Public Profession of Belief!

I am Catholic by birth and studied in a catholic school my whole life. I remember that in school we had religion class twice a week and that the Mass was celebrated every Friday. Over time I learned more and more about the religion and that made me a believer.

When you are little you live with the nearest relatives and few classmates from school, which in my case were all from the same religion. Our beliefs were the same at that time. My family used to go to the church every Sunday. My grandparents were very active in some activities provided by the church, so that was my daily routine.

On the other hand when you start growing up you meet people from other schools, friends of the cousins, friends of friends and so on, suddenly that little world one were used to becomes a big world, endless, and you learn that life is much bigger than you thought.

It was then that I began to expand my view of the world, to see how different people are, how different their beliefs are and that not everybody is catholic. Some believe in God and some have families who are Atheist. In the beginning I was in shock, none of it matched with my reality and I just heard what they had to say.

Having conversations with my family I learned how important it was to respect each of those who were different from me. It did not matter what I thought, it was their belief, and so they had to be. That was when I started to be curious about other religions. I learned a little bit from here, another bit from there and tried to put the puzzle together.

Even in my family some of my relatives changed their religions, my uncle went to the side of Spiritualism and my aunt, after changing a lot, is now part of the Episcopal Church. I am still a catholic, I still go to the church, every time I can and I want to, because I believe that there is no point in going just to be there physically, if your heart and soul are not there. I go to feel better with myself and to feel God’s hand on me, always blessing me and my family. I know I can rely on him, for anything in my life.

I do believe and respect the Catholic Church, but after learning so many different things I find myself in contradiction. Sometimes I do not believe that the Bible is one hundred per cent right, since it was written by man, but at the same time I do not think I am a bad believer because of that. God knows what is in my heart.

As some people said on the online discussion I do agree that there is the “do good law”, I think that whoever does good things will get good things back, although those who make bad decisions will have to pay for them, here or in another atmosphere, or limb, or whatever you want to call it. It is known by the law of return.

In my present life I do believe in some aspects of other religions such as Spiritualism, I do believe in reincarnation, contrary to Catholicism, and more than anything I do feel my grandfather with me when I most need help. But the most important is that regardless of the doctrines I am practicing I always have God, Jesus and Mary inside my heart.  They are always guiding to the right direction. Even though I already took some bad directions sometimes, but with my faith I went back on the right path.

Early Final Draft of Portfolio Reflective Essay

Attending this class is giving me the knowledge of American literature. This is the first time I am taking the opportunity to read about it and I am enjoying it. I can see the evolution from the beginning of the class so far. I am picking up the practice of reading older texts, which to me means a more thorough reading and understanding of the context as a whole.  

“A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.” Henry David Thoreau.  This quote truly describes my experiences in this class. What I am learning in this class, I fully expect to carry over to everyday life.

            Learning about Poe, nature, slavery is giving me another view of the world. Beyond doubt, it cost a lot of fighting, lots of blood, many sacrifices, much stoicism and many vicissitudes, which have become magnificent triumphs.

            As I post on my blog I can show the progress of my learning and the evolution of each one. I think the one that I could best express my opinion about something was the post talking about an American social problem (Immigration in America) where I exposed this as a problem to the United States, because the illegal immigration has been treated as a disease in society, but the authorities should go and analyze the bottom of the problem and then come up with solutions to reduce the problem. I came up with three ideas that I think would help and alleviate the situation.

                Another one where I showed knowledge about the reflection we had during the week was the post talking about a full life (Living the Full Life and Defining Your Best Self.), where I inserted the nature theme and did a mix with my opinion of life. There we had free opinion to express what an American is and how they live their lives to the fullest.

