Life's Beauty

One element of me that I found that I enjoy the most is my artistic side.  I have hobbies such as drawing, poetry writing and piano playing.  I just started playing the piano 3 years ago and luckily I was able to catch on and stick to it.  My one joy growing up was writing poetry.  I discovered that talent when I was in 6th grade. 

One of my teachers had me and the rest of her English class write a poem about each of their closest family members.  She read mine and said that I had a talent.  I didn't think so until I kept writing for fun and other students liked it.  I entered a poetry contest 2 years later and I made it to the finals.  All I had to do was submit one more writing and the judges would grade mine against other competitors.  I wrote my poem from my heart, it was about a girl I had a crush on.  My dad read it and said no and told me to write about life and happiness.  I did but felt it wasn't pure, meaning I felt nothing when I read it.  I never heard back from the judges....I was pissed.  If I won, my prize would have been $10,000 in cash.  What teenager wouldn't have wanted that?!

MY WORDS

The words I write may mean something
From pain to love to sadness my heart will bring
I write in peace and away from society
As my words means something to me......

Song

I have a ton of favorite songs, ranging from R&B/Soul, Light Rock, and Alternative.  So choosing one would be very difficult.  I grew up listening to R&B/Soul because my parents have a lot of CDs of that genre so if I HAD to pick one, that would be my favorite.  Artists like Brian McKnight never get too old for me.  I also really like light rock because it has a similar theme of music to R&B/Soul.  Artists like Richard Marx, (even though he his not around) The Fray and John Mayer create music that I enjoy listening to.

But the one song that really strikes me is called "Anytime" by Brian McKnight.  He is a great singer and also a very skilled pianist.  McKnight is one of the only true artists in this day and age.  Growing up, I used to listen to his songs as I wrote most of my poems.  His soft, romance, and heartbreak style of music always gave me ideas when writing.  Here is a poem I wrote 4 years ago...

 EVEN MORE

I want to know you even more.
More than your beauty and smile.

You encase yourself in a shell.
Not wanting to open the door.

You smile, then walk away.
With nothing more to tell.

I sit and watch you walk.
You move with grace.

Your hair flutters in the air.
How I wish to see your face.

I see you every now and then.
I want to see you often.

Everyday and every second.
But, I know that will never be an option.

So, I enjoy every chance I get.
Even if I only say one word.

And even if you say nothing.
Those are moments I never forget.

"What do you hold in?"
Maybe the world is not ready.

You are the angel who finally chose to descend.
With me lucky enough to be your friend.

I chase after you, silently.
Maybe I am crazy.

I hold my feelings in as time goes by.
Fearing you would reject me.

With fear of it being too late.
But, as long as you are happy.

I hope to find you someday.
"Could it be?"

I want it to be true.
And I hope you feel the same way. 

Literature

Normally in a Lit class, the entire semester is spent reading stories and writing papers.  In my prior Lit class, ENGL 1101, typing papers is all we did the entire semester.  So I thought I wouldn't learn anything new while taking this World Literature class.  This class feels more like a Philosophy class because we have spent a great amount of time talking about religion, politics, and events that happened during ancient times.  We've done several class presentations using Power Point which is normally done in Business courses. 

The one area we have covered that was most interesting was how to create a Wikipedia.  Wiki is used my billions of people around the world for data searches.  Without a class on how to create and use Wikipedia, it is difficult to understand even the easiest aspects of it.  Simply citing or linking a word or paragraph can be confusing without a teaching of it.  This class has taught me how to look at Wikipedia from a learning vision instead of just a reading vision.  I now know how to edit it, but I must be careful when editing any wiki article.  There are wiki pros that have the authority to change my editing or even ban me from wiki for editing that they did not approve of.

I've created my wiki page for a class assignment.  I did it correctly but chose the tough subject.  Metamorphoses, though and interesting piece, was a very testy subject to wiki about.  A lot of information has already been done on it so finding original data on it was slightly difficult.  Hopefully my final grade will be satisfactory.

Hell

Dante views hell as not a threat to him.  He has no fear of it and is not afraid of going there.  He sees hell as a place not for everyone, even if they had an evil soul.  At the gate, not all the souls were accepted.  Hell is normally depicted as a place of suffering, but in Dante's writing, hell is just a place where you go to not see god.  Its described almost like solitary confinement where you are isolated from seeing anyone. 

There is an area in Hell where people are actually punished.  It is called the Second Circle of Hell.  To get access to the circle, you must be allowed to pass into the dark space where voices can be heard. 

Document

I chose to write my document about Metamorphoses.  It is argued that the genre is hard to decide.  I do agree, but it fits well in the genre of epic.  I also found other genres that will suit it, Wisdom Poetry and Speculative Poetry.  Wisdom Poetry involves any piece written or researched by a scholar.  Nikolaas Heinsius the Elder was a Dutch scholar who did research on Metamorphoses.  Speculative Poetry is a piece written completely on speculation.  I'm not saying that Metamorphoses is a complete lie, but since we have no physical proof, especially video, showing that all the events that happened in the tale, I am a little skeptical of it all.  However, I do believe in God.  The line, "some" god is used in the beginning.  If this really was factual, wouldn't Ovid have gotten the god's name or maybe a friend informed Ovid?  Many questions.

