The End

So as I wrap up my blog for the semester I sorta wish I had blogged...a lot more but it is too late now. Today's class may have been the best yet, Dr. Sexson was throwing out inspiring quotes every few seconds.

As I was browsing yobeat they had a Christmas guide and included was, "Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas." Sounds pretty interesting and I really wonder what it is about but am not so interested I would pay more than five dollars for it. I will just have to wait and watch it online or deal with the reviews written on Amazon about it. I really need to get back to my presentation that I am supposed to present in two hours so I would like to thank everyone who wrote inspiring blogs, poems (Nick's was excellent), and whatever else they did. This class was one of my favorite ones yet and makes me look forward to have classes with Doc in the future.

Final Paper: Revelation For All

Revelation For All
The Bible is something people turn to when they encounter a serious complication in their life. Whether it is cancer or breaking away from a person’s addiction to drugs, a person decides to start reading the Bible for guidance in life. The Bible is in a league of its’ own when giving advice and even Dr. Phil cannot explain how to turn your life around as efficiently as the Bible. Music and poetry are other effective forms of expressing your feelings. It is no wonder they are all closely connected, even in a world which values science more and more everyday while rejecting the Bible, music continues to have an influence over the world.
Simone’s, “Sinnerman” is a prime example of how a person is able to connect to their faith through music. Simone grew up in a strict religious household and had a minister for a mother. She said she learned the lyrics during her childhood because her mother used them for call and response during her addresses to the congregation. These words were used as a way to confess your sins.
“Oh Sinnerman, where you gonna run to? Sinnerman where you gonna run to? Where you gonna run to, All on that day?” Is a reference to Jonah or other characters in the Bible who attempt to try and hide from God. My response, if I were God would be, “HA! You think you can run from me? I am all knowing, all seeing, even bigger than Santa, even as you silly Christians build him up to be equal to me! I taught you about false idols and here you go again creating them just as you did with Tom Hanks version of Santa in The Polar Express.” God shows us throughout the Bible how simple it is to abide by his laws yet we are always making excuses for why we stray away. Especially when it comes to, “that day,” it seems “that day” refers to Judgment Day in which we encounter God at the glorious golden gates of Heaven. On this day we will stumble and fumble our words attempting to make excuses for our sins’. God already knows what we have done so why would we attempt to hide something as simple as a sin from the all-loving God? If we could accept the fact he is a loving creator and not a smiting god who will send us straight to hell for making a few mistakes. As Simone attempts to prove in the song it is better to face the consequences for your sins rather then run away from them because in the end they will meet up with you. It comes down to the big picture and if we go to God when we are truly in trouble as Simone and Cash do the human race will be okay.
“Well I run to the rock, Please hide me, But the rock cried out, I can't hide you.” Here we go again, running to a rock of all things to hide from God. As if God would not be able to find us behind a simple rock, I mean he is God, with a bird’s eye view from the sky, and he has no problem finding whoever he wants to at the snap of a finger; Sinnerman and Jonah learn this soon enough. The meaning of this could be seen as the New Testament attempts to prove, our God is not an angry old man like he used to be when he smote the Egyptians or turned Job’s wife into a statue. He has become a forgiving teacher as we see in the book of Jonah where he forgives the citizens of Nineveh because they learn from their mistakes. This is how God has proved his existence in the Bible by punishing certain individuals to burn into their brain he is above always watching and the masses are able to learn from the individual’s mistake instead of killing entire cities as Joshua does in Jericho.
The Sinnerman’s response to the rock is spoken in a pleading voice, “I said rock, what's the matter with you, rock, Don't you see I need you, rock.” Sinnerman is in a last ditch effort for protection and with nowhere to go he has turned to a false god in hope of salvation. This is God’s way of showing Sinnerman he can go anywhere and to anything but if it is not God then he will never find peace. This is shown when the Lord says, “Go to the devil, So I ran to the devil He was waiting.” God knows what he must do to prove his point to the neglectful human race.
“So I run to the river, It was bleedin,’ So I run to the Lord Please help me Lord, Don't you see me prayin'? Don't you see me down here prayin'?” Throughout the Bible we have read about men who want help from God immediately and if he does not listen they soon grow upset. They are soon taught a lesson which carries them through problems for the rest of their life. In The Slave by Isaac Singer we see a man who has been thrown around in times of tragedy since his wife and children were taken from him. Jacob is soon thrown into slavery all the while continuing and even furthering his faith in God, knowing something substantial will soon come his way. This is because he knows God does not punish those who do not deserve it, something Job should have learned much sooner, and Jacob’s prize is Wanda. God chooses when to respond because his response will have much more meaning for a person when it takes longer, it is like slow cooking a turkey the longer you wait, the better it is.
