Guide to Blogging (cont.)

Having gone over the guide to blogging in class on Monday, did in some ways remind me of the many different requirements needed for the blog project and how to blog in general. I think I find myself blogging on the deeper meanings of a text that we are required to read and personal interpretation on the stories and poems. I do not know if I will ever be able to actually sit down and paint out what I feel about a story or poem unless it is in class since that is the only time I really have to actually sit down and paint. Not to mention a puppet show would be nearly impossible for me to do on my time schedule. Am I complaining on what I can't or can't do for a blog? Of course not; I just wish I could paint more often on what stories and poems I read or even do a puppet show for a story or poem I read. To be honest I used to paint and draw a lot when I was younger and I was heavily involved in a puppet ministry at my home church up in Jacksonville Florida. I still remember my puppet's name: herb. He was blue with a orange nose and wore a blue beach flowery shirt. The worst thing about the puppet ministry and can even be considered a good thing was the long periods of time that I had to hold Herb up on the puppet stage. Granted my arm became stronger over time but still the blood would always drain out of my arm and would become very sore. Nevertheless I figured out how to switch arms in the middle of a song or skit without anyone in the audience ever knowing. But perhaps the greatest thing about the puppet ministry I was involved in was the look on the faces of the kids after the team and I were finished. Many of those kids have grown up now and still remember the great times they had during the puppet team's skits and songs. The sad part is that the puppet ministry that was back home is all but gone. I mean there is still puppet skits, but the team is not what it used to be. Now it has been reduced to the back burner of the children's church ministries and is hardly conducted. But despite the puppet ministry being almost dissolved I still keep in contact with those that were on original puppet team ten years ago when I started.

Blog for "Guide to Blogging" questions

The actual instructions for blogging and the project that I am working on are connected greatly to the ideas about reading discussed in class. I learned with poems to always read the poem several times so as not to miss the many meaning within a poem. In relation to blogging and the blog project I can certainly say that I always make sure what I blog is relevant to what was either written or stated and that I should reread what I blogged so as to see if there is anything unclear for the readers of that blog. Another connection would be to critically read the text or poem so as to see deeper meaning to to the text or poem so I can then critically discuss what was read in text or poem within the blog and blogging project. The ways that blogging has extended my reading process is to not casually read texts or poems. Anyone can do that, but the critical and extensive readers always find the deeper meanings within a text or poem that would not have been known had the text or poem been read casually. Another way blogging has extended my reading process is to put my thoughts about the text or poem into written words. Granted blogging what I think about a text or poem is going obviously put my thoughts into words but I have learned that blogging or writing out what I think about a text or poem seems to help me gain a better understanding of the text or poem. I have been able to make this work wonderfully for me since I do not normally write out what I think or feel about a text, let alone paint about what I read. I think blogging about what I read and even painting about what I read absolutely helps me read the Bible in a new light because if I journal or write on what I read within the Bible my understanding of the scripture improves to the extent that I notice new and exciting things about the character of God and Christ, which ultimately strengthens my faith in Him.

Field trip

I went to the Lakeview, Roselawn and Tiger Flowers cemetery complex for this field trip, and I stayed there for at least 40 minutes.

The second half of the poem When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

The second half of reading the poem revealed that the author describes many different things and jumps from place to place. To begin with, the author takes the reader to a burial-house where the speaker in the poem is wondering what to place on the walls. Granted what the speaker describes to put on the walls is rather wonderful since the pictures are of beautiful landscapes that the reader can easily imagine since the speaker talks of these scenes in great and glorious detail. Nevertheless the speaker jumps to a new scene at a former place that the reader has already been to; the swamp. While at the swamp the speaker yet again meets the powerful singing bird but at the same time the speaker talks of death again like it is a person. The speaker even goes as far to show the reader that there are companions with Death and in line 144 shows the reader that death is apparently a female. Nevertheless the speaker then sees visions of the civil war battle fields but the visions are not spoken of in a grim way, rather they are shown that the dead are at rest and all who are living suffer at their death. But as the ending draws to a close I felt more confused at first only to realize that the speaker seems to be possibly coming from a soldiers perspective since the last six lines of the poem speak on the memories of those comrades that have died and that the speaker will hold on to the memories of them. I must say that this poem was a difficult one to read but as long as I delve into the text and ask many different questions, I will find answers after several readings of this poem.

