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.

Such is life...

As I attempt to catch up on the Bible and other readings in this class it becomes even harder to blog for a person like myself who struggles to blog biweekly. I just finished the Book of Joshua though and was astonished how violent the Bible continues to be. In the conquering of Jericho Joshua has absolutely no heart. The soldiers decide to allow the children and women to live (even some of the worlds worst criminals don't touch women and children) but Joshua is furious and demands the soldiers kill them.

Plotz brings up a great point in his chapter on Deuteronomy; he ponders how the Israelites don't believe in Yahweh when he has proven himself time and time again. After all these miracles how could one not believe in the great man above? But it also made me wonder what happened to him, have we as humans become so disgraceful we don't deserve miracles anymore? I mean I know we f_ck up a lot these days and just about everyone commits horrible, unmentionable sins. Especially our presidents dropping bombs all over the world as if it was a good thing to have a bomb dropped on ones house. All we have seen in the past few years is Mary's face on a grilled cheese (http://www.searchenginejournal.com/virgin-mary-grilled-cheese-miracle-blesses-ebay/1071/) or in South Park they mock the bleeding Virgin Mary in horrible manner although it is witty. I also wonder why we call anyone who claims to have spoken to God other than Priests crazy. When so many people used to connect with God every few years and bring his "chosen" people to a new land or to punish them and sentence them to 40 years in the desert. He chose people who stuttered and had killed brothers or sentenced them to exile, but today no one speaks with the Lord. I don't think anyone has for the past few centuries at least. As Plotz says though, “You didn’t actually witness the events that you are supposed to have witnessed” (p.76). Then why do we continue to believe in them? Especially when people who claim to have connected to God today get shunned away and either called a liar, kook, or just put into the dark and are totally rejected.

It is through this I believe the Bible to be a list of rules (as we see in Numbers) which we as humans should abide by to live a good life. It is not to be taken literally and worship but to allow us to confide in someone whom we can talk to when no one is around and not be called crazy or to sell a grilled cheese for some quick cash (I don't understand how a person who believes in God could SELL a grilled cheese representing the Virgin Mary. It seems unethical to begin with but doesn't our Lord and Savior warn us against false gods)? I suppose a grilled cheese couldn't be a god so scratch that thought. As we are able to see though a person cannot truly live his life by the Bible or he would tend to get in a bit of trouble.

This is sort of a side thought but also goes with my questioning humanity in todays world. As well as I think he had a horrible day so I will write about it until one happens to me. Which I don't know if it will because as many of my classmates have reiterated there is no such thing as a bad day because you learn something from any event which makes it good. Although this is absolutely horrible and made me question humanity. I talked to one of my good friends I went to high-school with who goes to UNH (University of New Hampshire). On his drunken journey home on Halloween three kids jumped him leaving him knocked out and he had a his jaw wired shut along with other injuries. All this was able to happen as people walked by while he was on the ground with three punks kicking the $h!t out of him. He didn't have a chance to defend himself and the people who could have defended him just walked away as if the four were having a friendly conversation. I cannot believe humanity is going down the hole so fast we are able to stand by and watch this. I feel we need a sign from the ole' man above we are not in as much trouble as we think or something along those lines. Oh well the world will improve someday.

On a more positive not, I leave you with this, http://www.blogotheque.net/Delta-Spirit,4810 as we read in Wallace's poem music is a great way to express love and yourself. Delta Spirit shows us a way in which they express themselves. Doing it on a trolly, in a restaurant, and in a park.

Chaptah Five of The Great Code

This may be the first chapter I actually enjoyed from The Great Code. I was able to pay attention for more than a few seconds and wasn't forced into looking up numerous words per page. On the first page I found a thought provoking exert,

"If attained, enlightenment brings about the same kind of obedience to the moral code (dharma) that "salvation" does in the West, but without the legalism that Christianity is regarded as having abolished in theory."

