or something like that... I know, I know... I promised to write more, and I've failed miserably. The good news is, I'm never going to put myself through a semester like this again, so maybe I will have more time to write next semester... Classes are finished. My first final isn't until Tuesday. I'm in that liminal state where I know that I have things to do at some point in the future, but I just can't bring myself to do them yet. I went to bed at 9:30 last night. It was wonderful! This semester has definitely been crazy, and I thought it only appropriate to share a poem that we read in my American literature class. It pretty much sums up my life right now ;-) So, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and enjoy a little Emily Dickenson!I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading--treading--till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through--
And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum--
Kept beating--beating--till I thought
My Mind was going numb--
And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space--began to toll,
As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here--
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down--
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing--then--
I felt a funeral in my brain
How to Kill a War Elephant
Last weekend, I had a debate tournament. While we were sitting around waiting for the awards ceremony to start, several of my teammates and I got into a rather fascinating conversation. Don't ask exactly how we got on this topic - it is far too complex to try and explain. Sufficed it say, we started talking about the best way to kill a war elephant.
Here are the circumstances that were eventually agreed upon. (Yes, I realize that they aren't exactly logical or coherent. We are ok with that )
The war elephant is an Asian elephant, in a field in India. There is a mature sequoia forest about two miles from the elephant. The field is flat and empty. You have your choice of one weapon to defeat the elephant, but it can't be a technological weapon. For the purposes of this discussion, "technological" is defined as mechanically moving parts.
What would you use?
Aaron decided that he wanted a longbow with arrows that had been poisoned with some sort of a neurological agent to paralyze the elephant.
Nick decided that he wanted a longbow with arrows that were made of potassium or sulphate (I think) because they explode when they come into contact with liquid.
I decided that I wanted a grown Komodo Dragon. Their saliva is one of the deadlier natural poisons.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Renaissance Art?
I saw this fun little quiz over at Candid Diversions. You should check it out!
Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...
Conscientious, Fulfilled, and Spiritual
21 Renaissance, 11 Islamic, 19 Ukiyo-e, -31 Cubist, -33 Abstract and 13 Impressionist!
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence affected literature, philosopy, religion, art, politics, science, and all other aspects of intellectual enquiry. Renaissance artists looked at the human aspect of life in their art. They did not reject religion but tended to look at it in it's purest form to create visions they thought depicted the ideals of religion. Painters of this time had their own style and created works based on morality, religion, and human nature. Many of the paintings depicted what they believed to be the corrupt nature of man.
People that like Renaissance paintings like things that are more challenging. They tend to have a high emotional stability. They also tend to be more concientious then average. They have a basic understanding of human nature and therefore are not easily surprised by anything that people may do. They enjoy life and enjoy living. They are very aware of their own mortality but do not dwell on the end but what they are doing in the present. They enjoy learning, but may tend to be a bit more closed minded to new ideas as they feel that the viewpoint they have has been well researched and considered. These people are more old fashioned and not quite as progressive. They enjoy the finer things in life like comfort, a good meal, and homelife. They tend to be more spiritual or religious by nature. They are open to new aesthetic experiences.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Feminism and Doors
Sometimes I wonder about the state of society. I look at the people around me (and I am frequently one of them) walking around, cell phone attached to our ears, headphones firmly locked into place, completely isolated from the world.
In my American literature class, we have been discussing the concept of American Exceptionalism. The discussion turned yesterday to some of the reasons for this belief, and the professor said that it was based in a compulsive need for independence. Sociologists are increasingly talking about my generation as the "Adultescents" or "Kiddults" because we simply aren't growing up. In 1970, the average ages for marriage were 20 and 23, for women and men respectively. Today, it is 25 and 27. After college, it is increasingly acceptable to move back into your parent's basement, and start your career. We are faced with a recognized "quarter life crisis" because of all of the decisions that have to be made, and all of the options, and we crumble under the pressure. That doesn't really sound like it fits in with all of the ideals of American Exceptionalism.
And then today, I was walking to my next class, and this guy in front of me stops to hold the door open. He was already half-way through when I got the to first door, so he just kinda held it open, but the second door, he stopped, opened, stepped out of the way, and said "After you" with a smile. It was something that was incredibly small, but on a campus of 40,000 students, the little things tend to make a rather large difference. I don't know this guy's name. I'll probably never see him again, or if I do see him again, it is quite possible that I won't recognize him. But for those 30 seconds, there was recognition that we were both humans walking around on this campus, and there wasn't a barrier of technology.
Which leads to the second part of the title of this post: Feminism. This is something that has been on my mind in the past few weeks. At the last debate tournament I went to, there was a round where the resolution focused on Feminism. In the post-tournament discussion with my teammates (most of whom are male), and several of them said that they pointedly refused to open doors for girls, because of feminism. They said that if they opened doors for girls, then they expected girls to make sure that dinner was ready on time for them.
Now, I don't really consider myself to be a feminist. I basically think that men and women are equal in that they are both created in the image of God, but that they were created to fill different purposes, and when we lose sight of that, then we are in trouble. I'm grateful for what the early feminists did, because I like voting and such. But when it comes right down to it, for me at least, I'll make sure dinner is ready on time if you'll hold open the doors for me ;-)
Please don't get me wrong. I'm all in favor of equal pay, and right to vote, and right to work, and all of those basic rights. I'm incredibly grateful for the women who went through so much, and sacrificed so much so that I could sit here at a university and freely write these opinions. But I am not in favor of us losing sight of the reasons we were created as man and woman.
