PAG

6-7-13

Author’s Note: I recently read The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. In this book, the main character is the last remaining priest in Mexico after religion is banned. Throughout the book, he struggles with the idea of whether to run away or stay in Mexico. The priest is nicknamed the whiskey priest because of his serious drinking problem.  Although I did not particularly enjoy the book, it made me truly find my values. This story is about the psychology and how we think about right and wrong. It actually is mainly about the lack of right and wrong in the world. I hope this piece truly makes you think about your life.

The Power to Find the Glory

The title saint puts somebody on a pedestal above the rest of the world. A saint is somebody whom lived their whole life in the light of Christ and was a perfect follower of His word. If this is true, then why does every saint talk about how much better the other saints were? Why does every saint consider himself not worthy of the respect that comes with the prefix saint? Why do we expect so much more from ourselves than the people who love and care for us? Our lives are not perfect, no matter how someone around us sees us. The only person that knows all of our mistakes is us. This can be a burden to live with. The truth is if we expect perfection, we will crumble under the pressure, but if we stride for perfection, we will find greatness along the way.

We all make mistakes. This is not only the most difficult but the most completing realization in the world. This concept was nearly impossible for the whiskey priest to grasp throughout the entire book. He believed that he had to be perfect, and that the priests that had come before them had been perfect. The truth is we must grasp two main concepts to truly understand how to find glory in our life. The first: we must understand that the world is not black and white. Everything is done in the gray area. Second: we must understand that we can only control our actions. Not the result of these actions, or how they are later perceived. These concepts are as complicated in life as they are simple on paper.

Right and wrong. Good and bad. Smart and stupid. We all look for approval in the world from the people we care about most. The whiskey priest was no different. He found no purpose in his life, because he did not receive the gratitude or the success that he wanted through his work.  This is why the priest and we as people set everything in the world in simple terms and leave no room for discussion or deliberation. The world isn’t as simple or as negative as this. Think about one of the simplest opposites: night and day. Life is just like night and day. Even in times we believe that there is a no hope left, and the world has just gone dark, there is still a little sliver of silver left in the world. The whiskey priest out that even when he couldn’t tell that he couldn’t completely see the good he had done in the world, there was still people who wanted to learn about the Lord. The priest also learned that even when the sun is shining bright, there is always a cloud somewhere, and sometimes those clouds are much bigger than us. Immediately after the priest decided to stay in the country, and preach the word of God to others. He believed that he was doing the right thing, and that he was living by his convictions. He was. He did make the right decision, but the Mexican government tried to tear down the priest. The government of Mexico was the clouds blocking the light that we all desperately wanted.

We can’t control whether everybody else sees the light that we see. We can only control what we see in every situation. Every decision has a motive, an outcome and a consequence, no matter how minute or grand. We have to understand why we do everything and be able to stand behind this when people scrutinize our actions. Sometimes when we have good intentions, the outcome does not display your true motive. The modern world makes it impossible to be perfect, because the majority of people don’t care for motives and beliefs, but instead make judgments derived from outcomes and results. We can’t just make decisions on hunches or instincts because of this. We have to understand the why of everything so that we can’t defend our stance to a world of critics. The whiskey priest struggled with this because he couldn’t defend his own decisions because he didn’t always believe he was doing the right thing. He never came to understand that we could never make enough right decisions to silence these critics. We have to understand that we can never make enough right decisions to have the world glorify us because there will always be that person who finds your one flaw. We have to understand that our motives may not please the world, but if we can understand our decisions and make the decision that we want, we will be able to live with ourselves.

When we live our lives with our personal decisions, it is easy to defend ourselves because we understand the motive. When we try to please people by doing the right thing, we can find it hard to stop the onslaught of criticism. You only live once. A saying used as an excuse used by teens all over the world, but it also has some true meaning. Why would we let somebody live twice by letting them control our life? We must find a way to disregard others wants and live by our own ambitions because we only get one chance in this world. We must find a way to be proud of ourselves because people will always try to bring keep us from realizing all the good we have done. We must find a way to bring out the power within us to forget what the world’s critics are saying about us, and realize what a glory our lives really are.

2/28/13

Living Life

When given a lifetime to do something, what are you going to do? When your final years become your final months and eventually becoming your final days, you will sit and reflect on your actions. Nobody, not even you, will remember your thoughts of an entire life. Actions can create memories though. These memories are your legacy. When your body dies, does your soul go with it, or do you leave a footprint that is remembered forever.

Nothingness is the easy path in life. To live free willed, doing what pleases yourself and having no conviction is easy, but people who do nothing in life are easy forgotten. Padre Jose’s thought process about decisions  extends no further than his self pleasure’s and finding the path of least resistance. Living a life nothing leaves no legacy at all. With no legacy to define your life by, you are neither worthy of heaven or hell. You are given an eternity of nothing for living a life of nothing.

