Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Ang Alamat Ng Tinagong- Dagat
ni Sol D. Penuela
salaysay ni Renon Angelo V. Sobreviñas
Panay. Isang pulo kung saan masisipag at matitiyaga sa buhay ang mga tao kung kaya naman sila ay namumuhay ng masagana. Kaya hayaan ninyo akong isalaysay sa inyo ang isang kawili- wiling alamat na sigurado akong magugustuhan ninyo.
Ito’y isang alamat na nagmula sa bayan ng Lambunao na sakop ng Iloilo. Sa Nagong, isang magandang binata, mahinahon, magilas, malakas at higit sa lahat maganda ang kalooban. Siya rin ay isang matulunging anak kung kaya nga siya’y nagtatrabaho para makatulong sa pag- iipon ng kanyang ina. Mula sa buong araw na pagtatrabaho, siya ay umuwing pagod at matamlay ang katawan. Ngunit habang binabagtas niya ang daan pauwi ay bigla siyang napahinto sa nakasalubong at bumilis ang tibok ng kanyang dibdib. Isang malabathalang dilag ang kanyang nakasalubong. Isang Diyosa, marilag na Agat ang pangalan. Sa una nilang pagkikita ay mayroon na silang naramdaman na kakaiba para sa isa’t isa. Tila ba’y nag- uusap ang kanilang mga mata. Hindi nila alam kung ano ang gagawin. Ilang sandali pa ay natauhan na ang dalawa at muling naglakad si Agat habang ang mga mata naman ni Nagong ay nakatitig pa rin sa dilag. Titig na tagos sa puso hanggang sa kalamnan.
Mula sa pagtatagpo ng kanilang mata ay nagsimula na ang isang mahiwagang pag- iibigan. Tila wala nang paglagyan ang kanilang umaapaw na kaligayahan. Tila walang katapusang pagmamahalan.
Isang hapon, nalaman ng ama ni Agat ang tungkol kay Nagong. Pinagbuhatan siya ng kamay ng kanyang ama. Biglang dumaloy ang luha sa mga mata ni Agat at tinanong ang anyang ama, “ Ama, ang umibig ay kasalanan ba? Ako baga kay Nagong di na liligaya?” Inalipusta ng kanyang ama si Nagong at hindi man lang pinagbigyan ng pagkakataon ang binata na maipahayag ang kanyang tapat na pag- ibig para kay Agat. At kinulong ng ama ang kanyang anak sa kanilang tahanan at mahigpit nitong binantayan mula umaga, tangahali hanggang gabi.
Paghiwalayin man si Nagong at Agat ng pagkakataon, pilit pa ring uusbong ang kanilang pagmamahal sa isa’t isa. Sabi nga nila, kung ang pag- ibig ay totong tapat, handang suungin ng lahat ang anumang humarang sa kanilang pag- iibigan kahit ito’y humantong pa sa kanilang kamatayan.
Isang gabi ay nag- isip si Nagong ng mga hakbang upang mailigtas si Agat. Hangad na tuparin ang kanyang mga balak, siya ay tumungo sa tahanan ni Agat. Sa kanyang landas, nakasalubong niya ang ina ni Agat. Ibinalita ng ina na nawawala si Agat sa kanilang tahanan. Kaya biglang naghanap si Nagong sa kanilang bayan. At humingi ng tulong sa kanyang mga kaibigan upang mas madaling mahanap ang dilag.
Nabulabog ng dumadagundong na tinig ni Nagong ang mga hayop sa kagubatan. At sa ilog kung saan sila nagkikita ay muli niyang natagpuan ang kanyang iniirog na si Agat. Hindi na sila nag- aksaya ng panahon, muli nilang hinagkan ang isa’t isa. Mula doon ay nangibang bayan na silang dalawa at nagsimula ng panibagong buhay.
Muli ay nagsama silang masaya. Hawak- kamay nilang hinarap ang lahat ng unos sa buhay kahit gaano man ito kahirap.
Ngunit, sadya nga sigurong mapagbiro ang tadhana. Si Agat ay dinapuan ng isang matinding sakit. Hindi naglaon, hindi na nalunasan pa ang kanyang sakit at tuluyan na siyang lumisan. Ilang araw ring pinaglamayan ang kanyan katawan sa kanilang tahanan. At ang pangyayaring ito ang nagdulot kay Nagong ng matinding kalungkutan.