And I think that it is also an important distinction to make that embracing your femininity does not mean wearing long skirts, long hair, homeschooling your 19 children, growing your own wheat that you grind into your own flour to bake your own bread, etc. It doesn't even have to mean cooking dinner every night. There are so many things that I love about being a woman. I love to nurture, and decorate, and smell nice, and get dressed up. I enjoy the fact that there isn't pressure on me to be the provider. There are some cases where women are the providers, and that is certainly fine. But in general, I embrace my role as a help-mate, and celebrate all of the aspects of femininity that come along with that. Including, but not limited to, baking the best chocolate chip cookies you've ever had ;-)
So what does Feminism have to do with cell phones, ipods, opening doors, and American Exceptionalism? I wonder if feminism, in the "we are all equal, and can all do the same things, because there are absolutely no non-biological differences between men and women, and even then, the biological differences are purely anatomical and solely a result of evolution" type of feminism has led to a type of dehumanization. I wonder if we are all so busy pursuing our careers, and our options, and trying to make sure that everyone knows that we can do whatever we want... That we end up shutting ourselves up in our parent's basement, hiding behind the reassuring glow of an LCD screen, telling ourselves how much potential we have, and how wonderful we can be, and how equal we are, and how everything will all work out in the end.
I don't know... But I do wonder if we all spent a little more time focusing on the fact that we are all people rather than making sure that we are all equal would make a difference. I wonder if it would take things like my incident walking into this building today, and make it a little more common. Would it take the cynicism and disdain that I heard in the voices of my teammates as they talked about feminism away? I wonder if we wouldn't get further if we focused on recognizing that people are people, and that we all have basic unalienable rights, but that we are intended to serve different roles. Maybe, just maybe, a return to some of the ideals of those roles would help break the cycle of "kiddults" that my generation is facing, and we could stop stressing out so much about making decisions that we need to label it as a quarter life crisis. And maybe, if we were really lucky, we could even come out from behind the LCD screens, and discover that there are real, live, honest-to-goodness people walking around. And hold open some doors, and bake some cookies.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I'm baaaaaaack!
Just for the record, I did not fall off the face of the planet. There were days where that seemed like a positive alternative to the general insanity of my schedule, but all is well. When school started, blogging stopped. Must have something to do with the correlation of working 30 hours, taking 19 credits, and being on the speech and debate team... It wasn't something that I consciously stopped doing, it just happened. It probably would have stayed that way for quite some time, because my life is pretty boring, and I didn't think that anybody really read this... But within the past week, I've gotten emails from several people wondering where I have been. So, I will attempt to do better about blogging. I'm quite sure that I won't be able to blog every day, but I will try.
With that said, this revival of my blog comes at a particularly good time, because I could use some help. As part of the aforementioned speech and debate team, I am doing an interpretive piece on Child Soldiers. I am using the Kurt Bestor poem "Prayer of the Children" as one of my pieces, and I'm having some trouble with it. This poem was intended to be song lyrics, so it is very rhythmic, and each of the three verses have the same rhythm. Which works beautifully when you are singing! However, it doesn't work quite so well when you are standing in front of a judge, reciting. Each of the three verses need to have their own unique style and theme. How do you think I should do this? What words should I emphasize? What tone of voice, what speed? I have the freedom to do whatever I want with this, so let the ideas flow!
"The Prayer of the Children" by Kurt Bestor and Sam Cardon
Can you hear the prayer of the children?
On bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry
Turning heavenward toward the light
Crying Jesus, help me
To see the morning light-of one more day
But if i should die before i wake,
I pray my soul to take
Can you feel the hearts of the children?
Aching for home, for something of their very own
Reaching hands, with nothing to hold on to,
But hope for a better day a better day
Crying Jesus, help me
To feel the love again in my own land
But if unknown roads lead away from home,
Give me loving arms, away from harm
Can you hear the voice of the children?
Softly pleading for silence in a shattered world?
Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate,
Blood of the innocent on their hands
Crying Jesus, help me
To feel the sun again upon my face,
For when darkness clears i know you're near,
Bringing peace again
Monday, October 20, 2008
I've become one of those people...
After spending a semester walking around campus, I'd had enough. Last semester, I was pretty fed up with all of those crazy people. They would shove their way through a crowd, they would make a clattering mess around campus. They took up practically the entire sidewalk. And I've become one of them.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
A day in review
Today was the first day of classes, and I am on information overload. Here are the highlights.
- I know more people at school than I thought I did. Out of seven classes, I know people in four of them. Considering I've only been here for one semester, and I go to a huge school, this is exciting!
- I think I'm going to have some interesting professors. One of them used the Joker from Batman to talk about the historical significance of Greek Literature. One of them point blank told the class that we weren't really here for our own education, we were here for his entertainment. I love it when profs don't take themselves or their classes too seriously!
- I found all of my classrooms, AND I have time to get from one to the other in between classes!
- I discovered that after 5 solid hours of classes, my brain turns to mush.
- I remembered just how much I love this school, and how happy I am that I transferred.
- I have a prof who is giving us page numbers for assigned readings in 3 editions of the book, so we can get them cheaply. Instead of paying $87 for the most recent edition, I paid $0.87 for the 3rd edition.
- Only the professors who are evil lecture AND assign homework on syllabus day.
- I have five professors who are evil thus far.
- I'm tired.
- I get to repeat this process tomorrow.
