In Earthbound, by Bell Hooks talks about how the Kentucky hills were the place of her early childhood. She was surrounded by a wilderness of honeysuckle, wild asparagus and sheltering trees, bushes shielding growing crops, and the huge garden of a black landowner. The main topic disscussed in this essay is nature. Hooks was taught about the power of nature by farmers that wilderness land, the untamed environment, can give life and it can take life. The quote at the end of the paragraph explains mainly what the topic of nature is about, being disscussed by Bell Hooks. "Humility in relationship to nature's power made survival possible." This transitions into the next topic of equality. Equality focuses of slavery and how bad the blacks, which originated from the agrarian south, had it in Kentucky. "Working the land was the hope of survival". This gave the blacks the hopw that they would survive, however Hooks arguement is that we are all equals and we will all die eventually. She then goes on to talk about how in the country there is no discrimination and everyone is the same. This reminds me of what life is like today. Yes, some people are still a little racist, but they have no power or control anymore. What if life was still separated into black and white? I know that I would be affected by this. Three of my siblings are half black and I don't know what I would do without them. Things have changed a lot since Bell Hooks was growing up in Kentucky, and I for one am very happy about that.
In Kentucky, they are all about nature. "Maintaining intimacy gives us a concrete place of hope. It is nature that reminds us time and again the 'this too will pass'". The state of Kentucky has the luxury of having beautiful trees and hilly waterfalls, and being surrounded by all this nature, but some states just don't have that. And other states like to look at nature in a whole different perspective, which is something Bell Hooks cannot grasp the concept of. She thinks that urban cities have destroyed nature, but in reality they are just using the nature to fit their lifestyles. If people that live in the country didn't have the city it would be hard for them to survive, so for Bell Hooks so be so upset is unbelievable. I enjoy nature as much as the next person, but it's nice to live in the city where that can make and produce the supplies that help me survive. When the topic of pollution was brought up, I wanted to laugh. This comes back to the obnoxious topic of Global Warming. Honestly, I believe that there is no such thing, and I don't think Hooks knows what she's talking about when she says that she is disgusted by the amount of pollution that cities are bring into nature. Hooks believes that to live in a communion with the earth, surrounded by all its nature, it is a practice of spiritual mindfulness that heals a restores.
"We create and sustain environments where we can come back to ourselves, where we can reture home. Stand on solid ground and be a true witness." This ending quote puts into perspective what Bell Brooks is trying to get across in her essay, which is that she loves her home and the nature that surrounds it.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Becoming Metis
"To learn who I am today, on this land I live on, I've had to recover that heritage and realize a multicultural self."
In this section, Melissa Nelson is talking about growing up i America, you encouter many multicultural individuals. In the quote above, Nelson is talking about how she needs to learn about her past in order to figure out who she is today. The challenge Melissa Nelson was faced with was to find her authentic voice as a mixed-blood person who has both Native American and European ancestry. She knows that her mother is Native American and her father is European, so she knows that she is considered multicultural, however, she does not know much about where she came from. In her journey of discovering her past, she found out that the reservation where her mother was born and raised is called the "Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians". After discovering a little where she came from, Melissa Nelson is now concerned with learning how to honor all parts of herself, including the spiritual traditions of her mothers ancestors, as well as the traditional knowledge of her European ancestors. All of this wondering brings us back to the quote, where Melissa Nelson is saying that in order to discover who she is and where she lives, she has to know about her multiculltural backround. Nelson illustrates her point to the reader extremely well by sharing the information she recieved about her past ancestors and how she now understands who she is as a person. She explained that while exploring what her multicultural self is, she found herself "swimming through a sea of racial beliefs-full-blood Indian, pure full-blood European; tained mixed-blood, diluted soul." Melissa Nelson took the time to look into her past history and discover herself as a multicultural individual.
