-The Other Side-

Thanks guys so much who worked me into the audition schedule yesterday and letting me embarrass myself completely with my terrible acing skills. Ah well I guess it's good to be able to laugh at yourself every once in awhile.

   I read The Other Side of the Hedge the other day and this maybe be way off but it kind of reminded me of Pilgrims Progress. That story was in my mind the whole time I was reading this one. It was similar in the way that both characters are on this journey to heaven. Both encounter characters that struggle with staying on the path and could be a discouragement to him. Both journeys are long and painful but are completed with the hope of something better at the end.Is this the story of our lives??

Commented on Tori's:)

02/16/2012

I would just like to say that I am personally very excited abut class tomorrow! I really enjoyed this reading.
There is one thing that really stands out to me. It might not be on track with what was meant to come across, but I really liked it. When the writer is setting up the story, he tells about his brother. He says his brother "wasted his breath on singing, and his strength on helping others." He goes on to say that he had traveled "more wisely" and about the monotony of the highway. He even points out the cracks in the road that he has seen over and over.

The only thing I could think of when I read this was the two sides of a local church. On one side you have the church member that is always at church. They have their same seat they sit in every week and they talk to the same people. They like to know what songs will be sung and what will be preached. They like being comfortable in their predictable lives.
Then you have the other side that wants to break away from this cycle of going through the motions and simply "doing church". They want to, as the reading said, focus their "breath on singing, and [their] strength on helping others".

Thoughts?

"We won't be satisfied with anything ordinary, we won't be satisfied at all."


commented on Anna's "Drawn to the Hedge"

Casting stones

So let me say first of all, being out of class stinks. And being sick stinks. Being out keeps me from gleaning from the observations in the classroom and hearing different perspectives on our reading. With that being said, I want to give my two cents about some of the things I saw in No Exit.

One of the more obvious things to mention is Inez, Garcin, and Estelle. These people are eternally doomed to be in the same room as one another. They all are trying to hide the reason each is in the room, but they eventually fess up.What I think is interesting about this situation is that even after death, pride and arrogance are still among these folks. They even look for mirrors in the room to get away from each other's constant stare of judgement. I think Sarte intended them to be this way to help illustrate his straight-forward approach in philosophy. It boils down to the fact that they had to face the truth, and could no longer hide behind themselves or their wrong doings.

p.s. commented on Hope??? by NickHampton

Oh, I can burp my ABCs...A...B...C...

I'm sorry. I couldn't stop myself from quoting Hammy (Over the Hedge).

"Give me life, with its struggles and victories, with its failure and hatreds, with its deep moral meaning and its unknown goal!"

I admit that I certainly feel the tension of this story on a daily basis. I want rest, I want to give up, I want to cave under pressure and stress. But even in some of my weakest moments, I demand the struggles for the victories, I demand failure to feel defeated and loathe it, I want to uncover the meaning of it all, but to what end! Can I glory in this unknown goal? This story has such an ecclesiastical undertone from the Other Side's point of view. The toil of the Road People is vanity and meaningless to them. But for the narrator, so does the Other Side.

"It is the thought of that that makes us strive to excel, each in his own way, and gives us an impetus which is lacking with you."

But how on earth can this give him an impetus, momentum to move forward? How can we strive toward something we do not know of? Better yet, why? What is it about this goal that we seek? Is it that we hope to know the goal someday by achieving it? Is the giving up horrifying because we lose the goal?

Questions for questions, I've got some questions...

COMMENTED ON ANNA'S

Hope???

I began to think about some of the things we talked about in class about No Exit, and one thing really stuck out to me when i reread the story. There is a line on page 10 when Inez is talking about being afraid and she says, "What would be the use? There was some point in being afraid before, while one still had hope." If we are to look at the play without using our Christian views, what would they have had hope in, even if they were alive?

Without a Christian belief, there would be no hope, the only thing they could have had hope in was the fact that they were not yet dead. So, whether or not we are supposed to look at No Exit with our Christian views, I see no way that we could get by without them.

P.S. I posted on Danielle's...

