She
cackled.
“You cackled, Granny,” said Magrat darkly.
“I did not! It was,” Granny
fumbled for a word, “a chuckle.”
“I bet Black Aliss used to cackle.”
“You want
to watch out you don’t end up the same way as she did,” said Nanny. “She went a
bit funny at the finish, you know. Poisoned apples and suchlike.”
“Just because
I might have chuckled a… a bit roughly,” sniffed Granny. She felt that she was
being unduly defensive. “Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with cackling. In
moderation.”
- Wyrd Sisters, p. 181, by Terry Pratchett
Mwahahahahaha. Ahem. In moderation.
Monday, September 24, 2012
A First
Today I was bombarded by half-eaten acorns by some annoyed squirrel. Needless to say, this is a first. I have never been subject to a nutty attack by a deranged rodent before.
Squirrels are rodents, aren't they? They have the front teeth. I think they are... I hope I'm right.
At any rate, Dr. Bibbee called them, "rats with fuzzy tails," the first day of class.
On a totally unrelated note, I am coming to the opinion that the GO GEEK! buttons really are meant to say geek not greek. Perhaps there is some secret message behind the buttons that I, a mere outsider, am wholly unaware of...
On another totally unrelated note, this is my 170th post. Go me! I am the official Blog Queen of the Honors Sophomore Class; no one can knock me down from my pedestal because no one can catch me to begin with. Mwahahahahaha.
What? Everyone's allowed an evil laugh now and then, aren't they?
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Squirrels are rodents, aren't they? They have the front teeth. I think they are... I hope I'm right.
At any rate, Dr. Bibbee called them, "rats with fuzzy tails," the first day of class.
On a totally unrelated note, I am coming to the opinion that the GO GEEK! buttons really are meant to say geek not greek. Perhaps there is some secret message behind the buttons that I, a mere outsider, am wholly unaware of...
On another totally unrelated note, this is my 170th post. Go me! I am the official Blog Queen of the Honors Sophomore Class; no one can knock me down from my pedestal because no one can catch me to begin with. Mwahahahahaha.
What? Everyone's allowed an evil laugh now and then, aren't they?
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
I Feel Like Mocking Something
Therefore, I have found this hilarious passage in my speech handbook to soundly belabor with harsh criticism until it whimpers with shame and slinks away under the table.
If you were the only person on an island, your ethics would be of no concern because your actions would affect only you. - Speech handbook, p.8
My ethics would be of no concern? That's a joke! Never underestimate the harm that one's own actions can do to oneself. There's something called guilt. There's something called shame. There's something called self-hatred. When one does something wrong and one knows it, a horrible burning sensation just rips through oneself and it hurts. Especially if the wrong done is serious.
However, evil has a habit of desensitizing its victims... And sooner or later, if the wrong actions pile up, they no longer hurt. The conscience is numbed. And that is when the actions have well and truly hurt the doer. He has become impervious to the whisperings of his conscious, through numerous repeated petty evils, and he is doomed more surely than if he had committed some great crime.
Read The Screwtape Letters. And then read The Snakebite Letters, which is pretty much the Catholic version of the former, written by Peter Kreeft. Everyone should read The Screwtape Letters. Or, if you're one of those weenies who want the audio versions, there is an audio version, so you have no excuse. I think it was put out by Focus on the Family. At any rate, Andy Serkis (the guy who played Gollum, for your information) does the voice of Screwtape. EPIC WIN.
To summarize, my first bone to pick with the above passage was this: actions that 'only' concern oneself are never of no concern. Instead, they are of vital concern. We are obliged to take more care of our own bodies and souls than those of other people.
My second bone to pick with the passage is the insinuation that if one were all alone on an island, one's actions would affect only oneself. LIE. BIG FAT LIE! By no means do I believe in some sort of collective unconsciousness, like Jung, but I certainly subscribe more to the view of The Brothers Karamazov, in that, "We are each responsible for all." There is a ripple effect. Every action we perform touches all our brothers and sisters, for good or for ill. It only took one man and one woman to subject us all to original sin. It needn't be direct harm or bad example.
"It'll only affect me," is no excuse for anything wrong! Wrong is wrong, no matter its object. This modern relativism is inherently illogical and is the enemy of truth. But the modern zeitgeist is very much indifferent to its internal self-contradiction and illogicity... It does not care. It cares very much on the outside, about a plethora of trivial, temporal things, but it does not care about things that shall outlast this world...
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
If you were the only person on an island, your ethics would be of no concern because your actions would affect only you. - Speech handbook, p.8
My ethics would be of no concern? That's a joke! Never underestimate the harm that one's own actions can do to oneself. There's something called guilt. There's something called shame. There's something called self-hatred. When one does something wrong and one knows it, a horrible burning sensation just rips through oneself and it hurts. Especially if the wrong done is serious.
However, evil has a habit of desensitizing its victims... And sooner or later, if the wrong actions pile up, they no longer hurt. The conscience is numbed. And that is when the actions have well and truly hurt the doer. He has become impervious to the whisperings of his conscious, through numerous repeated petty evils, and he is doomed more surely than if he had committed some great crime.
Read The Screwtape Letters. And then read The Snakebite Letters, which is pretty much the Catholic version of the former, written by Peter Kreeft. Everyone should read The Screwtape Letters. Or, if you're one of those weenies who want the audio versions, there is an audio version, so you have no excuse. I think it was put out by Focus on the Family. At any rate, Andy Serkis (the guy who played Gollum, for your information) does the voice of Screwtape. EPIC WIN.
To summarize, my first bone to pick with the above passage was this: actions that 'only' concern oneself are never of no concern. Instead, they are of vital concern. We are obliged to take more care of our own bodies and souls than those of other people.
My second bone to pick with the passage is the insinuation that if one were all alone on an island, one's actions would affect only oneself. LIE. BIG FAT LIE! By no means do I believe in some sort of collective unconsciousness, like Jung, but I certainly subscribe more to the view of The Brothers Karamazov, in that, "We are each responsible for all." There is a ripple effect. Every action we perform touches all our brothers and sisters, for good or for ill. It only took one man and one woman to subject us all to original sin. It needn't be direct harm or bad example.
