Don't worry. They're not normal things. Since both of my blogger friends whom I regularly follow did this I decided I'd join in, since I could just write this without too much thought. In no particular order:
1. Other People's Cars - My car has been in the shop about six times since the beginning of the semester. I like it when my friends and family have working cars.
2. Sheetz - Most Mount Union students will agree with me.
3. Acapella Groups - I can never be bored as long as I have YouTube.
4. Cover Artists in General - I can never be productive as long as I have YouTube.
5. Inside Jokes - The best part of practically any friendship.
6. Book to Movie Adaptions - They can be blasphemous, but I think Hollywood is doing a surprisingly good job recently and it makes me incredibly happy.
7. Fancy School Computers - I certainly wouldn't be able to do overly complicated fan art and photo manipulations without them.
8. Fun French Words - All right, I didn't want to learn French. But I have learned some surprisingly fun stuff.
9. Paper Towels - I used to hate paper towels. A wet paper towel is still sickening to me. But... I've worked as a janitor for the majority of this year. Paper towels are my best friend.
10. Word Wars - It's the middle of November, they're on the mind. I would not have 50+ pages of my novel written if I didn't have so many writer friends who have been ready to battle nightly for the last 26 days.
Happy Thanksgiving, be sure to thank God for all your tiny unimportant things in addition to your friends, family, and fandoms. (It was alliterative. I had to.)
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
10 Things You May or May Not Know About Being a PK
This seems like such an obvious idea for a post so I decided to humor it. Welcome to a little glimpse into the life of a pastor's kid. A lot of you may relate to this, even though I realize I have very few friends who are actually PK's. As usual, this is in my (ridiculously) blunt style but I think I've avoided offending anyone.
Also I decided it'd be fun to insert GIFs for once. I admit two of the items stumped me for gifs though.
1. You're automatically great at singing, acting, public speaking, and whatever else the church requires.
Whether you actually are or not. The church needs it, so you can provide it. Now, I've spent a good amount of time acquiring acting and singing skills. However, unlike most of my siblings, I stink at public speaking in general. But don't tell some people at church, they won't believe you.
2. Over the course of your life you get to learn pretty much the entire hymal
I feel sorry for modern PK's who probably don't get this joy. At this point if you give me practically any hymn in the United Methodist Hymal I can sing it for you and might have all the lyrics memorized. Including the verses that no one ever actually sings. Those are my favorites.
3. You get to know the inside of a church/lots of churches/every church
I'd like to say that I've been in so many churches now that I can automatically figure out the layout of any church. While some things are consistent in most churches, fortunately churches really are all designed differently so there's always something new to find. I love exploring churches. And playing hide and seek in churches.
4. You learn a lot of patience (and how to entertain yourself)
"Oh, Mommy is busy so you guys need to come with me? You can come sit in on my trustee meeting!"
All right, Daddy was always very understanding and let us go amuse ourselves in the nursery or something. But between meetings and visiting and tons and tons of services you do develop a high tolerance for long slow things. Services aren't usually a problem but when you have two services and you have to go to both eventually it gets to you. I'm not saying I doodle constantly in church but maybe you shouldn't look too closely at my bulletin. Or look at my bulletin from a great distance. Ignore my bulletin.
5. You're expected to know the answer to every question in every lesson. Ever.
I mean, I'm not going to deny that in general you can depend on my siblings and I to have an answer to everything. Whether it's right or not. (Okay, that's mostly me.) But it gets a bit tiresome when the teacher and all our fellow students automatically stare at you during the awkward silences when no one is answering. That's what you get for breaking the awkward silence one too many times, people start to depend on you.
6. It feels like you're automatically either the coolest kid or the least cool kid in youth group, Sunday School etc.
So this is just from my personal experience, I don't know about my siblings. It's also an exaggeration, don't take it too seriously. The thing is, you get a lot of "street cred" so to speak from having influence in the church. Your friends can depend on you to answer all the questions (ahem), know where everything is in the church, and convince the youth leader that playing laser tag will be highly beneficial for your spiritual lives. But, quite simply put, at the same time your friends assume you're going to be shocked and scandalized if they do anything slightly against the rules so if they want to do something slightly different you get excluded.
I admit that as a teenager I totally would have been scandalized. Good call, friends. But it still got depressing to get excluded, I have to admit. (It's all right, friends, I still love you.)
7. There is apparently at the very least a 60% chance that you're going to end up working in ministry
That highly scientific number is taken from the number of my siblings who are old enough to have a job and how many of them are doing something ministry-related at the moment (whether paid or unpaid). I didn't even count the fact that my every weekend is filled up with church goings-on and Bible Quizzing. Please, take my scientific number as fact, it will amuse me.
But the point is, it's in your blood. You can't escape it, and in general you don't really want to either.
