So, in my English Pedagogical Methods class, the instructor directed us in a poetry writing exercise that could be used to covertly teach juxtaposition. Again, as with so many things, something comes from what was thought to be nothing.
A New Fear
I remember when the world was kind, but
I forget how to fear this world now; And
I remember when the word had power.
I forget that it was all worthwhile, and
I remember those times - though sad and glad -
I forget - did we run away from them?
22 November 2011
06 September 2011
A Second Week
I have begun to take an account of where I am. I obviously do not mean my literal place geographically of course, but I also do not mean that I am simply taking stock of what I have done these last six semesters at Wilkes (though that is no small task!). What I mean, is that I am taking stock of where I am in my head; what kind of scholar, what kind of leader, and what kind of follower I was today.
Of the three, leader I deem least important to examine daily, and so I will not discuss it today. Today what weighs on my mind is the future. Again, I am not focusing on the standard 'where will I get a job' or 'how will I pay for college loans and graduate school and a family all while trying the further my education and work at the same time' questions - though they do seem daunting. I have faith that these will work themselves out in whatever ways they are supposed to be worked out.
Faith. The ultimate act of being a follower. Strange realizations come about when I think about faith. A common one, one I just had again when I typed these last few sentences, is that a person that always tries to lead can honestly say that the most important thing in their life is how good and true a follower they can be. But this is not my concern today; my concern is a realization I had in my philosophy. It is a realization that I think I've known for some time, an answer to a question that I probably knew the moment I first asked the question. I often say that my principle philosophical dilemma is reconciling my religious beliefs, which are very Calvinist, with my social/legal principles, but really, there is no reconciliation needed. There is only qualification. My religious beliefs are qualified by my belief in a social contract theory.
Which gets me to the ultimate point of this post today, a pronouncement that I hope will be a guide for these future posts. It regards something I originally said I did not want to focus on today, my academic future.
I want to lead the movement to apply a combination literary theory that is a hybrid of post-colonial studies and the leveled-society work done by Scottish enlightenment historian Lord Kames in the study of 16th and 17th century religious persecution and reformation.
I am thrilled that I am in a class this semester that is all about undergraduate research and is centered in seventeenth-century British literature. I plan on beginning this hybridization as soon as possible.
Ultimately, I have been, am, and always will be a member of the archetypal/mythological school; this is the way that I do it.
17 January 2011
Common Principles, Similarily Summarized (Version 2)
So this is a thought process that I want to explore, and had no better place to explore than my rarely used, a status given to this blog that will hopefully change, blog, that came from reading the first assigned short story for my English seminar course on Indian author Salman Rushdie. In the short story, which is actually a brief excerpt from one section of his novel Midnight's Children, a verse from the Qur'an is quoted. "Recite, in the name of the Lord thy Creator, who created Man from clots of blood." I looked up its context and my mind drew first a comparison to a verse that is popularly, and arguably correctly, seen as the penultimate, or if not penultimate at least all-encompassing summarizing verse of Christian belief, John 3.16. "For God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life." Unfortunately, I lack the time and physical awakedness to pursue this fully at this time. Suffice it to say that this is one more reason why Islam is a religion that is most accepting of peoples of the book and one more reason why Christians and Christianity should be most accepting of honorable, peaceful Muslims: Our principles are the same. There is but one God and those who love God and fear God's wrath are destined to be rewarded because they have resisted the temptations that those doomed to punishment have succumb to.
For the LORD smiled on what he created, and saw that good was indeed omnipresent and evil was, is, and never can be omnipotent.
Continued at a later date:
We do, of course, need to keep in mind that there are extremities, both in individual beliefs or believers and in certain denominational or sub-denominational theological belief systems, in every religion, especially in monotheistic religions. The belief that there is only one true God complicates interconnections and interactions between monotheistic religions in many ways. Firstly, I feel that the idea of there being one true god can construct a wall between a monotheistic religion and a polytheisitc religion that is seemingly too high to scale, because if both religions were based around the belief that there is only one god there is at least that common ground, and it opens up criticism - criticism of one monotheisitc religion by another monotheistic religion - to this: they (the criticized religion) understand the concepts and principles but they do not completely, as we (the criticizing religion) do, the understand the nature of God. This limits the complexity, and thus the conflicts, conflicts that may begin as intellectual and theological but can certainly become violent, as history has shown us, to the fact that a monotheistic religion believes in one true god. It is, ultimately, a sticking point that is, at its most basic and fundamental core, irreconciable.