“Lord says ‘Sinnerman, you should've been a praying.’” Is Nina’s way of saying confront your God and do not hide from him as numerous characters (Jonah, Eve, and Job are a few examples) in the Bible do. Jonah as we saw in the group presentation is negligent and instead of doing what God asks and sail to Nineveh, he goes to Tarshish thinking God would not be able to find him again. Just as the Sinnerman runs to a rock, the sea, and to the devil he eventually learns the only “person” who is truly able to comfort him is God. Similar to the sense in The Book of Jonah, where Jonah must learn from his mistakes inside a fish, the Sinnerman must go to the devil to learn how evil the world can be, and in turn he learns how wonderful and lovely the world can be. Sinnerman is a God Fugitive because his belief in God is immensely strong, he fears his punishment will be barbaric, and he will be rejected from the Kingdom. Forcing Sinnerman to go on the run as though he is wearing an orange jumpsuit running from the authorities of Heaven. He is soon found by God but shunned away and forced to run to the devil in hope of his acceptance. Although, as God intended Satan’s exile from heaven, Satan is able to show Sinnerman how loathsome the world can be, and in turn Sinnerman comes crawling back to God.
The next line in the song is one which seems as though it is taken from a “Parenting for Dummies.” “So I ran to the lord, I said lord hide me, Please hide me, Please help me, All on that day.” If God were to do this favor for Sinnerman, what lesson would he truly learn? Sin is an action Simone took as an extremely serious crime so repentance is something Simone believed in strongly. To express remorse is much more than going go the Lord in a prayer where you may just tell him what you have done wrong or going to the local Priest and confessing your sins and saying ten Hail Mary’s. Simone sees repentance as a physical state; through her descriptions we see a mean, rejecting God, “Go to the Devil.” This mission by God is his way of ensuring we run back to God with our tail between our legs. The reason he rescinded Satan’s invitation in heaven was because to have the knowledge of a hero you must have an anti-hero. Sadly, Satan must fall and be a castaway but it allows humanity to be saved by Jesus.
The song concludes with, “Sinner man you oughta be prayin', Oughta be prayin' sinner man, Oughta be prayin', All on that day.” As a final touch Simone shows us the only way to talk with God is through prayer. Through Simone’s strict religious beliefs she wants to spread the love of God and if we attempt to talk to him on a regular basis for the sins we have committed he will be happy with us and we will not have to worry about “the fall” or God coming down and punishing us but only have to worry about how to greet God at the gates.
Johnny Cash went through numerous revelations in his life, which led to
many geneses. In “The Man Comes Around” we see a man going through a stage in life where he is debating his beliefs and does it through his music. Cash begins the song by using lines from Revelation 6: 1-2 in which we hear a voice of thunder instead of God’s voice which sounds like trumpets (Matthew 24:31; Revelation 1:10; 4:1; and 8:13) . “There's a man going around taking names, And he decides who to free and who to blame” (taken from a popular song by Lead Belly). This has a possibility of being a reference to either Jesus in his second coming who will travel around the world just as Santa does, taking names because he knows who has been naughty or nice. But as the song ends we are introduced to a man named Death (the antichrist) who is given the right to kill whom he likes which gives me the belief he is the reference to which a man is going around taking names. “His voice rang out like thunder” gives me this belief because it is not the beautiful, harmonious sound a trumpet makes but the sound of thunder. Something which scares a person and makes them fear they have done something wrong.
As Cash sings, “Some are born and some are dying, It’s Alpha and Omega’s kingdom come.” Alpha is the beginning of the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last letter. A Greek philosopher, Epicurean, was quoted, “Pleasure is the Alpha and Omega of a blessed life.” The beginning of a person’s life is blessed especially during the times when Epicureanism was alive because of the mortality rate. While the end of life is when you have come to peace with all your problems and can sit back and wait to be taken to a better place. These are two blessings which every person experiences whether they die at birth or when they are 100 years old.
Further into the song Cash brings us to Armageddon, “Till Armageddon no shalam, no shalom.” Meaning until the day of judgment there will be no peace (shalom is peace in Hebrew and shalam is believed to be a reference to salaam which means peace in Arabic) on earth because of all the questions which were left unanswered with Jesus departure. Cash continues on to a reference to Luke 13:34-35, “Then the father hen will call his chickens home, The wise man will bow down before the throne, And at His feet they’ll cast their golden crowns, When the Man comes around.” Claiming all the children of God will enter into the gates of Heaven and no matter a person’s class is they will rid themselves of their “crowns” because everyone is equal in the eyes of our creator. In the next stanza Cash says, “Whoever is unjust let him be unjust still, Whoever is righteous let him be righteous still…Listen to the words long written down.” Meaning, there is no reason to attempt to cover up who you have been during your days on earth because God is all knowing. As we were shown in Simone’s Sinnerman, a rock, the sea, or the devil cannot hide you because God has 20/20 vision.
Cash ends the song with a reference to Revelation 6:8 and the infamous pale horse with a rider named Death, and Hades followed with him who is introduced by the four beasts, a lion, an ox, a creature with a face like a human, and fourthly a creature which flew like an eagle. The leader, Death was given permission to kill using his sword, famine, and pestilence.
Simone’s “Sinnerman” brings us on a journey, which few artists have been able to do. She makes us feel we are in the presence of a greater being, which cannot be explained by anything other than the Bible. Both “Sinnerman” and “The Man Comes Around” are deeply religious, moving songs about a second coming in which the character of the song is going through a religious revival. The characters come into a new world, with a pair of newborn eyes. It is through revelation, which a person is born into a world and is able to accept past sins and move on to an enjoyable life once again. “The Man Comes Around” was written close to Cash’s death and may have been written right after the death of his love, June Carter. Her death brought out countless emotions Cash had not felt since the passing of his brother brought out the best of Cash. When he refers to, “Will you partake of that last offered cup” we see him accepting Jesus into his life, officially completing his revelation into God’s kingdom.

