My Interactive Reflective Journal

In this blog, my ninth grade class posts small compostitions on different topics.  This writing joural acivates our minds and pushes us to become better wrtiers.

IRJ#22-QR

Plans: Protection from Chaos

“Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.”(Book One lines 1-3)

This Great opening to Book 1 of The Odyssey, foreshadows the whole story of Odysseus himself.  The quote later goes on to say that the Odysseus himself will be the only survivor of his crew because of his crew’s blindness and recklessness.  In many instances of history, people have been blind and arrogant and which also led to many of their downfalls.

One clear example of this is in a film ironically named Blindness.  This disturbing movie depicts a fictional story in which Blindness is a disease that one may catch.  During the start of the film, one person becomes blind without warning.  People try to help that person and try to find the cause of the sudden blindness.  They eventually give up and end up going back to their normal lives until more cases appear.  Soon the whole world is blind and everything falls apart.

Natural disasters are another great example of this because when people are not in their comfort zones, they do irrational things.  They do whatever they want in times of trouble in order to find something that makes them comfortable.

Without sight, humanity seems to fall apart with no sense of control.  Without a plan, humanity loses control.  My point is that we must have a backup plans if one part of society fails because we cannot be dependent on one aspect of society.

IRJ#21-QR

Loving One’s Offspring: The True Importance of Family

An interesting concept that lies in the bible is that of love.  Love is not strewn about loosely in the bible and the first instance when it is used is when “[Isaac] took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her.” ( Gen. 24.67)

Before this, many men had wives and knew them but the author of the Bible had not said “loved” before this verse.  The author writes love in this instance because he chooses to emphasize the relationship Isaac and Rebekah had with each other.  It may be that Isaac is the chosen descendant of Abraham but it definitely shows that love resides between him and Rebekah.

A reason that love is not used frequently in the bible may be that many men only had wives for children.  Being “fruitful” is an important thing throughout the bible and back then it may have been the main reason for marriage.  Descendants and taking women were common things God suggested in his dreams to profits.  As a covenant, he told Abraham that he and his family would be fruitful.

This wanting of offspring to be successfull remains in society today.  When I asked my father what he wanted most in life he answered “All I want is for you to be successfull and lead a happy life.”  As you can see, for centuries and centuries, the most important thing in society is loving your children.

IRJ#20-QR

Deception:The Morality of the Bible

Throughout Genesis, deception is used to get one’s way or to maintain power.  Both the Characters God and Abraham use deception for self-benefit.

When God places the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eve, he tells Adam and Eve that they will die.  By putting it there for no reason, God provokes the curious human nature to eat from the tree once they learn that they will not die but in fact gain wisdom.  To even put the tree there in the first place shows god’s deceit.  He wanted to prove to himself that he  could trick innocent creatures to eat from a prohibited tree.  With this self assurance of power, God becomes confident in believing he is the master of all.

On two different occasions, Abraham travels with Sarah, his wife, to a city and then tells the ruler of that city that Sarah is his sister.  He does this to become rich and obtain land.  God hypocritically tells Abraham that what he did was a shame.

In both these cases, the characters used deception to feel as if they controled the situation and no one else did.  People should not need to deceive people to feel in control and with power.

IRJ#19-QR

Human strength: God’s struggle for power

“Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” (Gen 11.7) When God  desperately tells himself this, he realizes that he created a creature too powerful.  When he realizes that humans can overcome any problem that faces them, he decides to make it that much harder to succeed by confusing the languages.

I believe that God does not plan out everything he creates.  When humans failed him the first time, he sent a flood and then vowed never to destroy human kind again.  He did not see that they would defy them and this proved a major problem for him.  This remains a backset for God because many characters in the book keep defying him or getting stronger.  He cannot control the powerful force he created and must resort to every small detail he can get his hands on in order to set them back in their reach for power.

I believe this shows that people should think about what the affects of their creations will cause before they make them.  Many brilliant people have been faulted into created things for bad uses.  A clear example of this is Albert Einstein with the Atomic bomb.  He figured out how to split an atom and intern cause a chain reaction for a huge explosion that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Proposition: If people think their thoughts through, they will not regret them later, or in the case of God, have to kill off the whole human race.

IRJ#18-QR

Fragility of Man: the Lives we Take for Granted

“For out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

When God explains this to Adam, many underlying meanings are portrayed.  The most obvious meaning of these words is God tries to tell Adam that he made him from the earth and he can send him back to the earth just as easy.  If Adam does not obey the rules, God has the power to punish him.  In this way, Adam is reminded that Human’s must respect the earth and not take the precious life they have for granted.

An interesting thing about this quote is that it can be taken literally as well.  Unlike some parts of the bible, this statement has scientific truth.  When god says we are from the dust, it is true because the human race originated from the big bang and scientists have found that we all have star “dust” inside us.  When he says “to the dust you shall return”, it is ironic because when we get buried in the ground, our bodies decompose in the ground, making the soil richer, and overall helping the environment.