8. People automatically assume that you're either really awesome or really messed up
So far from my experience, they aren't wrong. (My family is all in the really awesome category, for the record.) I like to point to the entertainment industry; you would be amazed at just how many singers, actors and famous people in general have at least one parent who is a pastor. Notable examples: Katy Perry, David Tennant, Denzel Washington, the Jonas Brothers, and pretty much at least one member of every Christian band ever. Being a PK does lend itself to the performing arts a bit. If you want something exciting done in certain churches you have to do it yourself, or at least start it yourself. (Then you end up running it forever, so it amounts to the same thing.)
9. You get to know some of the coolest people ever
I mean, you also meet the crazies, but you get those anywhere. You just can't beat the church for the most awesome people. This is where you find the bikers and addicts turned evangelist, the little old ladies whose families have been in the same church since before the church actually existed, the little kids who have more talent than you have on your best day, and all the rest.
Did you know that L.M. Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, was a pastor's wife? While she didn't get married until after the first two books in the series were published, you can see all throughout her works what a perfect grasp she has on human nature in general. Her wonderful portrayal of over-the-top characters remind me of people we've run into at various churches. I can definitely see how many of her humorous vignettes were probably inspired by her experiences being married to a minister.
10. You learn to stick a point on the end of anything
When you're writing last minute skits incorporating the entirety of the Emperor's New Groove or making up a children's sermon on the spot you have to learn to get a moral out of anything. "I've got some toothpicks in my bag, what sort of moral can I get out of those?" While it sometimes makes you feel a bit like Marmee in Little Women (Oh, you've gotten yourself into some sort of trouble, daughter? Here's what you can learn from it.) it's really a very helpful skill to have in life. At the most unexpected moments when I think I'm about to go absolutely crazy I suddenly get this big-picture view of life. I see, yeah, this is terrible now, but look what I've learned from it.
If I were to tell you everything I've learned (and am still learning) from being a PK I would have to write at least a six volume encyclopedia. As it is I may have to do another one of these because I had a few ideas I didn't use. But at the moment it seems this is one of the biggest lessons I've learned: God is always working in your life and no matter what the situation you can always find him.
Also I decided it'd be fun to insert GIFs for once. I admit two of the items stumped me for gifs though.
1. You're automatically great at singing, acting, public speaking, and whatever else the church requires.
Whether you actually are or not. The church needs it, so you can provide it. Now, I've spent a good amount of time acquiring acting and singing skills. However, unlike most of my siblings, I stink at public speaking in general. But don't tell some people at church, they won't believe you.
2. Over the course of your life you get to learn pretty much the entire hymal
3. You get to know the inside of a church/lots of churches/every church
I'd like to say that I've been in so many churches now that I can automatically figure out the layout of any church. While some things are consistent in most churches, fortunately churches really are all designed differently so there's always something new to find. I love exploring churches. And playing hide and seek in churches.
4. You learn a lot of patience (and how to entertain yourself)
"Oh, Mommy is busy so you guys need to come with me? You can come sit in on my trustee meeting!"
All right, Daddy was always very understanding and let us go amuse ourselves in the nursery or something. But between meetings and visiting and tons and tons of services you do develop a high tolerance for long slow things. Services aren't usually a problem but when you have two services and you have to go to both eventually it gets to you. I'm not saying I doodle constantly in church but maybe you shouldn't look too closely at my bulletin. Or look at my bulletin from a great distance. Ignore my bulletin.
5. You're expected to know the answer to every question in every lesson. Ever.
I mean, I'm not going to deny that in general you can depend on my siblings and I to have an answer to everything. Whether it's right or not. (Okay, that's mostly me.) But it gets a bit tiresome when the teacher and all our fellow students automatically stare at you during the awkward silences when no one is answering. That's what you get for breaking the awkward silence one too many times, people start to depend on you.
6. It feels like you're automatically either the coolest kid or the least cool kid in youth group, Sunday School etc.
So this is just from my personal experience, I don't know about my siblings. It's also an exaggeration, don't take it too seriously. The thing is, you get a lot of "street cred" so to speak from having influence in the church. Your friends can depend on you to answer all the questions (ahem), know where everything is in the church, and convince the youth leader that playing laser tag will be highly beneficial for your spiritual lives. But, quite simply put, at the same time your friends assume you're going to be shocked and scandalized if they do anything slightly against the rules so if they want to do something slightly different you get excluded.
I admit that as a teenager I totally would have been scandalized. Good call, friends. But it still got depressing to get excluded, I have to admit. (It's all right, friends, I still love you.)
7. There is apparently at the very least a 60% chance that you're going to end up working in ministry
That highly scientific number is taken from the number of my siblings who are old enough to have a job and how many of them are doing something ministry-related at the moment (whether paid or unpaid). I didn't even count the fact that my every weekend is filled up with church goings-on and Bible Quizzing. Please, take my scientific number as fact, it will amuse me.
But the point is, it's in your blood. You can't escape it, and in general you don't really want to either.