When Living Becomes Life

As childish as it may seem, when I read this passage, the first thing I was reminded of was The Last Battle, the last book in The Chronicles of Narnia. At the very end of the book, long story short, everyone pretty much dies. Then, they are all together walking in a place a lot like what was described. They later come to find out that they all did actually die and where they are now is heaven. Another long story short, the way heaven is described is unbelievable.

I thought of this because the major undertone I got from the reading was that life as God intended it is so much greater than anything we could ever imagine. God had it right from the beginning, we were to live in the garden in perfect fellowship with Him. Now when we live our lives, all too often we try to find happiness in meaning in life apart from God. And the truth of it is that we may find bits of it here and there, but never anything close to what God intended. God intended to have perfect fellowship with us, He designed us for that end, so for us to truly find happiness and meaning in life, it can only happen through seeking that fellowship with God, through seeking life as God intended it.

To make this relevant to the reading, I would say that the man represents the ideals of our society today, of striving to reach a goal we know nothing about. The man was absolutely convinced that he had it all figured out and was on the way to somewhere important when in reality, he was missing what mattered, and even more so what was real, the whole time. He lived to reach the end he thought would matter, all the while missing out on experiencing life as it was intended.

p.s. i commented on Tori's

No Exit. O.O

No Exit.
I really enjoyed reading No Exit, I think that how completely twisted it was made it sort of intriguing.

I liked how each character played into the other ones weaknesses and they’re all so twisted in different ways it just makes for one big hot mess. I guess I just want to talk about how the different people relate to one another.

Garcin treated his wife horribly, and he did it for the sake of breaking her down. Inez did the same thing with her lover and with her cousin. Then there’s Estelle who has an insuppressible need to be wanted for the sake of being wanted, which is cruel because she strings along men with the intent to fulfill her own selfish need to feel like she’s desirable. I look at her cruelty and apply it to the others, like when Estelle is seeing Peter dancing with Olga she says “He belonged to me”, and I think that’s how all three of them viewed other people. As belonging that they could easily toy with and toss away and I think that’s the horror of their cruelty that they have no concern for life outside of themselves. I think that’s ultimately why they are in hell. Maybe that’s why hell, for them, is other people. They had no concern for toying with other people and that’s what they have to face for eternity: not just other people but other people who are just like them.

But what’s weird to me is that even though, in my opinion, they are so terrible to people they all are dependent on validation from other people. Estelle needs for Garcin to validate her physically, as a woman. She needs him to want her and to have his companionship in order to feel validated. At first Garcin needs Estelle to validate him in the sense he needed her to confirm that he wasn’t a coward, and then he needed the same thing from Inez. And Inez is probably the biggest mess of all because first off I feel like she needs to inflict pain on other people because cruelty is her identity, but she also seems to need to prey on impressionable women and kind of woo them into loving her in order to be satisfied. Like with Estelle, she acts like she has to have her and I think that is because of her need to draw her in… kind of like a spider and a fly.

Drawn to the Hedge

“ A little puff of air revived me. It seemed to come from the hedge; and, when I opened my eyes, there was a glint of light through the tangle of boughs and the dead leaves.” (The Other Side of the Hedge sections three and four).

What good lines! These lines are rich in meaning and set a foundation for the rest of the story. First off, the narrator lays down too tired to go on. He prays that he might give up. Remember however that in other parts of the story he is very adamant about how he must continue on the road and persevere, but there is something inside of him that is maybe telling him something different. Maybe he actually does want to quit despite what he says.

Also, it seems that he is drawn towards the other side of the hedge despite himself, “In my weak morbid state, I longed to force my way in, and see what was on the other side” (Section four). The “puff of air,” gave him a taste of the other side and he couldn’t resist. The narrator went into the hedge despite the seemingly taboo views of the hedge. He made sure no one was watching, “For we of the road do not admit in conversation that there is another side at all.” He seems to belong to “those of the road.” That leads you to think that maybe he isn’t as trustworthy as you might think. Something is going on here. I could go on and on, but it would be beyond the scope of the blog. Here’s my ending statement: excellent read, and it just gets better the closer you look at it.

