Nature poems

So, Tuesday’s class didn’t exactly help me understand what was going on in the poem “State of the Planet”, by Robert Hass. I mean, we went over some of the nature and wildlife mentioned in the poem, but I feel like there was still a lot I didn’t understand. For instance, “If she lived in Michigan or the Ukraine, She’d find, washed up on the beach in a storm like this Limestone fossils of Devonian Coral. She could study the faint white markings: she might have to lick the stone to see them if the wind was drying the pale surface even as she held it, to bring back the picture of what life looked like forty million years ago: a honeycomb with mouths” Now, could someone please explain what he is talking about when he talks about beaches being in Michigan and the Ukraine? I understand there are lakes in Michigan and the Ukraine, but how would Devonian coral be in a lake?? So while it was very cool and entertaining to go over some of the wildlife and nature that we read about in the poem, I still find it hard to believe that everything that is in this poem is necessary. Or is it okay to include as much material as you would like as long as it’s a nature poem and is well written?  Either way, I find it somewhat annoying at tomes. Does that mean I will never learn to appreciate poetry? I don’t know. I do, however, love everything about nature and I don’t feel like I need to read about it to appreciate it more. I was born with a love for nature and never has reading about done anything else for me other than make me wish I was outside experiencing nature, instead of reading about it haha

State of The Planet

I definitely found the poem by Robert Hass, “State of The Planet”, the hardest reading we have had yet. I have never been a real big fan of poetry, I find it too wordy and somewhat unnecessary at times. In this particular poem, there were times when I began to think I understood what was going on and then two lines later I would feel lost again. Excerpts such as: “In all the ways that all the shapes on earth are multiple, complex; the philosopher Who said that the world was fire was also right- Chlorofluorocarbons react with ozone, the gas that makes air tingle on a sparkling day. Nor were you wrong to describe them as assemblies, as if evolution were a town meeting or a plebiscite. (your theory of wind, and of gases, was also right and there are more of them than you supposed)” Make me wonder why this information is really relevant to what we are reading. Could someone explain to me how this adds to the poem? I feel like I’ve always been taught not to include unnecessary information when writing, and then I read something like this and wonder why it is different for poetry. If there is something I am missing someone please feel free to inform me of it, but I don’t get the point. It could be that I just don’t have the same appreciation for poetry as other people, which is okay, but I just wish that I didn’t have to get annoyed trying to read something this long when I don’t even get the point of the poem, you know what I mean? Anyways, I’ve been learning a lot in this class so far, so hopefully this assignment will be the same way. If not though, I will just have to do my best to suck it up and get through it with a smile.

Lectio Divina

Doing the sacred reading or Lectio Divina was a new and interesting experience for me. Once again, it was better than I had expected. At first I agreed with some of the other people in the class who were saying how it made them uncomfortable because it wasn’t the bible, Josh even said it “almost felt sac-religious”. Once they voiced their opinions though, I really started to think about it and realized that I didn’t have a problem with it at all because it was basically just meditation.

During the sacred reading I didn’t really get anything out of it the first time through. But as we continued the part of the story we were reading really started to come to life in my mind. Now I didn’t necessarily have anything to share with the group, but I feel like that doesn’t mean that it didn’t serve its purpose for me.

The one thing that really stuck out to me as we continued to read a segment of the story over and over again, was the relationship being described between the piano and Sonny. Being a guitar player, and coming from a musically inclined family, it was really cool to read someone trying to describe the relationship between the instrument and the instrumentalist. “He and the piano stammered, started one way, got scared, stopped; started another way, panicked, marked time, started again; then seemed to have found a direction, panicked again, got stuck.” That phrase describes beautifully what it sounds like when someone is struggling to find themselves in a song. Especially knowing what that feeling feels like. So, I’ve said all this to say that I really thought the sacred reading (or Lectio Divina), was a cool exercise and I plan on trying to implement it from time to time in my readings. 

