Relating to assigned class books or journal articles:
Shenandoah Valley
At the beginning of class, we began by
establishing the context in which we were going to view beauty for the rest of
the class for the semester. The phenomenological approach required quite a few
days in class though to fully grasp the concept at least for me. The day we
talked about the two ways of looking at the Shenandoah Valley on the Appalachian
Trail made it make sense to me. At this place on the AT the hikers path meets
the road. Often you will find people on the road giving food to hikers. But
what’s more unique about this place than the graciousness of those providing
food to the hikers is the beauty of the space viewed by both the hikers and the
non-hikers. The hikers see the exact same scenery as the drivers, but at the
same time, they see very different views. The hikers have lived and breathed
this scenery for the past few days, weeks, or maybe even months so this view is
more of a home for them. They see their hard work of a rigorous hike, a time of
self-reflection, a sense of communitas felt on the trail, and feel a deep
connection to this place. The drivers, while they may feel a connection to the
hikers through the help they are providing them with through food, they still
don’t have nearly the same connection to that place as the hikers do. For some
of these people, it's a view they pass on a regular basis. It becomes almost
something they take for granted, which, if expressed in that way to the hikers
would be appalling. This place has become sacred for them. Thinking about this
scenario subjectively, the two people, hikers and drivers, see the exact same
thing. The physical space is exactly the same. The Shenandoah Valley doesn’t
change from one perspective to the other. But objectively, the space is
completely different for the hikers and the drivers. Phenomenology is a move
back to the things and how they interact with our bodies or 5 senses. So in
order for both people to view this place as beauty, they need to see it in the
objective sense to see how it interacts with their 5 senses.
This experience has happened for me
before quite a few different times. One basic example is the noland trail. When
I run and/or walk to noland, or any time I’m running really, it's a time of
self-reflection and prayer. So while I’m running it, the trail is a completely
different experience for me than what it is while I’m driving down museum
drive. I understand and experience the interconnectedness of the creatures and
the nature and my role in it. I taste the fresh air sustaining me. I hear the
rustling leaves. I see the families walking, children and dogs. I smell the
distinct smells of the outdoors. I touch the steps and hills and roots of the
trail with my feet as they pound into the ground. Yet for others, the Noland
trail can come completely different. It’s even completely different for me when
I’m just driving and can see the trail from my car.
Orchestra and theatron
I really enjoyed our class discussion on ancient
art and ritual. The picture of the stadium in which ritual is experienced is
something I connected with because it made it make sense to me. The orchestra
or the stage in the center of the stadium is the dancing floor where the ritual
takes place. It is a place of symbolic action that opens something new or the
representation of action or the thing. Art happens though in the theatron or
the seats. Theatron is “the place of seeing”. While I have never had a direct
experience of ritual in this setting, I can relate to the spectator perspective
where art is happening in the seats. As we discussed in class, as a true
spectator, you have time to contemplate, so they made the seats marble for
relaxation. Action here is swallowed up in contemplation.
The most applicable thing here for me has
been sitting in a seat during church on a Sunday morning and especially at a
mega church. When I first started going to Liberty Baptist church in Hampton, I
felt like a very small fish in a very large ocean. There was quite a large
disconnect between what was happening with me in my seat and what was happening
up front in the orchestra. What I came to realize later though is that I was
experiencing art from my seat, where I could be swallowed up in contemplation
by the ritual that I was spectating. It wasn’t until I felt a connection to
that church that I was able to be a true spectator as Harrison described. Once
the ritual was real to me and no longer just a separate observable activity, I
could truly connect and use my seat for contemplation.