Mula nang inilibing sa Agat ay wala na siyang ibang ginawa kung hindi ang bantayan ang puntod ng kanyang abang minamahal. Hanggang dumating ang araw na napabayaan na niya ang kaniyang sarili at nagkasakit. Hindi rin naglaon ay tuluyan na rin siyang namaalam at inilibing ang kanyang katawan katabi ng puntod ni Agat.
Ang pook na kanilang pinaglibingan ay naging ilog pagdaan ng panahon. Ang nasabing ilog ay simbolo ng dalawang pusong nagmahalan ng tapat at tunay. At ito ang pinagsimulan ng TINAGONG- DAGAT.
Dito nagtatapos ang alamat. Ngunit sana ay marami kayong napulot na mga aral sa buhay. At kung kayo man ay mabibigyan ng pagkakataon ay maaari ninyo sanang dalawin ang TINAGONG- DAGAT ng Lambunao, Iloilo.
***
Ika- 22 ng Marso, 2009
Naging tradisyon na marahil ng aming barkada ang magtungo sa mga beach resorts o kahit saan basta malapit sa kapaligiran tuwing bakasyon pagkatapos ng napakahirap buhay- estudyante. At ngayong taon, sa Ambakan Falls, Guimaras kami nagpunta. Ilan taon na nga rin nang huli akong nagtungo sa Guimaras.
Habang sumasakay kami sa bangka, nakita ko kung gaano kaganda ang dagat sa pagitan ng Iloilo at Guimaras. Tanaw ko mula sa bangka ang mga nagtataasang mga puno sa Guimaras. Pero maya- maya pa, may mga lumulutang na sa dagat na kakaiba. MGA BASURA! At sinundan ng tingin ko ang pinanggalingan ng mga basura at nakita ko ang tumpuk- tumpok na kabahayan. Isang squatters area. Nakapanlulumo nga ang nangyayari sa ating kapaligiran. Nakaka-awa.
Mula sa daungan ng bangka ay nilakad lang namin papunta sa Ambakan Falls. At makikita mo na unti- unti nang isinasa- ayos ang mga kalsada sa Guimaras. At nang nakarating na kami sa nasabing talon, napamangha ako sa aking nakita. Ang napakaganda ng kapaligiran. Napakatahimik. Napakasarap pakinggan ang mga nag- aawitang ibon. Ang sarap ng haplos ng hangin sa aking katawan. Tila ba tinatawag ako ni Inang Kalikasan. Tila ba gusto niya akong magpahinga sa kanyang mga bisig mula sa magulong buhay ko sa siyudad. Ang lamig ng tubig mula sa talon. Talagang makakapagpahinga ng maayos ang kung sino man ang gustong lumayo nang sandali sa magulo nilang pamumuhay sa siyudad.
Ngunit hindi ko maikukubli na marami akong nakitang mga basura sa ilang bahagi ng talon. May mga putol na puno rin akong nakita. Nakakatakot na baka sa susunod kong pagbalik doon ay tuluyan nang maglaho ang tinatagong kagandahan ng Ambakan Falls.
Habang kami’y nagpapahinga, ipinapanalangin ko na sana ay mapangalagaan ng mga residente ng Ambakan ang nasabing talon. Kaya nga kaming magkakaibigan ay tumulong sa pangangalaga nito. Lahat ng aming basura ay aming itinapon sa wastong basurahan. Marahil sa simleng bagay na yaon ay malaki na ang aming maitutulong para sa Inang Kalikasan.
Ipinangako ko sa aking sarili na kung may pagkakataon ay babalikan kong muli ang Ambakan. Isang pook kung saan mo matatagpuan ang hinahanap mong katahimikan.
Renon Angelo
Ika- 14 ng Pebrero, 2010
Mataas na ang sikat ng araw nang ako’y magising. Tila ang tahimik ng buong bahay. Ang tanging naririnig ko lang ay ang tunog mula sa aking ceiling fan at ang tahol n gaming aso sa labas ng bahay. Inakala kong tulog pa si Mommy at ang aking kapatid, yun pala, nasa labas lang silang dalawa at nagtutulungang sa paglalaba.
Ang gulo ng aking kwarto ng ako’y nagising. Tila ba parang dinaan ng bagyo! Kahit saan lang nakakalat ang aking mga kwaderno, libro at mga ballpen. Isang senyales na marami pa akong dapat ayusin sa araw na ito.