P.S. I commented on Will's "The Other Side"

The Never Ending Race

Despite the fact that this allegory had many religious undertones, I couldn't help but also look at from the perspective of society in general whether or not it involved our faith. I pictured something along the lines of a businessman, maybe an insurance salesman (think Mr. Incredible), sitting behind a cubicle and writing up proposals or whatever, always striving to Earn the next promotion or raise. We all know this scenario that Hollywood often portrays as a numb, empty existence and a father who forgets his son's soccer game. However Hollywoodified this scene is, there is a lot of truth to it. Often, we go through with the monotony of life , living solely for survival and advancement, climbing that ladder and running the race with no finish line, that we forget to just stop aiming for our selfish goals. As Christians, what are we striving so desperately for if this world is only our temporary home? Sometimes I think God is watching us from Heaven screaming, "Why do you care so much about trivial accomplishments?! Don't you know that eternity with Me is your ultimate goal?"

P.s. commented on Danielle's

Drip...Drip...Drip

I've been reading many different posts about how my fellow honors students were surprised at how mild hell had been in No Exit. While this was my initial reaction to the reading, I began to realize that this hell could actually be much more torturous than what it seemed at first. Before I begin, I must first say that there is no way we as humans can comprehend how terrible hell could possibly be. Now that we have that out of the way, we can begin.

Drip...Drip...Drip

The hell in No Exit was not the physically painful place with the torture racks and demons running about a cave that seems to have flames com up from nowhere. It was a much more sinister place, a locked room with a few sofas. While it seemed at first that Garcin would be by himself, he was soon joined by Inez, then Estelle.

Drip...Drip...Drip

Ever heard of Chinese water torture? If not, let me sum it up. Chinese water torture is simply placing someone, tied, in a chair and slowly dripping water on their foreheads. There is no physical torture, it's all mental. at first, you don't mind the drops of water. After a while, the drops begin to feel like pebbles, then rocks. After a couple of hours, it feels like someone is dropping hammers on your head. Depending on the person, at about 3 hours it feels like hand grenades raining down on you. People can only handle so much.

Drip...Drip...Drip

This was the hell that Sartre was going for: that slow, agonizing mental anguish that beats out physical torture. People have been known to go insane from it. That's why the characters were so irritating to each other. After so long, they would be fed up with each other, then it would only get worse.

Drip...Drip...Drip

~~Cody Martin

PS- Commented on Tori's The Never Ending Race

Hell is other people?

      "No Exit" intrigued me, left me going, "Uh... Interesting".  Hell is other people?

      Although, I fully disagree with the author's hell, it was a very interesting picture. After all other people can very well seem like hellish torturers. I got chills thinking about be locked inside a room forever with two people who knew my flaws, and knew how to use that against me. It does seem like a hellish picture, forever never having rest, constantly having those people jabbing at you.  What was the author's meaning here?
   Was he trying to make a point? All three of the characters were cowards or disrespected human life. I mean a mother drowned her own baby! They also all did it for their selfish selves, either to protect themselves or empower themselves.  To me, I felt the author was trying to say, respect other humans no matter who or what they are.

P.S. Commented on Kelsey's post

Huis Clos

What troubled me most about No Exit was what put them in hell, and why are they together?

If we are assuming that hell is the result of their wrong actions, but we take God out of the equation, what is the standard of justice?

If Sartre was an existentialist, it makes me think that they are put together for the purpose of dealing with their life and their past. They need to take responsibility for their actions and break free of their inauthentic existences. They need to face their true selves--and though there are no physical mirrors, the people they are put with reflect their authentic self. We see this hinted at with Estelle and Inez in a physical sense and we also see it with Garcin and Inez as they identify with each over their cruelty.

I think they are to stay there because they chose it for themselves. They chose to live inauthentically in their life on earth and as a result chose their own hell. In their death they will eternally choose their punishment and never be able to leave.

Commented on Tori's.