8. People automatically assume that you're either really awesome or really messed up
So far from my experience, they aren't wrong. (My family is all in the really awesome category, for the record.) I like to point to the entertainment industry; you would be amazed at just how many singers, actors and famous people in general have at least one parent who is a pastor. Notable examples: Katy Perry, David Tennant, Denzel Washington, the Jonas Brothers, and pretty much at least one member of every Christian band ever. Being a PK does lend itself to the performing arts a bit. If you want something exciting done in certain churches you have to do it yourself, or at least start it yourself. (Then you end up running it forever, so it amounts to the same thing.)
9. You get to know some of the coolest people ever
I mean, you also meet the crazies, but you get those anywhere. You just can't beat the church for the most awesome people. This is where you find the bikers and addicts turned evangelist, the little old ladies whose families have been in the same church since before the church actually existed, the little kids who have more talent than you have on your best day, and all the rest.
Did you know that L.M. Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, was a pastor's wife? While she didn't get married until after the first two books in the series were published, you can see all throughout her works what a perfect grasp she has on human nature in general. Her wonderful portrayal of over-the-top characters remind me of people we've run into at various churches. I can definitely see how many of her humorous vignettes were probably inspired by her experiences being married to a minister.
10. You learn to stick a point on the end of anything
When you're writing last minute skits incorporating the entirety of the Emperor's New Groove or making up a children's sermon on the spot you have to learn to get a moral out of anything. "I've got some toothpicks in my bag, what sort of moral can I get out of those?" While it sometimes makes you feel a bit like Marmee in Little Women (Oh, you've gotten yourself into some sort of trouble, daughter? Here's what you can learn from it.) it's really a very helpful skill to have in life. At the most unexpected moments when I think I'm about to go absolutely crazy I suddenly get this big-picture view of life. I see, yeah, this is terrible now, but look what I've learned from it.
If I were to tell you everything I've learned (and am still learning) from being a PK I would have to write at least a six volume encyclopedia. As it is I may have to do another one of these because I had a few ideas I didn't use. But at the moment it seems this is one of the biggest lessons I've learned: God is always working in your life and no matter what the situation you can always find him.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Why I Should Never Have an Advice Column
I won't bother checking when the last time I posted was. I really don't want to know.
But I've decided it's time to amuse my readers once more, so I'm going to share with you something completely non-blog related. I'll probably regret this, good thing I excel at posting things without really thinking that much.
Most of you probably know that I'm an aspiring novelist. So far I have two chapters of a book I've been planning since I was 9 or 10. I'm a little bit of a slow writer.
But I also have some amusing side stories that I write to amuse myself and my friends. These cover a variety of topics but lately some friends and I have been working on the same general story. Like the true geeks that we are, we've taken what started as essentially fan fiction and expanded it. Long story short: we have a storyline in which all four of us are Time Lords (like in Doctor Who, to the uninitiated). That's really all you need to know for now. If you desperately want to know more I'll tell you all about it.
So I'm going to share a little bit of that with you. This isn't narrative, this is my character writing a blog essentially (so it totally counts as a blog). I actually don't remember exactly how this came about, but somehow the idea of my character having a relationship advice column was suggested and I had to run with it. I went to Ask.com and found the most ridiculous questions I could and here are the results:
That about does it for now. I think I’ve done my good deed for the day. I’ll go reward myself with chocolate and not doing the laundry.
But I've decided it's time to amuse my readers once more, so I'm going to share with you something completely non-blog related. I'll probably regret this, good thing I excel at posting things without really thinking that much.
Most of you probably know that I'm an aspiring novelist. So far I have two chapters of a book I've been planning since I was 9 or 10. I'm a little bit of a slow writer.
But I also have some amusing side stories that I write to amuse myself and my friends. These cover a variety of topics but lately some friends and I have been working on the same general story. Like the true geeks that we are, we've taken what started as essentially fan fiction and expanded it. Long story short: we have a storyline in which all four of us are Time Lords (like in Doctor Who, to the uninitiated). That's really all you need to know for now. If you desperately want to know more I'll tell you all about it.
So I'm going to share a little bit of that with you. This isn't narrative, this is my character writing a blog essentially (so it totally counts as a blog). I actually don't remember exactly how this came about, but somehow the idea of my character having a relationship advice column was suggested and I had to run with it. I went to Ask.com and found the most ridiculous questions I could and here are the results:
I don’t know if you knew this, but when you’re a Time Lord and you carry a psychic paper of any kind sometimes you get spam mail. Sometimes it’s something exciting like a distress call and I can do something to help. Sometimes it’s a pizza order and I really can’t help. Sometimes it’s a completely different kind of distress call... we’ll see if I can help with those.
I’m referring to the abnormal amount of requests I’ve been receiving for relationship advice. I’ll open my psychic paper and there will be a pleading note from a teen (I hope they’re teens. I sincerely hope these people are teens.) asking for my help. Now, I personally was never a teenage girl, (I was a teenage werewolf, ask anyone), but you’d think with more than 500 years of dealing with life forms I would have picked up SOMETHING about relationships. So I’ll see if I can help these poor unfortunate souls.