In this section, Melissa Nelson is talking about growing up i America, you encouter many multicultural individuals. In the quote above, Nelson is talking about how she needs to learn about her past in order to figure out who she is today. The challenge Melissa Nelson was faced with was to find her authentic voice as a mixed-blood person who has both Native American and European ancestry. She knows that her mother is Native American and her father is European, so she knows that she is considered multicultural, however, she does not know much about where she came from. In her journey of discovering her past, she found out that the reservation where her mother was born and raised is called the "Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians". After discovering a little where she came from, Melissa Nelson is now concerned with learning how to honor all parts of herself, including the spiritual traditions of her mothers ancestors, as well as the traditional knowledge of her European ancestors. All of this wondering brings us back to the quote, where Melissa Nelson is saying that in order to discover who she is and where she lives, she has to know about her multiculltural backround. Nelson illustrates her point to the reader extremely well by sharing the information she recieved about her past ancestors and how she now understands who she is as a person. She explained that while exploring what her multicultural self is, she found herself "swimming through a sea of racial beliefs-full-blood Indian, pure full-blood European; tained mixed-blood, diluted soul." Melissa Nelson took the time to look into her past history and discover herself as a multicultural individual.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
What Is History?
"Is it a collection of facts, all true and precise details, and, if so, when I come across these true and precise details, what should I do, how should I feel, where should I place myself?" Jamaica Kincaid asks a lot of questions in her essay, In History. The big question being asked is, what is history? According to Kincaid, her history began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. Although Kincaid belives that the discovery of the new world was the beginning, she still questions if that was the start of her history since she had not made an appearance yet. "I am not a part of this man's consciousness, he does not know of me, I do not have a name." Kincaid makes a valid point, if her life on this earth has not yet begun, has her history started yet? The arguement she is faced with is that if Columbus did not discover the New World, would she be alive now? I'm not sure I can give her an answer to this, but I do believe her history began in 1492. Jamaica Kincaid came to the conclusion that history is the backbone to what made us, and America who we are today. History is very important to our culture because without it we may not be alive and it does matter who is telling the story because it may be different from person to person. Other families or countries may have a different history, so it is important to learn where they came fromand what they stand for.
Landscaping was talked about by Jamaica Kincaid when the topic of Christopher Columbus was introduced. Columbus claims he discovered the New World, but when he traveled there he had thought he was in China and people were already settled where he had "claimed" his territory. When he arrived to the New World he talked about how different the landscape was and how he wanted to prove that the world was round, and that he did not just fall off a sharp cliff into nothing. He saw the New World as blank and he took it among himself to name places, people, and things. Was this blankness the beginning of history? Christopher Columbus took unknown things and gave them names and thats how history began. The history, landscape and naming are all joined together in this essay because they all have to do with the start of history and the New World.
Creative Challenge:
I can remember learning about how Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered America in the third grade when I was eight by Ms. Gladwin. I remember her showing us a flat map and a globe telling us that people used to believe, for a long time, that the world was flat, but they then later discovered that it was round. Ms. Gladwin also showed my class a map of the United States and how Massachusetts had a little curve at the tip, called Cape Cod. I think when I was in the fourth grade my teacher, Ms. Nardone, gave us an assingnment on Melrose where we had to take pictures on what we encountered on our way home from school. I learned a lot about Melrose, but mostly only about the are around my neighborhood. I learned that my school was exactly 4 minutes from my house and that my school, Herbert Clark Hoover Elementary School, was neamed after a president.
The world was a very mysterious place to me when i was little. I was not sure where the center of the world was, I would just point to the center of the globe and call that the center of the world. I knew that the world was round but I thought that if I just kept digging when I was at the beach I would reach China. When I would draw the world, I just made a circle and color in blue and green. My state looks like a rectangle with a little hook on it, and that's how I would represent it. The only geographical place i new of in Massachusetts was Boston and all of the buildings and bright lights. In my neighborhood the biggest landmark was the Common Park because it's where I would play and spend most of my time after school. In the US the biggest landmark i knew of was Washington DC and the White House, which I thought was located across the US next to California. I remember learning about the White House and singing the songs about all of the presidents, along with the song about all of the states.
