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Creative Writing, The Man who stepped into Yesterday
Creative Writing, The Man who stepped into Yesterday
Once upon a time, there was a mountain which rose out of a vast, green forest. And in the forest there were birds and lakes and rocks and trees and rivers. The forest was also inhabited by a small group of people called the lizards. The lizards were a simple people and they had lived in the forest undisturbed for thousands of years in utter peace and tranquillity. Once a year spring came, and the first blossoms began to show, the lizards would gather at the base of the mountain to give thanks for all that they had. They thanked the birds and they thanked the lakes and they thanked the rocks and the trees and the rivers; but most importantly, they thanked icculus. icculus lived at the top of the mountain, or at least everyone thought so, for no one had ever actually seen him. But they knew he existed, because they had the helping friendly book. icculus had given the helping friendly book to the lizards thousands of years earlier as a gift. it contained all of the knowledge inherent in the universe, and had enabled the lizards to exist in harmony with nature for years. And so they lived; until one day a traveler arrived in gamehendge. His name was wilson and he was quickly intrigued by the lizards way of life. He asked if he could stay and live in the forest; and the lizards, who had never seen an outsider were happy to oblige. wilson lived with the lizards for a few years, studying the ways of the helping friendly book, and all was well. Until one morning when they awoke and the book was gone. wilson explained that he had hidden the book, knowing that the lizards had become dependent on it for survival. He declared himself king and enslaved the innocent people of gamehendge. He cut down the trees and built a city, which he called prussia. And in the center of the city he built a castle, and locked in the highest tower of the castle lay the helping friendly book, out of the reach of the lizards forever.
But our story begins at a different time, not in gamehendge, but on a suburban street in long island, and our hero is no king sitting in a castle, he is a retired colonel shaving in his bathroom. Colonel forbin looked square in the mirror and dragged the blade across his cold creamed skin. He saw the tired little folds of flesh that lay deep beneath his eyes. Fifty-two years of obedient self-restraint, of hiding his tension behind a serene veil of composure.
For fifty-two years he had piled it all on the back burner, and for fifty-two years it had boiled, frothing over in a turbulent storm inside of him. It had escaped through his eyes, reacting with the smoke and the fluorescent lights and slowly accumulated into the nape of his neck and he thought again about the door.
He had discovered the door some months back on one of his ritualistic morning walks with his dog, mcgrupp. It had started out as a typical stroll with mcgrupp bounding joyously ahead of the preoccupied colonel. as they reached the apex of the hill, he saw it, and it caught his curiosity, and he knew it had always been there, and felt foolish for overlooking it, but he soon found that it was impossible to overlook it anymore, and slowly his newly acquired knowledge transformed his dreary life into a prison from which there was only one escape. And on this morning, colonel forbin stepped through the door… passing through the corridor i came upon an ancient knight who leaned against the wall in gnarly armor, he was on his way to see the king, wilson. He led me through the streets of prussia talking as he tried to crush a bug that scurried underneath his boot heel. He said there was a place where we should go, so he led me through the forest to the edge of a lagoon by which we wandered till we reached a bubbling spring. The knight grew very quiet as we stood there then he lifted up his visor and he turned to me and he began to sing…
He said, “i come from the land of darkness, i come from the land of doom,” he
Said, “i come from the land of gamehendge, from the land of the big baboon. But
I’m never going back there and I couldn’t if I tried, ’cause I come from the land of lizards and the lizards they have died.” he told me that the lizards were a race of people practically extinct from doing things that smart people Don’t do, he said that he was once a lizard too. His name was Rutherford the brave and he was on a quest to save his people from the fate that lay before them. Their clumsy end was perilously near. The lizards would be saved, he said, if they could be enlightened by the writings of the helping friendly book.
In all of prussia only one existed, and wilson had declared that any person who possessed it was a crook. The helping friendly book, it seemed, possessed the ancient secrets of eternal joy and never-ending splendor, the trick was to surrender to the flow. We walked along beneath the moon, he lead us through the bush *til soon we saw before our eyes a raging river. He said that we could swim it if we tried. And saying this the night dove in forgetting that his suit of arms would surely weigh him down and so he sunk. And as his body disappeared before me, I bowed my head in silence and remembered all the thoughts that he had thunk.
