Earth Jazz

Eisenberg wrote, "To play Earth, you must first of all listen. To stand in a right relation to Eden, you must face Eden, look at Eden, learn from Eden." I agree with Eisenberg that society must learn from nature in order to "right the wrongs" that people have projected onto the earth. We should be managers or leaders in the protection and proper use of the earth and its resources. Former VP Al Gore recently won an Oscar for his movie on global warming, which he and his sources attribute to the misuse of resources by people, businesses, and industries. In order to manage a mature ecosystem, people must be educated, sensitized, and moderated.
Unfortunately, people are often more interested in short-term gain than long-term loss. In order "to stand in a right relation to Eden, we must stop misusing nonrenewable resources and start being concerned about waste management (in business and industry). Today's generations must "listen" to the Earth, its groanings and singing, so that future generations will be able to live in Eden, like subsequent ones. This will produce earth jazz--a beautiful, upbeat composition.

Mutualism

Mutualism is an interaction between two or more species, where both species derive benefit. Most people would view this as a benefit and a good thing but this is not always the case. Two species that benefit each other generally cause a direct expense to a third party. Predation tends to stabilize economy, while mutualism can sometimes destabilize them. Predators keep their prey's numbers under control, but mutualism can give a group of species an edge on those around them and affect the ecosystem in a negative way. To give an example Germany, Italy and Japan did more to destroy the earth, than Germany on its own. One more common example that tends to affect children is the mutualistic relationships of two older sibblings ganging up on the youngest sibbling. The two older children will tend to egg each other on and create more harm than just one.

Christ Suffered and Died To....

Christ suffered and died to complete the obedience that becomes our righteousness. Romans 5:19 says, "For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man obedience the many will be made rightous." My righteousness is not simply the cancellation of my sins, but also the imputation of Christ's rigteousness in me. Christ's righeousness imputed into someone is a gift that is not imparted. When you believe and trust Christ's blood cleanses you of your sin, then Christ's righteousness is imputed to you. We are humans that actively pursue the desires of the flesh which is not righteousness but the opposite. Our active pursuit of disobedience deserves the Holy wrath of God but because of His rich mercy provided a way out. We receive passive righteousness from Christ's perfect obedience. Righteousness means we are seen in right standing with God. Legally we are found not guilty for our disobedience because of Christ's obedience.

Songs

Songs bring a connection or experience to places or events that have happened. Songs are a unique form of communication particularly with human beings. They evoke emotion and feeling, whether happy or sad. The words of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, although they may be religious verses or free prose. Colloquially, song is often used to refer any musical composition. Songs have different meanings and vary in complexity throughout different cultures. The Native American culture has some of the most complex ever performed. The tensing and releasing of the vocals combined with varying drum beats makes it a very intricate form of art. Another interesting item of note is that every region of the country where the Native Americans had settled produced greatly varying forms and sounds of music. With so many different tribes, the songs produced are always unique to its specific group. Generally, Eskimo songs have been touted as being the most simple of all of the Native American music styles, while the Hopi, Pueblo, and Zuni tribes of the Southwestern part of the country have been known to produce much more complex sounding music. The emotion invoked from Native American music has been a great influence in modern folk music.

Nature of the Symbol

"Communication is directed expression." Existence itself is mute but when communication of species is brought into play a world of beatiful sound is possible. "Through communication the living being is carried beyond its sheer existence." Communication can be subliminal or physiological in nature. Humans typically communicate through use of their voice but this is not the only way. Body language or a form of implied communication, is extremely effective in depicting one's true thoughts or emotions.
Communication through the use of language impacts the way tools are used and interrelated. This concept is vital to implementation of technology in our day and age. Instructions to build, create and innovate have to be transferred in some way inorder for technology to move forward or even to exist. Species must utilize some form of communication to thrive and multiply otherwise they would become exstinct.

