Thoughts on Taoism

Learning about Taoism over the past few weeks has really made me realize how unappealing of a lifestyle it would be to have in the long run. If you were to not really look into it but just glance at the surface of it, it would seem like the perfect way to live. Always peaceful and never being in a rush or stressed out, but if you thought about it for longer like we did in class, Taoism would realistically be a hard lifestyle to live. Nothing would ever get done and it would probably get tiring and confusing always trying to find the good in things. I like how in Christianity everything is either good or evil, where as in Taoism it doesn't seem to really matter because everything is inner mixed. The no stress and peacefulness of Taoism would be nice but I don't think anything would ever get done which would be harder for me because I  like to have things scheduled out.  Reading the Pooh book made it a lot easier to understand and now that I think about it I completely agree with the author that Pooh does live a Taoistic life like many Chinese people do. There were a lot of aspects I didn't agree with the Taoists on. One of them being the whole incarnation thing, as Christians we know once you die you do not come back to life where the Taoists believe all life forms come back to life in some way. Also, their outlook on how they leave the world once they die. We believe that we should tell others about Christ where Taoists seem to be more focused on living their lives right so they do not get demoted to another life form when they die. All in all, I do not agree with all aspects of the Taoistic ways but it does seem like it would be a fun simple lifestyle to live at times. 

Koran

Though there are many similarities between the Bible and the koran i found the koran a lot harder to understand and follow. I also feel like the Bible is much more reliable for many reasons, such as when it was written and because it jumps around less. The Bible also it isn't based off of one person we have to trust who had no witnesses, unlike Jesus who had witnesses when He was resurrected and throughout his whole life.

I thought studying the koran was very beneficial, I realized how good and helpful it is to know what other religions believe. This is partly so I can understand them better and also so I don't get sucked into their religion or other religions because they are able to put up a better fight defending their god. By studying the koran I have learned that I really need to be prepared to fight back and find the truth in Christianity so I am fully on board. I felt like this study was also good so I understand why other people believe what they do and so I understand them better. I feel like now even with just reading a small portion of the koran if I was to have a conversation with an Islamic person I would be able to find the faults in their religion and what they were saying and compare them to similar things in Christianity that seem more correct and concrete. All in all I feel like the past week's studies have been extremely helpful and eye opening.

Camelot

I thought the Camelot movie was fairly good even though it was a bit old. Mostly, I appreciated the actors performances, and liked how much they got into their parts and showed their emotions. Because of the actors performances and the settings I could easily see how life probably was back then. I think this  movie is so appealing to people because of the love and forgiveness the actors and actresses showed towards each other. Guenevere and Lancelot's story was one that basically everyone desires to have, the human races' general longing is to fall in love and live happily ever after. Also, the forgiveness that King Arthur showed towards Guenevere and Lancelot is a characteristic that many people want as well. Having the heart to forgive someone after they have betrayed you is very hard and King Arthur's actions seemed to impress people a lot. King Arthur in a way is like God, he has a big heart, is very kind, and also very forgiving. Guenevere and Lancelot are a lot like all people, they give into temptations and turn there back on God or in this case King Arthur. All in all, this is a fairly good movie, the story line was easy to follow, and it got the point across very well.