This makes me think how we as an American community have made it impossibly "legally" to achieve enlightenment. If you were to achieve enlightenment people would question if it was even possible to reach such a thing. Just as we question if a person is able to connect with the dead. Is it the fact we fear the thought we are actually able to get in-touch with something in a different world or is it it true it is not possible to reach enlightenment (the third quote goes into this a bit more)? It is almost embarrassing to people to admit to their friends if they religious and it is the cool thing to be anti-religious. We as teachers in a public school can not even admit to believe in God without being punished.

As you hear kids driving around yelling out windows "faaaaag" or "Hail Satan!"things you would never hear in Palestine or current day Israel (The Holy Land as it is referred to in The Slave). A place where a person takes pride in their heritage and what their religion means to them while we (Americans) have made Sundays more religious for football than church in recent years. It makes our whole prior life questionable. Our ancestors for the most part have all lived their life by the Bible even if they lived by it for moral reasoning instead of having a true faith in God. People have questioned Gods existence for a while but now since we have scientific evidence it is highly unlikely their is someone above or so this is what we are constantly told in todays world.

p.110

"The world God made was so "good" that he spent his seventh day contemplating it--which means that his Creation including man, was already objective to God,"

Frye actually makes a joke? Nope, he turns it into a compelling argument. Although I do enjoy the thought of seeing God sitting back in his lazy boy with a cold as the Rockies Coors Light watching the Patriots in London this past Sunday. But I find it highly unlikely he was able to stay awake during the game because who wouldn't pass out after six days of creating the entire universe? I mean come on most Dungeons and Dragons players would be pooped after a day of JUST creating animals which walk on the land and swim in the sea. Frye continues on to say God created the rotation of sun/moon so he was able to "impose light and order on a chaotic darkness." It is then through the rotation of night and day we are able to see both sides of God's creations. Since God created all which evil and virtuous so we are ensured we remember both sides of God. That he can instill pain just as quickly as Jesus healed the blind.

p.116

"The explanation is generally that it was only an angel of God that was seen. The miraculously burning bush, as a visible object, is there only to catch Moses' attention: it is what is said from within it that is important."

Are we not always told how important it is to look into someone's soul to see how good of a person they are? We can not judge a book by its cover? Well, the same goes for Moses' he must look into the burning bush which he saw at Mount Horeb. I mean, maybe the burning bush is meant to represent God burning up with anger because of how self-conscious Moses is and how annoyed he is with all of Moses dumb questions; this all because God remains remarkably calm. Well, I guess they aren't dumb questions because God does seems to answer them with respectable answers.

Where The Wild P and J's Are and Chaptah 13 of Daniel

I saw Where the Wild Things Are over the weekend and by golly I thought it was wicked good. Spike Jonze does an interesting portrayal of the "Wild Things" since each one represents Max in a way (I cannot remember if this is how the book is done or not) it made me think of the Bible. Sorta sucked since I was really enjoying the movie and my mind got to wandering. But I was thinking of the P, J, and all the other writers and how they are used to explain the Bible in different ways to get different points across. I also thought of how Dr. Sexson spoke of the Bible being in our everyday life even if we do not "live" it. Whether it is through movies like Pulp Fiction and Where the Wild Things Are or by moral obligations of helping someone in trouble.

Wallace Stevens does a great job of putting his feelings for Susanna on "paper" for us. The way he describes everything through music is the perfect way for me personally to gain an understanding for his feelings. I love music going to a live concert no matter what type of music from classical to hip-hop hearing the instruments is completely different from through headphones. “Thinking of your blue-shadowed silk, Is music. It is like the strain” allows us to see the sway of her dress in the wind. It reminds me of the scene in Boondock Saints, where the FBI agent played by Willem Defoe investigates the first murder and puts the headphones on to listen a classical song while pretending to conduct an orchestra.