"It'll only affect me," is no excuse for anything wrong! Wrong is wrong, no matter its object. This modern relativism is inherently illogical and is the enemy of truth. But the modern zeitgeist is very much indifferent to its internal self-contradiction and illogicity... It does not care. It cares very much on the outside, about a plethora of trivial, temporal things, but it does not care about things that shall outlast this world...
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Monday, September 17, 2012
Honors Forum 9/17
Yeah, I know, original title. ANYWAY.
Tonight's speaker was Emily Baker, the Director of Success by 6 at United Way. I have had the hardest time writing and typing, "Success by 6," and not, "Success by Six." I know it works better for their graphics, but a rule I learned said that if the number is under ten, you write the word and not the numeral.
Now that I have recovered from that minor grammatical tangent I meandered down, Mrs. Baker proved quite the moving speaker. Success by 6 targets young children of underprivileged families in order to stimulate their intellectual and mental growth so that they will be more accomplished young men and women in the future. Success by 6 in Northwest Alabama seems mainly focused on promoting literacy by giving away books, etc.
I am all for literacy. I am not so sure, however, about a couple of the statistics she threw at us in her PowerPoint. Half of kindergarteners are behind? What standard is that measured against? I am sort of suspicious about standardized testing. I don't think a test can adequately measure an individual's intellect. Intelligence comes in so many specialities. And seven out of ten fourth-graders cannot read at a basic level? I dunno... Maybe my perception is clouded by the fact that I was always reading far and above my own reading level. I'm the type who zipped through The Lord of the Rings in 36 hours, so... yeah, my judgment is probably a bit biased.
See what I mean about people being too close to themselves to analyze themselves? I was not being just overly philosophical in my introduction speech. I honestly find it hard to analyze myself.
Regardless, I understand completely about the Success by 6 premise. Studies have also shown (and here I am not citing sources, either... Two semesters of Composition have made me citation-happy. I apologize in advance for my PowerPoint tomorrow to the rest of the computer class. I have two slides solely of citations...) that children who take some sort of music lesson are generally more intellectually advanced. As a matter of fact, that is why my mom always wanted us to be musically involved. One of my brothers has dropped piano; the other wants to. It's a chore to get him to practice, unfortunately. Elaine and I have stuck with it, however. I've been taking piano for 13 years. I suppose I can't lay the responsibility for my mind solely at the feet of a baby grand, but... it's food for thought.
What Color Is Your Parachute? That is a book I may have to check out...
I am not sure what else I should say, so I should probably sign out here.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Tonight's speaker was Emily Baker, the Director of Success by 6 at United Way. I have had the hardest time writing and typing, "Success by 6," and not, "Success by Six." I know it works better for their graphics, but a rule I learned said that if the number is under ten, you write the word and not the numeral.
Now that I have recovered from that minor grammatical tangent I meandered down, Mrs. Baker proved quite the moving speaker. Success by 6 targets young children of underprivileged families in order to stimulate their intellectual and mental growth so that they will be more accomplished young men and women in the future. Success by 6 in Northwest Alabama seems mainly focused on promoting literacy by giving away books, etc.
I am all for literacy. I am not so sure, however, about a couple of the statistics she threw at us in her PowerPoint. Half of kindergarteners are behind? What standard is that measured against? I am sort of suspicious about standardized testing. I don't think a test can adequately measure an individual's intellect. Intelligence comes in so many specialities. And seven out of ten fourth-graders cannot read at a basic level? I dunno... Maybe my perception is clouded by the fact that I was always reading far and above my own reading level. I'm the type who zipped through The Lord of the Rings in 36 hours, so... yeah, my judgment is probably a bit biased.
See what I mean about people being too close to themselves to analyze themselves? I was not being just overly philosophical in my introduction speech. I honestly find it hard to analyze myself.
Regardless, I understand completely about the Success by 6 premise. Studies have also shown (and here I am not citing sources, either... Two semesters of Composition have made me citation-happy. I apologize in advance for my PowerPoint tomorrow to the rest of the computer class. I have two slides solely of citations...) that children who take some sort of music lesson are generally more intellectually advanced. As a matter of fact, that is why my mom always wanted us to be musically involved. One of my brothers has dropped piano; the other wants to. It's a chore to get him to practice, unfortunately. Elaine and I have stuck with it, however. I've been taking piano for 13 years. I suppose I can't lay the responsibility for my mind solely at the feet of a baby grand, but... it's food for thought.
What Color Is Your Parachute? That is a book I may have to check out...
I am not sure what else I should say, so I should probably sign out here.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Justice does not
mean equality.
In a poem, in the universe, in mathematics, in architecture—everywhere
there is natural justice, justice means inequality, yin and yang, male and
female, higher and lower, East and West, light and darkness, land and water. No
flat, dull repetition but uniqueness. In human relationships, too, justice does
not mean equality, but treating equals equaly and unequals unequally. Is
it just to treat a pig like a man? If so, it is also just to treat a man like a
pig.
One of the astonishing blind spots of modernity is its unquestioning
fixation on equality.
– Peter Kreeft, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know
About Heaven, 30-31.
Happy, Happy Thursdays!
I really don't know why, but Thursdays seem to always be my short days. Go figure. They also have fun classes, like literature. XD
I am now feeling rather smug because I have finished my PowerPoint for computer class. I have done it about global warming and the non-human causes of it, whereby I shall probably offend all the rabid environmentalists in my class. Oh, well, I shall be offending them for a good cause: the propagation of truth throughout the world. The truth must always be supported, whenever and wherever it is found. It is my charge. It is my hope.
