As if there wasn’t enough
darkness in the world.
Friends and family members come and go.
Others are pronounced with a death sentence, while we watch, frightened and huddled together, Mother Nature sending us another warning to remind us of how valuable our Earth is.
“The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance…"
Yet, somehow, my daily five-thirty afternoon sunset drives around Tallahassee remind me that the world has endless hidden beauty.
"The sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light…”
So imagine how I felt reading about Zach Sobiech’s story:
I learned about Sobiech’s battle against osteosarcoma from one of my friend’s posts on her Facebook. The title on the link my friend posted read “This Kid Just Died. What He Left Behind is Wondtacular”. Osteosarcoma is a malignant bone tumor that develops in teenagers. After becoming diagnosed he is given 6 months to a year to live.
As a form of closure, Sobiech wrote the song “Clouds”, which currently sits at number 1 on the iTunes charts. The happy and hopeful melody contains lyrics of acceptance, happiness, and relief. A song full of inspiration, but more importantly, hope.
In contrast, it is too often that we discover moments of pure ignorance and brilliant idiocy.
But a miracle does occur once in a while:
But a miracle does occur once in a while:
http://jezebel.com/5946643/reddit-users-attempt-to-shame-sikh-woman-get-righteously-schooled
And so there are still these precious moments of promise in which I dream that the people on this planet will understand the importance of his/her role in the overall scheme of our existence. We make positive and negative contributions to the health of the planet, and along the way, the fantasy of good existing is becoming minimized and trivialized.
"And at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall,"
Rather than continuing the wall of cultural and/or ethnic division, similarly to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, we need to take the Zach Sobiech by beginning to approach every day with a little more positivity and hanging on to the dream of fighting the pressures of evil away. Even in the thick darkness, there is always a heart of light that can be found.
"the sun sank low, and from glowing white,"
Now, my late afternoon drives becoming more self-revealing and introspective because I worry that my generation will not be able to help the economic crisis, global unbalance of peace, and persistent fight for power.
"
changed to a dull red without rays and without
heat.”
The clouds have a new meaning, while the late afternoon drives matter more intimately. This sunset had the beautiful delicate shade of dull red, and without many rays, but the lack of heat to compliment the scene perfected the moment.
Don't worry, it wasn't that dark out while I was driving.
Stephen A. Smith of the network ESPN's show "First Take" jokingly said, "Idle time is the devil's play time." I took the advice with lighter intentions, much less than that of Stephen A. Smith, certainly. Accidentally, the habit of devoting time to driving to help ease decisions or to relax from the pressure of the collegiate world has developed. During this self-discovery of a new method of relief, I found Zach Sobiech's story touching, but also another wake up call.
ReplyDeleteI play around with the idea of Conrad's "heart of darkness". I use the quote in which he is describing a specific sunset. In addition, this "heart of darkness" is not associated within Africa, but also with mankind. Rather than contributing to the every day news filled with sadness, this blog post has a more positive perspective to it. (That's the intention, at least.)
The idea of "Clouds" and the sunsets I often see while driving, but most importantly this particular one, unified, inspire me to continue through every day life and provide with a sigh of relief. This "idle time" became a small ball of energy that accelerated faster than I anticipated.
The two photos used in this blog thus far are very appropriate for the ideas conveyed in the first post, and they provide a lovely illustration of the setting. The photo used as the wallpaper fills the margins with color, an appealing contrast to the classic "black text on white background" post scheme. I assume the photo at the end is meant to be THE photo for the assignment, but it has very little impact on me, for two reasons.
ReplyDeleteOne: The placement doesn't do it justice. As it is at the very end of the post, it acts more as a cherry perched on top of the sundae instead of the banana that a banana split is built around. It may be more effective if placed at the beginning of the post instead.
Two: The photo is too much like the wallpaper - repetitive. They are both pictures of sunsets with a few trees, but the wallpaper is much more interesting to look at than the second photo. Its colors are more vivid and there are more possible subjects to look at than just the sky (mirror, headlights, car door, street lamps, etc.). So perhaps the background could effectively act as THE photo for this post, and the second photo could even be taken out. The second photo is certainly not ineffective, it is just less powerful than the first.
Other than that this post is quite effective. It took multiple read-overs for me to pinpoint the main concepts, because I found myself distracted from the text by the linked material. The video was touching, but the non-linked (that should be fixed as well!) Reddit web address didn't seem to connect back to the post as much as I would have liked. Perhaps a more "miraculous" story could be found to substitute.
Overall a great first post. I'm curious to see where this goes.
I greatly enjoyed reading the sentimental poetry of this entry. You were firm with your words and stayed on topic the whole time, which isn’t easy to do. You persevered and were able to keep up with the idea behind the whole theme. Reading your blog was fun, sad, and inspiring. I had mixed emotions, needless to say. It started off well, giving quotes from in-class novels and connecting them to your partner’s blog. I thought you did really well… and I’m not just saying that to fill words onto the page, I legitimately enjoyed reading this. “In contrast, it is too often that we discover moments of pure ignorance and brilliant idiocy. “ This is such a true statement because so many people think they’re “too good” and “so smart” that they can’t see the fire being lit just in front of them. You make a good point here and I definitely stand with you on that.
ReplyDeleteOsteosarcoma… I assume that’s similar to osteoporosis. I had to look that up, actually. I’ve never heard of that. It was nice of you to include that information into your blog when you didn’t have to. You taught me something new – that’s for sure! And I love learning new things.
The photo you picked was really nice. If you Photoshop that a little bit you can make a really nice desktop background or something.
That was a funny statement at the end, saying, “Don't worry, it wasn't that dark out while I was driving.” It didn’t really make sense but I understand what you’re doing for – like the idea. I couldn’t tell if it’s ‘cause you don’t like driving at night or if you shouldn’t be taking pics in your car while driving. I wasn’t sure. Either way, I really enjoyed reading your blog, as I said already. Surprisingly, because I am a big of a critic, I didn’t find anything about your blog that I didn’t like. Job well done!