I love this song so much. Its by Manchester Orchestra. From the video, which is really cool, it seems to be about man destroying society, environment, our world. But I think it has to do with a much deeper concept than physical destruction. I think this song is abouth destroying our innocence. Once we do that, are things ever the same? That is not why I like the song. That is depressing, and I do not like depressing songs. Well, you may say, she is crazy because she constantly references The Cure, and that is some of the most depressing music ever. OK, you got me. I do like sad songs. They speak to me and seem more meaningful and true than happy pop songs. I really like how this song sounds though, sort of reminiscent of Pink Floyd. Sounds a lot like MeWithoutYou, too.
Heard don't move unless you know someone you can move And I bruise just like anyone would bruise And I know we've got a long way to go I know I've got so far
We built this house with our hands, and our time, and our blood You build this up in one day to fall downward and rust You built this house with your hands, and your time, and your blood We built this up in one day to fall downward and rust
I'm gone You tried to emphasize and side with both your ghosts In time I swore I'd take the straight and narrow path but still won't I hold his ear I'm only trying to do my job tonight Kiss him on top his lips and crucify the fire
Never really feel the same never gonna be the same no it's never gonna be the same never gonna be the same
Trust in me the same way (with your time, your blood) Holy or inane (To fall downward and)
Several years ago, I was student teaching in Wisconsin in a 6th grade classroom. Somehow, I happened to be placed in a classroom which was horrid! They were "that" class, the one class which every teacher remembers with a shudder. On top of that, my husband and I had just found out we were expecting. I could barely move with fatigue, and I was so hungry all the time. It was an interesting 10 weeks, to say the least. At the end of the quarter, I swore I would never, ever, EVER teach! There were a few mean girls. They were awful to anyone outside of their clique. One day a particularly mean girl, Sarah, started making fun of a heavier girl causing her to cry. This happens to be one of my soap boxes and told her how awful she was and sent her to the office. Before she left she told me I would never be a "real" teacher! After she left, I broke down and cried. I don't usually let that happen in public, but I was 5 months pregnant! What do you expect? I didn't let her know she upset me so much with her statement.
A few weeks later, an assignment was due. I had assigned a special biography project to the class. Each student was supposed to choose a historical biography and complete a paper and oral report. Sarah chose Joan of Arc. I didn't expect too much. To my surprise, Sarah not only loved the book, she was inspired. She was almost in tears while speaking about the bravery and courage of Joan of Arc. One of the reasons why I think it is so important for students to read classics and biographies is exactly that. In the hope that they inspire them to reach for higher goals and cast aside behavior which hurts others. Joan of Arc gave her life in an attempt to win freedom for the unpopular. I don't think this was lost on Sarah.
I just finished reading the Hunger Games Trilogy. I loved the series, can't wait for the movie. Part of which, was filmed a few miles from my house.
While reading, I kept on thinking about how Katniss was similar to Joan of Arc. She is one of my favorite heroines of all time. She was the leader, a symbol of hope to an army of deflated soldiers, a girl who became so much more than society would ever allow. Here is a great summary of her life .. http://archive.joan-of-arc.org/joanofarc_short_biography.html
Katniss was a lot like Joan of Arc. A young sixteen year old girl, who became a symbol for a revolution against oppression. Just like Joan, Katniss triggered a whole nation of people to fight for freedom. There are of course many differences. Joan relied on her faith. Katniss had none, atleast no faith in a higher power. Joan saw visions of Saints and was called a Saint herself, which inspired many to follow her. Which leads me to my next rambling. Did Joan really see visions?
Its not that I don't believe in people seeing visions, I am just always....skeptical. The way I see it, logically, of course, is that either Joan DID see visions of Saints who told her what she had to do, she was crazy and saw hallucinations, or she lied about the whole thing.
I do not think she was crazy. First of all, I do not think a whole army would follow an insane person, although, a whole nation followed Hitler, so perhaps this is my weakest idea.
She could have actually have seen visions of the exact saints which would inspire poor people to fight for their country. She saw visions of the Archangel Michael, who had recently become the patron saint of the French Army. If God was to send visions to a maid, they would be meaningful. Like that.
