INterpretation of Sonn's BLues

1.       Sonny at this point in the story has been released from prison and has dragged his brother to the small café where he played over a year ago.  Even though this may cause Sonny harm, he goes to his piano anyway.  This quotation is near the end of the story of Sonny’s Blues.  This is the narrator’s reaction to Sonny’s and his band playing the blues.  It talks about how emotional he felt and the real reason for blues in the first place.  “He and his boys up there were keeping it new, al the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen.  For, while the tale of how we suffer and how we are delighted, and how we triumph is never new, it always must be heard.  There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.” 

2.       I feel that initially this is a passage that comes across quite easy to understand and connect with the rest of the story but yet as one looks closer, relating it more to personal life, it is easy to see that more questions than answers may arise from the text.  Questions such as, “In what ways do I suffer?” or “Is the way I’m living my life causing people to stop and want to listen?” or even

3.       I take this as being a way of trying to justify what Sonny went through in life.  A way to explain his ordeal to make it so that even if he wishes his life to be better, he makes the best of it by helping others listen to his pain.  The emotions described in the quote: suffering, delight, and triumph are all feelings that make us human.   They are what link us and cause us to long for each other, another person just to be there and to understand.  Even though all our pain and joy’s  are not the same we still feel the brokenness or the leaps in another person.  It is more like a cycle.  When he was suffering, Sonny found his comfort in family and music.  In turn, Sonny uses the blues as a way to express his pain to extend comfort to others.  The saddest, maybe hardest part to grasp is that the suffering does not necessarily end.  Even when   This does not always come as easy as it seems though.  It takes many years as the story depicts to get to this point.  “He and his boys up there were keeping it new, al the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen.” This quotation is good to remember because, even though they are helping people, they have not been taken out of the suffering and hard times themselves, they are just making the best of it. Sonny himself puts himself through the gravest danger, at the risk of trying drugs again and going back to prison from where he felt so trapped and like a slave.  A lot of times, especially as Christians we expect the hard times to stop before we can move on and make a real difference.  Truth is, the hard times never stop, but the one thing we can hold onto is that which we build our lives around and make them worth living for.  This can relate to the phrase, “There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.”  This shows that despite the heartache and pain, in the end it is the only thing that really makes life worth living.  Everything else is shallow and fleeting away.  MY favorite quote to support this would be “And he was giving it back, as everything must be given back, so that, passing through death, it can live forever.”  Just the thought of his music and the difference he is making live in infamy even after he passes is enough I think to help him keep going and continue playing. 

4.       There are many example I can find to support my theory.  On the same page, a little farther down, it talks about how Sonny’s playing “filled the air with life.” At some point in the story it describes Sonny as a “caged bird” trying to escape the effects that prison has had on him.  It also continues to explain how that life, with his music, contained so many other lives there with him.   In the same paragraph it further talks about how freedom was present when Sonny played.  His laying down of burdens through music allowed others to do the same. 

5.       It is when one stops and really applies this passage to his or her life that they can see the complexity but also the relation to themselves as well.   By asking such questions we discover ourselves more but also find ways to reach out to others through our own suffering, which is exactly what Sonny did.  Also if one wants to take it even farther, this is what Christ called us to do.  Take our burdens of life and use them to make us into who we are so that we may help others out along the journey of life.  It is about finding one’s testimony and living it out in everyday life whether through art, or maybe work, or even Relating this to “it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness” this can relate to the binding of relationships that one’s testimony can bring about.  That maybe even though the bad times were hard and rough this element of life makes it worth it. 

Temple of the Holy Ghost

There is a lot of good imagery and quotes throughout this story that apply to our faith and beliefs today. 

The child, little girl, throughout the story seems prideful and almost insecure in away around the other girls.  The perspective she gives makes her sound like she is trying to be older than she is so of course she would be “better” than Joanne and Suzie.  The reason she views them as stupid is because they are into boys and it seems nothing else but it might be good to remember that the child was too young to understand the emotions that she could feel or want.  In a way I think she wanted to be accepted by the girls but her pride acted as a facade to hide her insecurity.  This plays into the forgiveness that she experiences at the end of the story where she gives up all these malice thoughts towards the girl’s. 

The hermaphrodite was an interesting twist almost to the story.  It fits but it is the last thing you’re expecting to come out of the text.  I feel that the way we view such a person would be as crude and disturbing and that’s why such a figure appeared at the fair, because he knew that it would draw attention.  The word’s he says though are challenging the people not to laugh or freak out because he to is a “Temple of the Holy Spirit.” Again we see the theme of misjudging people for what’s on the outside.  Is it safe to say that God didn’t intend us to be in such an awkward state, sure, but what the hermaphrodite represents is the intention and plan God has for us nonetheless. 

The whole of the story overall is the spiritual journey of the child.  Though it seems her family is religious and spiritual those words from the man, though considered a “freak show” are what showed her a sense of true salvation and repentance.    