Wala akong ginawa nang umagang yaon kundi ang magbasa lang ng libro at manood ng palabas sa telebisyon.
Mag- aalas siete ng gabi ng biglang may narinig ako mula sa labas ng bahay. “Tag- balay! Ren?” Si Ian Floyd, malapit kong kaibigan, ang tumatawag sa akin. Muntik ko na nga makalimutan na anibersaryo na pala ng aming barkadahan ngayong araw! Limang taon na kami! Limang taon na ang CRIZAM! At nagbihis ako at sinundo namin sina Crisandro, Zhjan, Juvy Ann at Maricar para ipagdiwang namin ng sabay- sabay ang aming anibersaryo.
Sa aming daanan, marami akong nakitang mga taong hindi ko kakilala. Naglalakad ng mabilis na tila ba’y di alam ang paroroonan. Ang bilis ng pagdaan ng mga pampasaherong sasakyan, na tila ba’y nagmamadali sa kanilang papupuntahan. Marami na nga akong nakitang pagbabago sa aming lugar kahit ilang buwan pa lang ang nakalipas. Napagtanto ko, ang bilis talaga ng buhay.
At nang nasundo na ang lahat, sama- sama naming muling inikot ang buong Barangay na dati na naming ginagawa noong nasa high school pa kami. Habang naglalakad, marami kaming nakitang mga lugar na may magagandang alaala.
Meron kaming nakitang nagkukumpulang mga kabataan sa loob ng simbahan. Masayang nag- uusap, nagku- kwentuhan, nag- kukulitan. Naalala ko na minsan na rin kami ang naroon sa mismong lugar kung saan sila nagsasama.
Sa tindahan na lagi naming pinupuntahan, tanda ko pa ang puno na sumisimolo ng aming pagkakaibigan. Ngunit bakit unti- unti nang nalalagas ang kanyang mga dahon? Ano ang ibig nitong sabihin. napagtanto ko na ang aming pagkakaibigan ay tulad ng punong iyon. Ang tatag ng aming pagkakaibigan ay tulad ng katawan ng puno, mapalayo man sa kanya ang kanyang mga dahon ay mananatili pa rin itong matatag na kumakapit sa lupa at handang magsibol ng mga panibagong dahon para sa panibagong buhay. Ang aming pagsasamahan ay bukas sa mga pagbabago, marahil ito’y magiging mahirap sa simula ngunit handa kami sa anumang pagsubok na dumating. Anuman ang dumating na pagsubok, isa lang ang sigurado kami, ang mga iyon ang magpapatatag n gaming samahan.
Renon Angelo
Thursday, July 8, 2010
“The Indian Serenade”
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright.
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Has led me -who knows how?
To thy chamber-window, Sweet!
The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream -
The champak odours fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart,
As I must die on thine,
O beloved as thou art!
Oh lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast;
Oh press it close to thine again,
Where it will break at last!
Summary
Addressing his beloved, the speaker says that he arises from “dreams of thee / In the first sweet sleep of night, / When the winds are breathing low, / And the stars are shining bright.” He says that “a spirit in my feet” has led him—”who knows how?”—to his beloved’s chamber-window. Outside, in the night, the “wandering airs” faint upon the stream, “the Champak odours fail / Like sweet thoughts in a dream,” and the nightingale’s complaint” dies upon her heart—as the speaker says he must die upon his beloved’s heart. Overwhelmed with emotion, he falls to the ground (“I die, I faint, I fail!”), and implores his beloved to lift him from the grass, and to rain kisses upon his lips and eyelids. He says that his cheek is cold and white, and his heart is loud and fast: he pleads, “Oh! press it to thine own again, / Where it will break at last.”
Form
The trancelike, enchanting rhythm of this lovely lyric results from the poet’s use of a loose pattern of regular dimeters that employ variously trochaic, anapestic, and iambic stresses. The rhyme scheme is tighter than the poem’s rhythm, forming a consistent ABCBADCD pattern in each of the three stanzas.