Easy, it’s somewhere in the 400 year range.
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm how much older? Are we talking buy-him-a-wheelchair older? Because that’s creepy. Also might not get him to like you, I suppose. Well, if you’re actually friends that means he must not dislike you, ergo, he likes you. Ta-da.
Chocolate. Someone to do the laundry.
Oh, seriously? Hm. I can do serious. Maybe.
Um, it inspires you. Having someone to love and work for is a lot more encouraging than living for yourself. Plus it’s nice to have a partner in crime.
“That’s a weird place to put a piano.”
“What planet did you get that hat on? I’d like to get one for myself.”
“Hey, I have a weird freckle on my face too!”
“Come with me if you want to live.”
“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.”
“I’m sorry I accidentally locked you in my TARDIS, what was your name again, you handsome devil?”
All guaranteed to work, I speak from experience.
Aha, slightly different from the conversation starters, I can provide you with some pick up lines. I’m not saying I’m great at flirting, but I’ve never been told I was bad at it. I’ve compiled a list for you.
Here are some classics:
Do you have a Band-Aid? Because I just scraped my knee falling for you.
I'm not a photographer, but I can picture me and you together.
I thought happiness started with an H. Why does mine start with U?
You look so familiar… didn't we take a class together? I could've sworn we had chemistry.
And of course, this one:
I seem to have lost my phone number. Can I have yours?
Here are some slightly bolder ones:
Are you a fruit, because Honeydew you know how fine you look right now?
Are you a parking ticket? 'Cause you've got fine written all over you.
If I were to ask you out on a date, would your answer be the same as the answer to this question?
And here are your creeper options:
Do you live in a corn field, cause I'm stalking you.
Can I follow you home? Cause my parents always told me to follow my dreams.
Excuse me, but does this smell like chloroform to you?
This one’s for my friends, I regret nothing:
Are you a campfire? Cause you are hot and I want s'more.
And then there’s the Time Lord pick up line:
I was wondering if you had an extra heart, one of mine seems to have been stolen
Duct tape.
That about does it for now. I think I’ve done my good deed for the day. I’ll go reward myself with chocolate and not doing the laundry.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
The Prodigal Brother
We will ignore the fact that it's been more than two months since I last posted.
I have always liked the parable of the prodigal son. It seemed to me the most fleshed out parable (besides possibly the good Samaritan) with even some interesting characters with some depth. When I was a kid the point was obvious; it was all about the son who went away and did bad things and came back and apologized and was forgiven. Everything else was minor.
Well the next important thing I realized is that the father in the story is very important. The most important, of course, because he's God. We can be incredibly thankful for the father in that parable because he's the one who loves us enough to forgive us. We can also try to put ourselves in the position of the father and learn a lesson about forgiving others.
But even from the beginning when I considered the other characters minor I thought the brother was obnoxious. What a downer, the story was perfect with a happy ending and then he just had to insert his opinions.
Unfortunately now that I'm older I realize that the part I am most likely to be in this story is the brother. I'm not likely to be the prodigal, it's not that I'm better than anyone else, it's just that I'm more likely to be the pompous high-and-mighty one.
What actually brought this up was a song (which I will provide at the end of this post) that pointed out what the oldest son was actually doing. He wasn't just being a jerk to his younger brother. He wasn't just giving his father and all his party guests the cold shoulder. He was self-righteously assuming that just because he hadn't been an idiot and spent his father's money and all that jazz that meant he deserved some kind of reward. He was presuming on his father's kindness (Romans 2:4) and trying to get something just for doing what he ought to have been doing.
Now I realize, that's how our world works. You do something good, you get rewarded. You do homework, you get a grade. You go to work, you get paid. You give a present to a friend, you get a thank you and probably a present of your own later on. That's kind of the way we think.
But then there's God, and he gave us everything that we have in the first place. We obey him and read his word and try to do good and we assume that this means we need to be rewarded. Whatever for? Everything you do should already be a thank you to God for simply creating you, let alone coming down and dying for you while you were a sinner and the opposite of deserving. We didn't even ask for that, like the prodigal son only asked to be made a servant.
That's what we're supposed to be doing, asking God to let us serve him. Instead we ask God why we're not being rewarded for our good deeds. Why, God, I gave my tithe religiously this year, why am I not getting back even more? I went on a mission trip, where's the answer to that little prayer this week? It's just a little prayer, is that too much to ask in return for all I've done?
That's why I've decided to finally finish this blog post today, since it's Thanksgiving. Instead of looking for thanks from God for doing what we should be doing anyway, we need to remember to give God thanks for what we don't even deserve.