The One's who walk from Omela

So this story seems pretty easy to understand the meaning behind, at least the simple main concept the author wishes us readers to grasp.  The author describes this amazing place to live, almost a utopia, and how the life that these people live is so festive, free, and joyous.  Although all this is brought to the table, the author then describes that all of this beautiful paradise has to come at a price.  That somehow this child, not even able to tell the sex of it, is the key or ransom that comes with allowing these people to live this way.  Even though they see the terrible and horrid conditions that it lives in, they care too much about the lives they are living to put a stop to any of it.  The last paragraph’s, I feel, talk about how  those that can’t seem to stand the guilt and shame of watching the child suffer like that leave.  Though it takes a lot to turn their back on everything they know, they are the brave ones that can walk away from Omelas.  One question that comes to mind is why does one automatically default to leaving instead of trying to rescue this poor soul? Maybe it is because they feel  like he is already too far gone. It seems like no one is in a place to jump in all rebelious like and be the hero.   I know the story talks some about their pleasure being slavery and maybe they felt that there was no escape but to leave and turn their back on this society.  This can also relate and be a way to alert and inform people how many turn their back on the suffering.  This brings up another point.  What if since the story talks about how the society is guilt free that the people who leave are almost out cast because they are not able to live with themselves.  They get so caught up in their life that they feel that maybe it is another person’s duty.  Possibly they feel so ashamed to be a part of it to begin with so they just leave.  Another reason could be simply that the life they are living seems more important and worth living than that one little child.  This is totally against the teachings of God.  He teaches that we are all made equal and through countless stories he proves this: such as leaving the 99 or how he recounts all the scriptures on being selfless and a servant.  This really caused me to think what I would do in the situation if I was put up to it and how we treat suffering people on an everyday basis. 

Angel or Man

There are a lot of themes in this story that all seem to connect, I’m sure if I totally understand it but I’ll try to explain here.  I felt there was a strong tie between the child and the so called angel.  The part in the story where it talks about the boy got chicken pox and likewise so did the angel.  Something interesting I took is that the townspeople got tired of this magnificent creature.  The problem was, it was not as magnificent as they had always dreamed or hoped.  It shows just like a lot things in life how we cannot appreciate the subtle or even worse, the ugly, but everything we need has to be entertaining, great, and spectacular.  The only reason the family took notice of such an angel was really because it gained them such a profit and yet at the end of the story when the angel finally flew away it talks about how it was not such a burden to her anymore.  This almost seems like maybe he was a blessing in disguise.  The way that it describes how the angel was no more than an image on the horizon, maybe the angel was meant to be just that.  An image that we are meant to leave to our imagination so that we continue to appreciate what the angel stands for.  This reminds me of the story in the bible where it talks about treat even the least of these people with respect because in some way you are serving the Father up in heaven.  It’s hard to say whether the way the angel is depicted has any further significance, such as his age, health, that he was patient, ect.  If anything, this matters as to push us to want to gain an understanding of the unseen. 

A Tree So Small

Standing where once was a seed
I'm presented with a beautiful tree
Beautiful, graceful,
Tough, and Strong
with leaves green and branches long.
Breaking through to first ray's light
So young and so vulneralbe
to the harshness of nature's
natural cold frost and bitter
unfair natural selection.
How the children run
oblivious to you now
yet there your family hovers;
the ones who spewed that little seed into the ground
With aspirations that they will look at you one day
and climb high through its foilage
so as to gasp in awe
at the beautiful world that now seems
tiny as can be.
All this from the tree that stands proudly tall
with leaves green and branches long.

A view on Poetry

I feel poetry is always hard to get into at first.  Usually there is no attention getter right off at the beginning but one must take the time to read and find further connections.  This is why a lot of people hate poetry so much but these poems were pretty good I thought.  I almost thought that my favorite was the Messenger or the Uses of Sorrow poems.  The Uses of Sorrow was so short but made you think about how thoughtful just a few lines could actually be.  The Messenger had really good imagery in it especially the line, “telling them all how it is we live forever.” I thought it showed how even the creatures of the world scream and worship for God and just how the world is missing this big critical aspect of peace and harmony with nature and with each other.  The essay talks about how our love for God should in return give us a passion for his creation.  This not only means with other humans but with nature and the outdoors as well.  I also really wanna stress the importance of having that connection with God and the world and how it effects us  producing,good fruit.  See, it almost feels that when we write and appreciate poetry and literature we are taking in other people’s fruits. This not only allows us to grow spiritually and test our faith but help develop our fruits as well.  I feel that this is where many Christians get stuck, is that they know they are going to heaven so they don’t see any reason to try and further the kingdom and so they lack the fruits and power that God has given them.  Honestly they are cutting themselves short, I fell, because they are not being the best person that they can be without spreading or sharing God’s love with someone.  One thing I liked about the essay is how he described it as a tension and that we’re supposed to build it up.   

First off, I was not able to have acces to a computer this weekend but I thought I would just mention that I really enjoyed the trip to Circle B.  It was alot of fun and I plan on going their again just to visit and walk around. 

On Thursday night I did attend the showing of Othello.  It was hard to get into at first but by the end i thought it was pretty interesting, kinda cliche as far as Shakespeare's tragedy's go almost. 

 "I went to Lake Bonny Park for this field trip, and I stayed there for at least 45 minutes."