Legacy, anything that is handed down from the past. If you are only remembered only in your short lifetime, you have wasted your time. When asked what important decisions you’ve made in your life, answers should come flowing off the tongue. Nothingness is the unforgivable sin. Living a life just going with the flow is easy. It allow us to just fit in with everybody around us and not make important decisions that change lives.  Without these decisions, we leave no legacy, but if we work to make these decisions important enough we can leave a footprint that last forever. 

Not Just a Name

Author’s Note: For this piece I was trying to continue on my goal of not ending sentences in prepositional phrases, as well as finishing my piece with a thought provoking conclusion.

John. Adam. Paul. Mathew. These are all simple, common names, but they are also somebody’s identity. A name carries weight, it carries somebody’s heart and soul, it carries somebody’s legacy. We give everybody names, even if we don’t know them, like New Girl, Blondie, or California Kid. There is something special about having a unique name though. This is why when somebody is being serious you are called by your real name, because this strikes home. Your name hits you somewhere deep below your shell. Can you imagine that ever being taken away? Can you imagine if something that full of life, just being pulled out from under you. Without a name, somebody can truly become a nobody.

In Ironic Literature, the main character is often nameless. In The Power and the Glory, the main character is referred as various things depending on how the author wants the reader to view him. Some of the common names are: the priest, the stranger and the man in the drill suit. These names are things that describe the character, but they carry no true power. When you hear “the priest,” your mind doesn’t race back to childhood memories or long laughs or that inside joke that you’ve kept for years. Graham Greene is showing the underlining purpose of a name, and the emotions a name can provoke. Greene is showing that a name is something that we often take for granted. Many do not see it as symbolism that defines us and our time in this world.

A name is as simple as a word. One word that can carry the life of a person. One word that can engage anybody in a deep conversation. One word that  can leave the world a little bit different. A name leaves a lingering legacy many years after someone takes their last breath.

Why the Responsibilities

Author’s Note: While having a conversation in our literature group, this section I refer to came up. One of the group members asked how such a negative feeling, responsibility, could not be distinguished from love. I completely disagreed with the statement, and that is the motivation for this piece. While writing this, I tried to work on how I end my sentences, not using prepositional phrases.

“He was aware of an immense load of responsibility: it was indistinguishable from love.” (Greene, The Power and the Glory 66). Love, an intense feeling of deep affection. There is an immense amount of responsibility that comes with a feeling like that. Responsibility, the feeling or fact that you have to do deal with something. Responsibility leaves everybody vulnerable to guilt. Guilt, the state of knowing that you have committed wrong doing. Responsibility comes with any conviction, including love. Guilt does not have to come with every responsibility though.

Responsibility is thought of as a negative feeling. When your parents or your teachers ask you to be responsible, most people make some excuse why they don’t have to this or that. People don’t like responsibility because can show somebody’s weaknesses. Responsibility to God was challenged, when the fire was set ablaze and he was dropped in, he was melted down to his selfish core, where only his personal needs mattered. Without responsibility, he conformed. can show that Superman is still Clark Kent. Without responsibility though, we cannot have a true conviction. If we don’t feel the need to do anything in life, than we are not truly convicted to anything. Padre Jose was never truly convicted to his priesthood, and so he lacked the feeling of responsibility. When his so called conviction

When given a whole life, what are you going to do with it. This is the question that we all have to answer with our answers. Anybody can talk about what they are going to do in life, but who is going to leave a legacy with their actions. This is why we need responsibility, because responsibility is that thing that when the world has turned against you, keeps you pushing towards your goal. Life is not an easy trip from point A to point B, so when life asks you to skip from A to C to get back to B, what is it that will keep you moving. What will keep you from conforming, from becoming another person on an assembly line. 

1-29-13

Morals: The Drive of Your Life

Author’s Note: As I was reading The Power and The Glory, I came to a section where everybody’s morals were tested in a village. The villagers were given the choice to either give up the whiskey priest,  who was in town, or the officer would take a hostage from the town. The honorable decision could differ from person to person. It seems honorable to protect the last of God’s servants, but they were also betraying their country by lying. This is where morals come in. At this point everybody had to decide what is right, and what is wrong.

For every person there is a line between right and wrong. For some this line is very definite, dark and clear. For others this line is more like a murky creek, waded in and out, but everybody has this imaginary line. This line defines our morals. Our morals are beyond what our teachers or parents tell us is right and wrong. Our morals are behind  our every decision, and  the purity of our morals are tested through crises as a crucible tests the purity of metal through fire.

