Essay Week 9: The Origins

I have always been someone who enjoys learning the origins of anything really. I find that it helps me to better understand whatever subject that it may be more fully. Because of this, I really enjoyed reading the Un-Textbook unit on Tejas Legands. I found the stories in this unit to be very creative and fun to read. Some of my favorite stories were about the origins of the orchid flowers, how the mistletoe came to be in the trees, and the reason why the woodpecker pecks. All of the stories gave explanations of how all of these things came to be as well as a giving an additional lesson. For instance, in the case of the Indian shoes turning into orchids, there was a lesson about how life can throw curve balls at you, but if you trust in God (or in this case, the spirits) than your path home will be made straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 is proof of this. Now in the situation where the woodpeckers are created, there is a lesson on greed and addiction. When you give up your life to a harmful external substance, you may lose the things that you used to value more. For the Indians that were transformed into woodpeckers, their loss came in the form of having their children taken away from them and hidden in the trees. These woodpeckers would now spend the rest of their lives searching for what they once had. Finally, in the case of how the mistletoe came to be in the trees, there is a lesson on symbiotic relationships. The bird needed food and the poor grounded mistletoe was the only one available to give the bird what little he had left. So, the bird took it up into the trees so that the mistletoe would be safe from other predators in exchange for allowing the birds to enjoys it's berries. It is a very "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" situation that almost everyone can relate to in some form or another.

(Indian Moccasins. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Storytelling for Week 9: The Trail Back Home

Igasho stretched and let out an excited and youthful whoop as he welcomed the morning his entire tribe had been waiting for. The Tejas Indians had been living in the wilderness for the past twenty years and today was the day the medicine man was told by the spirits that it was time to return to their once beautiful home.

You see, the Tejas Indians had to leave their island many years ago when their homes were destroyed by a vicious volcanic eruption. Since that time, they had lived as nomads - refusing to stay anywhere for too long in fear that they may make that place their false new home.

When the tribe had only been nomads for a few years, the chief came to the medicine man with a concerned face and asked, "My friend, so many of the elders of the tribe have already passed on or are close to doing so. How is my tribe supposed to make its way back to the island?"

"Chief, do not plague yourself with unnecessary doubts. The spirits know what good people we are and they had appointed your grandson, Igasho, to lead the tribe home when the time is right," the medicine man answered.

Igasho threw on his pack containing every bit of his scarce belongings and then jogged to the start of the trail. He knew that this is where they could start their journey because of the beautiful orchid that marked it.

(Orchid. Web Source: Wikipedia)

These orchids used to be the shoes of the tribe that were left on the ground has they traveled to serve as a guide to get them back home when the spirits told them that it was time. The center of the first orchid faced the south as did Igasho's eager face.

When Igasho turned back around to face the tribe, he saw every one of them - young and old alike - patiently staring back him. They were ready to start their journey home.

(Indian Tribe. Web Source: Dreaming in Daylight)

Author's Note: The original story from which my storytelling post is based on is called A Tribe That Left Its Shoes. As I mentioned above, the Indians in this story were forced to leave their home due to its destruction from a volcanic eruption. Also in the origianl story, the tribe did leave behind their shoes, which turned into orchids, as their way of marking the trail back home. The story leaves off with the medicine man showing the chief the flowers as an assurance from the spirits that they would not lose their way. For my story, I picked up the tale twenty years later and gave the chief a grandson named Igasho, which is a Native American name that means "wanders." I wanted to place my focus on the moment they had all been waiting for - the time that they were able to finally go back home!

Bibliography: "A Tribe That Left Its Shoes," from the Myth-Folklore Unit: Tejas Legends

