Analysis of Cole's Eden

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/expulsion-from-the-garden-of-eden-33060

This is a painting by Thomas Cole featuring the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. I actually saw this painting in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston a few weeks ago. The most striking thing about it is the contrast between the bright, sunny paradise of Eden, to the cold darkness of the outside world. As with many nature paintings we have seen, the entirety of the composition is dominated by the, in this case two, very different landscapes. Adam and Eve are depicted as tiny figures, completely overwhelmed by the dark world ahead of mountains and cliffs ahead of them and the brightly detailed Garden they are forced to leave behind. If you look closely at the right side, over the rock wall of the Garden, you can see all types of plants, flowers, and even animals. Then follow the path from the gate over the bridge to the barren rock completely void of nature and life, and you can see it is the polar opposite of paradise, a sort of hell on earth.

Grizzly Man opinions



The documentary “Grizzly Man” as directed and narrated by Werner Herzog is misleading. The underlying bias the director holds is apparent through the choice of film clips and interviews and his constant attempt to undermine the character that Timothy Treadwell created. One Cannot truly grasp the sense of who Treadwell was as a person, nor the strength or intent of his message by the chosen footage that constantly shows him at his worst.

What can be gathered from the documentary is how a strong belief can create the drive to accomplish much. Though I do not exactly agree with Treadwell’s actions being the best solution, he still felt what he was doing was right and was important. However, I do think that his purpose became distorted over time, and that he lost sight of what he truly wanted to accomplish. I think his focus turned more towards his dislike of human society, to his desire to morph into a bear and leave the human world behind completely.

The Delicacy

Treadwell was a strange creature. After watching the movie Grizzly Man I was convinced that he truly loved bears more than himself and would do anything for them, like being devoured. Then I started to wonder why. Why did he really care about bears so much? What would cause a person to act like he did? The only answer I found that didn't solely revolve around him being crazy, was a very simple human trait. Treadwell wanted to contribute and fit in to society.

As a drug addict this would be impossible. People wouldn't care about things he did or said because even the brightest, most brilliant ideas would be tainted by drug use and an underlying dependence for drugs. People would scoff at him and his drugs. So he created a Bear-Savior persona. And sure, many people scoffed at him and his bears, but he fit in with some crowds (whether or not those crowds consisted of crazy, bear-loving, hippy ladies is not truly important). He needed to continue being a grizzly man to even be a man at all. 

He called the bears his saviors and whatnot in his videos because they saved him from his drug addiction and also because they allowed him to have a special place in the world, to have a role that he could fit into. It’s tragic, that the world of the bears was as difficult for Treadwell to fit into as society was for him. This is why he was eaten, as a rare bear treat: a delicacy. Treadwell would have been consumed by drugs, crime, and shame if he had not left to live with the bears, but this path has been taken by millions before him. His death would be unimportant, a common morsel of junk food to the bear that is society (perhaps a cheeto). Treadwell’s death was tragic, but made him more human than he ever was before living with the bears.

I don’t think Treadwell was addicted to danger or taking high risks, I think he was taking those risks so that way some people, somewhere, would pay attention to him and care about him. As a drug addict he wouldn’t have been able to affect the lives of all of the children he visited. As a drug addict he wouldn’t be popular in certain circles of crazy, bear-loving, hippy ladies. Treadwell found a way to fit into society by being this person who didn’t fit in, and for that, I value his work.

The Turks

       Here is an update on my research on Ottoman architecture. So far I am about halfway through the book entitled Turkey: from the Selcuks to the Ottomans by Henri Stierlin. I found the book not only rich with architectural evidence of what represents Ottomans, but I learned a lot about their origins and how that mixes with their architecture. It turns out, their ancestors were the Huns, Mongols, Uighurs, Oghuz, and even the Xiongnu and Shatuo which are both Chinese cultures. With this unique architectural styles of these exquisite cultures, there were others that the Turks came into contact with that helped shape their unique culture including the Omayyad, Sassanid Persians, Indians, Byzantines, Arabians, Syrians, Armenians, Eastern Europeans, Egypt, and Northern Africa. The book also gets into great detail on how being Sunni Islam, wars, and other events also affects their architecture.
     So far, I have learned a lot about the Seljuk architecture, the influence of caravans, and got a nice interpretation of early Ottoman architecture. In around 1243, Anatolia was under much chaos due to the Mongol invasion, death of their sultan, revolts, uprisings, and conflicts between the tribal chiefs; and yet they still haven't lost their local architectural tradition. According to the text, they maintained the traditional Turkish architecture until they conquered Constantinople in which everything in the means of architecture changed. One example of this is how their mosque's evolved. According to the text, they used the mosque style of the Ulu Camii which compromised a partly porticoed courtyard leading to an oblong prayer hall with a central some. Also, it has 4 bays of ribbed vaults, forming 19 squares around the central dome (which covers 9 itself). Yet most iconacally, the prayer hall is wider than it is deep, a style that dates back to the Seljuks. These mosque forms are relatively traditional due to the fact that the are inspired by the classical Arab oblong plan to which they add a vast central dome.
     Other popular mosque styles included a single dome, square shape, and a single minaret remained a very popular for a long period of time. Other mosque ideas of the ottomans were brick minarets with turquoise tiles (a tradition of Persia and the Mongols), compact prayer halls, double domed, porches, T shaped buildings, star and octagon motifs, and even raised flooring. Surprisingly, they were interested in the west and asked both da Vinci and Michelangelo to come and help with the building projects they were performing.
       REPORT: mixed. Although this book is rich with architectural history, it worries me that it doesn't go into Ottoman culture until halfway through the book. What also worries me is the complexity in the wording of the book, which may be due to the lack of enough architectural knowledge. I will have to include many new sections in my essay that i wasn't planning on before, including origins of the Turks, seljuck style, and the influence of caravans on architecture. So for now, i will continue with this book, focusing not only on their styles of architecture, but also more on what caused them to adapt to those forms of architecture.

Artificial Intelligence

       The first book I read for my topic was Artificial Intelligence by Peggy Thomas. This book covered a lot of the basics and history of artificial intelligences and was a good starter book in learning more about my topic. The book discussed the idea of modern AI's and how books and movies (such as Star Wars) shaped our current perceptive on what would be an AI.
       An AI is essentially a computer that can learn, think, and evolve to be smarter than it started out as. An AI adapts to problems and learns from that problem to use in future situations, much like a human would. In fact, a perfect AI would be completely indistinguishable from a human being in the sense that if you had a conversation with an AI, it would seem as if you were talking to a human and not a machine.
        Artificial Intelligence starts off with describing early computing devices such as the Colossus, which was a British computer made during WW2 to decode encrypted German messages, and about Charles Babbage creating a purely mechanical computing device that could calculate up to 31 digits, using only gears and hand cranks. Then it goes on to explain binary, the most basic of computer language and how computers used this language to perform simple and extremely complex tasks.
       A man named Alan Turning devised a test in which someone would type the same question into two computers, one linked up to an AI, the other linked up to a human. After 5 minutes of question asking, if the person couldn't tell the two apart, or guessed wrongly as to which was human, then the AI would be considered intelligent. To date no such AI has passed the "Turning" test as it's called. Turning also suggested that a good place to create intelligence in a machine to chess. So in response to his suggestion, many AI groups started making chess playing computers and in 1980, these computers started being able to defeat experienced players. It wasn't until 1997 that chess computers finally became unbeatable with enough processing power.
       Now more recently, AI's and robotics have started to come together to create a more human like AI. Think C-3P0. Most of the advances though have been made with robotic AI's being programmed more animal or even insect like, just maneuvering landscaped and solving simple tasks. But these are important stepping stones to one day having your own personal robot butler one day.
Or a Skynet catastrophe.

The Story Behind Surrealism

For my first research book I read Phaidon by Robert Radford. I started reading this book thinking that I knew quite a bit about Salvador Dali, but I realized that his life was far more complex than I ever thought. There are many unsolved mysteries about his early life and decisions and events shaping his art style. There was much more to Dali than anyone ever knew.

Salvador was born May 11, 1904 in Figueres in Catalunya. Dali’s life was quite a mystery containing three different stories of how his childhood was lived. The true story about pre-celebrity Dali has never been confirmed. There is the version of his childhood coming from various records, the impassioned version described by Dali, and the perfect harmonious family portrayed by Dali’s sister. Dali created a mysterious façade of himself as a painter and didn’t want anyone to know anymore than what he showed.

