blood is on our hands.
Now I love to study theology and dig into all of these nitty gritty little things. I mean heck, I’m a theology major. But sometimes I think we need to step back from the academic side and remember that all these issues we bicker over aren’t scholastic issues. They’re human issues. It’s about real people with real emotions and struggles. Lives are so fragile. We need to be so much more careful about we say and do to people, especially in God’s name. After all, God is love. If the things we are doing are not done in love then we have no place pasting God’s name on them.
So that’s where I am right now. I think we can all work on loving better. Remember: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
Nothing matters more than love. We need to start loving everyone, no matter who they are, where they come from, what they are going through or what they've done (or are still doing). Because in the words of one of Bare's characters, Sister Chantelle, "God don't make no trash".
Sunday, June 7, 2009
A Hunchback And A Gypsy
Disney movies are excellent. Watching them again now that I'm older I'm realizing just how good they are. I'm catching jokes and references I never did before and even more wonderful, I'm noticing beautiful and complex themes and messages I totally missed out on before. I was watching Hunchback Of Notre Dame tonight and there was a beautiful song I wanted to share. The video of it is here. These are the lyrics:
Esmeralda
I don't know if You can hear me
Or if You're even there
I don't know if You would listen
To a Gypsy's prayer
Yes, I know I'm just an outcast
I shouldn't speak to you
Still I see Your face and wonder...
Were You once an outcast too?
God help the outcasts
Hungry from birth
Show them the mercy
They don't find on earth
God help my people
We look to You still
God help the outcasts
Or nobody will
Parishioners
I ask for wealth
I ask for fame
I ask for glory to shine on my name
I ask for love I can posses
I ask for God and His angels to bless me
Esmeralda
I ask for nothing
I can get by
But I know so many
Less lucky than I
Please help my people
The poor and downtrod
I thought we all were
The children of God
God help the outcasts
Children of God
I just think those lyrics are so beautiful. We should not be praying for selfish things, things we don't need. We should instead be praying for others, and working to Mak sure they have what they need. I love that the people who appear to be Christians (the parishioners in this scene) are the ones being selfish and unchristian while Esmeralda, accused of heathenism and such and not the picture of a so called 'good christian girl' (she is a gypsy after all) is the one being selfless and displaying the true heart of Christianity. I guess saying I like this is less the truth than I like that it shows that faith and Christianity is not about appearances or what's on the outside but rather what is on the inside, what is in someones heart. We should not judge people. Even Jesus didn't judge He said "I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. (John 12:47) if Jesus, the only sinless man to ever walk the earth, does not judge people then who are we as sinful, fallible humans to judge each other. We should instead follow in his footsteps and try to help, love and save each other.
Esmeralda
I don't know if You can hear me
Or if You're even there
I don't know if You would listen
To a Gypsy's prayer
Yes, I know I'm just an outcast
I shouldn't speak to you
Still I see Your face and wonder...
Were You once an outcast too?
God help the outcasts
Hungry from birth
Show them the mercy
They don't find on earth
God help my people
We look to You still
God help the outcasts
Or nobody will
Parishioners
I ask for wealth
I ask for fame
I ask for glory to shine on my name
I ask for love I can posses
I ask for God and His angels to bless me
Esmeralda
I ask for nothing
I can get by
But I know so many
Less lucky than I
Please help my people
The poor and downtrod
I thought we all were
The children of God
God help the outcasts
Children of God
I just think those lyrics are so beautiful. We should not be praying for selfish things, things we don't need. We should instead be praying for others, and working to Mak sure they have what they need. I love that the people who appear to be Christians (the parishioners in this scene) are the ones being selfish and unchristian while Esmeralda, accused of heathenism and such and not the picture of a so called 'good christian girl' (she is a gypsy after all) is the one being selfless and displaying the true heart of Christianity. I guess saying I like this is less the truth than I like that it shows that faith and Christianity is not about appearances or what's on the outside but rather what is on the inside, what is in someones heart. We should not judge people. Even Jesus didn't judge He said "I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. (John 12:47) if Jesus, the only sinless man to ever walk the earth, does not judge people then who are we as sinful, fallible humans to judge each other. We should instead follow in his footsteps and try to help, love and save each other.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Terminating the Soloist
I'm kind of a movie nerd. I like movies, what can I say? And recently I've seen some movies that have had moments that really touched me. I wanted to share a few.