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

The first reading of the poem is always the trickiest. The reader can easily miss several meanings the author has for the poem. Nevertheless the first time I read the poem I had many questions and yet answers were present but clarity is still in a cloudy state. But I must say that the author the first time I read it spoke on many different aspects of nature. For example the sun, moon, and flowers are spoken of in great detail. Yet the author also speaks about death, like it's a person almost. The author even stated that death was "sacred" in stanza 7. Nevertheless the second time I read the poem, at least the first nine stanzas, I realized that whoever has died most be of great importance to the area if not the country since many across the States ,(notice the capitalization), are morning for this individual. I also realized that the person speaking in the poem went to grieve in the swamp alone with the birds singing. Overall, so far, this poem seems grim but at the same time the author uses things in nature that are very beautiful to contrast all the grimness of the death of a seemingly very important individual. However the poem also flows so well that ending my reading of the poem at stanza nine almost seems cruel since the person who has passed away is neither named or established as male or female, let alone why the individual is of the utmost importance to so many that the death of this person affects the States.

Having read the book of Joel a second time, I have discovered some new things within the text. To begin with, God originally called Israel to fast and then warned them of warriors coming to decimate the land. God then declares another fast after they warriors have ransacked the cities. Another thing I caught on the second time of reading Joel was that God speaks on the locust hordes twice. The first mentioning is on the devastation of the locust horde and the second time is on the removal of the locust horde, which He called His "great army." The third thing I caught the second time around reading Joel was that God declares that "the sun will grow dark; the moon turned into blood; and the stars grow dim" three times. I find this significant since throughout the Bible when something is mentioned three times it shows that God is a triune God; God the Father; God the Son; and God the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless I noted that the beginning of Joel spoke on destruction and mourning, whereas the end of Joel shows God's redemption. If the reader looks close enough the entire story is turns out to be a reversal in of itself. For example the beginning is on how the land was decimated and burned and then followed up by an invasion of warriors that ransack the land. Then in the end of Joel everything is reversed and the land is restored in full and God judges the invading nations and then He restores Israel to its former glory. Ultimately I conclude that the book of Joel shows, in short, How God redeems His children after desolate circumstances.

Joel

The story of Joel shows how God is both gracious and full of justice towards his people. At the beginning, I was in aw of how God used a locust horde to wipe out the crops of Israel. Recently I watched a program on locust hordes. The show was informative on how locust hordes form and what their devastation on crops and the land looks like. So having watched the program on a locust horde devastation, reading about it in the Bible reminded me of what it actually looks like after a locust horde comes through an area. And not only did the locust horde affect the food, they affected the wine vineyards, which in turn affected a drink consumption. The water even dried up for the Israelites and their fields went up in flames. With all this destruction in the beginning of the story, I must ask what did Israel do, to stir up God's anger? Nevertheless whatever they did to stir up God's wrath, God warned Israel of an army that was coming to conquer them that would leave desolation in their wake. However He did use the prophet Joel to tell them to the wail and plead before the Lord, to have mercy on them. God then in turn did have mercy on them since He declared that He would have mercy upon them if Israel would repent and seek Him; which they did. Soon thereafter the land was restored in full, and the land was green and all the trees were ripe with fruit. However I must say that while reading this I have more questions than I had answers. For example why did God call them to arms when the verses after that speak of God's wrath on the earth? Still I must say that this passage of scripture creates more questions than answers.

The Things They Carried

Recently my battalion and I received an email on being a Second Lieutenant in the Army. The email basically told us to get your act together and be a good leader since a lot of pressure is on you, not to mention the lives of an entire platoon are in your hands and many have seen combat already and need Lieutenants to be focused and know their stuff. Having read this story I knew right off the bat that Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was going to mess up and get someone killed since he was greatly distracted by Martha, who did not even love him in the first place. Nevertheless, we have a saying in the Army that goes " a distracted soldier is a dead soldier." The statement is self-explanatory since in the story Ted Lavender was killed due to a negligent Lieutenant. Anyways this story was true to its title since the author explained in great detail what each soldier carried and how much it weighed. Nevertheless I relate to this story since we do ruck marches that consist of carrying 35 pounds or more of stuff in a ruck sack; it basically looks like a hiking backpack but we call it a ruck sack since that just sounds cooler than to call it a backpack. Anyways what I also enjoyed was the level of detail of the environment of Vietnam. I knew that it had a jungle habitat but never so mildew and marshy. Nevertheless I appreciate that at the end of the story Lieutenant Jimmy Cross finally figured things out and straightened up and became a Lieutenant. I have learned that in the Army that if enlisted soldiers continue to say 'sir' to a Lieutenant then he has not earned their respect. However if they start calling the Lieutenant 'LT' then he has earned his rank. Nevertheless for those who have read this story I must add to the fact that whenever a Lieutenant losses one of his men, it is he who writes the letter back home to that individuals family that their son or daughter is dead. So I would hope that none of you who have read this story ever think that officers have it easy compared to the enlisted guys.