I wonder if it would be such a crime to suggest that perhaps she exaggerated her visions in the effort to gain support. It has been done before. It will be done again. Using religious fervor to fight a war.
Either way, her story is incredible. Even more than Katniss's tale. It has a martyr's ending, which is tragic. But to live every second of your life under conviction, and having the ability to inspire men to fight for honor and justice. I can't help but admire Joan. I like Katniss. I admire Joan.
So of course I have to wrap up with one of my favorite songs and my favorite bands. The Smiths as they sing "Now I know how Joan of Arc felt when the flames rose to her Roman nose and her hearing aid started to melt". Classic
I have mixed feelings about capital punishment. I like to think of myself as a Pro-Lifer from cradle to grave. While reading the Lord of the Rings when I was 16, I was struck by this dialogue between Frodo and Gandalf. Frodo said that it was a pity Bilbo didn't kill Gollum, when he had a chance. Gandalf replies, "It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live DESERVE death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many"
This week, unaware, being in my little bubble, I ran across this tumblr...
I am Lawrence Belk This statement reminded me of the Outer Limits 1995 (and later a movie by the same name) I, Robot. It is based on a short story by Asimov. I immediately clicked on this link... to find out the details of the story.
John 8:7, where Jesus challenges the men who would put her to death, he points out the guilt in us all, and they walk away.
But adultery is not murder, and it is include a grotesque desire for blood. But Jesus lived at the peak of the Roman empire. Have you read about the blood, gore, bloodthirst, and atrocities which occurred? Seriously, Christ lived in a society which would have Lawrence Belk in charge of arena games, or a soldier of some sort. And yet, He was silent on a lot of social issues, even that. I am probably minimalizing and summarizing these thoughts to a fault.
We live in a broken world, with broken people. There are awful, horrible things done to innocent victims. Jesus did have a few words to say about those who hurt children. It includes a millstone and is kind of harsh. (I need a reference here, but can't seem to find it...help me out)
I just struggle with a state's right to try and sentence an individual to DEATH. What a responsibility! There are innocent people who are tried and found guilty every year. Mostly due to the lack of financial funds, because lets face it... if you have money in this country, you can get away with a lot! Yes, Lawrence Belk DESERVED DEATH. But I certainly would not want to push the button, especially if it meant that a potentially innocent man like Troy Davis had to die! See, my dilemma? What is the worse of two evils? The government having the power to administer life and death, or the evil which lurks in the hearts of men? Perhaps we need a Shadow to administer justice..
Going back to the issue... should we kill our worse criminals? Should we administer "an eye for any eye" as a society? What will that do to the soul of our culture? There is another Outer Limits episode. It deals with the prison system of the future. The episode is called THE SENTENCE. Imagine a virtual prison, administered in a few moments. During that small amount of time, the prisoner spends years and years in a prison or sentence appropriate to his crime. It is an extremely thought provoking episode. Perhaps a death sentence is more humane. The silent ramblings of my mind will continue...
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Serenity is also the name of a ship. (Firefly, Joss Whedon creation). I was thinking about the significance of the name for the ship. The setting for the tale is the future, after Earth is depleted of resources. Man ventures out and populates other planets. Its sort of a western in space. Really cool. So, there is a ton of violence and chaos in this future. But this ship anchors the crew in a way. It provides a way of life, its own little sanctuary for them. A bit of Serenity and peace. But in a larger sense, I think Serenity does come from within us, or more specifically, how we deal with life. Stuff happens to us all, accidents, sicknesses, things break, keys get lost. For me, it has been a conscious decision to not let circumstances stress me out, and not to make mountains out of mountains. Yes, its all perspective. To view even the mountains as molehills, if you will. If we view the life around us as being insurmountable, we will only end up dancing around the foot of the mountain, looking up at the loftiness of it all. Instead, I try to not let situations affect me. Especially things I can not change. It won't change anything by worrying.
This comes after a two year stint for my family. Total confusion, chaos and mayhem should have resulted. And we have been discouraged, depressed at times, sad, mostly confused. But over all we just live in the day at hand. Things work out. Yes, the dishwasher and air conditioning may go out one day, the brakes in the car stop working the next, I can't motivate my kids to read (yes that bugs me). But its a mental decision to not let it all defeat us. It is strange when people tell me "I don't know how you guys are doing it, you seem so positive, when your life totally sucks" (well they don't use those exact words, but thats what they mean.)