Final note: Here's that song I referenced. It's even cooler because when they released it they made it a free download to drive home their point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mucrxt8KlfA
I have always liked the parable of the prodigal son. It seemed to me the most fleshed out parable (besides possibly the good Samaritan) with even some interesting characters with some depth. When I was a kid the point was obvious; it was all about the son who went away and did bad things and came back and apologized and was forgiven. Everything else was minor.
Well the next important thing I realized is that the father in the story is very important. The most important, of course, because he's God. We can be incredibly thankful for the father in that parable because he's the one who loves us enough to forgive us. We can also try to put ourselves in the position of the father and learn a lesson about forgiving others.
But even from the beginning when I considered the other characters minor I thought the brother was obnoxious. What a downer, the story was perfect with a happy ending and then he just had to insert his opinions.
Unfortunately now that I'm older I realize that the part I am most likely to be in this story is the brother. I'm not likely to be the prodigal, it's not that I'm better than anyone else, it's just that I'm more likely to be the pompous high-and-mighty one.
What actually brought this up was a song (which I will provide at the end of this post) that pointed out what the oldest son was actually doing. He wasn't just being a jerk to his younger brother. He wasn't just giving his father and all his party guests the cold shoulder. He was self-righteously assuming that just because he hadn't been an idiot and spent his father's money and all that jazz that meant he deserved some kind of reward. He was presuming on his father's kindness (Romans 2:4) and trying to get something just for doing what he ought to have been doing.
Now I realize, that's how our world works. You do something good, you get rewarded. You do homework, you get a grade. You go to work, you get paid. You give a present to a friend, you get a thank you and probably a present of your own later on. That's kind of the way we think.
But then there's God, and he gave us everything that we have in the first place. We obey him and read his word and try to do good and we assume that this means we need to be rewarded. Whatever for? Everything you do should already be a thank you to God for simply creating you, let alone coming down and dying for you while you were a sinner and the opposite of deserving. We didn't even ask for that, like the prodigal son only asked to be made a servant.
That's what we're supposed to be doing, asking God to let us serve him. Instead we ask God why we're not being rewarded for our good deeds. Why, God, I gave my tithe religiously this year, why am I not getting back even more? I went on a mission trip, where's the answer to that little prayer this week? It's just a little prayer, is that too much to ask in return for all I've done?
That's why I've decided to finally finish this blog post today, since it's Thanksgiving. Instead of looking for thanks from God for doing what we should be doing anyway, we need to remember to give God thanks for what we don't even deserve.
Final note: Here's that song I referenced. It's even cooler because when they released it they made it a free download to drive home their point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mucrxt8KlfA
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Identity of Storytelling
The following is an essay from my literature class I took last semester. It was essentially the final exam essay and, thankfully, I was given interesting options for topics. My favorite part of the class was talking about why reading and stories and fiction are so important. I had to use quotes from things we'd read in class or articles that fit certain criteria and introduce them a certain way and so on. I'd also developed a certain style to fit the professor's preferences, he was an interesting one to be sure. I've edited the style slightly for your benefit but it's still kind of hilarious how different my essay writing style is from my blog writing style.
Storytelling, in its variety of forms, can be used in countless ways.Telling a story is a very personal experience that requires a storyteller and an audience. As explained by Northrop Frye in The Educated Imagination, storytelling is essential to discovering and defining personal identity.
The first way storytelling builds identity is by distinguishing the human identity from the rest of the world. Separating “me” from “not me” is the first step in identifying who you are. But Frye also says that storytelling can re-connect a single identity to the rest of the world.
“We discovered that the language of literature was associative: it uses figures of speech, like the simile and the metaphor, to suggest an identity between the human mind and the world outside it.”
Similes and metaphors compare things to each other by saying one thing is like another or one thing is another. These literary conventions can show how a human identity is comparable to something else in the world.
Hearing stories about other people or things teaches us about ourselves but can also make us feel better about ourselves, since we are not the ones making their mistakes. Paul Hernadi in his article “The Erotics of Retrospection: Historytelling, Audience Response, and the Strategies of Desire” discusses historical stories and fictional stories. In talking about how readers relate to characters, real or fictional, in a story he says, “Even when I follow fictive representations of actions, my attitude is not unlike that of the unobserved observer standing behind a two-way mirror. But such privileged status over people actually believed to have existed will enhance my self-esteem even if-or, rather, especially if-I admire them." He says that hearing about fictional characters making mistakes gives us a feeling of superiority. That feeling is increased if we are reading about real people or characters that we know and if they are people we admire as well then we feel proud that they have a fault which we do not have.
This relates back to storytelling having to do with identity, it separates your identity from the parts of the world that you don’t like. Northrop Frye, talking about a modern tendency to write about unhappy things rather than optimistic things, says, “In other words, literature not only leads us toward the regaining of identity, but it also separates this state from its opposite, the world we don’t like and want to get away from." By reading stories about unpleasant things we can distance them from ourselves. Reading the stories about other people experiencing things we don’t like can make us appreciate that we are not in their circumstances.
