This article convicted me to the core, because I actually did not get to watch the inaugural address!!! I was in class!!! I feel like a bad American.
Well, after reading the article and the opinion of Gerson, it sounds like it wasn't quite as inspiring as maybe...Abraham Lincoln (my favorite president by the way) but that it was a good next-step, realistic, focusing speech for America. And maybe that's what we need right now...speaking of good speeches, I saved the little cardboard that wraps around Starbucks coffee (is there a name for this?) just because it had a quote from Abraham Lincoln on it...i told you, he is my favorite ever. In fact, it says here that this was taken from HIS inaugural address, how fitting:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds (ooo. nice metaphor), to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations..." President Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865, Inaugural Address
amen to that.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are blowing my mind.
Okay, Stoddard is officially one of my new favorite playwrights. He's up there with the big guys in skill: Shakespeare, Sophecles, Euripedes, Aristophenes...he might need to get a cooler name though...but still. I have been blown away by this play! I think it's because there just aren't an rules and the rules that he sets within his play are unstable (i.e. the flipping coin ends its cycle in the end of Act I). Everything is so unpredictable! I think Charis definately got it right with her impersonation of me the other day. POSTMODERNISM...Carly: "sigh...this is so cool!!!" Haha. I'm loving it. I really enjoyed hearing the question game played out by Ben and Blaine in class. I was really confused when I read it on my own...especially with the score keeping... one-love, two-love. Now, that I have heard it acted out I think that was a great touch. Especially since in the midst of thier "game" (representative of life being a game) Guidenstern still insists on finding the meaning behind it all! Where as, Rozencrantz (whom we characterized as a puppy) is just in it all for fun and entertainment. hmm.
Also, I was a bit convicted by the challenge from this Act: are we actors or prostitutes? and wrestling with where we are as Christians. I have two very good friends, both very involved and passionate about the theatre and the arts. One has been involved in drama all through highschool and spends most of his time after school rehearsing and preparing for the new, upcoming play. He mentions, though, that sometimes the drama kids, in an attempt to make their character realistic and believable, will act in character the entire practice and sometimes quote thier lines in everyday conversations around school. Even Blaine did that one day back in the Fall. Mr Montegue asked his students to pick a character and remain in character all day. I guess that just seems odd, because they can practice and stay in character, but they will still be themselves at the end of the day. Is there a point where you convince yourself you are somebody else? I honestly don't know where I'm going with this...just thinking...asking questions that I don't necessarily have answers for right now haha. But isn't that what this play is all about especially that last scene? Life is just a bunch of unanswered questions. Some just have fun with it and turn it into a game. Some Some prostitute themselves to the world and try to be an answer to someone else's need or question for life. Some take a leap of faith and step out in doubt. Some just act. After all, "life is a stage." I guess, as a Christian I should ask, since I am claiming to "play the part" of Christ in this world, my "script" is his Word, and my "director" is the Son of God himself...if all this is what I claim...is my role believable and genuine to my world audience? is it realistic? Am i getting my lines right, straight from my "script"?
Also, I was a bit convicted by the challenge from this Act: are we actors or prostitutes? and wrestling with where we are as Christians. I have two very good friends, both very involved and passionate about the theatre and the arts. One has been involved in drama all through highschool and spends most of his time after school rehearsing and preparing for the new, upcoming play. He mentions, though, that sometimes the drama kids, in an attempt to make their character realistic and believable, will act in character the entire practice and sometimes quote thier lines in everyday conversations around school. Even Blaine did that one day back in the Fall. Mr Montegue asked his students to pick a character and remain in character all day. I guess that just seems odd, because they can practice and stay in character, but they will still be themselves at the end of the day. Is there a point where you convince yourself you are somebody else? I honestly don't know where I'm going with this...just thinking...asking questions that I don't necessarily have answers for right now haha. But isn't that what this play is all about especially that last scene? Life is just a bunch of unanswered questions. Some just have fun with it and turn it into a game. Some Some prostitute themselves to the world and try to be an answer to someone else's need or question for life. Some take a leap of faith and step out in doubt. Some just act. After all, "life is a stage." I guess, as a Christian I should ask, since I am claiming to "play the part" of Christ in this world, my "script" is his Word, and my "director" is the Son of God himself...if all this is what I claim...is my role believable and genuine to my world audience? is it realistic? Am i getting my lines right, straight from my "script"?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Heads...heads...heads...
I admire how Stoppard incorporates deep insight and the pondering of our existence with humor. It definately adds character to Rozencrantz and Guildenstern and paints some color to his piece. There is just so much to unpack from these first few pages alone, its unbelievable. Stoppard already is dealing with purpose and probability, fear and faith, faith and fate, the law of diminishing returns and the law of six monkeys (previously discovered today in class to go by the title of The Infinity Monkey Theorem haha), syllogisms and the supernatural...all in seven pages of script and witty banter between two very complimentary but different characters.
I was most convicted personally, however, by Rozencrantz's (or was it Guildenstern's? ) long speech on probability and the idea that when things are going well, we have no real reason to doubt and are perfectly "content and happy" with flipping coins all day. Yet the second the winds change and our worldview seems to fail us, we turn to others for answers, WHY becomes a very vital and common question. From a Christian perspective, I was convicted with the fact that I, too, don't generally pray as much or dig into the Word as deep when life is going hunky-dory. But the second things start getting rough that all changes. I don't think this is how it should be and it rather bugged me in class and I wrestled with it a bit the rest of the day. When life is good and calm I should be even more attentive to God's word in an act of thankfulness for his provision and steady hand in my life. Ya, I'm going to work on this.
I loved this quote: "Fear! The crack that might flood your brain with light!" Hmm. So fear helps to reveal truth in our lives? Fear shows things as they really are?
The slapstick humor between the two men as one sits back and collects his bet while the other stands in awe is very entertaining. I'm enjoying the play thus far its very clever.
Is it a double-sided coin?
I was most convicted personally, however, by Rozencrantz's (or was it Guildenstern's? ) long speech on probability and the idea that when things are going well, we have no real reason to doubt and are perfectly "content and happy" with flipping coins all day. Yet the second the winds change and our worldview seems to fail us, we turn to others for answers, WHY becomes a very vital and common question. From a Christian perspective, I was convicted with the fact that I, too, don't generally pray as much or dig into the Word as deep when life is going hunky-dory. But the second things start getting rough that all changes. I don't think this is how it should be and it rather bugged me in class and I wrestled with it a bit the rest of the day. When life is good and calm I should be even more attentive to God's word in an act of thankfulness for his provision and steady hand in my life. Ya, I'm going to work on this.
I loved this quote: "Fear! The crack that might flood your brain with light!" Hmm. So fear helps to reveal truth in our lives? Fear shows things as they really are?
The slapstick humor between the two men as one sits back and collects his bet while the other stands in awe is very entertaining. I'm enjoying the play thus far its very clever.
Is it a double-sided coin?
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