Final Paper

Checkmate

            My profound learning as a result of the class is a deeper understanding of the concept of suffering and the impact it has on the lives of all people. The story of Job conveys much wisdom in the understanding of suffering. I am intrigued by the notion that suffering afflicts all people, both wicked and just, in our daily lives as we are finding ourselves immersed in the competition between God and the Devil for retribution and forgiveness. The concept of suffering, now that I am filled with the epiphanies of the whirlwind, makes an immense difference in my life, and how I perceive life. It is clear that peace is more profound after suffering.

            Job was an honest man who put all his faith, love, and loyalty into God. He was prosperous and had many possessions. Above all, he worshiped the Lord fully with no temptation in his heart to betray or love another. Yet, to test him, God makes a deal with the Devil to test Job’s loyalty and love. All of Job’s belongings are taken away from him, he is struck down with plagues, but still he does not curse God. Job’s friends speak to him, primarily Eliphaz, telling him, “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth” (Job 22: 21-22). The meaning of this passage suggests that we should, submit and devote ourselves to God and be at peace with him.  In doing so, prosperity and livelihood will come to you. Accept ‘law’ from his mouth and then speak his words of wisdom through yourself. But this just angered Job because he already knew this to be true. He already knew he loved God with all his heart, and that his friends were wrong, for they assumed since he was being punished he must be wicked and sinning. He therefore rebuts them and spends all of 24:12 telling them of the wicked and how God does not look at those who have done wrong and afflict them out of anger.  Rather, he continues to love them in an ever-growing manner. Even though Job whined within his heart, he ultimately knew that God loved him throughout his sufferings, and within his heart he knew he had done no wrong. Job has an epiphany that God allows for all to suffer, not just the wicked, and that this does not deplete the love God has for his children.

            I believe to this day, God and the Devil are still in competition for our souls and loyalty. Each day we are confronted with situations that can lead to suffering and hardships even if we choose to do the right things; the choice between paths is left in our hands. God still allows for the good to suffer, and every time they are suffering, it is a test of their faith in him. The afflicted, those enduring suffering have a choice to “curse God and die” or continue to live within his embrace and love. We are pawns in a giant game of chess between God and the Devil, and I can now see it much more clearly. Today it might occur like this: Both of them in a coffee shop with hot cups of joe, sitting in chairs contemplating their next move. They are surrounded by leather bound books of ancient philosophers and the Devil has a pipe in his mouth, takes it out momentarily to say, “I’ll take your knights good sir, and now I am one step closer to your king”. And God responds, “Not so fast, I believe you just sacrificed your queen”. Everyday is a new bet for our souls, yet God has the utmost faith in us. The irony is, as soon as suffering is cast upon us, we lose faith in him.

            We talked about how God can allow for people, both innocent and wicked alike, to be punished. The idea of unjust punishment was overwhelming. For example little children being struck with Polio and dying have no control, God just allows it to happen. In my mind, when I think of unjust punishment, the Holocaust consumes my thoughts. Thousands of innocent people are persecuted for their religion, or even the color of their eyes or hair (not being of the Aryan race). Women and children gassed and slaughtered, innocents that put their faith in a higher power who ultimately allows for their suffering and death. Suffering is innate.  For some ungodly reason, we are attracted to suffering. Think about it; most current media, movies and some books, depict some level of suffering and people flock to it. The movie “Jackass” shows extreme suffering and the masses are going crazy for it. Surely you can remember that day you were driving on the freeway, and there was an accident, and everyone slowed down to gawk at the accident to see if anyone was injured, dead, or suffering. This type of suffering is cathartic, in that by viewing the supposed carnage of the accident, this allows the viewer to experience the cleansing effects of suffering without experiencing the physical pains.  It is human nature to be curious, but it is sad that suffering in some aspect is an intriguing part of life. Before our class, I viewed suffering as a punishment, as if I did in fact do something to deserve the heartbreak or loss. But now, after understanding how suffering works, I look at it as a rock in my path, a boulder that can be overcome and moved aside, “But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?”(Job, 28.12).  To me, this place of understanding and newfound wisdom lays within the realm of suffering and perseverance to overcome obstacles. We must suffer and be afflicted with the unfamiliar and unwanted in order to gain wisdom and strength. Through our understanding of how pain works we can understand the world and stay on our paths, boulder or no boulder.

