Preparing for the Movie Crash

      In preparation for watching the movie Crash, I first watched some of the videos from Face to Face. The video that stuck out the most to me was Anjum Mir. A Muslim woman who "..didn't want to be the target." After 9/11 she didn't go out for a week. This was because she feared the reaction of others. Mir also didn't want her child to have to deal with all of it.
I can't imagine how she would have felt. The thought that people were going to judge you by your appearance in such intensity that it could lead you to harm.

    Also, I have previously seen A Class Divided. I thought this video was absolutely amazing.
 Third graders were given a lesson on discrimination by dividing the class into blue-eyed people and brown-eyed people. These students latched onto the idea so quickly. Within fifteen minutes the students were calling each bad names and judging one another.
This just shows how quick people can latch on to certain ideas, even when they are absurd.

   I believe that these videos are very good for students to watch. And it will prepare us well for the movie Crash. 

Reading Response #2: At Home in Mitford

As I have continued on reading in this book, I have started to become more familiar with the author’s writing style. Jan Karon uses very descriptive language throughout the book. An example of her descriptive writing is,"The stew was on and simmering, and the fragrance in the rectory was intoxicating. The old walnut dining table gleamed under the chandelier and cast a soft glow over a silver bowl of yellow roses tinged with crimson. The cabernet sparkled in cut-glass decanters, the strains of a Mozart sonata filled the rooms with an air of expectancy and in the fading afternoon light, the gardens looked fresh and inviting from every window.” I love how you can picture this imagery in your head without being given an actual visualization. You can taste, smell, and see what Karon wrote here.
 She also uses many similes to compare different things in a more vivid style. “Hoppy Harper, who was sitting in Father Tim’s wing chair, was as relaxed ‘as a dishrag.’” And, “There was one girl from home, from Virginia, and I stuck to her like bark on a tree.”

 This section of the reading began with Father Tim preparing for the dinner party he was going to host. He wanted everything to be perfect since he hadn’t had company over to his house in quite sometime. He first began with his guest list which included Emma, Miss Sadie, Hal, Marge, and Hoppy Harper. Then he had to begin looking through cookbooks to decide what he was going to cook. He ended up picking Company Stew, one of his classics. After this he decided to clean every single space in his home. Once he finished with all this, he began to wonder why he had even bothered to have the dinner party in the first place. It was a lot of work to get everything prepared, but he was still excited to have company.

 The day of the party, Father Tim thought it would be a good idea to bathe Barnabas. He normally did this in the guest shower, but he didm’t want to clean it again. So, he went and bought a tin tub for $22.95 to bathe him outside in. It ended up being a catastrophe!

“Barnabas hurled himself into the tub with a mighty leap. Just as quickly as he went in, he came out, diving between the rector’s legs. He circled the right leg and plunged back into the water, soaking his master from head to foot.”


Father Tim’s party was not ruined due to this interruption. He was still ready on time and the guests had a delightful time.

 In the next chapter, the appraiser informed Father Tim that the painting was not a Vermeer, but it was still worth about seven to eight thousand dollars. This was a great relief to Father Tim and Emma.

Emma and other friends of Father Tim threw him a surprise party for “The Big Six-O”. He was given a red Vespa motor scooter. At first he was a bit pale and nervous about the scooter. He always walked wherever he went. But after he took it for a ride, he had a huge grin on his face.

Inspiration

In my writing, I usually find my inspiration from past experiences. It is all the things that have gone in on in my life that make me who I am today. Whenever I become stressed or worried and just need peace in my life I usually listen to music.
 My favorite type is Christian music because I love the encouraging lyrics. I think that encouraging words can be an inspiration to your writing. I especially love Natalie Grant. She is a very inspirational woman with an amazing voice. Natalie Grant’s music is always about the things of the spirit, not the things of this world. In an interview Grant said, “So much pop music today is disposable—the attitudes, the posturing, the styles—but it seems to be less about music than it is about appearance, about fashion. Now, there’s nothing wrong with fashion—I love that stuff as much or more than the next girl—I just don’t want it to define me. But the deeper things in life—values, relationships, family, and my faith in Christ—they are what’s most attractive about a person. And they’re why I sing.” I love that she doesn’t want fashion and appearance to define her life because that is not typical in our culture today. One of my favorite songs by Natalie Grant is “In Better Hands”.
Here are some lyrics from the song:

 "It's hard to stand
On shifting sand
It's hard to shine
In the shadows of the night
You can't be free
 If you don't reach for help
 And you can't love
 If you don't love yourself
But there is hope when my faith runs out...

It's like the sun is shining
When the rain is pourin' down
 It's like my soul is flying
Though my feet are on the ground
So take this heart of mine
There's no doubt
 I'm in better hands now

 I am strong
 All because of you
I stand in awe of
Every mountain that you move
I am changed
Yesterday is gone
I am safe
From this moment on..
 And there's no fear when the night comes 'round
 I'm in better hands now"

Reading Response #1: At Home in Mitford

Reading Response #1: At Home in Mitford

The first of Jan Karon’s Mitford series opens up with an interruption to Father Tim’s life as he is walking to the Lord’s Chapel. He finds himself looking eye to eye with a dog the size of a Buick. Little does he know, this is just the beginning of the interruptions in his life.

Father Tim lives in the small, quiet town of Mitford where everyone knows each other. Mitford is described as:

“..a village delightfully out of step with contemporary America. Here, where streets are named for flowers, and villagers can seek the shade of a dozen fragrant rose arbors, spring finds most of the citizenry, including merchants, making gardens.”

Father Tim decides he is going to keep the dog and he names him Barnabas. He is a very hyper and active dog until one day Father Tim discovers that the dog is controlled by Scripture. 

“Baranbas, however, couldn't contain his excitement over something new in the air. He leaped up and put his forepaws on his master’s chest and cocked his head to one side. ‘Jesus said to the disciples, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."' The rector looked at Barnabas squarely in the eye. Barnabas sighed heavily and lay down at his master’s feet.”

After this, Father Tim is given a painting donated to the Lord’s Chapel by Miss Sadie, a lifetime member of the church. This painting causes a stir because it may be a "Vermeer" and it has to be appraised by an expert for it could be quite valuable.

Tim is also diagnosed with diabetes and the doctor has told him to cut out his favorite snack, Little Debbies, and to begin running. Father Tim and I have the same thought process about running:

“He knew he didn’t want to be seen doing this. First, he wanted to try it out, in a place where there was no traffic. And while he had seen countless others running heedlessly along Main Street, he felt, somehow, that jogging was an intimate activity, accompanied by snorts, sweating, hawking, and spitting, and an inordinate amount of huffing and puffing. Why in the world would anyone want to do that up and down the center of town was beyond him.” 

Father Tim has been saying the same prayer, everyday, for 12 years. His prayer is, “Father, make me a blessing to someone today, through Christ our Lord. Amen.” I believe this is foreshadowing for what comes ahead in this book and I am anticipating his prayer to be answered very soon. 

When I began reading this book, I made a connection with  The Andy Griffith Show, a program from the 1960's. The settings of both, are a small Southern town with a population where everyone is familiar with one another. The dialects are similar as both are set in the Carolinas (Mitford in North Carolina). The sense of hospitality and the importance family and neighbors is prominent in both stories.