In The Power and The Glory, the village Concepcion morals are tested. Where is their line? They must decide whether to save an old whiskey priest, who is disliked by the village, and give up one of their own for death, or defend their country and receive a 700 peso reward. At this point the fire has been lit, but the people in the village cannot quite feel the heat. They stand decide to protect the last of the prophets and give one of their own in return. As the time goes by though, the fire burns brighter and hotter. Every person finds themselves with an internal struggle, until they are finally down to their core, and there is nothing left to mask their morals. In the heat of the crucible, we can find what everybody’s made of.

At, I found quickly that there was a lack there of crisis in my life. I can only speak of what I stand for because I have never been challenged, never put in the fire. Someday I will be, we all will be challenged. This is when you prove what you believe in. This is when you prove what your morals are.

1-24-13

Existentialism

Author’s Note: This piece is a continuation of my last post concerning Existentialism. This piece refers a little more to the period of time this book was written in, and not necessarily the book itself.

An institution is an idea or place that has just simply been the way things are. Religion, school, and even marriage are modern day institutions. The Existential period was the questioning of institutions, the time when people started to decide for themselves whether or not the past had to be the present. This began a chain of events that included an explosion in the number of communist countries, and outlawing of religion. These events created conflict, and soon became a problem, not a solution.

Although amplified by World War I, existentialism was invented in the late 19^th century. At this time many philosophers reasoned that schools had less meaning than real life experience. Philosophers contemplated whether or not school was even necessary because of the experience many receive interacting with other humans. At the time, these were unpopular thoughts throughout the world, and the ideas were pushed aside by most, but when the world uncoiled in July of 1914 the people felt that something had to change.

World War I left many wives without a husband, many fathers without a son, and many houses empty and burned. What was left was a world that felt betrayed by the ways if the past. Now the existentialist had seemed to have a very valid argument. Maybe it was the lack of real world knowledge because of kids having reading and writing crammed down there throat that caused the war. Maybe it was people choice to believe in different things that left millions dead.  People even questioned whether or not there was a reason to stay alive. These are the questions that created what we now refer to as the post modern era.

The post modern era did not technically start until the end of World War II, but many of the events associated with the era occurred well before the start of the war. The boom in communism, the constant struggle between freedom for the civilians and conformity for the government, these all began as people sought a solution to make World War I the war to end all wars. The people running the government truly believed they were unifying the world and eliminating cultural diversity, ending any need for disputes.   What the leaders didn’t know is that they poured gasoline, and eventually there was going to be a spark.

World War II left the world with more deaths than any other war. Adolf Hitler believed that he was ridding the weak and he would stop at nothing to create in his mind what was a perfect world. Hitler thought he was doing his country a service, but he created the largest international dispute to this day. Hindsight is always 20/20, and as we see now, the solutions that the world offered after World War I, later became a problem in itself.

1-22-13

How Do We Make It

Author’s Note: I am currently reading The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. This book was written in 1940, after World War I, in the Existential period. During this time, institutions such as religion were being questioned. In this book, Graham Greene places characters the book to reveal different way people dealt with the pain of life. The main character is going through the process of finding his conviction, what he believes in, to make decisions in his life.

Why is life worth living? How do we live with the pain of life? When is enough, enough? These were the questions that swirled through everybody’s head as the Existential period came about after World War 1.   These questions are pulled away, layer by layer, as Graham Greene reveals the different answers to this question character by character.

Conviction. A word that has a simple definition, but is a complex answer. To have a conviction is to have a strong opinion or belief, but what is our conviction? What drives our every decision, our every thought? Living a life with no conviction is not living life at all. When people are given a lifetime to make something of it, and do nothing at all, they have wasted their life. A conviction can be the answer to any questions, because it is the reason you live. It is why you need to make it to tomorrow.

The lieutenant found his drive in pure hatred. He believed in his heart that anybody who believed in a god was committing treason. They were backstabbing his country, and he was not going to allow for this to happen. He made it his personal mission to find and end the life of the last priest, the whisky priest. In the early-mid 20^th century, people felt no trust in religion as it was outlawed in most countries.  People had felt that their God had betrayed them, leaving the millions of casualties of the Two World Wars. The lieutenant had a similar belief to many, he was an extremist though, he believed that anybody who believed in god, deserved to die.

Your family is always there for you to lean on. Even when the world seems to be attacking you from all sides, your family has your back. The mother in the story found strength in her family. Even as she was ready to quit, on life, her husband would not let her. This is a conviction that will never fade, a conviction that will never leave you. Love will always keep your family close, and keep you with a reason to make it to tomorrow.

Tomorrow will always be there. The sun will come up and light the way. There will be birds singing and cars bustling through the street. The question is will you be there tomorrow. Do you have a reason to ever wake up again?