The Different Phrase

Once again I am left off to finish the end of Jesus' story. The parts where he is punished on the cross for only preaching to the people his beliefs and what was right. The end was the same as Matthew, only the resurrection in Luke was a whole lot smaller than the explaining of it in the other Gospel I read.

What is different are Jesus' last words. In Matthew, Jesus' last words were asking why God was making Jesus suffer. In Luke, the last words of Christ were: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit". Instead of begging for mercy, Jesus said the complete opposite! He told God that he was willing to give himself up for sacrifice! Just how could two men get Jesus' last words completely different? Perhaps they were there at the cross at different times, therefore explaining the differ between the last words they caught at the end.

Then it goes to the resurrection of Christ. It says: "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." (Luke 24:39)

What had happened was Jesus had asked his Father, the Lord, to keep the holes in his hands and his feet to prove to the people that he was indeed God's son and was in fact Jesus. He proved to them that he was not a ghost.

Actually thinking about it, that's rather interesting. I never realized it before.

Lost Sheep

And so the story continues with more of the miracles Christ performs.

What I found interesting is that Luke does not mention Jesus walking on water. In Mark 6:45-56, John 6:15-24, and Matthew 14:22-36 it does. Luke is the only one missing the information of it happening. Does this mean the other Gospels have more truth or does this mean that Luke just forgot to mention the happening?

Luke also had many strange stories. Some of them were about people asking Jesus all these questions that sometimes couldn't be answered. One part of the Gospel tells about Jesus talking about a metaphor about lost sheep: "What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing...I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentence." (Luke 15:4-7)

Christ is comparing lost sheep and the happiness of finding the lost sheep to that of heaven. Thinking about it I could never imagine Jesus or some other god-like-being sporting a metaphor comparing lost sheep to heaven. I'm sure you understand. It seems almost unruly of him to do so but yet him saying it made the comparison make sense. The quote says to us that the type of joy you get from finding your lost sheep is felt in heaven if you repent and do not sin. It says that more then ninety-nine people can repent and make it to paradise.

Starting Luke

We have to read another Gospel this week and I chose Luke.

I was shocked because I was thinking that all the Gospels were about different things. I didn't know that all four (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were all about Christ. So starting to read Luke then finding out that it too was about Jesus, I was a bit surprised. I was wondering why my teacher would have my classmates and myself reading more than one Gospel. Then I found out why.

Even though all four are about the same thing, they are still all different. Different as in different phrases and wordings and even events.

Instead of Luke starting off from the very beginning of Jesus' life, in other words when Jesus was born, Luke starts from the time when John the-not-yet-but-soon-to-be-baptist was born. Luke then started going on about the how Mary and Joseph got together and how Jesus was born just like in Matthew. Later it goes on to talk about how John the Baptist baptizes Jesus in the River.

As I read on I realize that John may not actually not know who Jesus is. I am a little bit confused though because the text is making it sound like he did but he didn't know who Jesus is. What? It says: "And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were Christ, or not; John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire." (Luke 3:15-16) So, I don't get it.

The Gospel of Luke tells of Jesus collecting his desciples and performing many more miracles just like in Matthew. It explains one of his miracles done: "...he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight" (Luke 7:21)

Even though there was proof of Jesus' miracles many others still doubted him which I found hard to believe. People can be so ignorant of things. It's either that or they're just ignoring what they don't want to see. But people still didn't want to have faith in him no matter what they saw with their own eyes.

A Sad Then Happy Ending

I feel sorry for Jesus. Actually, more than just sorry.

You see, I got my wisdom teeth out two weeks ago and eventually the swelling had went down and I could start eating normal. Just yesterday, I had woken up with chipmunk cheeks and my mouth in pain. I went to the dentist to see what was wrong only to get a deep cleansing. I was and still am in terrible pain. I kept thinking how I would do anything to stop the pain. Last night I was thinking I'd rather die and was wondering why I'm being put through that sort of pain.

What is my point exactly?

If I was in enough pain to want to put an end to it all from something as small as that, then I can't even imagine what it was like for Jesus on that crucifix. He was on there longer than two days and left slowly to die with nails driven through his feet and hands. I can't even bear to imagine the sort of pain.

People even mocked Jesus: "And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS" (Matthew 27:37). They wrote this on his crucifix and were making fun of him for thinking he was God's son. They also made him wear a crown of thorns as irony.

People were cruel.

Before Jesus died his last words were: "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). He was asking God why he should be put through such pain. Everyone waited to see if Elias would save him and started wondering if this was truly God's son.

People waited and soon an earthquake happened and the graves were opened. Jesus had been resurected and then gone into the city to show himself to the people. People were fearful and realized that Jesus was truly God's son.

A Miracle of All Miracles

I am overly depressed today. Apparently we're going to be doing more Bible reading. I almost screamed for mercy when I heard the news. So now I'm taking down the Gospel the night before its do because I was too lazy to do my assignments throughout last week.

Yippee.

Please just ignore my whining.

Matthew goes back into the past and writes about believe it or not, Jesus. He goes clear back to the city of Bethlehem where Jesus himself was born in the little manger. He then continues telling how the three wise men followed the North Star and gave gifts to the newborn child.

King Herold (aka Herold the Great) soon hears about the baby Jesus and hears that Jesus is to be King of the Jews. Mr. Herold gets dearly upset with the threat and jealousy gains him over. Therefore, he sent orders to have all sons in the forms of babies killed. Knowing this, Jesus and his loving parents escape to Egypt for their son's safety.

After the insane King finally died, Joseph moved his family back to Israel and then to Nazareth where Jesus grows up.

Soon, John the Baptist came along. I'm sure you've all heard of him as he's very popular. He was in fact the very one who baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. Because of the opportunity to be baptised, Jesus recieved the blessing of the Lord.

Later, Voldisatan comes into the story. The one-who-must-not-be-named. Voldisatan decides to test Jesus leads him into the wilderness for forty days with no food nor water.

Guess what?

God's son makes it!

Well, of course he does.


Satan then tempts to drag Jesus down with him, tempting him that all the world could be his. In other words, Satan says, "Come to dark side, I have cookies." Really.

Jesus doesn't fall for it and goes back to telling the people to repent: "Repent! For the kingdom of heaven has come near." (Matthew 4:17)

God's son basically becomes a preacher and one everyone could look up to. He taught the Gospel, healed the sick, raised the dead, and preformed many miracles.
What some people in the olden times didn't realize was that Jesus was himself a miracle.

Less and Less

It's the end of the Tao Te Ching and I must say, not that bad of a book. It had more than enough interesting things in it that taught me a lot. Or not really, but whatever.

But I did very much like this book and I could understand much better than the bible and what Confucius wrote. I realized the Tao had a lot to do with balance and I liked that. I agree that the world is a big mess of balance if you know what I mean. I mean, the Tao certainly kept me reading.

One that I found very interesting has to do with action: "Less and less is done, until non-action is achieved. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone." (Tao Te Ching ll 48) At least this part has to do with action.

Some of you may be thinking it means being lazy and don't do anything. Just sit in front of your family TV and eat a whole bunch of potato chips and life will be good.

No.

Instead it is a way or idea of action without action. It is saying live life the best you can and the way you want to. Don't waste time. Spend your time with people and doing things who or that are worth it. Lose yourself in life.