I believe that Metamorphoses will be an interesting topic to write about.  The fact that its a creation story brings up several interesting topics to include.  I am going to reread it because there are still some areas I am not completely understanding.  Due to its different writing style, some elements are hard to understand.  Hopefully my paper will be successful.

Opposites

In Daodejing, it seems like Laozi and Confucius have different views on life.  Confucius sees more of a peaceful and respectful approach to life lessons and experiences.  Laozi has a more aggressive viewing of it.  Confucius constantly preaches about life morals and its rewards how humans should know their rights from wrongs and how the man should present himself to society.  He preaches about how men are the ruler of the earth and women should be reminded of their role.  The reading does not describe how the woman should act.  Hopefully she has a positive role.  Laozi focuses more on gaining power and being a ruler.  Laozi fits the dictator role as opposed to the peaceful role in Confucius.

President

Confucius had strong beliefs in moral values and teachings.  I also believe Ben Carson understands people's struggles and life intentions.  One quote that Carson and Confucius have dealt with are relatively similar revolves around treating others with peace.

Master: "The wise find joy on the water, the good find joy in the mountains.  The wise are active, the good are quiet.  The wise are joyful, the good live long."

Carson:  "When people are consumed with hatred and intolerance, I think it clouds their ability to think  clearly."

Both of those quotes are not worded similar, but if you read it thoroughly, they have like meaning.

Finding joy on the water and in the mountains can mean to see everyone as good people before misjudging them.  Carson had a long struggle growing up, from a single parent household to almost going to jail at a young age.  He turned to the bible to help find guidance.  The wise are active and the good are quiet.  Carson was a neurosurgeon and his patience plays a good role in becoming a leader.  He does not try to forcefully overpower his opposition like a dictator, he listens carefully then speaks his part. 

"The wise are joyful".  This part relates to Carson's saying in the ability to think.  When you try to find the wrong in everything and everyone, that creates conflict and prevents any resolution.   Although I respect the aggression of Donald Trump, his ways of listening and cooperating with people can be dangerous in the long run.  Though he is rich and very successful, those do not make him a people person. 

 

Souls

Human life lives forever.  Not physically, but spiritually.  Our souls can never been seen by humans but only by god.  Souls aren't considered ghosts.  Ghosts are the remains of unrested human beings.  They wander the earth searching for the answers that couldn't be found when their bodies were on earth. 

Maybe souls don't exist.  Until I see a soul, I will continue to question that they exist.  I'll never know the answer as they are impossible to spot.  No device allows us to see anything less visible than clean oxygen.  Is there a difference between a soul and a ghost?  I kind of believe that souls are pure and ghosts are evil.  I didn't think of that until I started this post. 

Ghosts are known to scare people.  Souls are thought of as just the remains of a human body.  Do souls go to heaven and ghosts go to hell?  Both are eternal as they remain after the death of the body.  Maybe its all a myth.  When we die, maybe nothing happens.  We'll never know until we die, even when we do, how will we tell those who are still alive?  That is one of the questions in life that will never be answered. 

War

War should be avoided at all costs as the after effects are irreversible.  The intention of war is to kill the main target.  Obstacles cause the attacker(s) to kill people who weren't even involved.  When attacking, the aggressor tends to categorize any individual who looks or acts like the main suspect.  Places like the Middle East are negatively impacted by categorizing.  Unfortunately, the aggression will take many years to calm down meaning more innocent lives will be taken.

Currently, we are in a constant conflict with Syria.  Many terrorist groups reside there.  Syria constantly plans attacks on the U.S. due to our long history of conflicts with them.  Our only smart tactic is match or outsmart them.  Our use of drones is a good tactic as it a way to view them without risk of human lives.  Unfortunately, Syria is also smart when it comes to technology.  Their civilians can create drones just like us.  Recently, the Middle East has come up with a new way of terrorism.  They have found a way to plant bombs inside their own civilians to use them as bombs. 

Human bombs is a tactic that was never expected by any person with logic.  Surgically inserting a bomb into a human with intention of killing a mass crowd is crazy.  Many Syrians have no remorse nor care for U.S. Civilians.  We must constantly monitor their actions before we lose another human to terrorism.  Its going to be a long struggle but a life is worth it.

I agree with overseeing Syrian actions but the risks of it are too great to control.  No one is comfortable with another person spying on them.  Imagine a country watching another country without permission, sort of like eavesdropping on a confidential or extremely personal conversation.  No person, community, leader, and country would enjoy that.  But due to our long struggle with Syria, spying is the only way to prevent an attack.  Sadly, spying causes tension that my worsen the condition of our relationship with Syria.  Overall, a tense relationship is safer than unmonitored activity that can result in more lives lost.