            Another part of suffering I learned about was Northrop Frye’s concepts of the cave and the furnace. Prior to the class, I had no knowledge of a furnace or cave, mountain or even garden. Then Frye discussed various elements of life both physical and metaphysical. During our periods of suffering, or even reminiscing on our pasts we enter a place called the cave. The cave is a realm of darkness in which dreams and spirits (shades) dwell, and have the ability to fill in the Lacunas of our lives. These worlds also incorporate journeys primarily the heroes journey in which they must suffer at one point, and they are either helped by their spirit guides, “…Magical objects assist good people or are perverted by bad ones” (Frye 233). These entities help the traveler either ascend up and break through the suffering and darkness, or descend downward into the furnace. Understanding suffering helped me read through Frye’s chapter on the cave. It allowed for me to understand the purpose of our dreams and the subconscious pertaining to suffering and pain. This type of pain or journey allows for people to ascend and overcome their struggles through perseverance and faith.

                        After Job passed through his tests, “So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.”(Job, 42.12). The same goes for people today, we must suffer in some way, but we can allow for this suffering knowing that something better is just around the corner. William Blake once stated, “Great things are done when men and mountains meet”. Once we pick ourselves up from the cave or furnace of suffering, gain the wisdom or knowledge needed from this suffering and start our assent up to the mountain and garden we can expect a new kind of peace in our lives throughout all the hardships and afflictions.

Lacunas

I was thinking about my childhood and past... and how I cannot remember all accounts of my childhood. There are blank spots in my mind... I can remember bits and pieces... but I feel there is a huge gap in my mind..lacunas that I cant piece together... the puzzle of my childhood is incomplete.

Fire

Consumed by Fire

-T. S. Eliot

The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-
To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame [1]
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire [2]
Consumed by either fire or fire.

Switchfoot - Dare You To Move

Language...and Frye

Frye mentions we look at language in four different ways...1. Factual and descriptive 2. conceptual or dialectic; language connections between elements and logic 3. persuasive or rhetorical which emphasizes the emotions of both writers, moves people to some kind of action. 4. mythic or literary which is the most talked about....I could not read Frye using any of these language theories... because I could not understand anything that Frye said, besides my Cave chapter... and I reread it 5 times... If I had to choose, I would say that my language consists of persuasive and descriptive... i use my language to connect my emotions and feelings.. and turn that into songwriting and poetry

Marriage Law

So I was looking over the bible... and remembered that in class, we talked about the Levirate Law.. in which it insists that a brother was responsible for creating children with his deceased brother's wife... Back then this was customary, today this would be frowned upon. and I suppose frowned upon is the wrong phrase.. to me it just does not seem politically correct, even though I know it happens.. I guess it just crosses some boundaries in my mind... Even the story in which the daughter-in-law dresses as a hussy and sleeps with her father in law... it baffles my mind..

Women

In class we talked about women in the bible.. here are some things we discussed!

Women: we get confused about what we mean. Confusion of categories. Refers to social persons who are designated by a culture as women.

Feminine: as term for a symbolic or metaphorical women

Female: biological category. X chromosomes, wombs, and mammary glands. 

 Example Genesis 2-3 Eve, which means mother of all living. The woman is a symbolic character. Metaphor of femininity. No biological treatis. Its not about women or men, but rather ideas about masculinity, and femininity. Focusing on monotheism in story. This god is phallic god. What happens to feminine?

a birth story, is called a couvade, or mans envy of childbirth. What is feminine becomes more and more complex, and difficult to locate. In patriarchy, ruled by fathers, most women and most men are women. Privilege masculinity to some men, all else are women or women roles. Eve who is mother of all living, has title of goddess. Social designation, man has dominion over women. Women have childbearing and men work. If women created sin, they technically have all power in world, so creates problem in story.

