Forgiveness Meditation

The forgiveness meditation technique is a good one, one to think deeply about, which is why I didn’t do it. I’m too sleepy to think deeply right now. And as I’ve mentioned several times before, meditation is something that will not work unless you accept it as working before you do it. Maybe I’ll do it another time when I’m not so darned tired.

I like that the ‘director’ gives three steps within three stages of forgiveness. Forgive yourself for hurting others, forgive others for hurting you, and forgive yourself for the pain that you have caused yourself. So, like, I get the point to the meditation, I just didn’t get anything from it, because I didn’t feel like it this morning.

That evaluation just threw me off.

Eve Ensler’s Girl Cell

Eve Ensler approaches the issue of social injustice in a way that we have not covered in class yet. She speaks about the inequalities of women around the world from ancient times until today. She describes the sensitivity, vulnerability, and openness in a every person as a “girl cell”. A person is usually trained by their parents and surrounding community to get rid of their inner girl because it is a sign of weakness. Ensler encourages her audience to take back this girl cell. She insists that the world would be a much better place if everyone took the time to have compassion and show sensitivity to others. She tells the stories of strong girls around the world who would not be this way if they were men or if they had no girl cell. They used their abilities to forgive and to let go in order to move on from hostility. At first I was a bit skeptical about Ensler’s decision to use the term “girl cell”, but she demonstrates how it is useful to us all.

Start of Bibliography

Sharpe M.E.  “IMPERIALISM.” Encyclopedia of World Trade From Ancient Times to       the Present. Armonk. 2005. Credo Reference. Web. 09 October 2012.

            In this section of the encyclopedia, Sharpe reviews the history and growth of European mercantile imperialism, which spread throughout the world from 1492 to 1776. He gives a brief overview of the roots of imperialism and how it influenced many less “civilized” cultures.  He breaks down the definitions and meanings of old style imperialism and new imperialism. The main difference between the two is technology and how countries used to take over other countries. His work discusses African, the Ottoman Empire, India, Asia, Japan, and the Americas. Beginning with points in history where a specific cultures seems to fall weak or flat to another, Sharpe breaks down what profit Europeans could get from that country and how it affected the economies of both. As European interest increased over the world’s resources, so did the trade market.  Eventually though, European influence begins to enter the industrial age, bringing more money, but less cultural cooperation.

 

Goodyear-Ka’opua, Noelani. Building The Auwai: Connecting Ecology, Economy and Education in Hawaiian Schools. Alternative. Vol. 5, Number 2. 2009.

            In this essay/article, Goodyear explores the examples of cultural imperialism in Hawaii and how some of its effects still exist today. The loss of Hawaiian school systems by the indigenous people to the more civilized governments caused great economic struggle and stressed for the culture for years to come. She talks about the unknown details of a typical Hawaiian family during this time. The article contains many excerpts from fellow scholars who have researched just how research can help to pull some of these still poor families up in the economy. Goodyear takes the time out to emphasize water and it’s importance to the continuation of these Hawaiian tribes, relating them back to the irrigation and education systems. This source is a useful one, because it allows me to give an example in my research paper that has historic, non-biased facts in it.

Library Session – 10/9/2012

What did you learn from this library session? What will you take away and use for your research paper?

In today’s class session with our personal librarian I learned a lot about searching for a research topic. The library here provides so many easy ways to search for and narrow down a topic that you may be looking for. Everything I need to start my research is on the JWU library homepage. I think that the most important thing that I will take away from today’s session is how to find and use online concept maps. The concept maps on CREDO not only gives me links to sources, but it shows a summary of these sources and how they relate to one another, all based on a search word that I have provided. Today, I also learned that a database search is much ore reliable than using the world wide web, because all of the sources in a database are credible, and usually published/peer-reviewed before being listed. If I was to use a search engine, such as Google, I could receive information from just about anyone who has access to the internet, whether the information there is true or false.  The JWU library website also provides links to MLA citations and how to develop them for various source types. I know now that the site will be a ‘one stop shop’ location for all of my research papers to come, because it takes away a lot of the guess work and time used doing research on my own. I might even use the library chat box when I get stuck on something, but we’ll see. Before coming to this session my research topic was very broad and almost unmanageable, now I have a question from which to develop my thesis.