Then in the book of Susanna (in the Bible) we are shown a man who falls for a woman. This is a story of how a woman's desirability can become troublesome for a man's thought process. We are able to see Susanna's connection to Eve even although she may does mean to seduce the two elders as it is all Eve's fault for the fall of mankind. It is womans original sin to have men fall in love with them. In Wallace Stevens poem we see a direct connection to Susanna in the lines, "Of a green evening, clear and warm, She bathed in her still garden," which is exactly how the two elders capture their peeping Tom images of Susan.

Finally we are able to see the devious elders get put into their place by Daniel who is the present day 'Super Trooper' and uses his police academy training and separates the two culprits. By doing this he discovers the true story behind seeing Susanna in the nude. But it is only when Susanna cries out to God that (s)he is able to send Daniel as if to say, "I am almighty and only save, once you bow down." Almost another sign of his loneliness an assuring himself through this "miracle" he has another loyal servant because he has proved he is almighty through this act of God.

So, I have been behind a bit in this class trying to catch up in the Bible as well as in Frye/Plotz. Then I look at the syllabus and find out I completely forgot about The Slave by Singer, so I started that this past weekend. I have found it rather enjoyable although I feel horrible in enjoying this man's troubles until Jacob finally drops the good guy act and does the dirty thang with Wanda. But for real, I really enjoy the man's commitment to the Bible even though his father-in-law wanted him to become a Preacher he didn't all he did was study. He eventually winds up memorizing most of the Bible, we as a class could not even remember the ten major commandments, Jacob on the other hand comes up with 47, and knows there are more to come to him since there are something like 347?!?! This man is dedicated and I don't even know if I could name or remember that many of anything. He also is able to recite numerous prayers on call but this is something that will happen when you find your one true love in life. He is able to engulf his life with Judaism even though it is not around him. Something few people could do today in a world that revolves around the internet (no journals just blogs), video games, and other useless junk would leave a number of us scrambling for the rope hanging in the barn.

Wo-Man in the Bible

So, Mrs. (Dr?) Sexson started the discussion off with a metaphor between Eve and the purification of women after menstruation. Which is an interesting position to hear from, especially after reading Plotz all semester, and how women in the Bible are only whores and do not serve a real purpose. But as we see in Hosea 2 (as Sexson showed us), Hosea continues to take back his wife repeatedly even though she strays away from him just as Yahweh takes Israel and the Israelites back a number of times. This allows us to see the women's larger part in the Bible; they are an extremely important lesson for us to see. We all make mistakes and need to be taken back by the ones we love because if we are thrown aside we will not truly learn from our mistakes. Which is important for us to learn in a religious class because it is all about learning from our mistakes. We fucked up, Jesus was crucified, and if we don't learn anything from it then he died for no reason. So what were we supposed to learn from the Bible? There are so many words and Frye makes it sound much more complicated than it truly is. Frye makes every word sound so needy and important but why? The Bible was written thousands of years ago, over thousands of years, and lots of work went into it. But I feel this much work went into it so it is somewhat understandable and Frye attempts to ruin my thoughts of this but he won't, I will hold out.

As I sit down to read Frye's The Great Code I get a few pages into the second chapter and start having my lacuna's. I am forced to retrace my steps numerous times before I give up on the book for the evening and move onto greener pastures...or the Bible. Let us see how this goes.

After speaking about Sodom and Gomorrah in class today I decided to refresh myself about the story. As Lot offers up his daughter's, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man (virgins, so tempting); let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof" (Genesis 19: 7-9).

It is as though Lot feels in the land of Zoar hospitality is valued higher than his own daughter's well being as well as being held higher than homosexuality. This is an interesting perspective because in ancient Greek history we see numerous acts of homosexuality (hence the island of Lesbos comes the common word Lesbian). I guess I just have a hard time believing a mythical (up for debate) God who is supposed to be all loving would rather have a man offer up his two virgin daughters who are supposed to be something special in their own right and are supposed to save themselves for the ones they love or whom their father chooses they love. Instead of having Lot's visitors engage in homosexual acts with the men he is sheltering.

