#4 Pg. 1088

To compare any modern day lyrics with some poems from way back in the day is definitely going to be a challenge. I mean, I can’t stand poetry because it’s so vague and seriously a waste of my time. Trying to interpret what a poem is saying is like having my teeth pulled out one by one. If you remember, in my first blog or second one (idk) I clearly expressed that analyzing poetry and literature completely RUINS the entire thing for me. If I don’t understand what I’m reading the first time around, picking it apart piece by piece is only going to make me hate it even more. Plus, on top of not understanding poetry, the only similarity between these poems and any modern day love song is that they have the idea of love written into them. And that’s about it. The theory and definition of love has dramatically changed over the course of time and it simply doesn’t relate to love back in the day. Back in the day (I’m having a field day with this back in the day thing) love was forced and it only meant making your man happy and being a good wife. Nowadays (there I go again with the old people references) love is a choice and it can be between whatever two people choose it. Love will always be something that is sacred and special, but that can vary between people and the times (which is obvious given that Shakespeare was comparing women to seasons and guys today are comparing women to whores). One thing I will give poetry from ( I just had to) back in the day is that the men at least respected their women. It’s so hard to find a man who will respect you, let alone treat you like something other than a tool for sex. I guess you could say I have a thing for hating men. Lol. But really, there are some good ones, I’ll give you that. There’s about 4 in this country. Anyway. Like I said, comparing old poetry and modern day lyrics is a task for the brave people because they can only find so much. Love is a common “thematic element” in all love songs, duh. But like I said, that definition of love is completely different and when you really think about it, it kind of negates the whole “common thematic element” thing because said element has two different definitions. I don’t really have any favourite “modern” lyrics. I really like Nat King Cole’s “When I Fall in Love.” That’s a good one. I’m not the kind of person who actually listens to their music because for me it’s just like analyzing poetry. JUST LISTEN TO IT. The writer didn’t convey any message and he/she most certainly did NOT sit there and think “I think I’ll use an extended metaphor in the second verse and a illusion to Shakespeare in the chorus.” Really people.

i don't have a witty title this week. i know how this disappoints you.

Well, seeing as I haven’t been able to start the creation myth assignment, I haven’t really gotten the chance to study them (it’s been such a busy week and I’m falling wayyyyy behind on all my work lol). But I do know a little bit about some cultures and their creation myths because my high school thought we should know about them and not just our own. As far as calling them creation myths, I think that that sort of defeats the purpose that they are beliefs, and not myths, to the people who follow them. I read a little blurb from Lisa’s blog and she said something about how the myths were similar in the fact that they all seem to believe in a higher power that created the earth, and I agree with her. From what I’ve studied, many different cultures seem to believe in this higher power and they all have different interpretations of what it looks like and what its teachings are. I saw a lot of this in The Secret Life of Bees. I think that believing in this higher power gives people hope that there is someone out there who hears them when no one else does.

By studying other creation “myths” we can learn not only about another culture but also how they came to be the way they are now. People’s beliefs have a lot to do with how they act and interact with other people. People tend to behave accordingly to their beliefs and sometimes that can be mis-communicated because of a sort of culture clash. I definitely think it’s important to learn about other cultures and their beliefs because it’s ignorant to go on in life thinking that your way is the only right way to be. In order to understand people we have to know what they think and believe and we have to do that with an open mind. Sure, some people’s beliefs are hard to accept, but you have to remember that they have been raised that way and know no other way to believe. It was especially hard for me when I switched into the Catholic school system. I was like “they pray to saints? They pray to mary? They can’t do anything this is pointless.” This is why I think that people often times alienate each other; because they think what they believe is weird or stupid. I, myself, have had a lot of time to learn how to accept other’s beliefs and I think it has made me a more mature and better person for doing so. For the longest time I didn’t understand how people believed what they believed and then I remembered, “hey, I feel the same way they do about their religion. Duh, they’ve been raised Catholic, of course they’ll disagree with me. THIS is pointless.” So in conclusion, ladies and jelly spoons (you’d have to watch Eddie Izzard to laugh at that), by learning about other creation “myths” we can also get a deeper look into a person’s culture.

