Channeling from within

If there is something that I have learned in my past 18 years of living, it's the always reoccurring, "Life is hard" saying. As life continues to get harder it's important that we have something that can help us through it. Something that can take our minds of the hard stuff, and bring us back to reality. Whether it's family, friends, art, reading, music, sleeping, or a sport, we all need something to remove us from the world. 

Something that helps me get back on track, or helps me take a breath, is basketball. I am lucky enough that my church has it's own gym accessible at any time for me. I can at any time go there and play. Just me, myself, and I. Basketball has always been an outlet for stress, thinking, or to help me make a hard decision. What calms me is that it is silent, and all that can be heard is the bouncing of the ball. No outside force to influence it distract me from my goal. 

We are getting older and having to take on more responsibility. We can always just handle everything at once, all the time, it's not good for us as humans. We all need something to redirect our inner feelings. We all need something to help is channel our deepest thoughts. 

Peace of my Mind

Peace. The definition of this is the absences of war, and a time of tranquility and calmness. Can it ever be achieved? Of course to this long and in depth question requires a, long and in depth answer. No it can never be achieved. Our world has so many conflicting groups, that not everyone will agree on every topic. After reading an article on the very small, but impactful group called the Westboro Baptist Church, they are very set in their ways. They will never have anything to do with, have affiliation with, or accept into their community the homosexual group. The military's policy is to allow and person, of any sexual orientation into their ranks, if they are qualified. These two groups have been arguing and in legal trouble for many years, they will never change their views, they will always be fighting. Without these different ideas though, our world would not advance. We need inspiration, thought, ideas, a spark! Our world would never have gotten this far, if it isn't for idea then we would never have excelled in areas such as: Medicine, art, architecture, science, math, and technology. As long as groups are conflicting over resources like oil, technology, food, water, and even love of another, we will have groups that are conflicting. Therefore in our ever so changing world, our world can never reach peace.      

Covered Up

Our natural image. It is what we look like in our most natural state. No make up. No photo enhancing programs. No photo shop. In rhetoric, our weekly seminar was on photo shop and how it either enhances our beauty or it takes away the natural beauty of things and gives a false outlook on our image. There are just some things in this world that cannot be changed, or should not be changed. Yes, the powers of make up and photo shop make us look our best, but so we want people to see us as ourselves? Or do you want others to see you covered up? When I was reading this, it made me feel like "Of course I want to look my best, but I also want to be seen as myself." I came to the conclusion that if we are enhanced, but only for people to remember us at our best looking. If our senior photo was taken and enhanced people would only remember our picture. It's the memories we make with others that we are remembered by. Now I am not just saying this because I had a bad photo, but that I enjoy the memories with others, more than the photos taken of the person. Memories create better pictures in our head, more than any enhanced or photo shopped program can.

Finding Your Own

As we grow to become adults, leave the house, go to college, and be on our own we have to learn to do things for ourselves, form our own beliefs. In our world without people finding out the truth for themselves there would be no variation, no different, no other viewpoint. Our world would be one bland view on life. With out imagination or personal experience out world would not be as advanced as it is today. 

The boy in A&P had a moment of this, an epiphany if you will. As he was in the convnient store working he did not agree with any of the thoughts of his manager. He thought that the girls were so pretty that it doesn't matter what they wear they should be aloud to be in the store, after all they were looking, and shopping for things they needed, they weren't loitering. They had a purpose for being there. His moment of epiphany was whe he made the decision to shed off his apron, and follow the girls outside. He then sees the girls leave, and realizes there is nothing for him. This is then where he says "This world is going to be hard for me" 

The teenage boy finally realizes that he didn't make the right choice, but through all the trials we can get back on the correct path and make our life meaningful. Without his viewpoint on what he thought of his manager, he would have been like any other worker at the convnient store. All the populous needs to search for what they need to believe and what their values are, an absents of this would result in a bland, single view point world. We need variety. We need.... Different.   

Talents: Controlled by Other or Me?