*pauses as no one gets the allusion to an obscure scene in a random video game and slinks away under the table*
Now that I have learned where the bathrooms are in Keller, I shall go there before heading over to Stevens. This shall ensure I do not get caught up in bathroom lines that extend all the way out the door and also that I do not have to sit through the entirety of another lecture peiod without having gone. Bathrooms are very important things to know. The proper functioning of the world revolves around them. The first thing you should learn in any foreign language is, "Where is the bathroom, please?" and the first thing you should locate in a new building is the bathroom. EMERGENCIES HAPPEN!
Literature today was priceless. I am coming to very much anticipate our lively discussions in class, even though I take virtually no part in them myself. Having at least six boys in the class helps, since they actually speak up and say interesting things. While we were on Egyptian love poetry (yes, you read that right. Egyptian love poetry. I didn't know such a genre existed), Christian kept speculating that the people in the poems were crazy. It was great. I still haven't looked up those other poems. I should really do that...
Today was Iliad Day. Am I the only person who has a hard time spelling 'Iliad' with only one l? I keep wanting to type "Illiad". Weird. Anyway, save for a brief excursion to insult the Greek gods of Homer's worldview, the conversation focused pretty much on the comparisons and contrasts between Hector and Achillies. The results were hilariously predictably.
All the girls were pro-Hector. Really, it's no surprise. He comes across as a much more heroic character, much more human and sympathetic. He has a family- a wife, Andromache, and son, Astyanax- as well as a ton of brothers and his parents. He is fighting to defend his city and his people, unlike Achilles, who fights for glory and rage and whatnot. He dies tragically and then Achilles has the gall to dishonor his body. Yep, it's no wonder all the tender-hearted girls like Hector.
Yes, yes, I shall admit it. Hector's my favorite, too.
Amusingly, though, the ones who spoke out in Achilles's defense were the boys. They kept trying to defend him and point out the historical viewpoint of the actions in The Iliad and stuff like that. They did try, bless their hearts. But I was not converted.
Tomorrow is geography day. Perhaps we'll learn something new and useful. Perhaps we shall not. At any rate, we shall go and freeze in the Wesleyan auditorium and take a few notes or two. Seriously, WHY ARE THE BUILDINGS ALL SET AT LIKE 60 DEGREES?
And the computer labs are the worst offenders. Does silicon operate better in sub-arctic temperatures? Can any math or science geek answer that for me? I believe the answer is yes, but when does the minimal advantage provided by ten degrees cooler turn into disadvantage because the computer parts have frozen together?
Tomorrow is also speech. Yaaaaay. I am not at all enthusiastic. I was dreading the class. The speaking part wasn't so bad. I thought the class was not hopeless. Now the teacher has decided to talk politics. The class is hopeless. I'm not even trying to hide my boredom when the teacher brings up random political figures to bash them. And, really, I ask you, what does saying you are personally disgusted by Sarah Palin have anything to do with teaching us the proper rhetorical appeals or how to understand an audience? I've learned more from reading the book so far. Granted, that usually happens, but to happen in the first few weeks of school... That is sort of sad...
Today a random dude with a megaphone invaded campus. He had hung posters on himself and was carrying around a brown paper bag, presumably filled with candy, which he offered to the poor unfortunate souls who could not get away from him in time. He kept repeating through said megaphone that there would be a stand-up comedy night at some time (come to think of it, I don't think he ever mentioned a place) and said we could all bring our own beer. No joke. "Bring your own beer! Bring your own rum! Ruin your life while laughing!" Seriously, he said that. No exaggeration. I thought he was going to chase me down and offer me mysterious candy since I had to cross campus in front of him, but I managed to run up the hill to Stevens and escape him.
That was sort of creepy.
Other than that, though, this was a happy Thursday. Ooh. Thursday is Thor's Day, you know? Bonus fun fact! Read my blog, learn something you probably already knew. Am I not wonderful?
I suppose I'll have to spend some more time in the language lab. Better bring my parka. Last time I inadvertently ended up under the vent and so froze. I consoled myself with a Hersheys from the vending machine. However, the Hersheys had almonds in it. Who eats their chocolate with nuts in it??!! Why do they always have to go and ruin good chocolate with hard crunchy bits? It's in brownies, it's on cakes, it's in the overpriced candy bars in machines in freezing campus buildings...
Spending 100 minutes in the language lab at a stretch can grow a bit mind-numbing, however. Lately, after I finish my German homework, I have taken to researching dinosaurs on the Internet. I'm still listening to German radio, so it's not like I'm hogging a computer in there. But I do wonder what people think when they see a picture of a Brachiosaurus on the screen accompanied by walls of text and me frantically scribbling and sneezing occasionally.
Yes, I have a cold. Stupid colds. I'm getting better now, though. Unfortunately, most of my family caught it from me. Sorry. It was not my intention to share.
Don't worry. This blog is safe. I am fairly sure you cannot catch my cold over the Internet. The tech people are still working on that one.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
I am now feeling rather smug because I have finished my PowerPoint for computer class. I have done it about global warming and the non-human causes of it, whereby I shall probably offend all the rabid environmentalists in my class. Oh, well, I shall be offending them for a good cause: the propagation of truth throughout the world. The truth must always be supported, whenever and wherever it is found. It is my charge. It is my hope.
*pauses as no one gets the allusion to an obscure scene in a random video game and slinks away under the table*
Now that I have learned where the bathrooms are in Keller, I shall go there before heading over to Stevens. This shall ensure I do not get caught up in bathroom lines that extend all the way out the door and also that I do not have to sit through the entirety of another lecture peiod without having gone. Bathrooms are very important things to know. The proper functioning of the world revolves around them. The first thing you should learn in any foreign language is, "Where is the bathroom, please?" and the first thing you should locate in a new building is the bathroom. EMERGENCIES HAPPEN!
Literature today was priceless. I am coming to very much anticipate our lively discussions in class, even though I take virtually no part in them myself. Having at least six boys in the class helps, since they actually speak up and say interesting things. While we were on Egyptian love poetry (yes, you read that right. Egyptian love poetry. I didn't know such a genre existed), Christian kept speculating that the people in the poems were crazy. It was great. I still haven't looked up those other poems. I should really do that...