Storytelling can also help us understand others. In the same way that reading about someone can help us distance ourselves from things that we don’t like, it can also bring us closer to things we don’t understand. Hearing a story is a way of hearing another person’s experiences. John D. Ramage describes in an article the purpose of literature: “The task of literature, or at least of literature as a discipline, is somehow to complicate us, not simply by projecting us into foreign minds and sensibilities, but by revealing to us the means of understanding and judging those minds and sensibilities." Here he says that literature gives us a way of comparing other minds to our own. If we cannot relate the thoughts of others to our own we will have no way of understanding them. Stories give us other viewpoints and cause us to confront them and think about them until we understand how they do and don’t make sense.
The most obvious way in which storytelling accomplishes teaching us about others is in expressing the storyteller’s viewpoint. Every story has to communicate the author’s thoughts in some way because an author cannot tell a story without his or her own thoughts. In turn the author has been influenced by others and expresses their viewpoints in his or her writing. As Northrop Frye says when discussing authors, “A writer’s desire to write can only have come from a previous experience of literature, and he’ll start by imitating whatever he’s read." An author cannot write anything without imitating on some level what he or she has already read. In this way they share their experiences with their readers.
Frye continues that, through writing, the author releases experiences and emotions that would stay trapped inside otherwise. By expressing the ideas an author can make them more orderly and understand them more completely.
“For the serious good writer it releases his experiences or emotions from himself and incorporates them into literature, where they belong."
Frye is saying that the author’s experiences belong in literature. This is introducing the idea that the storyteller’s identity comes from storytelling. A person cannot have an identity without stories to tell about themselves and other people.
Storytelling encourages learning, whether about ourselves or about others, and then it helps us apply what we have learned. Frye gives a way in which storytelling helps us organize things that we have discovered about ourselves. “Our impressions of human life are picked up one by one, and remain for most of us loose and disorganized. But we constantly find things in literature that suddenly coordinate and bring into focus a great many such impressions.” Reading stories can help us take what we have learned from various sources and organize it into patterns. Making patterns and connections leads to deeper understanding which, in turn, leads to more discovery.
Learning and understanding is important because it does lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves. Charles E. Winquist in his essay “The Act of Storytelling and the Self's Homecoming” addresses what stories have to do with our identities.
“Without a history or without a story, there is very little that we can say about ourselves. The generalization of our humanity leaves us only with superfluous bodies.”
Winquist continues: “The natural self stripped of its history is neutral” (electronic). Winquist is sayingthat without stories a person has no identity at all. Stories make our history and give us a way to tell others about ourselves.
In conclusion, storytelling is necessary to the continual creation of our identities. We cannot have an identity to begin with without a story to tell These stories tell individuals what they need to know in order to understand each other. Telling a story will assist in organizing thoughts and memories. Also, in order to continue having an identity, we must discover more about ourselves and others. An efficient way of doing this is through storytelling.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Forbidden Love
Did I ever say I was going to stop making blog posts about my personal vendettas?
If I did I lied. In my defense I try not to claim to actually know what I'm talking about in these posts. Also in my defense it would be completely out of character for me to write something that didn't include some personal vendetta...
Okay, vendetta of the week... er, month: Sensible girls falling in love with the bad boy. The cliche of forbidden love.
Let me explain my position before I expound upon the surprising conclusion I reached (that's how all my blogs go, right?) I'll add a disclaimer; my position on this has been heavily influenced by conversations I've had with close friends about it. If you read this and you think "Hey, I told her that!" take it as a compliment.
The foundation of the matter is that if you're falling in love with someone that obviously, hopefully means you want to marry him someday. If you are a sensible, Godly woman then you should also know that Ephesians 5 says wives should submit to their husbands in everything and that the husband is the spiritual head of the household. (Don't get caught up in the submission thing, I'm still my stubborn, independent and fairly girl-power self. The rest of the chapter talks about wives loving their husbands. Nothing wrong with letting your man lead if he loves you like Christ.) Please correct me if I'm wrong, I don't have any experience with being in love with a delinquent, but I'm pretty sure that the bad boy is probably a bit spiritually lacking. Thus: not eligible to be spiritual head of household. Thus: not husband material. Thus: please don't fall in love with him.
So there's your surprisingly brief explanation of my opinion of this subject. This extends to my various friends and their crushes as well as to fictional characters. (Please, *insert character's name*, stop trying to reform him!)
But! (Here is that crucial "but" that makes all the difference in my blogs.) There is another very difficult teaching that comes into play here. Very difficult. Also very basic. Love your enemies. Love your neighbor. Welcome "the one who is weak in faith."
My first instinct when I run into such a character is to grab my friend and run. I suppose if I'm trying to be a good example that probably isn't the best idea. Though not husband material, these young men do need Godly friends to lead them in the right direction.