Abraham then attempts to save the people of Sodom and Gomorrah by challenging God in person. How strong Abraham must have been to stand up to God for wanting to kill an entire city. But there aren't any truthful people worthy of saving so they are killed for the betterment of humanity I suppose.

I suppose I am as astonished as David Plotz and everyone in class who was surprised that God is not all loving. He enjoys inflicting pain on his or her people and if people are killed, no biggie they are replaceable as 1, 2, 3. But this does prove one of God's most notable points which is, don't lie. As long as you are truthful you have a chance of success and God proves this throughout the Bible especially to the Egyptians (more the Pharaoh) who are given numerous chances to let the Israelites leave Egypt but the Pharaoh continues to go back on his word 10 times (I believe). It isn't until God smites the Egyptians with boils that the Pharaoh allows the Israelites to leave and this is only because his own David Blaine impersonators could not show themselves.

As I sit here in the library I looked up Hermes and his history as well as hermeneutics to learn more about the two. As the son of Zeus I expected great things of Hermes but come on all he is is fast? Fuck it, I doubt he was even that much faster than Usain Bolt. I am also confused by one of his symbols, the tortoise, how is someone who is supposed to be recognized as a speed demon comparable to the tortoise? Unless it is an attempt to connect to the tale of the Tortoise and Hare in which it is better to be slow and steady than sprint out everything you have. This reminds me of a show I saw on the National Geographic Channel in which a tribe in Africa would successfully run after antelope and other animals until the animal was too tired to continue and they would kill it. But anyways hermeneutics also gives us an interesting definition and as we discussed hermeneutics is the science of interpreting. Instead of boring you with my thoughts click the link I made it is a great history of hermeneutics.

A reawakening? Or maybe just advancing

So as I entered the surgery room I notice the room is bare except for a diagram of a human's head, a chair, and surgical instruments used to inflict pain. I have had a temperature of 103 degrees Fahrenheit for a little over twenty-four hours, I have not had anything to eat or drink within this time frame as well, and am ready for this all to end. The novacaine does nothing as I squirm in the chair, too much for him to puncture an area around the abscess in my throat. He say's, "I will be back in a few minutes." Hmm...Oh shit this could be bad. He comes back into the room with a a plier like instrument but...it has a knife on one side this really shall be fun! He pries my mouth open as if I am a dog and shoves the instrument into my throat. "Hmm there it is but I can't get the puss to come out hmmmmm, oh, here it is" and I instantly vomit the most disgusting, smelling, PUSS mixed with blood out of my mouth.

This is worse than any Saturday or Sunday morning I can remember and it is only 1 O'Clock on a Wednesday afternoon and I haven't even been drinking. As I walk out of the room one of the nurses says to me, "This is as close to death as you may ever feel" Well that is a nice way to end the operation. It gets me thinking though about life and death. As we have recently been reading Genesis (supposed to be well into Exodus now I believe) I have learned numerous things about the Christian Birth and how I should be living by certain standards which I most definitely d0 not because I have been a selfish bastard choosing to do what I like to do and do it when I like to.

As I started and finished Exodus all I could think of was the Catholic high-school I attended and all the rules. Is this all the Bible is? A list of rules for us to live by? Can our "selfish" Godthink of nothing better for us to do than bow down at his every request just to acknowledge his presence in our life and he is our only god? At least he does prove his love for us by delivering the Israelites safely away from the land of the abusive Egyptians. Though their doubt in God almost gets them into trouble as they continue to ask Moses whether waiting in the desert for the Egyptians to slaughter them on the edge of the Red Sea is better than being a slave? But my question is...is it better to be a slave than die? I personally feel I would rather die but that is because I have lived. During high-school I took a class on ethics and one of the great questions we talked about for weeks on end was whether we would enslave a girl/boy in dark basement where they would never see the day of light...if we as a community could live in perfect health, wealth, and harmony (etc...). I was one of the few who chose to enslave the girl/boy and I will now defend my position. If a person has never truly lived can they really miss life? From day one the girl would be in darkness and would not know about the NFL or the beauty music can bring to a person's life so how can (s)he be really missing out on life? (S)he has not experienced any of the beautiful things in life so I truly feel if we could all in peace and each one of us actually enjoys our life and does not waste it...then it is the worth wasting one person's life.