Today was Iliad Day. Am I the only person who has a hard time spelling 'Iliad' with only one l? I keep wanting to type "Illiad". Weird. Anyway, save for a brief excursion to insult the Greek gods of Homer's worldview, the conversation focused pretty much on the comparisons and contrasts between Hector and Achillies. The results were hilariously predictably.
All the girls were pro-Hector. Really, it's no surprise. He comes across as a much more heroic character, much more human and sympathetic. He has a family- a wife, Andromache, and son, Astyanax- as well as a ton of brothers and his parents. He is fighting to defend his city and his people, unlike Achilles, who fights for glory and rage and whatnot. He dies tragically and then Achilles has the gall to dishonor his body. Yep, it's no wonder all the tender-hearted girls like Hector.
Yes, yes, I shall admit it. Hector's my favorite, too.
Amusingly, though, the ones who spoke out in Achilles's defense were the boys. They kept trying to defend him and point out the historical viewpoint of the actions in The Iliad and stuff like that. They did try, bless their hearts. But I was not converted.
Tomorrow is geography day. Perhaps we'll learn something new and useful. Perhaps we shall not. At any rate, we shall go and freeze in the Wesleyan auditorium and take a few notes or two. Seriously, WHY ARE THE BUILDINGS ALL SET AT LIKE 60 DEGREES?
And the computer labs are the worst offenders. Does silicon operate better in sub-arctic temperatures? Can any math or science geek answer that for me? I believe the answer is yes, but when does the minimal advantage provided by ten degrees cooler turn into disadvantage because the computer parts have frozen together?
Tomorrow is also speech. Yaaaaay. I am not at all enthusiastic. I was dreading the class. The speaking part wasn't so bad. I thought the class was not hopeless. Now the teacher has decided to talk politics. The class is hopeless. I'm not even trying to hide my boredom when the teacher brings up random political figures to bash them. And, really, I ask you, what does saying you are personally disgusted by Sarah Palin have anything to do with teaching us the proper rhetorical appeals or how to understand an audience? I've learned more from reading the book so far. Granted, that usually happens, but to happen in the first few weeks of school... That is sort of sad...
Today a random dude with a megaphone invaded campus. He had hung posters on himself and was carrying around a brown paper bag, presumably filled with candy, which he offered to the poor unfortunate souls who could not get away from him in time. He kept repeating through said megaphone that there would be a stand-up comedy night at some time (come to think of it, I don't think he ever mentioned a place) and said we could all bring our own beer. No joke. "Bring your own beer! Bring your own rum! Ruin your life while laughing!" Seriously, he said that. No exaggeration. I thought he was going to chase me down and offer me mysterious candy since I had to cross campus in front of him, but I managed to run up the hill to Stevens and escape him.
That was sort of creepy.
Other than that, though, this was a happy Thursday. Ooh. Thursday is Thor's Day, you know? Bonus fun fact! Read my blog, learn something you probably already knew. Am I not wonderful?
I suppose I'll have to spend some more time in the language lab. Better bring my parka. Last time I inadvertently ended up under the vent and so froze. I consoled myself with a Hersheys from the vending machine. However, the Hersheys had almonds in it. Who eats their chocolate with nuts in it??!! Why do they always have to go and ruin good chocolate with hard crunchy bits? It's in brownies, it's on cakes, it's in the overpriced candy bars in machines in freezing campus buildings...
Spending 100 minutes in the language lab at a stretch can grow a bit mind-numbing, however. Lately, after I finish my German homework, I have taken to researching dinosaurs on the Internet. I'm still listening to German radio, so it's not like I'm hogging a computer in there. But I do wonder what people think when they see a picture of a Brachiosaurus on the screen accompanied by walls of text and me frantically scribbling and sneezing occasionally.
Yes, I have a cold. Stupid colds. I'm getting better now, though. Unfortunately, most of my family caught it from me. Sorry. It was not my intention to share.
Don't worry. This blog is safe. I am fairly sure you cannot catch my cold over the Internet. The tech people are still working on that one.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Monday, September 10, 2012
Chesterton once pointed out that the madman is not one
who has lost his reason; rather he has lost everything but his reason.
In other words, intelligence is no reliable measure of truth, for when
intelligent people are subjective they are subjective in a highly articulate
fashion, which can sound eminently rational.
– Michael O’Brien, Harry Potter
and the Paganization of Culture
That is a book I proudly support! But here and now is not the place to go into my argument re: Harry Potter Is A Hypocrite.
A Little Bit More About My Platform
However, this is me, and "a little bit" usually means "walls of text" because I go off on rambling philosophical tangents and have a hard time finding my way back.
The joys of reading dictionaries, encyclopedias, and philosophy books for fun. It makes you think. And thinking can be dangerous, you know. It might actually make you start reasoning. Not rationalizing, but reasoning. Logic is a great gift to mankind. To put it one way, logic is the art of thinking rightly. Unfortunately, no one likes to think logically these days. Most people don't like it. It usually contradicts what they'd like to hear.
Logic is closely related to Logos, and I'm not talking about the rhetorical appeal. I'm talking about In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Logos is Greek for Verbum, which is Latin for, "THE WORD".
I suppose I could have chosen for my platform (and this is not all to say that I cannot or will not change my mind somewhere along the way in the future) something a bit more hands-on. Those types of things seem real popular. Concrete results are very much desired. People like seeing something they have helped bring about. They like to see that their efforts are not in vain. People would much rather help build something, plant a tree, pick up litter, etc., because they can see the difference they have made.
But that's not what I have chosen.
I suppose I was playing to my strengths when I thought of my platform. I have been taking piano lessons for thirteen years. Playing the piano for old people was something I could do and hopefully not freak out about. I wouldn't see a physical difference that I had caused, but if I can make some person happier, that will be recompense enough. It's in very much the same vein that I say, "Good morning," to the bus drivers when I get on at Darby, and that I tell them, "Thank you," whenever I get off. No one else may do this, but I shall. Because I appreciate them, and I want them to know I am not selfishly taking what they do for granted.