This is the first time in a while that I have read a narrative allegory, and I loved it. The line that hit me the most was, "Every achievement is worthless unless it is a link in the chain of development." This was thought-provoking for me personally because it made me contemplate what I really thought was an achievement. We cannot take any earthly thing with us to Heaven, so all achievements must only be worth something if they further the Kingdom. If they do not further the Kingdom, then their worth is lost in the span of eternity. If we cannot take these achievements with us, then there is no real worth in them because all things in this life will be wiped away to make way for the new Kingdom. For once, I think I actually understood some of the deeper meaning on the first read through.

P.S. Commented on Lane's

Alive and Moving

"Somebody crowd me with love, somebody force me to care,
somebody let me come through, I'll always be there,
as frightened as you, to help us survive, being alive!"
-Stephen Sondheim, Being Alive from Company

Maybe this upcoming opera has got me in a really musical mood (as if I'm ever NOT) but as I read E.M. Forester's The Other Side of the Hedge the above song, Being Alive instantly came to mind. Though my details on the plot of the musical are sketchy, it's basically a dramedy about a man named Bobby who has troubles committing to adult relationships and finds himself, on his 35th birthday, confronted with everything in life he tries to avoid. Hilarious and heartbreaking situations follow, and Being Alive is the big closing number. Bobby originally starts the song misanthropic, reflecting his initial sentiments, and finishes with this final verse and chorus realizing the value of everyday life.

It's really quite a beautful song, and The Other Side of the Hedge is a beautiful poem, with connections to the song. Hedge examines the value of life and human existence from a more progressional standpoint, showing the protagonist jogging in the beginning along with many others before finally falling in the hedge. Within, she finds a sect of humanity that does not move but simply stands in place and does nothing. They simply stand around containing great amounts of potential but not using it at all, because that is supposedly the better way to live. Of course, that is not really living at all, and the heroine cries out "Give me life, with its struggles and victories, with its failures and hatreds, with its deep moral meaning and its unknown goal!" Suddenly, the El Dorado chapters in Candide have new meaning and weight. Suddenly, Candide's escape from the perfect city of peace becomes not a selfish endeavour but the result of a deep and longing desire for something more than just comfort and inactivity. There is no life in El Dorado, true life is outside the hedge! I'm beginning that this distinction between apathy and action, between peace and tribulation, ultimately between stale life and true life is the ground upon which modernity makes its stand, and I look forward to seeing what Bonhoeffer and Faulkner do with this tension.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to comment as you wish. I commented on Josh Goldman's Apparently, the Hedge IS Greener On the Other Side.

Second-Guessing

The first thing I thought about the rescuer in "Over the Hedge" was, "that's gotta be his brother." Don't ask me why I thought that, I just did. Once that thought had crossed my mind though, I immediately put it out of my head, sure that I was wrong. Of course, I wasn't wrong.

This is something I do often, guessing something about a book, movie, or tv show at the very beginning. Normally, I either forget the thought I had or I decide I MUST be wrong. Most of the time it's because I'm hoping I'm wrong. The rest of the time though, it's because I'm sure my guess is too obvious and the real thing has to be more complicated. It makes me think of tests I've taken in the past where I've second-guessed myself and changed an answer, only to find out I was right in the first place.

I think I do this with God too often. I'll be sure He's telling me to do something and then second guess myself. I've been doing this for years with a calling to the mission field. He called me when I was 14, and I chose to answer that call. After a few months though, I decided that there was no way He wanted me to go out of the country for missions. Now though, I'm sure He does. Within recent years, I've been trying to not second-guess what God is calling me to do, but it's hard. Maybe it's time for me to stop second-guessing what I decipher about books, television, and movies and just try to accept what I've thought.

On a completely different note, I got a chance to spend the evening with Dr. Bear who is speaking tomorrow in Honors and I'm very excited about seeing her teach tomorrow. I have a feeling she will do great tomorrow, and this is something I WON'T second-guess!

