Boys Next Door Act 2

Jack, I like Jack. He seems to be stressed out, even at his whits end at some times with these gentlemen but he still loves them and even calls them his little associates. To me Jack sees himself in these men, he sees someone who is free of pressure, of worry, and they can be who they want to be. At some times I think Jack may even envy this. He sees who he can be when he looks at them. They are happy just being them selfs, they don't need anything but good friends and they seem to do well. Jack looks at these men in a different light. Most would look at them and say why, or laugh and turn their heads because they feel superior to them in some way, but in many ways these men are far more superior than the average person. In the Bible we are told to have the faith as children and to be like children in some ways. have you ever noticed how a child wont judge another child by their looks, clothing, or anything else. We as the "normal ones" can't seem to grasp this and it is something that these men have not lost or forgotten about. They don't judge each other and they don't put each other down, they are a family and I think their is much to be learned here. Just something to think about.

Boys Next Door Act 1

So far this book has really made me happy. A few years ago I witnessed a mentally handy cap kid walk up to a girl that everybody in the class was in like with and say next to her and held her hand. I laughed because he did what every other guy in the classroom wanted to do. Next thing I know I got yelled at for laughing at him. She said that it was not nice to laugh at him because he had a disability. So what, isn't he human like me and you. If my buddy where to do that I would laugh because it was funny. Just because he has a disability dose not give us the right to treat him any differently. It was an injustice what that teacher said about him, how could some one dehumanize another like that? It was not right. We are all equal and the same no matter what or who we may be. We where all born and we will all die.

This book really rings true this message. No matter what people may say or think about a person with disability's, we all deserve to be treated like humans nothing more nothing less. It is this simple but humanity seems to just ignore them all together. When we pass one by in the market place, do we say how are you doing today?, or do we walk on by pretending we never say them, thinking it is the right thing to do, but is it? Don't ignore them like some horrible plague that might go away with time, give them time just like you would anyone else. Thank you, that is all.

Darkness

"Where is God in the darkness?". When the passage was talking about the question sometimes being more important than the answer I took a second look and was astonished. Answers like this leave us with raw blank information, but for us to really grow in a time of darkness we need the question and only the question because this many times opens up a door to growing and learning not just spiritually but mentally and maturely, if thats even a word. Like the passage said, "it is time not for answers but for questions that defy answers,”.

I really like the lines, There has to be some serious doubt, otherwise faith becomes merely a dogmatic formula, an orthodoxy, a way of evading the complexity of life rather than engaging honestly with life.” This rings true to my life. I feel like I am completely helpless to help somebody if I haven't experienced something tragic too. It is very difficult to me, I know that if I was in a world of hurt and somebody came up to me saying it will be alright I would be quite angry with them if they have not been through what I been through. I wouldn't even want to hear them speak to me. I know that this seems harsh but its the truth. The truth can hurt, no matter if the truth is darkness and despair or the unknown in times of uncertainty.

Oliver

wow, Oliver sure has an interesting way of looking at things. Reading this passage helped show me all the things that nature can be. The Bible uses nature for many examples and metaphors and through this passage i was able to see the furry, wrath and gentle kind heart of nature, boom baby.

The author talks of Gods work being all around. I never looked at nature in that light, if I look at a tree and physically say that God created this tree and the dirt I'm standing on and the very breathe I take it starts to seem overwhelming that our God was able to do all of this. In a why Gods finger prints are everywhere we look, first we just have to look, then we look again and finally we learn to look. I know it doesn't quite make sense but there are many things that just don't make sense and God and nature is just another one for the list. She had a gift for looking into something and seeing it for what it is, we have lost that and I for one would like to rediscover this. I plan for now on not to look at something for what my eyes see but what my eyes don't see. It is as simple as that if only we try.