Tonight, coming to UNA for forum, one of the buses was sitting at Harrison Plaza waiting. The veteran guy was in the driver's seat. As I walked past the bus and he turned in my direction, I smiled and waved. He opened the bus door to say hi to me and wished me good luck with my late class. He's such a sweet old man. Niceness doesn't cost anything, and it often comes around to you in the end. I wish a lot more people would be nice. It wouldn't end war or fix hunger, but it'd make the world a tiny bit less unpleasant.
But I'm probably asking for a lot.
Back to music, though. I want to make some people happy. I may be committing the fatal rhetorical error of sweeping generalization and wild mass guessing here, but I don't know that most old people in assisted living and nursing homes get visited much. Maybe playing the piano for them would make someone happier. I hope so.
I believe music is not just a great gift to the world. I belive it is a positive good. Music is something fundamental to our natures. It reflects the fundamental order and harmony of Creation. In The Magician's Nephew, Aslan sings to create Narnia and its inhabitants. In the Ainulindale part of The Silmarillion, the book documenting the history of Middle-Earth (and Aman and all the other regions of Arda) before The Hobbit, the Ainur sing before Eru Illuvatar (God), and He gives to their song the Flame Imperishable and makes it real. And hasn't someone saying that singing is praying twice?
Plato said the first step in education in the good society is music and that it is also the first step to corruption in a bad scoeity. A musical revolution always precedes a cultural revolution. Just think of the rock and roll revolution and what followed... Not to say that rock and roll is inherently evil. But I think it is a bit closer to chaos and noise than, say, Beethoven, and so is more corruptible.
Good music produces order and harmony. Bad music usually just degenerates into noise, and Noise is a hallmark of Hell. There's no pretty way to put it. Music and silence are characteristic of Heaven.
I do try to aim for the good music side of things, you know...
Incidentally, probably my favorite song is, Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. My ringtone is Ode to Joy, I think (my phone's always on vibrate, so setting any ringtone is perfunctory), and Ode to Joy is the tune of Joyful, Joyful. It doesn't have any words, the ringtone. I love Christmas music, too- not the cutesy ones like Santa Baby and The Christmas Song and I'll Be Home for Christmas but the hymns, like Silent Night, Adeste Fideles, and, one of the best, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.
I am sad that it is getting cooler again and the days are getting shorter as we procede irreversibly towards fall. However, I love the Christmas season- my family can attest I will sing Christmas songs at any time of the year- so there is always a silver lining to the clouds. And even pyrite is yellow. (No, you don't have to get that reference.)
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
P.S. I have passed over 160 posts. Go me!
The joys of reading dictionaries, encyclopedias, and philosophy books for fun. It makes you think. And thinking can be dangerous, you know. It might actually make you start reasoning. Not rationalizing, but reasoning. Logic is a great gift to mankind. To put it one way, logic is the art of thinking rightly. Unfortunately, no one likes to think logically these days. Most people don't like it. It usually contradicts what they'd like to hear.
Logic is closely related to Logos, and I'm not talking about the rhetorical appeal. I'm talking about In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Logos is Greek for Verbum, which is Latin for, "THE WORD".
I suppose I could have chosen for my platform (and this is not all to say that I cannot or will not change my mind somewhere along the way in the future) something a bit more hands-on. Those types of things seem real popular. Concrete results are very much desired. People like seeing something they have helped bring about. They like to see that their efforts are not in vain. People would much rather help build something, plant a tree, pick up litter, etc., because they can see the difference they have made.
But that's not what I have chosen.
I suppose I was playing to my strengths when I thought of my platform. I have been taking piano lessons for thirteen years. Playing the piano for old people was something I could do and hopefully not freak out about. I wouldn't see a physical difference that I had caused, but if I can make some person happier, that will be recompense enough. It's in very much the same vein that I say, "Good morning," to the bus drivers when I get on at Darby, and that I tell them, "Thank you," whenever I get off. No one else may do this, but I shall. Because I appreciate them, and I want them to know I am not selfishly taking what they do for granted.
Tonight, coming to UNA for forum, one of the buses was sitting at Harrison Plaza waiting. The veteran guy was in the driver's seat. As I walked past the bus and he turned in my direction, I smiled and waved. He opened the bus door to say hi to me and wished me good luck with my late class. He's such a sweet old man. Niceness doesn't cost anything, and it often comes around to you in the end. I wish a lot more people would be nice. It wouldn't end war or fix hunger, but it'd make the world a tiny bit less unpleasant.
But I'm probably asking for a lot.
Back to music, though. I want to make some people happy. I may be committing the fatal rhetorical error of sweeping generalization and wild mass guessing here, but I don't know that most old people in assisted living and nursing homes get visited much. Maybe playing the piano for them would make someone happier. I hope so.
I believe music is not just a great gift to the world. I belive it is a positive good. Music is something fundamental to our natures. It reflects the fundamental order and harmony of Creation. In The Magician's Nephew, Aslan sings to create Narnia and its inhabitants. In the Ainulindale part of The Silmarillion, the book documenting the history of Middle-Earth (and Aman and all the other regions of Arda) before The Hobbit, the Ainur sing before Eru Illuvatar (God), and He gives to their song the Flame Imperishable and makes it real. And hasn't someone saying that singing is praying twice?
Plato said the first step in education in the good society is music and that it is also the first step to corruption in a bad scoeity. A musical revolution always precedes a cultural revolution. Just think of the rock and roll revolution and what followed... Not to say that rock and roll is inherently evil. But I think it is a bit closer to chaos and noise than, say, Beethoven, and so is more corruptible.
Good music produces order and harmony. Bad music usually just degenerates into noise, and Noise is a hallmark of Hell. There's no pretty way to put it. Music and silence are characteristic of Heaven.
