Some Words...

...From Mr. Walt Whitman

In one of my American Literature classes, we read a little bit of Walt Whitman's work. I'm not yet a big fan, but I do like this bit of his poetry. We read it and I got goosebumps...

"Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body........The poet shall not spend his time in unneeded work. He shall know that the ground is always ready ploughed and manured....others may not know it but he shall. He shall go directly to the creation. His trust shall master the trust of everything he touches....and shall master all attachment. The known universe has one complete lover and that is the greatest poet."

This little excerpt is from Leaves of Grass, it was pretty much his life's work. From what I've read, he lived in poverty all of his life, and it makes me wonder if that could be what made him such a great poet. He saw the beauty in everything and cared not what everyone else thought. He was rejected on many occasions, but believed in what he was writing.

Money might have ruined this man, if it had the chance.

He really was not even recognized as a great poet until long after his death. Even in the 1800's, the almighty dollar could take away our God-given ability to enjoy what is around us. Walt Whitman said no. In my opinion, that makes him one of the greatest poets of his time, though not many saw it.

If we want to be poets, we must be lovers of life.

Who is the greatest poet? Jesus Christ.

A Little Story...

Did God create everything that exists?
Dose evil exist?
Did God create evil?

A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question.
"Did God create everything that exists?"
A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"
"God created everything?" The professor asked.
"Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.
The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God Created evil.
And, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."
The student became quiet and did not respond to the professor's hypothetical definition.

The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students
that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, "May I ask you a question, professor?" "Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, dose cold exist?"
"What
kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been
cold?" The other students snickered at the young man's question. The
young man replied, "In fact sir, cold dose not exist. According to the
laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of
heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or
transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or
transmit energy.
Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat;
and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that
temperature. Cold dose not exist.
We have created this word to describe how we feel is we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, dose darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it dose."
The
student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness dose not
exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light.
Light we can study, but not darkness.
In
fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors
and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure
darkness.
A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, dose evil exist?"
Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course; as I have already said.
We see it everyday.
It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man.
It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world.
These manifestations are nothing else but evil.
To this the student replied, "Evil dose not exist, sir, or at least Evil is simply the absence of God.
It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.
God did not create evil.
Evil is the result of what happens when man dose not have God's love present in his heart.
It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light"

The professor sat down.

The young man's name -- Albert Einstein

A Semester In Review...A Life Short-Lived

So it's almost over...a semester of Connor's State College. I have a few regrets, but I can't be sure that they're truly regrets until after I get my final grades. It wasn't as ridiculously easy as I thought it would be. I was challenged a couple times and even had to defend what I believe in once or twice. Oddly enough, I did most of my belief defending in the class I enjoyed the most and made the best grades in. Mr. Stauffer is a stubborn man and I pray that someday he will see that someone created us and allows us to live on this ball of chemicals we call Earth, and that eternal life is real and is something we all are born with and are made to choose where we will spend that life. Mrs. Wimber is also in need of a reality check, but not of a religious kind. I made it through a whole semester with her and found that she's not a very kind woman. Sometimes it seems that she doesn't want us to pass her class just so she can see us again and call us stupid...maybe not, but she's quite cruel either way and my poor girlfriend has to take the same class next semester. Who knows, she may be the one to put her in her place...someone needs to. I sold all of my books, except one, back today. I don't know if you've ever experienced this feeling, but I firmly believe that everyone should before they die. I'll break it down for you. You hate books, they love books. You don't want the book, they do. You would give the book away without thinking twice, they want to pay for it. You win.

There's one person I graduated with that didn't go to college, and I've found myself thinking a lot about Mellisa lately. I don't know exactly why, but I have and I miss her a lot. I think about her every time I hear "May Angels Lead You In" by Jimmy Eat World. We weren't as close as wish we could have been, but we were close. I wanted to post something on her Myspace page the other day and realized that I never had the chance to add her as a friend...so I couldn't. I didn't make a Myspace until a long time after she passed. So, I suppose I'll do the next best thing and write something here...

Dear Melissa, I miss you. It seems like just the other day I was sitting there in band watching you mess around with the rest of the percussion section, yelling at Ken like you always did. I don't know how many chances I had to talk to you more and learn more about what a special person you were, but I regret not taking every last one of them. I love how you always spoke your mind and never cared what someone might say back, it didn't matter anyway...you were right, they wrong...always. A lot of people never really gave you a chance to be a friend at all. I'm glad I wasn't like that, and I'm sure they wish there weren't. I remember all the times I'd come to "the spot" after lunch to find you playing your guitar, like always. You were pretty good ya know? You had a talent for music that not many could match. You used to write me notes in Ms. Stratton's English class...ya, Ordeal By Sea really was kinda lame. Talking to you about religion and whatever we could think of was much more interesting. We must have done that almost every day that year, and we never got caught...or maybe Ms. Stratton just knew we'd pass the tests anyway. I'm going to find some of those notes later... I remember one in particular where you told me that you liked me, and I guess we never really were the same after that. I'm sorry for that. I should've just been honest and told you that I didn't have the same feelings. Maybe then we could've still talked as much as we used to. It's one of many regrets I have, but it's alright, someday I'll speak to you again and make things right. You always were a little competitive and in my opinion you were more likely to beat me for drum major than Matt was. People liked you and would listen to you if you told them what to do, that was an edge we shared. Band camp just wasn't right without you that summer. I went mostly to show that we could get past your death and have a good season, it was an example that I hoped to set. We did have a good season, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We were strong in percussion, but it wasn't a Mellisa Reed percussion section. Nobody played your snare that year, nobody tried. They knew we'd be willing to shoot them on sight if they looked at it wrong. I didn't get my wish, we didn't put it on the sideline for the halftime show...but I know you were watching, and I hope you were proud. Until we jam in heaven, I'll always miss you Mellisa. Band nerds for life...

-Curt

I drive by the place where Alex, Luke, and I wrecked all the time. It's a constant reminder that life is fragile and should be treated that way. What happened to Mellisa was not fair by any means. If you don't know her and didn't have the chance of being touched by her life, than I hope that her death will at least be a reminder to you that we don't get to decide when our lives end. Always remember that life is short and you should make the most of it.

Take a chance. Do something worth remembering. Live like Mellisa did.

Mellisa Dawn Reed



May Angels Lead You In...