Extra Credit Blog Post--Medieval Blog

The cathedral is a story about jealousy and not fully understanding the situation. The narrator
( the husband) didn't want to form his own special relationship with his wife and was jealous of the one she had with a blind man. He towards the end of the story makes his own relationship with the blind man, as he learns to trust like the blind man has to. [ creates blind drawings] Lets now discover the in between of the story:

First off, he is so unhappy by the blind mans visit because he is jealous of the formed relationship. Because he has gone off in the air force he has missed all that time with his wife. One part of the story were he realizes a little he doesn't have to be jealous is when they are all on the couch and the wife is sleeping, her robe pops open. Immediately, the husband shuts it only to reopen it. He realized the blind man couldn't see. For that moment he felt superiority and had something the blind man would never have, sight of his wife. As un- humanly as that action may have been.

His opinion of the blind man changes over the course of the story. I think mainly because they are on drugs. Also, the blind man was willing to trust him and try something new. In the end when they are drawing a cathedral together, with what little material they have they are completely trusting. The blind man has never seen a cathedral before, but he can describe it better then the husband. Why is that? I think it's because he using intuition. He has a deeper meaning behind things. The husband only ever really sees the superficial meaning. The blind man with his small base of religion knows what the cathedral looks like because people , such as himself, like to look towards the Gods. So the cathedral was pointed upward.

In the end the husband starts too see the deeper meaning the blind man was able to show to his wife. He has a similar experience as his wife had to feel connected to the blind man. In the reading it says the blind man felt the wife's face, and she wrote a poem. Like she only does after something special has happened to her. The blind man leading the husbands hand in the drawing was like the connection between the blind man touching the wife's face. Could they be guided by something that couldn't even see where he was guiding them too? It was an act of faith. Which relates back to the medieval era and how they saw the gods.

Contrasting the blind man and the narrator:
Blind man-- can't see, loving, trusting, intuitive, needs other people, very capable, doesn't want to be a burden, smoker, willing to try new things.

husband-- smoker, willing to try new things, needs his wife, air force officer, moves a lot, does drugs to mask his feelings, can see

Similarities-- they both love the same woman, want to figure out who each other are and what the wife see's in both of them, needy, try's new things, learning to be trusting with each other
Just because they have a different way of perceiving the world, doesn't mean in the end they won't feel the same way about it. 

A different image would have brought them together in the same way but not with the same meaning. Drawing a cathedral is already explaining something that is a higher then ones self. You know how the world perceives it and views it on T.V. . Now the blind man and the husband have to use their different way of viewing things to come out with the same conclusion or image.

Relating it back to medieval times it brought them all together. The artist from the medieval era had to base their ideas of what the Greeks and Rome had already created. There was a relationship there before hand, since the husband was the high school sweetheart, but he had to build more on what was already created. The cathedral of olden times was built of off a trust. They had to trust in  each other what one couldn't already see.

The blind man and the wife have a long standing friendship because they weren't brought together by worldly things. They were brought together with the same place and cause. They trusted each other more then they trusted their spouses. The blind man and the husband is the BLIND LEADING THE BLIND.

The blind man is named in the story because he is the one who is bringing them together. He is like the person inside the cathedral that everyone is going to visit. They think this one thing or person will bring them towards a higher purpose, but really its themselves. The blind man has a name, because his life has found his meaning through his intuitions, unlike the husband and the wife who are LEADING EACH OTHER BLIND.

I restate, that everyone in a cathedral is looking to come towards something. They are all feeling a different thing, and all looking at art in a different way. Getting different meanings from what they see. Like all three characters in the book, they are searching. Only the blind leading the blind.

Greece Blog Post 1

"Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, 
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, 
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? 
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. 
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

In my opinion America has two epics that mean the same thing just like the llied and the odyssey. The familiar song above is the first verse to the National Anthem. This is sung by many right before a popular sporting event, or elegant function. The National Anthem in full tells how we got to America and the lengths we took to earn our freedom. To portray our freedom on a more casual level we recite the Pledge of Allegiance. 

" I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

It may have been awhile since you heard the pledge. I noticed that it is more commonly recited in K-12 schools. Regardless of how often you say it you never forget it. For a while, there was some controversy about taking out the one nation, under god. Would god rein as America's epic hero? 

America's hero to me is not God. But everything that God created. God created people to get us to the places we need to go and to achieve what is meant to be achieved. It is the individuals under God, that become Americas epic hero. We are the story. We are America, one nation under God. 

To me, the bits and pieces of our lives, imaginations, and creativity have shaped America to what it is today. 

Here is a far off example of how i have helped shape America. When i was a kid i used to read a magazine called The Friend. I guarantee you that thousands of kids just like me, read this magazine. In this magazine there was stories and activities. I loved doing the activities, but hated ruining a page of the story. To solve this problem i tried to express my concerns in a simple written note to the editor of the magazine under the suggestions column.  Believe it or not, they listened. The following month my simple plea note, was showed in the magazine. The activities now appeared on a separate page than the stories. Now, i'm not sure if this change lasted beyond my childhood years. But for those few moments in time, someone listened. A child pleaded and a change was made. As small and insignificant as this may sound, many kids probably appreciated this and America ( at least according to the magazine) was changed. 

America was not built on a soul one founder. America was built upon the founders of this great country, our fore fathers.These in essence where some of our hero's. Some of these founding father hero's include Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. 

Our constitution was signed and framed by many. It didn't just include the important named men but the politicians, statesmen, jurist, diplomats, ordinary citizens, and soldiers. I would like to focus on the part about ordinary citizens  I am an ordinary citizen and one day i would like to leave my small mark upon history. That history that we leave helps create America and re-defines it's standards everyday. The generations we leave behind, or the generations we impact, will one day change America. Someone had to be your first humanities teacher. They left an impact on you, and you have taught and impacted others. Many of those people, like me will go on to further in the realm of humanities. Their humanities career and could potentially change the course of America. 

Betsy Ross made and sewed the American Flag. The American Flag defines America. It symbolizes who we are with its 50 stars and stripes. It was citizens like Betsy just trying to help, who created one of the greatest American symbols ever. No one will change our flag, she used her SKILL to define America. 

AMERICA IS GOVERNED NOT BY ONE, BUT BY THE MANY PEOPLE WHO INFLUENCE THE NATION ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS. 

America is made up of many strengths and weaknesses. I notice most the time in America like many other things in life, our strength is our weakness or vice versa  Look at politics for example. People of Americas hero's . They keep us away from communism. Help us govern our choices, and keep a strong political fair process. In the effort of keeping government strong, they destroy it. The nation going into debt and many jobs lost, is just one example. America is pulling out of it though. Americas people become their own hero/ American epic. They are STRONG, show SYMPATHY towards others, try to do the HONEST noble thing, go to school to become SMARTER so that they can build upon Americas future. 

Each individual in America has a special characteristic god has endowed them with. This characteristic can be used to help exemplify America. The bundle of these characteristics when we all work together, brings us as one nation under God.  America has many hero's because it's a complex environment and place. We get to write our own Heroic journey as we live in America and try to build a stronger kingdom like the Greeks.