Commentary
This charming short lyric is one of Shelley’s finest, simplest, and most exemplary love poems. It tells a simple story of a speaker who wakes, walks through the beautiful Indian night to his beloved’s window, then falls to the ground, fainting and overcome with emotion. The lush sensual language of the poem evokes an atmosphere of nineteenth-century exoticism and Orientalism, with the “Champak odours” failing as “The wandering airs they faint / On the dark, the silent stream,” as “the winds are breathing low, / And the stars are shining bright.” The poet employs a subtle tension between the speaker’s world of inner feeling and the beautiful outside world; this tension serves to motivate the poem, as the inner dream gives way to the journey, imbuing “a spirit in my feet”; then the outer world becomes a mold or model for the speaker’s inner feeling (“The nightingale’s complaint / It dies upon her heart, / As I must die on thine...”), and at that moment the speaker is overwhelmed by his powerful emotions, which overcome his body: “My cheek is cold and white, alas! / My heart beats loud and fast...”
In this sense “The Indian Serenade” mixes the sensuous, rapturous aestheticism of a certain kind of Romantic love poem (of Keats, for example) with the transcendental emotionalism of another kind of Romantic love poem (often represented by Coleridge). The beautiful landscape of fainting airs and low-breathing winds acts upon the poet’s agitated, dreamy emotions to overwhelm him in both the aesthetic and emotional realm—both the physical, outer world and the spiritual, inner world—and his body is helpless to resist the resultant thunderclap: “I die! I faint! I fail!”
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/shelley/section5.rhtml
http://www.online-literature.com/shelley_percy/660/
Friday, July 2, 2010
Dead Poets Society
Hopelessly riddled with paradoxes and contradictions, Peter Weir's Dead Poets Society is a numbingly conventional commercial formula picture that, incongruously, pretends to celebrate non-conformity. It's a film by the extraordinary Australian director Peter Weir (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, The Mosquito Coast, among others) that neatly trims its edges to safely and snugly into the Touchstone Pictures factory mold. The only thing surprising about this movie is that Weir has made something so bland and unadventurous.
Nevertheless, Dead Poets Society features Robin Williams' most convincing and restrained screen work -- effectively muting his compulsion to skip from one shtick to another, rather than limit himself to playing a single character -- even though those were the very anarchic impulses that made him a unique star in the first place. And, although Williams' name appears above the title, he's not really in it very much. So, another paradox: It's Williams' best movie work because he's the least like himself and he isn't onscreen long. Consequently, he doesn't have the opportunity to rip holes in the fabric of the movie with his familiarly distracting, manic attention-grabbing tricks.
Unfortunately, in the case of Dead Poets Society -- a sort of Stand and Deliver about wealthy, male, teenage Anglo-Saxons -- these paradoxes (except for the ones involving Williams) don't serve or enrich the movie, they just cause it to collapse upon itself.
Americans have traditionally maintained a romantic, love-hate relationship with the notion of nonconformity. Deep down, we each cherish an iconoclastic image of ourselves. American movies and literature are full of rebel heroes and heroines who reinforce that image, from Melville's Bartleby the scrivener and Hawthorne's Hester Prynne to Joseph Heller's Yossarian and John Irving's T.S. Garp. At the same time (as these characters attest), we sure do resent it when other people don't behave the way we think they ought to -- that is, "like everybody else."
"Carpe Diem, lads! Seize the day! Make your lives extraordinary!" new teacher John Keating (Williams) preaches to his pink-cheeked English lit students at Vermont's exclusive Welton Academy in the fall of 1959. Every school has (or ought to have) a John Keating. He's the outgoing, insurrectionary teacher who opposes the numbing, by-rote brainwashing methods of so much institutional book-learning and encourages his kids to follow their passions, to think for themselves -- his way, of course. When a stuffy introductory essay to a poetry anthology proposes a ridiculous method that reduces literature to a mathematical formula, whereby a poem's "greatness" quotient can supposedly be plotted on a graph, Keating denounces it as rubbish and commands his students to rip the introduction from the book.
He's fun. He cares. He half-jokingly (but only half-) tells the boys that literature was invented to woo girls. He does quicksilver impressions of John Wayne and Marlon Brando. He stands up on his desk -- to get a different point of view on things -- and tries to get his students to follow his example. When the kids dig up Keating's old school yearbook and find that their charismatic professor used to belong to a mysterious cult called the Dead Poets Society, he lets them in on the secret: It was a group of students who met in the ancient Indian caves nearby and read poetry -- their own as well as Walt Whitman's -- thereby causing girls to swoon. Keating makes poetry attractive to these boys by presenting it as an age-old seduction technique. (Well, the impulses behind Shakespeare's sonnets weren't all chaste.) Naturally, the younger generation chooses to emulate their idol.