Aaron Huey on ‘Social Justice’

Aaron Huey defines social justice as earned equality. The Native American tribe that he speaks of in his video has and still is suffering many daily hardships because the United States Government treats them unfairly. The people live in rundown houses that are infested with black mold. They sleep mostly on the floors of these homes, and struggle to find food and privacy amongst their community. Many of the people are dying from common, curable diseases, but they have no help.

During his TED Talk, Huey contrasts a list of historic facts about the tribe with horrifying pictures from a recent heartfelt visit to the reservation. He speaks of wounded Native American soldiers after battles with Europeans. He speaks of innocent women and children being slaughtered for no reasons other than being Native American. Huey even references a war in which this tribe defeated the United States as was told that they would be left alone from that point. Wrong. Once the US discovered that there was gold on the reservation that the tribe had been pushed and confined to, there was no longer peace amongst them. They tore up homes and bothered families just to reach the gold.

Images of children rummaging through trash, elderly citizens sick with disease, older youth covered in scars and tattoos that send a threatening, or sorrowful message, and middle aged adults with faces of just sadness at how they are living. These still run through my head as I hear Aaron Huey describe what social injustices they have endured. The land belonged to the Native Americans and Europeans took it. Native Americans earned it back, and it was taken yet again. Social justice should mean equality for everyone, not everyone but the people of the L**** Tribe (can’t remember the name, but it started with an “L”.) We can see by how closely the people let Huey get to their tribe that they do not have a general hostility towards whites even after what has been done to them. These people just want peace, justice, equality, and to be left alone to live amongst themselves. I believe that we owe this tribe new homes and rights to own the land. That would be just a start on returning the social justice that is deserved.

*Looks around the room* Wow, people are writing up to two full pages about this. Maybe I missed the big picture o.O.

TED Talk – Bryan Stevenson

How does Stevenson define social justice/injustice?

The thing that stuck out most to me in Steven’s TED Talk was his reference to Germany and the death penalty for prisoners. He spoke about a woman who had told him that the death penalty for prisoners in Germany would be unheard of, especially for a specific group of people, the Jewish, because of the genocides that occurred during the Holocaust. Those same genocides happened here in the United States in the form of slavery, and yet southern states continue to imprison and give the death sentence to more African Americans than any other race in this country. Have we no morals? I am sure that many would be outraged at the thought of allowing a death penalty in Germany, but here’s the kicker, you’re not even in Germany! You live here in the US where hundreds are sentenced to death every year and you have no shame. We have no shame. Nothing gives a murderer the right to murder, so what on earth gives the criminal “justice” system a right to murder that criminal in a chair?

This part of Stevenson’s speech reminds me of the movie Law Abiding Citizen. In this movie, the main character, along with several others get away with murder and all sorts of crimes. Not because they were not caught, but because the law is worded so meticulously that if you are educated on it, you will walk freely… Yet there are people sentenced to life in prison based on a three-strike system for petty crimes such as theft, drug use, and vandalism. How are murderers getting away scot-free and drug dealers stuck in prisons? Why the f*** is Casey Anthony not in jail? I mean, there was clear evidence, released to the public, that she murdered her own daughter. Yet, she walks free today. Why doesn’t our law see a problem with this? Maybe it is all coincidence and fluke. Maybe it was set up this way purposefully. But how could it have been set up purposefully if it has been the same for hundreds of years?

We really do need to talk about an injustice. An injustice of racial and economic inequality. I know it’s been said before, but in the land of the “free” and the home of the “brave” EVERYONE is supposed to be EQUAL.

Ceremony Ends

Tayo is nearing the end of his journey where I have begun to read. The conflict that he faces now is dealing with his Ceremony. His past, his present his future, his life. He has left home and is now staying with a woman. He is peaceful there, at first. Tayo’s dreams about the war in the jungle return. He dreams about Beutonie and he dreams about his past. The people of his village, like his grandmother, are worried that Tayo should come home. He has not been himself and needs to see another doctor. The story hasn’t reached it’s climax in my reading yet, but I believe it is when Tayo is hiding from the “Government”. Emo has told vicious stories and lies about how Tayo lives in some cave as a crazy man and there are now people after him. Tayo has changed into a man of care and more responsibility. He learned and or discovered that the fragmented events of his life are just events and do not make up who he is as a person. He looks back on the stories he was told by his uncle and by the medicine men and realizes that he is a part of the people and that the people fell apart because of foreign invasions, or white men. They were a strong, devoted people until outside forces drew them apart. Tayo must help the people of his family, his village, of his culture, realize that in order to gain peace amongst themselves, they must find peace with the white man. He begins by searching for Josiah’s cattle. Something so simple to help his family make more money. A gesture so small and possibly a waste of time for a man who is already dead.