His art was shaped through many things throughout his life. His art style changed multiple times from things like surrealism to earlier renaissance paintings. He had many mentors he met along the way including poet Federico Garcia Lorca, film-maker Luis Bunuel, Joan Miro, and Pablo Picasso. Dali wasn’t always the surrealism painter that we think of. His moving to America and travel gave him different opinions and insight therefore affected his outlook on things. The different people that Dali met gave him different opinions on his artwork and what each piece meant to him.

In doing my research, I learned thing about Dali I never knew. I think that I want to try to narrow down my research paper to what made him a surrealist painter and the events in his leading up to this decision and the classic reasoning behind surrealism. I think the next book I read will focus more on the type of art.

What Are Rosary Beads?

I went to Catholic school for 11 years and had Religion class every day of school - the basics of Catholic beliefs are nearly instinctual at this point.  My biggest shock attending public school has always been the lack of knowledge of Catholic doctrine my peers have.  When someone asked today what Rosary Beads are, I realized that this post needed to be made.  This likely won't be the most interesting post written tonight, but just bear with me.  You may even learn something.

The book I read was Catholic Faith in America by Chester Gillis.  On page 16, my friend's question is answered.  A rosary is a string of 59 beads usually connected to a small crucifix, although mine has a replica of the Pietà statue found in the Notre Dame Cathedral.  The origin of the prayer beads are questionable, but there is significant evidence that the rosary took shape by the hands of St. Dominic. [Fun fact: there is a rosarymart.com]

The Catholic Church is the world's largest charitable organization.  Catholic hospitals, food banks, adoption agencies, and other entities serve more people than any other organization in the world on a daily basis.  Public education and hospitals, two things upon which millions of people rely on daily, have their roots in the Catholic Church. 

This book also referenced Pope John Paul II, who stated in a document titled The Church and Computer Culture, published in 1989, that "with the advent of computer telecommunications and computer participation systems, the Church is offered further means for fulfilling her mission."  23 years later, Pope Benedict XVI joined Twitter.  Pope Francis, who was recently elected by the College of Cardinals as Pope, now tweets in nearly ten different languages.

I think my topic will still work.  My next book is Are Social Networking Sites Harmful?, part of Greenhaven Press's At Issue series unless I find something in the area which combines Catholic doctrine and Social Media.  I think that people like Mark Hart, Chris Padgett, and Leah Darrow will be helpful in my endeavors and hopefully others will be unearthed through research.  

Works Consulted

Gillis, Chester. Catholic Faith in America. New York: Facts On File, 2003. Print.

References I didn't use, but that I trust:

The rosary: http://lifeteen.com/why-do-catholics-pray-the-rosary/

Video on the Rosary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czDfk0RbN6M

I'm currently watching this, but I think it may be helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMLoEGCeAHs

An article on Facebook from a Catholic perspective: http://lifeteen.com/facebook-frenemy/

This is mostly for me for future reference, sorry: http://lifeteen.com/type-nice-digital-evangelization/

I'm sorry if this was mostly rambling, but thank you for reading the whole post if you chose to do so.  Internet hug for you <-(^.^)->

I promise to try to make my next post more interesting!

R

Frida Kahlo: First Readings

To begin research for my paper, I read the biography Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. I knew next to nothing about Kahlo before I read this biography, but I learned a lot throughout the book and have a much better understanding of her life and art. She was born in 1907 on the outskirts of Mexico city and in 1925, when she was eighteen, was in a terrible bus accident that left her in almost constant pain and unable to have children. She married the painter Diego Rivera in 1929, becoming his third wife, and the two began a tumultuous high profile relationship. Kahlo had affairs throughout the marriage, with both women and men, and although Rivera's displeasure with her male lovers was no secret, many close friends described her as always radiant and fierce. Her distinct looks, with the slight mustache, pronounced unibrow, and classic Mexican dresses, were showcased in the majority of her artwork. Kahlo was also known for swearing frequently and using slang while speaking in English.

Along with her personal life, I learned a lot about her artwork and career as well. Her painting may have been somewhat small, but they were able to speak a lot. The majority of her works are self portraits using bright colors, and most put her in the category of surrealism. I still am unsure of how to narrow my topic on Kahlo down. I could connect her work and life to feminism, or see how it affected modern Mexican or American art. Whatever I chose to do, I am excited to learn more about Kahlo and broaden my knowledge on Mexican art from the mid twentieth century.

W.B. Yeats Irish Folktales

For my first book I decided to read Irish Folktales. Which is a collection of many of the fairy tales and folk tales of Celtic myth. It goes back to the very ancient myths of Ireland like with the banshee and the bog people. It shows how much of Irish history are very contrasted to one another. Many of the fairy tales are very happy and spritely like the tales of the fairies in the forest and then it can go to a very dark grim story of the banshee that wails when someone is about to die and the ghost stories of the bog people that live in the swamps and would take people in the night and drown them in the swamps. The myths of the Irish aren't all to different then many of the surrounding countries and are very ancient Myths. A lot of the myths in this book are derived from many Gothic themes with their dark tones and their strange atmosphere. This book is a very interesting collection of many of the tales of Ireland's people.

Inspired But Never Mimicked.

    I started this project with a limited understanding of the history of Abstract Expressionism, and the making of it. Reading Barbara Hess' Abstract Expressionism, showed me how I had only scratched the surface of information from the discussions in my past Art History class. I knew the time fram of the movement and a bit about how the government was really cool and knew that art shouldn't be lost because of the recession, so they were paid to make art for public installations. There was a lot of information to process, but one of the first things that was discussed was the term Abstract Expressionism.
      Some things I learned were that the term Abstract Expressionism itself began as a title to the artist who were opposed to categorizing movements in art and separating them into categories. Like Abstract Expressionism, many movements in art have a blurred line from when they begin and end because there are artists who dabble between the lines and do not fit in a specific category. The difference with Abstract Expressionism though, is that the methods of simply getting the paint on the canvaas and the subject matter is so unique to each individual, it literally cannot be mimicked because the essence of Abstract Expressionism is about the individual and about conveying a feeling within, that no one else can besides the individual, and that's super cool.

     

Creation of Jazz

Most people when they think of jazz music, they think of Louis Armstrong, the famous trumpet soloist, Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald who sang effortlessly, but they don't know where jazz music originated from. Jazz music first originated by the inspiration of African tribe music. Slaves from West Africa brought their musical traditions with them to America. Many slave owners encouraged slaves to sing because they thought it would make them work harder and make them less likely to rebel. Tribal music included many rhythms at once and syncopation, which are still key aspects to jazz music today. African Americans started picking up instruments and creating their own little bands, performing in their cabins. What really started the jazz craze was the big bands and the signature dixieland sound in the city of New Orleans.

People flooded New Orleans in the early 1900s to hear this new music, which included syncopation, ragtime, swing, and big brass bands. This is where Louis Armstrong started out, playing in small bands in clubs and hotels. Pianists started to play multiple rhythms at once, called ragtime. One of the most famous of these ragtime songs is "Maple Leaf Rag." Many immigrants from Haiti, called Creoles, came over to New Orleans and had a huge influence on the music there. One of the best of these early Creole jazz musicians was Edward "Kid" Ory. He was a major influence to Armstrong. Eventually, people ventured out to Chicago and New York, making new records. The public always was looking for that new sound, especially after the Victorian Age, which encouraged people to be proper and appropriate. The public felt oppressed and wanted change.

Eventually, some musicians stepped out of the big band sound and became known for their solos. Soloists became popular in jazz music, especially in Louis Armstrong's band in the 1920s. People admired that instrumental solo, especially when it was improvised. Solos added something different and exciting to this 'new' music, which shaped into jazz. Singing also was introduced and became more popular in jazz music, when before it was just the instruments that were highlighted. Louis Armstrong sang in almost all of his records, along with his signature instrumental solos. Some singers that peaked was Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others. Many of them were African Americans who came from rough backgrounds with little money. What brought them to the top was their unique sound and individualism. Every new musician coming onto the scene strived for individualism, in order to be noticed in the jazz world.