But Rutherford and forbin weren’t alone, and suddenly an unexpected movement caught his eye. On the far side of the river he saw a shaggy creature standing in the weeds who stared across at forbin with an unrelenting gaze. A gigantic mass of muscles and claws, the hideous beast reared back and hurled himself in the water and swam toward the region where rutherford lay. In a flash the beast was gone, underneath the surface to the frosty depths below while forbin, bewildered, waited alone. The seconds dragged by in what seemed like hours *til finally the colonel felt it all had been a dream. Defeated, he bowed his head then turned to go. Suddenly, with a roar, the creature emerged before him and held the brave knights body to the sky. The creature laid the knight upon the shore and the colonel fell beside his friend in prayer that he’d survive, and Rutherford, brave Rutherford, was alive. forbin and the unit monster were crouched over the soggy knight carefully removing his bulky helmet when the colonel heard a sound behind him. He turned and came face to face with an enormous, shaggy, horse-like creature covered from head to tail with alternating blotches of brown and white. It was a two-toned multi-beast, and atop the multi-beast sat the most beautiful woman the colonel had ever seen. After fifty-two years of undaunted bachelor hood, the colonel felt a feeling rush over him as he had never felt before… the sky is burning in this lonely man, and I kneel by the river and i feel the sand and the wind. The wind from
Beyond the mountain. And she comes to me in this lonely land, and looks down from the multi-beast on which she rides like the wind… tela was born in a vulgar crooked hut in the shadow of Wilson,s castle. Venomous scorn from the life of bitter toil, glory esteem fueled by her hatred it grew, swelling to the point where it would burst at the seams, there was nothing she could do. tela, tela, jewel of Wilson,s foul domain, a lullaby the breezes whisper. I look into her eyes and my frozen heart begins to thaw, and it burns, *til layer after layer melts away into a pool, a sky blue mirror of her eyes. My soul is made of marble, but in her gaze i crumble into dust and drift away on the wind. Tela grew strong, her struggle to endure, time touched her wounds and shelter proved the cure. Each passing day seemed to feed the brazen serpent locked inside and liberate the spirit she*d concealed for so long. There was no place left to hide.
Tela reached out her hand and helped forbin onto the back of the multi-beast, and together they rode off into the forest. As they rode, tela explained to him about wilson and the helping friendly book. She told the colonel that she was part of a revolution to overthrow the evil king. The leader of the revolution was a lizard named errand wolfe who was out to avenge the death of his son roger. Roger, she said, had been executed by wilson at the age of fourteen on suspicion of treason. He had been abducted from his home and hung in the public square. The two rode on in silence, deeper and deeper into the heart of the forest until they came to the outskirts of a small community. Tela explained to forbin that they had reached the base of the revolutionaries. The colonel looked up and there in the center of the clearing stood errand wolfe. He was a small man but his presence was overpowering. He seemed to emit a kind of violent energy that sent chills down the colonel’s spine. As the multi-beast moved towards him, he raised his fist in anger and his voice filled the forest…oh, out near stonehendge, i lived alone, oh out near gamehendge, I chafed a bone. Talk my duke a mountain, helping friendly book, in as far as fiefdom, I think you bad crook. i talked to my son roger, rutherford the same. When we had that meeting, over down near gamehendge. wilson, king of prussia, i lay this hate on you, wilson, duke of lizards, i beg it all trune for you. You got me back thinking’ that you’re the worst one, i must inquire wilson, can you still have fun?
Meanwhile, in the main square in prussia, the state of the revolution was taking another turn for the worst. A crowd of people had gathered to witness the hanging of wilson,s account, mr. palmer. It seemed that palmer had been a revolutionary himself and had been exhorting wilson’s money to fund the revolution. Palmer stood on the scaffold with wilson and the ac/dc bag, an electrified robot-hangman with a black bag over his head. wilson seemed pleased as he began to speak… Mr. Palmer is concerned with the thousand dollar question, just like roger he’s a crazy little kid. I’ve got the time if you’ve got the inclination so cheer up palmer, you’ll soon be dead. The noose is hanging, at least you won’t die wondering, and sit up and take notice, tell it like it is. If I were near you I wouldn’t be far from you I’ve got the feeling you know what you did. Time to put your money where your mouth is, put themin a field and let them fight it out. I’m running so fast my feet don’t touch the ground, I’m a stranger here, and I’m going down. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty, let’s get the show on the road. I’ll so you mine if you show me yours, I’m breathing hard – open the door. Brain dead, and made of money, no future at all.
