Paying Attention to Language

I've always thought of writing as a way of expressing myself.  I've always thought of writers and fairly deep people, who engage in writing as a way to reach out to themselves and to others.  For me, I find that often my pen and paper produce words or thoughts that I didn't even know I had; it's almost like magic to me. I write, I feel better, and often I figure out something about myself I never knew before writing.  Writing helps me focus on me; it helps me sit quietly and appreciate the moment of thought and scribbling on paper.

But writing (like music from our discussion yesterday), is more than just about the writer herself.  It's about language.  It's about word choice.  It's about preserving the beauty of words as they are put into sentences to form language.  Language is a way of communicating -- and really, what would writing be without language? Nonexistent?

Robert Bly, a farmer and Norwegian American immigrant wrote in his essay "Norwegian Roots on an American Tree":

"Some people believe that to be a writer is to engage in a moral project.  I think writing has to do primarily with language - with using language precisely and accurately.  And we're all involved with that project.  One of the worst results of the Vietnam war was that it damaged the American language.  The administration began it by insisting that their motives were noble.  Johnson would always quote Lincoln when he was doing something especially despicable.  This double life became national policy.  But if the government insists that it has no shadow at all, then the opposition will accuse them of being nothing but shadow.  I belonged to the left and still do, but our group wasn't any better in its use of language.  Our language for public discussion still has not recovered.  Poetry has to do with paying attention to language."

Poetry has to do with paying attention to language.  Great writing has to do with paying attention to language.  I think of My Antonia, and how beautifully written it is. I think that this is because Cather paid attention to language; she recognized the impact of beautiful language and took advantage of it in her writing.  

Language can be beautiful. Writing can be beautiful.  But only both can be beautiful as long as we pay attention to them. To disregard writing means to disregard language; they work together.  Maybe Bly is getting at a deeper American issue when he says talks about paying attention to language -- maybe we need to pay attention to the language of everyone around us, instead of only the language we know.  Different languages mean different cultures; so if we respect and pay attention to all languages, I believe that we in turn, can respect and pay attention to all cultures. 

Topic Statement for Final Essay

The following is my newly-developed topic statement for my final research essay:

I am going to write my final essay as a journal of 20-year-old Jolene Stien during her sophomore year at St. Olaf, on December 1, 1918.  Jolene is a english major, hoping to become a teacher or even a principal at a grammar school.  She is a white Norwegian and a Lutheran from a fairly wealthy farming family just outside of Minneapolis.  She participates in the St. Olaf Choir and finds ways to play sports with boys even though she is not technically supposed to; she has a lot of spunk and will not let gender constructs get in her way.  Jolene writes her journal as letters to her deceased older brother, Jeremias Stien, who was killed in combat in World War I at age 22 on August 1, 1918 (4 months prior to the current day).  Jeremias was both her brother and her best friend; he had always encouraged her to pursue higher education. However, their mother and father feel differently.  Their parents want Jolene to stay home from college and work on the farm; they had already lost one child and did not want to lose their other.  The journal entry will encompass all of these aspects, as well as touch on the impact of the war on the college, the Christmas Festival concert that Jolene will participate in, the beginning of the winter season on campus, and the development of her gender role on campus. 

Christmas Festival and Social Capital...

I had a flash from the past last night during Christmas Festival rehearsal.  I started thinking about how all of these people from out of state, young and old, travel here to be a part of Christmas Festival.  I thought about how, at the beginning of the year, the majority of the people in choir were strangers to me.  And now, we all hangout outside of choir, we joke together, and we eat meals together.  Then I thought to myself, I'm thinking of social capital from AmCon last semester!  It's funny how the things we learn never truly leave us...

 The link for Christmas festival is below:
http://www.stolaf.edu/christmasfest/

Encourage family and friends to watch it either in the movie theaters or on television! It will be great!

Black Bears!

I love bears.
I love everything about them. When I go camping with my family, I am on bear-watch the entire time.  I think they are beautiful animals and super fascinating. So, when I found this article in which experts say that the black bear population is on the rise, I got very excited:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203710704577050464182836548.html?mod=e2tw

"Forty years after being hunted to near-extinction in many parts of the U.S., black bears have become so plentiful that they are causing trouble for their human neighbors—ripping open camping tents in Colorado, attacking dogs in New Jersey, even breaking into a home in Florida to nab a birthday cake from the kitchen counter."