Nature

Today [Monday] I walked out next to Lake Bonnie and I tried to grasp everything that I could about nature. In class we talked about nature praising God, listening to God and being pentecostal. I tried to imagine nature as a living breathing entity just like myself. So I closed my eyes. Over the next few minutes I tried to listen and I couldn't hear anything. I tried again, this time I laid in the grass and let my feet soak in the lake as my body soaked up the sun. I had to literally become one with nature. Slowly I could almost feel the earth breath with every rushing wind. I could hear the waters crash at my feet, the grass whistle as the wind turn its way. A song I thought, suddenly the earth let out a deep groan that reached from one end of the sky to the other. It was almost like a huge symphony orchestra playing its fine tune, but who in this orchestra is featured. Could it be the crashing sound of the waves, the howling wind through the trees or the grassy plains in which I laid. Who in this orchestra of one could it be. Maybe it is the soft rain that slowly cooled my body or the sound of silence, when all nature is quite before God. Who will nature feature tonight? Surly it must be something greater than even myself, maybe even God himself? But I like to think of God as an excited father sitting on the side lines cheering on his son thats up to bat, "come on son I know you can do it, home run home run", or even the hand that held mine as a child as I fell to sleep. I like to think of my father as that proud parent who rags on about their own child, but surly he doesn't go through all this trouble for us? But then again he would, wouldn't he?

Just I had to become one with nature to somewhat grasp the essence of it all, we must become one with him. Though I am afraid that we may never truly understand it all, and thats all right. For I nor any other man or woman could ever truly grasp it all, and thats why I keep coming back.

State of the Planet

I found this piece of lit to be very interesting. it gives an inside look on the secular view of the world and how it came to be and how it might end one day. The part that talked about how we took the earth and used to to do certain things really caught my attention. Even thought it is a secular view it showed how men do not create only can they invent. Even thought secular it still posses christian beliefs I found this interestingly not suprising, I just needed something to write about.

I love the part when it says that we dare not answer or ask the unanswerable we tend to leave that to priest and such. Why, I ask myself? Do we leave these things to priest because we are afraid to answer them, or do we fear how people might take our ideas and philosophy's. In the Christian view many of us are afraid of stating something untrue and risk spreading heresy, but I can not see why someone on the secular side could or would not want to figure out the unanswerable. The unanswerable has always interested me. One could say that I am nosy and another could say that I have every right to want to know whatever it is that is unknown to me, wow I was really hoping that last sentence would have come out sounding more sophisticated but I will take what I can get on only a few hours of sleep.

I was inspired

During our discussion last class I got inspired to start writing a story, This is just the very begining of an amazing adventure.

My story takes place over 120 years ago in this very land. Our ancestors took shelter in these underground facilities seeking refuge from the danger that drew near. As children we are told stories of the great light and fire so intense that it can vaporize a human in seconds. They say that the bunkers protect us from this great threat. War and famine spread across our land killing all in its grasp. Disease infiltrated our great cities and spread like wildfire, choking the very existence of humanity. Those who survived the plagues took shelter, we are all that are left. Surviving off of mushrooms from underground springs, roaches and an occasional rat for over a century.

All of them are gone now, the story tellers, The only record of what happened is imbedded in the memory of the few that are left hear. Thirty four men women and children, we are the offspring of the story tellers. Their story is our story.

-120 years earlier

-Flipping through the Television channels

CNN- Wide spread evacuations are taking place as of this very moment. You are to take your family and get to the nearest evacuation center immediately. Don’t take any-

FOX- We have Tim Suarez on the scene now. Tim- This is just incredible never in my life time have I ever seen anything like this. There are people busting out windows of shopping centers and taking everything inside. This is just unbelievable. Anchor- Now we go to Charlie Belcher who is at our nation’s capitol, are you seeing what I am seeing, there are mobs of people storming the white house and slaughtering-

700 CLUB- May God keep us and protect us, this is our most desperate hour-

-Turn off Television.

Jake-Honey, did you get everything?

Mary- yes I got all the medication, and enough food for a week.

Jake- That’s not enough. Hear take this [gun] and keep it on you.

-Back to 2130

Anna- Many times I sit and pray to God, asking him why he has forsaken us and left us to die in these prisons we call home. Are we just to rot in here until our race has completely depleted to nothing? O how I feel so alone in such a barren hopeless world, no joy no peace only death and suffering has entered our minds and bodies. O how I long to feel freedom from this fate.

The Adults speak to us of stories passed down from the first story tellers. They speak of a bright fire in the sky that is so big it can warm everyone and still it does not burn you. They speak of pools of water that are so enormous you could not possibly swim across, and they speak of rocks that are so monstrously huge that they make a man look like a grain of sand. O how I long to see these things, to feel this salt wind in my face, the cool breeze in the fall air, to watch green paper change colors before your very eyes. I want to see experience this but I am afraid that they are just myths maid to give us hope of a better life someday. Is that what keeps us going on? The hope of a better life. I wonder, if our race would have tried to work even have as hard if they knew their fate would not be a happy one, but a dark strange world, cursed by our own hand and lost to our greed. O how I long Heaven. For surly I have seen Hell.