An older, more experienced teacher questions whether 15- to 17-year-old kids are really ready yet to handle Keating's brand of freedom. "Gee, I never pegged you for a cynic," says Keating. "I'm not," says the other teacher. "I'm a realist." This smells like the set-up for a promising battle of philosophies, but Keating's sympathetic intellectual sparring partner promptly drops out of the movie, reappearing only occasionally and then as a mere background figure. (To a lesser extent, this is also what happens to Keating, who recedes after a couple of classroom scenes.)
So, the only forces opposing Keating's philosophy are rigid and towering ones, personified by Welton's stern, rigid, downright fossilized old headmaster, Mr. Nolan (Norman Lloyd), and the cruel, stubborn parent, Mr. Perry (Kurtwood Smith, who appears to be warming up here for his portrayal of Nazi war criminal Joseph Goebbles in an upcoming TV movie). "After you've finished medical school and you're on your own you can do as you damn well please!" the ruthless Mr. Perry lectures his son, one of Keating's prized students. "But until then, you do as I tell you to!" So, who are you going to root for -- cuddly bear Robin Williams or a couple of fascistic cold fish? The deck is as stacked as it can be.
And yet, in the end, the movie indicates (despite itself) that maybe the cynic/realist from early in the picture was indeed right, after all. Although there's a carefully placed scene in which Keating tries to make the distinction between unfettered self-expression and self-destructive behavior, the principles behind the re-formation of the Dead Poets Society eventually lead to catastrophe. It becomes clear that at least some of the boys really aren't emotionally equipped to incorporate into their own lives the kind of freedom and nonconformism that Keating is selling. Now here's an idea for a movie with provocative conflicts and ambiguities -- a well-meaning, influential teacher who unintentionally becomes the catalyst for tragedy by encouraging his ill-prepared students to fly, Icarus-like, too close to the sun. But you won't find that movie here.
The picture is really about the boys, who get most of the screen time. And each of them is given a character trait, more or less. Noel Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), the bright kid with the Darth Vader dad, decides he wants to be an actor, despite the rigid plans his father has for him. (A couple decades ago, "actor" in this context would have been Hollywood code for "homosexual.") Noel's roommate Todd (Ethan Hawke) is gonna be a writer, but right now he's too shy to express himself. Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen) is a fledgling beatnik who has a great passion for a local girl. And so on. The other guys aren't nearly as differentiated.
Luckily, director Weir does seem to have learned that the best way to use Robin Williams in a movie is ... sparingly. Either let him exhaust himself, and the audience, in an erratic flight of improvisation so that he bounces all over the place like a rapidly deflating balloon and then exits when he runs out of air; or keep him focused and down-to-earth so that he at least resembles a member of our species rather than some demented extraterrestrial mimic with a berserk radio receiver where his voice box ought to be.
For the first time since 1982's The World According to Garp, Williams plays a recognizably human character who operates within the confines of the movie rather than threatening to tear it apart from the inside to make room for his stand-up act. (The problem with Dead Poets Society is that the movie's generic strictures are too confining altogether.) Nor does he wallow embarrassingly in maudlin, Chaplinesque self-pity, begging the audience to have sympathy for poor, poor him, as he did so shamelessly in the syrupy Moscow on the Hudson and Good Morning, Vietnam.
The best thing about Williams/Keating's classroom technique is the way he analyzes his students until he can determine their needs and see through their defenses. Keating sizes up the boys' attitudes and problems and then openly teases the kids about them. In the process, he disarms them, helps defuse their hang-ups. And in these moments, we see what makes him a valuable teacher. But Keating's noble ideas about passion and beauty are stifled as much by the movie that contains him as by the school that employs him. The simpleminded, formulaic rigidity of Dead Poets Society is, in its own conservative, commercial way, almost as suffocating as the atmosphere at Welton Academy itself.
source:http://cinepad.com/reviews/deadpoets.htm
Thursday, July 1, 2010
WVSU: Towards a More Responsive Environmental Stewardship
Once as I strolled through the pathways of West Visayas State University, a pair of sparrows crossed my direction. With naïve chirping, they playfully chased each other unmindful of my presence. My eyes followed them as they continued their game out of the university gate and into the bustling street. Then a darkened cloud of smoke emitted from a vehicle approached their direction and triggered them to divert their courses to avoid the poisoned air. Driven by the desire to save their lives, they parted from each other and concluded the game.