I am just now beginning to get into and enjoy the story Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. I’m glad that I like it now (at the end), but I still wouldn’t recommend it to any one else.

Character Conflict

Tayo, the main character of Ceremony is having a problem with his mental health and having someone to understand and help him. The types of conflicts that he experiences in the story are man v. self and man v. society. This is caused by the lack of a therapist, psychologist, and or psychiatrist after war and after the childhood he’s lived. Most of the conflict appears to be man v. society until he goes to see a medicine man who kind of forces Tayo to continue to battle himself, but without the physical illness, or the terrible flashbacks, or the drinking, or the anger. I think that in the end Tayo’s problems will be resolved when he realizes that he is at no fault for anything that’s happened to him. My favorite scene thus far is the scene where Tayo has just left the medicine man cleansing and gets into a truck with his friends and a strange woman and starts his bad habits all over again. It’s funny how people turn around so quickly. This scene shows how Tayo has not resolved one bit of his conflict and/or life and the book/story is almost over. Even as I become more interested in the novel, I am disappointed. He runs back to the people who enable his depression. I’m tired as hell, these blog entries are coming out crappy, and that’s the voice in my heart speaking, not in my head. I hope I don’t have to have a peer read or see this. If I read it to her (all of my group members are girls), I’ll change some things. I really hope Tayo figures out his purpose, because he’s going to drive himself to an early grave by drinking. It could be suicide, an accident, or an altercation with someone else, but I don’t see him surviving without becoming more sure of himself. I want to tell him that it’s not his fault. That nothing is and that he will be okay, better if he lets things go. I feel so shitty right now. 

Meditation 9/20 – “Happy Place”

I imagined myself on a picnic. The sun was warm on my skin, the wind cool. The green grass was freshly cut, and had the faint smell of freshly cut grass left behind. There were yellow and red flowers with bees buzzing around, but not to close to me to make me afraid. I sat upon a thin checkered blanket, just like in the movies. He was there too… The path caught my attention to the left. Suddenly I was back in my elementary school garden tour. Rough, mulchy path. Birds singing off in the distance. Tree animals scurried in the near. A rush of fresh, mountain-like air filled my nose. The path widens and the light that once trickled through the trees is now illuminating. I stop to touch a stony brook. The water is cool, clear. It’s so quiet out here I can hear the quick flow. It sounds like a rushing ocean almost. I reach an opening in the path. This meadow is even bigger, greener than the one I just left. I immediately see a large, wise looking tree. It’s leaves are green/gold. It’s trunk the perfect tone of brown, lines revealing its age and magnificent structure. Taking a seat underneath it’s shade, I feel a little too cool. This wise new friend has been here for many years. She has seen more than I can imagine. I must keep traveling. Along the hillside I see a doorway. Curiosity leads me in, where there is a stony path. It’s cold down here. Candles light the path to several doorways… At this point, I realize I am NOT a silly girl from one of those horror movies who dies because of her own stupidity. I don’t wait for Harmon. I run back through the doorway, over the hill, past my wise tree, that now looks less green, back through my path, that now seems threatening, over that brook thats dirtier than I remember. I reach my safe place again. He is still there. Waiting. Smiling. 

Today’s Meditation

I enjoyed this exercise because it helped me to realize that I had been meditating all along. I recently had a lot of trouble getting to bed at night and I didn’t want to become addicted to some sleep-aid medicine, so my doctor suggested that I focus on breathing and I would fall asleep eventually. A couple of times my thoughts traveled to memories of being in a dentist’s chair and having to breathe in nitrous deeply until I fell asleep. Sleep is my favorite thing in the world to do over anything else, so I think that I will meditate, or focus only on the sounds and movements of my own breaths whenever I need to relax or fall asleep, because I’ll probably become tired anyways. The only thing I didn’t like about today’s meditation is that now I will have a hard time getting through the rest of my school day because I have reached sleep-mode and it’s really hard to return to semi-awareness. As long as I bring all of my thoughts back to breathing at any point that they wander, I should be good at meditating, but I only like it when I can ACTUALLY GO TO SLEEP. Otherwise, it’s exhausting forcing myself to stay awake after. I’m glad Harmon is using this exercise though. It’s all new-age…