Simple, eh?

In the same chapter 48, it always explains, "In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped." This too is simply saying that when you're on a hunt for knowledge you learn something new every day. When you live the way of the Tao, you do less and less. You become more relaxed in a sense and just follow the way of life. Tao is a new experience I suppose and does good.

Living with the Tao ways I don't think life would be too bad. Maybe even better.

Balance

So here we go again.

I don't know if it's just me but I am finding that everything seems to get more interesting as I read on. The meanings are deep and in more ways true than we may think. To me, each little section refers to humanity and real life.

For example:
"That which shrinks
Must first expand.
That which fails
Must first be strong.
That which is cast down
Must first be raised.
Before receiving
There must be giving" (Tao Te Ching ll 36)

This is similar to the saying that somewhat goes "You cannot have good without evil" or "There is no such thing as evil if there is no good" or however the saying goes. All I know is that it's true. Without good, evil doesn't exist.

Now apply it to the above text from chapter 36. You can't shrink if you didn't first expand, you can't fail without first being strong, you can't be a loser if you weren't at first popular, and you can't receive if you never gave.

Make sense?

I agree with this saying. It's almost like you can't have something without its opposite. You need a balance with everything in life. You can't have one without the other.

Tao is Knowing or Believing?

One of the things I like about the Tao is how everything is short. Each chapter is per page and the text only takes up half or even less of the page. It's better than The Analects in my opinion.
As I was reading through our assignment for the night, I found one teaching that really stood out to me: "Look, it cannot be seen - it is beyond form. Listen, it cannot be heard - it is beyond sound. Grasp, it cannot be held - it is intangible." (Tao Te Ching ll 14)

It yet again, is reminding us that the belief Tao cannot be seen, heard, touched. Tao is simply a named belief. It does however give us enough evidence of what we can hear, feel, and see.

Then when it says, "Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao." (Tao Te Ching ll 14) Does this infer that Tao is not calling for our faith but for our knowing its existence?

And I suppose the rest of the chapter 14 talks more about how Tao is not a thing. Perhaps more like an idea or belief and something that's just there. It doesn't give off light nor darkness and it proposes that it is made of nothingness and just exists. In Science class we learned that everything is made from Atoms. The Tao proves it wrong. The Tao is formed with nothing. Perhaps because it is an idea and nothing else, but digging deeper, why did they have to say it comes from nothing if you would already automatically know that since it's an idea? Maybe the Tao is perhaps a thing? But then maybe again it's not a belief because didn't it say it was something you know? And what is there to know?

Are you getting this?

Is it making any sense?

The Link

Already another book. We're now onto the Tao Te Ching. I was glad because The Analects were really giving me a run for my money. Then I started reading and I was like "Oh, great. Another complicated book." I've realized that no matter how much I don't want to read anything that only has to do with meanings that it will never happen. I will forever be stuck reading books I've never heard of. Whatever happened to Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlett Letter, and stuff like that?

So anyways, I will say that the Tao is at least more poetic sounding. It sounds kind of nice if you read it out loud. But it doesn't change the fact too that it is impossible to understand. At least for the likes of me.

I found this one phrase, "The valley spirit never dies; It is the woman, primal mother. Her gateway is the root of heaven and earth. It is like a veil barely seen. Use it; it will never fail." (Tao Te Ching ll six)

This one is very deep and seems to have something to do with nature and life. I think. So why am I thinking of vampires?

Because I will tell you, this has nothing to do with vampires. I must simply be going crazy. The word "veil" is what I think got me thinking about the mythical creatures in the first place. Or maybe it's the fact that all that reading too many books has its effects.

Now I'm straying.

So deciphering this, I came up with is that it's talking about mothers and on how they have the power to give life but the life comes from heaven above and is linked to the mothers on earth. The connection between the two places is almost like a thread or invisible. The mother has the thread running through her. She's the middle point.

For the part where it says, "The valley spirit never dies" is simply talking about, uh, sorry I'm stumped. Perhaps it means the power to give birth never dies? Nature never dies? Grass never dies? I don't get it!

This has got to be the worst interpretation ever.

Diverge

As you probably already know, The Analects were written by Confucious. And in case you don't know or haven't realized their is a religion based on the text that the mandarin man wrote, called Confucianism. It's considered one of the Buddism practices. Based on that, you can tell Confucious was a very influencing man of his time in China in order to have a religion based on his beliefs.

Now, coming back to the present from the past.

I found this complicated text: "By nature people are similar, they diverge as the result of practice." (Chapter Seventeen 17.2)

What the heck does that mean?

It's short yet difficult to comprehend. I had to read this several times to finally get a little understanding of what it says.

My understanding is that when born, people are all the same. They haven't had any other experiance to be different than one another. As they get older, every person starts to have experience in trying new things, making mistakes, and so on. This results in different personalities or the more growing apart of people. It makes people more different. For example, perhaps two people are almost the same then one of them takes up the hobby of piano. That person is now different so they are no longer similar.

Another example is that two kids are born the same yet in seperate households. One of the kids end up in an abusive household while the other is lovingly cared for. The abused kid ends up growing to be more aggressive and more likely to do horrid things while the other grows up taking care of others and is more likely to do good.

They started at the same stage but in the end were pulled apart.

I must say, even though the phrase isn't exactly advice, I like it. It explains humanity in an interesting way and makes me understand everything a little bit better.

Overthrown

I thought it would be easy to decipher these words of advice the Analects are giving off, and boy I couldn't be more wrong. Our teacher in English proved this difficulty in class a while ago. He kept giving us lines to find their deeper meaning and I failed miserably in doing so.

So here I am, trying to find the important meaning in this line of advice: "The Master said, 'The common people can be made to follow it, but they can not be made to understand it." (Book Eight 8.9)

I find it rather easy to understand although I'm sure if I was in English I would be disapproved of for teh reason I didn't look deeper. In this case, I'm going to dig a little deeper.

By the word common I think of normal people of no higher status. Sort of like commoners. For example, in the U.S. the common people would be those under rule of the president and other high above the top people. You look at the second part, "can be made to follow it" and it reminds me of how laws are placed and enforced so no one wants to break them. They are like dogs and can be told whatever to do.

The rest of the phrase says, "but they can not be made to understand it". First glance tells me the common people won't understand what they are told to do, and that's taking it literally. But looking more into it and then putting it together with the other half of the line I grabbed hold of another understanding of the text. What I can understand is it saying that people under rule or who are overpowered by others can be convinced and persuaded to do things all though they aren't either bright enough or powerful enough to understand it's wrong to be controlled as slaves. Another possibility is that it could mean they aren't able to understand the difference between right and wrong.

Am I wrong?

Deeper Meanings

We have finally finished the Bible. Hooray!

Now, we are reading the Analects. The Analects are certain teachings and ways of living and of life. They were clearly important in the olden days and they still are today. Which is why we're reading them. Also because they are very challenging to decipher which is exactly what our teacher is looking for.

The Analects are very new to me as I have found many interesting things. I've realized throughout the book there is always someone called the "Master" and some student. The student usually asks questions and the Master always has some very challenging, confusing, long, important answer.