Brilliant essayist and philosopher, Thoreau (1817-1862) sought in the wild, the primitive aspects of which are linked, their motivation to talk about what is living and being human in a society in constant progress. To escape the city and the "lies" of which we are caught, the writer decided to take refuge in a hut on the shores of Walden Pond and surrendered himself to the contemplation of nature in its pure and raw - a recurring element in his small (and Not therefore less interesting) poetry, which can be very well compared to some of the best verses of the great American poet Walt Whitman. Renaissance soul, since it was endowed with the most diverse interests, Thoreau, who was born and lived in the U.S., wrote treated sociological and philosophical; had inflection naturalist and stirred with the historiography and literature, besides being a poet. In the posture in relation to society and its behavior as a contemplative writer, philosopher preached around the rustic, primitive, simplicity and beauty of simple things.

Edgar Allan Poe was the most romantic of the major American writers. In his works, he did not bother to address the problems between good and evil, or to give lessons in behavior. He believed that if he were able to create beauty and touch the sensibilities of his readers, was enough. The poet believed that nothing could be more romantic than a poem about the death of a beautiful woman. Many of his works explore the theme of the suffering caused by the death of a lover. Another characteristic of his poetry is the music, giving the impression that the sound is more important than sense. Edgar Allan Poe is considered the "creator" of the police story, but its chief merit lies in the skill with which he was riding his stories. He planned to a good architect plans a building, involving the reader in such a way that leads "hypnotically" the outcome of the story.

This reveals the duality of his art and personality: on one hand "visionary and idealistic" poems steeped in sadness and horror stories and police. He was a man in a troubled life, dominated by addiction to alcohol and excess of opium. On the other hand, was a demanding craftsman, a writer who prided himself on his technique and rationalism that created his stories. It is this duality that the projects as one of the masters of world literature.

Participating in the general assembly is a big point of the class as you can express yourself and read the opinions. I have written questions and answered others.  After writing about Edgar Allen Poe I decided to take a visit to the museum dedicated in his name. I have taken on a new found love for his poetry because of this class. After finishing this class I hope to pursue other English curriculum as a minor.

            The Discussion on slavery I think has been the most intriguing topic thus far this semester. Slavery is still a very sensitive subject to many people as students could see on the General Assembly. There is a lot of questions still surrounding slavery.  I come from another country where we had suffered with slavery as well,  I had the chance to read about the slavery issues here in America. It was not until I was here, that I realized the issues still stand today and they are very similar. My initial thoughts were slavery was a thing of the past, but it is never more present.

            What has helped me a lot to interpret the texts is the research that I make on the internet or in other books on the same themes that are being studied. Whenever I write an essay I begin to consider the points I want to address by summarizing the general idea, subsequent to I initiate to write what comes to me in the head, finally I edit my own ideas and text, making it a substantial and coherent text.

            One activity that I find most interesting of all is the discussions we have at the General Assembly. No doubt this is one of the most helpful things in the class, where students share their opinions and not always they agree, which is very interesting. With that I have learned how to accept others opinions, without changing mine. Each individual has the right to believe what they want. I think that the discussion about slavery was one of the hottest where opinions diverged, as seen at Week Six: Questions and Answers about Slavery and the Reading.

                On the other hand the other discussions are taking place very smoothly, especially the ones we are talking about religion. I did not now, but I thought that might be some divergences but for my surprise everybody is sharing the same beliefs (Week Fifteen, Discussion Starter, Part A).

We also learned about Enlightenment literature and self- and community- help. We made a list of virtues and chose one or two to practice and improve over the course of the weeks. This task was very important to help us to realize that the virtues are not only an own benefit, but social. Helping ourselves we are also contributing to the harmony in the community. This post to my blog show a little introduction to Virtues, that I got at Wikipedia as suggested by the professor, and also shows 12 of the virtues that I believe I have. ("Short List of the Virtues Necessary for Well-Bein...”).

The past weeks we have learned about Thomas Paine and “The American crisis” and his “Common Sense”. We were encouraged to write a polemic like Paine’s in our blogs. That was the most fun assignment in my opinion, where we played the role of a proud citizen that wants the best to his/her own nation. I put the problem out there and offer the solutions I believed were helpful. “Hopefully, we can reunite as one and fight these issues as a country.  In order for us to succeed as a nation, I feel it is in our best interest to take action now!” To a full look on my work go to Attention America..time has come!.

