Heroes and Mystics 2024

     This semester I am also taking the Intro to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies class. Earlier in the semester we had a reading from the book titled Gender and Women's Studies  edited by Margaret Hobbs and Carla Rice. Our reading was specifically Chapter 10: The Question of Gender, written by Raewyn Connell and Rebecca Pearse. This article discusses gender and gender codes in society and talks about the way gender is developed, both internally and externally.       There is one statement from the article that stuck out to me as relating to this class. It states, "Being a man or a women, then, is not a pre-determined state. It is a becoming , a condition actively under construction." A little while back we were having a class discussion where this same term was used, a "becoming." We as humans are always in a state of becoming, especially within our interior and exterior journeys. On interior journeys and hero's journeys, an individual is t...

     One of my favorite shows right now is Once Upon a Time , a show that combines many of the fairy tales and Disney characters we all know and creates a new story with them all. Basically, a curse befalls the fairy tale characters and transports them to a town in the real world, where they do not remember who or what they are and time does not move. However, Snow White's daughter, Emma, is prophesized to be the savior. The show has seven seasons, though I have only watched two and a half thus far. The curse has been broken but the characters are still stranded in the real world. While watching an episode last night, I realized there are several points and ideas that relate to class. Including interior and exterior journeys and the second self.      Firstly, this show has many plot points each episode. It is a very fast paced show, and it manages to focus on each individual character. Being fairy tale characters, there are many physical journeys that manif...

 Hi all! I attended the event "Nurturing Mental Health through Nature" and I thought I would share some major takeaways/things I have been thinking about or reflecting on: 1. What even is nature? Dr Redick talks about this a lot and I find myself thinking about it often. Typically in everyday conversation, we refer to nature as being outside or maybe the wilderness. Its so interesting to think about the invisible boundaries we create between nature and more urban areas. For example, that somehow laying on the Great Lawn isn't really being in nature, but walking the Nolan Trail is? It's so odd the mental and physical barriers we make. This goes for the concept of natural. We think of buildings are not being natural but the example of a beaver creating a dam was given at the panel. Anyway...I just think about this a lot now.  2. "If you want to be happy do what happy people do" and routine This was such a mind blowing thought for me when I heard it. That expe...

      In class today we had a short discussion on different types of love. The discussion started on the different words for love in the Spanish language, and I do not completely remember how this topic came up. However, after discussing the different words for love in Spanish, we talked about when they are used and what situations each word is appropriate for. Then, we talked about the different words for love in Greek, and the situations that they are used in. I found this discussion interesting, and it brought up a few questions for myself.      We know there are many different words in each language meaning love. However, I have always wondered where these words came from. Who made them? Furthermore, who decided what each one meant and the situations they were appropriate for? Likely, it was just societal trends that developed and eventually became the normal. However, it is still interesting to think about. At some point it was decided when each word t...

 For my second essay, I wrote about Saint Teresa of Ávila. I think that  Saint Teresa of Avila's diary is a rich reflection of her inner journey toward spiritual growth and union with God.  It serves as a profound testament to the transformative power of prayer, contemplation, and divine grace. The book shows how her soul was transformed and embraced with prayer, changing her perception of love through the manifestation of God. 

  Today I learned that even something that simple as breathing and transpiration can be a big element for someone’s inner journey. I liked how Dr. Redick talked about how these help to see the invisible. In the invisible you start seeing things that you never imagine you will notice. There visible becomes saturated by the invisible, giving inspiration (not direct citation).  

      One of my favorite hobbies is to play dungeons and dragons. This game is a tabletop roleplaying game that involves creating characters, going on adventures, and fighting enemies. As an actor and fantasy fan, this game very much fits into all of my interests. I also noticed that it can be related to class. One of the main goals of the game is adventuring, which is a type of journey. Fantasy journeys often do fit into the monomyth of the hero's journey. There is normally a call to adventure, a physical journey, and a return. The same is true for dungeons and dragons. Players have the ability to create their own journey with their characters within the world of the game. Furthermore, characters often have interior journeys that are created by the players, and they are transformed by the end of the campaign.      Within the game, information is given and decisions are made based on the roll of a dice. This can represent a fate or destiny element that pres...

     Greek tragedy is a very unique genre. Often the stories take place in a mythological version of Ancient Greece, often in an earlier time period than the play was written. Greek tragedy relates to class in two ways. First, each play showcases a journey, often an exterior heroes journey, but sometimes interior journeys as well. Second, gods are portrayed as divine beings who are not actually physically in the story but are instead watching the story and can sway the outcome depending on if they are given prayers and offerings. This relates to the movie we have been watching in class. The gods are similar to the angels in the film: they watch the humans and hear the thoughts and feelings, but they are not actually in the story. I have read many Greek tragedies so far in my classes this year. There are two I believe relate the most to these ideas: Aeschylus' Oresteia and Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound     In the Oresteia , a trilogy, Agamemnon returns home from th...