The thoughts of the sparrows and their unkindly- ended amusement brought before my very own awareness the intensity of change in our environment. Considering how the conditions of the earth altered for the last few years, my thoughts flew along with the sparrows to view a future hasting into obscurity. And then it dawned upon me that an action must be done.
I am a student of West Visayas State University and thus, I cannot be ignorant of the downfall which currently threatens mother earth. The knowledge beheld unto me by my beloved institution is the very conscience which moves me into the field of action. However, the verity of my limitations as a learner dependent upon the hands of my supervisors provokes me from marching into battle unarmed. Therefore I must find a way that in my being a student, I may become a hero of the environment.
It is a fact that university students do carry upon their shoulders the weight of academic training. They are but in the process of sharpening their intellects and it cannot be denied that such procedure could crook their backs. Nevertheless, it must be noted by these progressing scholars that they are provided with not only knowledge but the very opportunities to practice such in their everyday lives.
In this regard, a WVSU student then must be aware of the role he plays as a constituent of his earthly environment. In addition to the fact that we are all taught in our classrooms to preserve and maintain the healthiness of our nature, West also grants us the challenge to implement this knowledge for the benefit of many.
What then can we do in order to present that WVSU students are not merely knowledgeable but more importantly wise when it comes to environmental stewardship? We must Mother Nature that even in the least of our ways; we aim to secure her welfare. However minute compared to voluminous advocacies, we must be proud to say that we practice proper waste disposal and promote a smoke- free campus. And more importantly we take part in restoring our forests by tree planting activities, among others. I believe that if we materialize these ideal philosophies, we will be able to make a difference.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step thus, for us to accomplish the goal of a perfectly well environment then we must do something. However, since we are not yet fully capable, let us resort to most that we can. If ever our most is but a least, then let us make so much of it that in the near future, what we did will be more than enough.
BALDER’S DEATH
Characters:
Balder (Baldur) - The most handsome of the gods was born to Frigg and Odin. He was named Balder (also known as Baldur). He was a god of truth and light. Balder was also knowledgeable in healing herbs and runes, which made him a favorite among the people of Midgard. Balder
Frigg- mother of Balder; wife of Odin
Odin- the king of the Norse gods
Loki- known as a trickster god. Sometimes he was mischievous, but he hadn't really been malicious.
Hod/ Hodur- Balder's blind brother; god of darkness
Hel- The goddess of death
Vali- slew his brother, the blind god Hod
Summary:
The most handsome of the gods was born to Frigg and Odin. He was named Balder (also known as Baldur). He was a god of truth and light. Balder was also knowledgeable in healing herbs and runes, which made him a favorite among the people of Midgard. Balder lived in a palace named Breidablik with his wife Nanna, a vegetation goddess. It was believed that no lie could pass through the walls of Breidablik, home of the god of truth, so when Balder started having frightening nightmares about his own demise, the other Aesir gods took them seriously. Unlike gods in other pantheons, the Norse gods were not immortal. They catalogued everything that might possibly because Balder harm, from weapons to diseases to creatures. With the list in hand, Balder'smother Frigg set out to exact assurances from everything in the nine worlds not to harm Balder. This wasn't hard because he was so universally loved.
Loki set off to the forest to get himself a branch of mistletoe. He then returned to the festivities at Gladsheim and sought out Balder's blind brother, Hod, god of darkness, who was in a corner because he couldn't aim and therefore couldn't participate in the test of Balder's invulnerability. Loki told Hod he would help him take aim and handed Hod a piece of apparently innocuous mistletoe to throw.
Hodur was grateful and accepted the offer, so Loki steered Hod's arm. Hod launched the branch, which caught Balder in the chest. Balder died instantly. The gods looked towards Hod and saw Loki beside him. Before they could do anything, Loki fled away.
Celebration turned to lamentation since the most beloved of the gods had died.
The goddess of death, Hel, promised that Balder could return to earth if every living creature shed tears of grief for Balder.
Loki disguised himself as the giantess Thok. As Thok, Loki was too indifferent to cry. And so, Balder could not return to the land of the living.