As I think of how much an asshole this makes me...I am not sure if it does or not because I feel I am actually a decent person for all the horribly messed up things I have done in my life but for all the horrible events I have done I would have to say I have done at least three positive. I also make sure if I am going to do something bad that the only person it can affect is me (for the most part). I say for the most part because there are always those around you whom you love (friends/family) and they may be affected by an action. But I would never purposely go out and intentionally hurt someone. I have never been in a fight, I have never gone after someone intending to hurt them physically (or emotionally).

So what I am trying to get after is we as humans have set our own list of rules and God's personal list he accumulated with Moses is a good starting point but as Dr.Sexson said in class today it is a good thing we (humans intellectually) were not around in the time of creation because he has made us smart enough to challenge and perhaps correct God for some of his actions but did start us in the right direction and we are going to continue to advance whether God is real or not. If he is then he would be proud as well as disappointed with where we have gone in our lives but we as humans continue to try and improve ourselves daily and we will soon succeed and make ourselves somewhat respectable.

Then there was earth and then light and then Adam and then Eve and then Cain killed Abel and then...

"Good luck, for your sake I hope heaven and hell are really there, but I wouldn't hold my breath." Are some lyrics sung by Modest Mouse, a band I saw in Missoula on Friday which got me thinking about our Bible as Literature class. Funny this would come to mind as I am on my way to a long night. Although I did not seriously think about this until the drive back to Bozeman on Saturday it got me thinking...if a large number of people doubt there are a heaven and hell then how does God and his/her followers have a chance of convincing us (s)he created all of earth in seven days. THEN (s)he was angry because we were selfish (even though we were created in his likeness, what does that make God?) and floods the earth. While convincing Noah to build an ark (Steve Carrel does a pretty good job playing Noah in Evan Almighty), gather numerous animals from around the world (one of each sex), and put them on his boat. Not only is this an amazing feat that he is able to build an ark this big, gather the animals, BUT he is actually able to connect to the hawks, bears, and tigers either through mind or jibber jabber something not even Steve Irwin was able to do. I also found it interesting in the Bible study section explanation of 5.28-"A brief inset from the J source, Lamech derives the name Noah from the world relief and fortells that Noah will relieve the harshness of human toil." I do not remember if God told Noah's parents to name him this or if in fact his parents had a super-natural feeling named him Noah.

Anyway here is some more in depth thought process from Genesis. In 2.9 "...and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." As humans we are known as being nosey or maybe this is just my perspective since I grew up in the USA where we are always sticking our nose in other people/countries business but it seems inevitable from this point on that Adam or Even won't eat from the tree.

I also find it spectacular how people in the Bible are able to live for 100+ years but as David Plotz explains it is easily explained by the telephone game theory. As a story is passed on it eventually grows in tale and stories become even greater.

My very first blog

Hello everyone, I am from the small town of Durham, New Hampshire and am going to be junior(ish) with a double major in history and english... For high-school I attended a small private Catholic school (Saint Thomas Aquinas) in Dover, New Hampshire. At the time religion was thrown at me and I chose to reject it because rebelling was the cool thing then, right? My family was originally Catholic; although my parents rarely attend church nowadays, my brother has become an Atheist, and my grandparents attend church on a regular basis. I am looking forward to being in a class were thoughts from all perspectives will be made known and not contained as if it were a can of anchovies as they were at my high-school.