      Recently, I have been reading the Heartstopper graphic novels along with the other novels written by the author, Alice Oseman, and I believe that some of the themes can be connected to this class. The main focus of the series is on identity, love, and mental health. All three of these themes are interior journeys undertaken by an individual.      Starting with identity. I would say that the central theme of the series, undertaken by most, if not all, characters, is finding their individual identities. As a series that focuses on providing LGBTQ+ representation in a ordinary manner, many identities are represented, including gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, pansexual, asexual, aromantic, and many more. When the series starts, some characters know who they are already, but others have to undertake the journey to discover themself. For example, Nick Nelson, one of the series' main characters, believes himself to be heterosexual until he meets Charli...

  While discussing Wings of Desire in class recently, we discussed the idea some Biblical scholars have posed that angels were around before God created Heaven and Earth. I thought this related well to a T.V. show I really love: Good Omens, which is based on the book by Neil Gaiman. This show is very similar to Wings of Desire, as the premise of the show revolves around the lives of angels in modern-day England. The show sees angels as very “human” people, with wants, needs, and feelings, which is an interesting contrast to Wings of Desire. However, the show poses the idea that the two main characters, Crowley and Aziraphale, were actually the angels who helped God create the entire universe, agreeing with the idea that angels were “alive” before the creation of Heaven and Earth. I thought this was an interesting connection, as the show is not particularly religious or biblical, however, there are clearly some connections to philosophical thought revolving around the Bible.

  While reading the Decameron for my Later Middle Ages history class, I was struck by the fact that many of the themes we’ve discussed in class surrounding trauma and purification are prevalent in this story. The Decameron was written around the time of the Black Death in Italy, where about a third of the population died and social life as medieval people knew it was completely upended. This work is a fictional work that depicts many people fleeing from Italy during the plague to the countryside, where they tell stories and are merry while avoiding the rampant death they were facing. The people in this work often participate in purification rituals, usually in the form of bathing. Additionally, people going on pilgrimages to nature, which is where the people in the story flee to, was viewed as entering a liminal space. Because many medieval people did not know much of the world outside of their villages or cities, entering a new, unsettled natural environment was viewed as being in...

  We talked last week about the concept of the “flow state,” and how the self can be emptied from the body, and all self-awareness flies out the window, especially in the context of repetitive actions. This reminded me of how I would feel when I used to compete in colorguard and competitive dance. After a certain amount of repetition of our number, I would be able to perform the show without thinking twice about it. However, in this context, I actually disagree with the notion that the self is emptied during this kind of flow state. I think performing actually encourages self-expression, and therefore, the self cannot entirely be emptied during a flow state. If anything, I think entering this kind of flow state may be one of the best ways to discover oneself. 

  In class recently we have been discussing Parmenides’s idea of monism and the question of whether or not the void or a space between two things counts as something that exists or does not exist. I think this is a very interesting concept, and it invoked a discussion I used to have at my workplace regarding a similar question. Many of us at this coffee shop would argue over whether ordering “nothing” in one’s coffee meant one was ordering “something,” with the “something” in fact being “nothing.” It is a difficult question to write out rather than orally ask, but the example we often gave was a person walking up to the register and the conversation going like this: “One large coffee please,” “Okay, would you like anything in your coffee?” “no, I want nothing in my coffee.” We would use this conversation to pose the question: “Does ordering “nothing” in your coffee imply that the “nothing” is in fact a “thing” you can have in your coffee?” I think this relates to the discussion we ...

   After completing the first topical essay about the Hero's Journey and the stages I was amazed at how these stages are used not only in ancient stories like Homer's Odyssey, but this template is still used today in many modern shows and movies. Completing this essay I specifically looked at the Disney movies, Hercules, Mulan, and Princess and the Frog. I observed the stages of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey among these movies and found that at the core of each movie is an ancient myth. These Disney movies and many modern-day movies are appropriated versions of the original myth. 

> Monism is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as;   a theory or  doctrine that denies  the existence of a distinction or duality  in some sphere, such as that between matter and mind, or God and the world. The idea that there is one supreme Being.  >  Parmenides -  The unthinkable --> You can't think of the unthinkable, the unthinkable is nothing ("Nothing" doesn't exist)    "Wings of Desire" a German Film  Point of View from Angels (In black and white)  Angels have no beginning or end --> they are outside of time  Angels are observers of human life 

 I am just reflecting on a thought that I had while writing my exploratory essay yesterday. Maybe it's not as ground breaking as I think it is, or maybe it's something interesting to think about. I'm not sure. I was thinking about the journey of our lives and how many of us spend a lot of time and energy trying to find happiness. We often think about our life's journey as the road to happiness, or that happiness is a destination we are trying to reach.  However, as I was writing my essay, I realized that if we spend our whole lives searching for happiness, we are making the assumption that we don't currently feel happy or that we are unable to in our current situation. Therefore, we spend our whole lives looking for something that we can only have in the present. So I suggest that life is not a journey towards happiness, but rather a journey of acceptance and appreciation. To "find" happiness, we must accept who we are, where we are, and the life that was ...