Pull down the blinds and run for cover. Who would’ve thought it, that’s where I am, no future at all, don’t sweat it, that’s where I am, who carry me down.
By that night, news of palmer’s death had traveled back to the camp.
Spirits were low and colonel forbin felt devastated.
Description and Analysis of Two Films Related To Religion and Ecology
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Description and Analysis of Two Films Related To Religion and Ecology
Introduction
This paper posits to present a description and analysis of two films that relate to religion and ecology. The first film will be Avartar while the second film will be The Garden: A Miracle in South Central L.A.
AVARTAR
The film Avartar by James Cameron, metaphorically takes on the themes of suppression and imperialism of indigenous peoples. The film implicitly criticizes industrial capitalism’s rapacious appetite for natural resources, despite the fact that it as well participates in it. The film Avatar generates immense controversy. Avatar epitomizes forms of religion that intimately associate animistic spiritualities that of belong to nature with opposition to bio-cultural simplification. Bio-cultural simplification in this case means the erosion of cultural and biological diversity as agriculture spreads, slaughtering, converting, and dislodging small-scale foraging as well as, pastoral societies.
Avartar persuades the audience to perceive that everything is inter-related. The theme depicts that all human beings are related to each other, and the human race is as well related to the Earth. In an interview shortly prior to the Academy Awards, James Cameron asserted that in the film’s climax, the audience is persuaded to support nature in its fight against the disparaging forces of human civilization. The film brings about feeling of connection and belonging to nature. It also brings about the notion that nature has inherent value and must not be exterminated by the human race. These are fundamental characteristics of the dark green religion.
Avatar is probably the most viewed motion picture. Following its release on December 18th 2009, the film was speedily ranked as the highest grossing movie ever released. It was regarded as a global cinematic phenomenon. Avatar is set in a place referred to as Pandora, a strikingly beautiful and abundantly vegetated moon that circle a gaseous planet located in a stellar system known as the Alpha Centauri. There, in 2154, human aggressors had founded a mining colony, the objective being to gain access to a source of energy related to uranium that is referred to in the film as unobtainium. The film establishes that man had been executing a military crusade to vanquish Pandora’s indigenous inhabitants, known as the Na’vi. The Na’vi resisted man’s exploitive plans, and mounted a vicious resistance. The Na’vi are later joined by a diverse alliance of Pandoran animals, also a small number of well-placed defectors of the human race. This alliance joins in fighting the imperialist human aggressors. The imperialist humans were eventually defeated and thrown out of Pandora.
A number of the humans, who had joined the alliance, choose to remain in Pandora and become a component of the Na’vi planet. Of particular interest from the perspective of ecology and religion background, is the bio-neurological system of the planet. This is depicted by an organicist being who is personified by the indigenous inhabitants as the deity Eywa, who plays an influential role in the battle. This includes responding a prayer-like petition from one of the human defectors. Eywa answered the petition by inspiring Pandora’s animals for war; during the film’s final climactic conflict, when all seems lost the most formidable of all Pandora’s animals arrives and routes the invaders.
The Na’vi are portrayed as indigenous people have usually been depicted. Indigenous people are usually depicted in fashionable culture as living in ecological and spiritual harmony with the natural world. The indigenous Na’vi lives in a communicative embrace with the goddess Eywa. On the contrary, the human invaders were disjointed from the natural world on planet Earth. The humans had made the Earth almost uninhabitable. They were also disjointed from the wonder-world of the Na’vi. Thus, the film’s conflict was over whether a hallowed world, and its most sacrosanct of places, may be defiled and damaged by the militaristic, mechanistic, and materialistic human invaders.
Jake Sully is a soldier with a unique role in suppressing the Na’vi. Even though he is a paraplegic as a result of a previous military injury, he is brought in to substitute his dead brother in a program involved in genetic engineering that created the avatars (human-Na’vi hybrids). The avatars provide the human beings with Na’vi bodies, thus facilitating them to breathe Pandoran air, which is otherwise lethal to humans. Through the avatar bodies, the hybrids may interact and communicate with the Na’vis. Sully’s designated responsibility is to study enough concerning the Na’vi to persuade them, to depart from the areas targeted for industrial extraction.