As I grew up I learned that the most important state, Washington DC was located just a few states away, and that there were a lot more cities in Massachusetts other than Melrose. I never did learn where the center of the universe was located, but I'm sure one day I will figure it out. I still draw the earth with green and blue, but now I can add more details about the continents and states. This relates to Jamaica Kincaid because we were both in the same place with not being present when the New World was discovered. I had always wondered why things were called what they were (ex. trees) and how we got onto the Earth, I just didn't think too much into as Kincaid did. We both understood why history was important, we just did not know where history began. If I were to re-write my history, I would want to start from my beginning, but I can't because nobody would be able to tell my story. I need to know the history of how I got to where I am today in order to continue on with the story of my history. I know now that history is important and it makes us who we are today.
Landscaping was talked about by Jamaica Kincaid when the topic of Christopher Columbus was introduced. Columbus claims he discovered the New World, but when he traveled there he had thought he was in China and people were already settled where he had "claimed" his territory. When he arrived to the New World he talked about how different the landscape was and how he wanted to prove that the world was round, and that he did not just fall off a sharp cliff into nothing. He saw the New World as blank and he took it among himself to name places, people, and things. Was this blankness the beginning of history? Christopher Columbus took unknown things and gave them names and thats how history began. The history, landscape and naming are all joined together in this essay because they all have to do with the start of history and the New World.
Creative Challenge:
I can remember learning about how Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered America in the third grade when I was eight by Ms. Gladwin. I remember her showing us a flat map and a globe telling us that people used to believe, for a long time, that the world was flat, but they then later discovered that it was round. Ms. Gladwin also showed my class a map of the United States and how Massachusetts had a little curve at the tip, called Cape Cod. I think when I was in the fourth grade my teacher, Ms. Nardone, gave us an assingnment on Melrose where we had to take pictures on what we encountered on our way home from school. I learned a lot about Melrose, but mostly only about the are around my neighborhood. I learned that my school was exactly 4 minutes from my house and that my school, Herbert Clark Hoover Elementary School, was neamed after a president.
The world was a very mysterious place to me when i was little. I was not sure where the center of the world was, I would just point to the center of the globe and call that the center of the world. I knew that the world was round but I thought that if I just kept digging when I was at the beach I would reach China. When I would draw the world, I just made a circle and color in blue and green. My state looks like a rectangle with a little hook on it, and that's how I would represent it. The only geographical place i new of in Massachusetts was Boston and all of the buildings and bright lights. In my neighborhood the biggest landmark was the Common Park because it's where I would play and spend most of my time after school. In the US the biggest landmark i knew of was Washington DC and the White House, which I thought was located across the US next to California. I remember learning about the White House and singing the songs about all of the presidents, along with the song about all of the states.
As I grew up I learned that the most important state, Washington DC was located just a few states away, and that there were a lot more cities in Massachusetts other than Melrose. I never did learn where the center of the universe was located, but I'm sure one day I will figure it out. I still draw the earth with green and blue, but now I can add more details about the continents and states. This relates to Jamaica Kincaid because we were both in the same place with not being present when the New World was discovered. I had always wondered why things were called what they were (ex. trees) and how we got onto the Earth, I just didn't think too much into as Kincaid did. We both understood why history was important, we just did not know where history began. If I were to re-write my history, I would want to start from my beginning, but I can't because nobody would be able to tell my story. I need to know the history of how I got to where I am today in order to continue on with the story of my history. I know now that history is important and it makes us who we are today.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Adopted Town
In the section "Adopted Town", Melissa Holbrook Pierson is talking about a town that she moved into at the middle of her life. From my understading, this section is all about how she feels this new town of hers has become somewhat of an "adopted" town to her. This just means that this is not the town where she grew up, but it has taken on the role of her hometown, since she can no longer be in the real place. This new town seems strange to Pierson, and she knows it will take some getting used to. She talked about how you could tell who the other "misfits" were because they did not blend in with the rest of the community, but after a while she got to know the traditions and started to blend in more, and more. This is when Melissa Holbrook Peirson realized that an adopted home was better than no home and that it could not replace her childhoood home, but she could feel compfortable in this new adopted town of hers. I can't quite relate to Pierson at this point in my life. I have lived in the same place all my life and I have not had the full experience (not counting college) of living in a foreign place just yet. The final sentence in this section, "Because when I reach my goal at last, I would be filled with hope, that everything was about to change." really made me understand the purpose of this section. Melissa Holbrook Pierson is upset that she has to leave her hometown, but knowing that she has acheived her goal by moving out of her comfort zone, gives me hope that when it comes time for me to move, I will accept the challenge and feel compfortable doing so.
