Bailey
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Professor 1
Bailey
Bryan Garcia
English 1301.8430/9001
September 12, 2010
Universal Questions, Old Dogs Teach New Tricks
Henley: Bright lights, swirling colors, time warped and here we are my friends. What a
delightful meal and what interesting technology they have in this time. Alphabetical keys, glass
screens and talking heads, it is simply amazing, just as our time travel here. I am stuffed and
need to let everything settle. What say we discuss with one another what we learned this
evening?
I will go first, if none of you protest. I stumbled across a story when trying to use that
new device, about a man named Aaron Ralston, a climber who amputated his own arm to survive
a mountaineering accident and continued to climb. This man fell to the clutch of circumstance,
but did not wince or cry aloud, indeed he carried on, arm bloody, he did not bow. It must
have been very difficult for him, in that moment, in that space, as black as the pit from pole to
pole. He did not succumb however, as he was an unconquerable soul. This man reminds me
of myself, strong and determined in the face of his own adversity. Also like myself, he knows
not what waits for him after this life, so he must seize his opportunity now which he did, he
kept climbing. I admire Ralston as he is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul and
in his place of wrath and tears he found himself unafraid and unconquerable. It is my opinion
that this fellow Ralston found strength from the pain of loosing his arm, from which he gained
continued motivation to finish what he started. It matters not how strait the gate will be for
Ralston, for he has accomplished this goal. I know that for Ralston, this experience may haunt
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his thoughts and memories as the
menace of his years, but it shall continue to find him unafraid.
Blake: That was amazing Henley, I can see where you would find that a triumphant
story. I however, read a story about teenage drug use being rampant in these United States. I
find this time, the 21st century, full of Energy and many would say that this energy and desire
are the evils of man and must be conquered by the good of restraint and reason. We have all
walked in the Garden of Love as children and played on the green. But these teenagers, their
younger nave childhood behind them, see and hear about all the thou shalt nots and they see
this world that they once played innocently in filled with death, despair and oppression, that they
are bound with briars, their joys and desires and they feel the need for escape. But this is not
the way little Lambs. As Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the
bound or outward circumference of Energy. In my day, Energy was more suppressed and as I
look around I am seeing Energy out of control. Excessive spending, excessive sexuality, these
teenagers out of control and using drugs are all just examples from what I have seen. These
teens are dipping in the river, as they love water, I mean to say, that they are just doing
whatever they like because it feels good. Their selfish behavior, they are only thinking of
themselves and what will make them happy or feel good. It appears that these teenagers need
more Reason to help contain this Energy so that there can be a more sustained tension
which I feel is needed to keep them both in check. For without contraries is no progression.
While not all Energy is evil, there must be some restraint as man has no body away from his
soul and that the body is a portion of the soul as discerned from his five senses which are inlets
for the soul, that energy is life and it is from the body and reason is bound or orbits around
energy, and that energy is eternal delight. This is the way to a more balanced life, as we cannot
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always follow our desires. So where
are the parents in all of this I ask? Are they sitting on the sidelines? Have they closed
themselves up, till they see all things through narrow chinks of their cavern and not seeing there
is an issue at all? I surely hope not, I hope that they are fighting for these little Lambs so soft
and tender as they are still just children meek and mild. The parents, they should not be
Lambs they should become Tygers and fight for their children, be active, passionate,
aggressive and direct with their children about this situation and how to handle this new view of
their world. Excess of sorrow laughs, Excess of joy weeps so we must be careful to not let
Energy go unchecked otherwise, we will risk desires conquering all reason. I hope that these
teenagers find their balance and turn away from doing drugs.