How to worship and treat one another. In Deuteronomy. Ch 25 verse 11. If women reaches out to defile a man in defense of her man, they cut off her hand. Gender is not about who is man and woman, its about who is playing role of masculine and feminine. In this case its always patriarchal, and how woman reaches out to disturb this. Sanctity of patriarch.

Levite in judges 19: there is a man, and he has a concubine, or kind of wife. Don’t get along, she is angry and goes back to her fathers house. He goes to get her back and her dad and him drink and eat and talk for 3 days. On 4^th day they got up an he prepared to go, but dad told him to stay and eat, and kept him there. On 5^th day repeats, and he lingered. When man with concubine with servant went to leave, the dad did same thing, but Levite says no he must go, so they kept traveling into the night and stopped to sleep. Rules of hospitality, waited for someone to take them in. old man took them in and took care of all their wants. Fed donkeys, ate, washed feet. While enjoying themselves, men of the city surrounded the house, pounding on the door demanding to ‘know’ him (sexually). Master of house said no my brothers don’t act wickedly, do not do this vile thing to him. He said take my virgin daughter and his concubine, and ravage them but do not do vile things to the man. Woman are property, but they are enhanced property with interests and rights. Men not listened to him, so Levite seizes concubine and throws her out of house, and she was raped and beaten until morning, then they let her go. Woman came and fell at house, Levite got up and told her to get up and get going, she didn’t answer so he put her on donkey. When home he cut her body (she died in the night) into twelve pieces and sent her body throughout Israel. Wrong done to Levite not his wife. How do exchange token (women) become symbolic?  Laws between men is more important than women and daughters. Concubine becomes metaphorical being, her body becomes text when its cut up into parts. Becomes words, vows, stories. Testies becomes words of promises.

Prophets: among writing prophets, Amos and Hosea in 8^th century BCE.  586BCE fall of Israelites. Between these periods, task of prophets is to say, what does this mean? How come we aren’t rich and prosperous when David was king?  Want social ease again? Its Israel’s fault they don’t have it, its so bad there and they are suffering. How have they been bad- not worshiping and treating each other badly. Amos says with gods talking through him, I hate and despise your feast days, women as cows. But, let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty string. (repetitive parallelism). God Yahweh wants you to worship by being good to one another. Social justice, it’s the way we worship god. Concerned about how to worship.

            Hosea interested in cultic purity- how to worship and do it just right. Was one of the writing prophets. God says to him take wife or whoredom and have children of whoredom. He marries Gomer and has children. He is historical figure, but what is she? A women? Or metaphor of feminine? Answer is its not that easy to differentiate. Wife of  whoredom cause Israel is playing harlot. Women promiscuous, gods worshiping other gods. This is stuff of symbol, how metaphorical language muddies up story between men and women. If we can make distinction, we wont be manipulated by gender language

Leviticus 19: verse 29- Do not profane daughter by making her a prostitute that the land not become prostituted and full of depravity. this means, conflation of women and land. Land is feminized in particular way, feminine blood. Wedding is property transfer ritual. Dowry paid. Father has right to sell daughter, and over her body and life.

Jeremiah: prophet. 40 year career. Yahweh speaks to him and wants him to act things out.  Does performance art for Yahweh. Has some other things to say. Look at jeremiah 2 verse 33-34. He is speaking words of Yahweh to people Jerusalem, talking bout people as a she and looking at her skirts, and on them he finds life blood of the poor.  So Israel is a promiscuous and unclean woman. Ch 13 verse 22- Yahweh is lifting up Israel’s skirts and violating her. Verse 26- I myself will lift up your skirts and you will be unclean.