Proposition:  The human race should realize how delicate and precious their lives are and not abuse the bodies and earth that we have.

IRJ-QR#17

Power: A Church’s Greatest Advantage

In Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, and in our world today, religion plays a major role in society.  In the novel, the church epitomizes power.  Lyra, the protagonist hides in a closet and discovers that “Ever since Pope John Calvin had moved the seat of the Papacy to Geneva and set up the Consistorial Court of Discipline, the Church’s power over ever aspect of life had been absolute.” (Pullman 30)

Ever since religion existed, people have always looked to it for guidance, giving it power and making it significant in their lives.  Pullman tries to show its power in the novel by making religion part of the main character’s life.  Not only does he show its significance in the world, but he also shows how corrupt religion can become.  In a sense, he encourages people to test the limits of religion and to give it less power.  I agree with this stance because people often take the bible literally when they should not.  These people often follow the church’s power and do not have opinions for themselves.

Although religion allows people to feel safe and express themselves, I believe religious leaders should teach the bible as a metaphor.  The church can use the power that it has to guide people into making better choices, without for example discriminating against other religious groups.  If this occurs, our society, along with the society in The Golden Compass, may flow as a free, non-discriminating society.

IRJ-CP#16

The World’s End: Part Two

I woke in a daze.  It was dark.  I took out my phone to use as a makeshift flashlight.  All around me people were asleep with tracks of tears and mud lining their faces.  I stood up feeling the need to get fresh air.  I found the door and opened it.  It was not the terminal that met me on the other side, but a view of a destroyed downtown Denver.  I made my way past rubble, and parts of planes strewn across a newly created field.  All I could think of was how awesome it all looked even though I knew in my heart many people had already died.

What I happened to overlook as I was scanning the landscape, were the two gargantuan Tornados heading my way.  My luck had not run out because a decently in tact car was parked only about five meters away from me.  As I ran toward the car, my luck seemed like it ran out too.  A crack widened just before my eyes in front of the car.  I acted quickly and jumped across the chasm not thinking through all the consequences that may have occurred.  Just as I neared the edge, another quake occurred and my right hand grasped the cliff.  One by one my fingers started slipping, but a hand grabbed my free hand and I was dragged to safety.

The prettiest face I had ever seen met me as I stood up.  What was I thinking? How was this any time to think about that? The pretty face and I ran towards the car, got in and tried to find the nearest route away from Denver.  I couldn’t believe the last ten minutes of my life and I was off to…well somewhere with this mystery girl.

IRJ-OP#15

Spotlight: A Young Singer’s Competition

Today I auditioned for my first time for the Spotlight Awards.  The Spotlight Awards take place in Southern California and allow thousands of young artists to display their talents in ballet, classical voice, non-classical voice, classical instrumental, jazz instrumental, photography and two-dimensional art.

All day my mind no longer operated inside my head, and all that I thought about was  me messing up my audition.   I got out of math class early to get ready for my audition and my heart was already racing.  I arrived home, got dressed, jumped in the car, and  sped to the Pasadena Conservatory where the non-classical try outs took place.  Once there, I signed in, found the nearest warm-up room and began to sing.  A short four minutes passed before one of the judges summoned me to the audition room.

I stood timorously with my guitar, waiting to perform my first song.  The judges asked me the usual questions: How old was I? How many years of voice lessons did I have? Where did I go to school? And then the singing started.   As soon as I started singing, my fear evaporated.  Just when I started to have fun, the audition ended and I eagerly went outside to tell my mom how well it went.

The Spotlight Awards gave me new insight on how to audition in front of a panel of judges.  I now know not to have fear but instead to have excitement.  People should think about their beautiful  voices rather than their potential faults.

IRJ-CP#14

The Boy in the Silver Balloon: An Irresponsible Intrigue

Richard loves the media spotlight.  He follows weather and calls himself a storm chaser, and had been working on a weather balloon type apparatus in his backyard. He decided to use his six-year old son Falcon to garner the attention he craved.  Falcon’s father told the press that his son had crawled into his weather balloon just before it had taken off.  The balloon left the ground precipitously and no one knew how it had lifted off.  The balloon rose and once it had gained enough altitude, it started desultorily flying on wind currents. As the balloon continued to climb, people around the world became frightened for the boy’s life, especially when the balloon reached a pinnacle of seven thousand feet. With fear of disdain and punishment from his father, six-year-old Falcon allegedly waited in his family’s attic until he thought his father Richard would calm down.

When he finally reappeared, his father held him piously in front of the cameras and started to weep.  The people of the United States soon realized the whole episode had been acted, and they felt deplorably towards the father’s action. Richards’s intrigue caused the government to lose thousands of dollars and he faces trial for what he has done.  He could get years in prison for his irresponsibility which  cost the government time and money that could have been diverted to real emergencies.  His murky motives left many people wondered why he even created the fluke in the first place.