-2010

-Driving, Horrible traffic at a stand still

-Radio- This is just in Turkish ballistic missiles just devastated the East coast of the united States. We have contact in Atlanta, Boston, Jacksonville, Charlotte and New York. If you can hear this you have approximately 38 minutes until first light.

Mary- That doesn’t give us enough time.

Jake- We’ll walk from here, leave everything it will just weigh us down. I’ll grab the baby.

-2130

-Anna- I always wonder what it would be like to go outside. Nobody has done it in 120 years. They say that the air outside is poisoned with an invisible monster. They said that if you go outside he will get into your lungs and cause your skin to boil and bubble. I think they are just making it up, besides I’m twelve now and not afraid of no monster.

-Later on that night

-Silently Anna makes her way through the bunker to take a peek out side. Softly and carefully she makes each step count. She could make out the sounds of the elders snoring and adults talking. There was a narrow entrance way that leads to a spiral stairwell. Their where chains on the door, so she had to carefully squeeze her body through ever so carefully. Suddenly she felt something scurry over her hand, and then she dropped. The doors bumped the chains and maid a loud clang against the doors.

-There was a long period of silence, like everyone was listening for her. Then someone was coming. She pulls the rest of her body through grabs the rat that ran over her hand and placed it just outside the doors in the hall. Then all I could see through the crack of the door and hinge was a stout man it must had been Mr. Parker, he sometimes keeps watch during lights out. Those few moments seemed like forever, then Mr. Ferguson walked up and said come on back to the party; it’s probably just a rat.

-Mr. Parker- Your right, OK.

-Mr. Fergusson- Of course I’m right.

-Anna- As I made my way up the stair well I felt light headed and dizzy. Kind of like when you stay under the water to long in the spring. The stairs seemed never ending they wrapped up higher and higher until I was out of breath. I could look down now and see a small light from the crack in the door where I saw Mr. Parker and Mr. Fergusson. As I journeyed onward say a small light appear. It was orange in color. I also became quite cold for a small breeze now blew my hair around my head like the fairish wheels I learned about in my history lesson. As I came to the final ten steps a saw a door on the ceiling, there was a bit of light that had seemed to make its way in through the edges of the door. My bare feet seemed to glide across the stone cold floor as I rose to open the doors.

-2010

-Patrol officer-Get inside, hurry. No sir, there is only enough room for 50 people.

-Mary-(screaming) Jake, no.

-Jake- I love you, take care of her, when she gets old enough tell her that I love her and no matter what happens God will see us through.

-Patrol Officer-Mama, I must shut the door.

-Mary-(crying) I love you.

-Jake-(crying) I love you too.

-Door shut, A great wind picks up, sun fades into the distance. Suddenly, a blinding light appears.

-2130-

Character Post

When I think about characters I like to think back on a story known as Hamlet. hamlet was quite a character, most people would refer to him as deep but i beg to differ. Hamlet seemed to me Flat. He was quite amusing but he was not deep intellectual or thought provoking. He simple received information and acted upon it. This sounds quite boring yes, but it is not. You see Hamlet is unique to me because he is flat but not boring. Many story,s with flat characters are very boring but hamlet keeps the action alive. He even makes this out to be funny at some points. I personally make flat characters when writing but I find it challenging and fun to keep them from turning sour. In the play Hamlet he is constantly keeping the audience entertained all the way even to his death. Yes as he is dying he makes it almost comical.

The character Hamlet looks like a young man in this mid to late twenties. he may have a bowl cut and a thin beard. He may where leggings and any other clothing styled during that era. Being of noble blood his skin would be pale not having a bit of sun on his skin. So far this image of our character looks a bit like a modern nerd, but thats alright, Hamlet is a funny guy. Our character would smell like he never broke a sweat in his life. Our character would also posses a European accent. This of course would be because he lives in Europe, don't worry Hamlet we'll forgive you. Our character during this time is training to be king someday by going to school constantly, learning how to govern a group of people, etc... During the course of the story he is trying to find out the reason for his fathers death. He finally learns that his father was killed by his uncle who is now king and happily married to his uncle. During the course of the play he is trying to expose his uncle then to revenge his father's death by killing his uncle. This is why I say that he is not very deep. Everything is laying wide out in the open. There is no thought provoking work in his works or actions. Shakespeare should have taken Prof Corrigans class.

