Philippians

So I was looking around at other’s blogs to help me along on this post, but I found pretty much the same as what I am thinking.  In reading the book of Philippians I could not find a lot of figurative language.  The whole time I was reading and would come across something as a possibility, I would think to myself, is that REALLY figurative?  It made me think that if I did not know the bible and know God as I do I would think more of it to be figurative.  But, a lot of what may seem figurative in this letter is not. 

            (Like the line “to live is Christ and to die is gain” I really don’t think that is a figure of speech)

I’m not sure if this is an example of figurative language, but Paul uses repetition of the words “joy” and “rejoice” throughout this letter.  Some metaphors I think are “in one spirit, which one mind, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”, “but even if I am being poured out as a drink offering”, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings,” “whose god is their appetite.”  Although these are metaphors some of them are meant to be taken literally.  I think being a Christian we understand them to not be taken in a metaphorical sense. 

The biggest metaphor of this, as well as many others or Paul’s letters, is the relation of our walk with Christ to that of a race.  I think that we need terms like this to help put into perspective how we ought to really live this think out.  If it was not put in the bible to strive for the prize laid out before us and to keep pressing forward, I think this whole Christianity thing would become a lazy religious ritual.  Paul urges us to work together as the family he created us as, with our own unique personalities…of course we don’t literally have the same minds but we do essentially have the same spirit- the spirit of God.

Temple of the Holy Spirit

So, I read the story by Flannery O’Conner and I am a little, well of lot, confused and don’t really see the symbolism, but I will try to answer this I most.  I think may have to do way more thinking and searching for a deeper symbolism than I have time for, and isn’t that what we are not to do anyways when looking for symbolism?

Reading (what do you see): The basic plot (because I would be re-writing the story if I pointed out every detail) was that there is a little girl who is somewhat rude, two girls come to visit who go to school in a convent they are very looks-oriented and call themselves Temple 1 and Temple 2, these girls go out with two farmer boys to a fair who the little girl doesn’t like because they are from the Church of God, the girls tell the little girl(unnamed) about a man-woman person, she them falls asleep thinking of the temple of the Holy Spirit, she prays in the convent and seems to feel the spirit for the first time.

Interpreting (what does this say?): I think that maybe all of the other people are really the little girl’s mind trying to find who she really it.  I think that the woman-man revealed something to her by saying “God made me thisaway” and guided her to seeing that SHE is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Criticizing (what does it matter): I think that this story is telling us that we are all the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We all have different personalities and different walks with God, but each of us hold something similar- the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. 

Or

This story could be pointing out the fact that we don’t know who we are, or who we want to be (if the little girl was actually all of these characters), but the Holy Spirit will guide us into that insight as we make ourselves his home.

Play and Symbolism

 I went to see The Man Who Came to Dinner on Thursday night with Jessica and two of our friends.  I had no idea what this play was about since I have never read it even heard of it before.  I think it is better that way because then I have nothing to compare it to or nothing to criticize.  To me, if I already know what happens, the plot can’t build up and that takes away the suspense, which is why, at least I, people go see plays.  Instead, I got to sit back and enjoy it, which I did! 

What I liked most about this play was it had every aspect of stories; a good plot, humor, suspense, romance, and a little bit of action.  I also really like things set “back in the day.”  It is funny to see how the same problems existed back then, but how they are played out differently as well.  I thought that all of the characters things their parts amazingly, you really got to tap into their character.  You felt sorry for the kids, you loved Sherry’s friends, you hated Sherry’s lady friend, and you could really get along with his assistant.  I think if you can find that relation and really get in tune with the play to the point where you are affected by it, then you can call it nothing less than a job well done. 

I decided to do a painting that would symbolize me.

Post

Discussing this play and the field trip in class made me think…a lot.  One thing that really hit me on the field trip was that these were not kids- they are full grown adults.  Some even looked about 60 years old.  Also, before reading the play I expected them to be young people.  I don’t really think of older people having mental disabilities.  This made me realize though- this isn’t something that goes away.  Over time, people fortunate to not have disabilities grow in mental maturity, but these people don’t really have the opportunity to.  Having a disability is not something that will get better by learning over time and maybe eventually go away, these things last forever.  Like my friend I talked about in my last blog post, he does mentally mature, but just at a slower rate.  Will he get to a point where he stops maturing as a grown adult? I hope not.  It is just sad to see older people with disabilities because, at least it seems like, they don’t have the potential to live the full life…but then maybe they are, maybe they live the full life God intended them to have.

I like in Dr. Fettke’s essay he wrote “if no one can help how he/she is embodied in creation, including the disabled, then it seems very unjust to single out the disabled for their inability to adjust their embodiment.”  I enjoyed this essay as it brought out a lot of things I was unaware of, like how the church doesn’t respond correctly to brothers and sisters with mental disabilities.  God has created them with purposes just like you and me.  They are still created in God’s image and they should be treated as such.  It is looked at to be a mistake or imperfection when somebody is born with a handicap, but only God knows and sees what is truly perfect and he makes no mistakes.

Field Trip to AFI!

Wow.  I didn’t know what to expect this morning at AFI, especially at 9:00 am, but it was a morning well spent.  I was a little worried about going on this field trip because I didn’t know what we were doing.  At first, when I found out that we were going to be taking a tour, I kind if felt bad.  I felt as though it would be like we were treating it like they were parts of a museum.  Luckily, and I am glad, that wasn’t the case.  The people at AFI seemed like they enjoyed us being there and they were used to having people come to the facility.  I thought that this trip was really eye opening.  I didn’t know places like this existed to give jobs, educate, and train mentally disabled adults.  Actually being there and witnessing what goes on on a daily basis for the adults here made me sad in a way.  It was just really strange to see older people not be able to function and live life as other people their age without a disability.  