Dance
Van der leeuw’s Sacred and Profane Beauty
takes you on a journey from the most universal form of art that encompasses all
other forms of art within itself, dance, to the most internal form of art, music,
requiring stimulation in one’s inner ear and brain. It takes an educated and
trained ear to appreciate the beauty of music to its full extent. Dance
however, is able to be appreciated by all and can be done by all as well
because all it takes in your own body. The way van der Leeuw describes it,
dance reflects the movement of God moving us upon this earth. This relates back
to Harrison too though and her ancient art and ritual. Participating in the
ritual itself is this concept of dance being the reflection of the movement of
God. As we saw in the African jumping dances in class, the movements aren’t any
choreographed-by-man movement, but rather a freeing ritualistic movement. The
most amazing part about those dances though is the synchronization of the
entire group of people jumping at the same pace and rhythm. The only way this
could be possible is if God ordered it. Their bodies looked as if they had no
control over them with movements looking like their body went limp at multiple
times. Yet the most amazing thing was the synchronization. As Harrison
discussed about true spectators of ritual making their contemplation the art,
in order to be a true spectator of this dance, you have experience it in a way
that allows for deep contemplation of the dance. Even though we were viewing
the dance on a video on a screen an entire Atlantic Ocean away, I felt a
connection enough to the dance to contemplate and appreciate the beauty of the
dance or ritual.
Modes of relationship
A lot of this class has made me think
about the class I took sophomore year, Sacred Wilderness for English 223. One
day, we specifically discussed Martin Bouber’s modes of relationship, which we
also discussed in 223. We talked about the fact that art communicates beauty
and the communication is to the other, which can be God, you or me. To
understand those relationships though, Bouber describes the I-you relationship
and the I-it relationship. I-you is subjective whereas the I-it is objective.
In the I-you relationship, encounter happens in the space between I and you;
whereas in the I-it relationship, I is the one experiencing the art. The
difference comes in whether or not you are encountering or experiencing the
communication of beauty from art. In an encounter with art, you are able to
participate in the communication because it is happening between I and you.
When experiencing art, it happens within “I” as a means to an end. It was cool
though for me when we discussed this because not only was I able to tie this in
with art and beauty, but I was also able to connect it back to our discussions
about experiences and encounters with wilderness.
Primary and Secondary World – Symbolic action
In van der Leeuw’s Sacred and Profane
Beauty, he talks about three ways of understanding the secondary world; humans
overcome or master the world, humans subject ourselves to the power, or humans
step outside the world and observe it. The creation of art through symbolic
action is a representation of the secondary world and the secondary world is a
reflection of the primary world. In science, we as humans try to understand the
primary world by overcoming and mastering the world through models, theories and
representations in the secondary world.
This is something I see very often in my
classes for my biology major, which was a new perspective of how I had been
looking at my ‘world’ within the biology department. Stepping back, I can see
that the primary world (this present Earth we inhabit) is unable to be
comprehended without the secondary world (models, theories, representations).
We utilize the secondary world to make the primary world make sense to us.
Rather than my science classes being strictly of this primary world, they are a
study of the secondary world that has been created by previous theorists and
scientists so that we can make sense of this primary world we live in.
Reflections on outside readings:
Captivating
A book that I often think of when we are
discussing different topics in this class is Captivating by John Eldredge.
While I did read this book a couple years ago, it is one of those books I
always think back to often. The author encourages girls to allow their hearts
to be captivated by God because God sees you as a fearfully and wonderfully
made woman, perfect in his sight. In this class we have looked at so many
different ways of viewing beauty but for me, every time I pull it back to God’s
creation. The things that I find beautiful are beautiful to me because God has
created them that way. When I encounter the beautiful, whatever it may be, I am
reminded of God’s creation of not only this entire universe, but also of me
down to the very last detail. Throughout the book Captivating, Eldredge paints
some beautiful pictures that help tie that secondary world that he is creating
with these images back to the primary world of the self-worth the women reading
this book feel. The images the author is creating for the reader are symbolic
actions representing the secondary world. That secondary world that the reader
is reading then is a reflection of the primary world in which we live so that
we can better understand the primary world. In this case, the secondary world
is created so that we can better understand the true beauty inside of us in
this primary world in which we live.
Spoken word poet
(Jesus> Religion)
Spoken word poet Jefferson Bethke came to
mind as a really great example of the call we talked about with poets according
to van der Leeuw. Bethke wrote a poem that he made a video out of that has gone
viral all over the Internet. He wrote the poem on why Jesus is greater than
religion. It's a call to all Christians to not focus so much on the checklist
of religion but rather to focus primarily on your relationship with Jesus.