Genesis: Jacob has two wives Leah and Rachael. Jacob leaves town and laben comes running after them 31^st chap. He yells at them, made he couldn’t kiss daughters goodbye or grandchildren. He says did you take my teraphin (household gods). Jacob says no he didn’t. Rachael took the gods and out them in bags of camel. She says to her dad, “the way of women is upon me”  j writer was saying household gods have power connected to Rachael and her blood, or associated of gods and fertility.

Judges chapters 4-5:  Deborah is a judge.  Barrack Wants to go to war,  guy says I will not go to war unless you go with me.  Women is like holy book. Three part poem. Next part no word of Deborah. Yael  gets drunk and she puts him to sleep, then a tent peg is driven through his head. She is strattling him and putting it through his head. 3^rd section of poem, mother of sicera looks out of windows, asks where her son will be, women says he will be home. Women as spoils of war. Powerful figure to euphemistic language. Oldest poem. 

Argue

I had an argument with my roommate who is very religious about the bible... and Heaven. She told me that for me to get into Heaven I had to read a paragraph from the Bible and then my soul would be saved... a dumb insignificant paragraph and then my soul would be saved? Are you kidding me? Then our argument continued on.. I said, "so you are telling me if i read this ill be saved... but if my parents and loved ones dont, then they are damned?" she responded, "Well in Heaven you dont need your loved ones being your parents or friends.. God provides you with everything else you need or want, so ultimately they wont matter".... that made me start crying for some reason... the thought of my family in Hell because they didnt read a paragraph.. or the idea that my loved ones would not be with me for all eternity really got to me...i told her that God has faith and loves all of us, and we do not need a paragraph for our souls to be saved. isnt life about forgiveness like in the story of Jacob and his brothers? They threw him into a pit to die, and in the future (since he lives and becomes prosperous) he shows pity on them and in a sense forgiveness...and they must learn to forgive themselves for their wrongdoings just as God does. Our disagreement was short but has stayed with me.. since she studies the bible religiously she felt she knew a great deal more than me, about the bible, god and most likely life. that is not the case. everyone has a different point of view and a different way of looking at the world, as well as the bible and God. her closed mindedness led me to feel she was ignorant about the unfamiliar, or things she refused to see from another perspective. she moved out shortly after.... i was not sad

Why didn't I finish the Bible?

In all honesty, in large part being lazy, but mainly because I could not bring myself to read the bible out of fear. Fear that I might read pieces/stories from our past, and not be pleased. And I know for a fact those stories exist, because we have talked about them in class... sometimes ignorance is bliss. I was not ready to read a book that people have been pushing on me my whole life... so a big part of it was probably stubbornness as well...

Susana...

The story of Susanna the woman who walked through the garden while two elders the the church watch her and perverse their minds and hearts, is a disturbing one...the woman minding her own business bathing in the garden and the dirty old men watching her...and of course.. the men blamed their lust and desire on her, it was her fault unwittingly of course... men always blame women for their wrongdoings... they tried to claim her infidelity and have her put to death.. but their stories didnt match up.. and she was saved by the Lord and Daniel. the poem by Peter Qunice portrays this story beautifully.

The red-eyed elders, watching, felt

The basses of their beings throb

In witching chords, and their thin blood

Pulse pizzicati of Hosanna.

The red-eyed elders leads me to believe them of demonic or evil blood. their eyes and hearts no longer with the lord, have left them evil and strained. The phrase the bases of their beings throb, to me alludes to sexual tensions, and perverse thoughts. their heartstrings being plucked in adoration for Susanna. their hearts wandered from the Lord, but if that werent enough, they also lied, and "intended to do maliciously to thy neighbor, wrongdoings" 1469: Susanna. 

The Cave...