I wish that there was more I could do to help with these problems.  I myself, do not really know how to interact with people with disabilities.  I guess it goes along with the fact that I cannot interact well with children either.  To be honest, when people were talking to me I was nervous.  I just haven’t been exposed to situations like this very often, and I hate that I don’t know what to do.  I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t know how to interact with them mostly because I don’t know their personal mental capacity and what they know and don’t know, or what they like and don’t like.  I think that it is great that certain people are called to reach out to people with mental disabilities.  I also think that it is great that AFI and other organizations get the funding they need in order to meet these needs.  This was a wonderful experience!

As a little side note, I want to talk about someone I personally know with a mental disability.  It is not too severe; he is about my age but is mentally 2 or so years younger than his physical age.  He can function out in the world too, he is going to school for mechanic work and he does a good job fixing up cars.  He is also the chic-fil-a cow, he likes the kids but mostly he likes scaring them because of the big cow suit.  Going along with the story, I find it okay to laugh sometimes, not at them, but just laugh because of who they are just like we do with our friends.  Most of this laughter I find is because they (or at least Eric) does what we all wish we could do and want to do sometimes, but he is allowed to get away with it.  Like when he gets bored or fed up at work at our church, he takes one of the boats out in the water behind the church and with a megaphone tells his “boss” that he’ll be out there if she needs him, but he’s not coming back, and takes a nap.  I don’t look at him like he has a problem; I look at him like he is like the rest of us, just a hundred times funnier than we’ll ever be. 

Switching styles!

I enjoyed the opportunity to go outside for class again!  Even though some of nature poems by Mary Oliver that were read were of different settings, it was a neat experience to “do” literature in this way.  Being out in nature and examining it really made the poems come to life.  It puts you in the writer’s shoes and allows you to feel what she felt and see what she saw while writing these poems.

Poems aren’t really my thing, so even though I enjoyed them, I am glad we are switching gears on the types of reading.  I really like reading the boys next door.  I also like the fact that it is written in play-form.  This makes it easier to read and a lot easier to picture.  I like how this is just a look into the daily lives of these men, so far there is no real big happening, it’s just how they are on an everyday basis.  I actually find this story to be comical.  Yes, it is sad for them to have a mental handicap, but they are just enjoying life like the rest of us.  It really makes you see that they are people too, their lives just have a little more spice to them. 

I don’t know if I could ever have the patience to work with people who are mentally handicapped, especially on a long term basis.  Some people are cut out for it, and called to it, but that just means you yourself have to have all the more of a stable temperament.  I think I, and most of us would be like Jack.  He obviously has been working this job for some time now, and so he has grown accustom to their ways, but also a little weary.  I think there would be times when I would blow up to, but then like Jack said “Every time I lose my temper with these guys, I hate myself for about a week.”  Of course you would feel bad, they can’t help the way they act, but we are all human and can only take so much craziness.  Overall, I still find this story to be humorous, not that I’m laughing at them, but with them and what they say especially (Arnold threatening to move to Russia and Norman saying “she’s not no skinny minnie herself” and Lucien always repeating himself, as if everything is a song…  I really like these characters.

Lake Bonny visit

"I went to Lake Bonny Park for this field trip, and I stayed there for at least 45 minutes."

Today I went to Lake Bonny Park with Jessica and our friend Laura.  Unfortunately, we went at the hottest part of the day (come on though, its November, it shouldn’t be almost 90 degrees!!), which made the visit not as enjoyable as it could have been.  We did not really walk around much.  We parked and went straight to the dock. 

I had been here once in the spring with someone taking this class last semester and I thought it was a lot nice the time before.  Everything seemed dead and not that pretty to look at.  I also have a really big problem with bugs, and there was a bee harassing me the whole time.  Anyways… se took our quiet time almost as soon as we got to the dock.  The 15 minutes of silence turned into pretty much 35 minutes of silence.  It was nice to sit out in nature and just think and read through nature poems.  One in particular I liked was Walking Home from Oak-Head.  The line “I stand in the same dark peace” really stood out to me.  I love the snow and cold weather.  To some people it is dark and dreary but to me I find peace in it.  I can relax and feel in presence of God in cool or even cold snowy weather over the heat any day.  Even though everything feels cold and dead in those times, inside I can feel the warmth and that spiritual fire. 

Walking around helped me see the beauty of nature at the lake.  For some reason water is really beautiful to me.  Even if it is nasty up close, from far away nearly all bodies of water have a sense of adornment to them.  While walking out, there were a bunch of butterflies in one area that were stripped and colorful.  It’s always amazing to me how detailed little things such as a butterfly’s wings can be.  This shows that in nature, God is so evident.

One

Wilted, dead trees and brush

Flowers not in bloom

The only life seems to be frightening creatures

Bees, wasps, all elicit darkness and harm

Mosquitoes to suck the life out of you

Seasons come and go

For nature, I mean

This death lasts for a time

Then will come rebirth

Will this season of bright bloom come for us too?

It will someday…it will

Two

 Butterflies bursting with colors

 Waters glistening in the sun

 Rolling with peace

Birds slashing in the bath

 The sky is bright

 Puffy clouds up ahead

 The silence,  the stillness, the peace

 In every instance God is here

 The beauty of creation- its ours to behold