State of the Planet

The first time I read this poem, I was extremely confused. The first three sentences scared me. "October on the planet at the century's end. Rain lashing the windshield. Through blurred glass Gusts of a Pacific storm rocking a huge, shank-needled Himalayan cedar." Ok, so I'm reading these few sentences and I'm asking myself questions like, "Shank-needled? Himalayan? Where does the cedar tree come in?" This is the way I have always read poetry. I would get confused and hung up on a word or two and just "write the poem off" and claim that the author was on drugs or something.

The last poem that we read in class had a lot of helpful information about how to understand a poem and look deep into it's meaning. Lectio divina is very helpful as well as all the other wonderful helpful tips we have heard. Now I have to admit that I did not do lectio divina with this poem. However, taking the poem line by line and circling the words that stick out and concentrating on what the author is trying to convey is very helpful. Oh yeah, and how about reading the poem again? That was probably one of the most helpful tips. After reading the poem several times, though I may not understand every line of the poem, I am closer to learning the meaning of the poem.

Enemy of the People

At first, I was dreading having to attend this play, I must confess. I live out of town and I did not want to have to drive into town just to see a play. I drove into Lakeland on Sunday afternoon and viewed the play at 2:30. I can honestly say that I am glad we had to view this play. I was very impressed with my peers who acted in the play. They all did an amazing job and got their point across.

A production such as the one we viewed, has a lot of work that is done behind the scenes. Our peers did an amazing job creating the costumes and even sets. The main set of the whole play was made into a living room of two different people's home and a newspaper room. One part of the room that stuck out to me was the opening in the center of the stage. In the first living room, the opening is double sliding doors. The newspaper room had the two sliding doors slightly open and they had a different color behind them. The second living room had a staircase in the middle of the opening and the steps were used during the town meeting. The last scene was back in the first living room and the little windows in the sliding glass doors were blown out by rocks. It's amazing how one opening can make or break a scene just by the different things done to fill the gap. Our peers also had to create the costumes. The drunk wore his clothes loosely and ragged. The people in the town meeting were dressed nicely as were most of the characters. They also wore jackets, indicating that it was cold outside. They did an amazing job at making the costumes match the characters and help create the scene.

My favorite quote of the play was said by the wife, "But what good is truth if you have no power?" This quote helped me create a stronger relationship with the main character because I understood how frusterating it would be to know the truth, but no one would believe you. This story reminded me of the life of Jesus Christ. He came to the world knowing that he was the King of all Kings and would one day save the world. Many people made fun of him, spit on him, and even ended up killing him. Even as he was hanging on the cross, he was still crying out to God. It probably seemed that no one was on his side but yet he still stood his grounds.

Faculty vs. Students

Tonight I attended the Faculty vs. Students Basketball Game. I literally bit my nails throughout the whole game. It takes a really good and interesting game to keep me paying attention. The game went into overtime twice and the students and faculty that were attending the game were just as engaged as the players. No one could even hear the obnoxious and loud comments from the announcer. I think the basketball game was an amazing idea for two reasons:

• BONDING- Faculty and students are always separated by "titles". This game helped to get the two groups united. The faculty at SEU is obviously older than the students. Finding something in common between all age groups is easy as long as it has to do with sports. Sports bring people together of all races, age, and social status. The remaining students in the audience could cheer for their teachers and their fellow peers on the court.
• REVENGE- If we'll all be honest with ourselves, there's been a teacher somewhere in our educational years that we did not particularly care for. Teachers will admit also that there's been that one student that gets on their nerves or drives them crazy. This game allowed both parties to take their anger out on the court. Even if the person that they wished to beat was not on the court, their peer was! Sounds childish but, we all have those feelings somedays.

The Basketball game had an amazing turn out and both teams put up a great fight. I was actually cheering for the Faculty. I was sad when they lost in the second overtime but it's jus a game for fun! I hope they decided to have another game like this next year.