Until next time,

~Meghan

P.S. I commented on Autumn's post

Apparently, the Hedge IS Greener on the Other Side

While reading through "The Other Side of the Hedge", especially through the first scene with the race, I couldn't help but relate it to the conformity experienced by society today. Since we were children, we have been preparing for success. Kindergarten ready's society for elementary school. Elementary school readies us for middle school. Middle school prepares us for High School. High School is all about getting ready for college, and once we are in college, we are told that we are preparing for success in the workplace. A huge portion of our lives are spent preparing for success and we make success in the business world our main priority. We are in a "race" for success and that is what I imagine the first scene of this story being. However, death finds everyone. Everyone, no matter how successful, will die. Success cannot help anyone escape death. So I think that the image the writer is trying to portray is that people run a huge race that has no end, then once they are exhausted they die. The man was passed by many once he could go no more.

Another thing that I took note of was that the narrator was sorry for his brother because "He had wasted his breath on singing, and his strength on helping others." However, is that the mindset that we should have. Should we be so caught up in our race for success that we forget to cherish the little things like singing or helping out the less fortunate? I think as servants of Christ, we should all be more like the brother, who serves instead of losing himself in his success.

p.s. commented on Autumns "Let Me Outta Here"

Let Me Outta Here!

So I find it suspiciously interesting that the week we celebrate love and friendship the Honors class is reading two stories dealing with death, just saying.
I just finished reading “The Other Side of the Hedge” and I find it interesting that while it is vaguely similar to “No Exit”, it’s also rather different, like two sides of the same coin. Judging by these two works, death is an ending. Not a reward or specific punishment depending on the life lived, just an ending where everyone sort of ends up eventually. Apparently death is also quite boring. I think the authors are maybe trying to say that there is no relief in death, for neither the good people nor the bad people. Death just… is. That kind of purposeless existence is awful. In both cases, the main character(s) try to escape back into life only to be barred from doing so. Clearly, they don’t want to be there. How terrible must it be if a life full of strife, toil, and unhappiness is better than death.


P.S.: i commented on Will's "The Other Side"

Call It Fate

Reading "No Exit" really got me questioning the idea of fate. There was a reason why it was specifically them. They were broguht together for a purpose. So many people say that fate is nonexistent. I completely disagree with them. Now I do not believe that we are predestined, but I do believe that things happen for a reason. There are moments that the decision we make at that point in time completely changes our lives. Imagine if we had chosen one path over another in a particular point in time. It could have altered everything that we know.
I kept picturing the "Saw" series while I read this story. In the second movie of the series, all of the people keep questioning why they are there in the first place. One of the main characters, Amanda says that they are all in there for a reason. They all begin to start questioning why everyone is in there much like what Garcin, Inez, and Estelle do in the play. None of the characters are in there by chance. There is a reason why Satan or Jigsaw from "Saw" put all of them in there together. They all committed horrific acts and needed to be punished. Jigsaw put the characters in their own idea of Hell while these characters from "No Exit" are actually in Hell. Though I wish that the Hell in "No Exit" had been worse. I feel like Garcin, Inez, and Estelle needed a greater punishment.
P.S. I commented on His Beloved's post, "Call Me Crazy, but..."

the path less traveled

The Other Side of the Hedge definitely got me thinking. Initially, I was paralleling the road with the Christian walk, but as I continued to read my perception of the allegory changed a bit. I’m still not sure to what Forster was referring, but I think there could be Christian parallels. The journey along the road is what so many do in this world. It’s a constant race, trying to outdistance others and reach the end. No one really knows what is at the end; they just use elusive concepts to describe it: fame, fortune, achievement, success. What is this, really? They do not know, no one does, because those who are said to have reached these things are still unhappy. They continue to run along the road, looking for more, or for happiness, or for love and acceptance. Then, one tires of the endlessness of the road, and wishes to know if there is another way? They go through the hedge, and find…Jesus? I could be stretching this allegory too far or taking it the wrong way, but just bear with me. Say one goes through the briars of the hedge and the cleansing water that washes off the dirt from the road. On the other side waits Jesus to show them this different way of life. The place doesn’t lead to anywhere, because the traveler is already one with God. No more striving needed. When walking the path, the man keeps trying to outdistance his companion, as we so often do with Jesus. We are impatient and eager to get somewhere else, so we try to run ahead of Him, when He wants to lead us by quiet waters, let us rest in green pastures, and guide us in the path of righteousness. (Psalm 23) We can’t see the end of the path; we don’t even know where we are going. But we have a guide beside us, one who can give us peace, who just wants us to trust Him. Of course, the Christian life isn’t all daisies and roses, but I think that’s why the running man and the man with the scythe are included. There is purpose in walking with God, but it’s not the American dream for which the rest of the world is striving. We can’t compare our progress with that of other Christians, because God is personal, and each person is at a different place in their relationship with Him. “It is my great happiness to help someone out of the moat, as I helped you. For our country fills up slowly, though it was meant for all mankind.” God desires all mankind to come to know and walk with him, but not all choose to see what’s on the “other side of the hedge.” It's definitely the path less traveled.
p.s. Rachel’s Blah Blah -Authentic Self