Source:
Myths of the World - Norse Gods and Heroes, by Morgan J. Roberts
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice
“From the first moment I met you, you made me realized that you’re the last man on Earth I could ever marry.” – Elizabeth Bennet
“Are you to proud Mr. Darcy? And would you consider pride a fault or a virtue?” -Elizabeth Bennet
“Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter. Do you think this union can be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth?” – Lady Catherine Bourg
“I... do not have the talent of conversing easily with people I have never met before.” – Mr. Darcy
“[On marriage] Is that really all you think about?” - Elizabeth
”When you have five daughters, Lizzie, tell me what else will occupy your thoughts, and then perhaps you will understand.” – Mrs. Bennet
Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in English literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. As in any good love story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks, beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers’ own personal qualities. Elizabeth’s pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression, while Darcy’s prejudice against Elizabeth’s poor social standing blinds him, for a time, to her many virtues.
Pride and Prejudice depicts a society in which a woman’s reputation is of the utmost importance. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways. Stepping outside the social norms makes her vulnerable to ostracism. This theme appears in the novel, when Elizabeth walks to Netherfield and arrives with muddy skirts, to the shock of the reputation-conscious Miss Bingley and her friends. At other points, the ill-mannered, ridiculous behavior of Mrs. Bennet gives her a bad reputation with the more refined (and snobbish) Darcys and Bingleys.
Through the Darcy-Elizabeth and Bingley-Jane marriages, Austen shows the power of love and happiness to overcome class boundaries and prejudices, thereby implying that such prejudices are hollow, unfeeling, and unproductive.
Marriage is the ultimate goal; courtship constitutes the real working-out of love. Courtship becomes a sort of forge of a person’s personality, and each courtship becomes a microcosm for different sorts of love
Nearly every scene in Pride and Prejudice takes place indoors and the action centers around the Bennet home in the small village of Longbourn. Nevertheless, journeys—even short ones—function repeatedly as catalysts for change in the novel. Elizabeth’s first journey, by which she intends simply to visit Charlotte and Mr. Collins, brings her into contact with Mr. Darcy, and leads to his first proposal. Her second journey takes her to Derby and Pemberley, where she fans the growing flame of her affection for Darcy. The third journey, meanwhile, sends various people in pursuit of Wickham and Lydia, and the journey ends with Darcy tracking them down and saving the Bennet family honor, in the process demonstrating his continued devotion to Elizabeth.
To Sir, with Love Edward Ricardo Braithwaite
To Sir, with Love
Edward Ricardo Braithwaite
“To Sir, with Love” is a story based on the experience of the writer, Edward Ricardo Braithwaite. He is a Negro who proves to be a man of Christian action in the most unbelievably trying circumstances.
E.R. Braithwaite holds a degree on Communication Engineering on
One day in a park, a man approached him and advised him that a great city is always a battlefield and he must be a fighter. The old man advised him to get a job as a teacher because education authorities were not bothered about the color of the people’s skin. And it was a decision forced Braithwaite by the very urgent need to eat.
There he met a hostile group, 40 tough teenagers who formed senior grade in East London’s Greenslade School, and their language were as course as their behavior.
Of course, it was not an easy job for Braithwaite to get the attention of those students easily. Besides he doesn’t even have any experience in teaching. But two explosive incidents- one involving a girl student, the other a boy- marked a turning point in Braithwaite’s relationship with the class. And because of what had happened, the students were touched and were inspired to become a better individual. The students realized that the role of a teacher is not only on to teach Science, History, Mathematics, etc. but also beyond the four corners of the room. It is also about teaching moral values that is more applicable to one’s life.
Along the way, Braithwaite also realized that teaching is not only a job for him but also his life.
One day, he had realized that his tough students were dispersing like feathers in the four winds and now ready to face another chapter of their lives and pursue their dreams.
Before the school year ends, those tough students gave a simple gift to their professor, Mr. Braithwaite and were signed by all of the students. There Braithwaite felt acceptance despite the color of his skin.
The novel really set as my inspiration in life. Why? Because Braithwaite came to the point of his life where he almost loses his hopes in facing a lot of challenges/ obstacles in life yet he remained to be a fighter in a great battlefield. And through this novel, we would be aware that racial prejudice exists since then. As a future educator, I was really amazed by his patience in handling those tough students. And I appreciate the course I’ve chosen more. Through this, my perception about a teacher widens and inspired me to become a better educator, touching a lot of the students’ lives despite the color of my skin and my imperfections.
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