I just wanted to share this. It appears that this rise in population might be doing a little harm, but as of now, I am just glad that they aren't near extinction anymore.

Past Relationships vs. Present

My Antonia has a large emphasis on the past.  Both Jim and Antonia seem to value their past very highly and almost "live" in their past rather than the present.  Antonia seems to more accept and recognize that that is what has happened and that is how she feels, whereas Jim seems to be pretending and not totally recognize that he has idolized the past. 


When Jim finds out that Antonia has a child but is not married, the author writes (in Jim's voice), 
"I tried to shut Antonia out of my mind.  I was bitterly disappointed in her.  I could not forgive her for becoming an object of pity."  He is disappointed that Antonia did not turn out to be the girl he had pictured. Because he had spent so many years idolizing her, when she did something out of the ordinary, he was angered. 


Towards the end of the text when Antonia and Jim reunite, they both seem to dissolve the barriers of pretending that they are still in the past, and just enjoy remembering and reminiscing with one another.  I think that even though Jim sees that he won't always get to be with Antonia, he gets to have the memories of his past with her, and to him, that is enough.

Race in My Antonia

"When Samson was well again, his young mistress led him back to the piano.  Several teachers experimented with him.  THey found he had absolute pitch, and a remarkable memory.  As a very young child he could repeat, after a fashion, any composition that was played for him.  No matter how many wrong notes he struck, he never lost the intention of a passage, he brought the substance of it across by irregular and astonishing means.  He wore his teachers out.  He could never learn like other people, never acquired any finish.  He was always a negro prodigy who played barbarously and wonderfully.  As piano playing, it was perhaps abominable, but as music it was something real, vitalized by a sense of rhythm that was stronger than his other physical senses, - that not only filled his dark mind, but worried his body incessantly.  To hear him, to watch him, was to see a negro enjoying himself as only a negro can.  It was as if all the agreeable sensations possible to creatures of flesh and blood were heaped up on those black and white keys, and he were gloating over them and trickling them through his yellow fingers." (92).

We talked in class about the implicit messages of the book, and specifically how race is present in the book.  This passage stood out to me, especially because Marissa and I just finished our paper on how race is relevant in the musical world.
This passage seems to be surprised at how well a black musician can play.  To see him enjoy himself and cross the "black and white" barriers (black and white keys).   A black boy being a great musician was rare in this time, especially in this environment.  When he performs, race becomes neutralized, and he becomes harmless.  He is just a musician, regardless of race who his audience can observe without feeling threatened.

Nature in My Antonia

From My Antonia when Jim is sitting in the middle of his grandma's garden:

"I kept as still as I could.  Nothing happened.  I did not expect anything to happen.  I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy.  Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge.  At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complex and great.  When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep" (12). 

Nature is often what brings me peace. If I am having a hard day, am upset, or just need to be alone, I almost always seek out nature. I like feeling like I am small -- the universe is so much bigger than I.  It is in nature that the world feels okay - I know am okay...I experience "enough", aka happiness.

I feel like the novel has a kind of curiosity intensity; the character is exploring both mentally and physically his new surroundings.  Jim at one point compares trees/treats trees as humans. His openness and compassion for nature is a ongoing theme in the text.

One night as he is looking up at the stars, Jim says, "though we had come from such different parts of the world, in both of us there was some dusky superstition that those shining groups have their influence on what is and what is not to be.”  (in reference to Antonia).  He appears to be a deeper character who is exploring his beliefs on fate, nature, and himself. 

Some more Gwendolyn Brooks

I found myself a little enchanted with Gwendolyn Brooks after reading her work in class the other day.  So I looked at a few more of her poems and found this one to be one of my favorites:


My Dreams, My Works, Must Wait Till After Hell by Gwendolyn Brooks
I hold my honey and I store my bread 
In little jars and cabinets of my will. 
I label clearly, and each latch and lid 
I bid, Be firm till I return from hell. 
I am very hungry. I am incomplete. 
And none can give me any word but Wait, 
The puny light. I keep my eyes pointed in; 
Hoping that, when the devil days of my hurt 
Drag out to their last dregs and I resume 
On such legs as are left me, in such heart 
As I can manage, remember to go home, 
My taste will not have turned insensitive 
To honey and bread old purity could love.