Jazz spread across Europe and other countries as well. Everyone loved hearing that fresh sound, that ignored the old traditions of the Victorian Era. Jazz music spread like a plague, and jazz still influences music today. Many agree that Jazz music was the inspiration for Hip-Hop, Rap, and R&B. Many African Americans were able to use jazz music as an outlet and an escape from the oppression of racism and segregation. Jazz musicians were able to make an impact and make something of themselves. They could have a voice and be important, but only for a moment. Many famous jazz singers and musicians still had to obey the rules for the "black people." Yes, they were famous, but they still didn't have the same rights as white Americans, but that's a different book....

My next book will be specifically on Ella Fitzgerald. I admire her very much and would like to know her story. I want to know her influence on jazz music. I hope to focus my paper on her.

Early Gauguin

     Thus far, I have studied Gauguin's early to mid body of works extending from the 1875 to 1893, through Ingo Walther's Gauguin. Gauguin began as a stock manager and member of the French bourgeois where he comfortably supported his dutch wife Mette and five children. In Paris, he began to take classes in Impressionism and produced his first works after seriously studying the Impressionist method. One of his first works, The Seine in Paris between Port d' léna and the Port d' Granelle (1875), showed his tremendous talent and ability to integrate a personal flare into a widely established style. He used the impressionist technique of having visible paint marks on the canvas, but he contrasted their platform in that he portrayed a static emotion in his work. Traditional impression often highlighted "an unemotional scrutiny" of society, but Gauguin shows a sentimental perspective by showing what appears to be a small mother and son in the foreground of the image. He also shows ports, industrialized ones at that, in a peaceful light, making his painting further discordant with the pure Impressionist perspective. 

     Gauguin quickly broke away from the landscape platform he used in his first major work and brought his perspective to the human form and often incorporate elements of myth into his art. His Caricature Self-Portrait (1889) characterizes these stylistic elements; this work in particular highlight biblical myth by having a snake weaving its way through Gauguin's fingers, apples hanging next to his face, and a halo perched above his head. Not only does this show Gauguin's use of people and myth in his art, but also his personality. As an individual, Gauguin was fairly self-important; he would believe his early work would not sell because of public ignorance and often viewed himself in higher regard than other artist. The viewer of the painting not only gets this sense from the halo above Gauguin's head, but also Gauguin's eyes are disapprovingly squinted and his mouth is cocked arrogantly to one side. Additionally, Gauguin shows the most depth and contrast in his face, in comparison to the relatively flat elements of the portrait. 

     Another facet of Gauguin's work I could explore is his relationship to the native people of Tahiti. After spending decades in Paris and then the French countryside, he moved to Tahiti were spent many years immersing himself in the indigenous culture. During his years in Tahiti, Gauguin took on a lover named Tehura who helped him break down the walls between his Western culture and her indigenous one. One day when Gauguin home to the tent he shared with Tehura, he struck a match which scared Tehura, as she thought it was the return of a dead spirit. This "primitive" reaction inspired his 1892 painting, The Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch. In the foreground, Gauguin shows Tehura lying on her stomach on their bed.  Her heals are crossed and her arms are crunched with her palms down, showing her submission and fear, while her facial expression emotes innocence. What Gauguin is trying to capture in this work is a sense of primitive nobility -- that this culture and these people are more human than their European counterparts. This idea relates back to the idea of the noble savage and Montaigne's "Of Cannibals", in the belief that indigenous people have a higher standard of ethics and more noble innate behavior than European society. 

     For my essay, I will likely either further examine the role of myth or native people in Gauguin's art or perhaps some combination of the two as they are the most striking and unique elements of his collection.

Fun side note: Gauguin lived with Van Gogh for a period during his time in France. During which, he experience the full spectrum of Van Gogh's mania. One night Gauguin needed some space from Van Gogh had grown paranoid of Gauguin. Van Gogh followed him carrying a razor and then stole off into the night; the next morning Van Gogh had severed his ear during a manic swing and Gauguin had to care for him.
 

Gender Roles in Art and Plays in Ancient Greece and Crete

I have actually decided to broaden my subject to gender roles portrayed in Ancient Greek and Cretan art and plays and to just dedicate a paragraph or two to the  blurred gender because I was struggling with finding information. One of the books I am reading is The Blade and the Chalice by Riane Eisler which is about cultural origins and gender roles in those cultures. It says that in readings you'll find famous Greeks such as Pythagoras and Socrates were taught by priestesses and that leaders from all over the Greek world sought out the advice of a priestess named Pythoness but other than that women are hardly mentioned in writing. We already know women had no civil or political rights. Yet in Homer's Odyssey women play some of the most powerful roles. It also mentions people referring back to old creation stories of a great mother creating the world instead of their modern gods and goddesses. Women liked to revert back to old stories past down from generations talking about an earlier, less oppressive time. Its interesting to discover how the women dealt with it. We all learned about the female role in Ancient Greece and their lack of rights but never how they responded or that not all the men agreed. I need to do more research though and possibly narrow down my topic again.

Rudolf Nureyev-- Initial Research

For my first book, I chose to read the novel Nureyev by Valeria Crippa and Ralph Fassey. It is a well-written narrative of is life accompanied by absolutely stunning photographs. I learned a lot that I didn't know about him, and now have a totally different view of him. He was born in the Soviet Union in 1938, which wasn't a great time to arrive in. His family (consisting of 4 sisters) fled to live with an uncle in a 129 square foot house. That is so ridiculously small. His father was part of the communist army. His passion for dance started when he was 7 years old, upon seeing the ballet The Song of the Craines. His father was thoroughly displeased with his desire to dance, as he'd hoped his son would become a doctor or engineer. His first teacher in the Soviet Union was Anna Udeltsova, who was at one point part of the infamous Ballet Russes. But he wanted to go further-- he raised his own money to get himself to Leningrad, where he would attend the prestigious Vaganova school at age 17. He improved constantly under the watchful eye of ballet master Pushkin. He toured frequently with the company and was gaining popularity in Europe. In June of 1961, he made a life-changing decision. He defected from the Soviet Union while in Paris. This was a very bold move to make, but one that was good for him. He was performing within days of defecting, as he was a hot ticket item. Combine his history with hidden homosexuality and you get a fierce, intensely dedicated dancer and human being. Later in life, he was infected with AIDS. But nonetheless, Nureyev was an amazing dancer and a rather ridiculous man. Here are several very sassy quotes said by or about Nureyev:

1. "Dealing with him was like managing nitroglycerine"(17)- said by an interviewer turned servant.

2. "[He was] embarrassingly beautiful... he had an entire corps de ballet at his feet" (23)- said by a fellow dancer.

3. "When Nureyev died he left behind a trail of inconsolable widows" (17)- said by a close friend.

4. "Russians are natural dancers; the English have to learn" (36)- said by Nureyev himself.

In Defense of the Grizzly Man

       Timothy Treadwell was eaten twice. Think about it. Once by the bear that killed him, then by the bears that cleaned up the corpse of said bear after it was shot and killed. Yeah yeah, I know they carried away like two garbage bags full of people parts, but there's no way they got every bit and piece! Just putting that out there. Eaten. Twice.

       Anyway, the documentary Grizzly Man was definitely a unique experience. I cant say that I'm completely proud about laughing at the life's work of a dead man, but a lot of the documentary was quite whimsical. Treadwell was a man full of conflict. Battling mental illness, addiction, and mockery by his peers, Treadwell was still able to live alongside some of the most ferocious creatures on the planet for over a dozen summers. That's pretty commendable no matter who you are.

       What was the reason he went to live with those bears? To protect them? Did he ever actually prevent anyone from doing harm to one of the bears? Or was there an emotional/psychological reason he felt so at home, and in love with the bears that drove him to stay with them every year up until the point of his very death? That truth can only be speculated about now. The only link we have into the mind of Timothy Treadwell is the over 100 hours of footage he recorded while with the bears. Some of the footage is beautiful and well spoken, and shows us a nature loving, person who has a clear goal and sense of direction.  While other pieces of footage show a confused, angry, and conflicted person who hates the world. But in all the footage there's evidence of someone who cares for the animals and has a strong will to do what he believes is right even till the end.

       Timothy Treadwell died the way he would have wanted to die. He said so himself that he'd die for the bears and that he wouldn't be surprised if one day he was killed by one. That's dedication. So while we laugh at this documentary ('We' as in me too, because it was definitely hysterical), we should just keep in the back of our heads the thought that, hey, here's a guy whose life could not be more perfect. He's exactly where he wants to be in the world, doing exactly what he wants to do, and someday I sure wish I could live like that too.

       And if he was so extremely excited about just touching bear poop, think of how happy he would be knowing he himself would BE bear poop one day.
Just putting that out there.