A bit late

My computer crashed the other week so I have been trying to get it up and running and finally succeeded. I watched Dead Man, the movie Dr. Sexson recommended to us and was very impressed. I have lived with a film student since sophomore year and his love for films started to rub off on me. Typically I cannot deal with the artsy side of film which you see in Dead Man but shooting it in black and white makes sense for the movie. It is about a city slicker who makes his way west (could very well be in Montana) for a job. He ends up not getting the job and witnesses a death which makes it look like it was him who murdered the businessman's son. Following the murder, William Blake (Johnny Depp) meets an Indian named, Nobody (Gary Farmer) who teaches Blake how to live the western lifestyle. Nobody could be a spirit since it is a possibility Blake is dead throughout the entire movie and is just a "play" on characters and is himself a character going around taking revenge. Blake then goes on a killing spree showing us how different parts of the country are. The United States is one of a few places where a person is able to encounter numerous cultures within a span of traveling a few hours.

I also watched Up since my last post and was extremely disappointed with it. After all the highly esteemed comments I heard I was really expecting something special but other than the plot it was not nearly as good as I thought it could have been. This may be because it was intended for children they did not go in to as much depth on the story as I would have enjoyed, making the movie barely over an hour and half.

More to come on Up after I finish my presentation/paper tonight.

Common Day Slavery

The Slave was/is a great simple read. I think I read it in three sittings and enjoyed it thoroughly. As I reflect after reading it about a month ago? I am still in awe of how Singer makes Jacob committed to God to the nth degree. Even after his family is taken from him and he is sold into slavery Jacob tests his knowledge of the Bible by writing as many commandments as he can remember. In the first five minutes he writes down more than I could write down in five years but I don't know if this is because I am a bad person (religiously). I feel Jacob is on a whole other level, he is like the present day (whenever the story took place) of Mother Theresa. No matter what happens to him he will make it through because of his outlook.

This outlook is a special thing, especially when dealing with tragedy. With a positive outlook a person is able to overcome anything, as a person who just learned of a family "tragedy" I wish I was able to have this outlook because I have become enclosed on thoughts of the past instead of looking forward to what moments I may have in the future with this person while I will have plenty of time to look to the past when this person has passed on. It is stories like The Slave and authors like Singer who give people hope. It is no wonder certain people make it to a "celebrity" status because of their power of to heal. In a Dexter episode I saw recently Dexter talks of a co-worker who was saved from his personal problems because of an episode of Oprah, Dexter continues to say how he wishes his life was simple enough to be solved by something like a television show. As I thought/think about this statement, I believe any problem can be saved by something simple. Yet, this simple action to save a person must have a significant meaning and it is solved like David Blaine's tricks. For me, it was going into the mountains and taking time to connect with my feelings and find a peace of mind where I can accept what is happening to my family member and move on to enjoy the rest of their life...together.

My term paper...

For my term paper I have thought for a while and haven't really been able to think of something. I decided to go for a pop culture topic and look into songs influenced by the Bible in our current society. We have classics like, "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash, to whole albums by U2 (whom I well not go into because I would probably be in an insane asylum after listening to a whole album by them), and singers like Jessica Simpson who come from a strict Baptist family (her father was a minister). After researching a few singers I will look into whether a religious background helped them become a Christian pop star or what as well as looking into how Bible verses can be used to get powerful/beefy points across.