Famous Last Words: Week 8

So since my last famous last words post was about my medical school interview with North Carolina, I thought that I would follow that up this week with some information about how it actually went! First off, the interview was this past Tuesday and I flew out to the school on Monday. When I went to Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City to prepare for my 1:10p.m. departure, I was completely unaware of the chaos that was coming. After three changed flight times, my first flight of the day was almost four hours delayed as I finally left for my layover in Dallas at 5:00 p.m.. When I arrived in Dallas, I rushed to my next gate only to have the door closed in my face and a airline worked tell me that I was a minute too late. So, I was placed on the next flight of the day scheduled to leave at 8:20 p.m.. Of course that would be to easy for that one to work out too. Naturally, that flight was also delayed until 10:00 p.m. causing me to lose the rental car that I had booked weeks in advance. Awesome right? I finally arrived in North Carolina at 1:30 in the morning, exhausted and without a way of transporting myself to my hotel that was an hour away. So I sat on my phone for the following thirty minutes desperately trying to find ANY rental car business that was still open this late - or early. Luckily, Alamo was still open and got me into a car quickly and painlessly, which was very uplifting after such a stressful day. By 2:45 a.m. I finally arrived at my hotel just in time to get three short hours of restless sleep before having to wake up for my interview that started at 7 a.m.! The school was beautiful and the staff and students were incredibly kind and welcoming, but by 2 p.m. when the interview was finally finishing up, I was ready to fall asleep right there in the middle of campus. Unfortunately, my flight home was almost immediately after the interview and I still had a car to return! After running through the airport barefoot and in a suit with my heels dangling from my hands, I made it just in time to catch my flight home. It was a frantic and stressful two days, but hopefully it will all pay off when I find out if I got in or not next week!

(American Airlines. Web Source: Wikipedia)

Reading Diary for Week 9: Tejas Legands

Tejas Legands

The Plant That Grows in Trees: I thought that this was a very cute explanation of how the mistletoe became a plant that thrived in the trees where only the birds could enjoy its berries. It is very nice symbiotic relationship that allows both species to thrive.

Why the Woodpecker Pecks: This was a very strange story that made me think of drug addicts and the power a substance can have over ones life. Because that substance has such a hold on you, more important things in your life may slip away. Even when you quit, you will spend your entire live searching for what you once had.

A Tribe that Left Its Shoes: Sometimes even when everything seems to be going well and happy in your life, a fresh start is forced upon you. What you once knew is gone forever or for now and life forces you to chose a new path. It is also occasionally needed to burn down the bridges to your previous lifestyle to avoid the pain that comes with thinking of its destruction. But, with grief and sorrow comes new life and new experiences. These experiences may lead you to something new or lead you back home when the time is right.

The Cloud That Was Lost: I really liked that personification this story gives to the clouds. It makes me think of a lazy cat. The ending of the story was a little morbid for my taste. The author had given the cloud such an innocent animalistic character that ended up being consumed by flowers lusting after the clouds color.

Grandmother's River Trick: I again really liked the personification given to the characters in the stories. It made me think of the river person and the tree spirits from the movie Narnia. I was able to imagine each the river and the cloud as females holding both the shapes of women and of water.

How Sickness Entered the World: Ignorance, fear, and distrust caused the two young Indians to not recognize that the snake who came up to them contained the important message they were supposed to receive. And because no one was willing the take the blame for the snake, it was passed from door to door giving birth to a new sickness each time man tried to punish another.

When the Rainbow was Torn: I did not really like the idea that the cactus saw something that it wanted and then took it from the unwilling rainbow. I think that it would be nice to change this story around into the rainbow giving some of its color away rather than having it stolen.

Why the Dog's Ears Flop: This was such a sad way to explain the floppy ears of the common domestic dog! The story also contained a good lesson about knowing who your true friends are. Sometimes putting your guard down around those who are familiar isn't always the best decision!

Reading Diary Assessment Post

Overall, I think that these reading diary posts have been far more beneficial to my learning style than what was in place in this class beforehand in the form of quizzes. I believe that classes like this one that are so reading intensive benefit people in different ways. What you get out of a story may not be the same lesson that I learn from it. That makes the reading diary a lot more relaxes of an assignment. It makes me concentrate more on what the story is telling me rather than what information bits I think that I should memorize in order to do well on your quiz and then forgetting about the rest of the information. When I write my diary posts, I try to concentrate on the specific aspects of the stories that stick out to me such as what the more lesson was or how I felt after reading a particular story. I think that this gives more a better idea of the writing style of each particular country. Another thing that I like to do while reading, it start to visualize what I would change about the story in order to transform it into my own storytelling post. When I come up with a good idea, I add it to my reading diary so that the next day when I write the storytelling post, I do not forget what I wanted to write about. When I make my notes I based the reading writing order on the length of the story. If I think that it is going to be something long, then I will write my comments while I read. If it is short, than I prefer to read the entire story and then use my diary to express my reflections. I honestly could have done a bit better of a job of this the past couple of weeks, but I had five exams within ten days, so I got a little distracted from putting my whole effort into this course.