Hamlet does have a friend who throughout the play stays rather secondary, but towards the end he makes his approach and ends the play with some deep well rounded words. It really causes me to think. "What is it ye would see? If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search." Wow.

In the play know as Hamlet there are many other characters, many of with are flat just as Hamlet, but there are a few that are quite deep. Horatio for instance is a friend of Hamlet. Horatio is the one that said the what is it ye would see speech.

A Second Look at Sonny's Blues

There was a few points in he article Sonny's Blues that stood out to me. One of my favorite lines were not a set of words that most people would ever recognizes as standing out to them but they did to me. At the top of page 390 I found it interesting where he was talking about the differences in age and how he wonders if the years would some how connect them both together like a bridge. That was very interesting to me. In my own life I have found where when I was a kid most of my friends would make jokes of the elderly. I never paid much attention to it but recently I noticed my brothers friends treating me different because of my age advantage to them, so now I have been able to connect the dots and observe how our society works. The gap between generations is a problem only because we make it a problem. The older generation has a lot of advice to give us just as they have a lot of knowledge to gain from us, and if we can ever see it for what it is maybe our generations can cross and learn to work with each other even better.
I only say this because when he was asking himself this question it was almost like he was worried that their age gap would not bring them together but keep them apart. I picked this up in the tone of the sentence, yes sentences have tones.

Another part that I absolutely loved was the line ,"All I know about music is that not many people ever hear it.". I myself write music and find that words and phrasing in the notes are crucial to the message and that the message can some times get lost if heard with the wrong set of ears. To really hear music is to feel it, breath it, and experience it. Music is one of the greatest Literary feats of all time in my opinion and with this great power comes misunderstanding, for the musician this can be disheartening, frustrating and sad, but not for the musician them selfs but for the audience which will never truly hear it.

The Imaginary Invalid

That was so funny, I could not stop laughing. There was so many items in the play that was quite true and thats what made it funny.Everything in the play was an exaggerated response to real life situations. The people in the play seemed to act out what I think. It is simple, or is it. I must admit I felt really bad for the doctors son after the red head told him off. He did not seem so bad just misunderstood. Anyways thats beside the point. Everyone in the play seemed like they didn't really care about anyone but there self. Then again the father and daughter seemed to care much of each other. Maybe I just can not think because I am tired? That could be it.

I also seemed to pick up this theme, but I do believe it may be wrong, Many problems that we make out to be huge is surprisingly simple to correct. I am going to bed, I don't feel so good.

Blogging

I find that the blogging helps me understand better what i have read for the class. Usually I do not know what I am about to write I just do it. i find myself thinking and writing all at the same time. I find that as I write I sort through Ideas and possibilities that could obtain to what i have read about, So in a way I am blabbing on to myself more so than my readers. This type of thinking it through really helps me obtain though provoking sayings which add quite a bit of class to my paper if I may say so myself.

I whole concept of blogging is great because in a normal class most people only think about the work at hand in the class, no where else. This allows us to learn to think out of the class, and i find it quite stimulating. I have also noticed that I have retained more from the class by blogging. This form and method of teaching and learning is quite effective in our circle of students. At first it was a little confusing but once we caught on it was one of the best experiences I have had so far from the university. I can't wait to go the Prof Corrigans class to see what he has for us today.

I must be quite frank with you, at first I thought that the class was just part of some social experiment but this form of teaching and learning is in fact Genius. I say Genius because it involves us reading, discussing, listening, thinking, blogging and the occasional mini field trip, by the time that we have finished all of these steps the material and lesson is so far deep into our skulls I am sure that we will never forget it. I never thought that I would say this but the skills that I learn in my Intro to Lit class are skills that are to be carried throughout our entire life. he teaches us to think out side the box and to think deep, deeper than deep so far deep that deep looks like the surface of something much grander. Peace out hommies.

