painting scripture

My painting is currently in the process off being scanned(havent figured out how to use it yet) it will be up shortly, hopefully. My painting from class illustrated
Joel 2:1
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy hill.
Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming.
It is close at hand.

This verse captured my attention as soon as i read it and inspired me in which this passage led me to paint. I am always drawn to scripture that refers to a time that God is coming again.
I started my painting off by painting the trumpet. To me, this is what stands out in Joel 2:1. "...sound the alarm on my holy hill..." just think, that the entire world will be able to hear it, isn't that cool? I'm excited, are you excited?
This is something I have never done before. Painting an illustration of certain scripture? I realized that it allows me to think and, in a way, meditate more in depth on a particular verse and really understand the message that God is trying to get across to us.

The activities in the class is really opening my mind to look at literature from a different angle. In the beginning, I read something and put it away. I didnt try to understand it as long as i read it cover to cover. I am realizing that literature does have meaning behind it, including the Bible, and I am actually looking beyond the words of everything I read now. I'm excited and look forward to more activities that give me more insight and interest in literature.

by the lake

As I read Joel aloud while walking the campus on Tuesday I was also trying to figure out how to approach scripture in the Bible as literature. Also, reading aloud was something different for me, I enjoyed it. This allowed me to read every word and not skip lines and I was able to speak in a way that made the Bible make more sense to me. I sensed emotion and a different feeling that could not have happened reading it to myself and not aloud. i was able to truly look into the scripture and find its meaning as well as the message God is trying to relay to readers in Joel. Nature itself is talked about in Joel and being outside and reading, basically directly to nature, opened my eyes to something new. He has blessed us with nature because He loves us.

Reading aloud has a different meaning from one person to another. Each person reading aloud can create their own way tone, pauses, and emotion in reading the scripture. People can use their own imagination to have an understanding of what the message portrays. The Bible is unique in its own way and even so different people can interpret the Bible in their own way.

JOEL

A prophet of God, Joel, was in fact, the author of the book of Joel. Joel is not one of the books of the Bible that many people have clear knowledge about. It actually is all about God's specific plan of punishment for those who sin but also His promise to defend his people and love them. In the book of Joel, God displays a passionate concern for His people.

In reading Joel, a Christian will realize that a relationship with God is not an easy one and there are many trials that need to be overcome.

Joel 2:12-13 says "'Even now,'" declares the Lord, "'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.'""
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
This passage caught my attention and made me think that God does get angry when we, His people, fail and disappoint Him BUT He will still love us and bless us.

Joel starts out the book by sending His army of locusts across the land, but turns them far away when His people come to realize that God means business. He blesses them with in return with all that they could need and a full stomach.

The love of God is real and in Joel when it reads, "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy hill," in chapter 2 verse 1, there is a reminder to people that God is returning for His people. This could happen at any time and I believe that now is the time for true repentance. God loves us and in return just wants us to love Him and live by His ways to enter Heaven. I do not think He is asking to much. As Christians, we need to realize that God is real and He will be back

"When Lylacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"

A) Favorite or most challenging lines:
Song of the bleeding throat,
Death’s outlet song of life,(for well, dear brother, I know
If thou wast not gifted to sing, thou would’st surely die.

In trying to pull something out of these lines and still slightly confused, I would say that there is an automatic invitation to death if one could sing. "Song of the bleeding throat, in a way, gives a "heads up" for the next line which can be read as if one was given a voice to sing, they will die.


And the singer so shy to the rest receiv’d me,
The gray-brown bird I know, receiv’d us comrades three,
And he sang what seem’d the carol of death, and a verse for him I love.

Similar to the lines above, these lines also describe a song of death, "...the carol of death," line 128. In a way, this could be a repetitive message with different use of words.

B)Personal Response:
I can relate to this poem having to deal with death quite a bit in my life. I have large families on both sides and in the past 5 years there have been 8 deaths in the family. Although death is part of life, it is extremely hard to deal with after losing those that are loved most. Those who have brought the family so close together are now gone. This poem sends a specific message about death and I understand that there is a feeling of loneliness and sadness for awhile. I easily forget the death of someone close in my life but always remember the impact that he or she has had on my life.


C) Historical Information:
This poem is part of a series of poems that were written after Lincoln's assassination. This poem also makes reference to problems that occurred during the time of the Civil War. This is said to be a poem of mourning, which makes sense, of the death of a high ranking public figure(Abraham Lincoln). In reading "When Lilacs Last in the Doorway Bloom'd" I believe Whitman is attempting to figure out the best way to mourn the death of someone significant.
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/whitman/section7.rhtml

Since love is something that my professor,peers, and i have discussed in class, Im taking this to go more in depth. What is love?