First off, a few weeks ago i went and saw The Soloist. It was an excellent movie, one of the best I've seen in a while. There was one scene in particular that I really loved. I don;t want to ruin the movie, but in this scene Jamie Foxx's character is sleeping on the streets in an area jam packed with homeless people. As he drifts of to sleep he recites the Lords Prayer. As he speaks the words most of us have heard and spoken a million times the camera pans over the homeless, the impoverish, the hurting and the broken. The contradiction between the words being spoken and the all too true images on the screen stuck out to me and really tore at my heart.
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen.
How are we following God's will when we allow this kind of poverty and brokenness to run rampant not only in our country but around the world. We should be loving these people, giving whatever we can to aide them, living simply so that they may simply live. A lot of us, myself included, live with far more than we could ever begin to actually need, while millions of people are starving and freezing to death every day. Millions have diseases they will die from because they can't afford medical attention. They are left alone to die because we are to comfortable in our lives to make sacrifices to show them love and support. It is blatant hypocrisy to speak the words 'Thy Kingdom come thy will be done' when we sit and do nothing about the gross injustices happening all over our war torn, poverty and sickness stricken world and i am as guilty of it as anyone.
The trespasses we ask forgiveness for have two meanings in this scene. One, we should ask forgiveness for the sin of allowing such injustice to happen to our fellow human beings, for not loving the poor and the homeless, the broken and the destitute, for living lives of comfort and luxury while others suffer and die with basically nothing to call their own. We should ask forgiveness for our hatred and violence, for giving into the myth that revenge solves problems and redemptive violence works. We should ask forgiveness for not loving the world actively and unconditionally as we should. Again, I am guilty of this. The second trespasses being asked forgiveness for are the sins that the poor and broken are driven to in order to survive, when they feel like they have no other choice left, and as they ask forgiveness for this they are also asking for forgiveness for those who have put them in that possition, those of us who are not loving them as we should.
The words give us this day our daily bread remind me of my favorite proverb: "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD ?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." - Proverbs 30:8-9. Give me only my daily bread. Give me only what I need to survive, to truely live, no more and no less. I feel that alot of the sins in the world come from having to much or to little, the tention between have's and havenots and the desire to always have more-more wealth, more power, more than we need. As Gandhi once said, "There is enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed."
This scene was beautifully done and shows how much more we need to start loving people. We need to let go of greed and comfort and make sacrifices for other people. Which brings me to my next movie.
Last night I went with some friends to see Terminator Salvation. I didn't actually know if I wanted to see it or not. I haven't seen any of the others and I didn't know that I would like it. I found it, however, to be a very well done movie. There were a couple things I really liked about it. Again, while attempting to not give away to much of the plot, there is a scene in the movie where two of the characters talk about whether or not people deserve second chances. Later in the film one of those characters decides to give up their life to save John Connor, the main character for those who don't know the movie. When asked why he is willing to die for Connor the character (I wont say his name and ruin the movie) says something along the lines of "I'm taking my second chance." His second chance at life is not to live, per say, but to die so someone else can live. In this way he is truly living in that he his dedicating his life (quite literally) to showing love to someone else. I absolutely loved this part because in dying this character truly lived his life. He had a second chance at life and took it, using it in the best way possible, at least in my opinion. After all, there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for another. Someone pretty smart said that once. :)
There is another part in the movie where John Connor makes a speech (that i can't remember all of or find anywhere on the Internet. fail.) about how the difference between humans and the machines is that the machines can make cold calculated decisions about sacrificing this many people to save that many and so one, where as humans should not. we are to fallible to be able to make a decision like that. We can not look at the situation objectively enough, we are too human, and therefore, John says, We should try to dot he human thing and do our best to save everyone, not sacrifice some for 'the greater good.' Who are we as humans to place that kind of value on human life? Instead we need to love people. All people.
Also, baseball players should wear their socks up to their knees, none of this long pants craziness. Just a thought.
First off, a few weeks ago i went and saw The Soloist. It was an excellent movie, one of the best I've seen in a while. There was one scene in particular that I really loved. I don;t want to ruin the movie, but in this scene Jamie Foxx's character is sleeping on the streets in an area jam packed with homeless people. As he drifts of to sleep he recites the Lords Prayer. As he speaks the words most of us have heard and spoken a million times the camera pans over the homeless, the impoverish, the hurting and the broken. The contradiction between the words being spoken and the all too true images on the screen stuck out to me and really tore at my heart.
