Post for 11-29

I read Paul’s letter to the Philippians today and I tried so hard to dig deep into it and pull out figurative language but to me it nothing really came out. I went into it reading it just for the figurative language and by the time I was finished it felt the same as when I normally read the Bible. I tried to dig up some life lessons that can improve my relationship with God. So as for how many figurative language items I got it is in the single digits. And all in all reading Philippians with this in my mind did not in any way change how I perceived the letter. I still saw it as a letter of encouragement and didn’t really pull out much from in between the lines or from figurative language. Although I feel that figurative language would not really change my perception of the story in any way at all. The reason I think this is because all that figurative language does for me is give a better description and here I fell that a better description is not really necessary because I understand what Paul is trying to convey. So after not getting much figurative language the first time around I gave it a second read through as Professor Corrigan asked us to and I noticed more figurative language however it didn’t change my perception of St. Paul’s letter in any way. I still feel like figurative language does not really help what Paul is trying to say.  Hopefully Professor Corrigan will shed some light tomorrow and I will feel like there is more of a reason for figurative language in the Bible. And hopefully I will be more able to find more figurative language and see what it is talking about and how it helps.

Blog for 11-18

Flannery O'Connor’s, A Temple of the Holy Ghost was a very strange story in my opinion. I did not quite understand it but nonetheless I will try to pick out any symbolism and any meaning to it that I can. I will first start with the three stages of reading that we discussed in class. The first stage reading, well is just that. When applied to this story we read about two girls who have come to stay with their cousin and these girls are obsessed with boys it seems. Later on in the story the girls go to a fair where there a he-she reveals him-herself to the crowd. Then the girls go back to the boarding school where they came from. This next stage of interpretation of the story is where I am lost. I have no idea what any of this means or how it is significant. The only “moral” of the story that I could find was that the Church of God is bad and that little girls from boarding schools are annoying and “stupid.” When we move on to the third stage of criticizing I find that I can either be very critical or not critical at all. I feel more that I can not be critical at all because I feel like I did not understand the story and this could be because of my own ignorance or lack of knowledge. However the less likely option is that the story was written poorly and it is not my fault that I do not understand, but I tend to think that it is no one’s fault but my own that I did not get the point to this story. Although there is the third option that this story did not have a point or moral and was just for entertainment. I’m lost.

The Man Who Came To Dinner

I went to the Thursday night showing of The Man Who Came To Dinner.

Post for 9-16

The Man Who Came to dinner in my opinion was a great play. Out of all the plays I have been to it held my attention better than any other. Although the first act was a little dry in my opinion the second and third act made the play. I went on Thursday night which was the student night/ dress rehearsal so there were some things that were not spot on as should be. The only things I noticed were that some of the cues were off, such as the lighting and the doorbell. The lighting was not horribly noticeable but the doorbell rang before the man was even in sight of the door. Other than that the play was amazing in my opinion. My favorite character was Banjo played by Curtis Burkhardt who is a personal friend of mine. Now my view may be slanted because he is a close friend but I found him to be the most comical person in the play. Another of my good friends was in the play also, Micah Buckley. Micah played two roles in this play, he was the man who brought the cockroaches into the house and he was also the man who called the house from the train station pretending to be the fatbottom guy from France. I am glad that this was the play that we were required to go to because I got to see a great play and two of my old roommates act. Although I am disappointed to say that this performance was the last of the legendary Micah Buckley’s performances at Southeastern. I hope Southeastern continues to put on such great performances in the future. This was by far my favorite out of all the previous field trips we have gone on in this class and I have a feeling it will not be topped.

Post for 11-11

This play to me, on my first read through was very funny but also very sad. To me it had a pretty sad ending. Especially when they were at the party and they got mad at Jack for leaving them. Now for all of us we can easily understand why Jack was leaving. He was tired and just could not take it anymore, I mean I got to give the guy credit for staying with it so long because I don’t think that I could have stuck with it for as long as he did. But to me it is just really sad to think what is going through Arnold’s, Norman’s, Lucien’s and Berry’s heads. They must be so confused and probably hurt. What is probably going on in their head is that Jack doesn’t want to be with them anymore. Now to them they probably think it is because Jack doesn’t like them, which is probably a very painful thought for them when it however is not the case he is just worn out. Although the ending was somewhat sad I loved the play and I really wish it didn’t end so that I could keep on reading it. I loved all of the characters and how the acted/reacted with one another. I’m very curious about this play on Thursday because I have no idea what it’s about but after reading this play in class it gives me an idea of what I think the play will be about. However I am very excited to go on Thursday night and see my friend Curtis perform in the play. I know they have been working very hard on it and I can’t wait to see it. It worked out rather well that this production was that one that I wanted to go seen anyways and that we are also required to see it. Hopefully we can get ticket at the door.

