Today & Tomorrow
Today's Class Discussion
In the discussion today, I made the connection between Sri Krishna giving Arjuna advice and a scene in the play, Our Town by Thorton Wilder. We had discussed that young people tend to get a lot of advice thrown their way- mostly because they are young and are believed to not know as much as those who have had more life experience. And in some ways, this is true. However, I stand by the passage below that I recalled in class. Hope you like it as much as I do!
"Mr. Webb: George, I was remembering the other night the advice my
father gave me when I got married. Yes, he said: “Charles,” he said: “start
right off showin’ who’s boss. Best thing to do is to give an order about
something, even if it don’t make sense, just so she’ll learn to obey,” he said.
Then he said: “It anything about her irritates you, her conversation or
anything, get right up and leave the house; that’ll make it clear to her.” And,
oh, yes, he said: “Never let your wife know about how much money you have,
never.”
George: Well, I couldn’t
exactly-
Mr. Webb: So I took the opposite
of his advice and I’ve been happy ever since. So let that be a lesson to you
never to ask advice of anybody on personal matters."
-Act II
"Keep Moving Forward"
If any of you have seen the movie Meet the Robinsons, then you know that Walt Disney said this. Like Walt Disney, we are moving on to another religion's "story."Although I identify as Catholic (and Christian), I am not very religious. My sister and I stopped going to Sunday School after we received Communion. However, I do have some strong Christian beliefs, which became especially important to me after my grandmother, who was religious, passed away in 2012. For example, my sister and I had been very close to her, and when she passed, my mother told us that she had joined our grandfather, who we had never gotten the chance to meet in person, in Heaven.
I know at least some of the class does not identify as Christian, so I have two hopes: 1.) that I am able to put my beliefs aside and analyze the text for the theology and culture that is expressed in it and 2.) that we can all agree to keep in mind that this text may go against some of the beliefs of other students in the class. (I speak not for myself but to remind myself that there are most likely much more religious people in the class than me. I would hate for anyone in the class to feel uncomfortable from anything discussed in class.)
I am glad you are comfortable enough to state your personal beliefs on religion. Too often people are aggressive about their beliefs and push them onto people in certain situations. I think we can have some really beneficial talks about Christianity based off of the text as long as we stay mature and responsible with everyone's feelings. Since this is an honors course, I am sure people will be able to handle it no problem.
ReplyDeleteIt deserves to be mentioned that beliefs will be questioned and that makes many people uncomfortable. Since you previously stated you will keep your beliefs beside you through the discussions, I am sure you will have no problem have beliefs questioned.
I hope you and the rest of the class are as excited as I am to begin the next text.
Have a nice weekend.
It is definitely important to keep an open mind when discussing something like religion. The goal is not to call anybody's personal beliefs into question, but to learn something by looking at religion with an open mind and a strong curiosity. I myself am also not particularly religious, but many of my loved ones are and I think it is so important to be conscious of the beliefs of others when analyzing religions. I am confident that in our future class discussions we will be able to do this.
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