Thoughts on Ferguson

I do not want to talk about the Michael Brown case in this post. I feel as if I do not have nearly enough information to be able to discuss it at all, outside of the racial injustice piece. Even then it might be best for me not to speak on it, as I am white. However, I do want to talk about the protests going on because of it.

Thinking about this whole thing brings me such immense pain. I hate the idea of how much people of color are hurting right now. It pains me to realize that we are still living in a world of racism. But I think this issue brings such an important reminder that this is still going on. As a white individuals, we do not have to even think about racial injustice. It doesn't happen to us. But that is absolutely no excuse to pretend that it doesn't exist. This issue is still very much alive. As unbelievable as it sounds, the KKK are still active. African Americans are arrested at six times the rate that whites are. We are among China, Brazil, and Mexico who are fighting against corrupt governments. America is held up to be one of the greatest nations in the world. Can you really still say that?

Is he really crazy?

It was very strange to me to be confronted with Hamlet's madness this week. Inside the text, I feel that Hamlet's words and actions are entirely justified. While many of them are not right, they are at least justified. All of his witty comebacks seem to be simply coming from a very intelligent mind that resents having to associate with lower beings. Perhaps even the real hurt and betrayal he feels towards his uncle and mother. But Hamlet's actions towards Ophelia right before the play, are ones that I simply cannot account for outside of madness. They are unfounded and the exact opposite of what he has told her in every other encounter they have had. I cannot make sense of it.

However this madness is suggested in every enactment of the play I have seen. It is startling to see the interpretation that this man is truly mad throughout. When we watched the film version with David Tennant, it was the first real enactment I had seen. While he performed it incredibly well in my opinion, it was just jarring for me. I'm not sure how to proceed with this revelation, especially as he seems to be slipping more into madness by the scene. We shall just have to see.

Family.

It is becoming more and more apparent to me that I have a very unique relationship with my family. As we trudge on through november, it seems that even parents have been on edge. It might just be in response to frustrated students, but I'm inclined to believe otherwise. I've been the quiet listener to quite a few rants regarding parents this week. I heard about numerous silly arguments that have boiled down to "I'm your parent, I get to decide. That's final."

I feel very blessed that I have a relationship with my parents (well at least my mother) that they are willing to sit down and have a reasonable discussion with me. It seems that other people don't have this relationship with their parents. It feels as though many teens don't have a mutual respect established with their parent. It is just very odd to me that the stereotypical teenager/parent relationship is very much a real thing, and that it is actually very prevalent. Just some food for thought this week.

A Play Within a Play? How Meta!

I would like to take a moment this week and talk about the play within a play contained in Hamlet. I think that Shakespeare employed a great plot device. It was tremendously clever, and I've seen it used so many other places. It's nice to know where all of these things come from. Especially the "The lady doth protest to much me thinks". That was also great. I would also like to take a moment to trumpet Adventure Time for having so many literature parallels. They employ a wonderful reference in the episode "Ignition Point".

In this episode, Finn and Jake venture off to the Flame Kingdom in order to retrieve Flame Princess' scented candles. While they are there, they get mixed up in in a plot to kill Flame King. They decide to take over the night's play and go on stage pretending to be the king's assassins. They watch the audience to try and discover who the real assassins are. However, before they manage to find them, the King has them captured. Finn and Jake then tell him that they overheard the assassins and their plot. It is then revealed that the guards holding the boys are the actual assassins,
and they are the King's nephews. They swear revenge on the Flame King for killing their father and taking the thrown.

It has been so enjoyable to find all of these older literature ideas represented in contemporary entertainment. It really solidifies the idea that it's hard to come up with new ideas nowadays. This frustrates me, but it also encourages me in that as long as you can spin something a new way creatively enough, that it doesn't really seem to matter that you're using and old idea.

Skills USA leadership

I was chosen to represent my school at the Fall Leadership Conference for Skills USA Nevada this weekend. I usually enjoy attending these conferences. They're a lot of fun. I get to meet new people, get some helpful information on how to be a better leader. But this year's conference felt like a mess.

