Blog #2: Friendship Meaning -- Jessica Moore

Today I was eating lunch at the Common's, alone. So naturally, I was eavesdropping on surrounding conversations while pretending to be watching T.V. I couldn't help but overhear this girl, who was sitting a few seats down from me, talking about her experience at this camp she worked at. She got to talking about this other girl who was there and referred to her as a "frenemy, but more like an enemy." Then she said, " but it was at this camp that we became best friends. And it wasn't the typical friend where you just grew closer and closer into best friends, it was different. I can remember the specific point in time where I thought 'this girl is now my best friend and always will be." Hearing this, I got a little excited, thinking that I am about to hear an incredible story of two enemies, who are forced into a difficult situation together and they have to work together to overcome it, and they come out as best friends in the end. Sadly, I am mistaken. She starts talking about this tool shed that counselors have to "mand" so campers can bring back the things they borrowed to use. The counselors had just gotten finished doing some strenuous task in which they got really dirty, sweaty, and gross. She had gone back to the tool shed to make sure someone was there to man it, and no one was. So, she was forced to sit there, in her sweaty and dirty clothes, in case campers came back with tools. Then, the frenemy walks in wearing dry and clean clothes and having clearly taken a shower. This pisses the girl off, a lot. She said she told the girl, "I've been sitting here in my sweaty dirty clothes while you've gone off and taken a shower, WTF!" Then the girl replies, "I'm sorry. You go and shower and change and I will sit here for you." It is at this point, that the girl says, "And this is when I knew we were best friends, forever." REALLY!? SERIOUSLY?! I almost laughed out loud when I heard this. It seems like such a selfish reason for becoming "best friends" or even friends. So because this once frenemy did something nice for this girl, the girl how classifies them as best friends. That is no basis for friendship, in my opinion. But, it got me thinking of the talk we had about friendship and if you had a friend who said, "this is too much work, let's just do the bare minimum, we don't really need to talk to do we? Let's save our energy." This girls story reminded me of this because it pretty much took the bare minimum for the girl to acknowledge the frenemy as a best friend. And if it was that easy for the girl to accept her as a best friend, it makes me wonder what kinds of friends she really has.

Matthew Winkler- Symbolic word1

On Wednesday September 22, 2010 we discussed the topic of the symbolic word in class. We watched a clip from a move where there was a group of natives who lived in the north. They were unable to get food because there was evil in the area. the evil we find out is a bear that is just trying to survive as well. The tribes men pick a man to kill the bear. He suceeds in this task but must remain away from people for three days because he is too dangerous. By killing the bear he took on the bears energy and until he has control over himself again he must remain away from people. We discussed this in class and what it meant but after watching the video and listening to people talk about it, I had a different take on what it all meant.
The man kills the bear and gets its energy. He then has to leave because he has the bears energy and it is too great for him to control. Now the other tribes men take the bear back to the camp and begin to utilize it for food, clothing, and maybe weapons or necklaces. And I believe that by taking the bear apart it was like they too were killing the bear. It was no longer a large animal that had been killing by one man but a tribe that had put the bear to good use. They took on I believe some of the energy of the bear themselves by ingesting it. So after three days enough of the bear has been used and its energy taken by other tribesmen that the original killer of the bear no longer must feel the overwhelming energy of killing the bear.
The symbolism that I see here is in the form of a message. One man can not do it all. It is only when the tribe works together that they can live together. Each has their own part but if some no longer have purpose dis function would come to the tribe.

Lindsey Pritchett - Turtle Island Nature Preserve

Turtle Island is a place that has fascinated me since I learned about it two years ago in Religion and Ecology. It is a nature preserve in North Carolina that was built by Eustace Conway. The nature "Island" was built to "guide people through experiences with the natural world to enhance their appreciation and respect for life." At Turtle Island, visitors and residents live in log shelters or "primitive tents" such as those Native Americans use. The community is self sustaining, living off the land and building homes and shelters that directly reflect the local environment. The informational website (http://www.turtleislandpreserve.com/) boasts that the log shelters were made with the trees that grew on the land. Furthermore, everything the people of this community eat is either grown in a garden or hunted on the land. The people in this community "orient to the basic foundation of where things come from and where they go." The community has been around for approximately 20 years. It is an effort to revive traditional ways of living, such that we have studied in primal religions, that cultivates an appreciation for nature and a relationship that extends beyond the aesthetic. People travel here for short getaways and summer camps where they learn the benefits of developing a relationship with the environment around them. In a setting such as Turtle Island, it becomes difficult to ignore the spiritual implications of having such a relationship to the world around you. Not only do you learn to appreciate nature, but I imagine you would learn to appreciate every living thing around you: from plants that provide food or serve medicinal purposes to the animals that die to feed the human belly.