Essay Week 7: Tricksters and Fools

For this weeks reading unit, I chose to read about the Stories from the Congo. Having only had time to read half of the unit this week, I do not know if I got the complete feel for how the people from the Congo tell stories or their way of thinking, but what I did read I did not particularly like. Yes, the stories were very similar in terms of having tricksters and fools as other countries stories that I have read thus far in the semester, but the ones from the Congo were particularly gruesome. They had a very wild and literally animalistic  way of describing their forms of trickery and what consequences follow those forms incur. For example, in the story of The Antelope and the Leopard, the fool was the prideful leopard and the trickster was the metamorphic antelope. The antelope knew that they only way to beat the leopard was in a game of intellect, not strength. The antelope ending up slowly killing the leopard by the leopards own hands until he was just a legless, eyeless, toothless, and worthless body consumed by blind love. It was a very grotesque and not particularly enjoyable story. Then there was also The Turtle and the Man that was not exactly my favorite story either. In the story, the ox, who was good hearted and willing to help the turtle until he was blindsided and murdered by the greedy turtle. Even when the turtle met his consequence for his trickery, it was still through the means of murder.

(Leopard Attack. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons)

I guess that I am a sucker for things like happy endings and fairness that this unit really rubbed me the wrong way. Hopefully my next pick will either be something that is happier or has a more playful version of trickery and foolishness.

Storytelling for Week 7: The Selfish Turtle

There once was a turtle named Larry and a man named Matthew who worked hard together to build a town for them to share. During the time that they made their home, the labor made them close friends. However, this was not to last for very long.

"Larry, did you think to plant any food?" Matthew questioned.

"Not yet, but I'm starving too," Larry answered.

This went on for a few days until the pair were quite short of temper and extremely ravenous.

"Why don't we build a few traps and see if we can catch anything to eat. I will set one on this side of the town and you set one on that side," Larry told Matthew.

The next morning, Matthew's trap was empty, but Larry's trap had caught an antelope!

"I cannot lift this antelope out of the trap all alone and if I allow Matthew to help me do it then I will have to share my catch with him" Larry thought to himself. "I know! I will throw a party and have everyone except Matthew come to dance around the antelope and let them think that they will be receiving a piece. Then I can lure one of the big dumb animals out of the group to carry the antelope to my house by telling it that is where I will cook the meat for everyone!" Larry thought with a sly smile.

An hour later, almost fifty animals were dancing around the pit with glee. They were finally to get a little food in their bellies! Larry scanned the crowd carefully for an animal to carry the antelope and finally spotted a large ox that would be perfect for the job.

(Robert, the Ox. Web Source: Wikipedia)

"Rob!" Larry called to the great ox. "Would you come over here for a second, please?"

"Sure, Larry. What do you need?" Rob answered.

"I need for you to help me carry the antelope to my house so that I may cook the meat for everyone. I will give you a larger portion for your help!" Larry asked.

"Of course," Rob answered gleefully.

Once the meat was safely tucked away in Larry's home, Larry turned to Rob and said, "Will you please go an fetch some leaves to wrap everyone's meat in?"

"Of course," Rob answered.

When Rob returned, Larry's doors were all locked and he was not responding to any of Rob's calls.

Now Rob, being an ox, is very quick to anger and was not pleased with being tricked. So he charged back down the hill to the celebrating animals and told them of Larry's treachery. Together, the enraged group stormed Larry's home, crushing it to pieces. Larry fled the scene in fear without a bite to eat and all of the animals got their fair share of food.

Author's Note: For this story, I transformed the tale of the Turtle and the Man from the Congo Unit into something with a bit less gruesome and happier of an ending. In almost all of the Congo tales that I read, any character that did something wrong was murdered in the story. So for my story, I gave the turtle, man, and ox names so that a better connection could be built with them. I also used the ox to call all of the animals to the turtles house to take back the meat instead of having the turtle trick the ox and kill him as it was in the original story. I also had the turtle flee the scene alive instead of meeting his doom by the teeth of the leopard he had also tricked. Overall, I wanted to make the story a little more digestible by letting the "good guy" win and the "bad guy" fail. I guess you can call me a sucker for happy endings!