Sonny's Blues

I thought that “Sonny’s Blues”, written by James Baldwin in 1957, was much longer and much different from all of the other stories we’ve read so far in this class, except that it talked about darkness a lot (no shocker there). I actually found it slightly enjoyable to read even though it was so long. I feel like it is one of those stories that has so many hidden meanings though. For instance, when he describes and talks about the revival meeting near the barbeque joint, what was his purpose for describing in such detail what was going on across the street? Did it really add that much to the story, besides an extra page? My strength has never been interpreting literature, so does anybody have any ideas as to why the author was so descriptive about this occurrence?

I also love how you find out as you go what kind of family they are, where they grew up, their beliefs, etc. I think that is a great way to keep readers interested because you want to keep reading so you can find out more about the characters you are reading about. Oh!! Did anyone else notice that some of the characters and their surroundings seem to have been inspired by the writer’s life? He was born in Harlem NY, had a father who was eventually institutionalized, and was discouraged by the racial climate in the United States. All of those things seem to be touched on throughout the story at some point.

Two things that I really appreciated was that the brothers somewhat make up at the end, which is extremely unusual from a story that professor Corrigan assigns. Plus, I really liked the ending too, especially because of how much I love music, so seeing how it was the music at the end that brought everything together was really cool for me. 

So far...

As I was thinking and looking back over my blogs that I have done so far, I realized a couple things. One being that I feel more comfortable with trying to discuss things that we have gone over in class and blogging about it. Another was some of the things we did in order to try and bring the literature to life. Not all of them worked, actually I found some of them very strange, but there were also some that I found very helpful. For example, the painting project, as Andrew said in his blog, “Thursday in class we had to paint a picture using a passage from the book of Joel. I was not looking forward to it because I really suck at drawing and painting. I have an extremely big imagination but I can't put what's in my head on paper with any kind of resemblance.” That kind of describes what I felt going into that activity also, and I was not expecting to get anything out of it. Once we started the activity though, it stopped being about how good my drawing was going to turn out, but instead it became about how much it really made me try to understand and dig into the book of Joel. That is something I would most likely have never experienced if it weren’t for this class.

Also, the visit to the graveyard was kind of a surprise to me. I expected it to be a drag and slightly uncomfortable since I didn’t know anyone buried there. Once I got around that environment though it really seemed to help me understand where C.S. was coming from while writing “A Grief Observed”. The point I’m trying to make is, that I got a lot out of the first half of this semester and I obviously didn’t have an opened mind the entire time. So, I am looking forward to the rest of this semester and going into it with an open mind.

Dayton

            Dayton Bo Stevenson was a born October 14^th, 1975, and was the youngest of 6 children. I, being his oldest sibling, remember everything about him from the time he was born, until where he is now. This story really starts though when Dayton was five. As a child Dayton was one of the cutest kids you had ever seen. He had blonde hair, with a bowl haircut, a scrawny little body that made him look like he never ate, and a smile that could melt any human being on the planet. Everybody loved Dayton. Dayton was one of those kids that never cried, hardly ever needed to be disciplined, and just loved to make people smile.  He also loved to ask a TON of questions, like most normal five year olds do, and try to be included in things that were above his level.

            Now, we were all home schooled by my Mom, so we were around each other 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Looking back now I see how lucky we were, but at the time it was very easy to get tired of each other. So, while we would be doing school, Dayton would usually have to entertain himself, watch movies, play legos, etc. He was fine with that for the most part, but there would be times when he would get bored. When that would happen he would often come to one of his siblings, including me, and try to get us to do something with him. Once and a while, if I wasn’t very busy, I would very unenthusiastically doing something with him for two minutes, almost as if I were trying to reach a quota. Now, when Dayton was only three or four, that wasn’t a problem, but as he got older, he also got smarter and more sensitive. He began to be able to realize when we were blocking him out, or weren’t really interested when playing games with him, or started ignoring his silly questions. After all, we had more important stuff to do then spend time with our little brother.

            As the months flew by Dayton began to interact less and less with his older siblings, which mainly included my two brothers and I. Mostly because our two sisters were much more giving of their time towards him, must have something to do with their motherly instinct. I was too young and naïve to notice at the time, but Dayton pretty much stopped caring if we gave him any attention at all. He would be polite towards us, but as he got older he began drifting away from us. I just figured it was him maturing and that we would still be best buds once he grew up and became more fun to hangout with and talk to.