I do try to aim for the good music side of things, you know...
Incidentally, probably my favorite song is, Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. My ringtone is Ode to Joy, I think (my phone's always on vibrate, so setting any ringtone is perfunctory), and Ode to Joy is the tune of Joyful, Joyful. It doesn't have any words, the ringtone. I love Christmas music, too- not the cutesy ones like Santa Baby and The Christmas Song and I'll Be Home for Christmas but the hymns, like Silent Night, Adeste Fideles, and, one of the best, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.
I am sad that it is getting cooler again and the days are getting shorter as we procede irreversibly towards fall. However, I love the Christmas season- my family can attest I will sing Christmas songs at any time of the year- so there is always a silver lining to the clouds. And even pyrite is yellow. (No, you don't have to get that reference.)
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
P.S. I have passed over 160 posts. Go me!
Yet Another Honors Blog Post
I have something embarrassing to confess.
I CAN'T FIND THE HONORS FORUM SYLLABUS WHERE IT LISTS THE DATES OF SPEAKERS AND EVERYONE'S BLOGS!
I knew I should have written the website down when Dr. Brewton pulled it up for us! But I didn't! Shame on me! And now I have tried clicking on it in Portal and on Angel and nothing shows up. Of course, it is very likely I am clicking on the wrong things. That happens a lot. But if anyone knows how to get to it and can send me the link, that would be great.
I want to know because I am curious about other people's blogs. They may not be curious about me (curiosity is said to have killed the cat, after all, even if stupidity really did it and curiosity was framed for it) but I am curious about them. I want to see if I am the only person who blogs fanatically. Do I still have my self-appointed title of the Blog Queen? Does anyone else ponder the philosophical ramifications of our speakers' opinions? Does anyone else commentate on their classes, professors, and random experiences here at UNA?
It's a fascinating possibility. I'm always on the search for like minds, probably because they are so rare.
Anyhoo, so two weeks ago at our first Honors night, Dr. Brewton mentioned something about 'our debt to society', as postulated by Henry David Thoreau and Rosseau. Leaving aside the 'our debt to society' part, the very verbiage of which prompts me to be dubious about it, I would like to zero in on the quoted philosophers. Rosseau painted entirely too rosy a picture of humanity. He believed that all people were fundamentally good and that if left to their own devices people would be naturally good. Most people would probably like to believe that they are, deep down, fundamentally good. But Rosseau's theory does not explain the great capacity for evil and depravity that people can sink to. Just read the papers- they're full of horrors. What Rosseau did not take into account is that humanity was created fundamentally good. Shortly thereafter, however, came the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Mankind lost the grace of God and became "bent", to borrow C. S. Lewis's term. We are very good things that have been skewed- warped and twisted. We are capable of great good and great evil. However, due to our weakened human natures, we more easily work evil than we do good.
Sin is, after all, the only dogma of the Church that can be proved just by reading the papers. Thus spake G. K. Chesterton, the Apostle of Common Sense.
As for Thoreau... I really don't have the patience to go into him. Suffice it to say that he and I don't really agree on certain issues. He was another fan of the 'god within' stuff... To return to good ol' G. K. again, and I paraphrase: "That Jones shall worship the god within invariably means that Jones shall worship Jones." Read Orthodoxy, if you read nothing else by Chesterton. It will change your life.
And now that I have gotten one philosophical rant out of my system (the reason I did it tonight is because I forgot about it last week), on to the next!
Tonight, 9/10/12, our speaker was Kay Parker from the Healing Place. My speech class experiences (grr) prompt me to say that she was a very sincere speaker, appealing to ethos and pathos and all that good stuff. She told us how she worked as a secretary and then as a counseler for cancer patients for many years before going back to school and ultimately founding the Healing Place. It works with children who have experienced bereavement.
I don't think if I rehashes the Healing Place's mission statement that would help anyone, but I can put down my summary of her message.
She said that God can use ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things. All I could think of when she said that was Elrond's words at the end of Book Two Chapter Two The Council of Elrond from The Fellowship of the Ring (yes, The Lord of the Rings is divided into six books, which come in three volumes. Novel, isn't it? It's not a trilogy), where he says that oftentimes the small turn the wheels of the world, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.
Mrs. Parker also instructed us to find what we were born to do, meant to do- our destiny in life, if I may use a term that has often been trivialized or made into Internet memes- and do it. She warned us that we may become tired in body, but if we are fulfilling the purpose in life that we were created to do, a niche that no one else can fill, we will not become tired in spirit. She also reminded us that hope remains even amidst sadness.
I was surprised momentarily that she said several times that fear, worry, stress, etc., in the mind can produce illness in the body. I am not used to people acknowledging the psychosomatic unity of body and soul. However, it is nice to meet it! I suppose she sees a lot of evidence. She told us a story about someone who had shingles because they tried to hold in their grief- it stressed the body into illness.
Mrs. Parker gave us four methods of dealing with raw emotion:
(1) Be honest with oneself. Talk to someone who cares. Pray.
(2) Be expressive. Write, cry, pray, draw, etc. It helps to be crazy; it keeps you from going insane. (And now I shall have to go google that country song.)
(3) Be physical. When one is occupied with a task, so is one's mind. I have noticed this as well.
(4) Be aware. Do not lie to oneself. Acknowledge grief, guilt, and worry. Forgive oneself. Do not expect instant perfection; instead, strive each day to become better. Truth will help the healing process. Concentrate on one thing at a time.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
I CAN'T FIND THE HONORS FORUM SYLLABUS WHERE IT LISTS THE DATES OF SPEAKERS AND EVERYONE'S BLOGS!
I knew I should have written the website down when Dr. Brewton pulled it up for us! But I didn't! Shame on me! And now I have tried clicking on it in Portal and on Angel and nothing shows up. Of course, it is very likely I am clicking on the wrong things. That happens a lot. But if anyone knows how to get to it and can send me the link, that would be great.