More importantly, I've noticed it does not matter how you read the book. For example you can start on the middle of the page, the end of the book, or anywhere else. The Analects are simply short phrases of rules or ways to follow in life with no particular story to follow, if you get what I mean. It's like a never ending list.

As I continued reading I noticed a two words that seemed to always repeat and be talked about. In other words I seemed to have found a very important key term. The two words were "The Way". Reading on I realized it must be some sort of righteous path that the people worked to follow and apply to their lives.

I don't think I'd mind living "The Way".

Oh David, David, David

I never thought David was that bad of a guy. He was cool and heroic. That all changed when I continued reading the story of David.

David in the end, when he's now old, manages to steal this man's wife and then in return, David kills the husband.

So I suppose David didn't physically kill the man but he did plan out the death, therfore making it murder. He had the wife's husband placed at the very front of the army in battle knowing he would be killed.

Then he does a test to know if God's really there by testing the death of his own son! I sure wouldn't like this man as my father. His son died making David come to the conclusion that God no longer exsisted. This is coming from the man who with faith took the evil spirits away from Saul and defeated the giant Goliath!

And to add on to the murder list, David kills Saul. Nice, right?

So adding this all up to get our total it looks like David committed adultry, murder more than once, and lost his faith in God.

All I can say is David, David, David.

The David Guy

The story of David. Interesting...I guess. I mean, the story's got giants, war, and uh, other things. I mean, does it not sound exciting? You know it does!

The story of David is all about a guy named David who wins a fight with this really tall guy, Goliath of Gath, who was from the Philistine side (aka the enemy side). David wins it all with a small stone and some kind of cloth like thing as I recall. Yeah, I'm not kidding. You know what makes this story even better? The fact that I now know how to stop the kids from bullying me at school. All I need is a rock and a piece of cloth. I can do great damage.

Reading the story though, made me realize that anybody can do anything, no matter their size, race, ect. It's never impossible to beat someone down with just a rock. It's possible to do anything, like build a time machine. Okay, maybe not, but you get my point. You can do anything if you put your mind and strength into it.

There was this one part of the book that said, "And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him." (1 Samuel 16:23) It explained in a sense that David had the power to take evil spirit from man if he plays a harp. Did God give this power to David? And why did God see it worth it that Saul have his evil spirit taken away from him? And this makes me wonder. Was Saul a part of a "plan"? Did God plan already for David to defeat Goliath and come into better power than Saul?

Towards the end, because of David's good deed, Saul put David in a higher place then he was before. David was in the services of Saul. So I think David now lives in the palace. Anways, a saying started going around which was, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands" (1 Samuel 18:7) This obviously made Saul jealous and this is where the whole thing about Saul starting to want to kill David starts. Why? Because David had God on his side along with wisdom and likeness stuff radiating off of him, making people like him much better than Saul.

Some people get a little too jealous.

Phenomena of Nature

It's almost the end of Job's sorrowful story (although it ended in great happiness for Job, as he received a great many blessings for his loyalty) and so reading these last few chapters of Job, I again found more examples where God thinks he is the greatest of all beings. Whoopie.

But this makes this particular post all the more easier to write but also harder. If I wanted to, I could sum up this last few chapters with one sentence. The sentence being, "God thinks he's better than everyone else." But no. The hard part of this all is that I have to try and drag out the last chapters and somehow manage to write more than just a pharagraph of it all.

So yeah. Now I'm actually going to get into the actual story now.

So, as it happens, God starts talking to Job. About what exactly? Basically, God asks Job where he was when the "foundations of the earth were laid" (Job 38:4), when the "morning starts sang together, and "all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). The extraordinariness of nature showed the greatness of God and the weakness of man, or so He said.

God continued to explain that all would not be here without him and Job does not go against anything that He said to him.

Job accepts all this humbly and without complaint and still puts all his faith into the Lord. Because of this and everything else that Job has been put through (as a test I see in my eyes) without ever going against God or using his name in vain, Job is blessed greatly, and I must say, he deserves it.

Even though I've never met Job, I know that he will probably always be one of the most righteous people known till always. And God can't honestly be all that bad if he gave such great blessings to this man. God is kind in great ways.

Job's Suffering

The Bible. Oh why did I ever start reading it? Oh yeah, I have to for English. I almost forgot thanks to the confusion swirling around in my brain after reading just a few chapters of the big book.
Okay, so back to the ever exciting, fat book of stories galore. The first ten chapters of Job explain how the Devil wants to prove to God that Job, a very righteous man, will put a stop to his loyalty to God after being put through many tragedies and curses all from God himself. Ones such as having all of the people in Job's life that he cares about put to death, Job being put through horrible diseases, loosing his home, his friends, and well, everything else! Even though Job went through all of this knowing that it was God himself who was cursing him with such horrible things, all the while believing that he must of done something wrong to deserve these wrong doings, Job never blamed God, nor did he curse the Lord's name in vain. He stayed a righteous man.
But sadly, Job was still being put to God's test. Instead of things getting better, they all just got worse. Bad enough to where Job was led to a time of depression. He had nothing left and still questioned himself about what he did to deserve such pain. Job is confused so he states it to God, "I am full of confusion; therfore see thou mine affliction" (Job 10:15) Poor Job.

Abram Turns to Abraham

Covenant. A word I can't seem to understand in the bible. What exactly is it talking about? Because I can't seem to find the answer to that question. All that comes to my mind, when I hear the word "covenant", is Ireland. (I won't even begin to expain that.) So what exactly is the covenant God is talking about to the now-known-as Abraham dude?
So what I understand of the chapters, is that the LORD went to visit Abraham's cozy tent. Unless of course, God goes there in spirit. [ooooh] But now I'm confused. It says, "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous..." (Genesis 18:20). What exactly did they do? I don't think I'm getting much sleep because I have no idea what the Bible is talking about at this point. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm skimming through the chapters and verses and blah, blah, blah. But what did Sodom and Gomorrah, whoever they are, do that made them so very sinfull and made God pay a visit?
Okay, now I feel stupid because I just read a little more and realized that Sodom and Gomorrah, are indeed two cities. Yes, they are cities, not human beings. So now I know that God was paying the two cities a visit because they are unbelievably wicked. In other words, he wants to destroy them.
No offence but what is with God destroying things? Has anyone else realized that he always seems to destroy people and places whenever people are becoming too wicked or doing something they're not supposed to? All I know is that I'm surprised our planet hasn't been destroyed, cause there's some seriously wicked people out there.
So anways, back to the Bible.
God makes a deal with Abraham that he won't cause chaos in the two cities if there are fifty righteous people. Then the two fought some more and it was decided that if ten righteous people were found then the city won't be destroyed.
This guy Lot then offers his two daughters unto, someone, while he says that the, someone, cannot touch these two guys because they're under the protection of his roof. (Yet another example of how back then women were nobody's and men were everything.) And then God decides to save this dude Lot from the destruction of the city and sends them away to Zoar.
What the heck is going on?
As it turned out, the two cities were destroyed.
As the story goes on, Abraham and his wife were promised the son they had wished for. His name was Isaac. Then one day, the LORD told Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham did this sadly, but without doubt or hesitation. He trusted God. Abraham took his son to a place to do the sacrife where Isaac asked, "Behold the fire and wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" (Genesis 22:7) Abraham told his son there was no lamb, just Isaac. As Abraham was about to do the sacrifice, God stopped him and told him Isaac no longer had to be sacrificed. Because Abraham was willing to do anything for God, he was blessed greatly.
In the end, Abraham's wife died and he decided to find Isaac a wife.
Rebekah was found and Isaac and her were wed.

