Frankie and Johnny Ending With A Toot

In the song Frankie and Johnny, I find it ironic that Frankie‘s guns went “a rooty-toot-a-toot-a-toot-toot.” It sounds so harmless and playful like but yet when the picture goes through your mind of what is being said, it is a much more serious situation then just a “rooty-toot.” I don’t know if the author wanted it to be funny, but because the gun makes such a awkward “sound” it made me laugh over it. The sound given is of course not what a real gun would sound like, but with that same rhythm, a gun could do some real damage to a body. By the way is sounds, it seems as if Johnny got a good six in his body before he rolled out on the floor which means she just unloaded all her bullets from her “six shooters.” Whether she missed any of them is another matter, but either way, as we can see it doesn’t matter the sound of the gun, but the damage of the bullets.

In my time I have seen different people impersonate different sounds of different things, and guns is probably one of the most repeated. If you can recall anytime’s as such, notice how people have their own way of making the sound of the gun shoots. I have heard from “boom boom,“ “kat kat,” to “shew shew,” but I believe all were referring to the same thing. What this shows me is that no matter what sound we put behind a gun shoot, it still does the same… and that is cause pain on the other end. In fact we even have silencers for our guns today that let our guns make little noise at all when it shoots yet it still does the same damage as one without one. The sound of the gun in this song was not a sound that one would hear in real life, but I think was just a demonstration of its simplicity… a simple “rooty-toot-a-toot-a-toot-toot” and it was all over, no more being lovers.

Numbers and Letters

I went to the Lakeview, Roselawn and Tiger Flowers cemetery complex for this fieldtrip, and I stayed there for at least 40 minutes.

The experience at the cementary was way more then what I thought it was going to be. Wandering around in a respectful manner, looking at all the different dates and names and wondering what their stories were like gave me a since of peace that I didnt expect. It was so comfortable looking around and just letting my mind ponder on death for a while. Before I knew it I was already past the time required to be there because I was so caught up in the "field trip." I came across a tombstone that was flat on the ground and was a small square that only had the letter "C" on it. I don't know why it caught so much attention of mine, but I wonder what the story behind that persons life was. Either way, I would never know...which made me also think about the hundreds of people that would pass my tombstone wondering about my life;wondering what my story was. Attention would only being given because of a specific date on my tombstone or because of a similar name, or maybe just because of my cool tombstone. Just what I did to others graves, others would do to mine... take a look, read, think, and move on to the next. So many graves and so many stories that I couldnt even count yet I knew how they all ended. It really showed me that in all reality, my life is nothing and with complete humbleness I can't wait to just take my place in the dirt with my numbers and my letters.

America in our world: The Gettysburg Address

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us… that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

I always wondered about America’s establishment as a Christian nation. Was it really suppose to be established as a Christian nation or as a nation with religious freedom? I know that people came here for religious freedom, but because this nation’s constitution quotes the bible over 100 times, some claim it to be established as a Christian nation. In other words, we can ask, “Does our freedom come from Christianity being in our nation, or does Christianity come from freedom being in our nation?“ I think no matter what one thinks, both of these have a strong relationship and where ever one is the other is not far behind. I have not done enough study in this field to draw my own conclusion but I have a theory about our nation concerning God and his plans here on earth.

I think that like every individual who grows and matures in the Lord, so does a nation; a nation can fall away from the Lord or grow more with Him. When first established as a nation under God, and also to this day, America has not always represented that God of which it is under. As we can see in American history, much growing has happened as well as much falling away. Though I believe and respect those who see America as a nation blessed by God for its dedication to the Lord, I think our nation plays a much bigger part to Gods plans then we think. Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome and so many others in history have been used by God without any dedication to the Lord. I think God has raised this nation so that he may use it to keep order in our world today of ciaos. Without America in our world, there would be so many wars going on because so many nations wish to fight others, but we do not allow them too.