"Is this Transcendence?"

So I worked up a really nice thought as I was commenting on Will's blog and I just wanted to go into it a little more on my own. As I mentioned in my comment, this may be a little stretch, but it is food for thought before we go in and discuss "The Other Side of the Hedge."

Ok, we can gather from the reading (and from her pre-discussion questions) that the reading has some religious themes and, to me, it seems to be an allegory of the human condition.

As far as the allegory goes, the parallels I found were in the people of the road being a sort of busy body people who are going towards a goal that no one really knows about. He mentions right off that most of the people who pass him as he takes a break jeer at him, which makes me think that it is a cruel lonely existence. He remembers his brother and how he falls behind because he was more more worried about helping other people and used his breath to sing and such. It seems to survive in this existence you have to in an "every man for himself" kind of mentality.

Then, in some sort of enlightenment he realizes some curiosity for the other side and (after a bit of suffering) makes it to this "community of the moat." It is a place of happy people who aren't going anywhere seem as if they feel by being in this place they have indeed "arrived." I feel like this existence parallels with a sort of transcendence, which could be a sort of heaven but most likely the life of the enlightened. In fact, it is all tied together with the presence of his brother.

To me, it seems like strolling, or running, or whatever this "rat race" (as Will called it) of life is only done properly if one is individualist... and maybe even selfish. And there is no assurance that the toil even has a profitable end. However I feel like the author finds the real gain in being one of the people of the moat.

I donno, I may have posed for even more questions... it'll be interesting to talk about what do you guys think?

Which Side of the Hedge Are You On?

As I was reading through this excerpt I could not help but pick out numerous points and say that's Christianity or that's the world. We live in this world where we have set these goals and standards for ourselves. We refuse to stop and look around at what we could do to make our lives easier. The narrator was running down this road and the only thing on his mind was running his race. It kind of makes me think of an anti-Paul. Paul says that he has run the race with diligence. He has fought the good fight. What race his this man ran though? His race was only to do what he wanted to do. He only wanted to push his agenda. I think as Christians we need to take a look at what race we are running. Are we running a race that brings glory to God or are we running a race that will only bring glory to ourselves.

This is just one of the first thoughts that popped into my head while I was reading this. I would write more but I don't want to be that guy who's blog is like 5 pages long.

P.S. I commented on Will's post

Call me crazy, but....

No Exit seemed to me a weird way of portraying Hell. It was a place of suffering for eternity, however, the characters were concerned with the outward appearances while in hell. I'm pretty sure the appearances of the ones who are there are not what is the worst thing to worry about in hell. Its eternal burning! Maybe i began to develop this view of this story because with almost everything I read I have to look at it by what I know the reality of christian beliefs. Even if I know that the story being read is not from a christian view, I can't help but to see it that way. After taking this fault I have under consideration I was able to better read the story and see it in a non-christian view (not that christian is bad, ofcourse) but sometimes it hinders the meaning of the story or my opinion of the story. Okay, so I just went off on a tangent, but while sitting in class on tuesday, all I could think about what how the idea of hell portrayed in the story was not the real hell.
 p.s I commented on Jamie's post "Random thoughts on No Exit"

Random thoughts on "No Exit"

Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, but I felt that "No Exit" was a bit silly. In my opinion, it made hell out to be an unpleasant place, but not necessarily horrific. Sure, the characters were stuck in a state where they felt bad about themselves, but I don't really equate that to burning for eternity. To me, it seemed the equivalent of making someone who loves the outdoors sit through a power points for eternity.