Salem has in a way become my adopted town. I would say this because I spend the majority of my time here trying to break away from my compfort zone and expand as a person. I have spent the past two months away from everything that I know. My hangout spots have changed from the small town of Melrose to the somewhat large city of Salem. I have left my childhood friends since middle school, and been thrown into a community of unfamiliar faces forced to make all new friends. I never want to forget where I came from, but the truth is that I have to make Salem my new adopted town, in order to make my college experience a full one. Salem State University, I would say is my adopted home because my reality is that I spend 24 hours 5 days a week here, and this is where my new adopted family is. It will take some getting used to, but I have succeeded, and will continue to suceed in breaking out of my compfort zone and making this place my new adopted home.
Salem has in a way become my adopted town. I would say this because I spend the majority of my time here trying to break away from my compfort zone and expand as a person. I have spent the past two months away from everything that I know. My hangout spots have changed from the small town of Melrose to the somewhat large city of Salem. I have left my childhood friends since middle school, and been thrown into a community of unfamiliar faces forced to make all new friends. I never want to forget where I came from, but the truth is that I have to make Salem my new adopted town, in order to make my college experience a full one. Salem State University, I would say is my adopted home because my reality is that I spend 24 hours 5 days a week here, and this is where my new adopted family is. It will take some getting used to, but I have succeeded, and will continue to suceed in breaking out of my compfort zone and making this place my new adopted home.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The Place and Memory Project
http://placeandmemory.org/index.php?title=Larry%27s_Restaurant_and_Bar
I chose this place because the person who posted it spent a lot of his childhood in this bar and it reminded me of my uncle's bar. My grandfather and my uncle Ricky built, and owned a bar together in New Hampshire, called Richard's Pub. When my grandfather passed away, my uncle still continued to manage the bar by himself. My whole family would go visit at least once a month and I have a lot of childhood memories in that bar. There was a loft above the bar where me and my sisters would play while the adults were downstairs drinking. However, we did occasionally get to join in on the fun. My sister was the only 10 year old bartender in the state of New Hampshire and she was actually pretty good, so I was told. My big moment came when I was six. I got to participate in the weekly open mic night with my aunt Valentina. I sang "I am so beautiful" and the whole bar cheered me on. I still have the tape of that performance and it is one of the greatest memories of that bar that I still have in my possesion. Richard's Pub held a lot of family events, including Thanksgiving until my uncle couldn't handle on his own anymore. The bar is still in the same place, but it's been redone a few times and it's just not the same that it used to be. I miss Richard's Pub, but I will have the memories with me always.
I chose this place because the person who posted it spent a lot of his childhood in this bar and it reminded me of my uncle's bar. My grandfather and my uncle Ricky built, and owned a bar together in New Hampshire, called Richard's Pub. When my grandfather passed away, my uncle still continued to manage the bar by himself. My whole family would go visit at least once a month and I have a lot of childhood memories in that bar. There was a loft above the bar where me and my sisters would play while the adults were downstairs drinking. However, we did occasionally get to join in on the fun. My sister was the only 10 year old bartender in the state of New Hampshire and she was actually pretty good, so I was told. My big moment came when I was six. I got to participate in the weekly open mic night with my aunt Valentina. I sang "I am so beautiful" and the whole bar cheered me on. I still have the tape of that performance and it is one of the greatest memories of that bar that I still have in my possesion. Richard's Pub held a lot of family events, including Thanksgiving until my uncle couldn't handle on his own anymore. The bar is still in the same place, but it's been redone a few times and it's just not the same that it used to be. I miss Richard's Pub, but I will have the memories with me always.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Is Nostalgia Such a Bad Thing?