And The Story Continues

The first thing I realized was that there was too many sons with difficult names. I know I'm supposed to be analyzing the bible, and I will get to that, but first I will ask the question "Why?" Did like everyone back then have 15-20 kids each? I mean seriously?!
But back to seriousness.
In chapter 11, it explained how the tongue of the people was all one language and how people began to build a tall tower to reach into heaven. The tower made God angry and He scattered it across the ground (although it doesn't neccassarily say that) and then He created different speeches for everyone so they would not understand each other as is stated, "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." So I'm guessing that day that God created over 3,000 different languages, which is rather insane if ask me. That's a lot, but I guess he was upset. What I can't seem to grasp is why did he decide to punish them by making them not able to understand each other? What I mean is, why did he see this as the worst punishment? Also, I though God destroyed the tower that was being built to "go" to heaven with an earthquake, so why doesn't it say it clearly in the Bible? I'm starting to wonder if whoever wrote this was trying to make it impossible to read and understand well.
Now, I don't understand why Abram wanted his wife, Sarai, to be seen as his sister. It tricked the pharaoh, and when he found out the truth, he sent them away. So I don't understand, why lie in the first place and have her seen as "fair"? Perhaps it did explain it, but I'm just not understanding. Was it so they would become rich and then when they were sent away, they would have many beautiful and rich things to live off of so they could travel further? And another question, why is God haveing Abram and his family travel all over? Is it so Abram can preach people in different parts and spread God's word? Maybe when it says, "built there an altar unto the LORD" it is talking about in a way, a church being built, or something like a church, to preach the gospel.
Now I'm starting to wonder why in the world would the LORD want Abram to count all the stars. Isn't that like more than impossible? There's too many! So why would the LORD want to prove Abram to prove his repentance by counting stars?!
Now, even crazier, Sarai had her maid Hagar bare her a child! It may not seem crazy, but what if I told you that Sarai had Hagar go to Abram and have a child with him? Yeah, you heard me right. Instead of having Hagar baring a child with another man, Sarai had her maid bare one with her own husband! Crazy. I would never do such a thing!
So far, reading these bible stories, I'm starting to become convinced that everyone's crazy. Just a thought.

Gayness is Attractive

Reach for me young handsome man

I'll be glad to lend a hand

But not because you're kind and sure

But rather because you are more than obscure

Yes, I'm gay

I know it's wrong to say

But listen to me,

You make me shout with glee

Your eyes sparkle of the moon's midnight glare

Your body's more than just bare

Your muscles ripple more than water

And it comforts me knowing you can slaughter

So please reach out

Don't make me doubt nor shout

I love you

As you should me, otherwise, I shall be blue

Ugh, I'll be honest and admit that this is a horrible poem. I had too much of a difficult time thinking today.

The Creation

The creation of our planet. A question that none of us have ever been able to answer but only suggest a reason why. So many reasons and theories there are in fact, that no one knows what to believe in any more these days.

In the King James Bible, the very first thing that is talked about is the creation of the Earth. It explained how god created it. He created everything, light and dark, night and day, waters, dry land, heaven, ect. He was the ruler of everything. This really takes out the Big Bang Theory.

In chapter two, it explained thoroghly how Adam was created from the things around him, it also explains how Eve was created, but not by the things around her. In fact, Eve came from Adam, "And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman," which I find rather strange how she did come to be. She was made out of a man's body. Strange? I think so. I do however, find it rather interesting as to why it was decided that a woman would be made from man and not from her surroundings just like the man. Is it proposing man more important? Or what about women being weaker?
Reading the other seven chapters, I uncovered some many very interesting things. One of which, I found to be the fact that back then, everyone seemed to live over nine hundred years old, as it explains here, "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died." I thought life spans back in the olden days were very short. How come people back then were privliged to live for so long where our life spans range around in the 80's and 90's? Are we too wicked for such an ability?
I've read the story of Noah's Ark multiple times but now it's just really hitting me, couldn't there have been more innocent people on the world? Selected people, such as Noah himself, were told to build a boat to protect themselves, but what about the other people? In other words, the repentent people who lived nowhere near Noah so they didn't know what was going to happen. Or maybe there wasn't enough room on the boat so other people who believed the flood was going to happen weren't able to go. I guess we may never know, but I'm just sayin'.

The End is Here

Reading the last story in the book Metomorphoses, I realized many things. I've realized almost the entire book has been about love. Maybe one or two of the stories weren't but the rest were. All the stories that envolved love, were told in different fashions, and the one I just read, Baucis and Philemon, told a love story about wanting to die together instead of one at a time. It was all for the purpose that no one would grieve in the end. When it was time for them to go, they both held hands and turned into trees.

Also reading this I have realized that whoever wrote the original stories seems to be in favor of turning people into plants or animals.

Although the story is about love, it's also about being selflessness and caring for others. The couple came from nothing but yet still lended a helping hand while the other 1000 houses had slammed their doors on the two, unrecognizable gods. It gave an important lesson in the story, saying that those who help others no matter their condition will be blessed greatly, as it says, "The poor little house, their simple cottage, was becoming grander and grander, a glittering marble-columned temple." It's a warming story and shows you can achieve greatness just from being kind.

Out of all the stories, I would have to say this is my favorite.

A Therapist and Plenty of Questions

Almost finished with the book, I have realized the author, Mary Zimmerman, makes all her stories very modernized. Does this mean something? Is she trying to make the stories much easier to understand? It's rather interesting how she goes about writing the stories. Zues smokes and now Phaeton is relaxing on a yellow floaty in his backyard talking to a therepist. Interesting is all I can say.
Then the therapist really starts talking and she uses all these complicated words that only Phaeton seems to understand. For example, the quote, "Where better might we find a more precise illustration of the dangers of premature initation than in this ancient tale of alternating parental indulgence and neglect?" shows how she uses all these difficult words and it's all in one sentence! And I thought the author was trying to rewrite the stories to make them easier to understand. I mean, I do understand the sentence, but what about everyone else? And why put all those difficult words in?
So the story goes on and tells how Phaeton goes to his father, Apollo, and demands to be given the keys to his car (in the original story it's a chariot). Let's just say Phaeton causes the Earth to catch on fire. But that is not what caught my interest. It was what the therapist said at the very end of the story, "It has been said that the myth is a pubic dream, dreams are private myths." What does this mean? I got an idea that it is saying myths are what people dream of and that myths come from people's dreams. Interesting, I might add. But why is this important to the story of Phaeton?
**********
This is where characters begin to have only a one letter name. This is where the characters Q and A come into the picture. Yeah, you heard me right. Q and A. It's funny because it sounds as though "Q" stands for "question" and "A" stands for "answer". Is this a coincidence or is this really why Mary Zimmerman named them Q and A, to stand for the two other words? There's even proof that she could've indeed named them after the two words because in the script, Q is always asking questions, and A is always answering them.
It's really interesting, because the story, Eros and Psyche, is all about love. It explains it and proves of it. Q asked some very simple and wierd questions and A answered the questions with important answers, an example of which the question is wierd and the answers seems as though it's important, "What does the word "Psyche" mean?" asked Q, then A answered, "In Greek it means "the soul." What in the world does that have to do with anything? Maybe because Eros, or cupid, stands for love, Psyche means "the soul" of a person, or "the soul" that falls in love?