This weekend at church we were asked what one of our favorite parables that Jesus taught while in his ministry. I responded with the Parable of the Talents. The story of the talents, is that a man gave another man talents, and in this time they were money, so he gets these talents and goes and does as he pleases with them. The man gives talents to others. One man buries his talents in the ground and then the man who originally gave the talents returns and asks what they have done with their given talents. One man invests his talents and has increased his fortune ten fold, the giver of the talents is pleased. The next man says he used his talents but had nothing in return. The giver is still pleased that he put his talents to use. The third and final man says that he buried his talents not using them and keeping them safe. The giver is furious that man did not use what he was given and put it to use in any way. 

This parable teaches us of the talents and gifts we have been given. We should not bury these talents away, but use them even if we have a gain or loss in our life. We should not let others keep us from using our talents, we were made and developed this way to be special, unique, and different then our neighbor or even our family member. 

In Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's grandmother throughout her life has been holding her life back. Everything that Janie does her grandmother has an input and not wanting to be rude or upset her elders, she does what she asks. As the story progresses and at the end, Janie says no, she finally say no to her grandmother and runs away with Tea Cakes to have a long happy life. As people we crave what we crave, we want what we want, it's just part of our lives and who we have been shaped into being. Everything else that isn't helping us is holding us back. We should not let others make our decisions for us, we are our own person capable of making our own decisions and living with the consequences. 

Open Wings, Open Mind

When we meet someone, go for an interview, or maybe are introduced to your girlfriends parents, what is the first thing that happens? We are judged, or judge someone. First impressions are super and greatly important. We as humans judge people in the first 5 seconds we meet them, and then after that it takes 21 more encounters to change their first impression of you! Something that humans obsess over, and also is a large part of their psyche, is what people think and view of them. It can drive others crazy. We also, as humans judge people instantly if they are different from us in any way. If someone dresses different then us, if someone has a disability, if someone talks differently, we automatically judge them categorize them as different, but not necessarily bad. I know that when I see someone who maybe is less fortunate, or cannot do things as well as others, I feel sorry for them, not hate them. 

All these human nature attributes are correctly portrayed in "The Old Man with very Large Wings". A man falls to the earth near a cabin, where a couple is throwing out crabs from their shack. When they discover this man he is not an ordinary man, he has wings. As we naturally do as humans, we are afraid and we judge. The couple alerts the twin and they lock the man in a cage, they point fingers and make fun of this odd creature. As I was reading this I was like wow guys! C'mon! This is the classic an angel has fallen, save him and he turns out to be an awesome creature who gives you 3 wishes! 

As people we shouldn't judge others, right off the bat. Sometimes people have bad things going on in their lives that they can't control. Not everyone can have a perfect first impression. Everyone has bad days, everyone has difficult times, we shouldn't make it harder. I'm not asking to give everyone the benifit of the doubt, if someone is being a jerk then obviously it's their fault. But not everyone is a jerk, I ask to keep an open mind.  

The Foundation

 Good vs. Evil. Which side do we, as humans take? What is our natural persona? Do we fall towards the side that gives us a feeling of hope or pure happiness? Or do we fall into the Pit of Despair where revenge and the Adversary fuels our every move? Us as humans want to try and be good, but are tempted time and time again.

 People tend to be shaken when hard trials come into their lives. Young Goodman Brown faith or beliefs were shaken when he enters the village and a preacher is preaching a sermon from the fire burning alter. This is a symbol of the Devil preaching his false accusations across the world. Goodman Brown awakes the next day in his village, uncertain if the prior events really did occur. He then becomes shaken and has no trust in anyone, so he leaves and lives by himself for the remainder of his life, and becoming skeptical of all who encounter him. 

 We should not let trials affect our lives or others change what we believe. What makes us unique is what we believe and that shapes how we act, and number of things in our lives. Feeling happy gives a thrust to keep going. If others tell us certain information or that our beliefs are wrong and we immediately change our beliefs then they weren't really beliefs to start off. Our foundation as a person is what we believe and how we choose to use our powers as human beings to make our lives sway on the pendulum of life, to either Good or Evil. Life is what we make it, so lets make it right. "And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave... they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom."

Journey for Another

Why do we do the things for our family? If your sister or brother asks for an ice cream cone and they have been so annoying, that you cannot resist their faces, and crying tone? If you see your mom carrying groceries all by herself and you can't help but go aid your helpless mother? The answer is because we love them so much, whether we are angry or mad we help them, they are our family. I would do anything for my family. I love them, and I know that before I leave to carry on with my life I only have a short time with them until my life has to carry on.