Cemetary Trip

I am ashamed in myself. When I was approaching the Cemetery I thought about ditching the whole thing and just forget about it, but I made myself go back and turn into the cemetery. I drove around the cemetery very slow for a long while and starred at the tomb stones. I almost broke down and cried. I was lost in a sea of people and yet I was the only one there. I was thinking about a recent statistic that I heard, only 14% of Americans attend church on a regular basis and less than that are truly saved. I did the math in my head to see how many of the tomb stones held the body of a person who had a condemned soul. Then to sit there and stare at the graves knowing many of them would never see there family's again but be burned in the eternal fires of Hell forever. They would never laugh, sing, or see the wonderful savoir. I was over whelmed with sadness and fear for my neighbor. Recently we talked about truth no matter the costs. I prayed to God to reveal the truth to me about myself and other aspects of my life no matter the cost. Going to the cemetery opened up my eyes to a truth. The truth that I look at everyone and everything like we will all live here forever, I completely ignore death, but isn't that what most of us do? I had the truth suffocating me to no end at the cemetery and for that I am grateful. I now have a fresh look on life and death. I will no longer sit by why my fellow man starves from the truth. I feel like it is my job no matter what to share with my neighbor the truth no matter the cost. Eternity is a long time and I don't what anyone to spend it in agony. Thank you for your time, I apologize if you were expecting a reflection on the Lilacs poem but I felt lead to share from my heart today,

Thank again Bobby Lynn Henigsmith II

Lilacs: Part II

When I started reading this it was with a new mindset, one of that was not present before the first posting, but now with me. I read this poem now of he mindset of death and war. When I started the 10th and 11th parts really stood out to me for there beautiful coloration or words, I could literally see the winds meeting at the site where they had died and the perfume, which I found to be interesting. I am not so sure if she really dumped her perfume on the grave or if she hung around for so long her sent was left on the grave, kinda like when your girlfriend gives you a hug and you smell like her.

I was confused on the fact that she is mourning the death of her loved one and yet she talks more about the land and scenery than her loved one. Maybe death is not the most important item to take from this piece of art. Maybe, just maybe there is a much deeper importance than the loss of a loved one. Could it be something to do with the land? And what about the lilac? What does it mean? Well I will tell you. I have done some research and found that the Lilac is a flower that symbolizes (first emotions). So maybe this poem has nothing to do about a death or even land for that matter, but could it be the first emotions one scenes when faced with something so beautiful, destructive, innocent and exhausting all at the same time?

When we get to passages 15 and 16 we experience the fury of battle, then almost instantly we are brought back to visions of nature and then nature and death combine in almost a glorious fashion. During all of this she makes the comment "Lilac with heart shaped leaves," this could be another indication of the emotion she might have been feeling all this time.

I personally give this poem two thumbs way way up, read it baby...You know you liked that.

Lilacs

I have read this poem over and over again but I find it hard to understand. Maybe after I get the chance to talk about it more in class I will better understand the meaning behind it.

As I was reading the poem I first thought that it was talking about nature than over time I find it more and more convincing that maybe it isn't all that simple. Besides in Prof. Coriggan's class it never is, lol. Then i came to the part of the poem that talked about teh soul and then after that ,bodies of young men from the war piled on the floor. This poem is frustrating for i don't know how to come at it in my reading. Help me!

How to Read a Poem

I love the first statement of this article. The writer talks about how when you first come to a poem that you do not come to it with the intentions of cracking a code or understanding it the first time or that the poem means whatever you want it to mean. I have had personal situations in the past to where someone told me that my poem did not make sense because they could not figure it out. Or they would did too deep into it and find a meaning that simply was not the meaning. I apologize if I seem to rant and rage but i am, this is annoying!

I also like how the writer says that the text can speak to us through the style of the writing. Like the Bible when something is repeated in poetry it is because it is being emphasized. Some of these styles can also be as follows. arrangement, sound and rhythm. All of these are important in the writing of poetry and one must pay close attention to these too.

When i read the Red Wheelbarrow I was astonished at how simple it was, but then I read the passage below it and I thought to myself, "could it really be much deeper and intellectual than that at which I give it credit for"? I afraid so. I love poems for the simple fact that they can be simple but yet far more complicated for the plebeian mind.

when I read the story Diving into the wreck I tried to read it before looking at the title and at first I was somewhat lost but found my way towards the end so then I reread it with this new knowledge and found it to be freeing. I myself have dived down deep into the murky blue and found myself at peace, you breath slower and your mind relaxes. You feel the warmth and cold of the water beating against your body and you see the sun shining through the surface. Just like the diver I some times forget what I go there for. I could relate allot to this story. i could also see myself as the ship. Now I am on a steady course to fulfill my destiny and one day I to will rest at the bottom of the earth.