That new birth of freedom that Lincoln talks about has, I believe, already came throughout our American history… we have grown so much. Yet, when he stated, “and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth,” it came to my mind that our nation is here for a reason. Whether our nation was founded as a Christian nation or not, its not hard to argue that our nation is a home base for Christianity. Though it seems as everyday our nation walks away from God more and more, I think either way, our nation plays an important part in God’s plans for our world, and Lincoln was one who saw that.

Joel Out Loud

Reading The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann gave me a good understanding of why Old Testament writers used so much metaphorical talk. I mean not only does it just get the idea across of what is going to happen, but shows the intensity of it and seriousness. Just speaking of a situation is not as powerful as comparing the situation to something that brings out its intensity. When we read the Book of Joel together in class is when it really hit me how beautifully written the book was, how powerful it hit the imagination and just how a text is much more interesting when you read it how it is suppose to be read. The first time I read it I kind of just ran through the words, but in class with different people reading different parts out loud, I could hear Joel’s speaking in a way I didn’t hear the first time. I don’t know it just touched me in a different way and was a really good experience. It showed me how important it was not only to read the text, but to read it in a way that the writer was writing it in their own mind. In fact once we got going in the text, I wouldn’t have minded reading the rest of it because it just caught my attention more then the first time when I read it by myself.

In my Hermeneutics class on Monday, Dr. White was speaking about how the church today seems to think that every promise in the Bible is a promise for us. This caught my attention because so many Christians take the old testament and apply it to our life as if God was directing a promise for the Israelites specifically to us as well. We can apply much of the Old Testament to our life but a lot of it is to be descriptive rather then to be taken as a promise for us. One example she gave was that the promise land is not a promise for us if we are faithful to God but yet we still can relate because our promise land can be considered heaven. I have heard preachers use the Book of Joel in sermons directing these things to us, I have no position yet, but I wonder if the outpouring of the Spirit was relating to a generation that has already passed? Because so many times my pastor has directed those sons and daughters to be those of the congregation.

Joel

Well...I know for sure without the headings I would have no idea what the author is talking about. With the headings however I have some clues... "I think" Joel is refering to the overtaking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians with the locust stuff but in reality this was the first time I ever read the book of Joel so I don't know. Obviously due to the heading, it speaks of God delivering His people and I am guessing from Babylon. In Ch 2 it talks about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which I hear quoted a lot in sermons but I don't exactly think this is refering to what we tend to use it as but then again this is coming from a first time reader. I think this book is more about stuff that has already happened in accordance with our present time. Overall however, I really do not understand a lot of what is going on and being talked about... maybe because I didn't read it slowly enough or maybe because I am a little tired and just want to close my heavy eyelids, or because I just don't have enough insight in what is going on, I don't know, but I think inreality this book has a lot more to say then I think it does. Looks like the Matthew Henry's coming out on this one, but the good thing about these kinds of books of the Bible, when you study them you never forget what you studied because you have to get so deep into it.

The Things They Carried (1990)

In this story, I easily got bored and tired of reading it which was weird because I like war stories but this was more about their thoughts and feelings… and of course what they carried. What I got out of it was that war is tough, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Just reading what they wore and went through concerning natural things got me tired. I would hate to have to feel what they felt, but I just wish we could be told more about Leut. Cross’s relationship with Martha… was she his girlfriend? If so for how long? There are a lot of questions which would allow one to understand why he couldn’t stop thinking about her and especially in war as a leader! In my opinion I don’t think it was a long relationship because if it were he would know whether she loved him or not which he obviously was not sure about. Another thought is that because he constantly though of her sexually and not much about who she was or how she was, I’m not too sure if he really loved her. Maybe he was just a man in war hungry for something and that hunger just drove his mind into another world…. Which involved a certain girl he was “in love” with. Eventually though it seems as if he gets it together and sees that peoples lives are in his hands. As for Martha loving him, it seems as if she is very childish and not caring to much about the war and Leut. Cross’s life being at stake. Considering Cross’s details and his worry’s about her that he has makes me wonder whether they are even a real couple that knows each other because if they did love each other, he would trust her and she would want information on his situation and the war in every letter.