Bethke didn’t just write it because he thought it would become popular. He
wrote it because he felt a call within himself based on an existential
encounter with God, probably through prayer. Bethke talks about in his poem how
there are too many Americans out there either turned away from Christianity
because of the “religion” aspect while there are also others stuck in the
“religion” rut and can’t see the primary need for a relationship with Jesus.
Whether it be the former or latter, the point Bethke is making is to make Jesus
you’re primary focus. It could be said of Bethke that he had ingenium, or the
creativity that reveals something new in a moment. Bethke got to a point where
he got fed up with the way Christian’s were living their life and felt the call
to write this poem. I can agree with Bethke and appreciate his desire to
address a topic that too many are afraid to bring up because their life is
comfortable in the present context. The link to his poem, in case you were
interested in viewing is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY
Paul’s letters and the call
When I saw a section of blogs that had to
be written on outside readings not assigned in class I got a little nervous
because I do very little, to no reading outside of class assignment, solely
because I don’t have the time, not because I don’t enjoy it. But one book I do
read fairly regularly is the Bible. I also thought back to the concept of the
call bringing one to the production of their work of art in reference to Paul’s
letters in the New Testament to the first churches. Each one of those letters,
while not necessarily considered a poem can still be considered a work of art.
And according to van der Leeuw, the work of art must be created only after
having had an existential situation calling the writer to write. Paul
experienced this call based on his observations with what was happening in the
churches as well as his own personal trials and experiences. A lot of his
letters were written from prison while he was in the midst of his trials, which
created quite a different art to the letters he was writing. While most pieces
of art like this one only go as far as the author and the recipient, Paul’s
letters are regarded as Holy Scripture for Christians to this day.
DC metro station- Joshua bell
I posted an article on your Facebook a
while back in the semester about the Washington Post experiment with violinist
Joshua Bell. The Washington Post had Bell perform in the DC metro station
during rush hour to see how many people would notice him and if anyone would
realize he was who he was and appreciate his music. The article shared that
Bell is “one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played
one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million
dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a
theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.” During their experiment in
the metro station, Bell played for 45 minutes and only got $32 from maybe 20
different people even though about 1100 people passed by during those 45
minutes. This experiment is just so interesting to me that the exact same
artist and art can be preformed in one setting for a sell out show in Boston
and only two days later the artist and the art are essentially ignored by over
1000 people. That just shows that context really matters in how the art is
being communicated to the listeners in this case.
Topic of the student’s choosing:
National
gallery of art
Over
spring break, my friends and I went up to DC for a few days. One of our stops
was at the National Gallery of Art. Knowing the dynamic of my friend group, I
knew this was going to be an interesting visit from the start. One friend is an
art history major, another is a social work major, another is an arts
administration major, another is a political science major and then there is me
the biology major. I was doing my best though to keep an open mind to the
things we were talking about in this class to apply it to this experience. I do
have to say that it would have been a completely different experience for me
had I not been taking this class. It was a weird setting for me though because
it was a formal, structured means of appreciating beauty. I found myself not
being able to connect to the art that well. Most of it was because I didn’t
have any story or background knowledge of any of the pieces we saw, which is
how I connect best – through stories. I do remember though this one piece that
caught my eye. This artist produced a very large canvas of a portrait of an old
woman made completely though of thumbprints in black ink. Something about the
piece drew me to it and I found myself wanted to figure out the details of how
she did it. I wasn’t able to really just sit back and experience the art for
what it had to offer me during this visit. This may have been for a few reasons
though: my friends all walking through at different paces, having no back story
on the pieces, and no initial appeal or draw to want to know more about a
piece. I do not however regret going by any means. I learned a lot about myself
through the experience I had there so I wouldn’t have changed it.