So, while it's not a good idea to marry the bad boy and then try to reform him, it's still a good idea to be trying to reform him. It's a dangerous line to tread, helping him while not allowing yourself to fall in love with him or vice versa, but opportunities to have an influence on someone else's life should not be missed.
But seriously, girl. Stop falling in love with the bad boy, there's a much more deserving man out there somewhere who doesn't want you to settle for less.
If I did I lied. In my defense I try not to claim to actually know what I'm talking about in these posts. Also in my defense it would be completely out of character for me to write something that didn't include some personal vendetta...
Okay, vendetta of the week... er, month: Sensible girls falling in love with the bad boy. The cliche of forbidden love.
Let me explain my position before I expound upon the surprising conclusion I reached (that's how all my blogs go, right?) I'll add a disclaimer; my position on this has been heavily influenced by conversations I've had with close friends about it. If you read this and you think "Hey, I told her that!" take it as a compliment.
The foundation of the matter is that if you're falling in love with someone that obviously, hopefully means you want to marry him someday. If you are a sensible, Godly woman then you should also know that Ephesians 5 says wives should submit to their husbands in everything and that the husband is the spiritual head of the household. (Don't get caught up in the submission thing, I'm still my stubborn, independent and fairly girl-power self. The rest of the chapter talks about wives loving their husbands. Nothing wrong with letting your man lead if he loves you like Christ.) Please correct me if I'm wrong, I don't have any experience with being in love with a delinquent, but I'm pretty sure that the bad boy is probably a bit spiritually lacking. Thus: not eligible to be spiritual head of household. Thus: not husband material. Thus: please don't fall in love with him.
So there's your surprisingly brief explanation of my opinion of this subject. This extends to my various friends and their crushes as well as to fictional characters. (Please, *insert character's name*, stop trying to reform him!)
But! (Here is that crucial "but" that makes all the difference in my blogs.) There is another very difficult teaching that comes into play here. Very difficult. Also very basic. Love your enemies. Love your neighbor. Welcome "the one who is weak in faith."
My first instinct when I run into such a character is to grab my friend and run. I suppose if I'm trying to be a good example that probably isn't the best idea. Though not husband material, these young men do need Godly friends to lead them in the right direction.
So, while it's not a good idea to marry the bad boy and then try to reform him, it's still a good idea to be trying to reform him. It's a dangerous line to tread, helping him while not allowing yourself to fall in love with him or vice versa, but opportunities to have an influence on someone else's life should not be missed.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
But seriously, girl. Stop falling in love with the bad boy, there's a much more deserving man out there somewhere who doesn't want you to settle for less.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Devious Surprising
This almost relates back to my last post, (which was, in fact, more than a month ago. I apologize.) My other triplet/blogosphere doppelganger, who can be found here, as well as the one referenced in my last blog who can still be found here are doing a connecting series of blogs. We're doing it purposefully this time too rather than me just copying an idea stolen from Zella and suggesting that D do the same.
You see, a year ago this week Emily and I surprised Dorothy with a visit. Anyone who doesn't know me well enough to know that most of my friends don't live in the same state as I do would say "Okay, that's nice, what's the big deal?" Well, to begin with these are both people I met online. We all three met on the Narnia forum "The Dancing Lawn" many years ago. Emily and I met first and decided that we were so much alike we must be twins. Later Dorothy joined and momentously it was suggested that we should become triplets because D was obviously cool enough to be one of us.
So there we were, awesome friends online who barely even knew where each of the others lived. It took me way too long to realize that Emily and I lived only 45 minutes from each other... Unfortunately D lives more than 9 hours away from us, making visiting a little difficult. Nonetheless, we had decided that it was going to happen last year.
This is where I suddenly decided to start thinking big. I truly, honestly do not usually do this. The exception to this rule is about surprises. I love surprises. I love them and will do abnormal things to pull them off. I've only pulled off a few notable ones; converting a pre-existing birthday party to a surprise party, a surprise visit from four hours away and of course, a surprise visit from nine hours away.
It was complicated, it involved emailing D's sister and rearranging schedules and some very complicated driving schemes by me and plot-naming. (It was called Operation Come Along Pond, this video made by Emily is a wonderful recap of it. I'm not going to recap, D already did that in her own amazing way and Emily did it a fair amount in her blog too. Read theirs.)
It was also amazing. The surprise was completely worth it and more. Emily and I thought through many scenarios about how we could reveal ourselves, as she describes in her blog (and D from her perspective in hers) we got there and figured out that she was sleeping. I led the way into her room and sat down on her bed, trying to seem like this was a perfectly normal thing to do. Her face when she saw me was priceless, there is an excellent screencap of it in the video, I did happen to be holding a video camera at the time.
What I probably can't convey to you very well is the amount of wonderful emotions that went into and around that first surprised look. We had spent months planning the surprise and there were so many ways it could have gone wrong. She could have figured it out before hand and she could have looked smugly confirmed in her suspicions. In some impossible turn of events she could be not thrilled to see us or her family could not be thrilled to see us.
