Post 72: Sonnets

Today, I am going to talk about sonnets. Sonnets are wonderful. A sonnet is a type of poetic form, originating in Italy. There are multiple varieties of sonnets, the three most common are Spenserian, Petrarchan (Italian), and Shakespearean (English).

The Spenserian Sonnet: a b a b - b c b c - c d c d - e e

The Petrarchan Sonnet: a b b a  - a b b a (c d c d c d) or (c d d c d c) or (c d e c d e) or (c d e c e d)

The Shakespearean Sonnet: a b a b - c d c d - e f e f - gg

I have found the Shakespearean to be my favourite, though I have tried them all. It is the most flexible, I feel. It also is made easier because there is more variation of rhymes. Having to rhyme two line endings is simpler than following further through the sonnet with four lines. I also like the alternating line endings better than the ABBA of the Petrarchan.

I decided to talk about this today, because we wrote a sonnet by committee in my English class. It was hard to write as a group and, honestly, the last two lines of it drive me a little nuts.

Here it is...

How could I compare your Love;

Through Sparta to Thermopylae?

From the grace of God above

to shatter thy fearful monopoly?

Your beauty transcends what is only seen

Your spirit matches the purest of gold

The live we have with virtue will stay clean

And it will stay strong even when you're old

And you, my love, I doth obey

As the holy father hath ordained

To rise and do thy bidding day by day,

Another property you have gained

Hundred years a slave

To a never ending rage

So, you can kind of seem why it is driving me nuts, I assume. The rhyme is a little off, but mostly what it is, is that it doesn't fit. I mean, it is light and lovey before and then it is rage and slavery.

Anyway, doesn't matter that much. Which ever group wins best sonnet gets out of the quiz. But it is a five point quiz. And my guess is that she won't tell us until the day of the quiz who won. Also, it is just off the reading. So, it isn't like I am going to not do the reading or studying, it just alleviates a bit of pressure. 

Now, I can't have a post about sonnets without talking about my sonnets. Of which, I now have twenty and an additional three in progress. One thing that I have noticed while writing these is how rare it seems to find other, more modern sonnets. It seems like it is a form that has been for the most part retired. Free verse seems to be the most dominant form of poetry around these days. Especially on poetry.com, a website that allows you to post your poetry and get reviews. And it is guaranteed to get reviews. Because in order for some to post a poem, they have to review two.  

The first two sonnets I posted on the site got mixed reviews. Mostly good, but one poet commented that it wasn't a poem. When I explained to him it was sonnet, which is a type of poetic form, he never replied. But, posted on a later sonnet saying the same thing. 

Which, annoyed me to know end. 

But, anyway, most of what I come across is free verse. Like 95% of it is free verse. And because of that it seems like free verse gets more stars and better reviews, even with less time and quality. 

Here are two poems I posted, one free verse and one sonnet. 

You Can Be Anything

I held on to what I believed 
Both hands gripping on to the dream 
As if sheer human will were enough to make it happen 
As if just wanting it was enough 
As if just working for it was enough 
As if pouring every essence of my being into it was enough 
But it wasn't, it isn't 
Little kids get told they can be anything they want 
As long as they try hard enough, they will get it 
That is what I was told, what I believed 
But it was all a lie, a sugar coating of reality 
Because no one has the guts to admit, 
Sometimes it doesn't matter 
Sometimes you can work until you bleed 
Sometimes you can give until you have nothing left 
And it still won't be enough to make it 
Because it isn't just about you give in this life 
It is about what you are given coming into it 
You cannot be a singer, if you cannot sing 
No matter how hard you try 
You cannot be a lawyer, if you cannot afford school 
Because a degree is something you have to buy 
So let us add an asterisk or a note to the end of that saying 
"You can be anything" 
As long as you have the money and means 
The dedication and talent, and luck on your side  
With all these things, you might just have a shot at your dreams  

Live Your Dreams and No Less

Shall I sing out in joy or cry in pain?
Dance through the night or fall down to my knees? 
Will you puddle jump or hide from the rain?
Build up a fire or let yourself freeze?
Sing say you, jump say I for life is short
And time is wasted when spent in sorrow
So live and be merry, play and make sport
Gather new friends wherever you may go
You should heed my words and take my advice
For I know what a sad life sorrow makes
Like an anchor it weighs down men to mice
And leaves volumes of tears as big as lakes
Banish the anchor, embrace happiness
Find your passion, live your dreams and no less 

The sonnet took a while to write, it took time and effort. It took thought. I wrote the free verse to make a point. I set a timer for two minutes and just wrote. Two minutes of effort in the free verse, an hour on the sonnet, and the two poems received the same rating 4/5. 

