A Jar Full of Rocks

Just thought i'd post this song...tried to find it for the blog so you could hear it but no such luck. the lyrics wiil have to do. thought of it today during class since we were talking about getting back to focusing on whats important in life. i think my rocks would be loving others and loving god...there are probably a few more. i really hope i don't turn into one of those people that gets too caught up in living to enjoy life. scary to think about.
p.s. i know the song's about newlyweds. hopefully you get the picture.

All I Need by Sara Groves
Newly married, new apartment
All our furniture was saved from the dump
Yes dear maybe we can afford a trashcan next month
All I need is a seat for two and my love for you (love love love)

New baby new life
We will teach him to speak French (poly du france)
We've got no money so we'll make it all ourselves
I'll make the curtains and you make the shelves
All I need is a power saw and a new sewing machine (love love love and a sewing machine)

Honey, this house needs a little something
That bare mantle doesn't look so good (it really doesn't)
Someone told me of a man
Who makes animals from driftwood (he makes animals, little wooden animals)
All I need is your monthly bonus for a wooden walrus

Honey, the Colbaughs are coming over
This house needs some renovations
Just a wall or two, just a little room
And a few new decorations

All I need is a sectional and a satellite TV
dark-wood cabinets that were custom built for me
a painting by that guy that paints with his feet...
Thats all i need...

Tuesdays with Morrie

As we saw in the movie, Mitch is afraid of Morrie's death more than Morrie seems to be (because he has somehow accepted it). Like Mitch, I definately think that Americans are afraid of death...we value life! We spend all kinds of money trying to keep ourselves alive and well! Being an American, I can't really think of it being any other way....do people in other cultures just die instead of using medications available to them? It's a strange idea to grasp for me. I know that we don't like to say "so-and-so just died" to anyone so instead we will say "so-and-so passed away" because it's just that scary to us. The unknown side of the universe-after living so long (according to us) on the earth-is terrifying! I think most of us have a natural fear of death. As a Christian, I know where I'm going when I die (it's still scary sometimes though) but there is a bible verse that relates to this topic of materialism and death. It tells us to worry about the next world instead of being obsessed with things we can obtain on earth because at the end of it all it doesn't really matter how how much our wardrobe costs or how much stuff we own but how we lived our lives.
Hope it's okay if i quote it, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-22)

Gestures and Intersections

I think it's actually pretty intriguing that different cultures have different norms and in extension: folkways, mores and taboos. I went to Lima, Peru over this past summer break and learned many new things about their culture. For one thing, people keep their very nicest things for church (where in my church we really don't care all that much what you look like), they also care about things like hand gestures. For example, you never do the a-okay symbol because it's just really bad. My leader that came to Peru from America says that she can't even do it anymore. Plus, they rake in peru where in america, to say hi, we wave. In addition, if we were to be spoken to on the streets, we were not to respond-or even look at the person-because they were being rude. We americans were also told not to look into peruvian men's eyes because that is considered flirting (they only look at eachother in the eye when they know the other person very very well). Peruvians also have CRAZY driving practices. they never obey the traffic signs and almost nobody crashes. it's pretty ridiculous....



Just a passing thought, I would like to bring up...what is the rules of getting through stevenson hallways?? i know that we upperclassmen may shake our heads at the way a freshman trying to get through a hallway. this must mean there are at least a few unwritten rules that need to be followed in order to not be considered a freshman. i suppose i shall compile a list:
-rolling backpacks
-going too slow for the traffic
-going too fast for the traffic
-running to get to class
-wearing a huge backpack (sometimes bigger than themselves might i add) and twisting around very quickly knocking a few other freshman down in the process (because they happen to be on the verge of tipping anyways)
-dashing straight in front of you (and almost smashing into you entirely) from a side hallway with not enough space to get through.
-going on the wrong side of the hallway (right side vs. left side)

lol. i suppose there are some things that we consider to be abnormal and rather annoying if not followed in our hallways. i wonder if these rules change with regards to other schools in other countries, or other states, or other districts for that matter!

just curious,
katie

Collogero's Groups in "A Bronx Movie"