My Amazing Two Line Poem

This is a poem I had put all my heart into. It may be short, but, oh well. It's amazing anyways. It's a summarization on the story, Phaeton.

So here goes my beautiful two line poem. I call it, "Summarization".

My father lent me his prized chariot,
I lost control, the world parished a lot.

[audience goes wild. Shouts of "Bravo!" can be heard. I respond with plenty of thank you's to last a life time]

I know. No words needed. It was great and you know it.

Orpheus & Eurydice

Going into the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, I realized this story was very similar to Dante's Inferno. In Dante's Inferno, his wife is taken down into the underworld and he goes to retrieve her, just like it is in Orpheus and Eurydice. The only difference is that Eurydice is taken into the underworld because she was bitten by a rather poisonous snake, killing her on her wedding day.

Orpheus, because of his great love for Eurydice, decides to embark on a journey down into the dreadful place where he meets the god Hades. He tells Hades that he wants Eurydice back with him and at first Hades tells him no, but when Orpheus tells Hades that he will stay instead, Hades tells him this, "As you ascend this place, she will not walk beside you; but she will be following. You must not, until you pass our gates, turn around to look at her. If you look at her before you reach the sunlight, she is ours. Forever."

The two traveled for awhile, with Hermes following the both, and when they had almost made, Orpheus just had to look back and see if Eurydice was doing okay. Sadly, Hermes picks up Eurydice and takes her away, both she and Orpheus reaching for each other.

Then something unexplainable happens, literally unexplainable. It seems as though it is retold from Hermes' point of view of when Orpheus turns back to look at her. What is written makes it seem as though Eurydice was filled with death and could not see who was in front of her before the gates. He was unrecognizable. Then she simply walked away.

A sad love story if you ask me.

Erysisomethingoranother & Hunger

So the story starts out with Erysichthon finding himself in the sacred grove of Ceres. He tells the narrator to cut down the tree. The narrator tries telling him that the tree is sacred and that it belongs to Ceres. Erysichthon tells him that he doesn't care about the importance of the tree and if it was Ceres herself he would still cut the tree down! The narrator is still concerned so goes on to beg Erysichthon to not cut the tree down and Erysichthon's reply to this was, "Get off me, you pious son of a bitch!" which proves that this Erysichthon guy is a jerk.

Finally we get some decent characters! Ha ha, just kidding. I think.

So this guy Erysichthon is just a jerk and the tree does end up getting cut down and the entire time, Ceres was watching the whole thing.

Then an amazing thing happens, the tree comes to life! Or at least the tree spirit floats around talking and tells Erysichthon that he will regret what he did, but Erysichton is all like, "Oh, now I'm really frightened," making this story probably the most original story in the book. It sounds so modern which I actually like.

The goddess who heard everything, including what the tree spirit told Erysichthon, turned her mind to torments she could use on Erysichthon. Ceres comes up with the idea to torment Erysichthon with Hunger. So Hunger comes and clings to his back, making him always starving hungry, so hungry that he sold his mother to buy more food.

The mother while behind her new master in a small boat calls out a prayer to Poseidon (who is my favorite god by the way) and the god remembering her as a little girl, pulls her under and turns her into a little girl again who swims to shore. A legend followed this after many years saying that to this day, you can still sometimes see the little girl playing in the waves.

So going back to Erysichthon, even with the the money he had earned from selling his mother, it was not enough. And then a very surprising and almost creepy ending happens. The goddess comes forwards and brings to Erysichthon a silver tray with a knife and fork along with a vase holding a rose and this is where the story reverts to cannibalism. Yeah, you heard me right. Erysichthon puts his own foot on the platter and-well, you know the rest.

Now going back to what I said before about this being one of the most original stories in the book, well, I take that back.

Alcyone and Ceyx

Alcyone and Ceyx is one of those love stories that has a rather strange ending. If you look at the above picture you just might get an idea of what I am talking about. Yeah, yeah, you'll understand it soon enough.

So the story starts out as one of those typical love stories. The man of the house is going far away for his work and the wife is bawling her eyes out. There's about a million of stories that have a similiar beginning to this one. Only usually, the man is going off to war, not on a ship to visit a far-off oracle. Speaking of which, wasn't an oracle one of those things that gave off really good advice or could tell you your future or did it mean something else? Oh well, who knows?

So as I was saying, Ceyx goes off to sea, but not before promising his wife that he will be back in two months time. And Alcyone tells him, "If you die my life is over and I shall be cursed with every reluctant breath I draw."

Oh how romantic!

Not really.

I mean seriously! Maybe it sounds romantic telling him that if he's gone she'll kill herself or live in depression, but if Ceyx actually does die, well then she will be living in pain! Or be unmoving underground. Would anybody really want to go through that? No. If I were her, I would've broke up with him right before he left so I wouldn't have to go through any of that. She should've known he wasn't coming back alive. Okay, why do I for some reason feel like what I all just said didn't make any sense?

So back to the story. As it turns out Ceyx does indeed come back dead. No, no, no, I'm not talking about him turning into a zombie, I'm talking about his dead body washing up on shore and Alcyone finding it, and after all those days on end praying to the goddess-Aphrodite? I can't really tell who she was praying to because it gets kind of confusing in Mary Zimmerman's version at some points.

So Alcyone is so upset and "Aphrodite" sends a message to some other gods to let her husband live as (drumroll please), a bird! Yeah, a bird. But of course Alcyone was the first to turn into one. It was as she was running towards his body and soon realized that for some reason she couldn't hold or kiss him and was instead pecking the heck out of him!

But it all ended happily because as I said, Ceyx had also turned into one. And so the happy and forever couple, of birds, flew away into happiness!

Metomorphoses

I listened the creation of metomorphoses more than I can count, yet I still have no idea what it is talking about. I seemed to have heard blah, blah, blah, and blah. Seriously! I wish it could have all been said in english, unless it was.
What I did comprehend in the end was that it was explaining something about the creation of our world, universe, or whatever it was. It was explaining (or so I think) how everything was just a big mess of things. Nothing was orderly. Slowly, everything started coming together to create a more so "happy" and organized enviroment, but that's just a guess. I suppose my comprehension skills aren't all too great.
So anyways, it talks about the creation of all things, of god, lives, the Earth, ect. The world use to be empty or pointless, but it's slowly becoming something. Like I said before, everything is becoming more organized. (This was all just a repeat of what I said before.)

Maybe I'm losing my hearing.

Yes! I Finished Bhagavad-Gita!!!

