As an avid reader, I have found that with finishing a book I feel both a sense of accomplishment and a bit of dissapiontment that the journey is over. Yes, I am proud to have finnished and relieved that I know the outcome of all the events in the story, but I am also sad that there are no more twists and turns or adventures to go on. I am sad that just as I got used to the pace of the book and felt like I was really getting to know the characters, that the story ended and we had to part ways.
This is how I feel ENTERING my freshman year after having left middle school. I moved during the year but continued to go to my old school untill I culminated. My friends all started school on the 14 of August, going with groups of friends to new schools. I start on Monday. Of course, we all split up ... some going here, others there, but many were going to highschool with a few kids they knew and were going to be able to keep in touch easily with all the people they knew from middle school. When I had just felt like I was really getting to know the cast of characters that sourounded me in middle school, I had to leave them; not only for highschool but in the fact that I now live 30 minuets away. It may not seam like a lot, but it is an hour round trip to commit to and its out of the way for most people. It hurts, when you finnish a book and there is no sequel and you are left wondering at the end : what happend next? I understand that sometimes it is left up to the reader to decide, but what should the reader think? is it the job of the reader to simply think that everything will be dandy and quant and be just fine? What if it's not all right? What if everything goes wrong and the main character that as a reader, you came to connect with, has a tragic end that you don't know about. What if they are all alone?
I guess that this is all just a metaphore that Unlike a book, there is no ending untill you leave this earth. Endings and beginings meld into one another and, of course, unlike a book, you can't know all of the twists and turns that your life will take. You have to live them, moment by moment. I am proud that I finished middle school, but I am dissapionted that I have to leave my comfort zone and enter a school in which I know absolutly nobody. I am sad that I don't know the ending of my story yet and I guess, like plunging into a new book, I am a tad nervous and daunted at what I will find.
Okay, more than a tad.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Questions
In all of the books that I have read that were assigned to me to read this summer, God has been a major topic. In both The Chosen and Bless Me, Ultima the main characters ask questions of God and wonder about the way God works and God's influence in our lives. This is esspesially true for Bless Me, Ultima. In King Arthur, the classical medieval image of God is shown. In this light, God is a divine being who inspires holyness and the creation of a holy relm of Lorges and grants divine gifts to his faithful followers. The image of God is completly different in Mythology, which is a reference source and retelling of classical Roman and Greek mythology. Here, the gods are simply supernatural humans who seam to meddle and make problems more than anything else. They take on human qualities, both good and bad and most have complex personalities of both good and evil, patience and wrath. Most are shown as quiet cruel and lofty.
In reading these views of God as told by so may different people, it makes me wonder why God is such a forbidden topic. It seams inappropriate to discuss religion and the whole idea of god or even if a God does exist. But why?Don't we have the right to free speach, and are we not told to ask questions? We are also told to treat people the way we want to be treated.
Is God human? Is God just a figure head created to help humans make sense of existance and awnser questions about the unknown? Is god a fish or a spirt or a holy light? Is God always right or does God make mistakes? DOES A GOD EXIST? These are all questions that I have, maybe you have them too. Why can't we discuss God or related topics in a safe enviroment where no one gets hurt or scared or punished for their belifs or lack of beliefs. Reading these books I have thought more about God than I have probably in my entire short life so far. Who knew that the readings of a freshman could be so thought provoking.
In reading these views of God as told by so may different people, it makes me wonder why God is such a forbidden topic. It seams inappropriate to discuss religion and the whole idea of god or even if a God does exist. But why?Don't we have the right to free speach, and are we not told to ask questions? We are also told to treat people the way we want to be treated.
Is God human? Is God just a figure head created to help humans make sense of existance and awnser questions about the unknown? Is god a fish or a spirt or a holy light? Is God always right or does God make mistakes? DOES A GOD EXIST? These are all questions that I have, maybe you have them too. Why can't we discuss God or related topics in a safe enviroment where no one gets hurt or scared or punished for their belifs or lack of beliefs. Reading these books I have thought more about God than I have probably in my entire short life so far. Who knew that the readings of a freshman could be so thought provoking.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Summer Readings # 1
This summer I was tasked with reading four mandatory books to prepare for my Honors English class. Those four were : The Chosen, Bless Me Ulitma, King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and Mythology. These four are not books i would pick up on a daily basis as I have found myslef preferring more childish books or fantasy novels. I have found though reading these four that not only is picking up a book that you would not normaly read agreat thing to do, but that it can challange you to think outside of your normal capasity.
The first of these books that I picked up was The Chosen by Chaim Potok. The book focuses on the life of a boy named Rueven. Rueven, a young Orthadox Jew living with his father in Booklyn, is not your typical teenager as the book is set during the horrific period of World War II and the years that foloowed. Rueven meets a boy named Danny Suanders who is a young genious and the son of a Tazzadick or Hazzick Rabi who is a link to god in the eyes of his followers. Danny and Reuven should have never met had it not been for the Baseball match they played against eachother. Though a series of events, the two become unlikely friends and learn about each others lives and family bonds.
The story is one of friendship and loyalty in a time of great suffering. It makes you think about the ties we share with our family and the places we are assigned by those who have raised us. The Chosen shows how religion can seperate or bind us together and how things beyond our capacity to understand or accept whether it be gennocide or silence, tradition or the path we chose to follow, all have results we could never imagine.
Overall, The Chosen was a phenominal book in my opionion. For me, it was a tale of learning to accept someone diffrent than you. It was a story of a changing world and the lives of people living at that time. One reason I liked The Chosen was that it made me think about religion and human nature. Those are both things that as humans in a busy modern society we don't often devote time to considering. Part of the book deals with these topics and how humans can be fast in there diversity of opion whether it is how to connect to God or how to raise a child.
While reading The Chosen, I came across may Jewish terms that I did not have a clear understanding of. My suggestion is that google and the dictioary be your guides. Do take th etime to look up terms you may not know, it will make the book much more powerful and easier to understand. As a Jew myslef, even I had trouble understanding some of the slight diffrences in the terms.
The first of these books that I picked up was The Chosen by Chaim Potok. The book focuses on the life of a boy named Rueven. Rueven, a young Orthadox Jew living with his father in Booklyn, is not your typical teenager as the book is set during the horrific period of World War II and the years that foloowed. Rueven meets a boy named Danny Suanders who is a young genious and the son of a Tazzadick or Hazzick Rabi who is a link to god in the eyes of his followers. Danny and Reuven should have never met had it not been for the Baseball match they played against eachother. Though a series of events, the two become unlikely friends and learn about each others lives and family bonds.
The story is one of friendship and loyalty in a time of great suffering. It makes you think about the ties we share with our family and the places we are assigned by those who have raised us. The Chosen shows how religion can seperate or bind us together and how things beyond our capacity to understand or accept whether it be gennocide or silence, tradition or the path we chose to follow, all have results we could never imagine.
Overall, The Chosen was a phenominal book in my opionion. For me, it was a tale of learning to accept someone diffrent than you. It was a story of a changing world and the lives of people living at that time. One reason I liked The Chosen was that it made me think about religion and human nature. Those are both things that as humans in a busy modern society we don't often devote time to considering. Part of the book deals with these topics and how humans can be fast in there diversity of opion whether it is how to connect to God or how to raise a child.
While reading The Chosen, I came across may Jewish terms that I did not have a clear understanding of. My suggestion is that google and the dictioary be your guides. Do take th etime to look up terms you may not know, it will make the book much more powerful and easier to understand. As a Jew myslef, even I had trouble understanding some of the slight diffrences in the terms.
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