Collogero has a few different groups that influence who he becomes during his life. His first master status, I believe, was "son of the bus driver". He listened to his father in most things-except when he went to the bar-and talked about the New York Yankees with his father because they both placed importance on it. When Collogero was nine, he finally met Sonny, who his treated as G-d in the city, and became the master status of "Sonny's kid" as he was introduced to Sonny's friends and told that "nobody cares about the yankees". He experienced some role strain as he grew up in Sonny's bar and was told to beat people up and that it is better to be feared than loved. Thankfully, he was always a bit different than the rest of them and hid in a corner when, if he were really in the group, he would have been beating bikers up. He also thought it was no way to live to be feared and not loved. However, this was his master status at the time, no matter how well he fit in, this was how he defined himself. Later, he also became part of the Deuces Wild with his racist friends that skipped school and hung out all day. There was also role strain in this group as he was not racist and said that the african americans didn't mean anything when they went through the neighborhood. He also tried to keep his friends from hurting the boys on the bicycles too much and didn't do anything to them. i like to figure that Sonny and Collogero's friends from the Deuces Wild still had a big impact on him even after they died that one night.

Serving

I've really enjoyed doing the service projects that I've done so far in my life. I just really get this weird high out of helping people, which is weird, but true. For example, my youth group went down to a site recked by Katrina and we found all kinds of belongings from the people who live in the house before it became rubble. it was so cool to be able to help out by doing some manual labor for a day. In addition, I've been able to paint houses in the bad part of Charleston South Carolina, racked leaves from the entire camp ground of Phantom Ranch camp, and taught English to kids in Peru. I'm pretty excited about being able to serve people in Chicago this semester. I'm hoping to do some soup kitchens and feed the homeless.
To some extent, i feel like i shouldn't be talking about what I've done to serve other people, but i guess you guys might just need to know where I'm coming from in order to understand. I think it's ok to enjoy community service if your helping people. i mean, if you had a really bad attitude about what you were doing, the people you were serving would be able to tell and they wouldn't want your help as much because they would feel like they were just being a chore. Anyways, just my ideas on the subject of enjoying service work a little too much. ha.

Chic'aaa'go

the word chicago.

"you chicago-ens have a weird nasal accent. the way you say chic'aaaa'go is hilarious!" or so say those people from down south. however, we tend to think, as they say these things, "what the heck? no we don't! you've got this weird drawl on all your words! you talk so slow!" or something of this nature.

what's going on? correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm figuring on a social contruction of reality. no matter how hard i try to hear myself say chicago with a nasal accent, i can't hear it! course, from their point of view, it's completely obvious! are my ears going? are their ears going? i'm thinking that what we were talking about in class relates to this situtation because it's all about how we grew up. i grew up hearing chicago said like chicago! i just figured thats how it's supposed to be said. (which, in my view, it is) society told us that thats the way it is. and we accept it as truth. i guess, in these small situations, truth isn't always the same for every person. we each have our own opinions, according to how we were raised in our society.

am i making any sense? ha.

The awkwardness of silence

i guess i don't like silence. but thats just because mostly silences are awkward. and who likes that? I definitely know a few people that talk just to fill the space in the conversations....i get the feeling that they are even the most well liked people sometimes! our society, and the people in it, just all enjoy noise! maybe it's just America...who knows.

Sure i wish people would spend more time listening...but isn't that what everyone else is doing when they talk? hmmm, i guess it just depends who talks and who listens the most. Thats why there are talkers and there are listeners? course, sometimes the listeners want to talk. I have seen this happen in my youth group where the listeners never get the chance to tell that story or perhaps just talk about their day and the talkers just don't stop talking. I happen to be a listener-and i really do like to listen most of the time-but every once in a while it's nice to have those silences so that you can talk and they can listen.

Strangely enough, I'm totally fine with silences when i'm with my family (expecially my dad's side) and a few close friends cause we just know each other really well and don't really have any need to talk when we know everything each of us could say. i guess i'm thinking of times on road trips when you talk every once in a while-with sometimes half an hour or so in between where we don't talk at all. there are also times when you see certain people so often that you end up telling the same stories to them if you feel the need to fill the silence all the time. i believe that silence is golden i guess...there are times to talk and times to stand the silence. this idea reminds me of ecclesiastes (time for everything under the sun...) and hemingway (his writing reflects that he believes that what is written out is not as important as what isn't written aka reading between the lines...) just for thoughts.

Ha. i'm totally one of those people that spent my time looking for songs for my minipod. but i really love music!! what can i say?!

p.s. totally random, does anybody ever have their tv on when they sleep? cause i went to visit Illinois State a while back and the girl i stayed with's roommate HAD to have the tv on every night... i've never heard of such a thing in my life! but i think its just another way society gives us this need to fill up all our time with noise and talking instead of enjoying the silence before we fall asleep at night.