FINAL POST!

“Sure Thing”

1)      The story that I have been real fond of was the play by David Ives “Sure Thing”. This playwright is about this guy who is interested in a woman he sees in a café table. It starts off with a gentleman walks in and sees a woman he is interested in, so he goes up and tries to pursue her but it doesn’t work out at all the first couple of times. So there is a bell that allows the guy to go back in time to say the right thing to get her and each time he messes up the bell rings for another try until he gets her. This bell acts as time sort of cosmic time warp that allows the conversation to work out for the favor of the gentlemen in the pursuit of the woman. For example, each time that the guy would say something to turn the woman off the bell is rung so he could have another chance in talking to her in a way that would win favor with her. So pretty much the story is about an average Joe that gets a bunch of times to actually get a date with a woman.

2)      At first the playwright is not that straight forward and easy to understand it sort of takes awhile before you could get what’s going on. When you read the first couple or few lines all you read is a dialogue between a guy and a girl that repeats it’s self after a ringing of a bell. It seems as though you’re reading the same lines over and over again but you’re not, if you pay close attention you see that the flow of the conversation changes and the words are different. At first the changes are very subtle and undetectable but as the play unfold the changes are made more obvious.

3)      This story is about a guy named Bill and a woman named Betty. Bill is interested in Betty and sees her sitting by herself and decides to himself to pursue her. It begins with him wanting to sit and speak to her but it doesn’t work out for him and she immediately shuts him down, then the bell rings and another opportunity comes and here is where his pursuit is being dependent on a time shift and favor of the words that he says and how the woman responds. The play in my opinion is about chances, and how many of us need chances in life to make things right and better. Here I see an average dude and before he is even given the opportunity to get with this woman is shut down, without the woman given herself a chance to get to know him. I believe that the story is showing people how sometimes we don’t give people and even doorways of opportunity a chance to see if this path is for them or not. Many times we shut the door on our very destiny without allowing the possibility of it being a blessing in disguise. If you read the story in the beginning the woman immediately shut the doorway of opportunity in the man’s face, not realizing that she was closing the door on her also. As the bell rings it shifts more and more not just for the favor of the man but then the woman also, and before you know it you read lines like this at the end “Bill: Do you still believe in marriage in spite of current sentiments against it? Betty: Yes. Bill: And children? Betty: Three of them. Bill: Two girls and a boy. Betty: Harvard, Vassar, and Brown. Bill: And will you love me?
Betty: Yes. Bill: And cherish me forever? Betty: Yes. Bill: Do you still want to go to the movies? Betty: Sure thing. Bill and Betty (together): Waiter!” You never know if love is at the door unless you give it a chance.

4)      I interpret the story this way because of the evidence that is given and supported in the play, if you read the lines you will see that a theme of chance is given. Look at the first lines and see how Bill gets turned down “Bill: Excuse me. Is this chair taken? Betty: Excuse me? Bill: Is this taken? Betty: Yes it is. Bill: Oh. Sorry. Betty: Sure thing”. Before Bill could barely get his name across he is shut down, but the moment chance because the salvation of the story and Bill by the bell they are so in love with each other they want to get married. If chance was never given to Bill it would never have had such a happy meaning, and not only was Bill benefited by the bell but Betty also. Though the story is unrealistic there is some truth that is giving in the play. If anyone should read this story no matter the interpretation that many possible people could get no one could negate that fact that if the bell did not introduce chance Bill and Betty’s story would have ended in the first five lines. In my opinion the bell is the salvation and instrument of “chance” used.

5)      This interpretation does matter in reading this story because if the reader does not realize the grace of chance that is given to Bill and Betty the whole purpose of this play would be diminished. In order to get a good solid understanding and even enjoyment in reading this you would have to entertain the thought of the universe working in your favor through time lapses and opportunity.  I ‘am not ruling out any other possibility of another interpretation and there even might possibly be a more complex deeper meaning to what I received from this story that may add more towards this interpretation. All that I’m saying that there are many people including myself in this world that would die for a second chance to make something in the past better. And I believe that this story does not just speak to just the characters of the play with the idea of chance but to us all, did not Jesus give us a second chance when Adam fell? So as we see here Christ is our bell of salvation that allowed a second chance of life after we all deserved death.