 So since our group projects are coming up, I thought it best to get my butt in gear and read my chapter in Frye... which is the cave. It was intense, and I finished the reading with a headache and utter confusion... but I will try to reiterate what I have just read... Sorry for any headaches I cause.. or confusion.. I just want for everyone else to be as confused as me... Here we go! The cave deals with themes of descent usually pertaining to death and hell (shocking). Frye mentioned that we rise up or climb ladders or towers with the prospect of falling or descending downward (230). The cave to me, appeared to be a place where people have the ability to ascend up again and not be left in darkness like those too far gone (possibly the furnace).  On page 231 there is a quote that reads like this, "Hell is social and individual...a kingdom of the dead." In this descent world, people have no possessions, and once you cross into this world, you are called a shade.  this possession of nothing is known as Katabsis or danse macabre. the thing I found to be most compelling is the idea of dreams, and Freud. even our dreams are considered a lower psyche which is a form of the descent or inner workings of hell.  our dreams extend down into the sub conscious and Frye writes, "Descent to dream worlds go deeper than hell... they go deeper than shallow graves of death". so without even knowing it, every night subconsciously we are descending downward past hell. another theme mentioned is that of Shakespeare. these ghosts are from the depths of hell but refuse to stay there, this notion of the descent and the return, like the ghost in Hamlet.  the descent can also be looked at as a social or political entity. for example, socially Adam was cast out of the garden of eden and Cain was cast out of society for murder. Exile is a form of a downward spiral. another prominent theme is that of repression and then release. sky metaphors became mechanical and alienating, when people used to look to the sky thinking that God was up there looking down upon us. there is a lot, and I mean a lot of talk about William Blake, Frye loves his ideals especially in innocence v. experience.  and children putting the world view in their subconscious. .... I am still attempting to figure the chapter out, and making some progress. But, hopefully this helped a little bit!

 

Jehovah's Witnesses

So one of my good friends is, or rather was a Jehovah's Witness. As a child he attended church  multiple times a week, you are spreading the word of God constantly. (Like Mormons). He told me he knows the Bible pretty well, even though now, he is not active in the religion. He, told me that growing up, they never celebrated holidays, this including Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, Valentines day.. etc. As someone who has grown up celebrating each of these holidays, and never missing a big meal, I found all of this information hard to grasp. And of course, since I had no prior knowledge of him being a Jehovah's witness, I had invited him to join my family and I for Thanksgiving... woops...I asked him, "So what happens if I want to throw you a big birthday party, or give you a Christmas gift?" He looked at me intensely and replied, "Well, you hope that the people closest to you would respect and understand, that I or (we) cannot accept gifts...It is nothing personal, but that is just how we were raised.. didn't make us very popular at sleepover birthday parties..." This concept of not celebrating holidays still blows my mind. but then again, I can see where he is coming from as well.. we don't need these big holidays to celebrate God or giving thanks, we can do these things on a daily basis if we so choose. "We don't need a reason to give gifts to people on specific days, if you want to get someone a gift, get them a gift!"- This I agree with 100%. This talk with him was an intriguing one, it opened a lot of doors for me, and made me curious about the unknown. Until then, at least to my knowledge, I had never met a Jehovah's Witness. Learn something new everyday...

Deck of Cards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsCiaxPhtVY

Suffering...

We talked about how God can allow for people both innocent and wicked alike to be punished. the idea of unjust punishment was overwhelming. for example little kids being struck with Polio and dying and having no control, God just allowing for it to happen. In my mind, when i think of unjust punishment, the Holocaust comes into my mind. thousands of innocent people being persecuted for their religion, or even the color of their eyes or hair (not being of the Aryan race). women and children gassed and slaughtered, innocents that put their faith in a higher power who let them die. Suffering is innate. for humans, for some ungodly reason, people are attracted to suffering. think about it, most of the media and movies and some books even have some level of suffering, and people flock to it. Example... Jackass the movie...extreme suffering.. people are going crazy for it. driving on the freeway, and there is an accident, people slow down to witness the accident to see if anyone is injured, dead, or suffering. This type of suffering is cathartic, in that by viewing the supposed carnage of the accident allows the viewer to experience the cleansing effects of suffering without experiencing the physical pains.  its human nature to be curious, but it is sad that suffering in some aspect is an intriguing aspect of life. Music is immensely affected by the bible and some aspects of suffering and emotions. i feel that we have suffering and bad times so that we may appreciate the good times.