Sunrise
on Easter
This
year at Easter, my mom and I got to experience some of my favorite things about
this world all in one place. I was able to be at my house in Virginia Beach the
night before Easter, so my mom and I decided we would walk down to the
oceanfront to see the sunrise that morning before I had to get back to CNU. I
have always had a deep connection to the beach and especially water. For me
that is usually always an existential experience because the sound of waves
crashing is a soothing sound for me, but also the water is a reminder of my
baptism every time I experience it. I
have grown up at the beach my whole life, and didn’t come very far from it for
college either. So I got to be in one of my favorite places, the beach, with
someone I deeply admire and love, my mom, to experience the joy that comes with
the rising sun. This was especially true for Easter morning for my mom and I
because it was a symbol of Jesus, the Son rising as well. As the sun was rising
and the waves were rolling in softly yet persistently, I read the Bible account
of the resurrection aloud to my mom and couldn’t help but soak in the shear
beauty of the entire experience. I don’t often find myself in that of an
all-encompassing beautiful experience.
Beauty
Amongst Chaos – Campus Fires.
Another
place I have found beauty interestingly enough has been amongst chaos. On the
day after the Boston Marathon bombing when we had the five small fires on
campus, emotions of students were all over the spectrum from people thinking
nothing was wrong and it was totally fine to people assuming that we were the
next victims of the terrorist attack. I heard from some students that they
thought the motive behind the arsonist was to set all of the fire alarms off to
get all of the students out on the lawn in a large group so they could then
have a mass shooting in the middle of our campus. I appreciated though Dr. Redick’s consistency
amidst this chaos of fire alarms going off and students roaming out on the lawn
to have class outside. While it may have seemed as if I wasn’t very engaged in
that class itself, I was taking time to appreciate the beauty amongst the chaos
surrounding us. I saw cops and investigators diligently searching for the
suspect, students with a little fear or worry in their eye, and growing concern
based on phone conversations I overheard with parents and loved ones around me.
Yet despite this chaos, I also saw our class being held and education
persisting in a time when everyone was saying not to. I saw people coming
together to comfort one another. I also experienced after our class was over,
two gentlemen approached the group of us that were standing around and
introduced themselves and proceeded to ask if there was anything they could
pray with us about to ease our worries or concerns. This was the beauty I saw
and experienced amongst the chaos that day.
Rusty
and Karen’s vows
Something
interesting happened in my family this semester that I can’t say I have
experienced before nor will I probably experience again, and it was definitely
a beautiful thing. My aunt got married at the age of 56 to a man she met while
riding her bike at the beach one afternoon about a year ago. They were riding
in opposite directions the day they met and Rusty, her now husband, turned
around and caught back up with my aunt to tell her simply that he would have regretted
it if he didn’t take a moment to introduce himself and let her know how
beautiful she was. While there is so much beauty in this experience itself, it
was really cool to see the culmination of this encounter in their vows at their
wedding. Their vows to one another were in essence a piece of art. It was
fitting too that their wedding was at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in
Virginia Beach. The vows though were just so real and genuine. You could feel
the passion in their words and it was something you knew they weren’t going to
break. They were making a commitment to one another and they wanted their
friends and family to share in this experience of love with them.
Old
Rag proposal
One
of my favorite things to do is to just be outside. I can be doing just about
anything as long as I’m outside, that is where I am most happy. So of course
when I was extended the invitation to join a group of some good friends from
church on a hiking trip up to Old Rag Mountain in Luray, VA I couldn’t turn it
down. Little did I know though that one of the couples in our group, the guy
would propose to his girlfriend at the summit. I could write all about the
beauty of the experience I had on this mountain solely because of the hike
itself without having to talk about the other people I was with, but the fact
that he proposed at the top of this mountain made the experience that much more
beautiful. There is something just so rewarding about a rigorous hike that
makes the view from the top that much more beautiful. Throughout the hike, I
can’t help but feel a part of the mountain and a part of the group of people we
were hiking with. Along the way we kept running into this couple that we didn’t
know at the bottom of the mountain but by the time we got to the top, they were
sharing in the celebration of the engagement with us. The view from the top is
one thing after having made it through the rock scramble to get up the
mountain, but when you can share in the experience of this engagement with
really close friends, the view becomes brand new – just like the chapter this
couple is now beginning together.
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