Special Post #2

1. “They were fourteen- two years older than she was-but neither of them was bright, which was why they had been sent to the convent… The child decided, after observing them for a few hours that they were practically morons and she was glad to think that they were only second cousins and she couldn’t have inherited any of their stupidity.” The child and the two girls are totally different. The child is always alone and sticks by herself. The child thinks that the cousins need for love as signs of stupidity. The child sees herself as being alone as smartness.

2. The text needs to be interpreted because it is not clear at first.  You have to understand that the crucifix is a Christian symbol which tends to represent both repentance and suffering. Christ had to suffer for our sins by dying on the cross. In the text the nun ended up hugging the child which meant that the child was able to let go of everything and repent of her sins. The child was able to let the suffering just because of a hug.

3. The story is about an unattractive girl who is lonely. Her two cousins Joanne and Susan visit for a weekend. The cousins ignored the child and focused mainly on the boys in the neighborhood. She looked down at her two cousins because they wanted attention and needed to feel love. In the story the Holy Ghost is the love of God. God does not care what we look like whether we are pretty, poor, lazy, fat, or ugly. The child was considered ugly in the story and the cousins were the pretty ones. We are all human beings and we need to treat each other with respect, love, and care. The child ends up getting a hug from a nun. This hug from the nun shows the nun’s love for the child. With the child getting a hug she was able to accept love and realize she was in the presence of God. The central theme of this story is the child is able to become aware of her sins and that God will reach out and help us when we ask for help.

4. The mother, child, and the cousins went to the benediction. The child at first refused a hug from the nun, but then when leaving was forced to hug the nun. Before the hug I interpreted from the story that the child had her ugliness as a wall not letting her be able to receive and except love. The reason why I thought that was because first she did not accept the hug, but then later the child accepted it. “As they were leaving the convent door, the big nun swooped down on her mischievously and nearly smothered her in the black habit, mashing the side of her face into the crucifix hitched onto her belt and then holding her off and looking at her with little periwinkle eyes.” My interpretation of this text was that the child was seeking help from God. The child had a choice to refuse the hug from the nun which I saw a connection with us as we refuse God in our life. The child had the choice to let the nun hug her without moving away. In this quote I saw a connection with nun’s hug as a sign of love which the child was struggling the whole entire story for. Therefore, I look at when the nun gave the child a hug in this quote that she was able to let go over her suffering. The nun went out of her way and took her suffering like God did for us. So I look at the nun as an example of God. I look at the child like she was lost in the story, but she wanted to go home (in the kingdom of God), but she needed guidance and help. The reason why I believe so is because of this quote in the story. “You put your foot in the door and they got you praying, the child thought as they hurried down the polished corridor.” Then in the end of the story my interpretation was that the child began to feel the love in the end. This quote is the quote that led me to that assumption. “The sun was a huge red ball like an elevated Host drenched in blood and when it sank out of sight, it left a line in the sky like a red clay road hanging over the trees.” From this quote I took the host as being transformed into the body of Christ. I took this quote as the child was letting go of her envy and pride.

5. This interpretation matters the most throughout the story. The reason why is because if you did not understand Christian or catholic views of things you would not understand the story or the plot. You would not understand how the child turned its life around. In this paper I tried to break up the main points so you can understand my interpretation of the story, both just common sense ideas and a little religious background of certain things. Without understanding or getting the fact that the nun was significant in the story you would not have understood the story. The nun is the one that pretty much brought back life to the child by sacrificing herself. You have to understand what the spiritual revelation was, which was what the child experienced throughout the story. Spiritual revelation was emotions including faith, love, and repentance. Most of my interpretation came from the bible as well. Being fluent or knowing the bible and scriptures helped me understand the story at a whole new level. For example a reader could be informed that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is located in the bible in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Therefore, understanding my interpretation of the story can help you understand the main plot and all the details of the story.