Blog #1

Jessica Moore

Class reading: Nonliterate Traditions and Holy Books: Toward a New Model, Sam D. Gill.

In the first part of this article, Gill talks about how some oral tribes believe they are "better" or "superior" to civilized people. A tribe who has no written language, written books, and has such a crude language that they could not be understood to one another unless they also use there hands, compares themselves to a civilized culture and thinks they are better. Needless to say, I don't agree with this. However, to stay away from the "I'm better than you" mindset, I think it is more accurate to say that the two types of living styles (oral and civilized) are so different from one another, that a clean comparison can not be made.
Another point I don't agree with is a quote from a member of the carrier tribe in British Columbia which said, "The white man writes everything down in a book so that it might not be forgotten; but our ancestors married the animals, learned their ways, and passed on their knowledge from one generation to another." Now, I can not survive without my planner. I am constantly writing anything and everything down in there so I don't forget things. If I don't write it down, it won't get done. The same goes for class notes, if I don't put it in my notes, then I won't study it. If oral cultures "marry" the animals and have the time to study their every move and remember everything about them and pass every little thing down to their ancestors, then I applaud them; they are way better than I am. But is this method really reliable? It seems to easy to forget something without writing it down. But that could just be me, always relying on the technology of writing.

Meridith Berson - Sacred Sounds

Meridith Berson - Sacred Sounds
Meridith Berson - Septemeber 19, 2010
I was doing some reading on the importance of music in the traditions of oral peoples and the reading explained how music was a show of caste, as well as that of worship, warning, gathering, and festivities. With emphasis on the drums, each culture had their own types of instruments and used them in different ways. Some instruments were seasonal and were only used on a few occasions, such as a flute after a good harvest. Drums were the most diverse and varied the most. Some used sticks to beat on the heads of the drums while others used their hands. Some drums even had ropes along the sides that allowed the musician to change the sound of the drum by how hard the squeezed it between their arm and their ribcage.
What I found most interesting in the article is how the instruments themselves symbolized things. For example, the heads of the drums were usually made out of sheepskin. The reason for that is because sheep are the most "talkative" of the animals. I thought this was really interesting how the drums which were used to replace the deficient words were in and of themselves supposed to symbolize speech.

Bibliography:
Clark, Nicole. "Music and Oral Traditions." Senegal Orientation. N.p., 08 Aug 2003. Web. 19 Sep 2010. .

Kelsey Brooks - Flower Tokens

While reading a passage in The Original Visions, I found it very interesting the different practices of the Indigenous Peoples. Specifically, the Neanderthals. The Neanderthals buried their dead very cautiously with flowers. They believed these flowers were tokens because they believed the dead should be buried with the beauty they enjoyed on Earth. I thought about this passage and what it meant today. Today, people send flowers out of instinct because it is the "right" thing to do. Many of us see the flowers as a token of sympathy instead of a token as beauty. Some Neanderthals believed the dead would enter a new form existence and the flowers would resonate more than they did in previous life. We have a more broad view today. The funeral takes place with the flowers surrounding the casket. Days past and we begin to throw the flowers away. Why do we not think of flowers as a token of beauty like the Neanderthals? Do people take more things for granted today rather than appreciate what we have?

Meridith Berson - Private Lives

Meridith Berson - September 12, 2010

The other day I watch a House episode that incorporated someone who blogged about everything. Her and her boyfriends fights, as well as medical decisions, were broadcasts via the internet to people all over the world. I have never been one for blogging because usually what is in my head is sovereign there. It's private and putting it out there allows for criticisms that seem based on just the issue, not who I am or who I am interacting with. But amid my own criticisms of this girl who broadcast everything, I began to relate it to being "lost," as discussed in class.
Whether we choose to broadcast our problems to a anonymous viewers or keep them between us and a couple of close friends, I think it goes to show how "lost" we are (as discussed in class.) As a generalization, our culture is extremely dependent on each other. From superficial "jokes" about needing a friends advice before buying something to problems with faith, family, and friends, we constantly ask each other for advice. It seems that we have fallen into a "blind leading the blind" type of scenario. Those who are able to keep their problems under the radar are usually those who are seen as having it the most under control and the most wise, when they may be the most lost, so much so they are unable to even begin to verbalize it.
Although we are all lost in different ways, our dependence on each other is blatant and obvious. However, I would argue it is not shameful. The fact that we are all lost give us a type of fraternity and interdependence that also makes life worth living. This brings me to the question of whether those that we trust we shouldn't also be friends with because a betrayal of friendship could so easily tip a scale and open your personal issues to the world.