This Blessed House

This Blessed House
I was very intrigued by Jhumpa Lahiri’s biography and couldn’t wait to read her work. Her educational credentials are impressive and her traveling experiences make it even better. There is a lot of educational applications that come with traveling that people do not even realize. Students that have seen different parts of the world, having a better schemata which will help them achieve well academically. It is especially beneficial when traveling occurs on a regular basis, like it did for Lahiri. I was also intrigued by the fact that she likes to discuss the difficulties that love causes, problems within families and the communications between language and culture.
This Blessed House is a story that represents a description of characters that I have never experienced. Lahiri does such an extraordinary job at making her characters come alive. I feel as if I have known Twinkle and Sanjeev forever. Their relationship is very interesting and does not make much sense to me. Twinkle obviously has a hidden desire to know about God in the way she values all of the pieces that relate to him. Sanjeev on the other hand despises anything piece that reminds him of Christianity. It surprises me that even though he is disgusted by them, he seems to always compromise and allows them to stay around somehow. Little did he know that a little compromise throughout the “treasure hunt,” would eventually lead to complete surrender. In my opinion, when Sanjeev “pressed the massive silver face to his ribs, careful not to let the feather hat slip,” represents him completely surrendering himself to the "treasure hunt."

Sanjeev’s testimony can relate to many people in this world today. There are so many people that run from the truth and the signs that God try to show them. God reveals himself constantly to people just as the “Christian,” pieces in the story kept appearing. Even when they thought there were no more “treasures," that could appear, they kept coming. This represents that no matter how far we run or how long, God will continually chase no matter how long it takes.
Whether or not Lahiri meant to incorporate spiritual implications in her story, I most definitely discovered some. These insights helped me to make connections between the lives of Twinkles and Sanjeev and the lives of the many believers and non-believers I deal with on a daily basis, especially myself.

Darkness

The darkness in this world is the reason why many people don't believe in God. They feel like if there was a God, then he would save all the bad in the world. What they don't realize is their presupposing that God is good and able to save the world. Wouldn't this mean that they have some kind of belief in him? Also, what are they comparing bad to? Who determines the degreeof what's bad and what's good? They are basing their thoughts on a morality that does not exist. If morality begins with someone, it must logically end with that person. Morality has to come from an unchanging source in order for it to be logically consistent.
Unfortunately, like Professor Corrigan states, darkness often hides in our daily lives, espescially the lives of Christians. Which should be a complete oxymoron since our daily goal should be a to bring light into this dark word. How are we going to shine light whenever we're filled with darkness. What if we walked around with this illumated light that was a silhoutte of our body in which the brightness was determined by our spirtual walk and how "holy," we lived our lives. Wouldn't that make more Christians think twice about their actions and more importantly how they treated people? No wonder there are so many non believers in this world.They witness firsthand believers that say one thing but the light reflecting from them does not match up. Just because the body of Christ is supposed to reach out to people in rhw darkness and bring them to light, doesn't mean we have to live they way that they do. We can still relate to their experiences and not have to acually participate.
Darkness is going to be prevelant in this world no matter how many lights are accessible. The choices that are taken by humans on a daily basis bring out this darkness and pain that is prevalent. Why do people blame that on God, why can't they blame it on the people that cause the darkness and pain. Why don't they blame themselves?

What we Talk About When We Talk About Love

Raymond Carver is an interesting author that has been through many different trials which gives him s platform to reach different audiences. I find it interesting that he is talking about love since he went through a divorce. Usually, when individuals go through such a hardship, they do not like to discuss the topic of love. I really like his quote that states,” Everything we write is, in some way, autobiographical. An author may not mean to incorporate their personal lives in their stories, but it typically tends to happen.
I was initially intriqued when I saw the title, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, because I was curious of what his views were going to be on the topic being that he experience a divorce.
In his case, the love of a marriage, which is suppose to form an unending bond between two people, did not last forever like I’m sure he hoped. Many people have to face divorce and deal with losing “the love of their life,” on a daily basis. why is this? Is it that people fall out of love, or is it that they do not fully understand what love is? People have different opinions on love. For instance, in the story, Mel describe love as being nothing less than spiritual love while Terri claimed that her ex loved her even though he physically abused her. I am sorry Terri, but that is most definitely not true love. Love is patient and kind and is not easily angered. Ed was controlling, selfish and had serious issues. It is extremely sad that Terri thinks that he truly loved her. If he really loved her he would not have treated her the way that he did. Just because he had mental issues does not give him the excuse to treat others the way he did.
People think that once they fall in love, life is going to be perfect from that point. What they don’t realize that people fall out of love all the time and that the initial feelings that come along with falling in love fade. Once that occurs, love then becomes a choice that two people must make in order for the relationship to last. In order for love to last, it must be thought of in the verb form instead of in the form of a noun. After love is established between two people, they must work in order to keep it ongoing.