Man V. Giant Bear

       I don't really know what I think about Herzog's film of Treadwell. It portrays him in many different ways. At some points in the film you respect what Treadwell is trying to accomplish out in the wilderness but then the film just takes a drastic turn when it cuts to a pilot, that pretty much just calls Treadwell retarded. I don't think that Herzog respects Treadwell very much and it really shows in some points in the film. Herzog says that Treadwell has potential but he never recognized it and used it. It seems that Herzog looks down on Timothy in this film. He emphasizes all of Tim's weaknesses and keeps exploiting his clear unsoundness mentally to drive home a point that doesn't really need to be made since Timothy died from his experiences with the bears showing that he indeed wasn't correct in all of his personal prejudices towards the bears.
      Herzog Does not really try to see things through what Timothy might have seen. Instead he gathers many people together that thought what Timothy was doing was a completely bad idea and he clearly should have never done what he did. Herzog Has no respect for Treadwell. If someone dies doing something that he thought was right, who are we to judge him. Mentally unstable or not, Timothy had the courage to give his life for his belief that he was making a difference. Leave the dead be let the people that he knew believe that he died doing something great. Don't parade around the fact that he probably had mental issues and don't only show him when he is at his lowest points. And don't try to prove your superiority at every single point in the film.

Timothy Treadwell

While watching Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man, I found there to be a certain element of beauty within Treadwell's conviction and devotion to the creatures he observed in the wilds of Alaska. The idea that the simplicity of nature could save someone such as Timothy from the chaos and disappointment he had experienced in the "human world" seems almost poetic in a sense. I find it deeply tragic that any human being could feel unimportant or even unwanted by others, especially an individual as charismatic as Timothy Treadwell. No part of me doubts that Treadwell was indeed an intelligent man, and I find it hard to believe that he was as careless, reclusive, and simple-minded as Herzog portrays him to be. People may not agree that Treadwell deserved his self-given title of Grizzly Expert, but after surviving for thirteen summers with the wild animals, I personally could not be convinced that he did not come to understand the ways and the habits of the Alaskan grizzly bear through close observation. 

It is obvious that Timothy Treadwell's mistake was putting himself into direct and unnecessary danger, however Herzog makes his opinion of the man and his ideals clear. Throughout the film, and with much disrespect, Herzog portrays Treadwell as little more than an unaccomplished fool. It is clear through his narrative that Herzog is an egomaniac of a man with much to prove. At every turning point of the documentary, there is given an example of Herzog's superiority to Treadwell.

Torn

I thought I was sure of how I felt about Grizzly Man, the film by Werner Herzog, until I thought about how I spent my summers as a child.  Every year since I can remember up until freshman year, my family and I went to Clark's Trained Bears in the summer and everything I know about bears comes from these shows.  It was clear to me at these shows that the bears were no threat to the trainers, which never occurred to me until watching Timothy Treadwell that these interactions don't translate to the wild.

I think the difference between Clark's and Grizzly Man is in the nurture of the bears.  I know from going to Clark's so often that bear cubs are born mid-winter and don't come out of hibernation unless dehydrated, in which case they leave, "drink" some snow, and return to their den.  The bears at Clark's are generally orphans rescued before they get a chance to be raised as "wild animals," found in the winter or spring, raised in a home as to get used to humans, then trained over the next year or two to perform in the show.  The young bears Treadwell is with have a few months before he arrives in the summer to be trained in self-defense and are taught how to fight, creating an environment which would be dangerous towards Timothy.

As far as the movie discusses, Timothy has no experience with bears before he decides to live with the bears.  He was never trained how to act around the bears and never learned to respect the bears the way others had for centuries before, as explained in the film by the Alaskan native.  The trainers at Clark's grew up at the post their great-grandparents began and were raised knowing how to behave around them in order to keep themselves and the animals safe.

I don't blame Timothy for his death.  I think that places like Clark's give altered visions of reality and nature and, while interesting, may be harmful.  The bears are never mistreated, but I fear that others may, like Timothy, think that what is done there is easy and can be done with an adult bear found in the wild.

Timothy's addictive personality couldn't have helped his condition, either.  The bears saved him from a dark place of alcoholism and drug addiction.  He once stated that he "promised the bears if [he] looked over them would they please help [him] be a better person" and they did just that.  Even on the day of his death, he stressed that he wanted nothing but to live and die with the bears.  This became his lifelong wish and was fulfilled, possibly sooner than he thought, but that it was granted is more than many of us will be able to say.

Who is Timothy Treadwell?

     Even after watching Grizzly Man, I could not stop thinking about the all that I have witnessed. Grizzly Man is about a mentally ill man named Timothy Treadwell who went through a lot of disappointment. Just as he though their was no alibi for his depression, he found comfort in the bears of Alaska. He then spent the rest of his life trying to protect the bears in any way he can, which mainly consists of video taping the beasts. Though he did all that he can, society considered him insane for risking his life trying to help a species that is fine on its own. Although we have heard many people call him crazy and idiotic, I actually have to give the man a little credit. I have sympathy for him because he is doing what he loves and there should be absolutely nothing wrong with that. Also, by the way he was explaining, he finds the bears as his savior, serving the same purpose as a god might. I viewed his work as a dedication to the bears, for helping him through his struggle. Lastly, I choose to side with Treadwell against society because of his reaction with nature. Everyone assumes that if you mess with nature, you will feel its wrath, but I didn't find that in Treadwell's case. He ventured into the woods and instead of feeling natures wrath, he befriended it and also, he was able to speak his mind clearly, unleashing his inner thoughts. Sure he got eaten by a bear, but I think it was worth it to have that kind of time within nature so that your thoughts may run free without the threat of other's opinions.
     Though Grizzly Man really made me optimistic with Timothy's positive attitude and his astonishing ability to speak what's on his mind, there was one thing I didn't like: Werner Herzog. From the start of the film I disliked him because of the way he was making the film. Treadwell's story was a story of rejuvenation; one man's story of showing his love for something that saved him from the hell he was living in, yet Herzog mocked him. He did this by interviewing people that he knew would hate Treadwell for what he's doing including a park ranger, a native American of the park, and a doctor that thought the guy was crazy. He may not have meant for this to happen, but with his monotone and emotionless voice, it was difficult to exactly tell how he truly feels about Treadwell and his death. Most importantly, I despise Herzog because of his remark about the bears not even noticing Treadwell. He basically said that Treadwell was wasting his time and that the bears will never consider him anything of importance. He basically crushed all that Treadwell had to offer the world.
     Though Herzog agitated me, the film in a whole was not half bad. It clearly showed how close a person can get to nature and the positive effects of that person's life. His videos was simply awe-inspiring to watch as a man who has been through so much and suffers so much may actually find his sacred space somewhere, and that he would do anything to preserve that space.  Though Timothy and his girlfriend died tragically, he did what he loved and that is something not a lot of people can say, especially those like Timothy Treadwell.

Grizzly Man Thoughts

I am still unsure of how I really feel about the movie Grizzly Man. The slightly immature part of me dislike the director Herzog from the short article we read where he criticized Disney. After watching the movie I found many other reasons to dislike him as well. The entire film was a mockery of Timothy Treadwell and the interpretation of his work that Treadwell could obviously have no input on. It is clear that Treadwell had psychological issues but to be made fun of for everyone to see after he is dead is cruel and unfair. The most annoying part of it was that Herzog pretended to have respect for him, but I did not buy it at all.
After a hard life including battles with alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, and evidence of being bipolar, Treadwell needed to find something positive to focus on. When Grizzly bears came into his life, I think he put all his energy into them in order to no focus on his other issues. I am guessing he found kinship with the bears because they could not judge him he finally felt important by being their protector. What he actually did to protect them I still do not understand, but he got to do what he truly loved up until the very end. I think Treadwell knew the possibility of getting killed. Although he viewed the creatures as his friend he discussed the high risk factor. But to him it was worth it.
As for Herzog, I'm not sure if he set out to make a comedy but that is what he accomplished. Of the hundreds of hours of film he had of Treadwell, he used the most erratic and strange footage. I know I laughed, but I felt a little uneasy while doing so laughing at the life and passion of a dead man. I also fully believe that if Treadwell had simply had a lower voice, people would take him much more seriously. I found the description of the audio tape of Treadwell's death disturbing, but the scene where Herzog listens and then tells the friend to destroy it was extremely fake. I thought it seemed obviously staged and cheesy. Even when the coroner was describing the death, Herzog found a way to make it oddly funny. With the close up on the strange facial expressions and then the long pause at the end, it was so awkward it made everyone laugh. I can't imagine a reason the director would do this other than to make it funny, which I don't think he should have done when the death of a man was being discussed.
I enjoyed the film a lot and found it interesting and funny, but I think it was wrong for Herzog to take Treadwell's own film and then make a movie mocking it and listing the reasons why his film making was not good enough. Timothy Treadwell's life came to a sad end, but he was doing what he wanted to do for the rest of his life and new the possibilities of danger. I do not think the bears thought of him as a friend, but the fact that he lived with them for thirteen summers says something. They may not have cared for him in the way he did for them, but I do not think he could have survived that long if they truly wanted to eat him. I think they acknowledged his and let him be, and it was only when the unfamiliar bears arrived that he was eaten. I think the film Grizzly Man showed a man who had lifelong issues and desperately needed to feel important. He did not harm the bears, so I guess we really cannot fault him for finding the place he believed he belonged, no matter how strange or dangerous it was. I think Herzog looked like the bigger idiot by criticizing Treadwell and showing many of his embarrassing moments after he was gone. At least Treadwell died doing what he loved and his ashes can remain with the bears forever.