Joel

Wow, their was a lot in that small book but I believe that I got a bottom line gist of it. It almost sounded like Joel was speaking about whats to come in the last days. he mentioned that in the last days the world would be in chaos. Then the lord will come back and the Lord would avenge his people. I thought that the last part of that was cool because we don't ever think of the Lord as an avenging God but I guess he is, thats pretty awesome. I would venture to say that the avenging part would be explained by the whole righteous anger thing. I understand some times people just got to learn the hard way. Ouch y:)

This Post is a little harder for me for I like to go off on thinking sprees and try to figure out what they are talking about, but it is the Bible and we are all thought it all our life's and it is harder for me to get to much out of passages like these for I like to take the solid facts and information and calculate it in my brain, and I don't want to go on a thinking tangent and think of something off the wall and be in trouble for some radical idea so I will end with this. Don't mess with God's people and you wont get a Jesus wupp'n.

I loved how we got the opportunity to read the different Little Red Riding Hood stories. I agree with the author of the passage, you shouldn't always come right out and say the theme or moral of the stories. I love sitting down and letting my brain wonder, and trying to figure it out for myself. i enjoy figuring out the moral or theme more so than reading the passage. I personally would say that it takes away from the story.

When we read passages of scripture or Literature everyone gets the main message but then on a personal level we like to take it to the next level. In class we got the opportunity to say what the story The Baggage They Carried said to us. Everyone had different opinions and ideas the story and what the story said to them personally. I would go as far to say that every story even Little Red Riding hood has morals and lessons that are hidden from even the author, but thats O.K. because we all come at each story with a different looking glass than others and thats what makes literature so interesting. interesting in the fact that you can take one story and have fifty people read it and then have fifty different themes.

I would like to have a social experiment where we take a passage have the class read it and then ask each person what the theme was to them and then see if each person has a different theme, and then take a different group of students tell them the theme and then have them read the story and see if they can find anything different than the original theme. I bet that the second group wouldn't be able to think of anything new or very little at least. I hypothesize that once we are told a solution we only see that solution as it, but if we are given freedom to explore possibility's I am sure that many solutions can and would be found. BOOM baby.

The Things They Carried

This was one of the best articles that I have read so far in the class. I love the fact that it is so bold and personal all at the same time. I tried to figure out who the narrator was but couldn't get a name, I just presume that it was a soldier in the group. This passage of writing reminds me of the Dirty Dozen, all of them had their baggage, physically and mentally. It showed how our baggage can get in the way of our goals and missions, like when Lavender was shot in the head because Cross was more focused on the woman of his dreams rather than on the mission. So many times in this life we focus on the false reality rather than on reality itself. This is where many of us fall. For example many musicians dream of a talent scout finding them and revealing them to the world someday, but in all actuality that does not happen. You must get out there and make your self popular. Many talented musicians are never discovered and many nobody's becomes somebody's. you must realize that our dreams are not always reality. If you don't get out there and work hard as a musician than all your dreams of making it big will never happen.

I also respect cross for doing the right thing at the end of the passage. He gets rid of his false thoughts of that girl and he puts his mind back into reality, because in all reality she will not love him and they will not be together. He realizes this and puts her behind him and moves on to what will really count.

Like the men in this passage we all carry baggage lets just make sure it is worth carrying.

Frankie and Johnny

Death and Love

All throughout history one main theme in almost any literary work whether it be written, played out on stage or even spoken by the word of mouth has been love and death. We see this very clearly in Greek mythology, English playwrights, and American songs and movies. These two forces cannot seem to separated no matter the circumstances. Even in Disney movies we see the heroes live happily ever after while the Villon dies in a battle to the death. It almost seems like these two forces have haunted man kind for centuries, the mysteries of true love and the dark void of death.

About Frankie and Johnny

In 1927 there was a man by the name of Frank Crumit, now Mr.Crumit was a performer during this time who would often sing an American classic Frankie and Johnny. Now Frankie and Johnny is a story of a man named Johnny and a young lady by the name of Frankie who at this time are a couple. Now Johnny sneaks behind Frankie’s back and steals some kiss’s from a girl named Nelly Bly. Frankie gets mad and shoots her lover Johnny. Johnny dies and now Frankie is sad and regrets ever shooting Johnny. Frankie soon dies in an electric chair.