Paid Vacation

Creation in its purest form desires nothing from man except its hand to work the soil. Why do we treat nature like it owes us something? If anything we owe it, it clearly has the prior claim. Since the beginning of existence humans have strived to create a distraction or freedom from nature. Often humans are attracted to the idea of ‘vacation’ a chance to get away from the workplace. Vacation is defined as a “freedom or release” Is vacation associated with nature in our society? Vacation for most is simply a chance for them to stay at home, inside, and sleep or watch television. Why do we constantly escape from the place designed for us to find freedom? Humans are searching for something that has yet to have been found, by most, but in the processes are being distracted by comfort. A sovereign creation so close to our finger tips but yet our society finds every possible way to hide from it all together or deny the beauty of its life and perfection

Jeff Lee I and Thou

Martin Buber takes a fresh prospective at the relationship between pairs of words such as (I and you) or (I and it). In first discovering what the topic of his argument/discussion was I had many questions. Such as: How can an argument be raised over such a simple issue? What is the significance of this idea? What is this idea of Reciprocity?
Naturally as humans we strive and desire recognition. We think of ourselves as unselfish beings. Why is that? Am I doing this for my glory? We naturally are selfish beings it’s human nature, these traits are born within us. In Genesis God creates ‘man in his own image.’ God himself is a very selfish being, all through the Old Testament he speaks of his selfish nature. God desires to bring glory to himself. Is that wrong? Is perfection not desirable? Buber says ‘you’ has no borders and that ‘it’ borders on other ‘its.’ We expect something back from our’ you’. This is an example of reciprocity, or personal return. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Overall we desire our own glory without boundaries on our ‘you’
Now we come to the two words experience and encounter. Encounter is a first time embankment or a mystery it has an element of surprise and lack of control. An experience is something that has happened before and that is worth remembering. Those who experience do not participate in the world. The experience is in them and not between them and the world. The world does not participate in experience. It allows itself to be experienced. Experience has to act in the world not be acted upon. In relationships if we are in it for the experience and not actually participating in the world as it happens than it is not an encounter, nor is it significant.

BEEEES!!!

Movie

Earlier in the semester we viewed a film about bees. These bees were amazing in the way they communicated to each other. A bee would go out in search of food (flower) and once it found its source, it would consume just enough nutrients to fly back to the bee hive to signal to the other bees where food is. The bee with the knowledge of the food source would dance to signal to the other bees that food is this or that way. This dance would tell the bee what direction the food was in, and about how long it was to get their. This was important because the bee did not use extra energy if it got lost. The bee had to be precise otherwise many bees in search of this food supply would die because they did not have enough energy to get back to the hive. The communication between these honey bees was truely amazing. Movies like this show importance of communication which can very easily apply to humans.

Jeffrey Lee

Baraka

Baraka is a movie about the study of photography cinematography /. Baraka means “blessing.” There were no words to this film, but there were tribal songs, and sounds that reflected the graphic images. The subtle sounds were pleasant to listen to, mainly because it’s not often in our society that we hear the true sounds of nature. The cinematography was amazing; the shots captured the essence of what was being viewed. Slow camera movements added to the suspense for the next clip. The technique of time lapse was used when people were walking to work at an intersection. The graphic clips consisted of waterfalls, tribes, deserts, birds flying, mountains, snow, blinding sun, vivid rainbows, and massive explosions to name a few. This video captured some beautiful and disturbing images. I am not a big fan of appreciating art but this piece of work was brilliant and spliced together well.

Jeffrey Lee

Where does the idea of Eden come from?

The creation story in the Bible relates the location of the Garden of Eden in relation to four major rivers Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel, Euphrates, as well as in relation to a number of named regions Havilah, Cush, Asshur or Assyria. This seems to suggest a setting in the ancient near east, specifically somewhere in Mesopotamia. In this garden Adam was created from the dust of the earth and was designed to tend to its livelihood. “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden and there he put the mand he had formed (Genesis 2:8).”
The Garden of Eden was an environment that was constructed for mankind to live in perfection but because Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s orders to not eat from a certain tree they were cast out of it. Genesis 3: 17-19 says, “cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” From this point on mankind has had to plow and work the fields to harvest food as sustenance inorder to live. If you believe in the Bible then you know that is not possible to recreate Eden because we do not have the capacity to create perfect plants that are self sustaining and full of nutrients. But what is possible for us to do is take better care of what God as given us to work with. There needs to be awareness and growing concern for the balance of extraction and re-plantation that must go on in order to continue food for civilizations. As it stands today in very broad terms we are taking from the earth more than we are putting back into it. We need to understand that its not possible to return to Eden but we can take care of what has been given to us.

Jeffrey Lee