Also, the someone else made a comment about the sonnet's structure, but their comment made it very clear that they didn't know what a sonnet was. I have only posted a few sonnets on this site, for that reason. 

People just don't seem to appreciate sonnets as much as they used to. And since, I find most free verse tedious and pointless, like they were too lazy to rhyme but didn't want to write enough to make it a story either, that doesn't bode well for me. Though, I generally dislike free verse, I'd like to point out now that I have found some that I like. But sonnets remain my favorite.  

Post 71: Hypothetical Situations

I want to spend this post talking a little bit about hypothetical situations and their importance, and then I want to answer a few (5) that I found interesting. 

Hypothetical situations are just what the name implies, situations that are hypothetical. But, there is a little more to it than that. These situations work for so many different things and areas that it is unlikely you will go through life without coming across one. 

They come up in job interviews, ('how would you handle this situation' questions), they come up in philosophy ('imagine you have two people one who does good to do good and the other who does good to get something out of it, are they both equally good people?'), and everyday life ('what will I do if it rains tomorrow?').  There are variety of uses and occurrences makes them important. 

But they are also pretty fun. They allow you to try and figure out how you would handle a particular situation before it occurs or it allows you to just have fun thinking about something that might never happen. 

Below are examples that were interesting to answer, but not likely to happen in real life. 

1) Would you be willing to spend a night alone in a remote house that is supposedly haunted, just for the sake of it? (knowing nothing more about the history of the house than that) There is no electricity though there is running water and other utilities, and you can bring your own flashlight and/or lantern and such. The nearest neighbors live 5 miles away.

No, I'm not an idiot and I have seen a lot of horror movies that start just like this. I might be on the fence about the existence of ghosts, and I may not think of them as the vicious entities portrayed in movies, but I am not about to take that chance. I don't want my obituary reading like one of those stereotypical, naive girls in horror movies who goes to shower after hearing a noise or decides to stay in the house even after they have been shoved down a flight of stairs.

2) Would you accept $10,000,000 in U.S. dollars (or the equivalent in whatever currency) to leave your country and never set foot in it again?

Of course. For that much money, I would go to England and never set foot in Canada, or anywhere else in North America, for that matter. If my family wants to visit me, I could fly them to me. Or I will buy a cruise ship and just sail to them, but not leave the boat. 

3) If you knew of a way to use your estate, following your death, to greatly benefit all of humanity, would you do it and leave only a minimal amount (10%) to your family?

Assuming that I actually had an estate worth leaving, I would leave it to benefit humanity. My family would still get something and, assuming that what I left did greatly benefit society, then it would benefit my family as well.

4) Would you rather be given $10,000 for your own use, or be able to give $1000 anonymously to 100 strangers? You can't pick who it's given to, though you know that all of the people could really use the money.

I would rather get $10,000 for my own use. Then, I would have the opportunity to give it to people I knew needed it. It might not be as much but who knows what kind of people are in the group of 100. What if they would use the money for drugs? What if they would use the money to buy weapons? What if it would further a gambling habit while the person's family was at home starving? Meanwhile, if I get the money I could give it to people I know who are struggling to pay for school or to people I know who could use it and would use it for a good cause. 

5) You 'somehow' know for certain that you will die of an incurable disease within three months. Would you allow yourself to be cryogenically frozen *within the week* if you knew it would give you a modest chance of being revived in 1,000 years and living a greatly extended life?