Iliad/Troy comparison

 Because the movie Troy is based on the Iliad naturally there are many similarities between the two. However, because the movie had to condense twenty four of the Iliad books into a less than three hour movie there are many differences as well. First, the gods which are very prominent in the epic aren't even mentioned in the movie. This is probably because of the time issue the movie had, the gods couldn't all be mentioned and their theories described completely to the portion of the audience who would know nothing about the gods in such a short amount of time. Bringing up the gods might also have caused a lot of confusion amongst the audiences of the movie; Also in Troy, the warriors fight a lot with swords where in the epic they are said to have fought with spears. Another difference between the two is in the Iliad the Trojan War lasted ten years where as in the movie it lasted around seventeen days. This difference was also most likely changed because of the time as well, so so much information wouldn't have to be crammed in so little time. Because they made the movie a shorter time it was possible for the movie to focus more on littler things. Also a major difference between the Iliad and Troy was the way Achilles killed Hector. In the epic, Hector ran from Achilles three times around the city walls, then came face to face to fight with Achilles after the gods had come into the picture. In the movie, Achilles and Hector came face to face right away. This change in story was probably for the audiences' sake, to make the fight more thrilling for them to watch. However, there were also a tremendous amount of similarities between the epic and the movie. Many of which are focused on Achilles, in both Troy and the Iliad Achilles always appeared bronze, like a perfect man would look. Also, one of his major characteristic traits of him being angry was portrayed in both the movie and the epic as well. His anger was a major obstacle Achilles had to overcome. Another similar event in both the book and the movie was the way Patriclus was killed by Hector while wearing Achilles' armor, also how Hector stole his famous armor. Patriclus dying was one of the major events that caused Achilles' anger to be portrayed. All in all, Homer's the Iliad and the movie Troy were very similar, unfortunately the movie was essentially forced to make some major changes to accommodate the length of the movie.

Strategy and Success

1. So far I really like how much we talk about things in class. Like how we went over the Epic of Gilgamesh story and the other short stories so that we could fully understand them and smooth out all of the creases. I also like how we review the vocab roots to really get them engraved in our heads, and how we devote wednesday to only vocab basically so we have time to understand all of it as well. 

2. My greatest disappointments so far have been my grades on my  last vocab test and early short story quizzes. I know now the reason I received low grades on these quizzes/exams and I am changing the way I study now to hopefully prevent them. 

3. So far for the vocab tests I have looked at the words and their definitions through the book reading them over and over thinking I was getting them memorized. I have since figured out that I need to make flash cards of all the words and their roots so i can memorize them without seeing the definitions slightly and not memorizing them in order. 

For the reading quizzes I have read the story and taken some notes. Then set the story aside and didn't go back to it until right before class started. I also may have been reading the story and zoning out for parts of it because I was not making it interesting for myself to read. 

4. I don't really know what kind of learner I am. I do know that I'm not a aural learner because i don't do as well on oral exams as I do on ones I have to read myself. It does help me when I have movements to go with different things I am trying to memorize but I also like to have visual pictures, timelines, or typed papers of information. 

poems in genesis

Genesis 1:27 The narrator breaks into poem to emphasize that God was creating humans in his image, it is repetitive in a sense as well to clarify this important stage in His creation. He wanted the future people who would read it to know and thoroughly understand the section and remember it.

Genesis 2:23 The narrator breaks into poem again to set apart the creation on Eve from the rest of the passages because it is so significant and meaningful. He wanted us to know how special and unique this was.

Genesis 3:15-19 The narrator once again breaks into poem because it is a very significant time for human creation; it is the reason we are where we are today and not in the garden of Eden. Though this section is not as repetitive like the other sections including poems it is still just as meaningful. The change in writing makes what is being said more dramatic and memorable. 

archetype blog

The main character two eyes is different than her sisters and is neglected. Every day she eats leftovers and has to take care of their goat. One day an old lady comes to her when she is crying and gives her a spell to say to her goat to so he will bring her food. This keeps One-eye happy for a while until the sisters send the goat away. The old lady has another solution for her a large fruit tree that only she can get fruit from. A night came one day and took her away from One-eye’s sisters because she was able to give him a piece of fruit.

In this folktale One-eye represents the maiden who needs to be saved and her sisters represent crones or witches. One-eye’s hero ended up being the knight, but along the way it was also the old woman who could have also represented a sort of a side kick or even wise old man who helped her. The goat represented a side kick to one eye even though she wasn’t hero he helped her to solve the problem. The meadow that One-eye took her goat to represented peace and tranquility for her, also the tree represented this too along with shelter.


This folktale is revealed as German mainly through the setting and actions of the characters. One example is when One-eye took her goat to a meadow everyday to graze. The goat is also symbolic to the German culture because many people rely solely on them to survive. Also, the small cottage along with the rest of the setting is a perfect example of the fundamental nature of Germany.


One-Eye! Two-Eyes! Three-Eyes!
Told by Aaron Shepard
http://www.aaronshep.com/stories/051.html