I want to know because I am curious about other people's blogs. They may not be curious about me (curiosity is said to have killed the cat, after all, even if stupidity really did it and curiosity was framed for it) but I am curious about them. I want to see if I am the only person who blogs fanatically. Do I still have my self-appointed title of the Blog Queen? Does anyone else ponder the philosophical ramifications of our speakers' opinions? Does anyone else commentate on their classes, professors, and random experiences here at UNA?
It's a fascinating possibility. I'm always on the search for like minds, probably because they are so rare.
Anyhoo, so two weeks ago at our first Honors night, Dr. Brewton mentioned something about 'our debt to society', as postulated by Henry David Thoreau and Rosseau. Leaving aside the 'our debt to society' part, the very verbiage of which prompts me to be dubious about it, I would like to zero in on the quoted philosophers. Rosseau painted entirely too rosy a picture of humanity. He believed that all people were fundamentally good and that if left to their own devices people would be naturally good. Most people would probably like to believe that they are, deep down, fundamentally good. But Rosseau's theory does not explain the great capacity for evil and depravity that people can sink to. Just read the papers- they're full of horrors. What Rosseau did not take into account is that humanity was created fundamentally good. Shortly thereafter, however, came the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Mankind lost the grace of God and became "bent", to borrow C. S. Lewis's term. We are very good things that have been skewed- warped and twisted. We are capable of great good and great evil. However, due to our weakened human natures, we more easily work evil than we do good.
Sin is, after all, the only dogma of the Church that can be proved just by reading the papers. Thus spake G. K. Chesterton, the Apostle of Common Sense.
As for Thoreau... I really don't have the patience to go into him. Suffice it to say that he and I don't really agree on certain issues. He was another fan of the 'god within' stuff... To return to good ol' G. K. again, and I paraphrase: "That Jones shall worship the god within invariably means that Jones shall worship Jones." Read Orthodoxy, if you read nothing else by Chesterton. It will change your life.
And now that I have gotten one philosophical rant out of my system (the reason I did it tonight is because I forgot about it last week), on to the next!
Tonight, 9/10/12, our speaker was Kay Parker from the Healing Place. My speech class experiences (grr) prompt me to say that she was a very sincere speaker, appealing to ethos and pathos and all that good stuff. She told us how she worked as a secretary and then as a counseler for cancer patients for many years before going back to school and ultimately founding the Healing Place. It works with children who have experienced bereavement.
I don't think if I rehashes the Healing Place's mission statement that would help anyone, but I can put down my summary of her message.
She said that God can use ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things. All I could think of when she said that was Elrond's words at the end of Book Two Chapter Two The Council of Elrond from The Fellowship of the Ring (yes, The Lord of the Rings is divided into six books, which come in three volumes. Novel, isn't it? It's not a trilogy), where he says that oftentimes the small turn the wheels of the world, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.
Mrs. Parker also instructed us to find what we were born to do, meant to do- our destiny in life, if I may use a term that has often been trivialized or made into Internet memes- and do it. She warned us that we may become tired in body, but if we are fulfilling the purpose in life that we were created to do, a niche that no one else can fill, we will not become tired in spirit. She also reminded us that hope remains even amidst sadness.
I was surprised momentarily that she said several times that fear, worry, stress, etc., in the mind can produce illness in the body. I am not used to people acknowledging the psychosomatic unity of body and soul. However, it is nice to meet it! I suppose she sees a lot of evidence. She told us a story about someone who had shingles because they tried to hold in their grief- it stressed the body into illness.
Mrs. Parker gave us four methods of dealing with raw emotion:
(1) Be honest with oneself. Talk to someone who cares. Pray.
(2) Be expressive. Write, cry, pray, draw, etc. It helps to be crazy; it keeps you from going insane. (And now I shall have to go google that country song.)
(3) Be physical. When one is occupied with a task, so is one's mind. I have noticed this as well.
(4) Be aware. Do not lie to oneself. Acknowledge grief, guilt, and worry. Forgive oneself. Do not expect instant perfection; instead, strive each day to become better. Truth will help the healing process. Concentrate on one thing at a time.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Yet More Events in My Semester So Far
I still cannot help but point out that those Go Greek! buttons, when translated back again into English letters, say Go GSSK!
Get it into your heads, people, that sigmas, no matter how much they may superficially resemble 'E', are not, in fact, e's at all. They are 's's. The letter e in Greek is Epsilon. The capital version of it is... drumroll please... E.
If you want to Greek-alize your slogan, use the letters gamma and rho. Of course, your end result would be something like:
ΓO ΓPEEK!
Which, admittedly, probably wouldn't convey much to people. But at least it would be more accurate. Yes, the Greek rho looks like a P. Or, I suppose, you could use lowercase Greek letters (yes, they exist) for extra geeky points, and get something like:
Γο Γρεεκ!
Yes, lowercase epsilons do look like uppercase sigmas, and I might almost be prepared to excuse them on that case... except sigmas are pointy. Lowercase epsilons are not. For goodness's sakes, Greek letters are in programs as old as Microsoft Word 2000. Yes, I know this for a fact. I believe it has Cyrillic, too. Anyway, you could have just looked it up there instead of basing it off a nodding acquaintance with the alpha-beta based on memorizing sorority and fraternity names.
Now that I have that out of my system, I shall proceed to announce that if the best time to get lunch in the Guillot is 10:45 or so, the work time is at 10:55 when all the people who have just gotten out of class pour in. Unfortunately, I am now among this herd of ravenous people. However, I do have the sense not to look in vain for a seat in the Guillot, and instead head over to Lafayette, where things are always much more entertaining and welcoming. Today I had the courage to pull a chair over to the circle of people. Wow. Didn't know I had it in me.
Apparently, the residents of Lafayette are playing Humans vs Zombies. This is highly entertaining, especially when a few zombies lay in wait outside our speech classroom in order to nab their victims. I went a few minutes early purely to watch the show.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Get it into your heads, people, that sigmas, no matter how much they may superficially resemble 'E', are not, in fact, e's at all. They are 's's. The letter e in Greek is Epsilon. The capital version of it is... drumroll please... E.