The Temple of The Holy Ghost

At first I did not really get what the story was trying to say until I read the story twice. I had to really think about God and how it can relate because I think that any story can really relate to God. This story really helped me realize and lot. The temple of The Holy Ghost was about an unattractive girl. She has two convent-schooled cousins who visit for a weekend. I feel like the child learned a lot about faith and being accepted. She looked at her two cousins as being stupid and not having their head on straight, which in our life I think we can all point out someone that is like that. The cousins and her were like the total opposite. I think the child used her pride as a protective shield because she was always lonely. Everyone wants to be needed and want love. No one wants to be ignored and not get any attention. The child’s mother had some problems trying to entertain the girls, but the child tried to help. This ended up causing Miss Kirby to be extremely embarrassed. This story really made me think back about how we need to seek God for help. The child is like us and cannot do things on their own. I think the child was being tested a lot by God. For example God’s message to us is to always love one another. Therefore, even a simple hug could make a difference in someone’s life. When the nun gave the child a huge hug it was almost like a symbol of love. You have to give out love to receive it as well. Her ugliness in the story was like a wall not letting her be able to give and receive love or at least that is how I saw it. I could be wrong and way off by that. I really liked this story because I think we can all relate to humans to this because we all want attention and want to be loved by someone even if it is just a friend or boyfriend or girlfriend. No one wants to be rejected or left alone all the time. I think we all need to realize where our sins are and learn that we can always look to God. God is not going to give us anything we can’t handle. We just have to accept his help! So what I got from the story is that we can ask God for help through anything.

Happiness

    In the story “The ones who walk away from omelas” was sort of confusing to me. For the most part I did not understand exactly what it was trying to tell us and who the narrator was, but I related most of the story back to us as humans. I took us as humans as we have a bad habit as really recognizing or making happiness. This really makes me think about how we always as humans take everything for grantee. I mean this whole intro to lit class made me realize how much humans (and myself) do not really appreciate a lot. I mean that starts with just nature to the basic of happiness. I mean before this class I know I did not really look at nature and let that give me a chance to be happy! Now however though I can make peace in my mind to let the joy come and put a smile on my face. We have such high limits for trying to be happy all the time. Happiness can just come from us sitting by our self, but yet it is a mind thing. We have to open our minds to not just what we want, but from a broad perspective. We cannot just cancel out ideas before even listening to them. Or close our ears to new ideas. “Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive.” I liked this quote because it is yet a simple quote but can mean so much. We can make happiness out of anything. Yet it is the choices me make that determine that! I think in our generation we are always looking for happiness no matter who we are. We all want happiness! One thing that really stuck out to me was how we could probably make a difference to someone each day in our lives and make someone happy, but do we? We have the choice to help someone out or talk to someone that dosent has friends, but will we? What is the cost to make someone else happy? If we could just really try and let Jesus be an example in our life and show his true happiness when someone else is down or needs it how much different do you think the world would be? But the question that sticks to my mind is will we? Will we go out on a limb to make someone happy?

A Very Old Man with Enoromous Wings

            Gabriel I guess you could say was different. He was a unique character. I mean you could tell people impacted him like his Grandmother stories. I did not understand the story really. I do not know If I ever well or not, but I was trying. I think I understand some parts, but some I did not get. I really did not understand the main point. I understood sections of this story though. I did not really understand the parts about the crabs. They were constantly talked about and I did not quite see why they were so significant. But what I thought was there defiantly have to have a significant point because they are mentioned several times.

One quote that stood out to me was “She kept watching him even when she was through cutting the onions and she kept on watching until it was no longer possible for her to see him, because then he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea.” I guess the reason why I liked this quote was because it really made me think of a lot. I mean you can at this quote and take if from so many different angles almost like poetry, but you do not know which one is right. For me I took this quote as you can always make someone a disturbance but you have the choice to remove them. An annoyance from your life can be taken any way; I mean it is your choice to let that person annoy you. Therefore, you can always walk away from a situation or even just get away. I look at the onion being cut as so many different problems in a life. Therefore, you can always choose to stop cutting at anytime.

Pelayo and Elisenda seemed to be ungrateful in this story especially when they were cursing at the angel saying “hell full of angels.” This honestly made me think of all the times we as humans cursed and sinned. I know that must be really frustrating to God. Plus it really must upset him how much we take him for grantee. After knowing that he died for us! We know can always ask for forgiveness so sometimes we use that to our advantage.