1. "How many times have you heard someone say they’ve gone back home and it’s changed or it’s gone? I mean, people weep over this. Is it sadness or is it nostalgia?"
This was the first quote that really stood out to me. This comment by Melissa Holbrook Pierson is what I think that she is trying to say in the first part of the book, A Place Called Home. She does not like the progess and change that is being made in her town and she makes it very clear in her writing. This comment, however, is very true. I know that my town is always changing, even if its just adding yet another pizza place to our ver small town. My grandmother owned a coin store in my town, but she had to sell a few years ago, and that store has been changed and bought out about 5 times since then. Everything is always changing, but is it always such a bad thing?
2. " If you really loved where you came from, if, in essence, you really loved yourself—because that’s what created you—how can you not want that to exist?"
This quote also makes a lot of sense, but what MHP doesn't understand is that just because the memorable places in your town are changing, doesn't mean that you have changed. Of course you would like things to stay the same, but those memories will always be with you, no matter what gets torn down or replaced. MHP's book is all about how she hates progress, but she just needs to realize that her memories aren't changing, and new memories can form with progress.
3. "These are the photographs, the albums, the history—my father was really good about keeping that kind of stuff, but now I can’t—he’s not alive anymore so I can’t go to him and say, 'Daddy, who was this?'"
This quote stood out to me because MHP has all of these memories of her past buried in her house, but still she is dwelling on the progress. She has the ability to share the memories of her past relative through these photos, but yet she still complains about the change. Does she not think that things have changed since 1882? Not everything can stay the exact same, and somethimes it's a good thing that it doesn't.
Is nostalgia such a bad thing? I don't think its a bad thing at all. I do believe that the past makes you who you are, but just because the past has changed doesn't mean you have. I am all about living in the present. If change is what needs to happen to make the town a better place, then thats fine with me. I have already made my memories, and i love to revisit them, but i am ready to make new memories with the progress that has been made in my life. I will never forget my past, but what's important right now is the present and making all new memories to last a lifetime.
This was the first quote that really stood out to me. This comment by Melissa Holbrook Pierson is what I think that she is trying to say in the first part of the book, A Place Called Home. She does not like the progess and change that is being made in her town and she makes it very clear in her writing. This comment, however, is very true. I know that my town is always changing, even if its just adding yet another pizza place to our ver small town. My grandmother owned a coin store in my town, but she had to sell a few years ago, and that store has been changed and bought out about 5 times since then. Everything is always changing, but is it always such a bad thing?
2. " If you really loved where you came from, if, in essence, you really loved yourself—because that’s what created you—how can you not want that to exist?"
This quote also makes a lot of sense, but what MHP doesn't understand is that just because the memorable places in your town are changing, doesn't mean that you have changed. Of course you would like things to stay the same, but those memories will always be with you, no matter what gets torn down or replaced. MHP's book is all about how she hates progress, but she just needs to realize that her memories aren't changing, and new memories can form with progress.
3. "These are the photographs, the albums, the history—my father was really good about keeping that kind of stuff, but now I can’t—he’s not alive anymore so I can’t go to him and say, 'Daddy, who was this?'"
This quote stood out to me because MHP has all of these memories of her past buried in her house, but still she is dwelling on the progress. She has the ability to share the memories of her past relative through these photos, but yet she still complains about the change. Does she not think that things have changed since 1882? Not everything can stay the exact same, and somethimes it's a good thing that it doesn't.
Is nostalgia such a bad thing? I don't think its a bad thing at all. I do believe that the past makes you who you are, but just because the past has changed doesn't mean you have. I am all about living in the present. If change is what needs to happen to make the town a better place, then thats fine with me. I have already made my memories, and i love to revisit them, but i am ready to make new memories with the progress that has been made in my life. I will never forget my past, but what's important right now is the present and making all new memories to last a lifetime.
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