Who really knows what love ACTUALLY is? I mean, is there ONE solid definition that puts all other "loves" to shame? There was one case in one of our readings in which love between a man and a woman involved physical abuse, emotional abuse, threats and so on. There was a situation in another text in which a man thought he was in love with the "girl of his dreams" but in reality is was more like an unhealthy obsession because the feelings were not mutual.

In the real world today, love more often then not seems to "make or break" and individual or couple. I believe that in order for two people to truly love each other they must both have the same opinion on what "love" really is.

All in all, people need to understand God's love. The love He has for us. More often then not love is not returned.
"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5

When you are in Love you can't fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams.

The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien's story ,"The Things They Carried," Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is in charge of a platoon including seventeen men during the Vietnam War. All his attention seems to be drawn to a girl named Martha, who is a junior in college back home and has no involvement in the Vietnam War. LT. Jimmy Cross loves Martha and knows she will never return the same feelings however, he continues to love her even after the war. He thinks about her all the time. He wonders what she is doing, thinks about boyfriends she might have and becomes jealous. It was during one of the times that he is "spaced out" that one of the men in the platoon is shot in the head. Jimmy realizes that it was because of his lack of attention that one of his men was lost. He is now dedicated to the safer well-being of his men and tells himself not to think of Martha anymore. He thinks that the men might possibly become irritated with Jimmy because he is suddenly enforcing more rules for the better safety of the platoon.


Jimmy's desire to be a strong leader for his platoon was disrupted by the "love" he had for Martha back home. Was it really love? It seems to me that it was more of an unhealthy obsession that he wanted to be a reality. They were thousands of miles apart and the "love" only went one way too. She wasn't one of those girls that were "waiting for a man to come home to him." Yes, she wrote letters to Jimmy and he had a picture of her but she never expressed emotions towards Jimmy.


This is a familiar issue, love that is given but not always returned. God's love for us, more often then not, is not returned despite all that he does for us. Another issue is that of not letting emotions get the best of you, this is all around even today. Especially in Vietnam, most men had fears, concerns, and hurt that they not dared let be seen in front of the rest of the platoon. They put on their "war face" and head into battle like many of us today. Many people today act different on the outside, but are crushed on the inside. This could potentially be very hard on a person because of built up emotions, fear, hurt that is never let out.

"What We Talk about When We Talk about Love"

In Raymond Carver's short story titled, "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love," two couples are gathered around a table with a bottle of gin. Something said by the narrator very early in the story, "...somehow got on the subject of love," (901) would become the subject for the entire story. Mel, the main character of the story, seems to have a very open mind on love. However, there are times in the story when he is sometimes rude and inconsiderate to those around him. The first story talked about was from Terri and how the man she was with prior to Mel "...loved her so much he tried to kill her" (901). Whether you want to call it love or not, the thought of beating up your significant other and constantly threatening her does not seem like love at all but more like dominance and control. Terri made an attempt to defend her prior lover whenever Mel would criticize him for what he had done. Terri went on to say, "Sure, it's abnormal in most people's eyes. But he was willing to die for it. He did die for it" (903). For the first part of the story most of the talking went on between Mel and Terri while Nick and Laura would question them and ask to continue their stories. Mel believed that real love was, in fact, simply spiritual love. Both couples continued to drink and loosen up a tad more on the main subject, especially Mel. The other story was about the old couple that had been in the crash. That was real love, that the husband was depressed because he could not see his wife. The story is left with the couples sitting around the table in absolute silence. What were they all thinking about?

Assignment 1

I have many memories of Literature throughout my schooling career. My earliest memory leads back to 1st grade when the class read a Clifford book aloud. Obviously, a story about a giant red dog would catch the eye of most 6 year old children, and it did. I remember that book like I read it yesterday. My most recent memories of literature are the short stories titled "Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "A Good Man is Hard to Find," by Flannery O'Connor. Both of these were pieces of literature that will always remember because I became interested while reading them. Many people forget what they have read if there is no significant interest in the piece.
From a view that literature does matter, people could look at literature as a written form of art in a way that they are expressing themselves through written words rather than traditional art, or pictures. People also seem to find it hard to talk about a painting whereas talking about a character in a story is something that almost everyone is able to do.
There are also ways in which literature does not matter. Some may say that it is to improve reading skills, period, the end. There is no need to "read between the lines" or "take literature to your heart." I have heard people say that there is no need to analyze most pieces of literature because they have no meaning, no real thought put in to the work. I am going to side both ways on this one. Yes, I think that literature is, in a way, a form of art. Something that authors actually do put their lives into in order for many to express themselves. On the other hand, I do not believe that literature needs to be analyzed to death. There is no need to try to get into the authors mind and try to figure what his or her purpose was in writing a work or going "deep into the books roots" to understand the piece of literature better.