Post for 11-9

                Today the class went to Alliance For Independence, a place that helps persons with disabilities be able to begin to function on their own.  One thing struck me as really sad, besides the fact that these people are born with disabilities, it was that the funding the place received was terrible. The lady said that the cost of keeping each patient there every day was around seventy-five dollars a day. She then explained that most of the people there were on Medicad’s rehabilitation benefits. It’s great that these people get to receive benefits to come to this place to get help but the sad thing is that Medicad only pays twenty-seven dollars a day for each patient. Now what I got from what she said, was that if they are on Medicad they do not need to cover the cost and the company takes a loss in the amount of about forty-eight dollars a day per patient. The tour guide also said that there were 110 patients in the center currently. Now if you multiply the forty-eight dollars by 110 patients you see that the center is taking over a 5,000 dollar loss PER DAY! This is terrible, and for all who went, you saw the facility. It’s not that great looking of a place and it seems like they could use some rebuilding or expansion. Honestly they need more funding I’m not sure if the new healthcare thing that the President passed will help this or not but if it doesn’t someone needs to do something to help. This field trip has helped me more understand the play we are reading in that one of the characters is on trial to possibly have his Medicad taken away. In my opinion there needs to be something more done to help these people who do not have a voice of their own.

Post for 11-4

I was reading the play The Boys Next Door today and I found it pretty comical how each of the characters explain everything. If you have ever seen the movie The Ringer with Johnny Knoxville, it reminded me of that. I loved the opening scene where Arnold was at the store and asked the manager how many boxes of wheaties he should buy and the manager replied, "seventeen."  It struck me strange a little later, when it was explained that they were all truly mentally handicapped,  that the manager gave such a sarcastic response if it was sarcasm.  It may have been that the manager was just a plain bad person and was trying to take advantage of Arnold to get his money. And I thought to myself how could a person be so mean to a person with disabilities, when the manager probably knew for a fact that Arnold had disabilities, due to the fact that the store was right down the corner.  But what scares me is this probably isn't an unusual thing. I feel that all too often people with disabilities are over looked and that people see them as an inconvenient. And I feel like a lot of the time people look down on these people not only because they are different but because they are singled out and put in "special" classes and removed from the normal flow of society into a setting that "better fits them" or maybe it should be said a setting that better fits us. I know that these people need special help and attention but as I think about it, it makes me curious is the reason that we separate these people because we want them to get help or because we don't feel like taking the time to help them ourselves. I'm just thinking out loud here so maybe anything I am writing doesn't make any sense to those reading it but in my head I know what I'm thinking.

Post for 11/2

                Its been hard for me to blog about the recent nature poems mainly because I am not a huge fan of poetry and this is mostly because I do not understand a lot of poetry and the references in them. And it is not that I just do not understand the references, it is also that to me it seems like poetry can be taken so many different ways. Take for example when Mary Oliver says in her poem Messenger, “My work is loving the world.” Does she mean that she feels like it is her obligation to love the world or does she have a job as something like a nature reserve officer or does she feel like her work is loving the world because she loves to write poetry about it. To me there is just too much to dig through to get the point of the story. However there is a rare occasion where I feel like I understand perfectly what the author is trying to say and I love it when that happens because I feel smart but recently with this nature poetry it’s just not my thing. Like State of The Planet, I feel like I got a good bit of the poem and I was satisfied with what I took away from it, however there was some part’s that as we discussed in class I felt like I knew less and less about. Maybe poetry is not something that can just be translated and understood, maybe it is a personal experience where we can take what we want from it. I am starting to feel like that is what poetry is all about, a personal experience. However there are a lot of times where I feel like it just went way over my head. All in all I feel in the middle about poetry, sort of a love hate type thing.

"I went to Lake Bonny Park [or Circle B Bar Reserve] for this field trip, and I stayed there for at least 45 minutes."

Nature But Not So Much:

Empty bottles in the water,

Alligators with trash clinging to them,

What is nature now?

Sure there are pretty mountains in pictures,

But when you go outside…

Trash, trash and more trash

Nature is becoming a scarce thing.

As big building rise higher and higher

Forests and plains fall lower and lower.

But everything is not completely gone,

Bunnies still hobble through the park grass,

Alligators and fish still swim in the water

                In a constant war with each other

And Insects still fly though the air,

                Being swallowed up in the blue and green

                Of the sky and grass.

Hopefully my children will still be able to enjoy

                Watching the wind shake the trees

                And see animals run through the grass

Hopefully that was already here will not be destroyed

                By what we more desire to be here.