So I am here today to give you my overall conclusion and I am afraid it is not going to be very long.
It was boring.
I learned nothing of importance.
I'm sorry, but I had to be honest, the title of this blog is 'The Blunt Truth', am I right?
But, do not worry. I have at least learned some things such as:
1. Never read a book about wisdom/knowledge, or whatever this book was about.
2. Never read Bhagavad-Gita, if any of you do, you may just fall over dead with boredom.
3. I'm never going to ever even look at the word wisdom again. Oh, whoops. Just did.
4. Hinduism bores me to the bone. At least, in this book it did.
So that was what I learned. As for what happened in the story: a battle went on, Arjuna didn't want to fight, Krishna gave Arjuna more than confusing advice, and finally Arjuna got together his guts and joined the fight because of Krishna's power of persuasion.
I did not like this book.

Bhagavad-Gita Teachings 17&18

In the eighteenth and seventeenth teaching, I am once again, overly confused. Many more deep going examples, and all I know is that I am getting more and more tired with each teaching that I read.
There is this saying that states, "Men of lucidity sacrifice to the gods;/men of passion, to spirits and demons;/the others, men of dark inertia,/sacrifice to corpses and to ghosts", and I couldn't help but think, "Is this describing some sort of supernatural, death book?" It's sounding a little dark that one. I figured it was saying that men who worship and sacrifice to the right gods and lead good lives, are light with faith, while the others are sacrificing and worshipping to the dead and are dark inside, mislead, and cruel.
I also realized the two teachings talk a lot about faith. Faith is apparently important. So this is what leads us to the answer of the question that we have all been wanting to know (at least some of us), "Does Arjuna fight?"
The answer to this, is yes. You see, Krishna gave off such great advice, and Arjuna understood everything that was being said to him, that he realized, it would be better to get on out there and fight. He saw he might as well fight because if he didn't, Krishna would go ahead and do the killing. Not to mention, if Arjuna was killed, he knew he would be reincarnated.

Bhagavad-Gita Teachings 11-15

In the Eleventh Teaching it is conformed that Krishna is a god even more so. So Krishna showed His Cosmic Unversal Form of greatness to Arjuna to prove he is majestic. It describes his form below:

"It was a multiform, wonderous vision,

with countless mouths and eyes

and celestial ornaments,

brandishing many divine weapons."

Why do those few lines prove he is a god? Because in the Hindu culture, the gods usually are full of color and have multiple body parts. Much fuller and bigger proof at last!

Anyways, then Krishna explains to Arjuna how his true form is the original form of the godhead. How his body shows the world's destruction and everything else of and in the world. Then Krishna goes to explain to Arjuna to not be afraid of the battle, because with Arjuna having Krishna on his side, the others were hypothetically already dead. Krishna could not be beaten.

Arjuna feels basically like a nobody standing next to Krishna so he starts to tremble. Arjuna starts apologizing for the way he always acted towards Krishna and for all the things he ever did that he no longer feels was an acceptable action.

In the Twelth Teaching, Krishna tells Arjuna that the worshipping of Krishna, the supreme personality of Godhead, is the best recommadation for worship. So Krishna explains the process of devotion you must have towards him and then Krishna says that anyone who devote to him endearly will be especially dear to him. If you ask me, this Krishna dude is sounding a little full of himself.

The Thirteenth Teaching goes about Arjuna asking about things he wants to learn about and then Krishna answering all of them. Arjuna asks six things which are: nature, the enjoyer, the field of activity, the knower of the field, knowledge, and the object of knowledge. So basically Krishna is having to explain everything again with long examples because Arjuna just can't seem to get anything.

In the Fifteenth Teaching (yes I am skipping fourteen), Krishna is talking about a tree and it's branches. I think this is having something to do with life because of the way he is wording it. Especially when he says "roots are tangled in actions", which I'm taking a guess is referring to men's actions. It even makes it obvious when he says "tree of life." And I'm gussing the branches are all twisted in ways due to people's choices. I also realized that it is possible that it has something to do with Krishna. I think it's saying that all sources of energy and keeping up the universe and all living is Krishna. So Krishna is like the tree.

So hopefully that makes sense.

For the record, John Park should have not been voted off American Idol. The other dude should've gone home. John Park has an amazing voice.

Bhagavad-Gita 7-9

In these new teachings of new wisdom, Krishna teaches Arjuna about the magic of nature and describes four virtuous men. It tells who these four men are below:

"Arjuna, four types of virtuous men

are devoted to me:

the tormented man, the seeker of wisdom,

the suppliant, and the sage."

As I was trying to figure out what this meant, I realized Krishna said the words "devoted to me." Could this mean Krishna has some high authority? I already kind of figured that perhaps Krishna was a King, but could he have some other kind of authority? And along with those questions, they made me wonder how Krishna could have gained all this type of knowledge. Just, how old is he? Back to the four men, I'm taking a wild guess that they are his consolers for wisdom and knowledge.

The eighth chapter talks about your inner spirit and how men are with their self-control at their time of death.

I also happened to come across another passage that answers my question to whether or not Krishna has any higher authority than just being something of a King.

"A man who dies remembering me

at the time of death enters my being

when he is freed from his body"

Reading this, I questioned, "Is Krishna a god?" This passage gives away an answer on to how much control and importance he has onto his people. It makes logical sense.

Reading the rest of the section, I realized it is saying that you have self-control or discipline, and put faith into something, you can reach a better place when you die, such as being riencarnated into a better person. And with this faith, you know that you have a purpose to live and you can motivate yourself forward with a goal or something similar to reach that place.

Bhagavad-Gita The 3-5 Teaching

Yeah! More reading! (that was heavy with sarcasm)
So what happens is...
Arjuna is confused by the long explanation Krishna gave him. Then Krishna has to give him a new long explanation about controlling senses and such, disciplining your actions, and...stuff. There was also something about evil things or people? I'm lost.
On the fourth teaching it talks about knowledge. So listen up people! You must listen to what I have to say next to become smarter!
So I have realized that they are both still at the battle talking about these things. Nowhere does it say they walked somewhere else to talk about these things more privately. This made me wonder with my great abilities and to come up with a possibility of what could happen to them from standing on the battle field. I know I should be thinking about symbolism and what they are actually saying but this thought overwhelmed the other two. I mean seriously. If you were standing on the battle field and the conches had already been blown to start the battle, wouldn't Arjuna and Krishna both be lying dead with an arrow stuck through their head? Since they're still alive at this point, they must have some magical force to shield them from being killed, because I don't know anyone who can just stand in the middle of distruction and killings only to not be killed. I thought this book was supposed to be about wisdom!
So anyways, in the fourth teaching they both end up talking about riencarnation once again and controlling your actions. I never knew there could ever be so many examples of the same thing. It's like everything just keeps being repeated. Only it's sad because I still can't seem to be getting this story. Maybe my mind isn't advanced enough to understand this kind of stuff.
In the fifth teaching, Arjuna wants to know which one is better, dicipline or renunciation. I personally would say dicipline because my sisters don't seem to know the meaning of the word. Maybe I could have Krishna come and explain it for them. Although I don't think they would even be able to sit through the first example of dicipline. Krishna would basically be coming to his own death sentence.
So it says in the passage, "The man of eternal renunciation is one who either hates nor desires," and another one says, "Men of dicipline reach the same place that philosephers attain." What??? There are several more examples of the two but it only made me the ever more puzzled.
So I'm reading, reading, reading, but to no success, do I find something to help me understand. It doesn't even say which one is better. I'm going to take a wild guess because it says, "The man of dicipline has joy, delight, and light within." It sounds happy and better.