Playing God

Nina Simone's, 'Sinnerman' has been used in numerous essays and movies because as Dr. Sexson said it is one of the most beautiful songs which incorporates the scriptures. As I looked at the lyrics it reminds me of Paradise Lost and how Adam and Eve do not move on in the world until they have repented for the sins which have caused humanity to fall. Simone's song is broken into two halves. The first in which the narrator is begging God for mercy but is told to, "go to the devil, all along dem day." Basically to learn from what sins he has committed and then he will be let back into the light. God is never that simple though and soon he asks, "Child, where are you? When you should be prayin'." Why must God be so confusing? Why can't he just make up his mind and tell us what he wants. The narrator admits he can not live without God and he needs God by his side to live an acceptable life in the end.

The instant I heard "Sinnerman" it made me think of Gigi Ruff's part in Futureproof a film by Absinthe Films. The way they use this song makes me think. A, it was just because it truly is a great song with a simple beat to make an edit to or B, it is showing us how we are always living in God's paradise. It is what we personally believe paradise is and it will appear. I personally find the ocean and mountains to be the closest places on earth to paradise. It is in these places I am able to lose my thoughts in the water molecules, schlip slopping on top of my surf board, and I don't even notice the wave which is about to pummel me into the sand or hiking in the back country and suddenly realizing I am 100 feet past the shoot I intended to drop into. These are also the times I am closest to God, as we converse about what I should be doing differently in my life, and it is these times which I plead for God to help me through whatever troubles I may be combatting at that certain moment in my life.

As I finished a book today for one of my history classes the writer spoke of pilots (during WWII in Korea) who dropped bombs on the cities and the children would run into the fields of rice to hide since the bombs were never dropped on crops. This reminded me of an essay I read during high-school where a pilot pretends to be God and drops a few bombs in the fields to show what he could HAVE done if he had wanted to. The pilot soon learns he killed every child who lived in the village and the peasants cry out to their Lord, why have you done this to the future? or something along those lines...this reminds me of how we must accept what happens in our lives because everything is meant for a reason. We should never try to play God because nothing good can come of it except our punishment which we teach us...not to play God.

Re:Birth

"And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.'"

As I read this all I could remember was the discussion we had in class this past week. Rio remembering he got dunked under a river and others who were pleasantly dumped into an actual dunking booth (I wonder if there is a difference from the ones a clown gets dunked in at the fair and the ones which are religiously based). Back to my point though, this is exactly how a baptism should be. One of the most beautiful moments of our life as the heavens are opened to our previously blind eyes almost as if we were a puppy in its first days of life. As the heavens open so does our life to a religious following. As the light converges on Jesus the voice bellows, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." I wish I could remember my baptism or anything from my young childhood for that fact which brings me to the question, why aren't Christians baptized at a later time in life? This way we could actually remember the significance of this important event. As Reborn Christians experience this magical moment they could also hear God say to them, "I am proud of you for what you have done." I feel these critical moments in Jesus life are what directly influenced him to living a life of such prominence among such a rebellious age. It is this sort of thing which people today need to believe in a God which continues to be shunned away by science. The personal connections can help a person see beyond the physical and into the mystical.

Questioning

How dare I question God? After I have not had my 10 sons killed by a stray gust of wind knocking down the house or 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels which were smited by God's wrath (Plotz's point about the numerical pattern is amusing). Job is a man who takes his punishment but is not able to truly accept what has happened to him. This is all because of his innocence and his belief innocent people do not get in trouble. There are so many current stories which prove him wrong, whether it is Rubbin "Hurricane" Carter who was accused of committing three murders or Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.

I then read a post by Jamie who posted a poem which she conveniently summarized so we would not have to read it. In the poem Hop feels he would be able to accept his punishment if he knew it was sent from a higher form. I would personally have a problem with this especially if I was in Job's shoes. This is because it would mean the higher form enjoys seeing us suffer (maybe he does since he makes Israelites do/eat things until they won't enjoy them anymore) and if that were the case how can he stand to watch someone suffer for no reason? What if God had not had another bi-polar moment going from angry, look at what I have done over thousands of years to the nice, oh Job here have double the amount of camels and sheep. Job would have died even though he lived a good life where he did nothing wrong (proven when his three friends shut up after his final argument). I suppose we must just take what because whether there is someone above the clouds pouting as Job does for over half the book devoted to him will not help cure your disease/problems/whatever your ailment may be.