An Unconventional Kind of Love

       While watching Grizzly Man, I expirenced so many different emotions. Timothy's enthusiasm for nature and it's creatures is infectious and makes me happy seeing him so in love with his surroundings, but when thinking about how and why he got there, the feeling of sorrow and sympathy is overwhelming. It makes me so sad to think about how Timothy tried so hard in the "human" world to be sucessful and to fit in, but was faced with many handicaps. Those including what can be percieved by the clips in the film, Grizzly Man, to be some kind of manic depressive state, and then adding just the crulety of today's society it is honestly understandable to me to want to flee from all of that. I understand feeling as though you didn't choose to be alive and be a person, and you don't get a choice but he found a way to enjoy life, and although it was extremly unconventional, it made him happy.
           There can be arguments made for both sides of the controversy over Timothy Treadwell's lifestyle. Like discussed inclass the parrallels between the mean hunter and the good bear, Timothy's life style was similiar to that in that he wasn't harming the bears or leaving any kind of permanent mark on the land, but he was making the bears accustomed to humans, which was not good. There are good and bad to both. Many people thought we was crazy, and he probably did have some kind of mental dissability of some sort, but it didn't seem in the movie that any one was really trying to help him with his addictions, to drugs, alcohol, or bears. This opens up a new topic of how people have no problem lableing others, but won't act upon those words to do good. All in all, I am glad that Timothy Treadwell found something that made him enjoy life, for many people in his situation never do.

Animalistic Passion

            I had very mixed feelings coming away from Grizzly Man. On the one hand, I felt like I just watched 100 minutes of a movie devoted to one man’s passion. But on the other hand, I felt like I just watched 100 minutes of a movie displaying one man’s undeniable mental illness. I don’t think it’s right to look at Timothy Treadwell’s story without acknowledging that there were psychological problems. After we viewed the film, I looked Treadwell up online and read a few more articles. Treadwell himself noted that his recovery from his drug and alcohol addictions manifested itself in the grizzly bears. To Treadwell, the bears truly were his saviors. His passion is admirable if not over-bearing at times. While I believe it’s noble to devote your life to what you love, Treadwell’s sickness takes over and pushes him to go too far. There was no reason for him to be living among the bears for summers, just as there was no reason for him to actually tamper with nature to benefit the bears. Furthermore, when nature does not display what the bears need, Treadwell goes into a terrifying state.

            As Werner Herzog points out, Treadwell crosses a boundary between humans and nature. His passion—rooted in illness—puts not only his own life in danger, but his girlfriend Amie’s, and it also jeopardizes the innate relation humans and bears have (especially the bears’ perception of humans and humankind). At times, I felt Herzog was poking fun at Treadwell. He felt like an out-of-place narrator in the sense that he neither respected nor tried to find deeper meaning in what Treadwell was doing. Herzog’s failure to highlight the positive aspects and results of Treadwell’s career made it seem like he was almost making a mockery of him, especially at times where his mental illness was bolder. Matched with his view of nature, Herzog’s commentary, especially about the ultimate fate of the two grizzly people, was not surprising. It was almost nice to have the stark contrast of Herzog and Treadwell, a living man who views nature cynically and a deceased man who found bliss. Herzog’s unwillingness or inability to see from Treadwell’s point of view is either unsettling or just a factor pointing toward Treadwell’s instability—not to say that Herzog himself is necessarily sane.

            Ultimately, I enjoyed many aspects of the movie. I thought it was a good representation of several views of nature according to humans, and it shows how the relationship between nature and humans has developed to a point where the latter almost do not belong anymore. 

Bears.

              The movie Grizzly Man was goofy with a dark edge. Watching Timothy interact with the animals and frolic through Alaskan meadows was fun but there was always the knowledge that he was dead because of it. They would show a clip of him getting really excited and portraying his passion for his work and then switch to the doctor that received the bags containing pieces of Timothy and Amie. Horrible. Timothy had no business being there and I think something like that was bound to happen. Maybe not being eaten alive but at least a hardy bear paw to the face. It was said that the bears were getting no benefit from Timothy being there and were actually being endangered by becoming familiar with humans. Tim probably recognized this deep down being the bear expert that he is, but could not leave. The bears had helped him much more than he ever did for them. He was struggling with alcoholism and other issues and went to nature as a solution. Nature ate him. And his girlfriend. It wasn't that he was unprepared or being reckless, nature is much stronger and bigger than people as shown in Naturalistic writing. Timothy thought he had some connection to nature that was unique and maybe he did on a personal level but the bear that ate him did not feel it. Overall though, it was a sweet, yet chilling, movie that I am glad we were able to watch.

Tread Lightly

     Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog was most definitely a unique and engaging documentary. One thing that the movie definitely underscored, in a potentially unintentional way, was that humans are constantly imposing their beliefs/personal agendas onto nature. I gained a deeper understanding of this from the "First Nature" packet, which reviewed how ancient Greeks only painted manicured nature with an aesthetic meant to pacify and how "sacral idyllic" art incorporated religion into landscape. Both Treadwell and Herzog do not transcend this premise whatsoever. Treadwell represents a romantic view of nature similar to Neruda's "Oh Earth, Wait For Me", in which he portrays nature as cleansing and purer than man. In contrast, Herzog shares a view closer to Douris's "Ephesos", where the poet notes the murderous ways of nature.

     Treadwell's view of nature is more relatable to me, personally. (Note: I do not think petting Grizzlies is a particular well-thought-out idea or that the Grizzlies truly benefitted from his presence.) When I look at the way Treadwell related to Ghost (the fox),  I understand his deep connection to nature, because I share a similar connection to animals.  I can, also, relate to Treadwell's need to protect animals; last year, I was unloading mums for Interact when I discovered two or three baby moles. Doug wanted to kill them with a garden tool, but I told him not to. I brought them and fed them for about a week using baby cat formula and a glass eye dropper about four times a day. Also, I think that, because of his manic behavior, people did not take him as seriously as Herzog, even though they both presented polarized arguments. This, to me, shows how people tend to take people with more dark or grave perspectives more seriously, and, in this case, I find Herzog's view of nature to be abrasive and over stated. All in all, I think this movie helped me better understand why I have a moderate view of nature, influenced by both naturalism and romanticism.

Giving Yourself a Purpose

I believe that everyone needs something that makes them feel worth it.  Without an outlet or something to make you feel like you matter, life gets hard.  For Timothy Treadwell, this outlet was looking after and sharing a life with bears. He described the time that was spent with theses bears as him taking care of them and keeping them safe from any harm. I think that they were keeping Timothy safe. He talked about his previous life of drug and alcohol abuse and I think that this was his way of coping. Creating a false sense of nurture and care giving gave him the feeling of meaning that he needed in his life. Sometimes, taking control of a situation (even if it doesn’t need to be) can make you feel like there is a purpose for your being. Timothy didn’t want to be a drunk, he wanted to be a caretaker; and I don’t think we can judge someone for wanting to matter.

