Thursday, April 30, 2009

Easter Daffodils

I sit here, 3 1/2 hours after buying our tickets, at the ferry terminal cafe with my boyfriend of 2 years, 8 months and 13 days, awaiting still the next ferry to one of the Gulf Islands, due to arrive 1 1/2 hours from now. I should have known by now that this is what happens when you are exactly 10 minutes late for a ferry that has only a sparse amount of sailings per day, and the person of whom has dropped you off, has left, driving half an hour to slip beneath warm comfort in blue flowered pajamas once again today.

Oh the ferries. How they remind me so much of ice cream, Greek salad, Subway, swimming, pier jumping, pranks, music, children and laughter. The only way to get to camp is by taking at least one ferry, but in my case two because I live on this little rock I call home. I have trained, volunteered , and worked at camp for the past 3 summer, and I will be going back yet again at the end of far-away June. With this new-found- information, you may have already figured it out. Camp is where my boyfriend and I began courting!

Now, even though I enjoy going to camp, this is not the destination of where the small ferry we are awaiting today will take us. Today after a bowl of noodles, a game of Dutch Blitz, a nap under a ski jacket that covered me from my neck to my toes when I curled up, a shared hot dog and fun with settings on the digital camera, we made our way off the boat and up the steep pavement of Mayne. Our journey was soon to come to an end! With luggage in our arms, and on our backs, we stood with sweat beginning to form until we saw our comfy seats and luggage hungry trunk come around the bend with the boyfriend's brothers heads bobbing to the beat of a song being released through the car speakers.

Finally with our backs leaning against a comfy cushion, we stopped by a local store to pick up a few drinks. We then drove bumpily past a sight of the vast ocean we had just sailed safely over, and soon after I looked out my window in awe, yet again, at the field of green grass and yellow daffodils, with a single tree in the middle, slightly to the right, the perimeter of the beautiful field surrounded by luscious trees and a robin's egg blue sky. Every time I come, I look past the waist high, wooden fence and think, "Wouldn't it be lovely to frolic among those daffodils?"



Y 3 L L O W M 3 N D Y

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn - My Response

I just finished reading the novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn for class, and was told to write a response every 25 pages or so about what I was thinking as I just finished reading the section, and I came up with some very interesting things I thought I might share.

I don't claim these things to be the way things should be, have been, or will be, for it is just thoughts that came to mind as possibilities, or a possible reasoning for things. These are just my ramblings and wheels spinning so feel free to comment your opinions and have my mind, and others, ramble a little more in "maybes" and " what if's".

Each paragraph is a different ramble from a new section, though they are all quite similar, some are quick notes of interest that don't go into too much depth while others are more thought provoking. I have cut out sections that I had deemed unworthy of my reasoning for this post.



CAPTIVITY - "the state or period of being held, imprisoned, enslaved, or confined."

This can be physical, mental, and spiritual. That's intense! Imagine being in prison, people tell you what, and how you are to think, and you are to have no religion or anything, imagine your body as just a shell and you are nothing, can be nothing, and will be nothing. Captivity seems like such a heavy word when you think of it as being utterly and completely trapped with no hope of escape. That is one huge tonne of concrete to throw on somebody. That word can make people angry galore! Captivity, captivity, captivity!!



MOTHER CULTURE - is, in her entire form, us: our own civilization from whom we learn our rules, morals and ways of viewing the world. A baby-sitter might do a ritualistic, everyday chore in one way only to hear the children say, “But our mommy does it this way.” Their mother has, purposely or not, melded into her offspring the idea of this is how it's done. This may cause narrow-mindedness, blindness and ignorance. Mother Culture is the kind of parent whose answer to everything is “because I'm the mommy and I said so, that's why.”

We hear Mother Culture always humming in the background, but we've listened to her for so long that you don't notice her. If you don't specifically try to listen for her, you won't hear her.
Is that subliminal messaging or what?!



GOD - "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. GOD IS LOVE. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."
[1 John 4:16]

LOVE - "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
[1 Corinthians 13:4-13]

The end of the world will come when the Earth is overpopulated and the number of people on it need to balance the food it offers. In the wild if there is not enough grass for the gazelles, then the number of gazelles deplete until there is a balance of food and gazelles. This will be the same for mankind. God made us to be of this world and not to be Gods of this world. Just think, if all mankind were God-fearing and obeyed him, we would not go without love for God is love. Sexual relations would not be had unless you were married so you would not find any unmarried young girls bearing children they could not care for and aborting. There would be a whole lot less children going through foster care and the adoption system, for they would have come into families of love for "God is love [and] whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." If many young girls who do not treat their bodies like a temple were to feel loved at home by their mother's and father's, they would not go out looking for love in the wrong places, they would not have men lusting for them, and they would not commit adultery. God is Almighty and we are his creation. We could not create the Universe and the stars above as he had.



LAZY - "averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent."

GRUMPY - "surly or ill-tempered; discontentedly or sullenly irritable; grouchy."

Many things in life were wonderful achievements, inventions, or advancements in our culture and society, yet, we take everything for granted it seems. Conan hosted the comedian Louis CK who talked of the spoiled generation that we see now. Many of these advancements should be used to aid us, and not to spoil us! We have so been greedy with our hearts closed more and more over the years, no wonder why we are coming closer and closer to the end! These wonderful things that we take for granted are making us grumpy and lazy, in turn you see "a culture riddled with greed, cruelty, mental illness, crime, and drug addiction." And what is the cure for all of this? According to society it is our morals (usually religious or justice provoked), advertisements bringing awareness to animal cruelty, or cruelty in war, etc., pills, pills and more pills, or shunning of those with mental illness, prison (though is justice really served?), and rehab, or looks of disgust! Why can't people take a walk with their families around the block before dinner to get some fresh air, talk with their loved ones, and get some exercise amongst the beautiful world we live in?



FAITH - "The assent of the mind to the statement or proposition of another, on the ground of the manifest truth of what he utters; firm and earnest belief, on probable evidence of any kind, especially in regard to important moral truth."

PATIENT - "Bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance with calmness."

TRUST - "reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence."

I think the world needs more faith, patience and in that, trust. A common phrase "ignorance is bliss" is determined fit before Adam and Eve ate fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
I wonder where we would be had we not wanted to be God. God must have huge feet because nobody can fill them, but what do you expect from the creator of everything?! Even if God were the size of a grasshopper, and let's say grasshoppers wore shoes, your feet would not be BIG ENOUGH to fill his shoes.


I'm very glad I read this book, and from now on, as with any new found information, my life will be different. I will see things, and judge things differently, maybe even answer certain questions differently with more of an opinion. I really enjoyed how slow, and a little ignorant the main character was, as to perceive what Ishmael had to say a little more thoroughly. Ignorance was bliss there too, I guess! I recommend you read this book if you haven't already. Such simple questions led to such simple answers, and all we had to do was check out the bible a little bit, and look around the world we live in today and the world the "savages" live in today, and yesterday.



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