The Social Worker

The faded yellow, old school bus drove Ellie home everyday from school. The black cushioning was falling apart on the chair, leaving some of the metal framework visible and very uncomfortable. Today was just like any other day, and that was what Ellie was afraid of. Her soft blonde hair was pulled tightly back into a ponytail with a hot pink hairband. The bottom of her hair bounced with a slight curl, and her books would often fall out of her lap, as the bus would hit rough spots on the road. She was close enough now that she could see the stop sign where the bus would come to a stop and she would exit. Normally any ten year old would love to get off of the dreaded, stinky and hot bus. Ellie sometimes wished the ride never ended. The screeching breaks and slight whiplash indicated that the bus was now at her stop. She slowly stood, and her short sunkissed legs began to walk down the black crated center aisle. As she reached the steps to her right she exited the bus and stepped down on the gravel road. This was the entrance to her neighborhood and she could see him walking from her house, greeting her with a smile and they walked back to the house.

After dinner Ellie went into her bedroom to play with her Barbie dolls. Just as the male doll, Ken, and Barbie were about to kiss at their wedding, Ellie heard the noise again. This noise was so common to hear that she could almost tune out completely. This time the noises were louder so she ran to check on her Mom. She tiptoed into the living room so that she could get a better ear on the kitchen. She knew they were fighting again. Her bottom lip began to quiver and drool began to run down onto her light blue play shirt. Huge salty tears began to run down her face as she heard her mother scream for help over and over again. Without even making a sound, Ellie's father Josh went to look for her and found her in the living room. Grabbing her frail arm, and her size three feet rubbing against the carpet, he dragged her into the kitchen. Ellie could now see the blood that covered the floor from her mother's crooked and bleeding nose. Ellie knew that if she shed a tear then her face would look like her mother's next, but she couldn't hold back anymore. Tears began to pour from her fearful blue eyes as a shadow raised over her face from her father's hand. He punched her and she fell to the floor.

The next morning, Ellie attempted to open both of her eyes but only opened one due to the terrible swelling and blue and black colors over the other eye. She found herself tucked into her hot pink and orange bedspread, in her own bed without any recollection of how she got there. Her parents had already left for school so she had to get ready by herself. She grabbed the closest pair of jeans and a pastel yellow shirt that displayed a beautiful daisy in the middle. She was pulling her hair back into a ponytail, much like the day before, while running to the bus stop. She could see the bus and could hear it's breaks squeeling as the bus came to a stop. With her head faced toward the ground to hide her battle wounds, she quickly got on the bus and sat on the cold black cushion. She hoped that her teacher or none of the other kids would ask about her face, but she ran through a good story she could tell them, incase they did. Of course, they asked her and she made up a story of how she and her Dad were playing softball and the backyard and her eye caught the ball instead of her hand. Everyone laughed when hearing her story, including her.

A loud knock came on Ellie's classroom door and she could see the tall, lanky principal standing outside. The teacher quickly left the room and the students began to throw paper airplanes and talk amongst themselves. Ellie couldn't help but worry that they were talking about her bruises. She saw the principal tell the teacher something that caused her teacher to put her head in her hands. Ellie worried that maybe she was getting fired or something terrible had happened. Something terrible did happen, but not to the teacher. They called Ellie outside and told her there had been an accident, both of her parents passed away. Of course, this was the "G-rated" version. Her dad killed her mom and then burned her in their family car ontop of a bridge. He then jumped off the bridge and commited suicide. The more graphic story was not told to poor Ellie. Upon hearing the news, she collapsed as if every breath of air in her body had been sucked out. Her teacher held her in her arms and they both sobbed.

Ellie stayed with family members until the funeral service. She wore a new black dress that the donation jar at her school bought her. Her blackened eye was now a slight grey color and was barely noticable. She stood between both of her parent's casket, with one hand on each. As much as she hated her father for beating her and her mother, she did not want him to die. He was a good father when he took his medicine. All the questions of what if began to consume her mind. Was there anything she could have done to make their family any better? Was it all her fault?

Years went by and Ellie was quiet. She lived with different family members but felt extremely alone. The what if questions consumed her and she even began to blame herself for the abuse and even their deaths. One day a guest speaker came to speak in Ellie's high school class. She had been sexually abused by her biological father. She talked about different types of abuse and how to deal with them. Ellie fought back the tears for fear of embarassment and she did not want her make-up to run. After the class setting was over, Ellie went to talk to the guest speaker. The nice and gentle toned woman helped Ellie get in touch with counselors and help for her hurt.