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen.
How are we following God's will when we allow this kind of poverty and brokenness to run rampant not only in our country but around the world. We should be loving these people, giving whatever we can to aide them, living simply so that they may simply live. A lot of us, myself included, live with far more than we could ever begin to actually need, while millions of people are starving and freezing to death every day. Millions have diseases they will die from because they can't afford medical attention. They are left alone to die because we are to comfortable in our lives to make sacrifices to show them love and support. It is blatant hypocrisy to speak the words 'Thy Kingdom come thy will be done' when we sit and do nothing about the gross injustices happening all over our war torn, poverty and sickness stricken world and i am as guilty of it as anyone.
The trespasses we ask forgiveness for have two meanings in this scene. One, we should ask forgiveness for the sin of allowing such injustice to happen to our fellow human beings, for not loving the poor and the homeless, the broken and the destitute, for living lives of comfort and luxury while others suffer and die with basically nothing to call their own. We should ask forgiveness for our hatred and violence, for giving into the myth that revenge solves problems and redemptive violence works. We should ask forgiveness for not loving the world actively and unconditionally as we should. Again, I am guilty of this. The second trespasses being asked forgiveness for are the sins that the poor and broken are driven to in order to survive, when they feel like they have no other choice left, and as they ask forgiveness for this they are also asking for forgiveness for those who have put them in that possition, those of us who are not loving them as we should.
The words give us this day our daily bread remind me of my favorite proverb: "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD ?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." - Proverbs 30:8-9. Give me only my daily bread. Give me only what I need to survive, to truely live, no more and no less. I feel that alot of the sins in the world come from having to much or to little, the tention between have's and havenots and the desire to always have more-more wealth, more power, more than we need. As Gandhi once said, "There is enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed."
This scene was beautifully done and shows how much more we need to start loving people. We need to let go of greed and comfort and make sacrifices for other people. Which brings me to my next movie.
Last night I went with some friends to see Terminator Salvation. I didn't actually know if I wanted to see it or not. I haven't seen any of the others and I didn't know that I would like it. I found it, however, to be a very well done movie. There were a couple things I really liked about it. Again, while attempting to not give away to much of the plot, there is a scene in the movie where two of the characters talk about whether or not people deserve second chances. Later in the film one of those characters decides to give up their life to save John Connor, the main character for those who don't know the movie. When asked why he is willing to die for Connor the character (I wont say his name and ruin the movie) says something along the lines of "I'm taking my second chance." His second chance at life is not to live, per say, but to die so someone else can live. In this way he is truly living in that he his dedicating his life (quite literally) to showing love to someone else. I absolutely loved this part because in dying this character truly lived his life. He had a second chance at life and took it, using it in the best way possible, at least in my opinion. After all, there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for another. Someone pretty smart said that once. :)
There is another part in the movie where John Connor makes a speech (that i can't remember all of or find anywhere on the Internet. fail.) about how the difference between humans and the machines is that the machines can make cold calculated decisions about sacrificing this many people to save that many and so one, where as humans should not. we are to fallible to be able to make a decision like that. We can not look at the situation objectively enough, we are too human, and therefore, John says, We should try to dot he human thing and do our best to save everyone, not sacrifice some for 'the greater good.' Who are we as humans to place that kind of value on human life? Instead we need to love people. All people.
Also, baseball players should wear their socks up to their knees, none of this long pants craziness. Just a thought.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Beauty and the Beast
So this morning I was watching Beauty and the Beast (yes by my self. Leave me alone, Disney movies are great) and I was thinking about haw great of a film it really is. Seriously. It's all about grace and forgiveness and love. It reminded me of 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
"1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."
The prince has everything the world can give, he can do basically anything he wants, but without love he really has nothing. He is an ugly beast inside and eventually that ugliness shows itself on the outside too (though i submit that the beast looks better as a beast than a prince, but this is really irrelevant). His ugly selfishness and hate, his sin if you will, keep him angry and alone until he learns to both love and be loved. both are important and I liked that Disney showed the importance of both. We are relational beings, we were created that way because our God is a relational God (the trinity, the very essence of God, has three parts. Love and relationship has existed since before time). Loving others is quite obviously very important and we are meant to act on that love (after all, love is a verb, not a feeling). But we also need to find people who love us, people we can count on and who can build us up and cheer us on. We are not meant to live this life alone. The beast falls in love with Belle, but it is not enough to break the spell. She must love him in return. And she does, the spell is broken and in true Disney fashion they live happily ever after together. Key word, together.