Bhagavad-Gita The Second Teaching

Once again I read a rather confusing chapter but tried to come up with the best out of it.

What I understood was that Arjuna was filled with pity but Krishna tried helping him by giving Arjuna helpful advice, such as to stop being such a coward. Only this led to Arjuna explaining some more on why they should not fight and why he felt uncomfortable fighting. Then Krishna started talking about how death is nothing to worry about and neither is killing. Everyone will be reincarnated at some point. So Krishna tells Arjuna to once again go out there and kill everyone in his path like an evil maniac, only this time he takes forever to explain something that can be said so much simpler. Then Arjuna asks a few questions and Krishna answers back with a whole lot of examples of wisdom. Amazing isn't it?
Argh!
I can't read this story anymore!!! I'm going to end up tearing my hair out!
Please help me, whoever is out there!
Oh, and apparently the story takes place in India, not Rome or Greece. My bad.

Bhagavad Gita The First Teaching

A great battle is happening in the field of Kuru between the sons of Dhritarashtra and the sons of Pandu. It also seems as though the reason the battle is happening is because Drupada is intent on revenge. Only, why does Drupada want revenge? What did Dhritarashtra's sons do?

I also understand that apparently Dhritarashtra is dead and up in the upper world. Why else would his son Duryodhana be King and whoever Sanjaya is be narrating the battle?

When I head the line, "Dupada, your sworn foe on his great chariot," I came to the conclusion that this must be taking place in perhaps Greece, because people only used chariots in certain generations. I suppose this is why all of the people's names are so difficult, because the names are in Greek.

I at first thought the story was mainly about Dhritarashtra because it started out with him asking Sanjaya about his sons, but the story seemed to have switched to Arjuna who was on the other side of the battle field with Pandu's sons. I wasn't too upset about this though because Arjuna's opinions about the battle interested me. He didn't want to fight. He didn't want to take revenge. He referred to everyone as his family, even the men on the other side of the field who apparently are his family. He called Dhritarashtra's sons his cousins in the line, " Honor forbids us to kill our cousins, Dhritarashtra's sons." It was rather brave of Arjuna to lay down his bow and arrows.

All that still arose my mind to the question, "Why are the two Kings battling against each other?"

Gilgamesh Tablet XII

The ending chapter is actually a little confusing to me. Was the first part of it but a dream? Was Enkidu back, then died once again, and then came back again? What about the drumstick? What was it exactly? And why does this chapter end so sadly?

I cannot not answer all of these questions correctly or without being confused, but I can answer them in what I think the puzzling chapter is about.

The first part was not a dream, but nor was it reality. It was the past brought up again, but said and explained in a different way. The drumstick was the quest Enkidu and Gilgamesh had embarked on to kill Huwawa. And when Enkidu arrived at the gate to the Nether world, dressed in the opposite way of what Gilgamesh told him and the cry of the dead took him, was when the gods decided Enkidu must die so he did. And at the end, Gilgamesh is finally able to arise Enkidu back from the dead and Enkidu explains all that was happening in the underworld. The good people didn't have such a bad afterlife and the bad ones didn't make it so well.

And there was one line, "the Drum and Drumstick that I had have fallen down through a hole into the Nether World," that made me think of Alice in Wonderland. Only in the actual Alice in Wonderland, Alice is the one that falls in, not the drumstick. And what I realized was that Nether World sounds almost like "Another World" which sounds like it's referring to the world Alice arrives in. I just found that interesting how I automatically thought of the book Alice in Wonderland.

So it was a confusing end of a book. One that I still don't get but can make assumptions on.

Gilgamesh Tablet XI

Utnapishtim's story of how he became immortal I found very interesting. His sounds almost like Noah and the Ark only there's a few differences such as the setting, different gods, the orders he was given is slightly different, and there are others I won't name. Did the original author of Gilgamesh get the idea from the story of Noah I wonder?

Something interesting I found was how the New Year's holiday was known to the people of Shuruppak. I only thought of it as being a more modern holiday. I never imagined the people of Shuruppak would celebrate this. Unless the New Year's holiday is a translation or a better explained name for a holiday they celebrated that was similar to the festival. Hmm.

What I don't understand is why after the god said to Utnapishtim to not bring what he possesses or his riches and only worry about his life but still brought them anyways (his gold and silver). Why the gods did not become angry? He disobeyed them yet they still helped him save his life. Maybe the meaning of riches is different and means something else?

The plant called How-the-Old-Man-Once-Again-Becomes-a-Young-Man is a very original and strange name for a plant I say. I question who placed the flower at the bottom of the sea and named it that very long original of a name. And how does a flower survive under all that pressure from the water? It must again be another thing that was created by the gods for quest purposes.
I feel sorry for Gilgamesh. The strange flower was only a sign to abandon his quest. He has gone through many things, but now he is back to Uruk and will again take his place as King and rule the people. As for the boatman, why did he come back with Gilgamesh? Is he going to become the King's new brotherly companion?

Gilgamesh Tablets IX & X

After Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh wanders into the forest grieving for his friend, only to become afraid of death and have dreams of terror. Because of this, Gilgamesh wanders to the great mountain Mashu, desperate to find a way to cheat death and I must admit it is a brave thing for him to do. I know I could never face the two Twin Dragon Scorpain Beings.

Gilgamesh, as the brave man he is, marches right on through, with permission of course being half god, and travels all twelve leagues of darkness. It must've been hard. The leagues sounded like a discription of the middle or near the bottom of the ocean, it being utterly black, the darkness pressed upon Gilgamesh, and him having difficulties to breath.

He finally comes out into the light of the sun and sees the sea. The way the chapter ended wtih the line, "And beyond the garden Gilgamesh saw the sea," it made the sea sound as though it were important. It got me wondering if Gilgamesh had never seen the sea before or if it took an important part in his journey.

When Gilgamesh is telling the tavern keeper of why he looks the way he does, I can't help but feel sorry for him. He is truly greiving the loss of his friend. This fact erased all my feelings of having Gilgamesh die instead of Enkidu. Gilgamesh may get everything he wants and have almost everything in his way, but he truly does have a heart.

When Gilgamesh arrives to the island where Urshanabi supposedly lives, I became confused as to why Gilgamesh started hacking down the Stone Things. Was it out of anger for his friend's death? And what were the Stone Things? I kept reading on, hoping for the story to tell me but it never did. Although a hint was given when Urshanabi said "With your own hands you made the crossing harder. You broke the talismans, you broke the Stone Things." I had an idea that it could've been a part to the boat only it never said more Stone Things were made to help make a boat. I suppose somes things are meant to come unexplained.

When Gilgamesh finally met the man who could change his destiny at the end, Utnapishtim had said to Gilgamesh that death was just another part of life. Why change it? Now, I'm wondering if Utnapishtim can really make Gilgamesh immortal or if Gilgamesh has changed his mind on no longer being a mortal.

I'll just have to wait and see.

Gilgamesh Tablets VII & VIII

Again the question, "What about Enkidu?" comes to my mind. Enkidu was chosen to die instead of Gilgamesh. Frankly I think Gilgamesh should have died, which I suppose you already know if you have read my last review. I apparently have a grudge against Gilgamesh. Why? I don't know. All I know is that Gilgamesh is a wimp, at least at most times. To me Enkidu was the stronger one, the one who should've lived. I dislike how the gods decided to take away his life instead of Gilgamesh's.