The irreconciable nature of divergent religions, even religions that theologically, historically, and textually, especially with regard to the stories, themes, and content of their holy writings, must be respected. That being said, there is much common ground, especially what can be considered the practical, or charitable, aspects of the main monotheistic religious beliefs. If these are focused on, rather than the differences, which as we have begun to show are difficult, at best, to reconcile, we can, in an interfaith attempt, ultimately do more good in the world, more good for people that have not what they need, and can ultimately bring more people to the understanding of God's love, no matter their representation of him. To return to the original Gospel passage, "God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life." The entire world, so that every person elected to believe will believe, if not today than at the end of days.
For the LORD smiled on what he created, and saw that good was indeed omnipresent and evil was, is, and never can be omnipotent.
Continued at a later date:
We do, of course, need to keep in mind that there are extremities, both in individual beliefs or believers and in certain denominational or sub-denominational theological belief systems, in every religion, especially in monotheistic religions. The belief that there is only one true God complicates interconnections and interactions between monotheistic religions in many ways. Firstly, I feel that the idea of there being one true god can construct a wall between a monotheistic religion and a polytheisitc religion that is seemingly too high to scale, because if both religions were based around the belief that there is only one god there is at least that common ground, and it opens up criticism - criticism of one monotheisitc religion by another monotheistic religion - to this: they (the criticized religion) understand the concepts and principles but they do not completely, as we (the criticizing religion) do, the understand the nature of God. This limits the complexity, and thus the conflicts, conflicts that may begin as intellectual and theological but can certainly become violent, as history has shown us, to the fact that a monotheistic religion believes in one true god. It is, ultimately, a sticking point that is, at its most basic and fundamental core, irreconciable.
The irreconciable nature of divergent religions, even religions that theologically, historically, and textually, especially with regard to the stories, themes, and content of their holy writings, must be respected. That being said, there is much common ground, especially what can be considered the practical, or charitable, aspects of the main monotheistic religious beliefs. If these are focused on, rather than the differences, which as we have begun to show are difficult, at best, to reconcile, we can, in an interfaith attempt, ultimately do more good in the world, more good for people that have not what they need, and can ultimately bring more people to the understanding of God's love, no matter their representation of him. To return to the original Gospel passage, "God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life." The entire world, so that every person elected to believe will believe, if not today than at the end of days.
10 October 2010
good to be back to writing
Looking down from 2,000 feet up
The leaves are changing
and I do not know what
it means for you.
But the color
spectrum reminds me of
the Lord. Again,
the Leaves are painted
colors of His heart
with all of them
telling a story of Love.
The red reminds me of shed blood, long time ago
when He died; Devotion.
Mixed in his flight
brilliant orange doth shine
above the yellow sun,
rising on the third day and
our last
before we learned
what Joys we had
and why the world can still Grow.
Though spring, its true,
is important too
the pain borne for us
was the last gift for a world,
that was, is, dying.
The leaves are changing
and I do not know what
it means for you.
But the color
spectrum reminds me of
the Lord. Again,
the Leaves are painted
colors of His heart
with all of them
telling a story of Love.
The red reminds me of shed blood, long time ago
when He died; Devotion.
Mixed in his flight
brilliant orange doth shine
above the yellow sun,
rising on the third day and
our last
before we learned
what Joys we had
and why the world can still Grow.
Though spring, its true,
is important too
the pain borne for us
was the last gift for a world,
that was, is, dying.
15 May 2010
28 April 2010
While In Math Class
I wrote this while in Math class with much more important things on my mind. I borrowed my rhythm from the Gershwins.
Though we may not
Eye to eye see
You were my friend,
Who would lead you on anymore?
So I started
Listening to
You, and I learned
You were even more right for me
Than I had thought:
What hath fate wrought
On that day when
I signed and then I came back home?
So we went to
Favored places
People may say
"Who could ask for a better girl?"
Can not say, I've fallen for you.
Soon I'll probably have an actual blog, but until then just another poem.
Though we may not
Eye to eye see
You were my friend,
Who would lead you on anymore?
So I started
Listening to
You, and I learned
You were even more right for me
Than I had thought:
What hath fate wrought
On that day when
I signed and then I came back home?
So we went to
Favored places
People may say
"Who could ask for a better girl?"
Can not say, I've fallen for you.
Soon I'll probably have an actual blog, but until then just another poem.
11 April 2010
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