            People often bring up the possibility of mental illness in Timothy. I don’t doubt for a second that Timothy wasn’t completely sane but then again who is? I think that he had many problems including bipolar disorder and maybe some addiction problems but regardless, what he was doing was important in his eyes. There are so many people that we look up to today, people who have done great things that are not sane at all. This doesn’t change the fact that they were living there life’s doing the things that they felt they needed to do. Timothy Treadwell needed to help those bears, regardless of if the one benefitting was the bears or him.

            In my opinion, the best way to die is to die doing what you love. Timothy is a perfect example of this because he got exactly what he wanted. He mentioned several times “I will die for these bears” and that is exactly what he did. I think that Timothy wouldn’t judge the bear for doing that; the bear was being a bear. I think that he knew exactly what he was doing and the thing that people don’t see is that he accepted the full reality of it. He knew that they could and most likely, eventually would, kill him and he didn’t care. He was there do to what he loved, he was there to be with the bears, and he was there because it was right for him.

Dillusional Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell--The poor guy thinks he can rise over the basic rules of nature and live with dangerous wild animals. I believe towards the end of his spiritual journey to become one with the bears, he developed a false reality thinking that he was invincible and a super human--the only one who truly understood the bears and could handle their dangerous habits. This false reality is what got him killed. Another factor that probably caused Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend's Amy death, was Amy's fear for bears. Bears probably could sense her fear and therefore feel threatened. If Timothy was alone, would he have stayed alive? It is a great question that no one will ever know the answer to. Most people probably would say yes, he would still die at the hands (or paws rather) of that bear.

I agree with the indigenous people of Alaska that leaving wild animals alone is the best way to protect them sometimes. Humans should leave them alone and then they will leave us alone. Treadwell invaded their home, getting in the way when they were eating, sleeping, fighting and everything else. How annoying would that get! Someone following you around trying to touch you and talk to you and weird voices; I would want to eat the guy too! For the bears who got used to Treadwell, they received a false understanding that all humans are non-threatening, so when a hunter or poacher comes around, they will no longer have their natural instincts to avoid the attacker of fight back. So Treadwell's attempts backfired and did the opposite of saving the bears. Treadwell was dillusional thinking that he was saving the bears. He was on a reserve and there was no issues of poaching. He didn't even need to be there.

However, it is amazing that Treadwell lasted as long as he did. He managed to capture amazing footage of wild life that filmers could only dream of. He was successful in showing the beauty and the true reality of nature. Treadwell did leave behind something that was beautiful even though his death was ugly, which was the nature scenes he captured in his video footage. He wasn't a complete failure, just a bit dillusional. 

Grizzly Man

The documentary Grizzly Man was definitely a unique viewing experience. I found Timothy Treadwell to be the most unintentionally hilarious person I've ever heard, making it enjoyable. The part where the fox runs off with his hat to the den still makes me crack up if I think about it too intently. But also, there was something disturbing about it. Why was he there? Was he sane? These are the questions no one really knows the answers to, but Werner Herzog (the director) likes to think he does.
I don't think Herzog did a very good job of portraying Treadwell in a fair light. He puts in his own two cents whenever given the chance, generally an opposing view to that of Treadwell's. It seemed disrespectful to basically mock a man who died doing what he loved. It's not fair to judge someone else's life based on how you live yours. I have no right to say that what Timothy Treadwell was doing was wrong, because it may have been the most right thing for him to do. I think there was something a little off about him, but who doesn't have something they'd rather keep to themselves?
Another thing I wonder about is if he wanted anyone to see his video footage. Some of it seemed private-- it was like a diary. I wouldn't want someone to look my diary if I had one and make fun of me when I am not there to defend myself. The best parts of the film were not Herzog's contributions; they were the words of Timothy Treadwell and his actions.

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SockRed SpaySis

                       What does it mean to be sacred? I feel some people impose a bar in which experiences of life wait in line and must be tall enough to get on the ride of sacred. Periodically they show up in life, one right after the other but if they don't measure up we disregard them. This is a pattern I have seen in myself. However, it is but mental conditioning and can thus be broken. I just don't see a point in not enjoying something to its fullest spiritual potential when I can.
             
                    I hold the breaking of barriers, or the crossing of a thresh hold to be very sacred. Not because I am a vampire and require permission to enter a house, but because of the transcendent symbolism.    
So I figure that if I'm just letting life come to me and I'm judging it by the bar I described earlier, than I should destroy the bar and become the life that hoped so ever patiently to be included by myself.

                  I'm no expert, and nor do I claim to be, however, that being said I have done my fair share of reading on the philosophies of indigenous native american tribes, such as the Yaqui. The teachings of many tribes, both in South America and North, are of the integrity of one's words and thoughts. Integrity, if you think about it for as long as I have and break it down into it's roots, seems like the point of integration, where reality meets spiritual intention. When I say spiritual intention I mean something more innate than simple emotional desires which can be dispersed and understood through reason, or logic.More Yaqui teachings led me to a book entitled No Ordinary Moments, showing me that to disregard any event in life is to disregard myself.  Just as integrity connects one's thoughts to words, attitude connects one's integrity to the undeniable truth of life, completing the circle started with one's spiritual intention. But since each person is on and of the earth, the spirit, or energetic life- force, of every human is intrinsically is composed the same perpetual and mystical qualities that provide continuum to universes which could contain and sustain life on planets just like earth. The human mind is a universe within a greater universe, and there is something sort of sacred and beautiful about the way it all fits together and I sure am glad to be apart of it.

             

Sacred Space

          When thinking of sacred space you need to think of a person's point of view. For me my sacred space is my room. Anytime I need to go somewhere to escape the world my room is the best place to go.  Turning on the music in my room helps me to tune into my own personal world. I am able to imagine things that will never be and I am able to reflect on things that have been. I always imagine worlds where I am some character that I have seen and imagine what that character does is what I am doing.
         Whatever happens in my life, I know that I will always have a place that I can go to and call my own and be able to cut My self off from the physical world and everything else that I do not want to deal with in my life. I love being able to have an escape and I am pretty sure that everyone else shares my opinion.

No place is sacred

       Everyone has their own sacred space which can range from one's room, to a favorite club, or even their church. Yet, their are others, like myself, who would consider their sacred space something that is not even exactly defined. For me, I would consider my sacred space to be the places that I go through. For those who don't already know, I run; not only because I do cross country but also because I like to. So, I consider the places that I run through to be sacred. I know its not exactly a place set in stone, but does it have to be? Isn't a sacred space someplace that means something to you, and isn't one's passion something that means something to you as well? Aren't you supposed to feel safe in your sacred space ? Isn't it a place where you may be able to think things through? Isn't it someplace that you are always willing to go to? Well, that, and more, is what I feel when I run around the place. I strongly believe that where I run is sacred, not in the since that the place itself is sacred but what I feel when I go there. It's difficult to explain but no matter where I run off to, my mind soothes itself whether I am in the woods, Main Street, or even on the track. It is almost like the Aboriginies and how they find everything sacred; it doesn't matter where it is, but one can find peace and serinity inside his or her mind anywhere. Like the Aborigines, we could be able to find natural beauty anywhere; we can find the meaning of creation in all things. So, where I run, I can be able to determine how everything can be sacred within myself.
         Many things go on in my head when I run. For example, to the right brain point of view, one of the things I do is that I am picturing myself in other shoes. I don't just mean people I see when I run, but as a animal, plant, rock, or river. I think of how the world might have changed for them, what issues are on their mind, and how it views life. Another thing I would do is picture a scene of me doing something as stated in "the Spell of the Sensuous." These things may range from achieveing goals, to winning arguments, or even how I would expect an something to turn out.
         Left hemisphereically, it is rather difficult to determine how my mind works. The best example would probably be me thinking about running in my cross country. Since the left brain is focused on doing, I can determine that it is thinking about how I would strike the ground with my foot, the rythem of my breathing, the pace at which I go at, and the paths in which I take. Now, I usually do this almost automatically, but when I do, I am amazed on how complex one could make running sound. There is so much order and  perciseness in running that its almost mind boggleing, such as focusing on staying on your toes, pattern of breathing, how often and quickly you step on each foot, and how long you think every turn you make will take.
         I cant exactly say that many past cultures had the same mindset I have on a sacred space. The Aboriginies may be able to for they too find sacredness in all the land, but they do have certain locations that they call upon their ancestors. I could more likely be like the San because of how I can enter a sacred state in my mind and be able to carry my thoughts anywhere just as they did. Though there are some examples, most culture like to have a place where they can gather and worship and consider a sacred place. I am not against that, truthfully I find it intregueing, but there are just some people out there, like myself, who just don't seem to feel as though they can find a specific location sacred.