I also really like that the beast doesn't kill Gaston at the end. He easily could. He has GGaston at his mercy, hanging over the edge. But he chooses to save him instead. The beast does not give into the myth of redemptive violence the world tries to feed us. He saves his enemy, showing love and empathy rather than anger and hate. Of course, Disney kind of cops out about 30 seconds later when Gaston falls (of his own fault) and goes plummeting off the edge of the castle into a huge pit that I'm pretty sure did not exist in the movie before this moment. So the 'bad guy' probably dies. But then Disney characters have been known to survive such impossibly high falls before, so you never know. Perhaps Gaston survived, saw the error of his ways and learned to love himself less and others more.
...erm...maybe not.
Anyway. Just some things I've been thinking. Thought I'd share them.
"1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."
The prince has everything the world can give, he can do basically anything he wants, but without love he really has nothing. He is an ugly beast inside and eventually that ugliness shows itself on the outside too (though i submit that the beast looks better as a beast than a prince, but this is really irrelevant). His ugly selfishness and hate, his sin if you will, keep him angry and alone until he learns to both love and be loved. both are important and I liked that Disney showed the importance of both. We are relational beings, we were created that way because our God is a relational God (the trinity, the very essence of God, has three parts. Love and relationship has existed since before time). Loving others is quite obviously very important and we are meant to act on that love (after all, love is a verb, not a feeling). But we also need to find people who love us, people we can count on and who can build us up and cheer us on. We are not meant to live this life alone. The beast falls in love with Belle, but it is not enough to break the spell. She must love him in return. And she does, the spell is broken and in true Disney fashion they live happily ever after together. Key word, together.
I also really like that the beast doesn't kill Gaston at the end. He easily could. He has GGaston at his mercy, hanging over the edge. But he chooses to save him instead. The beast does not give into the myth of redemptive violence the world tries to feed us. He saves his enemy, showing love and empathy rather than anger and hate. Of course, Disney kind of cops out about 30 seconds later when Gaston falls (of his own fault) and goes plummeting off the edge of the castle into a huge pit that I'm pretty sure did not exist in the movie before this moment. So the 'bad guy' probably dies. But then Disney characters have been known to survive such impossibly high falls before, so you never know. Perhaps Gaston survived, saw the error of his ways and learned to love himself less and others more.
...erm...maybe not.
Anyway. Just some things I've been thinking. Thought I'd share them.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Thoughts to chew on
So I started this blog as an assignment for my Literary Theory class (hence the title) and I loved blogging so much that I think I'm going to have to keep it going. You see I have a lot of opinions, on almost everything, and i enjoy the idea of putting them out there where anyone could read them, even if no one ever does. Right now I just wanted to let anyone who might read this know who I am and what I stand for, and also leave you with a few quotes I've been chewing on lately.
I believe in love. I believe in hope and healing and relationships.And I believe that when you believe strongly in something you have to fight for it. I want to change the world, to help and love people who are hurting and broken, to spread God's love and be the hands and feet of Christ. I want to always remember the simple beauty of a sunset and to help remind people that even the darkest of nights must eventually give way to the dawn. I want to help create a world full of the beautiful products of love rather than the ugly carnage of war. I believe that peace is possible, but that it takes courage. Hate is easy, but love is painful and scary. I believe that letting go, not holding on, takes the most strength and courage. I believe in the hope for a better tomorrow and that we must be the change we wish to see in the world. I believe the world is full of mystery and wonder and beauty, and that laughter is the best medicine. I believe there is true good and beauty in every person and that hate, violence and war will never solve things the way love, forgiveness and patience can. That is where my heart is and that is what I'm living for.