A Temple of the Holy Ghost

The story “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” was very confusing and left me in bewilderment. At first I thought the story was going to be about these two demon possessed girls, especially how the described the laughter of theses girls, it almost seemed demonic and me putting the title together with what I was reading I thought it was about an exorcism that was going to happen in Church. But as I began to read I saw that it was about these two teenage girls that are very strange and weird in my opinion. I became much dumfounded based on how the story began to unfold. What I got from it was that there were two sisters that were very hard to control or discipline. These girls almost seem like a couple of girls I know from back home, always giggling at stupid things, don’t know 1+1 to save their lives and the biggest thing they have in common with the girls back home is that they a very boy crazy. Most girls around there age from my neighborhood that are that boy crazy like they are usually barley make it through high school and get pregnant before the option of college could come up for them. It was really hard to follow what was going on in the story, one thing that really confused me is that the parents sort of could figure out that these young girls were boy crazy and still invited two boys from the neighborhood to show them a good time. It was as though that they were willing to do anything to get rid or please these girls because they were just too unbearable to be around so they decided to dump them off to two country teenage boys. I really didn’t like this story so much, and didn’t get much about it but a memory of how young girls in my neighborhood are and how crazy they are. Hopefully in class we could dissect this piece of literature and figure out what is really going on. I will admit there were some parts that were sort of funny, and I guess the strangeness of the story kind of kindled and interest and wanting to know more about these girls and what was the author’s purpose for writing a story like this one, weird could be good sometimes I guess if it has a prupose.

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

During the first couple pages of reading this story it honestly seemed as though I was trapped in someone’s dream bubble, which dreamt on how they would want their community to be. It seemed to me to be such a fallacy in comparison to most places in America. As I read on I almost kind of felt that if there was so much happiness in one place how would sorrow and suffering even look like there, would the people of Omelas even know how recognize it or even knew how it felt. As the story began to unfold a little more it got somewhat confusing to me, it was as though happiness wasn’t built upon morality, but happiness was belt on fleshly desires that would be deemed immoral in a regular society. It was as though happiness wasn’t things that would better a community but happiness was built upon the freedom of man’s will without consequences. The section of the story that talked about orgies and drinking really brought out my assumptions of what this book or writer might think happiness may be. I really do not see how the freedom of sexuality and alcohol is a form of pleasurable happiness. I always assume that love played a big role in happiness, what is sex if it’s not with the person you are married too and want to spend the rest of your life with. Love plays a big role in happiness in my opinion; a community may not be as “perfect” as the one that is described early in this story but if neighbors would share love no matter the state of living condition I think it would make any place not only happy but joyous to be in. While I was growing up I lived in the worst neighborhood, filled with prostitution, drugs, gangs, and violence but I always had the love of my family and neighbors that made things better. Don’t get me wrong it didn’t change much but it must of have some effect because look at me now writing a blog at Southeastern University for a class I need to be an aspiring young pastor with the hope of going back and to bring more love and change into my community.

"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

This story was really confusing I could only make some sense on it based on some of the reactions and comments made by the characters in the story. All in all it was pretty interesting especially when the old man they found in their courtyard end up being an angel, that part really caught me off guard I had to reread that section like three times because I thought that was some type of typo or misread on my behalf. I really could make just a little sense of the story. Based on what the old little woman said. She made comments about this angel was trying to take the sick baby, so it seems as though that the angel was an angel of death summoned because of the baby. The angel was on its way to take the baby away but got caught in the storm because the angel was old and wings could not fight against the high winds. Honestly putting myself in this story if I seen some guy in my backyard with wings on the ground I mean after I woke up from fainting, I probably would have called police or screamed in fear. It was real hard to draw a meaning from a story like this because I couldn’t really see the whole meaning and purpose of it being written, it did kind of remind me of the good Samaritan story found in the bible but even then some lines through my head in a whirlwind in trying to figure out a theme to the story. At first the couple seems as though that they want to care for the angel, but then you read lines like “She felt a sense of relief when the angel flew away because the he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea”. So reading that shows that instead of wanting to care for the angel like the Samaritan story they were just tolerating the angel unit it was able to leave.