the burden of knowing

There are two characters in the story that stand out to me as suffering from the burden of knowing: Lily and May. Lily has lived her entire life with the memory of her mother’s death, and how she was the one who was at fault for the accident. Before she went to Tiburon to live with the calendar sisters, Lily had no idea of the circumstances in which she last saw her mother. This would be the burden of not knowing: not knowing why her mother left, not knowing her mother her whole life. Lily finds out through August Boatwright that her mother, indeed, left her. However, she also finds out that the day her mother died was the day she decided to come back for Lily and take her to live in Tiburon with the calendar sisters. When Lily founds out the truth about her mother and her mother’s past, she is weighted with all her mistakes and lies. She now has the burden of knowing the truth when she has been creating a façade of her mother this whole time. Lily had always thought of her mother as a woman who cared deeply about her child, but it turns out that she was saddened by Lily’s arrival. Lily goes on to say that she wishes she could erase everything she just heard from August. Also, Lily lives with the knowing that one day the police might come for her and Rosaleen and that her happy life in Tiburon may come to an abrupt end.
May, one of the calendar sisters, also suffers from the burden of knowing. It’s explained in the book that after her twin sister, April, died, May started to feel things differently. In the void of her dead sister, May filled it with the hurt of others. She started to take on other people’s grief and created her own unnecessary burden of knowing the hurt of the world. Even the small things like a spilled glass of water would send her into her world and she would have to hum to keep herself occupied. May’s burden of knowing is not as great as Lily’s, but she, too, suffers from knowing things she wishes she did not.
Lily and May have lived most of their lives creating a burden that only they could carry. Lily suffers each day from her burden and she is remarkably strong enough to swallow it and still find room to care about others first. May also suffers each day, but for different reasons. May has many reasons in a day why she suffers while Lily has only one reason, and that is her mother. The difference between these two characters is that they possess burdens of different magnitude, and the similarity is that they carry the burdens of others.
I’m about 50 pages shy of finishing the book and I wonder how Lily will come to terms with the news that she just received from August. I wonder if she will settle between hating and loving her mother.

aye, those be strong feelings

There have been many times in my life when i have felt strongly about something (now in particular about how much i want school to die in a fiery explosion). i have always been a very strong minded person with an overwhelming sense of just what i stand for. i know that my confidence in my opinions can intimidate others, and i try to be rational, really i do try, but most of the time i wind up leaving my fellow man in a crumpled pile of shame on the floor. and i do so enjoy that.

It's normal for a person to change opinions on certain matters, and i am no exception to that statement. i used to be die hard pro life, i even joined the club at school and would often use terms like "baby killer" and "murderer." as I've come to grow up, i have learned to contain myself when it comes to strongly debated topics. right now, i am on the fence when it comes to abortion. the way i see it, you can't bash on something like that if you've never been put into a situation where your whole life was at stake and you were left with that option. I'm not justifying abortion by any means, i still think it can be selfish and i do believe to a certain extent that it IS murder (i believe that when a human is developed, no matter how small it is, it is still a human. when it comes to a tiny egg, however, I'm a little more calmed. I'm scattered, as you can tell). but in other cases, like when a woman is raped and becomes pregnant, i believe she has the right to end her pregnancy. but at the same time, i still think it's wrong to take it out on the baby. i can never stay on one side of an argument, i have strong beliefs on both sides.

Another thing that i feel very strongly about is my right to own and use a gun however i want. i think it's wrong to say that there should be gun control because it's not the gun's fault that it's being misused, it's the morons who sell guns to people on the streets and it's the morons who are using those guns like MORONS. the only thing that we need to "control" is the criminals, not the guns. guns kill people, of course, but a gun doesn't know how to pull it's own trigger. it's people who kill people and taking away guns from innocent citizens like myself isn't going to do anything except leave me helpless. i believe that when i turn 21, i have every right to go buy a gun and get the permit to carry it with me at all times. being a woman, i am already a target for disgusting men who wish to compromise my virtue. and being a woman who believes STRONGLY in women's rights, i feel very strongly about maintaining my rights. and those rights include carrying a weapon. I'm not an idiot, i know how to shoot a gun and i practice as much as i can. if i weren't familiar with a gun, i wouldn't carry it. i think that people, when getting a concealed weapons permit, should have to prove how familiar they are with a gun. they should be able to load it properly and shoot a target.

To compare myself to an animal on this matter is difficult. i guess you could compare me to something extremely violent and strong, yet peaceful (which doesn't leave many options). perhaps a bear? a really big and scary bear that likes to cuddle with people sometimes, but this bear will turn on anything that proves to be harmful to it or it's family. yes, a big black and cuddly bear. OOH or a shark. sometimes they can be friendly if you're smart enough to not provoke them with a flesh wound.