This poem speaks to me because it is about hope, waiting for the "dawn to come" and that if you just wait and hope (or "sit and hold") that your life will work itself out.  
I think this can be very applicable to the victims of racial discrimination in the early 20th century because they had hope that times would change; there was some glimmer of light in the future that "hell" would end.
I came across this quote in a book about appreciating your life for what it is:
"Hell is wanting to be something and somewhere different from where you are.  If that is true, and I believe it is, most of us spend most of our lives in hell".
Regardless of our beliefs about hell, I believe that hope can be a good thing for any person.  I know that there is this belief that some people have that after they go through a really hard time, that then they will be able to achieve their dreams and works; they will eventually reach some type of satisfaction.  But what I know (and have been trying to work on with myself) is to accept my life for what it is, keep hoping, and believe that my dreams and works are happening now and are possible in the future.

A Further Note on Religion as an Identity Factor

I came across this article on the Washington Post website:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/patheos-on-faith/post/10-questions-worth-asking-about-a-candidates-faith/2011/09/26/gIQAOqlX0K_blog.html

"So, in the spirit of journalistic “fairness,” here is a suggested (albeit incomplete) list of 10 questions worth asking about a candidate’s faith:

1. How does your faith inform your public service?

2. In what ways has your faith experience helped you become a better citizen? A better leader?

3. Can America truly be “great” apart from God and a belief in God?

4. What role might your faith play in the event of a national emergency (i.e., terrorist attack, nuclear war, etc.)?

5. Should Mayor Bloomberg have been allowed prayer at the 9/11 Memorial event this month in NYC? How would you have handled this?

6. Has your faith changed you as a person? In what ways?

7. Does your faith experience cause you to be more accepting of other people’s belief systems or less?

8. After 9/11, the song “God Bless America” was often sung at public events (i.e., sporting events, etc.). In what ways do you believe God has “blessed” America? In what ways do you pray God will continue to “bless” America?

9. Do you view your entrance into public office as a means for advancing your particular faith group or denomination?

10. In what ways do your commitments to faith and family help qualify you for public office?"

I am reminded again of how much religion is an identity factor.  People are drawn to it, repelled by it.  People judge it, shun it.
In politics, it is a very large decision for some people when they vote.  People judge candidates based on their religion.  In politics, it is an inescapable part of one's identity.  They have to pick a "religious" view to hold by so that they have something to tell the voters.  It's something a lot of people are about.

Religious Identity = A Choice?

Yesterday in class we talked about something that I just can't stop thinking about:

Religion is a legitimate form of identity that everyone gets to choose.  It is a choice.  It is not common for a lot of identity forms to be able to be chosen.  But, religion defines a person, and it is one of those parts of identity that isn't always rooted in your childhood.

I tried to think about what other identity factors are "choosable".
Family is not -- you don't get to choose your family members, but you do get to choose how you identify with them and also how much you include them in your life (at least when you're older.  Children don't really get a choice).
Race is not a choice. It is a physicality that cannot be changed really; it is an almost-forced identity.
Your environment, such as small town or big city; lots of siblings or only child, school environment, etc, are not really chosen by you.  Yes you can change how much you want your "history of environment" to be a part of you, but part of it will always be with you.
You get to choose your friends, yes.  They somewhat identify you.

I guess that for me, religion is something I grew up with.  I grew up going to Lutheran church.  But once I was really old enough to choose what faith meant to me and develop my views, I decided to keep religion as a part of me.  And it really is a big part of who I am.  I guess I have chosen to let it be part of my identity because that's what is important to me.

A few thoughts on "Chicago's Influence on Religion"

As I read through the article, I found myself having a few different thoughts on "Chicago's Influence on Religion", by Martin Marty. 