"In the Stillnesss of Nature" by Jean Labranche

Nature is beauty

Nature is Fun

Nature is bright

Nature is the sun

Nature is all around

Nature is within

Nature lives in you

Nature lives within

Nature capture

Nature loves

Nature seems blue

Nature is never done

Nature is growing

Nature is wild

Nature is God

Nature seems mild

Nature is still

Nature is fast

Nature is kind

Nature is vast

Finding nature is easy to do, just look out your window and Nature will find you

I spent 45 min at Lake Bonny.

Mary Oliver

As I read these poems and short essays I can notice a sense of emotions that is being exploited through the words of these poems.  It’s as though the writer of these poems is not just showing off her skills of writing but, trying to get the reader to engage and sense the same thing she is feeling. As I read I could not help but to imagine in my mind the many things she describes in these poems, just vividly paints a picture of nature with each stroke of her pen. You could also tell with each stroke of her pen she was not just heartlessly writing but writing with her heart and mind. Most poetry is comedic, romantic, or dramatic this type of poetry really catches me off guard, because it is inspired but what’s just outside. It’s funny how the very thing we drive by everyday and not give a second look to could inspire someone so much. It kind of makes me think do we as a culture and community really appreciate what’s outside are window, or are we just taking nature for granted and that’s why America is so poor in preserving our environment. Whatever the case is these poems really inspire me not just to look at nature at the surface level but to really dig deep to really uncover the beauty of nature that is hidden so deep inside. I love the spiritual aspect that is also incorporated in these poems, because it shows that even God is a tree hugger if I could say that, LOL! It shows that with prayer and nature you could really have a very sacred time of inspiration and devotion, by incorporated spirituality and nature. I love the line she uses in the Poem “The Uses of Sorrow”   “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness, It took me years to understand that this too was a gift” This line is so powerful words could not even explain what I think about this.  It makes me think that majority of the time we incorporate sunny days with thanksgiving but times of darkness we automatically assume its evil and not for our good, but sometimes God causes those storm so he could make us stronger

Cricle B

I know I’ve said that other field trips have been my favorite, in the past but I would have never knew that I would have experience that I had at Circle B. At first I thought that I would be getting a whole bunch of mosquitos’ bites, and stepping into hog crap. But I guess this trip took me by surprise I might sound like a geek when I say this but I think I was one with nature??!! I know that sounds crazy but I guess I actually understand what people mean when they say things like that. You could just call me the tree hugging geek LOL!! But all jokes aside I enjoyed seeing nature, the wildlife and the many lakes. There was a sense of tranquility and peace that I needed to experience, this semester has been so crazy and that visit at Circle B really help me to unwind the stress and pressure of class work and assignments, staring out to those lakes and trees help me to realize how beautiful God’s creation really is. What really brought me to Awe were the many colors and patterns that were on the birds and plants. It’s really crazy to image how God took His time to make every single color and detail on each bird and plant. If God took His time to make every living creature and vegetation so beautiful I believe we should do our best to take care of our environment, I used to think that mankind was God’s best art piece but as I began to take notice to my surroundings I see that we all make up this beautiful painting call creation, birds, plants, trees, lakes, and us humans too. We are all apart of Gods beautiful creation and need each other to survive. I’m so happy that I had that time to really stop and notice, sometimes you get so caught up with your own busy schedule you  kind of neglect the smaller things in life that really do matter. Sometimes we just need to stop and smell the roses LOL!!! This experience really brought out the reading by Hass. At first it was very difficult and frankly it is still difficult to understand but the experience did help bring some of the words in the poem to life. There was one line and storms that Corrigan read in the book while we were out there and becuase of the weather it felt as though we were all in the story because the imagery was so perfect for the poem. I really did enjoy the poem and the feild trip but I will say without that outing the poem would have been very hard to intellectually engage in.