            So, off to college I went, and both of my brothers followed, while Dayton stayed behind and made his way through high school. As he made friends he began to care less and less about talking to our parents or myself. He would be cordial towards me, but he began to feel less and less like my brother. My parents began to express concerns about his friends, some of the places he was going, and things he was doing. My parents would try to talk to him about it or ask him questions but he would always just avoid their questions. Knowing that what he was doing upsetting my parents, I decided to try and be the noble older brother and talk some sense into him. What I found out though was that Dayton had no respect for me, he didn’t see me as someone he looked up to, I no longer held any significance in his life.

            One would think that finding something like this out would be very hard for me to handle emotionally. Although instead of realizing my mistakes, I let my pride get in the way. I convinced myself that if that’s the way he looked at it then that’s the way he was going to get it, I hadn’t done anything wrong, he was just being dramatic. This is what I told myself, so I kept living my life, while Dayton kept messing up his.

            Time continued to pass and Dayton married and divorced, married and divorced, etc. His first wife gained full custody of the kids and Dayton turned to alcohol to deal with his grief. Dayton was now completely void of the little five-year old blonde boy that was naïve, always happy, and close with his family. He talked only to our sister and that was usually to ask for money or help, he was always angry and depressed, bottom line was, he had lost his will to live.

            On December 8^th 2008, at the age of 33, Dayton took his own life. He didn’t even bother to leave a note, because there was no one here on this earth that he cared about. As I stood there at his burial it began to hit me. All those times as a teenager when I was too busy, the times when I let my pride get in the way of realizing I was wrong, the times when I decided what I wanted to do was more important than my little brother. My eyes filled with tears of regret. It was too late and there was nothing I could do now. What had started out as a few selfish acts had become a lifestyle and in a round about way, helped ruined a young man’s life. Then, while I was standing there mourning and wishing I could do everything over again, I started to hear a faint ringing, so I turned to see if my wife had noticed it, she didn’t seem to hear it. It started to grow louder and louder but only I seemed to hear it.             The next thing I know, I open my eyes to my alarm clock ringing. As my eyes begin to adjust I realize I’m back in the house I grew up in as a teenager. I slowly stumble out of bed, thinking only about finding my siblings. As I get to the doorway of Dayton’s old room, I see a little blonde boy, sound asleep in his bed. Once again tears fill my eyes, this time though out of joy, because I realize that it had all been a dream. There, in the bed in front of me was once again the little naïve boy that I knew and loved so much. Suddenly I didn’t remember anything I had planned on doing that day, all I could think about was spending time with my siblings and showing them how much they mean to me. As Dayton began to wake he looked at me and gave me his adorable little smile as asked if it was time to wake up. I couldn’t even respond, so I just went over, pulled out his favorite game, and started to set it up. His face lit up as he jumped out of bed and raced over to set up his pieces, and I just sat there, thanking the Lord for reminding me of where my priorities should be.

This Blessed House

The story “This Blessed House” makes me ask multiple questions. One of the first ones being, why did the people in the house before them leave all of the Christian stuff behind. Is there some sort of symbolism behind that? Were they trying to leave a witness to the next owners? Were they turning from the Christian faith? Any ideas…?

            Another question I found myself asking was, if I was placed in a similar situation, how would I react if my wife started relishing old “buddhist” statues? Most likely I would have a problem with it. I would feel like my wife was compromising what she believed in. I also feel like it would also be even tougher if my wife had a personality like Twinkle.

            Also, it makes me wonder if Twinkle, by accepting the Christian artifacts is more secure in her faith than Sanjeev, or more open to other beliefs? Because at first I automatically assumed that Sanjeev must be more dedicated to his religion than Twinkle since she doesn’t seem to have any problem with other religions, but when I really thought about it, maybe it is because he is weaker. Maybe he can’t handle having other religious artifacts around because he is more insecure in his Hinduism faith than Twinkle. Especially since at times when I feel like I am not as string in my faith I tend to be even more aggressive toward other religions and beliefs. Why? I couldn’t really tell you, that’s just how it is.

            So, does anybody else have any different views or opinions on some of the things I brought up? Because I love hearing all the different perspectives everyone in our class always seem to have. Also, that is really the whole point of this blog, to dialogue with each other in between classes, right?