We have our escapes... fixing things, art, movies, books.... prayer. My husband does a lot better with the prayer thing than me though. He aims at having a continual conversation with God... every thought type of idea. Like Stonewall Jackson, General of the Confederate Army during the War of Northern Invasion... To sum it up, I think its a choice. To choose to not drown. To choose to not be engulfed by sadness. To choose the positive way. To just "keep on swimming". And when we make decisions that are wrong or just not good, we learn from them instead of letting them ruin us.
I like the word Ramble...... The dictionary says that the word ramble means to take a leisurely walk in the country, to talk or write without much direction, to meander. But it means a lot more than that to me.
So I give Ramble my own definition: to wander on without direction, wherever the road may take you. To be a gypsy of sorts. I use to think that my husband was The Rambler... like in this old song. He couldn't stay put for more than a few minutes. And I just went wherever he went. We moved a lot in our first 10 years of marriage. Ten times, actually. We started out in Nyack, NY, moved to Wisconsin and moved from town to town, and then moved to New Hampshire, meandering around that exquisite state. For the past 6 years we have been stuck in North Carolina. I say stuck because we can't move anywhere. We tried. Multiple times. Blame the economy, blame fate, blame Providence. Whatever. This being stuck in limbo has brought the realization to myself that I like to ramble too.. I like change, a new town, unpacking and discovering new places and meeting new people. Am I unAmerican for that? There are many people who would like to live in the same house their whole life. To have the type of stability of knowing everyone in town, being close to family, knowing what to expect.
Anyway Led Zeppelin's Ramble On speaks to me:
I will end with part of a poem by Robert Service, one of my favorite poets. His poems were about death, war, and the desolation of brave explorers of a time past. He doesn't write about false love, but other desires that push a man to make his mark.
Men Who Don't Fit In
There's A race of men that don't fit in, A race that can't stay still; So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will. They range the field and they rove the flood, And they climb the mountain's crest; Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood, And they don't know how to rest. If they just went straight they might go far, They are strong and brave and true; But they're always tired of the things that are, And they want the strange and new. They say: "Could I find my proper groove, What a deep mark I would make!" So they chop and change, and each fresh move Is only a fresh mistake. And each forgets, as he strips and runs With a brilliant, fitful pace, It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones Who win in the lifelong race. And each forgets that his youth has fled, Forgets that his prime is past, Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead, In the glare of the truth at last. He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance; He has just done things by half. Life's been a jolly good joke on him, And now is the time to laugh. Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost; He was never meant to win; He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone; He's a man who won't fit in.
I drive 30 minutes every Monday to teach art classes in a studio in the town of Davidson. Davidson is the coolest college town and has a lot more charm than the other planned suburban neighborhoods which populate the city of Charlotte and the surrounding areas. Concord is nice too, but has a lot more 'roughness' about it. Both Charlotte and Davidson, however, have beautiful buildings rich in heritage and age. The majority of the rest of the Charlotte area consists of houses built quickly for a profit during the last 20 years. Every time there is a storm warning, I am sure that my whole street of houses will be whisked away in a violent wind. Secretly, I almost hope that a tornado will come and take Neo and I to Oz. As I was teaching some kids yesterday, I was cutting pieces of art out of an old art history textbook to use as references. I came across this - The Third of May. And today being the 3rd of May, I thought it was pretty cool and totally coincidentally ironic. I really like Goya. He was a true artist in that he didn't compromise. (No he was NOT a Thomas Kincaid!) He lived during the time of the Spanish Inquisition and he painted and drew cartoons which depicted the irony and tragedy of what he saw. The Church did not like him very much. There is a movie about him which stars Robert Downey Jr. and Natalie Portman http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455957/. Probably not exactly historically accurate, and totally depressing, but look around at the world.... life is not exactly happy or just. My favorite piece by Goya is The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters. During the time of the enlightenment, the whole conflict between Reason vs. Faith was prevalent. JUST LIKE IN LOST! The best TV show EVER!
"Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels."