One issue I had with the conference was how they decided to run workshops. These workshops split the large group into many smaller groups and offer short lessons on things like how to effectively run social media for a group, or even how to give better directions. However, instead of signing up for workshops ahead of time, you simply showed up at a workshop. This posed a problem, considering there were 300 of us. Each workshop had a limited amount of people that could attend, and once capacity was met, you were out of luck. That left a few people wandering around, trying to find a workshop when many of them were already full. We were never even given descriptions on what these sessions were about. We simply had to pick based off of the Disney song title that each session was given (the theme for the week was Disney. Leaders land, disneyland, get it?). I have an issue with this because as this is a conference intended to make us better leaders in our Skills Chapters and in our communities, I think that I should be able to attend the workshop that would most benefit me. It felt as though they treated these sessions as a time filler that just needed to be accomplished rather than something helpful that they were offering us. This was particularly frustrating, considering that they did take up a considerable amount of time, and it was entirely possible to get stuck in a boring session that didn't apply to you.

In years past this conference had been well organized and overall helpful to me as a leader. This year really fell short of the bar for me. It was disappointing, considering that it was the last one I would be able to attend. I hope that in future years they can get themselves together, because I truly believe that this kind of event can be a great benefit to students.   

Hamlet!

Oh, my gosh. Hamlet is amazing! I'm so excited that we started it this week. I love the language and all of the sass that Hamlet is throwing down. I am in the perfect mood for reading this play. While it deals with some dark subjects (cough death, suicide cough) the darkness seems to go well with the stress of November. I feel like Hamlet's unrelenting sass is my constant attitude right now. He seems like such a moody teenager. I was very confused when I was informed that Hamlet was actually 30 years old. It seems very odd that a thirty year old man would be so grumpy and moody, not to mention still in college. It's also very interesting that he would still be at odds with his parents at this age. That always struck me as a thing that one would experience in their teens, but once they moved out and away from their parents, the resent would lessen. That is what usually happens, at least in current times. I have found in my experience, that twenty-somethings usually find at least some appreciation for their parents, or the teenage sass and angst dilutes as they grow older and more mature.

Perhaps Hamlet's reaction is reasonable. His mother did remarry very quickly, to her former brother-in-law. Hamlet is very outspoken in his rejection of this new marriage, even calling it incestious (I wasn't aware that this was frowned upon, I actually thought this was the custom so that the widowed woman was still taken care of). His uncle has also taken his thrown, although I'm not sure how much Hamlet wants it in the first place, and brutally insults him infront of the court. If I were still grieving the loss of my father, I might be inclined to be very sassy as well. 

Bereft by Robert Frost

It's strange to say that such a sad poem was refreshing to read. But that is the only word I can find to describe my feelings towards it. Frost's imagery is what gets to me the most in this poem. His description of changing seasons evoked a powerful emotional response from me, a sort of identification with the speakers feelings. I'm a little startled, because I cannot say exactly where this identification comes from. Perhaps this poem is simply cathartic for me. I can feel the deep sorrow that is within it. However I still find a strange beauty in it. I especially enjoy the lines "What would it take my standing there for, Holding open a restive door. Looking down hill to a frothy shore". These lines really solidify the image for me. I imagine the speaker staring down at the shore, with the door trying to push him/her out of the way. I imagine their countenance to be one of pure awe at this terrifyingly beautiful scene.

The last four lines of the poem were also especially impactful for me. "Word I was in the house alone/Somehow must have gotten abroad,/Word I was in my life alone/Word I had no one left but God." Frost's imagery of this empty house reminds me of the song Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men.

I don't like walking around this old and empty house
So hold my hand, I'll walk with you, my dear
The stairs creak as you sleep, it's keeping me awake
It's the house telling you to close your eyes

This song is about the speaker, who has recently lost her husband. There are many references in the song to how creepy the house is without him, even with creeks dispersed throughout the song. The eeriness of that song is what I imagine when I read Frost's poem. I believe the speakers of both have experienced something very similar, some great loss in their lives. I imagine that they might even get along. 

In this autumn season, I can't help but identify with the darkness and sorrow that both pieces convey. I feel as if all three of us are struggling to get out of bed each morning, with the weight of the entire world on their shoulders.