Years later there was a young lady who visited an elementary class that Ellie attended. She was a guest speaker for an hour and had a lot to say. She began to explain, in child terms, what abuse was and what to do when they were abused. She began to explain that no one deserves to be treated that way, no matter how bad of a person they think they are or have been. She also told them that not all parents are good parents so there was no need to be embarassed to tell on their parents if it would save their lives or their siblings' lives. The teacher stood in the back of the classroom and cried, remembering the terrible case of abuse and death. Not only was she remembering the terrible events but she was amazed. Ellie was the guest speaker in her class, making sure that no child would ever have to go through the things that she endured.

Artwork inspired by the book of Joel

Reading in the Library

Since this s a freepost, I wanted to discuss how much I have enjoyed the class time to read a book. I live a little far from the school and am constantly practicing or meeting with Southeastern Singers. I absolutely love to read, but I can never find the time. Giving the students opportunity in class to read, was a brilliant idea. They not only do the students have an opportuniy to read the book, but thent o dicuss it with friends and other peers. I am looking forward to Thursday.

REPOST....The Essay

I posted "The Essay" from my iPhone and I am assuming that there was a glitch because the actual body of the post was never posted.

The Essay, "How to Read a Poem," was written by Joseph Coulson and Peter Temes. They wrote the essay to help readers understand the poems that they are reading. I learned not only ways to be patient and understand a poem, but something about myself as well. After reading a poem one time, I often get confused and assume that the whole poem is a bunch of random thoughts that the author strung together. I cannot make assumptions based on a one-time reading experience. The essay talks about prior assumptions before digging deeper into the words of the poem. One quote that I really enjoyed from the poem was, "...encountering a difficult poem is like a game or sport, say rock climbing, that makes you work a bit." I think that if everyone looked at poems like sports, less people would get frusterated. The poem needs to be read a few times, much like the warming up process before a game. The more practicing there is, the better the end result will be. The best result would obviously be to win the game, or in this case to fully understand the puropose and meaning of the poem.

I honestly learned a lot from this poem. I struggle with reading poems, so this will be an excellent help to break them down.

The Drummer

He walks into the dimly lit room with his drum sticks in his back pocket. As he walks down the aisle, the crowds are screaming, chanting, and reaching for him to scribble his autograph on their papers. His face is lit with excitment as he makes his way to the stage. He leaps up the stairs leading to the stage, skipping the second one. He takes his sticks out of his back pocket and his peircing blue eyes look out into the crowd. The blonde spiked hair guy begins to click the song off, to start. This is the moment the whole room had been waiting for. The lights are flickering now and the crowd is chanting. The music begins and he hits the tom, the kick, and the cymbals. During breaks of the song, he added a few special drum tricks and licks. He played the best he ever had.

This observation was taken at a concert I attended recently. I remember the event like it was yesterday. This concert was the best I had ever attended.

Character

I was reading our assigned text, which was Chapter 2, and I came upon a sentence that I realized meant more to me than just what it appeared. "Of course, we must also imagine situations (usually points of conflict) that define characters." Now I understand what the author was referring to, when writing this sentence. The author was discussing how the author uses conflict and other situations to put the spotlight on certain characters.

However, what if the sentence read, "Of course, we must also think about situations (usually points of conflict) that define CHARACTER" ? The way this sentence is written, gives it a different approach. During times of conflict and struggles are when we, as Christians, and even as human beings, struggle with our character. I find it easy to have good character when everything is "peachy". Good times are easy to live through. When life is going great we love everyone, we're always smiling, and we are quick to help someone in need. When life is tough with tests, job issues, financial issues, or sicknesses, we are not willing to think about anyone other than ourselves. This proves my point that situations, usually points of conflict, define character.

I find it so amazing that the sentence in our text could so easily mean or respresent something else. When you read with an open mind, you never know what might happen.

The Essay