Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Me and My Roomies

I thought of adding a oicture the moment I hit publish, so here is a picture of me(left) and my two roomies (middle and right) to help with the visualization of the previous blog.

A Vacuum, Headphones, and Homework

In trying to think about something to write about and also trying to help my roommie find a book of hers, I for some reason come to thought of Emily Dickinson. I think about the life she lead and of what she wrote about it. And its funny to me that anyone would have thought what she wrote about was crazy. I mean, look at her life. Look at other poets, or authors lives and what they wrote about. As authors we write about what we know. And if we don't know it, we study it and then we know it. It's almost impossible to write about something you don't know.
As I read other blogs I thought about what they wrote about it and how their thoughts or poems or articles had to do with something of their life, whether they were going through it or a friend was. Thats what we do, we write about our life.
So tonight I'm writing about what I know. I know that my roommate at this very moment has her backpack turned upside down and over the kitchen trashcan emptying it out of any and all crumbs that may have accumulated over the past few weeks. My other roommie is sitting in her reclining chair with black headphones in her ears, a yearbook on her lap and her computer on top of that. I'm assuming she's catching up on a show that was missed while we were all being spiritually enlightened at our stake institute class. And then there is me. Sitting smack dab in the middle of the love seat doing her homework to the sound of, well used to be silence but now is a vacuum sucking the cookie crumbs from the innards of a backpack.
Could this be a poem? Why not. Could this be in a movie? I hope so. Could this be in a blog? It is now! Isn't writing grand?

Friday, February 12, 2010

An Article for Thought

In light of the upcoming holiday I thought I would share an article I wrote some time ago. It seemed to be fitting.

The King Inside

Let’s take a journey back to our childhood. Remember back in the day, a little movie called, “The Lion King”? Well, I think we can learn a lot from it, if we just look. (You know you want to keep reading, if anything out of pure curiosity). And one part in particular seems to be standing out to me.

So I’m sorry, but I’m not going to give you a brief summary of the Lion King. If you don’t know it, I suggest for you to go borrow the movie from someone in the ward and watch it. So now that that’s been said, let’s dive in shall we? In the song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, there is a part where Simba and Nala actually sing their thoughts about each other. Which goes as such:

Simba thinks, “So many things to tell her, but how to make her see. The truth about my past? Impossible! She’ll turn away from me.”

Nala then thinks, “He’s holding back, he’s hiding. But what, I can’t decide. Why won’t he be the king I know he is, the king I see inside?”

Wow. Could anything be truer for men and women? I tell ya, Disney got it right. They should do a fireside on this, or write an article. Oh wait, I am. Well ok then. Oh… I’m sorry, did you not understand? Well I’ll tell you. In the single boy and girl world that we are presently in, boys tend to think that girls will turn away from them because of their past and maybe even present, and so they are afraid. And girls only see the future and (key word) potential, and get frustrated when guys can’t see it. Let’s go deeper.

Some boys often see themselves in the past or in the present. They think of their rebel days or maybe how they were immature, or how their family life was or is. They think of how much school they have left, how they don’t have a car, or the whole lack of money issue. So in turn, they assume no one will accept them. They seem to think that if they are having trouble getting the “High School” image out of their own heads then other people (mainly girls) will too. It’s hard for them to see themselves as anything different, and so they act like that. They succumb to the lower expectations or potential. And because of this they get discouraged, especially when it comes to dating. But what they don’t realize is that most girls don’t think that way.

The first thing a girl sees in a guy, whether he be a friend, someone they’re interested in, or even just Joe Shmoe, is his potential. Girls look to the future. They don’t care how the guy was in High School. High school’s over. They care about how he can and will grow. They see him as a provider, proctor, and yes even as a future king. As Nala says, we can see who he is inside and so we try to treat him as the man he is becoming, and as the Priesthood holder he is so that he can see for himself what we see.

So what is the point I’m trying to get across? The point is no matter what we’ve done in the past, or how we may have been perceived, we should always rise to our full potential. We’re all guilty of falling back into the past or acting like idiots because that may be what people treat us as. But we need to “remember who we are” and see each other as we should be seen, as our Heavenly Father sees us. And we need to help each other rise up instead of fall down. If others are treating you with their low expectations, then say something to them, or bypass them and find someone who will help lift you.

Monday, February 1, 2010

An Angelic Look at Wordsworth

I decided I really like Wordsworth's poem, I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud. The more I read the more I realized how spiritual it is, or how spiritual nature is. I actually can picture this in a few different ways. The obvious way would be as someone walking and admiring nature and waht an inspirational experience that is in itself. But for some reason the line "When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils," struck me. I like the fact that it comes after the reader is already placed high in the sky or Heaven, if you will. As I read that line I picked out the three words that stood out most which, to me, were: crowd, host, and golden.
As I thought about these words I thought of the scriptures and how it talks about a host of angels or how the light of God can be seen as golden, or I picture how we were all crowded together learning from God. For some reason I then transform this poem to being places in Heaven, and every word is symbolic of something heavenly. I then begin to see things in a new light.
Taking that concept of angels, I also started to think, that maybe this could be the point of view of an angel looking down on earth in awe of what god has created. The angel can see everything, and yet, can't necessarily have the human experience of it. The angel must look down and describe as it can, what earth and humans are like. I can't remember who said it, but someone referenced Disney's Fantasia. I think that this could be a scene in a movie like that, that is only intensified through music.
Finally I love how the last stanza shows us how we can reflect any time we want on the beauties of the earth, and how that will give us joy and peace. Wordsworth and his sister, sure got it right.