"But what had lasting significance were not the miracles themselves but Jesus’ love. Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, and a few years later, Lazarus died again. Jesus healed the sick, but eventually they caught some other disease. He fed the five thousands, and the next day they were hungry again. But we remember his love. It wasn’t that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers." -Shane Claiborne
"Preach the gospel always. And use words if necessary.” -St. Francis of Assisi
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
-CS Lewis
"Love thy neighbor" is not a piece of advice but a command. That means in the global village we're gonna have to start loving a whole lot more people. His truth is marching on....Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die [...] God has a special place for the poor. The poor are where God lives. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house, God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered. God is with the mother who has infected her child with a virus that will take both their lives, God is under the rubble in the cries we hear during wartime. God, my friends, is with the poor and God is with us if we are with them. This is not a burden, this is an adventure. Dont let anyone tell it cannot be done."
-Bono
So anyway, thats all for now!
~Aimee
I believe in love. I believe in hope and healing and relationships.And I believe that when you believe strongly in something you have to fight for it. I want to change the world, to help and love people who are hurting and broken, to spread God's love and be the hands and feet of Christ. I want to always remember the simple beauty of a sunset and to help remind people that even the darkest of nights must eventually give way to the dawn. I want to help create a world full of the beautiful products of love rather than the ugly carnage of war. I believe that peace is possible, but that it takes courage. Hate is easy, but love is painful and scary. I believe that letting go, not holding on, takes the most strength and courage. I believe in the hope for a better tomorrow and that we must be the change we wish to see in the world. I believe the world is full of mystery and wonder and beauty, and that laughter is the best medicine. I believe there is true good and beauty in every person and that hate, violence and war will never solve things the way love, forgiveness and patience can. That is where my heart is and that is what I'm living for.
"But what had lasting significance were not the miracles themselves but Jesus’ love. Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, and a few years later, Lazarus died again. Jesus healed the sick, but eventually they caught some other disease. He fed the five thousands, and the next day they were hungry again. But we remember his love. It wasn’t that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers." -Shane Claiborne
"Preach the gospel always. And use words if necessary.” -St. Francis of Assisi
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
-CS Lewis
"Love thy neighbor" is not a piece of advice but a command. That means in the global village we're gonna have to start loving a whole lot more people. His truth is marching on....Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die [...] God has a special place for the poor. The poor are where God lives. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house, God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered. God is with the mother who has infected her child with a virus that will take both their lives, God is under the rubble in the cries we hear during wartime. God, my friends, is with the poor and God is with us if we are with them. This is not a burden, this is an adventure. Dont let anyone tell it cannot be done."
-Bono
So anyway, thats all for now!
~Aimee
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Holder of Slaughterhouse - Five
So this week, while reading Holder of the World (and writing an 18 page research paper) I was also reading Slaughterhouse – Five for FYS. It struck me how very similar they were at times, especially on the issue of time. If you haven’t read Slaughterhouse – Five I suggest you do so because it’s super good. Really, it’s quite genius. I won’t give away too much of the plot because I think you should all go read it for yourself but the story is about a man named Billy Pilgrim who has “come unstuck in time.” Basically he time travels (seemingly both at will and at random) back and forward through different times of his life.
Billy’s time travelling was what first struck me in comparison to Holder of the World. Obviously, Venn is working on a time machine in the novel, and while Billy’s time traveling is not done with the aide of a machine the Tralfamadorians (aliens Billy is convinced he was abducted by) say that all things (plants, animals, people, etc) are machines because we have no free will. So in that sense they are both time traveling by means of machine—one a man made machine, the other a man machine. The other part of the time traveling that was similar in both books was the jumping between present and past (and in Slaughterhouse – Five’s case the future as well). Holder of the World jumps between Beigh’s story and Hannah Easton Fitch Legge’s (haha) story and they become interconnected. In slaughterhouse - Five there is a quasi base story of Billy going to fight in World War II, and then it jumps around all over the place from his birth to his death to his wedding night, etc. I see this jumping between times technique as a very post-modern style of writing. There is a story within a story within a story and there are back stories and side stories and seemingly random and jumbled up stories. This is very unlike books from before post-modernism in which there was a story and you followed it from start to finish.