Tennyson: My goodness Blake, what a terrible story of excess! I too, as you all are, am
surprised by these stories we have read and amazed by our journey here today. One story that
resonated with me was about 10 medical aid workers that were killed in Afghanistan. While this
story is certainly tragic, I will trust that somehow good will be the final goal of this ill. These
individuals, I am sure, did set good motion into with their presence while they were in
Afghanistan. I also hope that while nothing walks with aimless feet that their lives were not
lost in vain behold we know not anything I can trust that good shall fall. But, we do know that
every winter changes to spring. I am sure their families are questioning their loved ones lives
lost. Asking is God and nature then at strife, so careless of the single life? They, I am sure,
are considering everywhere, the secret meaning in her deeds that was their life not worthy to
succeed? Their lame hands of faith, groping and gathering dust and chaff calling to what they
feel is God and hoping that that was not the case that their lives indeed did matter. These
individuals, most assuredly had such splendid purpose in their eyes and trusted God was love
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indeed. That their love, their desire
to help others, has now caused them to suffered countless ills and ending by them being killed
in Afghanistan. But like myself, in overcoming the grief of my dear friend Hallam, their families
I hope, will feel the warmth within their breast and like a man in wrath the heart, tell all they
have felt when healed from this tragic event. And, that they shall know, like a child in doubt
and fear, that this blind clamour has made them wise. I also hope that those poor aid workers
heard their clear call and I am sure they wished there be no sadness of farewell, when they
embarked that out of time and place they saw their pilot face to face.
H a rdy: Gentlemen, what a day this has been, what twist of fate that I would find
myself with you on this journey! I tell you all, I read a story of an eight-year-old girl
i n Chicago who was gunned down by two men while she was jumping rope in front
of her house. I t is most certainly a t ragedy and I am sure that if there were a God,
looking down from up the sky on this poor family, he would surely laugh and say
t hou suffering thing, know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy, that thy loves loss is my
hates profiting. Yet, for this child, she was most certainly the victim of crass
casualty like that which obstructs the sun and rain. For her poor parents, I can
only hope that they realize, as I have, that the world never promised us an easy
l ife or that life would all be fair. Instead the world only promised good and bad
t imes alike, happiness and sorrows, ups and downs.
For this childs family is
certainly experiencing the sorrows, these neutral-tin ted haps and I hope that they
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have seen this life as I, that their
expectations were set early in their lives that they took wise warning for their
c redits sake! Which I for one failed not to take, and hence could stem such strain
and ache, as each year such as this, might assign.
I only hope that the
culmination of these not-so-bad happenings throughout their lives was enough to
p repare them for this loss of their child.
Hopkins: Hardy, what a touching story. I know that God has that family and that little
girl in his care. I too look around this place, this time, and I still see through the buildings, the
concrete, and the busyness that the world is (still) charged with the grandeur of God. I read a
story about this most recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It is one of the largest environmental
disasters in history and it has devastated many of Gods creatures from the wildlife of the sea to
the people who rely on the Gulf to provide for their families. Just as before this time, before our
time, before man, our natural world had Gods presence running through it like shinning from
shook foil and it gathered to a greatness like the ooze of oil. And it bewilders me why man,
with these examples of Gods presence in our world, now not wreck his rod and pay attention
to his authority. As I look at this time we are in and its contemporary society and see how the
generations that have trod, have trod, have trod this oil spill is just a sad example of how man
has seared with trade, bleared, smeared with toil and it now bears mans smudge, and shares
mans smell. In all of this, has man lost or ruined the beauty of what God has created? The
soil is bare now with all this commercialism and greed, has man further alienated himself from
his creator? But no, nature is never spent, as I look around and see the wonders of Gods
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creation still springing from the deep
down things there are many who recognize and see these things as well. And while this oil spill
is of disastrous proportions, the Holy Ghost over the bent watches over this planet and
promises us rebirth, just as he has in the face of many other disasters. Watching and caring with
warm breast, and with, ah, bright wings.
Henley: I must say, what stories and what commentary! I am not surprised by our take
on these things, as we are true to our poetry and ourselves. What say we go and try to find some
of that iced caramel frappucino our waitress told us about at that place, Starbucks, maybe they
have a map we could use in navigating our way back to our time, sounds like they may also have
cattle.