There is one thing I like about Gilgamesh however and that is his kindness and how he isn't afraid of showing his grief. What he did to have Enkidu's name remembered was generous. I kind of now feel a little sorry for him now. He is alone without companion now that Enkidu is gone and he is grieving in sadness and loneliness.

The following clip is of Sherlock Holmes and his partner in crime. The both of them remind me of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Both pairs of friends are good friends, almost like brothers and watch out for each other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV883wfeTt&feature=channel

Gilgamesh Tablet VI

Gilgamesh Tablet VI started with the cleaning of weapons and the after event of killing Huwawa. What I found kind of strange in those short few lines was when Gilgamesh placed a crown atop his head and apparently looked as beautiful as a bridegroom. Back then apparently stories and life was a little different. I've never heard a man, especially a half god and mortal be described in such a way (referring in a way towards Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief).

What I don't understand is why everything is always about Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh here and Gilgamesh there. What about Enkidu? What really made me realize everything has to do with Gilgamesh was when the goddess Ishtar fell in love with Gilgamesh, longing for his body. Again, what about Enkidu? I thought Enkidu was just as beautiful as Gilgamesh. They are both half god but Gilgamesh is the only one ever noticed. Not to mention, Gilgamesh is also the one that is recognized for killing Huwawa and the Bull of Heaven, but I don't think that's right. Enkidu is the brave one who always marches forward to do his duty and Enkidu is the one who lead the way to Huwawa, the one who read Gilgamesh's dreams, the one who can survive in the wild where as Gilgamesh cannot. Enkidu should be given most of the credit.

Looking at the gods in Gilgamesh, the only one I'm really liking is Shamash. All the other gods and goddesses don't seem to act like the gods and goddesses they are supposed to be. For some reason they all come to me looking kind of mean and cruel. Where is their care for the mortals? So when the Bull of Heaven is sent down to kill Gilgamesh but in the process kills hundreds of men it proves my point. The gods and goddesses seem heartless, expect for Shamash who is lucky enough to not be on my bad side yet.

After reading the tablets I have so far, I have realized a pattern due to the number seven. Many things in the book "Gilgamesh" has to do with the number seven, or at least there is always objects of seven. I figured that seven must have been a lucky number back then or at least an important number. It's intersting and I'm kean to find out what exactly is so important about the number seven.

Again another tablet of Gilgamesh has been read. What's next? Why are the gods having a meeting council?

Gilgamesh Tablets IV & V

I was thinking about what would happen next in the story when I decided to go ahead and take a look for myself. The constant nagging on the corner of my brain would not stop. When I did get to reading it, it started at the point where the two of them, Enkidu and Gilgamesh, both began their journey to fight and kill the demon to the hateful god.
When Gilgamesh started to have the dreams they made me wonder, why him? Why didn't Enkidu get strange dreams just like Gilgamesh? I thought about this and figured it must be because of Gilgamesh's status in life and the way he was more civilized than Enkidu. Even though Enkidu understands the dreams and would probably be more fit to have them himself, Gilgamesh is the King and therefore has more power.
One thing that interested me while reading this was how the great voice bellowed from the sky saying "Seven terrors are the garments of Huwawa. The aura of Huwawa is the terrors. Helpless is he who who enters the Cedar Forest when the demon wears the seven. Hurry, Huwawa has not put on the seven. He wears but one." This got me thinking and I came up with many solutions to what he is saying. First, I came up with the idea of maybe he just woke up from perhaps sleep and wasn't fully awake yet to become all seven terrors or traits of which make him scary. Another idea was that he wasn't in a big enough outrage to hold all seven of his scary traits. Lastly, I thought of these lines talking about what he actually wore. Perhaps he had a seven piece armor suit and only had on one piece of it. Many possibilities and meanings can be interpreted about what these lines really mean.
It was an interesting scene in the story, them going on the quest, but I had expected it to be a much longer journey. Instead their journey felt shortly described. I honestly hope the upcoming scenes in the book will be a little more exciting as of the part I just read did not.

Gilgamesh Tablets ii & iii

Reading Gilgamesh left me a bit surprised. I thought it would be much more difficult to understand but i could not have been more wrong. I was able to read clearly and therefore was able to grasp the meaning of the mythological story.
Many things from this story left my mind to wonder a bit and I realized there were a few things that I found surprising. I found it quite interesting how the temple prostitute was considered almost like a goddess and was not treated like the prostitutes from today. Also, it at first shocked me when on page 15, after Enkidu and Gilgamesh had finished fighting, they had made up with a kiss and walked off hand in hand. But I soon came to quickly realize that they were not gay but it was simply the way it was back then. Doing what they did did not make them gay, it was a sign of showing everything is fine between us.
The story too surprised me in the way that I was intrigued and was always wondering what would happen next. I thought it would be difficult to understand and a little boring, but I was proved wrong. It brought me into the story of Enkidu and Gilgamesh, of adventure and myths.

QUESTions, Comparing Blogs

A. The title of the blog is "Oh Clementine".
B. "Oh Clementine" is written by a teen girl who writes about her everyday life in hilerious ways.
C. I think the title of the blog is appropiate because the author herself is named Clementine and her blog is all about her.
D. The blogger doesn't really offer any helpful or important information, only information about her everyday life and experiences.
E. Compared to another blog, "Oh Clementine" has journal entries compared to the other blog that offers only book reviews.
F. I loved this blog because it was funny (it made me laugh out loud), kept me reading, and was interesting. I found it was a very good blog. I wouldn't change a thing about this blog, the title fits, her posts make sense, and never made you want to stop reading.

The Questions

a. Where did the word blog come from?
According to the author Sarah Boxer, the word blog comes from the two words "web" and "log" combined by Jorn Barger in 1997 (creating weblog). Then in 1999, a man named Peter Merholz, an author of a weblog, split the word like this, "We blog", and therefore the word blog was born

b. Why might the writer, Sarah Boxer, object to a book about blogs? What's the difference between a blog and book?
She might object to a book about blogs because blogs are read on the internet and it wouldn't make sense to write a book about blogs. The differences: A book is tight, a blog is reckless, books are slow, blogs are fast, books invite you to stay in between the covers, blogs invite you to stray, and books worry over copyright, and blogs grab whatever they want.

c. How have blogs changed recently?
I'm afraid I don't know.

d. Why might you read a blog instead of a magazine, book, or newspaper?
Perhaps because you want to read about someone's life on an online journal or read about something else that you cannot find in a magazine, or book, or newspaper.

e. Is there a reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog? Why or why not?
Yes, someone could have written or wrote something that sounded too absurd or was more likely to be unrealistic.

f. If you kept your own blog, what would you title it?
I can't think of a particular name but I would choose something mysterious, fun, or exciting.

g. Find three blogs that mention our summer reading.
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The Beginning

For all those people out there who love to read then you're in the right place!
Maybe you are looking for a good book to read or you're just bored and surfing the web, it doesn't really matter, but if you are looking for a book to read then you can go ahead and take a look at my book reviews I'll be posting sooner or later.
Hope you guys enjoy!
(If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a major booknerd. Can't you tell? lol)