The concept of time is also examined in both books (both with time travel and with out). In Holder of the World Venn says Hannah married Gabriel Legge because it was her time to get married—a very determinist way to look at life. If Hannah got married because it was her time then this displays a belief that everything is predetermined and things happen when they do because that is when they were supposed to happen (determinism). In Slaughterhouse – Five the Tralfamadorians teach Billy that we are all machines and have no free will or ability to make decisions. They also show Billy that time is kind of a concept of the human mind and all time exists at once. So it’s kind of like you die, but you are still living in every other moment of your life. This is also in its own way determinism. Just as Venn looks at Hannah getting married as her ‘time’, Billy is living ‘times’ of his life—his time to go to war, his time to get married, his time to die. This even affects the way the tralfamadorians (and Billy) look at death. Any time someone dies in the novel (be it thousands of people, a horse or a glass of Champaign) the description of the death always ends with ‘so it goes.’ It is as if they are saying ‘it was there time, nothing you could do about it.’ Hannah get’s married: so it goes, it was her time. Thousands die in the bombing of Dresden: so it goes, it was there time.
The books also examine agency in similar ways. In Holder of the World Gabriel Legge is described as having no equal in Salem. He get’s this agency from his experiences, from the places he has been, things he has done. These are places and things the rest of Salem has not seen or done. So Gabriel get’s higher agency. When I was reading Slaughterhouse – Five I was wondering why Billy was so quick to believe everything the tralfamadorians told him. And then I realized that they, like Gabriel, had agency from experience. They had been places and seen and done things Billy couldn’t even imagine. And so it follows that he assumed they had superior intelligence from their experiences. Experience = knowledge = agency.
Basically it worked out quite nicely that I ended up reading both of these books at the same time because they were both very good and they complemented each other well. I found it rather handy. Go read Slaughterhouse – Five if you have not and good luck on finals everyone!!
Billy’s time travelling was what first struck me in comparison to Holder of the World. Obviously, Venn is working on a time machine in the novel, and while Billy’s time traveling is not done with the aide of a machine the Tralfamadorians (aliens Billy is convinced he was abducted by) say that all things (plants, animals, people, etc) are machines because we have no free will. So in that sense they are both time traveling by means of machine—one a man made machine, the other a man machine. The other part of the time traveling that was similar in both books was the jumping between present and past (and in Slaughterhouse – Five’s case the future as well). Holder of the World jumps between Beigh’s story and Hannah Easton Fitch Legge’s (haha) story and they become interconnected. In slaughterhouse - Five there is a quasi base story of Billy going to fight in World War II, and then it jumps around all over the place from his birth to his death to his wedding night, etc. I see this jumping between times technique as a very post-modern style of writing. There is a story within a story within a story and there are back stories and side stories and seemingly random and jumbled up stories. This is very unlike books from before post-modernism in which there was a story and you followed it from start to finish.
The concept of time is also examined in both books (both with time travel and with out). In Holder of the World Venn says Hannah married Gabriel Legge because it was her time to get married—a very determinist way to look at life. If Hannah got married because it was her time then this displays a belief that everything is predetermined and things happen when they do because that is when they were supposed to happen (determinism). In Slaughterhouse – Five the Tralfamadorians teach Billy that we are all machines and have no free will or ability to make decisions. They also show Billy that time is kind of a concept of the human mind and all time exists at once. So it’s kind of like you die, but you are still living in every other moment of your life. This is also in its own way determinism. Just as Venn looks at Hannah getting married as her ‘time’, Billy is living ‘times’ of his life—his time to go to war, his time to get married, his time to die. This even affects the way the tralfamadorians (and Billy) look at death. Any time someone dies in the novel (be it thousands of people, a horse or a glass of Champaign) the description of the death always ends with ‘so it goes.’ It is as if they are saying ‘it was there time, nothing you could do about it.’ Hannah get’s married: so it goes, it was her time. Thousands die in the bombing of Dresden: so it goes, it was there time.
The books also examine agency in similar ways. In Holder of the World Gabriel Legge is described as having no equal in Salem. He get’s this agency from his experiences, from the places he has been, things he has done. These are places and things the rest of Salem has not seen or done. So Gabriel get’s higher agency. When I was reading Slaughterhouse – Five I was wondering why Billy was so quick to believe everything the tralfamadorians told him. And then I realized that they, like Gabriel, had agency from experience. They had been places and seen and done things Billy couldn’t even imagine. And so it follows that he assumed they had superior intelligence from their experiences. Experience = knowledge = agency.
Basically it worked out quite nicely that I ended up reading both of these books at the same time because they were both very good and they complemented each other well. I found it rather handy. Go read Slaughterhouse – Five if you have not and good luck on finals everyone!!
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