Sacred Space, A Friends Face

          Many people have a specific place that is sacred to them. Whether that be a church, shrine, religious place, or just a quiet area to feel comfortable and relax, all these places can be sacred to a person, or many peoples. But for me, my sacred space depends on the people with me. Friends, family, loved ones, they all affect the sanctity of the place I'm in. A dining room is just a room with chairs and a table without a family to fill it. A classroom is just a room of work without friends to interact with. For another example, this past weekend I was digging a trench in the middle of the woods in Nelson. without having two of my good friends there, I would have hated being there and probably have gotten nothing done. With the presence of my friends, that clearing of trees out in the woods, instead of being a quiet, hot, and hardworking environment, was a friendly, talkative and enjoyable place that I felt at home at. Being with friends and people I like, is my sacred place. The abstractness of my sacred space since it's not physical would be more left brain, while the feeling of being in a sacred space might be more right brain because of the emotional and face recognizing part of the right brain. This concept of sacred space differs from the sacred spaces we saw in the films in class. The Australian aborigines had sacred burial grounds that they considered sacred space, the early Europeans has caves full of cave paintings, and the early people of the middle east had that large complex of monoliths with carvings in them that could only be seen by firelight at night. so to sum up my sacred space, unlike the early peoples of the world relies more on the people in the space than of the space itself.

My Sacred Space: The Mindset of Adoration

I've been dreading this post for a while and have spent most of tonight staring at a blank "create a post" screen.  The problem isn't that I don't understand the assignment or that I intentionally put it off, but that I want to be as real as I can and, to do this, I have to face things I've previously supressed.  I can't remember the last time I've felt content.

Last year, this post might have been easy.  I loved Drama Club.  This year, all of the "popular kids" whose judgement I could avoid at rehearsal took lead roles in the show.  Our director, who was caring and understanding, was replaced by one who seems judgemental and seems to care more about his vision for the show than those trapped in his blind spot.  I was happy with youth group in middle school and freshman year, but our youth minister left after 9th grade and none have stayed longer than a year since.  Sure, I have friends and acquaintances, but I've never had a best friend - someone I could tell everything.  My family loves the me they know, but I live in the constant fear of being disowned by half of my family because of my religion.  The other half of my family just never seems to get it.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with some 9th and 10th graders and, specifically, to talk to them about love.  When asking them what they loved, their answers were expected: running, friends, music.  One girl, however, surprised and moved me.  Her answer?  Adoration.  For those of you unfamiliar with adoration, I've uploaded images - one from Google, the other from a retreat I attended last summer.  Basically, the Eucharist (which, through transubstantiation has become the body of Christ) is placed in a Monstrance (pretty gold "holder") and you pray before it.  It sounds hokey, I know.  I didn't understand it, either, until recently.  I realized, though, that the mindset of Adoration is my Sacred Space.  It is when I'm knelt before the Monstrance that silence is totally comfortable.  I feel loved and accepted because all that matters is that the God of the Universe would rather die than spend Eternity without me.  Adoration, to me, is timeless.  I can be with 3,000 other people and feel like the only one in the room - no one else matters.  The size of the room, the number of people, the noise, none of it is important because it's about God and myself.

My Sacred Space is almost entirely right brained.  I treasure time spent in Adoration because of my faith and it is a non-temporal experience for me.  I have had friends experience, during Adoration, being "slain in the Spirit" which is reminiscent of the trance-like state of the San.  Those slain in the Spirit physically appear to pass out.  I've never experienced it, but I've talked to others and they spoke of recieving messages to people from God.  This likely sounds strange to most, but I can say with confidence that I feel most comforted and content during Adoration.

Peace in the Sun

As I hear the lapping of the warm water against rocks at my feet, feel the sun on my back, and look out at the mountains and trees surrounding me, I instantly relax. When my best friend's family bought a cabin on Island Pond in Stoddard, I was excited but then didn't think much of it. After my first visit I knew it would become a special place to me, and now I realize that it is my sacred space. I find a peace of mind there that I can't anywhere else. I am able to reflect more on myself when I am alone but even when there are people around me, the atmosphere still clears my mind and I can endless comfort. Like the Aborigines, my sacred space is in nature, but it has no religious connotation for me. Although I am not the most outdoorsy person in the world, it is almost impossible for me to not be happy when I am outside and in nature. I find that water calms and comforts me better than a blanket, and the beautiful landscape around me helps me reflect. No matter the weather, my mood, or any circumstance I can always find myself sitting on my favorite rock looking out across the lake.

Unlike the Aborigines and other prehistoric cultures we have learned about who all had a common sacred space where they would connect with the Gods, I do not associate my sacred space with a God or any religious aspects. I was brought up in a house that was not religious and I do not have any strong feelings or connections with a religion which is probably why I do not find a sacred state of mind thinking of one. However, my space could be shared with another person like the prehistoric groups. For all I know ten other people could sit on my favorite rock and find their sacred space within. I do not gather with others and perform rituals but that does not mean someone else does not share my sacred place with me.

I am a moderately right brained person so I think my sacred space has a lot of right brain aspects to it. The logistics of water being calming is more left brained but I think I am able to find such peace at this place because of my personal memories. The memories that come to me when I am this state of mind are not all from the lake. The mindset that comes over me when I'm in my sacred space allows me to look back at so memories, and even the horrible ones do not seem as bad when I am there. Because I have found harmony in my mind I am able to look back and reflect, and hopefully learn from the mistakes and challenges I've gone through.

Sacred Apartment

A place I consider sacred would be my friend’s dad’s apartment. I met her freshman year and maybe because we didn’t know anything about each other, we felt it was safe to share everything. Now we are best friends and if anything ever happens in our lives we schedule a sleepover to discuss it. It isn’t like we give each other particularly insightful or helpful advice, it is just a space where nothing is a secret and we are completely comfortable. I am not a very open person so this is the only space I really express real emotions in. It’s always warm and she has bunk beds so when I sleep over I’m never condemned to a couch or floor. She’s a vegetarian and generally shares the same feelings towards eating healthy so I never feel gross after living at her house for a weekend.

Having her dad around isn’t weird. Normally at friend’s houses we go to our rooms to escape from parents, but at her apartment there is never any awkwardness and I always feel welcome.  I traveled with her and her dad around Greece so he is almost a second father to me. One of my favorite memories was with my friend and her father on a beach in Greece. She doesn’t plan on going to college and was home- schooled for part of her high school career, so college and grades never seem to make it into our conversations. Being there doesn’t take any effort either. Sometimes you have to convince your exhausted self on a Friday night to leave your cozy living room to go be social, but at her apartment, if there isn’t anything to talk about; we pop in one of her Harry Potter movies, eat snacks, and go to bed. We don’t have to engage in conversation or a real activity to spend time together. The location of her apartment makes it feel like there is a barrier between us and the responsibilities of the world. There is the initial entry which is locked, then hallways, and then, also locked and nestled in the middle of the building, my sacred space.

The unspoken knowledge that we can say and express anything to each other is very left brained. Our ritual of always updating each other first before we begin something else in left brained, yet at the same time unstructured, and therefor right brained, because there is never any pressure to do a real activity. Another left brained characteristic is listening to the problems and drawing conclusions on it. We always try think up solutions for each other as best we can even if we do not really know what we’re talking about.

In Abram’s, The Spell of the Sensuous, he explained how in ancient times before Israel, the Hebrew were always being booted out of places and therefor made the Torah their sacred space.  They took it with them wherever they went so when they were told to leave it wasn’t as devastating. In this way our sacred spaces are completely different. They created theirs and brought it with them wherever they went. Mine doesn’t even belong to me. If they decide to move to a house there is nothing I can do about it and my sacred space is gone. Perhaps their new house could become a sacred space but perhaps not. My sacred space is rooted to the ground and guarded by two locked doors I don’t have the keys to. In Australia’s Aborigines, their sacred space was mountains and caves where ceremonies are held and the dead are buried. My sacred space has no religious connections. Because our generation is less involved with religion than those of past generations, our sacred spaces are less evolved around religion and more around personal emotional desires such as solitude or self-expression. This makes it hard to compare our sacred spaces to past ones people possessed. Either way a sacred space is anything, one, or place that someone finds important for whatever reason. It is a completely personal preference and everybody should respect each other’s.