Then, however, I stopped taking the story so literally and began thinking of it as a picture of suffering here on earth. So often, the things we hate most in other people are the things we hate the most about ourselves. Being forced to face who we really are can be torturous.

p.s. Commented on Joy's "Unfulfilling Confirmation VS The Only Fulfilling Confirmation"

The Other Side

Be sure to read "The Other Side of the Hedge" for Honors tomorrow! Dr. Bear will be speaking with us about it.

***(((Spoiler alert! Go read it before you start reading here!)))***

Before the discussion begins flowing tomorrow, I wanted to speak a little about it here. This allegory really opened my mind for the day. It reflects the human condition we've created for ourselves. I saw the revisitation of the Apollonian problem very clearly. We humans work diligently toward goals we've created for ourselves. We have convinced ourselves that we are working toward a climactic finish line. We do not know the reward nor the time it will take to get there, and we strive still.

I am not sure whether or not E. M. Forster was a Christian, but it conjures the Christian message still. There is peace that God is gifting us through His Son, but we continue working for our own salvation. Although the road we are on does not return to Him through our own workings, it did start with Him, and it's been an attempted progression back to that glory since the departure from the Garden.

Of course, it could more easily be paralleled as an allegory of the desire to "transcend" some social construction and the rat race we participate in. It will be interesting to see how class goes tomorrow.

PS - Commented on Rachel's "Blah Blah- Authentic Self"

Blah Blah- Authentic Self.

I highly encourage EVERYONE to spend the time to read No Exit. It is really interesting.

As I contemplated the true/authentic self (Will Drake was talking about something) I began to think about it in a sort of word picture. These people (Estelle, Inez, Garcin) are all extremely dependent on other people and their relationships to define themselves. I believe the existentialist would affirm free standing identity. Thus, I began to imagine a set of dominos, all lined up next to each other. (I I I I I I I I I) Their identity is found in and of themselves and discovering the depth of their own character, and yet their fall, or their movement can effect others, but that movement does not define them. However, the hell characters seemed to be dependent upon that human interaction to give meaning to their existence. More a house of cards, which if one fails the whole thing tumbles downwards. They forfeited their opportunity to pursue the individual self in an effort to be apart of something collective and at the core of it to understand themselves as part and influencer in that collective- Thus their punishment seems fitting to spend eternity collectively unable to find themselves apart from each other. Three selfish people depending upon others for meaning and existence being punished FOREVER (forever) with each other unable to them discover that significance which none of them attained in life.

I commented on Joy's Unfulfilling Confirmation

Unfulfilling Confirmation VS The Only Fulfilling Confirmation

So while we were in class today discussing “No Exit” it came up that in the story, skit, whatever you want to call it, there lies the undertone and blatant reality that each character in some way or another is wanting someone else to fulfill them. They want affirmation, validation and all that. Each one of the characters was waiting to hear the confirmation they desired from one person or another. I started thinking again how this ties into a believers life. Waiting for the confirmation of others to fulfill us will lead down a “deserted road”/empty fulfillment… Only Christ can fulfill us in the way we truly desire. People, no matter how close they are to us, will still hurt us and let us down. Their confirmation will never be truly enough… Do not get me wrong, it is good to be affirmed by friends, but think about it, we can receive affirmation one day and still seek it from those same people the next. Why do we seek their affirmation when the only that can truly fulfill us is Jesus Christ’s? We are to seek Him and His will for our lives. Seek His seal of approval (which come through being sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ).
I also liked when Dr. Abernathy said, if you need a mirror or someone to confirm you, you don’t know who you are. It takes me back to the verse in James 1:23 - “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.” This verse is rather self-explanatory so I will just leave it at that for whoever reads this to think upon. How often do we hear the word of God but then after hearing it stop there? We feel His leading but turn a deaf heart, ear, mind, or body of service to Him?.

Ps - Lane