Setting

This is a classic case of red neck love. The story takes place probably back in the old west. Around the same time period you would see Sherriff Matt Dylan riding around with his deputy Festus. At this moment in time many men would end up cheating on their ladys while hanging out at the saloon. Most of the men would go their after working all day, it was a place to kick back and have some fun, but for Johnny that was too much fun. He might have found himself a waitress girl and being drunk he might have not been in his right mind when he took that first kiss. Who knows, maybe with beer goggles on Nelly Bly rally looked like Frankie, to bad Johnny never got asked.

Why

This song was originally meant just to be for entertainment but I see much more hear that one may learn from. One may take form this a better understanding for women with guns. On a more serious note one may notice how sacred a relationship was in the old day. In the world of today if a similar scenario happened the Frankie in this situation would have shot Nelly Bly and taken back Johnny, or shot both of them and went on with their life. This song show us how it is not Nelly Bly’s fault but Johnny’s. Nelly Bly probably never knew Johnny was in a relationship, if she would have known, in that day of age she would have most likely turned him down faster than a cat out of water. If there is anybody going through it out their please don’t kick both of their butts, make friends with the Nelly Bly and do twice the damage in one shot, just kidding.

Funny But Sad

The music in Frankie and Johnny is that of a merry song, but the words express quite an opposite approach. Professor Corrigan once said, “Literature is not just to be read, it is to be lived and breathed every single day”. To take it back to the song now, to inspire great though art from a literary stand point needs to be taken to the next level, this means it must bring it all back to reality. Doesn’t the song Frankie and Johnny do this? It takes and shows one how real this life can be. One moment one is having fun and the next moment the other person in the relation ship is so torn up that they go off the deep end and ends up killing the one they love. The story itself is very sad in all actuality but one cannot help but laugh at the truth of it all. There are Frankie and Johnny’s all over the world. When one hears about a story like that it sounds hilarious, but when one lives it, it becomes a very sad story. This song shows that the world portrays pain to be funny, so as Christians next time one hears about a Frankie and Johnny don’t laugh pray for them.

Bible Reference

God has seen quite a lot of Frankie and Johnny’s in his time, instead of laughing at the world he sent his son to help us. Why don’t the church stop laughing at the world?

A Grief Observed: Part II

This is one of the most interesting passages I have ever read. Lewis almost seems to forget he is writing a book and goes off on a thoughtful tangent to say the least, but he makes some good statements in hear that I think we should all take a look at.

Lewis makes the remark that we can not get it into our heads that our loved one is dead. In my experience he is right, we try to ignore the death like it never happened because it is just to painful to deal with, or like the old man we will do something to make us feel like we are still taking care of them. For the old man it was keeping up with the flowers on mums grave, for me it was fulfilling what my grandfather told me, he once said to me don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't. Before I would let people walk all over me, they would put me down as a child and tell me that I couldn't do anything, Adults have downgraded me because of my social class and my future dreams, but because of my grandfather and a bit of faith I can do what ever God wants me to do no matter who of what comes against me, in my own way thats how I keep my grandfather alive. Some of us may keep their clothes hung up and their shoes laying out, and then some of us will read the Bible out next to their grave. Like I said before death a hard hit, and we never want to let that person go, so in our own ways we don't. Lewis talks about how this isn't dealing with it but for some they feel like they are even though they are not.

Lewis makes a point on page 27. he talks about how people say that she is at peace now. then he said well what makes you so sure. it caught me off guard but he makes an interesting statement. He says how she was in gods hands this whole time, and if God is consistent then why would it be any different when we are not in the body then we we are in the body? All I have to say is somethings we are not meant to know. Listen to a song by Micheal W. Smith called Angels Unaware.

A Grief Observed

Wow, how many times have we been in that boat? Someone important in your life moves on to a better place. Don't you hate that phrase? We know that they go one to a better place but that does not change the fact that we will miss them, and what if they weren't a believer? I know, we don't talk about that but it is a apart of life. If they aren't a believer then they suffer in Hell for all of eternity.