I love for my family just as Phoenix Jackson cares for her family. This women makes a long journey through a very difficult terrain, along with her vision not at its finest, and at an age to be as active as she is. She goes through so many things to just please her loved ones, because they need the help, and her love is so great nothing can interfere or stop her from reaching her goal, "So the time come around, and I go on another trip for the soothing medicine," (227) no matter what we will do anything for our families. Phoenix describes in her entry that you will journey, conquest, or a trip to give our loved ones what they love and desire.

"Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own."

Carry on with a Scar

In our lives bad things happen everyday to us, but its our choice whether to get up, brush it off and keep going through our lives. Why dwell on the past when a future lies ahead for us to capture? I'm not saying that if we lose family members, or friends we shouldn't grieve. That is impossible not to grieve our losses, of course unless your some psychotic person with no feelings for others, and yourself. But that should be something to give us strength to keep advancing on in our lives. In basketball when I play, if i miss a shot or make a mistake my team needs me to shake it off and keep playing because its a team effort and others need me, we need each other.

The summer reading that I chose to read was Cold Mountain. There is a lot of death around these characters, especially Inman. He speaks about grievances, and that we should not dwell on them, "All your grief hasn't changed a thing. What you have lost will not be returned to you. It will always be lost. You're left with only your scars to mark the voids. All you can do is choose to go on or not. But, if you go on, it's knowing you carry your scars with you." (334) There is a lot of truth behind this quote by Inman. He is true to say what you lose will not come back, if you mess up in a basketball game, like a bad shot you wont get that back. But, we use that mistake to carry on, a scar, and take that and use that to fuel the fire, to motivate yourself to not take that bad shot again. If a family member were to die, to pass on, of course you cannot just shrug it off, grieving is part of being human. What you cannot do is stop and break down and let it tear you down. As Inman says you have a scar to carry with you forever, but that scar reminds you that, that person is always with you in spirit and they are a force to pick you up when you are down or lost,

It is our choice whether to pick up and keep moving on with our lives, or let our trials get the best of us, and stop us from being the best we can be.

Secret Poison

When your friends tell you a secret, what does it do? It makes you feel closer, more of friends because you feel they have a sense of trust and you are so close to them, they can tell you anything. But... what if they are telling you because the guilt its so crazy, its eating them from the inside out. The power of a secret can be a poison. What if the secret is a topic that could save someone from heartbreak? It could save a life? Now i am not saying that all secrets do this, if you keep a secret from your mom with your brothers about who broke a vase can kill you, but what if it keeps escalating?

The short story Hunters In The Snow has many secrets, and are extreme in this case. The three main characters are so called "friends" the air quotes if you can imagine me using them in real life are being used because how could your best friend shoot you? I would certainly hope mine friends wouldn't. The two friends Tub and Frank keep telling their friend Kenny "Your going to a hospital." Whelp Kenny your gonna die, your friends lied. The two friends are keeping a secret from their supposed "friend". Tub shot Kenny, a crime, he cant just go and turn himself in, unless he's an idiot, he has to cover it up, and since Frank was a witness, he is apart of this. The secret poisoned their friendship, and lives. Sometimes secrets make strong relationships but not always for the right reasons. "Tub smiled out the back window. Kenny lay with his arms folded over his stomach, moving his lips at the stars. Right overhead was the Big Dipper, and behind, hanging between Kenny's toes in the direction of the hospital, was the North Star, Pole Star, Help to sailors. As the truck twisted through the gentle hills the star went back and forth between Kenny's boots, staying in his sight. "I'm going to the hospital" Kenny said. But he was wrong. They had taken a different turn a long way back." When I read this I was thinking, PSYCHOS!! These two guys are crazy, it gave me this dark feeling. The two friends are letting their buddy die and keeping it a secret from him. They are sadistic. The secret created a costing of a life, forever poisoning their lives.

The evidence from the text also applies to our society. People would rather see other people heartbreak or even in this case die, because they didn't want to pay the consequences for their actions. The biggest secrets, have the biggest consequences.