I hope to be doing a good job in the production of texts and also in how to expose it to the other students and professor. For me the greatest reward is to reach readers and make them interact with me so we can exchange experiences and opinions. Before I took this class, I would of not felt comfortable writing to the public. This class has made me want to pursue public speaking, so I can work on my presentation skills. I think by crafting those skills, it will help me when I graduate college and start to pursue my career. It has challenged me, however, in how much effort and time I have put towards it. I am not saying it was a bad thing, but I will not deny that it was very hard to keep up with sometimes. Some weeks I had a hard time to understand the readings and writing them down, but I did it and now I see it was worth it because I do see improvement and how I changed since the begging of the course.

                I believe I deserve an A on this class for my hard work. On the top of that I am pushing myself on the readings to learn and absorb as much information as I can, so I can finish this semester saying that I know about American Literature and all the history involved. I am always doing my best to fulfill the requirements as turning in assignments on due dates, always, interacting with other students, reading for the week, posting concise texts on my blog and participating on the general assembly, very actively. Last but no less important I consult the professor when I have an intriguing question and need help.

               

Learning Reflection - week 15

a. I would say that it was reading, since we did not have assignments for last week and I had my work done already.

b. The fact that last week was used for people to catch up with the work made me feel more distant, we did not have any discussion going on.

c. None this past week. 

d. I liked Nina’s post about Federalist No. 10. I agreed with her point of view. Here’s the link for what I wrote about it Response to Federalist No. 10. 

e. I believe that having to answer the learning reflection this week. Like I said this past week was used for some peers to catch up with the work. I am not pretty sure I overcame the confusion, but I am doing the assignment anyway.

f. I like the discussions and I find them very interesting. Nothing has really surprised me this past week. But as for this week I really liked the discussions we had about religion and beliefs. Everyone expressed themselves and all the views were respected by others.

 

Attention America..time has come!

America the time is now to listen. The time is now to take action! We have to stop sitting back and waiting for the economy to get better.  We must do something with ourselves and with the struggles at home there must be something that we can do! Money problems are at the greatest concern.  War over seas, gas prices being so high, having no jobs to fall back on and government having no money are some problems we as a nation need to address.

 The reason gas prices are so high has nothing to do with supply and demand. It all has to do with the financial market for oil which is filled with professional speculators and amateur investors betting on poorly understood oil exchange and trade fund. We must find a way to stop the greedy oil companies from using our budget to their advantage.  Mid East turmoil has nothing to do with the overpriced price of gasoline at the gas station.  Do not listen to people when they insist that the war is over oil. Instead it has everything to do with professionals and amateurs betting! Gas is almost 4.00 dollars a gallon and we must stop this!  In order to stop this robbery we need to do the following.  To enforce this we must eliminate direct and sale taxes on gas. Also we must eliminate state and federal regulations regarding contaminants and fuel mixtures.  The problem with gas companies is they are monopolies. We need to break these up by making privatizing oil production in the Middle East a priority. They are also federal lands that we could sell that are available and eliminate regulations on cars to provide better gas mileage. Last but not least, we must get rid of the anti-trust regulations, especially against oil and processing companies.

 Another problem with the United States economic problem is the war over seas.  1,179,165,647,330 have been spent on the war since 2001. We must stop this war as soon as possible.  Not only are our children’s lives at stake, but so is the United States of America economic situation. Even though they were just small air strikes in Libya that still cost the United States over 600 million dollars. One of the things that we can control is the amount of military bases we have throughout the world.  There are 662 military bases in the world, not including the 411 in Afghanistan, 88 in Iraq, and various sites in Qatar and other countries where United States military personnel are stationed.  This project cost the United States $41.6 billion in 2010. We must let the countries settle their differences and use the trillion dollars on health care, social security and unemployment. We must also take action to close some of these bases and re focus on the efforts here in the United States.  Protecting the home front should be the priority. Hopefully one has taken notice of these problems we are facing every day. Hopefully, we can reunite as one and fight these issues as a country.  In order for us to succeed as a nation, I feel it is in our best interest to take action now!