But no, she was completely and utterly surprised, hadn't suspected a thing. She was also visibly and radiantly happy about it, though a bit shocked (and thus needing a blanket.) Her family was also awesome and happy. For me it was a relief and a culmination of months of anticipation and planning plus years of hoping and trying to meet each other. It's one of those moments you couldn't manufacture or recreate and could barely wish for.
My blogs always rabbit trail, I won't disappoint you now. My rabbit trail is about surprises. I've had discussion about the various "Love Languages", that's a popular book or something. I hear about them and go, "Well, I think all of those apply to me. That's very helpful... not." But if I had to make up my own love language I would choose surprises. I try to surprise people I love all the time. My budget is limited but if you admire something while shopping I've been known to snag it and buy it when you're not looking and you'll find it in your room later. *Cough*Roommate problems, we both do this*cough*. Some people have got the "Guess what????" text which, for the record, is almost always followed with "I love you" out of the blue.
I was trying to think about why I feel that surprises are so important. The person to whom I would like to show the most love, God, can't be surprised. He is, however, the expert at surprising. Some of my happiest moments come from those silly times when I desperately want something but think it's too ridiculous so I don't even ask God for it. His response is to give me that thing and more. Better yet, he responds with something I never would have thought to ask for, enter the surprise. How silly can I get? He knows I want that thing so why don't I just ask him? I know he'll follow through with something better in time anyway.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that surprises feel like a way of trying to imitate God's love for us. It's great to surprise something by giving them something they never would have even thought to ask for, you may even end up being a part of God's surprise for them, an answer to their prayer they never even prayed.
This is where I suddenly decided to start thinking big. I truly, honestly do not usually do this. The exception to this rule is about surprises. I love surprises. I love them and will do abnormal things to pull them off. I've only pulled off a few notable ones; converting a pre-existing birthday party to a surprise party, a surprise visit from four hours away and of course, a surprise visit from nine hours away.
It was complicated, it involved emailing D's sister and rearranging schedules and some very complicated driving schemes by me and plot-naming. (It was called Operation Come Along Pond, this video made by Emily is a wonderful recap of it. I'm not going to recap, D already did that in her own amazing way and Emily did it a fair amount in her blog too. Read theirs.)
It was also amazing. The surprise was completely worth it and more. Emily and I thought through many scenarios about how we could reveal ourselves, as she describes in her blog (and D from her perspective in hers) we got there and figured out that she was sleeping. I led the way into her room and sat down on her bed, trying to seem like this was a perfectly normal thing to do. Her face when she saw me was priceless, there is an excellent screencap of it in the video, I did happen to be holding a video camera at the time.
What I probably can't convey to you very well is the amount of wonderful emotions that went into and around that first surprised look. We had spent months planning the surprise and there were so many ways it could have gone wrong. She could have figured it out before hand and she could have looked smugly confirmed in her suspicions. In some impossible turn of events she could be not thrilled to see us or her family could not be thrilled to see us.
But no, she was completely and utterly surprised, hadn't suspected a thing. She was also visibly and radiantly happy about it, though a bit shocked (and thus needing a blanket.) Her family was also awesome and happy. For me it was a relief and a culmination of months of anticipation and planning plus years of hoping and trying to meet each other. It's one of those moments you couldn't manufacture or recreate and could barely wish for.
My blogs always rabbit trail, I won't disappoint you now. My rabbit trail is about surprises. I've had discussion about the various "Love Languages", that's a popular book or something. I hear about them and go, "Well, I think all of those apply to me. That's very helpful... not." But if I had to make up my own love language I would choose surprises. I try to surprise people I love all the time. My budget is limited but if you admire something while shopping I've been known to snag it and buy it when you're not looking and you'll find it in your room later. *Cough*Roommate problems, we both do this*cough*. Some people have got the "Guess what????" text which, for the record, is almost always followed with "I love you" out of the blue.
I was trying to think about why I feel that surprises are so important. The person to whom I would like to show the most love, God, can't be surprised. He is, however, the expert at surprising. Some of my happiest moments come from those silly times when I desperately want something but think it's too ridiculous so I don't even ask God for it. His response is to give me that thing and more. Better yet, he responds with something I never would have thought to ask for, enter the surprise. How silly can I get? He knows I want that thing so why don't I just ask him? I know he'll follow through with something better in time anyway.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that surprises feel like a way of trying to imitate God's love for us. It's great to surprise something by giving them something they never would have even thought to ask for, you may even end up being a part of God's surprise for them, an answer to their prayer they never even prayed.
Behold, the crowning mercies melt,
The first surprises stay;
And in my dross is dropped a gift
For which I dare not pray:
That a man grow used to grief and joy
But not to night and day.
“A Second Childhood.” - G.K. Chesterton
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