Tonight I Can Write and To His Coy Mistress

Page 310.  This poem is basically just talking about how long it truly takes to love someone.  You can never just automatically love everything about someone; you have to learn them as a whole, not just the good parts, but their flaws too.  On page 310, Marvell says “My vegetable love should grow vaster than empires, and more slow.”  He is basically just saying that although when he is truly in love with her, it will be bigger than empires, it will take quite some time.  I think that true love takes a lot of time and that’s what I got from this poem.

Page 321.  This poem was very sad and talked about his former relationship and how he doesn’t have his lover anymore.  It’s very relatable because everyone has felt like this at one point or another.  “To hear the immense night, still more immense without her” (p. 321) made me think of how everyone doesn’t feels so alone and insignificant in the world if they have someone by their side loving them and supporting them through everything.  This is so true because everyone has the need and the want to be loved.  Everyone wants to feel wanted and needed in this world, and the world is so big and cold that if you have someone by your side, you don’t feel as alone and useless as you did before when you were by yourself.  Supporting and loving other people is what everyone needs to do to help each other in this world to feel needed.

The Art of Courtly Love, Symptoms of Love, and Sonnet XI

Page 299.  I really enjoyed reading this passage.  I connected with it really well and I especially liked all the “rules in love” they had written out.  I thought it was interesting when it said love was an “inborn suffering” (p. 299).  It just showed me just how much love really is in our human nature.  We are born with it.  I also thought it was interesting that it said it was a suffering.  Love can make some people suffer, and it causes a lot of hurt and heartache for many people, but in the end, most people end up finding true love and are happy.  I thought it was interesting how there was also a category talking about which people were suited for love.  It said that “age, blindness and excessive passion are all bars to true love (p. 299).  When it said excessive passion, I thought of the word ‘lust’.  If people lust after one another, they are not really in love.  When it said blindness was a restrictor, I thought of the movie Blind Dating.  It’s about a man that is blind and is just trying to find love, but that’s really hard for him because he can’t even see the women he is going on dates with.  I think that you do have to be a certain age to love another besides members of your family, but I think it’s different for everyone.  I also think you can truly love the person you marry til the day you die, not “age 60 for men and 50 for women” (p. 299).

Page 318.  This poem is really just saying how even though love can hurt, you only endure it for certain people; the people you truly love and care about.  “Love is a universal migraine” (p. 318) means that love truly is a universal thing.  Everyone everywhere has experienced love at some point or another.  It also said that love “[blots] out reason” (p. 318) meaning that people do things for love without thinking.  Love makes us go crazy, therefore “blotting out reason.”

Page 320.  I really enjoyed reading this poem.  It talks about how love is nothing that anyone needs physically and how it really isn’t “everything.”  “Love is not all:…Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath” (p. 320).  The reason I thought this was so interesting though was that in the middle of the poem it says that many people are dying for “lack of love alone” (p. 320).  People really can die of heartbreak and I think that it can cause actual physical pain in some cases.  This poem was very eye opening for me and made me think about how love is a psychological need that everyone feels like they need to fulfill to truly be satisfied.

The Symposium

Page 284.  The general point made by Plato in his work The Symposium is that Diotima is trying to explain to him what love truly is; the everlasting possession of the beautiful in its most divine form.  More specifically, Plato states that Diotima argues that love is very vulnerable but also is strong and can conquer all.  She writes, “[Love] has no shoes, nor a house to dwell in; on the bare earth exposed he lies under the open heaven…[love is also] bold, enterprising, strong, a mighty hunter” (p. 285).  In this passage, Diotima is suggesting that love is many things and it comes in many forms, but anyone can possess it if they truly seek it.  In conclusion, it is Plato’s and Diotima’s belief that love has its ups and downs, but when “learned to see the beautiful in due order and succession, [you can] perceive a nature of wondrous beauty” (p. 289).

            In my view, Diotima and Plato are right because love is a very complicated thing.  No one can really explain it, but everyone knows that even though it is difficult, it’s worth it.  For example, my parents have had some rough times in the past, but they’ve worked through their trials because they know it is worth the struggle to get through those hard times and stay together because the good far out-weighs the bad.  Although Plato and Diotima might object that not all men can be able to love and see the beauty in things, I maintain that if someone is willing to work hard enough to look for the good and the beautiful in every person, in every situation, they will be able to find love and beauty wherever they look.  Therefore, I conclude that even though love is a tricky thing, it is something that can be fully understood once you find the right person and maintain a good attitude about every person and situation.

Week 13 Reflection

The definition of love is really just loving another person for who they are and accepting them as a whole person, including their flaws.  Loving someone is to always try your hardest to be patient and understanding with them.  It doesn't mean to always get along, because everyone has their problems, but it means to continually try harder to work at your problems and differences you have with the other person.  Love is a really tricky thing and it happens differently for everyone.  Everyone in the world needs to be loved though so they can feel wanted and needed.