A friend once told me a not so funny joke. Women’s rights. Ha ha ha yea.. not so much. I didn’t find the joke that funny. So this blog will be about the women in the bible. According to Mrs. Sexson

What characteristics that women have X chromosomes, mammary glands and wombs to carry babies! Eve is considered the mother of all living. She is the one who watches over the living things. Yes God does that but in a different way from Eve. If you think about it we put women features on a lot of things that we have in our lives. I know that I put a feminine name on my car. I call her "she and her". Mother earth has a feminine name.

I know that a lot of my friends have feminine names for their autos. And we have these ideas that certain colors belong to a man or a woman. The color red usually gives off the woman feature. And black gives the masculine notation. Why is that? Men can like red. Women can like black.  Gender is not about who is man and woman, its about who is playing role of masculine and feminine.

Today in this society it is just the idea that people have that give to the feminine things. These days women are moving out of the house wife notation. That women can do the same things that men do. Naturally women are sometimes better in some areas then men. Did you know that women make 73 cents to every mans dollar made in the workplace. Woman can do just if not more then the things that the man do. It’s the role that we play in society that puts a defination on who we are. I don’t know really where I am trying to go with this. I just felt that I needed to put my idea out there before I forgot what I wanted to write about. One should see my desk area. There are so many sticky notes everywhere with ideas that I want to blog about. Is that a femine characteristic that I have, that I write down my idea on sticky notes… J  

Frye says that the bible is like the letter U. why is it a U? Is it because it starts happy then goes down to the pits then goes back up again to end happily? And the U has such a big rise and fall in its slope.

I think that the bible should more be described as a W. there are so many questions that are unanswered, and bad things that happen that it should be a W. it goes up and down so many times, that it is more like a wave then any letter, which conviently starts with the letter W. so many bad things happen, yet so many good things happen too. So the good things are the tips of the letter, and all the bad things are the pits of the letter. The creation story is the tip. Adam and Eve being banished from the garden is the bad part of the story. Moses being in Egypt is a good part of the story; the bad part is that his people were slaves. God saving Moses and his people is the good part, and I guess that God killing Pharaoh and his people is a good part if you look at it that way that Moses and his people were finally free. God creating women out of man is a good thing. Are there more good things that happened in the bible than bad things? I know that we haven’t really gotten into the 'deep' of the bible, and we will only skim the surfaces of the bible, but it seems that a lot of good endings have come from the bible.

Speaking of good things that have happened, is this why the bible is considered a comedy? To me, my definition of a comedy is something that is funny.  I feel that the bible is not that funny. Is that the pit of the letter? The bible not being that funny? And yes the bible does end happily. What would be a better word to describe the story line and plot of the bible? It’s not a love story that I see. It’s not all tragic. Ha definitely not a chic flick. So until I think of a better word for the bible I guess it was just stay a comedy. 

Why is life hard?

This time in my life a lot of people seem to be have problems with “life”. Saying why is life so hard and why is this happening. Life was going so good for me and now I am down in the dumps with the crap that life has given me.Life is good in so many aspects. But isn’t the bad parts of life just as good as the good parts. We learn how to get through the bad parts and how to over come the bad parts. And then when the bad parts are done we say “wow I made it. and I am alive and I am stronger because of it.” so in a sense isn’t that a good thing about life? That we as human beings are able to overcome the crap that life throws us? I mean I have overcome some very low points of my life, and I think to myself sometimes how I am a better person because of it. I learned because of the hard time that I had to go through. And now that, and if it ever happened again (pray that it doesn’t) I will know what to do. And how I can bring myself out of it. But why I ask? Why did I go through this? And why did it happen to me. I am a good person. Not that this was a bad thing, but I am a good person. I live by the “rules” of life. Why did this happen? Why cant my question of why which is so simple be answered. Going through the readings that I have done. There are a lot of questions that aren’t answered. So with the question of why leads the answer of we may never know. And that is that. The end. Point blank. When I ask my friend why isn’t life fair, she chimes in “Lauren a fair is what you take your cows and pig to. This is not a fair this it life.” so life is not fair, but its life. And we as humans have to move on and go on living it. the people in the bible didn’t  have an easy life, so why should I lead an easier life than they did? Why?