"Moody came as a young businessman who was soon found to be a success at “soul-winning.
The first was about Moody -- he arrived in Chicago as a "soul-winning" man.  He promised hope, renewal, etc, to the American people.  For so many people, the idea of "soul-winning" is important -- I believe that an American ideal is that people always want to be better, and people idolize those who they think are the best.  Because someone can offer people a way to be better, to be "soul-winning' and pure -- a way to reach their own goal -- it makes sense that Moody would go to Chicago.  It was a huge city (it still is).  It didn't really have the risk of failure because there were so many people and so many possibilities to succeed.
"Moody came as a young businessman who was soon found to be a success at “soul-winning.


The second, is that even in religious growth can race not be escaped.  But this time, no one could argue that race wasn't a plus -- most African Americans were Christian of some sort, and because this was the dominant religion, people couldn't scorn them from their religion.  African Americans could escape their race barriers just a tiny bit when it came to religion - they were allowed to believe the same as white people; it was something both races could identify with.
"After the Catholic immigrations, the greatest change came during and after the two world wars and in the prosperous postwar period, when African Americans by the many thousands migrated, especially from the rural South. They brought with them Methodist, Baptist, and later Pentecostal faiths associated with the South. They made their homes in the South and West Sides of the city, areas which most whites left. Catholicism and white Protestantism became increasingly suburban phenomena, although Catholic parishes persisted and Catholicism remained the majority faith in the city."


The third is about African-American gospel music.  When I saw this paragraph, I immediately thought of my experience in choir.  In every single choir I've been in I have sung gospel music, even including Cantorei this year (we've already sung two gospel pieces).  It is fun, it is upbeat, it is different, and it is a reminder that much of our musical heritage comes from our religion -- whether it be gospel music or old hymns. 
"The Chicago influence has spread to other arts as well. One can make the case that “gospel” and “soul,” major African American contributions to religious music, originated in Chicago. Thomas Dorsey was the pioneer of gospel music, and singers like Mahalia Jackson helped carry it to the rest of the nation and much of the world. Long before that, Billy Sunday's musical partner, Homer Rodeheaver, influenced the kind of evangelistic gospel song popular in revivalistic Protestantism.Northwestern University's school of music fostered world-acclaimed classical church music, for example through the compositions of Leo Sowerby. GIA Publications, under Catholic auspices, and Hope Publishing in Wheaton, an evangelical house, have encouraged and published music that shapes styles across the nation and wherever American religious influence spreads."

Fostering Community -- St. Olaf Style

Today in class we discussed Pullman's little village, and whether or not his rules as well as the villages set up fostered community.  My conclusion was that they both help and hurt the community, but as Marissa said, it's a give-and-take process. Some people like some of the rules that others hate.  It goes back and forth, but all in all everyone works together to make the community last.

I thought of how this relates to St. Olaf.  There's the honor code, which everyone works to uphold.  There's the alcohol policy; some hate it, some love it. But the community works within it. There's the final exam policy (which, rumor has it, is getting changed) that every class has to have a final exam period.  This can be a burden or a gift.

Either way, each of the rules within the St. Olaf community are liked or disliked by many different people. But these are things (opportunity costs) that students and faculty give up to be at a place like this.  We make compromises to help foster community within the college, and in doing so, we create a welcoming and accepting atmosphere.

Business and Its Culture

"For him [Pullman] there was never any distinction between culture and business; indeed, his business was founded upon the manufacture of a new life-style of travel...Pullman's meticulous attention to monopolizing the means of supervision also had another purpose.  He wished to change the behavior of his customers and his workers through manipulation of the cultural environment - to transform them into better customers and workers" (Gilbert 146-147).

Pullman wanted to combine culture and business into one.  For him, it was one combined idea.  For other's, it was separate.  He wanted the highest standard of commitment and work from his employees, and he wanted his customers to spend as much money and love the company as much as possible.  He loved his work culture and wanted to make it an enjoyable place to be -- his work was his life, so he wanted to make it a good enough place to spend a lot of time.

Thinking about this concept of combining business and culture into one kinda fits my recent experience of interviewing with Northwestern Mutual (this morning, actually) for a summer internship in 2012.  It went really well, and I left smiling and excited about the position.  The recruiter was very excited and happy to be where he is -- I was reminded of how important a friendly, happy, supportive work environment really is.  My recruiter combines his business and culture into one -- to have the best, most profitable clients as possible, as well as leading the best, most talented set of interns as he possibly can.