Song of Songs and The Art of Love

Page 281.  This whole passage is basically talking about the first stage of love.  Whenever someone falls in love, they love everything about that person.  They don’t see them as anything but perfect, they think that there could never be anything wrong with them.  “You are wholly beautiful, my love, and without a blemish” (p. 283).  This quote of scripture proves my point entirely of the couple loving everything about each other.  They see each other as perfect because they are still in that “honeymoon” stage.  They imagine their lives together as always being perfect, never fighting, never having any problems with each other.  I think that everyone goes through this at some point in their lives, thinking that everything will always be perfect.  However, everyone always as the realization that this is not really how it is always going to be.  Being in a relationship with someone else takes a lot of hard work and both people have to be willing to continually work at the relationship to make it successful.

Page 294.  This passage is mainly talking about the hard work of love but how it can also be very rewarding.  Love is not an easy task, and Ovid compares love to war.  “Love, like war, is a toss-up.  The defeated can recover, while some you might think invincible collapse; so if you’ve got love written off as an easy option you’d better think twice.  Love calls for guts and initiative” (p. 295).  I really liked this quote because it tells how love really does need more than just the romance part of it.  Love needs “guts and initiative” which is sometimes hard to find in a relationship, especially if it is the couple’s first fight.  You need to take the initiative in the relationship if something the other person is doing or isn’t doing is upsetting you.  Love is a tricky thing, but I think Ovid was right when comparing it to war in some ways.

What is Love?

Page 334.  The general point made by Helen Fisher in her work What is Love? is that there are three different kinds of love that all come together to truly love someone.  More specifically, she suggests that everyone gains these experiences in a different order.  She writes, “Love can start off with any of these three feelings.  Lust (sex drive), romantic attraction, and attachment” (p. 334).  In this passage, Fisher is suggesting that everyone is different when it comes to the order in which these three kinds of love happen.  In conclusion, it is Fisher’s belief that everyone falls in love in different ways.

            In my view, Fisher is right because every human being is different in everything they do, even the way in which they fall in love.  For example, in the movie Made of Honor, the boy and the girl are best friends.  They have been best friends since college and spend most of their time together.  However, it isn’t until the girl is about to get married to another man that the boy realizes he is in love with his best friend.  Although Fisher might object that people can fall in love only after they have experienced the three stages of it, I maintain that you don’t have to experience all three to truly love someone.  You can marry someone and truly love him or her without having sex with that person before the marriage.  Therefore, I conclude that everyone really does experience and fall in love in different ways because every human being is different in their own way.

The Qur'an / Week 12 Reflection

1.      The work says that the relationship between man and Allah is one of both respect and fear.  Mankind’s responsibility to Allah is to always praise and follow him as well as pray to him and worship him only, and sing praises to him.

2.      Women are to be treated unequal to men because Allah is only forgiving of men.

3.      The “people from the book” are the Jews and Christians of the world.  Their relationship to the revelation of Allah and to those who accept Islam is mostly friendly and tolerant.

4.      In the Koran, god seems to be very forgiving and understanding without really caring a whole lot of what his people do.  In the New Testament however, God is more forgiving if His people are truly repentant and sorrowful for what they’ve done.  They both have a Judgment Day that they talk about though.

5.      The Koran tells the Christians to believe in Allah and they will be saved.

6.      One could accept this revelation because it says that those who do not believe will be sent to Hell on the Judgment Day.

7.      The role of the prophets in general is to help keep their people on their path of righteousness.  The role of Muhammad in particular is to basically warn all the unbelievers so they can be held accountable at the Judgment Day.

8.      The evidence given for this being at work of revelation is that their prophets have received revelation from him that it is true.

Week 11 Reflection

One leads a 'moral life' by just being a kind, decent human being to other people according to these texts.  Live in moderation and find out who you are.  Become independent and love yourself.  The Buddhism text was definitely easier to understand and a lot less formal than the Dhammapada or the Tao.  The result for 'bad behavior' is basically Karma.  If you live good, you will be rewarded by the laws of nature.  If not, it will come back to get you in the end.