I know that we have all felt this way. Where we are just so put out that we just want to sit on the couch and say, whatever I’m done for the moment. But then in two minutes you get up and move on with your day. Admit it. it happens. Life happens. I know that the people in the bible have had this feeling more than once. But somehow they all got through everything that they were going through. The were able to be on the tip of the W. is there ever a sign from God saying that he would lead his people to freedom, that someday His people would finally live without worry. Of course He did.

With Noah the rainbow is a promise that He would never flood the earth. That is a visual representation that he will not give up on his people. Just like my blog about the letter. How it is a tangable representation of God saying that He isn’t going anywhere. This is His promise to the people that He will always be with them. I know that I will be able to make it through all that is put in my way.

I know that my friends will always be with me no matter what. My friends are my visual representation that no one will give up on me. I know that I will always have my family that is a given, but friends. They are one of a kind. I love them with all of my heart. And I will never leave them. and I know that they have my back no matter what.

In the end God shows some sign of not giving up. 

The Cave

So in class we talked about assent and descent. Assent being the garden and the mountain, or things pertaining to the heavens and going up. Descent dealing with the depths of Hell, or the cave and furnace. I am in the cave group and quite frankly very excited. The Bible has been translated so many different ways, which is why it affects literature and media in various ways. Shows like supernatural dealing with the bible, apocalypse, lucifer, the horseman, demons, angels, and anything else one can think of that has to do with the bible, its there. Even Literature such as the Twilight series, or any monster or demonology states of the realms of Heaven and Hell, and how all of the living dead soul's are going to hell. these ideals of heaven and hell are so ambiguous, and in our time of vast theories and multiples literatures and media that give us all different ideas to go by...how are we supposed to form opinions on our own? think of the movie Da vinci code both in literature and in media and how much speculation and hype that created? peoples worlds were turned upside down by this new "faith language" that jesus was a man who could fall in love just like the rest of us, and even have a family.

The Real Good Book

So... was reading in Gomes' The Good Book, which was not the right book. It still gave me some great insight, but everyone kept talking about how funny the book was and the humor of the author, needless to say I didn't see it, because I was reading the wrong author...oh dear. But! Now I am making progress in the correct book by Plotz, and I see the light, literally and figuratively speaking. A brilliant writer that makes reading the bible a ton of fun. His humor is captivating and he opens my eyes to stories I thought I knew so well. For instance, the story of Moses and how God seems to be a big time bully. He is pushy and overbearing. He keeps telling Moses I am that I am, and I am almighty and you should help let me people go, and of course Moses is skeptical. I would be too if some plant was talking to me. the part that just cracked me up was on page 42 and it reads like this, "...God gives Moses a piece of wood that cleans up the water- the world's first Brita filter." (Plotz). That statement says everything, and speaks wonders about our history and stories.

Letters

 On Thursday we talked about letters or Epistles, and how they are found in the New Testament. we talked about how more or less, they are textual documents with no literary value, but depending on who is reading them or how they are being observed, they have sacred value, and literary value. Then we got into some deeper meanings for the written word. we discussed how the written word is a record of a moment that happened in history. they become reminders of our history, and history in general. they show of human development and of human struggles over thousands of years. letters, or the written word are products of endless development and innovation, and in that sense they are to be looked at as textual artifacts. then something was said that caught me attention, Jesus himself did not even lift a finger to write, there is not history of him writing anything (except in the sand as seen by witnesses).   Jesus didn’t publish a thing, people wrote of his teachings. We must have respect for the written word and all that is possesses, and that is what the Bible stands for, respect. Jesus's teachings were written down, thus saving them from extinction and preserving them in history. This resonated with me in an unsettling way. we are taught we need to respect the written word, not just of God but in general. Yet, the written word is dying out. We no longer write love letters to our truly beloveds, no we simply call them or email them, which yes is written, but not in the same sense I am ranting about. the idea of simplicity. writing someone a letter and receiving one in return. I mean lets face it, whenever we get a card in the mail or something written by a friend or lover, our hearts skip a beat, and a huge smile crosses our faces. this form of the written word is much more intimate than a computerized email, someone took the time to "scribe" out a message to us, which means so much more. we no longer write to people to tell them of our affections and or intentions, no. We simply text it, or facebook it. So my question is, how are we supposed to respect something that is dying out, something that will soon be extinct and that days of the written word (by hand) will be beyond the boundaries of our imaginations? 