Hopefully I will learn more about this story.

Poem- Lake Bonny Park

“Of course I have always known you are present in the clouds, and the black oak I especially adore, and the wings of birds. But you are present too in the body, listening to the body, teaching it to live, instead of all the touching with disembodied joy.” This quote in “Six Recognitions of the Lord” really stood out to me! This to me was powerful. Just thinking about how God is always here for us no matter what. This quote to me just keeps telling me that I have to constantly trust in God because he is always going to be there for me no matter what. I should always know this, and I should not have to feel him touching me or see evidence to believe this and he is going to constantly be teaching me everything I need to know. Then in “Messenger” the quote that was, “My work is loving the world” was just such a refresher to me! God is always telling us if that we are with him we are going to love everything. “One cannot truly love and be present to God without being led back to loving the World.” It is such an example to other people. A lot of times I forget about that and just want to do my own thing, until I have to remember who I am representing and going to follow. Then when reading “Poetry as a spiritual practice for Mary Oliver” really made me think about a lot. I never really realized how poetry can be a spiritual practice. I always thought of poetry as something I could never get and how boring it was reading it. I never really looked to poetry as anything religious until now. I guess when reading things and not blocking ideas out and opening them to myself and trying to get what Professor Corrigan is trying to say really gets me to grasp a lot about poetry. When reading this it made me realize how conversation can really be two meanings as well. I really liked the quote that was explained by Oliver. Plus reading about the quote gave me a different perception for the quote. I really enjoyed reading “Poetry as a spiritual practice for Mary Oliver”. I taught me a lot and gave me a lot of knowledge and refreshed me on things I needed.

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

Nature is blue

Nature can cling to you like glue

Especially when they do not know anyone and are new

Nature is always like jell-o

Nature is always mellow

And can turn into different colors

So you can never tell what it thinks

Or what it says behind your back

At times it can turn out wack

But nature can do you wrong

Disasters can be long

But you can come out of the disaster with strength

The strength of nature is like the kiss of death

It whispers to you in your ear

And does many ordinary things

You have to be prepared for anything

Especially all the different wings

You never know what to expect

So you have to watch what you let get close

And it’s normally the closest that hurts you the most.

Field Trip- Professor's notes- State of the Planent

            Our field tip to Circle B Bar Reserve, “State of the Planet”, and “Notes on Nature and Poetry as Spiritual Practices” were all very interesting. First of the Circle B Bar Reserve was defiantly an entertaining place. I liked how we had the chance to ride on the bus and be able to look at different animals. I wouldn’t say picking weeds was my favorite part though. When we were able to get off and just walk around silently it made me really thing about how God created each individual thing that was around us. It was kind of hard to grasp at first. Then when reading the notes on nature and poetry it really made me think about our trip. I mean one of the steps was to read poetry under a tree which made me kind of feel like I was actually in nature and connected to it. Plus one of the steps was to journal about nature. When we went to Bonny park and this field trip I felt a little bit on a connection. The connection was just relaxing and enjoying looking at animals and people walking around. It was like the whole world was moving, but you were standing still. From reading notes on nature and poetry really just made me realize that a lot of times when I read I need to slow down. I do not always have to be in a rush. There is no point in rushing because I will just miss things. Even rereading and rereading many things over and over again is not going to help until I slow down with my reading. Most of the steps Professor Corrigan started off with said to slow down or calm down. Basically meaning that we need to relax our mind and let new ideas be able to flow within our mind. One quote that really stood out to me in “State of the Planet” was “Poetry should be able to comprehend the earth”. Within our talk at Circle B Bar Reserve really made me look at this quote a lot differently the first time to when we talked about it. At first, I was just thinking wow this is kind of like literature how it relates, which made me thing back to how literature is so much in our world today. Then at our field trip when discussing it made me think how the earth is huge and how God put together the earth, which means that we should never be able to comprehend it. It is kind of like trusting in God. This quote I guess you can say just really makes me think about  a lot of new ideas.