(Junkyard Quote)

Image from somalilife.com

"Isn't she lovely
Isn't she wonderful
Isn't she precious
Less than one minute old
I never thought through love we'd be
Making one as lovely as she
But isn't she lovely made from love

Isn't she pretty
Truly the angel's best
Boy, I'm so happy
We have been heaven blessed
I can't believe what God has done
Through us he's given life to one
But isn't she lovely made from love

Isn't she lovely
Life and love are the same
Life is Aisha
The meaning of her name
Londie, it could have not been done
Without you who conceived the one
That's so very lovely made from love."
-Stevie Wonder, "Isn't She Lovely."

(Junkyard Quote)

"Lets all remember...If the overwhelming majority believe something...It becomes Real...thats how the world works."
-Omerta, blog commenter


I don't think this person meant that popular ideas manifest, but that popular ideas begin to be told as fact, even if it's really not a fact.  Like, if everyone believes it, than it must be true, right?  Wrong; but that's how people think.

Meditation (Random Impulse)

When I'm irritated with the usual going-ons of life, or I want to set a feel-good tone for the day, I'll usually try to think of something that makes me happy.  These are some of the general objects on which I focus:


I'll think of the wind blowing against a flower,




Or gorgeous animals,




Or soaking up the serenity of a beach at the edge of its dock, by myself or with someone I enjoy,



And sometimes I just thing about the sun; the very reason everyone still breathes and thrives.

If I'm in my room, I'll open up a window to think about these things.  If I have the time to take a walk outside, i'll do it so I can have the opportunity to experience most of these visuals directly.  Taking a few minutes out of the day for this exercise is such a gift after a life full of demands.



Try it for yourself.

"Willi" by E.L. Doctorow, from American Short Story Masterpieces (Reading Response)

I did not know that the beginning was referring to masterbation.  Reading throught this story the first time, I concluded that this child was very in-tune with nature, as many children are.  Now, as I re-read it, I try to find signs of this somewhat hidden message in lines and references of things like Willi's "face in the...whiteness."  I also was not sure of whether his father kills his mother.  Willi specifically uses the word "killing,"  but it did not make sence to me why he would actually want his mother dead and want to be the one who is killing her.  One thing is for sure about this story:  more than one reading is required for some people in order to put all of the pieces together for some clarity on what is going on.  It seems as though Willi is following too closely in the footsteps of his father, and also does not completely understand the difference between physical abuse and sex.  When the father watches the dogs mate, he is "banging his fist into his right hand" as if he's getting excitement from the animal mating.  Violence (fist-banging) and sex being acted upon at the same time is probably what confuses Willi and causes him to think of his mother engaging in intercourse with Ledig as something violent.  His own fist-banging occurring as he hears his mother being beaten may also be a result of this confusion. Willi's father is also married to Willi's mother, and presumable has sex with her.  Since Willi looks up to his father, this may be a reason why Willi desires sex with his mother, too.  E.L. Doctorow takes me into what an isolated life of a young boy on a farm could look like.  He also opens my eyes to different ways of disguising something shocking as something seemingly common.  This story is also a great example of how an author can scatter different components of a story within the story, similar to puzzle pieces, but scatter them in just the right way so that careful thought and maybe more than one reading of the story will cause connection and understanding.

Yeeva Cheng's "Random Impulse 1" from Random Impulses 1&2 (4/14/2011) (Classmate Response)

http://yeevacheng.blogspot.com/2011/04/random-impulses-1-4142011.html

This is such a lovely poem to me, although I don't know if what I get out of it is what the piece intended.  The way I see it, materials, like the "glass bottles, pianos, photographs /  [and] objects of love" are important to the other students, but "stuff" isn't what's important in life to Yeeva.  When she draws a pen in her hand and writes "Sincerely, Yeeva," I figure that this is a symbol for writing being something that is an important part of her life.  And when she crosses it out to write "Love, Yeeva," after pondering the "difference between love and life," it seems as though she realises that there is not any difference between love and life.  It seems like she's also making a statement that she loves writing, and that is why it is life to her.  If the art students are drawing things that they love as being the most valuable parts of life, then what would they live for if there was nothing they loved?  This may be how Yeeva concludes that the two abstracts are synonymous.  The only aspect of the poem I would personally need more clarity on is the ending.  Why will the life-long "words of love" need "very little meaning"?  I think that regardless of what certain poems really mean, readers can often find their own meaning that helps them to relate to the poem, or be inspired by it.  I feel inspired when reading about life and love being the same, because I want to spend my life only doing the things I love to do, and if I know that is what life is all about, then i'll feel like I'm living the way I was meant to live.  I hope this makes sense :)         

Enraged (Junkyard Quote)

"I'm going inside the cage...the one thing [the lion keeper] just said to me is 'don't be scared.  They can sense fear.'  And I am quite scared."
-Journalist, who is inevitably attacked by a lion.


Please, leave the animals alone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg9qXebgasc