  Respect for the written word, that is what the bible is, respect. Written it down means you are saving it from extinction. 

Interpretation

Continuing on in the Good Book, and I came to the chapter about interpretation. It is such a tricky idea of people everywhere, with different view points, beliefs, lives, ideals etc interpreting the bible. to me, the bible should be a piece of information/history that should (key word should) unite people and bring them together. but more often than not, the bible creates more trouble than needed. as individuals we do interpret everything in life differently, and the bible is no exception to that.  Gomes states, "interpretation is the fuel that drives understanding." (33). I think this a great statement. we desire to understand the unknown and the unfamiliar. we long to comprehend what we often times cannot fathom, and for me this is the interpretation of the bible/religion itself. just some random thoughts i had...

Genesis 1&2

On Thursday we talked about a lot! Sometimes when sitting in class I feel daft because everything is so overwhelming. I hear my classmates talking about the bible or religion and it makes me feel like I need to get my butt in gear to understand their "french" (Gomes) conversation I am not apart of. We talked about the word Lacuna or 'gap in a story' and its interesting to think there are gaps in the bible, stories that will never be finished, and stories that we can not even fathom to understand. In the readings of Gensis 1&2 I noticed some differences. In Genesis 1 God first creates heaven and earth. He creates everything from night and day to creatures, land, eden and saves adam and eve until day 6. then God takes a mini breather and declares the seventh day to be a kick back sunday night football 'day'. God creates man in his image and in that created both adam and eve at the same time! In Gensis 2 the Lord God appears to make man in the same day he creates the Heavens and earth. He creates man (and man alone) from the dust of the earth and breathes into his nostrils to give him life and a soul. This story also touches upon the four rivers that lead out of Eden, and talks in detail of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and how man shalt not eat from this tree or thou shalt surely die. then the Lord God creates the creatures for Adam to care for and he gets to name them all. Adam falls asleep and the Lord God takes one of his ribs and with this rib creates Eve. so woman was created from man, or so the story goes. I personally like the second Genesis more. It gives more detail and proved to be an interesting read. The part where Adam blames Eve for their fall even though he eats the fruit just as she does seems vaguely familiar to men today... Im just saying..

So I am diving into The Good Book and enjoying it! Gomes is a brilliant writer and add a great sense of humor to his writings. On page 6 he mentions talking to a churchgoer and how she describes hearing the Old/New Testaments in church on sundays is like hearing people have a conversation in french and trying to decode that conversation with your french knowledge that you have, which is little to none. ultimately the effort is way greater than the reward, for you understand hardly anything, and you acquire a headache. I also like the bit that said that the bible is a consequence of both human and the divine. Also, I never understood that the scripture set out to help answer questions of human existence such as who am I? What is the purpose of life... what is good and what is evil? Now I think of these questions all the time, and never knew the Scriptures set out to help people answer this. I found the idea that the bible is supposed to play a public role in society, as are Christians interesting. and i think, because of this public role, thats why people start to demise religion. people not following the bible or christianity don't want anything imposed upon them, they merely want to be left alone, but because the influence of Christ is surrounding them, it creates conflict. I'll have more on Genesis later

First Post

This is my first blog post! Im looking forward to writing  ideas and thoughts here, and I am excited to read everyone's thoughts as well!