If you want to Greek-alize your slogan, use the letters gamma and rho. Of course, your end result would be something like:
ΓO ΓPEEK!
Which, admittedly, probably wouldn't convey much to people. But at least it would be more accurate. Yes, the Greek rho looks like a P. Or, I suppose, you could use lowercase Greek letters (yes, they exist) for extra geeky points, and get something like:
Γο Γρεεκ!
Yes, lowercase epsilons do look like uppercase sigmas, and I might almost be prepared to excuse them on that case... except sigmas are pointy. Lowercase epsilons are not. For goodness's sakes, Greek letters are in programs as old as Microsoft Word 2000. Yes, I know this for a fact. I believe it has Cyrillic, too. Anyway, you could have just looked it up there instead of basing it off a nodding acquaintance with the alpha-beta based on memorizing sorority and fraternity names.
Now that I have that out of my system, I shall proceed to announce that if the best time to get lunch in the Guillot is 10:45 or so, the work time is at 10:55 when all the people who have just gotten out of class pour in. Unfortunately, I am now among this herd of ravenous people. However, I do have the sense not to look in vain for a seat in the Guillot, and instead head over to Lafayette, where things are always much more entertaining and welcoming. Today I had the courage to pull a chair over to the circle of people. Wow. Didn't know I had it in me.
Apparently, the residents of Lafayette are playing Humans vs Zombies. This is highly entertaining, especially when a few zombies lay in wait outside our speech classroom in order to nab their victims. I went a few minutes early purely to watch the show.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Honors Forum, 2.0
I honestly do not know why I have put off blogging about our first Honors 2.0 forum for more than a week. It's not like I'm overloaded with homework (sshh! Don't tell my teachers!). I just haven't been blogging as much lately, I suppose.
Anyway, at the Honors forum 2.0 we were told about civic engagement and also informed that we need to do a required 10-15 hours of volunteer work this semester. I knew about the required service hours before I even comitted to UNA, courtesy of Dr. Brewton's speech at Preview Day. Yes, I actually remember Preview Day. Mom made Dad take me since he knew his way around campus, and Elaine was dragged along for some mysterious reason. Mom apparently thought it would be good for Elaine to go, and dad thought Elaine had actually wanted to come. Cue revelation of the truth. Anyway, I recall that she later admitted she had spent the entirety of Dr. Brewton's speech, which took place in the Loft of the Guillot Center, watching a Vanderbilt game on the televisions screen down in the main area of the building.
Dad also made some snarky comment about Vanderbilt not usually fielding a good football team because, "It's hard to get a bunch of doctors to run around on the field." Though, actually, I do believe Vanderbilt did better last year, and it would be great if they could do even better this year. Like, for instance, if they beat Tennessee. That would be wonderful.
Have you seen those crimson shirts that say: "THE GOOD - ALABAMA --- THE BAD - AUBURN --- THE UGLY - TENNESSEE"? Because I certainly have.
Anyway, I have been panicking on the back burner about volunteer work ever since Preview Day. No joke. It's been looming over me, albeit in an unobtrusive fashion. I can't really see myself volunteering at somewhere like Safeplace or Big Brothers Big Sisters, so I was sort of stuck. In the end, I thought of how my piano teacher always has her students give a small recital at Merrill Gardens every Christmas. Now that I am nowhere near so nervous as I used to be about playing the piano for people (as the poor unfortunate souls of Lafayette's lobby can attest), that sprang to mind as a good idea. I have yet to talk to someone there to find out if and how this can be arranged (bad me! bad me!) but I shall have to do it soon.
I wonder how everyone else is doing with their platforms. Some people probably actually LOVE doing service hours- the same ones who love interacting with people. I suppose I'm just not very much of a people person. I like people in smaller doses. Am I a terrible person for thinking that?
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Anyway, at the Honors forum 2.0 we were told about civic engagement and also informed that we need to do a required 10-15 hours of volunteer work this semester. I knew about the required service hours before I even comitted to UNA, courtesy of Dr. Brewton's speech at Preview Day. Yes, I actually remember Preview Day. Mom made Dad take me since he knew his way around campus, and Elaine was dragged along for some mysterious reason. Mom apparently thought it would be good for Elaine to go, and dad thought Elaine had actually wanted to come. Cue revelation of the truth. Anyway, I recall that she later admitted she had spent the entirety of Dr. Brewton's speech, which took place in the Loft of the Guillot Center, watching a Vanderbilt game on the televisions screen down in the main area of the building.
Dad also made some snarky comment about Vanderbilt not usually fielding a good football team because, "It's hard to get a bunch of doctors to run around on the field." Though, actually, I do believe Vanderbilt did better last year, and it would be great if they could do even better this year. Like, for instance, if they beat Tennessee. That would be wonderful.
Have you seen those crimson shirts that say: "THE GOOD - ALABAMA --- THE BAD - AUBURN --- THE UGLY - TENNESSEE"? Because I certainly have.
Anyway, I have been panicking on the back burner about volunteer work ever since Preview Day. No joke. It's been looming over me, albeit in an unobtrusive fashion. I can't really see myself volunteering at somewhere like Safeplace or Big Brothers Big Sisters, so I was sort of stuck. In the end, I thought of how my piano teacher always has her students give a small recital at Merrill Gardens every Christmas. Now that I am nowhere near so nervous as I used to be about playing the piano for people (as the poor unfortunate souls of Lafayette's lobby can attest), that sprang to mind as a good idea. I have yet to talk to someone there to find out if and how this can be arranged (bad me! bad me!) but I shall have to do it soon.
I wonder how everyone else is doing with their platforms. Some people probably actually LOVE doing service hours- the same ones who love interacting with people. I suppose I'm just not very much of a people person. I like people in smaller doses. Am I a terrible person for thinking that?
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
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