Buddhism, Dhammapada & Taoism

Page 145.  Gotama starts out by telling his story of when he was a young boy.  He tells of how his parents always gave him everything he wanted and made sure everything was taken care of for him.  He started noticing this and wasn’t pleased with it.  He decided to leave this lifestyle and set out to try and find out who he was.  For a little while, he denied himself of food and other things necessary for life.  After that, he traveled to quite a few different places and meditated and found his path of life that he was supposed to take.  He became the Buddha over the course of his life journey.  “Though my parents wished otherwise and were grieving with tears on their faces” (p. 146).  Often times, young adults need to leave their parents and figure out who they are on their own without their parents help, and often times without their approval.  “They quarrel and fight – people seeing one side” (p. 154).  People that are close-minded often have a hard time accepting other people’s opinions, even though they may both be correct.  To lead a moral life, people need to take care of their bodies as well as take care of other people.  Everyone needs to be kind to others and themselves and always be honest and healthy.

Page 155.  In these passages, it is basically talking about a few of the principles on which this religion is based.  It talks about how to live healthily, how to be happy, to not be evil, etc.  I really liked the phrase “’She abused me, attacked me, defeated me, robbed me!’  For those not carrying on like this.  Hatred ends” (p. 155).  This shows that you need to let go of grudges to finally be happy.  I also really liked the phrase “Do not consider the faults of others or what they have or haven’t done.  Consider rather what you yourself have or haven’t done” (p. 156).  I really liked this because it shows that you shouldn’t judge others before taking a good, long look at yourself to see what you need improvement on.

Page 165.  These are just a few verses from the book of principles based on the religion of Taoism.  “In this way we harvest eternal importance because we never announce it” (p. 165).  This is really profound because the most amazing things in life are unspoken.  Actions speak louder than words.  “The spirit of life never dies” (p. 166).  I really like this phrase because it shows that no matter who you are or where you come from, you can carry on the spirit of life within you and show it off to the world.

Week 10 Reflection

The beliefs are connected to the exact geographical location in the way that each place is seen as being made in a different way by every different culture.  Everything is made differently, therefore, each culture is going to have a different interpretation on how things came to be based on their environment.

In my myth, the location, being Hawaii, reflects upon and informs it's readers of the way in which all the creatures of the sea came to be.  The star fish are called Sea Constellations and are each creators in the myth as they were the gods of Hawaii.

My Creation Myth

In the beginning, there was blue.  There was a rainbow of color immersed in the wet, shiny, blue.  The Sea Constellations were the Creators of all the beings under The Blue.  The Sea Constellations could travel into the sky when they needed some time away from The Blue.

One day, one of the Sea Constellations named Peach wanted to make a being that did not rely on The Blue to live.  She started fiddling with one of the beings that lived under The Blue one day and created a turtle.  This being could live both on land and under The Blue.  After that, She had the brilliant idea of creating a being that could just live on land.  She wanted to make it clear that The Blue and the land were very separate.  She created a tree, formed after the image of seaweed and all other sea plants.  She wanted the tree to be happy, so she created Man to climb the tree and use the tree for all its resources so the tree could feel useful and be happy alongside Man.  The Sea Constellation Peach wanted all the beings of the Earth and of The Blue to realize how She wanted everyone to live in harmony with each other.  Since she wanted everything to live in harmony with each other, she decided that she would make a being that could live in both land and water.

She decided to make a creature that could live on the sandy beaches or in The Blue.  She wanted the creature to be able to defend itself while on land because of all of its unknown dangers.  She gave the creature claws and called it a lobster.  At first, the lobster seemed to be doing great and loving life but then things changed.  It became mean and tried to hurt the animals on land with its sharp claws.  So, Peach decided she needed a new creature that was nicer.  It took her years and years to make a new prototype of a nice land and sea animal. 

While she was taking such a long time making the animal she decided that the animal should live very long time since it took so long to make.  She also wanted to give the animal a strong outer shell for protection.  Finally, on one sunny day, Peach finished her master creation.  Thus the Sea Turtle was born.

Once Peach had created the Sea Turtle, all the other beings wanted to try as best they could to please Her just like the Sea Turtle did.  Peach continues to live as a Sea Constellation today somewhere out in The Blue.

THE END

Myth Questions

Questions

1.      In all these stories, how do the gods behave?

2.      What is the place of human beings in these stories?

3.      How does God behave toward Man?

Omaha Creation Myth:

1. The god just gives the people what they want, which was a place to live.  The god behaves charitably.

2. The human beings were lost and didn’t know where they belonged.  They were obviously not as glorious as the god or they would have made themselves a place to live.

3. He behaves as though he wants to help the people he created.

Pawnee Creation Myth:

1. Mother Corn behaves very powerfully.

2. They are ever indebted to Mother Corn.  They weren’t anything before she created them.

3. She is very commanding toward her people, but also very protective.  She wants to help them in every way she can.

An African Cosmogony:

1. The god in this story behaved very sickly.  He vomited everything up that was created and after that didn’t do much.

2. Humans came from the god that vomited them up, so the place of humans in this myth is to help keep the earth clean.

3. He helps man to learn how to create fire.  He wants to help them.