No way. I mean, I am not going to give up the small amount of time I have left with my friends and family for a slight chance that in 1,000 years I will wake up and have an extended life. What if I wake up and there is no cure? Or if there is a cure, I walk outside and am hit by a flying car? It would make it pointless. I would rather stay and spend my last three months with my friends and family. 

Post 70: The Kinds of Pride

Today, I kind of want to talk about pride. I think there are different kinds of pride that follow from the reasons why people are proud. For example, people can feel pride for their kids, no matter how involved they actually were in shaping their kid's life. Even if they were not involved at all, they see that their kid has achieved something and feel proud of themselves. Which doesn't really make sense to me.

I'm not a parent, though. So, maybe it is a parent thing. I mean, I know that physically they were involved in creating the kid, but genes are only part of what shapes a person.

There is also the pride you feel in things because you worked for them. I mean, really worked for them with blood, sweat, tears, and hours of time and effort. Or maybe less, but you still put in effort to get the result that you got. This one makes the most sense to me. It is also kind of why I sometimes find it hard not to focus on the numbers, like I discussed some in an earlier post. Numbers are tangible. You can see that you have improved if the number improves.

It is actually one of the reasons I like working on things in Excel. Like making lists or working on them. Because if there is a number, I can measure what I've done and how much. I can be proud and say I've done a thousand lines in five hours. Or if I am writing, I can say I've done 2,000 words in an hour. I can mark how far I've gone. Which can make me feel proud. If I only used to be able to do 1,000 words in an hour, I feel like I improved.

Then there is pride that people just have. I mean, there really seems to be no justified reason behind it. They just are proud. I guess, without a reason at all to back it up on, it is really kind of hollow. Yet, it does come tied up with self-confidence. And as long as it is kept in check, it isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is only when it causes a person's ego to grow so much that they are incapable of admitting any faults or ever changing.

I think more often than not that this kind of pride starts out as a pride in accomplishments, but the person becomes so focused on some action of the past that they never change.

This comes on Kitchen Nightmares, yet I am going to talk about that show again. A lot of the chefs are really proud of their food and when questioned they point to these awards they won in the past, like 10 or 20 years in the past. And they refuse to accept that maybe what was good then isn't as good now, or that the standards have fallen. They are so proud of their food that they are blinded to the problems with it.

Last kind of pride I want to talk about is the fragile pride that comes along with anyone who expresses themselves artistically. Whether it be music, art, poetry, writing, etc. Now not all people in this boat may face the same issues, some may only face this issue when they are first starting out. Others may always find this an issue. What I am talking about is the pride you feel when you accomplish something and you worked so hard on it that it has become a part of you, but you have to accept that others may not see its value.

When you look at a spreadsheet or grade report, people can see what you have done. They can measure it, quantify it, analyze it, and whatever else they choose.

It isn't the same with art. Sure, you can say you spent hours on it, but it can't be quantified in numbers the same way. And simply saying how long you worked on it doesn't express how much effort was put into it. How much love and emotion or how much passion.

It is the same with writing. Yes, you can do a word count. But, truly good pieces of writing aren't about the length, but about the content. It doesn't matter if you have a million words down, if it is just the same word over and over.

But not everyone understands that and they try and put into to mathematical terms. They try and set a value to something that you put your heart into, and knowing his can effect how much pride you feel for something.

I am always proud of my stories or poems, even when I know they are a mess, because I know how much I put into them. But there are certain people that I feel incredibly anxious asking to read what I have written, because I know they won't understand how much I put into them.

And there is always a part of yourself that attaches to these things, so when they are criticized (not critiqued, but truly criticized) it can hurt. Which is why, I think calling it a fragile pride makes sense. If everyone says they hate it, it might effect how much pride you feel towards it, but it will never go away completely because you know how much went into it.

Anyway, that is all I really wanted to talk about today. So, I will say adieu until next time.

Post 69: Opposites Attract, the Fallacy

Yes, my friends and readers, it is a fallacy that opposites attract. Sorry to burst that bubble. But, it is true. All the movies that supposedly revolve around this idea are, in fact, proving the opposite. Here are some examples I will be using: in no particular order, Beauty and the Beast, Sound of Music, Dirty Dancing, Grease, and 10 Things I Hate About You.