Death is not a pretty planned out event and I would say that C.S. Lewis demonstrates this very well. In many parts of the passage I can relate to him and in many respects I can not. A few years ago both of my grandfathers died within a very short time of each other. Na truly This was very hard for me to deal with. Like C.S. Lewis I found it difficult to talk about, but unlike Lewis I wanted to talk to people about it, I just couldn't find the strength to. I found this passage very compassionate for he is telling his deep dark secrets and for that all of us can benefit. If I had read this before the passing of my grandfathers talking about it would have been a bit easier.

No matter how much one talks about death it will always be somewhat mysterious, heart rendering, sickening, and one of the last things anyone wants to think about, but it is the first thing our body does once we are born, it starts to die.

C.S. Lewis couldn't have shared how he felt any better than how he did in this passage and I think I will take something from this, that yes death isn't easy and it is not fun but it is something that we all eventually have to deal with, so why not start dealing with it now. One item that sticks out to me in my head is the eternal part of death. If you want to see your loved ones again get them saved, because if they don't then once they die you may never see them again. In my book thats the best way of dealing with it. yes you may miss them, but I'd rather miss them temporarily than eternally.

Happy Endings

Wow, where should I start? I guess the beginning. While reading passage A I got bored, possible because we all expect how a happy ending is going to be, but after I read B I started to get interested. There was a few times where I busted out loud with laughter because I was not expecting to read what I read. It was shocking, funny, embarrassing and all around horrible and great all at the same time. Isn't that just like humans. We find other peoples horrible endings funny and there happy endings boring. I will be honest hear, I laughed when Marry Over dosed and her man never came around. i must say that we tend to enjoy sad endings better just look at Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Beowolf, all of these have two things in common. They are great works that many enjoy time and time again and all of them have sad endings to them.

Personally I did not enjoy all of C, but when John shoots the two and himself I start chuckling because he dose it out of Jealousy, come on your ancient you had your chance John, and so did your hair, lol.

D was alright but quite boring, It did not capture any of the previous elements that caught my attention.

I really didn't care for E either, I could see that ending coming from a mile away.

F was much better it showed how no matter how you start the story you may end it any way you want to.

Love

Wow, I personally never thought about love as deep as these people did. It was almost sufficating at points. It seemed like Nick and his wife had everything figured out, didn't it make you sick. It also seemed like Mel and and Terry couldn't settle on anything really. Mell just wanted to kill his ex and Terry didn't know what he believed.

The story made me reflect on my own life and how I personally veiw love. Love to me is somthing that is enduring, somthing that is always fresh and new, and somthing that can not be bought traded or given up without a fight. reading this passage has helped me figure out love in my own life but it has also raised questions. For instance.

Lets say you meet someone and you truly love him or her but they end up dying. Then you find somoene new, was that old love really not love or where you destined to love two. Or is this new love really now your one and only, but then again where you to have two onlys?

My Earliest Literary Memories

when I was a child, one of the best things that I could remember was when mom would come into my room at night and read to me from my book of giant tales. That was one of my earliest encounters with Literature. I found the book itself almost addicting, no matter what happened I could always drift off into a world of giants, legends and make believe. Hear things ended the way they where suppose to, happy. As I and or my mother would read to me these tales my mind would wonder off and I prayed to God that it would never come back, because I would rather live in my imagination than have to be or do anything else.

Another set of literature that I came to love a few years later was Hank the Cow-dog. Things where always an adventure with hank, I would refuse to put the book down because i had to know what was going to happened next. Hank the Cow-dog was funny, adventurous, and thrilling all at the same time no wonder an 8 year old loved it so much.

As I progressed into the age 10/12 I became very interested in William Shakesphere. Mostly because of the way he thought. I would take every line of his works and I would dissect them, wondering the reason behind each gesture, personality and emotion. I loved reading something that forced myself to imagine myself in a situation where either outcome had a serious penalty.

Now I only get to read my school material. I do not have much time to do much of anything else but if i did I would also read Edgar Allen Poe. Story's that he tells such as the pendelum cause my mind to wonder what would I ever do if I where caught in a situation such as that. Literature to me has always been about reading to gain new patterns of thought and reason, to question your own thinking and to test your own theories and beliefs. Like I do now when I have time I will continue reading mind strangling works, theories and philosophies because Literature for me is no longer entertainment but a time to grow in ones thought.