1/20/11

Wow, it would have been so helpful to hear this reading advice about five years ago. I would have done so much better my college placement exams and would have retained so much more information during my first years of college. Before college, I was always a passive reader and never really read the way that I was supposed to. I only just started reading actively when I became a college student in which I was forced to comprehend and apply what I read. Along with reading actively, another really helpful reading strategy that is introduced in the text is activating prior knowledge. Making personal connections with previous experiences and knowledge helps the reader comprehend so much more. Activating prior knowledge does not require too much cognitive ability and can be done easily by a common reader. On the other hand, annotating text is a little more complex. Although it is helpful, many people see it as tedious and time consuming.

What you get out of what you read is definitely determined by how you read. If you read actively, you will obtain insightful knowledge from the text and will be able to comprehend more. On the other hand, if you read passively, you will not obtain as much information over a long period of time and you will not have a complete understanding of the text. I relate it to working out; if you just show up the gym and don’t work out, there will be no physical results. On the flip side, if you go the gym and lift weights, you will see physical results. Although good reading habits come naturally to the select few, they do not come some naturally for everybody. Many people have to work a little harder than others while they read to make sure they are obtaining full comprehension of the text.

Literacy Profile

As a child, literature and reading was not something that was valued in my household. Most children can remember their parents reading bedtime stories to them as a child, but not me. The only form of literature I received was at school and church. I cannot remember what it was like learning how to read or how long it took me. One of my earliest memories of literature was reading this Bible that was illustrated like a children’s book. I remember not knowing all the words, but do remember trying to make connections between the illustrations and the words. Fascinating how the mind teaches itself at times. Another childhood memory that is embedded in my mind was in first grade when my teacher did a thematic unit on the book called The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. My teacher, Mrs. Dunbar, made literature come alive. She made the room look like an ocean and hung fish and other ocean creatures around the room. For a week, all of our readings and activities were centered around the oceanic lifestyle. It was one of my favorite childhood memories and I learned so much during that time. After that unit, I saw reading as something much more engaging than my previous encounters. From then on, I enjoyed reading and would always try to make as many personal connections with the particular text that I was reading. It wasn’t until middle school that I became "too cool," for reading and focused more on sports and my social life. These distractions put me a little behind in my vocabulary knowledge which required me to work a little harder to stay on track with school and my peers. As a look back, I realize how different I felt about myself when I was actively reading and engaging in literature and when I was not. I was definitely more optimistic, outgoing and energetic when I read and engaged in a novel.

My most recent encounter with literature have been with the material I am forced to engage in. I have been engaging in textbooks, articles and websites centered around Special Education. I try to find time to read other novels outside of my major but can rarely find the time. Other than reading for school, I just make time for the word and Christian living books. It is extremely challenging to choose one piece of literature as the most significant literacy text because I have been inspired by many pieces. If I have to choose though, I would go with Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. This novel represents a perfect example of obedience to God and what unconditional love is.

I have never had a professor provide an insightful and entertaining description of their course. I was planning on dropping it because of a time conflict, but after reading the essay, I decided that it was worth the sacrifice. I am intrigued by Mr. Corrigan’s views on literature and how confident he is in the fact that everyone can appreciate it. I never thought about literature being so connected to the way of life and also categorized it as a subject that was disconnected from life. I am anxious to see how this course can help me experience literature in a new way.