All of them hold the same principle. The two main characters are opposites. They don't like each other at first, there is tension and animosity. Yet, they come together in the end. But have you noticed that in all these opposites attract movies it isn't the things that they differ on that bring them together. It isn't there opposites attracting, it is the things they have in common that bring them together. So, none of them are truly opposites, and the more they realize they have in common, the more they grow closer.

In Sound of Music, it is Maria's close connection with his kids that really draws the Captain to her, as well as her stubbornness. Both things they share in common.

In Dirty Dancing, Johnny doesn't like Baby at first. He doesn't even really acknowledge her. It isn't until they share dancing he even starts treating her with respect. Once they have dancing in common, they share their feelings as well. How they both kind of feel like outcasts in different ways. But her being from a rich background still drives a wedge between them. So, the things that make them opposite actually work to keep them apart.

In Beauty and the Beast, Beast saves Belle, and in this act shows that he isn't as different from her as she originally thought. She then sees him kind to animals. He gives her a library to use. He shares books with her when she reads to him.

In 10 Things I Hate About You, the two main characters are seen as dangerous and difficult. They don't really seem that different from an outsiders point of view, but together they do seem very different. But neither cares what other people think of them. Neither wants to let anyone else control them. And they both have an affinity for using sarcasm to keep people at a distance.

In all of these cases the fact they were opposites works against them, it is only through finding their similarities that they come together at all. But, the fact that they do have so many similarities, means they were never really opposites to begin with.

In Grease, we don't see their budding romance. We only see how they don't fit together as opposites. But in the end, in order for them be together, someone had to change. Essentially saying that opposites couldn't be together. They couldn't be opposites and a couple, it just didn't work. So, Danny had to be a jock. Or Sandy had to be a Pink Lady.

So, where did the idea of opposites attracting come from anyway?

Maybe it is a psychology thing. Maybe because these people seem like opposites it is an even bigger deal to find out what they have in common, so we root for them. Maybe it is a kind of taboo about the bad boy and goody two shoes ending up together. Maybe it is because we don't bother to look closer at people who seem like us because we don't care as much, it is the people who are different that hold our attention and once they have it we're hooked.

I don't know where the idea came from, but I do know that I have yet to see anything that truly supports it.

Post 68: Miracles

I caught part of an episode of Grey's Anatomy today and something that happened really got me thinking about miracles. So, not to give too much a way, one of the doctor's on the show had a patient come in that was very sick. They had an issue that would not resolve itself, but the parent's of the patient didn't want the doctor to do the procedure that would save the patient's life. Instead, they just wanted to wait it out. This reminded me of people who don't believe in medicine, but only in prayer.

Which has come up in another episode of Grey's Anatomy, but it also came up in American Dad. American Dad like Family Guy is often written off as a dumb show all about fart jokes and people being dumb, but while they do have that they also take a deeper look at things that happen in daily life. If anything these shows are a satire on life.

In one episode the baby has a play date his friend gets sick and Francine takes him to a hospital. The boy has a type of illness that could be treated, the parents believe, however, in relying solely on prayer. Francine then makes a speech, essentially she says that if they believe in God, isn't it possible that doctors are agents of God and that cures are miracles that God has provided to help people. In this episode they accept it and let their kid get medical help. But I think it is more complicated that that.

But this all lead me to wonder about what would count as a miracle.

This comes up in White Collar. The two main characters are talking about miracles. One says that he likes his miracles with smoke and lightening, he is looking for grand gestures that are unmistakably miracles, while his partner says that he takes his miracles where  he can get them.

Now, personally, I don't know if I believe in God. As I take Philosophy and English, Science and History, and classes in other varied subjects I see that there are contradictions everywhere.

I think if I do believe I will probably adapt an attitude like the main female character in a story I read when I was younger who, when trying to stay close with her two best friends who suddenly became very actively religious, she pointed out that God could have created evolution and the Universe and wouldn't that further be evidence of his power. Or perhaps, like the lab assistant on Bones, who believed that believing in God and Science are not mutually exclusive, that God created the mysteries and left them for us to find.