Little Peter & the Big Desk

My desk is a sacred space. I have the chair set on the lowest setting, leaving the armrests about two inches below the pull-out table part of the desk, a setting which centers me and allows me to recline without the fear of falling backward. I have a picture of myself on my first day of preschool wearing a red, oversized gap sweatshirt and a blue L.L. Bean backpack. My lips are parted, and I was not doubt asking my mother a question. Little Peter reminds me to stay idealistic and curious, even when I feel jaded. Also, my desk aura is not complete without the dull hum and fluorescent glow of my laptop. Everything about this space is mine and it feels like home, regardless of whether it is covered incense ash or as tidy as I am compulsive.

The most left-brain aspect of my desk space is definitely the chair; its height and central location are both quantified values which I arrived at by experimenting and linear thought. My laptop is kind of the meeting ground for the left and right brain. One hand, my computer is full folders which follow linear paths of categorizing my files, and my dash is located on the left side of the screen so the eye moves left to right, when opening applications, much like reading (western texts). On the other hand, I drag random images and music onto my desktop and then sometimes just click through it looking for something that gives me an “all-at-once” sense of happiness. But, I would say that Little Peter is probably the most right -brained part of my desk. It almost doesn’t feel like I was ever him, but rather he is a sub-four foot amalgamation of everything good in me, and I can’t explain why but I definitely feel it.

My sacred space is much more similar those of my classmates than to the sacred spaces of the people/cultures we have studied in class. Firstly, my sacred space is, as far as I know, unique to me, which contrasts the sacred spaces of indigenous people. For example, the Aborigines would likely consider their burial grounds a sacred space and this is very much a communal space. Also, my space differs from the Aborigines or the San of Africa we studied because it is indoors. Sacred places where aboriginal shaman tell stories and interact with natural cycles take place outdoor, not in an isolated indoor space. However, my space is similar in that I have a lot of very right brain experience here, such as moments of spirituality or appreciation of music, much like the peoples we have explored in class.

On Sacred Space and Lack Thereof

                Since we started talking about sacred space in class, I’ve been trying to think of the place, state of mind, or even person that I would consider my sacred space. The term has no religious connotations for me, since I was raised in a non-religious household despite being baptized and participating in Hallmark-Christian holidays. There isn’t a religious building that I feel particularly comfortable in, and it’s even hard for me to think of a specific place I feel completely at ease in. A few years ago, this question may have been a lot easier. I would have said my room or my grandmother’s home, but a lot of things have changed. Following my parents’ divorce, my own room started to feel different—alien, almost (not to mention I had two rooms instead of one). Rifts in my family have taken the sacred aspect away from my grandmother’s home, also; the childhood experience I associate with the beachside home has dissolved. So I guess the point of all of this is that I don’t know what my sacred space is, if I even have one. I would say the closest thing I have so a sacred space is the state of mind I fall into when I’m writing poetry (as cliché as it sounds), but I can tell that it’s not really my sacred space.

                I’m right brain-oriented, and my pseudo-sacred space reflects upon that. I’ve never liked poetry that focuses heavily on rhyme and rhythm (I think it’s really gaudy), which is evident in my free verse. Poetry, for me, becomes an outlet and a place where I dump every emotion I’m feeling. At times, I use poetry to gauge and reflect when my mind becomes cluttered, and I suppose that’s the left brain aspect: I use it to sort, organize, and remember. While the verse I create is often very impulsive and drenched in raw emotion, it is used to later recollect what I was going through. I connect most to poetry’s initial right-brained nature, but I see and utilize its left-brained effects. While my inability to find a real sacred space separates me from many prehistoric and indigenous groups of people—for they have very definite sacred spaces that remain unfazed as time goes on—there is a connection. I feel as though my pseudo-sacred space is a place where I search for things that are beyond the surface. What comes through my mind in that exact moment is what is relayed on paper or through Word. Although I’m not connecting with God or any religious figure, I am looking further than just myself. The Australian Aborigines give me the same feeling. Their sacred spaces have religious undertones, as they relay back to the spiritual ancestors of Dreamtime, but in those spaces, they are connecting to things deeper than themselves.

Bench #7

Sacred space is place where you can find yourself again and again. It is a place where regardless of the time, date, weather, or any other circumstance you can count on to be a retreat and help you learn and reflect on yourself. A space like this is the first place you’ll run to and the place that will always remain the same.  When thinking of one place where I feel completely free from any worry and accepting of everything around me is bench #7.

            My Gram’s favorite place in the whole world was a bench in a little opening on the coast of Ogunquit, Maine; bench #7. When she passed, her ashes were spread along the shore so that she could always be in the one place that made her the happiest. I never realized until that moment how much that space meant to her, and how much it would mean to me from then on. There is no other place that makes me feel calm and serene like sitting on this bench, watching the wave’s crash, and breathing in the fresh air. Being there allows me to forget everything that shouldn’t matter and focus back to the simplest of times. It’s like an instant transfer back to being six and playing in the sand, being with the people who meant the most to me, and not having a worry in the world. Remembering those moments and staying connected to my past is what I find sacred.

            The right brain recognizes images and objects connecting them with emotion and feeling. The feeling that I get when I’m in my scared space connects directly back to memory of the importance to my grandmother. The left brain deals a lot with time and the history throughout it much like the memories that I made throughout my childhood in this space. The memories behind scared spaces are what give them meaning to a person. The caves and paintings of the Aborigines had a deeper meaning to them. They told their story and gave them a place to solely remember and reflect on it. It’s not the space that has the meaning; it’s the history behind it.

The Power of Thought

Having just eaten a banana, I am left wondering of the many trivial and interesting facts pertaining to the magnificent fruit. For example, a cluster of bananas is called a hand, and each individual banana a finger. What’s more interesting is that contrary to popular belief, bananas do not actually grow on trees, but rather from a tree-like perennial herb. But of course, I do not simply spend my time solely thinking of bananas. No matter what it may be that I am wondering about, the point is that I have something to wonder about. The ability to wonder is the reason why my mind is my sacred space.

The human mind is a powerful creator. It can construct images for your eyes to see, sounds for your ears to hear, and sensations for your body to feel. The ability to process such abstract thoughts is most definitely a more recent development on the human timeline, making the act of thought a left-brained activity; however, I do not believe all aspects of the human mind belong to the left side. There is a more primal and possibly even animalistic characteristic belonging to the act of thought that we saw in class when watching Dr. Nigel Spivey speak of the San people of South Africa. Through deep thought individuals were able to enter trances, or possibly the dreamtime, and became unresponsive to the physical world around them for certain periods of time. I would argue that such a function, such states of meditation or removal, might actually be primordial, belonging then of course to the right half of the brain. 

Sacred Outer Space

My sacred space doesn't truly exist. I have been moved from house to house so frequently that I have made no connections with specific areas and whatnot. Also my family is strange and disjointed so I could never truly connect to anyone in it and call them my sacred space. My relationships with partners and even friends are often semi-volatile and don't often end up being anything I can really retreat to either. My true sacred space is intellectual and abstract thought that betters who I am and my understanding of the world around me. Sure, sometimes I find it comfortable to spill my guts out to a friend or companion, but I'm more at peace with myself and my life when I can shut down everything around me and talk about the mathematics that makes everything work in the amazing universe that we call home.

It's very peaceful to actually think about how small and insignificant each person is to the whole of all being, yet it's beautiful to see how one person can change the consequences of all people, and life as we know it. Math and Physics are fun to me, but the real fun is trying to describe things that happen in the real world in all variables and seeing the elegance of the universe. I like to learn all of the theories, old and new, that try and connect everything in the universe so I can see how people have progressed. Connecting things which may seem very counter-intuitive to scientific thought and progression to the very same science it rejects or excluded accidentally is fun too, because you can see where either science breaks down and we've reached a limit or you can see where the text/idea breaks down and needs to be considered non-literal or multi-meaningful.

Anyone could find some tranquility (or even spirituality) in Math and Science if he or she were to look hard enough. Ask the big questions, the ones with variables that can be used to model any specific thing, and you'll soon see the beauty and magic of the modeling power of mathematics. Apply those models to the real world or universe and you'll see that they work or they do not work, and that is the beauty of physics I can escape to. Just remember the next time you are feeling down that there are billions of hydrogen molecules under a lot more pressure than you are on the sun and that anyone can be the one person to figure out the mysteries of the universe and change life as we know it, forever.