Guide to Blogging

The blogging project is meant to extend our discussion of what we read for class and what we end up doing through a class. The blog is our reflection of what we are reading in class or what we are discussing in class, and how those readings or thoughts relate to us and our lives. The blogging helps me rethink what I may have just read or what we did in our last class, and that helps me remember things we have done or things we have read. Some of the blogs I have just let my thoughts flow and type what I might be thinking of at that moment. However, some I have had to think a little harder and try to find better things to say, because the flowing thoughts technique does not always work for me.

Most things I have read in the past I would probably just read it over once and think about what it was trying to say over reading it just once. The blogging project has helped me focus more on what I am reading and sometimes I may have to read it more than once to get the message of the reading. The poems lately have been the more complex readings for me, just because I cannot comprehend what they are trying to say the first time and I will have to read it over at least two to three times. Those extra times I spend rereading the passages the more memorable it becomes to me, and for the most part I remember most of the things we have read during the semester. The blogging has definitely made me remember most of the readings we have had, and if I just read each reading once and did not have to do a blog I probably would not remember what I have read for this class.

Lilacs

The first time I read through this poem written by Walt Whitman, I had no idea what the author was trying to convey through this poem. However, in the last class we got together in our groups, and we talked on what lines we liked and what lines we were confused on. That discussion helped me understand the poem a little more along with the discussion we had before we split up into groups. Professor Corrigan discussed the history and structure involved with this poem and that really got me started on somewhat understanding the poem. The poem was related with the memorial of President Lincoln, and also described the pain and suffering that went on for those who lost friends and family due to war.

Obviously, if I tried to read it by myself and think what the poem meant I would not have thought the poem would be talking about all that. Some types of literature do not come out clear for us right away. Sometimes we have to either re-read the passage again, or just try and discuss it with someone else that may know what the meaning of it is. I learned the most about this poem throughout all the discussion we had on the poem. There are other people that think more in depth and creatively, so discussion can help bring out ideas from those people and together we can figure what the message of the poem is. I definitely thought that the poem about the onions was a lot easier to decipher than this poem that we just read about the lilacs. Maybe Walt Whitman is a more complex writer than the person who wrote the poem on the onions. Maybe the poem made more sense to me, because it talked about some type of food when Whitman’s was about flowers and other things.

Cemetary

I went to the cemetary with andrew, andy, and heather and we stayed there for atleast 40 minutes. I did not bring a camera with me to take a picture of me at the cemetary, but I have three witnesses that saw I was there.

Onions

The poem written by Naomi Shihab Nye was a very interesting poem written on the topic of onions. The first time I read through the poem I thought it was just a real descriptive poem showing how the onion is treated during its use. When we went through the poem a second time, and we had to pick some lines that we questioned is where I really started to get a different sense of the poem. The second time through I started to think that the poem had to do with a lot more than just onions. However, I still did not know what the author was trying to relate to, so it was good to read through it over a third time. The third time I started to believe that the author was relating onions to the things or people in life that do not get enough credit for what comes from them.

There are a lot of people in the world who do not receive credit for what they do, because either they pass off the credit to other people or people do not realize them enough to give them any credit. This is the main thought I ended up getting from reading this poem, and no matter what there are going to be onions wherever you go. There are going to be people that can be related to steak that absorb all the credit for the success happening, and the onions will be there doing the behind the scenes work that keeps the success going. I think that most of the time the onion people are just too shy where they would be scared to speak up and try to take some credit, so they just let it go and keep working hard. I think this poem does a good job in trying to make us realize the hard working people that no matter what will never get the credit they deserve.

Joel

For our last class we went out and found some place outside where it was silent and reread the Book of Joel out loud. The first time I read the Book of Joel I did not get as much as I did when I went outside and read it aloud to the lake and myself. Sometimes when I read things I like to listen to some music while I do that, and some times I get a lot out of what I read when I listen to music. However, when I read the Book of Joel and listened to music at the same time I did not really get too much out of it. So I guess some readings are meant to be read in silence, and some other readings can be read with distractions and still be appreciated well.

I think that our generation has gotten so accustomed to multi tasking all the time, so we figure as long as we are reading we mine as well listen to some music on the side. In cases like this we do not always appreciate a reading for what it is worth, because we are multi tasking and getting distracted. Therefore, I thought the class exercise was good in showing me that sometimes we have to push aside distractions for a little time in the day, and try and appreciate something that we choose to read. Technology has also done a good job of creating more distractions in our life. It is so easy for us to say that we are going to put aside time in the day to read something meaningful, but we are easily distracted with our computers, phones, I pods, and so on. But, I will plan to get some time each day away from distractions, and try and read something meaningful and appreciate it at the same time.

Book of Joel

After reading the Book of Joel, I just kept realizing how much God was talking about His judgment that is going to come down in the future. If I read this everyday I think I would probably have more of a fear for God, but certain times I realize that I do not have a fear like I should and I do something I will regret later on. So the main topic I got out of this reading was God’s judgment, and how we better be prepared for whenever Christ returns, because God’s judgment will be very strong. They also go into depth on what the last days could be like. They make it seem like the last days are going to be very brutal, and that we should never want to be apart of these last days. This reading is definitely one of those readings that brings up a lot more questions than answers.

For example, are these last days going to feel worse than hell itself? Will we ever receive a warning that the last days are approaching us? I do not think these questions can be answered until the last days come. God does not want us to know these answers, because He would rather have us prepared for Him than worrying about all these questions about the last days. We will never figure out when the last days are coming up. They have attempted to guess when the last days are going to occur and they have failed in it each time. We can just hope that we keep our relationship strong with God, and do all the good we can in His name. Then when we reach those last days He will look at us with a big smile and say “Welcome my child”. At least, that is what I picture God saying to me whenever my life comes to an end on Earth.

The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried was a story written by Tim O’Brien, describing the emotional and physical things the soldiers carried. The soldier that received the most attention in the story was First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Cross was only twenty two years old and was very in love with a girl back in New Jersey, her name was Martha. As the war was going on and Cross’ group was traveling along he would keep getting caught up with all these thoughts of Martha. Those thoughts would leave him totally distracted and make him feel like he was back in New Jersey. However, he was not and some of his troops were killed in those few days. That was probably the wake up call for Cross that he needed to leave his thoughts of Martha behind, move forward and focus himself and his team.

I think in life we all get a little distracted maybe not the same way as Cross did, but something or someone distracts us. In those situations we can become very vulnerable to the world around us and that is not a good position to be in. Jimmy Cross was distracted and was very vulnerable to getting shot down by the enemy, we could get ourselves distracted and get tempted to do something that we will regret. In our relationship with God we have periods in time where we can get a little sidetracked, and at that point the devil is trying to tempt you to sin. Reading this story just made me think that I have to be more aware of things when I get caught up in thoughts, class work, or life. Lately, I have realized that thoughts and class work have been getting the best of me, and I have not spent the time to just focus and plan out what I need to get done.