Anyway, back to miracles. If I did believe in God, I think that I would be with Neal, and take my miracles where I could get them.

I think that this is where I will end. I suppose I didn't go very deep, but without the belief or disbelief in God, I don't know whether I can go much further into the idea of what makes a miracle from a religious point of view.

So, I think I will end with a few jokes that go along with this post:

A man who lives by the beach is very religious. He goes to church every Sunday, prays every night, and believes wholeheartedly in God. There is an alert that there will be a major flood that will be very dangerous and will cause a lot of damage. He is told to evacuate. But the man says no, that he believes in God and God will save him.

The flood comes. Water is up to the second-story of his house. A group of people come by on a boat, and they ask him to climb through the window so they can take him to safety. He says no, he believes in God and God will save him.

The flood waters get higher. The man kneels on his roof and prays. A helicopter comes by and throws down a ladder and says, "come with us, we will take you to safety." The man again refuses, he says no, he believes in God and God will save him.

The man drowns. When he gets to Heaven, he is really upset. He goes to God and says, "why didn't you save me?"

God says, "I sent a warning, I sent a boat and I sent a helicopter. I gave you the means to be saved, you didn't take them."

This ties in with the doctors and cures. What if the doctors are the flood warnings and the medicine is the boat and helicopter?

The next joke is a little shorter:

A very religious man goes to Church everyday and prays he will win the lottery. But every week he doesn't win, as years go by the man gets more and more frustrated. Until, one day he loses it. He goes to church and instead of praying he shouts, "I have been praying for years! Why haven't I won the lottery?"

God responds, "You have to meet me half way and at least buy a ticket."

So, I think the message from this, assuming it is meant to be more than just funny, is that sometimes just believing in God isn't enough. Sometimes, you have to meet him halfway and buy that ticket. Sometimes you have to go to the doctor, instead of just waiting.

If you lock yourself inside your room and never leave or talk to anyone, it doesn't matter how much you pray or believe in God unless you go out and get food or ask someone to bring it you will starve.

If I do believe in God, it will not be a God that just gives because people ask, because I think it is more important for people to know how to do something than know how to ask for something to be done.

Like the saying goes: "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for life."

Post 67: All that Glitters

'All that glitters is not gold' has always been an interesting saying for me because I have always taken it to mean two different things.

The first thing it means to me is that just because something is glittery doesn't mean it is gold. So, basically, just because it seems good doesn't mean it is because appearances or initial impressions can be deceiving. So, it can be put along side 'don't judge a book by its cover'. 

But I have also taken it to mean that you shouldn't take for granted what you already have. So, I'm taking all that glitters isn't gold to mean that gold isn't the only things that is special. There are other things that glitter, things you might already have. So, instead of focusing on what you don't have, you should appreciate what you have already.

Both seem like good pieces of advice for a happier life. After all, I have friends that from appearance seem very different from me, too different to seem like we would be compatible as friends. Yet, we are. 

And it can be so depressing looking at something you cannot afford or achieve, it is better to focus on what you have and can achieve and improving on them. I cannot sing. Well, I can. But, I shouldn't. I wish I could, but if I spent all my time on thinking about what I cannot do instead of what I can, I would be miserable and angry all the time and I would never get anywhere or accomplish anything.

All this sounds well and good, but I must confess, I don't always take this advice to heart when I should. Or I use it the wrong way, taking it out of context to cripple myself. Not intentionally, though. I am not good at math. But, focusing on that as if it were a certainty and making math something I couldn't do, and then accepting it made it harder for me to do better and prove myself wrong.

The problem with advice like this is sometimes you need to focus on what you don't have or cannot do to achieve it or receive it. Appreciating the car you have won't do you any good if it is broken, sometimes you need a new one. Judging someone by there appearance can sometimes be useful, if they are covered in someone else's blood and not a doctor, they might be good to avoid.

One of the hardest things to do sometimes is to navigate the grey areas that surround us and use both our common sense and the advice we receive to survive, to live, and to thrive. 

That's all for now.