Dr. Grace Augustine is another human character who works via an avatar body. She had, studied Na’vi ecosystems and culture prior to the proceedings shown in the film. As an ethno-biologist and anthropologist, she is passionately inquisitive concerning Pandoran natural structures. Like several contemporary anthropologists she in the film, she expresses solidarity with the Na’vi people. Augustine is of the opinion that by studying from the indigenous people, she may persuade the humans who came to exploit the mineral resources that, the factual riches of the place are placed in its living things and the natural systems that constitute it. By means of their avatar bodies, Augustine and Sully come to embrace and understand the Na’vi’s holistic ecological spirituality.
Avatar consequently raises decisive questions for anyone interested with the conflict involving the health of eco-systems and the industrial-extractive capitalism. Avartar’s portrayal of Na’vi religion goes deeply into the environment described variously by terms such as ‘dark green religion’, eco-spirituality, animism, pantheism, paganism, and panentheism.
The Garden: A Miracle in South Central L.A. The title of this film invokes a biblical visualization of tranquil harmony. The initial images of The Garden would possibly be prosaic, but nonetheless they support the idea of tranquil harmony. In the film, a man, battered by age and physical labor, arises before sunrise and heads to the South Central Garden. The garden consists of fourteen acres of farmland in the heart of an otherwise wrecked part of downtown Los Angeles. The man works the plot of land patiently and quietly. It is shortly evident that his labors as well as those of his co-farmers sustain just the body as well as soothe their spirits. The scenery of the farm viewed from the sky is attractive, shocking, surrounded by buildings as well as city streets. The closer shots, of countless vegetables and fruit trees are delightful.
As the back story subsequently unfolds, and it is revealed that this territory of green was an offshoot of the repercussions of the horrendous Rodney King’s verdict and following Los Angeles. In 1992, a lady known as Doris Bloch established the park as a way to introduce something constructive to the community. The parcel of land had initially come into the authority’s possession on account of an eminent domain, bought in 1986 from Ralph Horowitz. It was intended to be the location of an incinerator. However, Juanita Tate who was a community activist effectively battled City Hall to avert such a contamination source in the midst of a pitiable neighborhood.
Director of the film, Scott Kennedy, portray the farmers as they work on their plots, proudly chatting about their crops. Almost as though by happenstance, the camera stumbles on the commencement of a battle. City Hall has decided to trade the land back to Mr. Ralph Horowitz, in a confidential negotiation that is debatably illegal. Consequently in 2004, the biggest urban neighborhood garden in the nation is to be turned into warehouses, after 12 years. Horowitz’s effort to eject the farmers sets in motion the chronicle of a faction of Latino laborers who are learning how to stand up for themselves in a law court as well as in the public eye.
The camera picks up the information ingeniously, and trusts on the audience to tag along. What follows is a mesmeric story that evokes another biblical anecdote, namely David and Goliath. This takes place as the farmers collaborate to resist the invasion.
In the film, it comes out clearly that as human beings; there are ethics as well as a jurisprudence that starts with the human. This determines human conduct in his relations other people. The film brings in the perspective that, the natural world that surrounding us is merely the milieu in which the affairs of human beings take place. In the presence of man, the natural world is devoid of its rights. The film evokes the notion that the human race has a moral sense of homicide, suicide as well as genocide. On the contrary, the human race has no moral sense of biocide or the mutilation of the eco-systems.
CONCLUSION
Analyzing films is significant since the understanding of a feature film is basically based on the viewer’s perspective. Unfortunately, a film is based on the director and producers and probably may not share similar opinions as the audience. An audience may view a film differently if it simply watches the movie superficially. Therefore, critical interpretation of a film is fundamental in understanding the film completely.
Creative thinking in Homeland security
CRITICAL THINKING IN HOMELAND SECURITY
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Introduction
Critical thinking is the scholarly disciplined progression of dynamically and skillfully intellectualizing, applying, examining, synthesizing, and/or assessing information collected from, or produced by, observation, experience, reflection, perceptive, or communication, as a guide to credence and action. It is based on worldwide intellectual principles that rise above subject matter division: accuracy, clarity, consistency, precision, relevance, good reasons, sound evidence, fairness depth and breadth.
Homeland security refers to an American canopy term referring to the effort of the nation in preventing attacks by terrorist in the interior of the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism, and minimize the damage that could occur from an attack. The term arose following a reorganization of numerous U.S government agencies in the year 2003 to form the United States Department of Homeland Security after the September 11 attacks. It may be used to refer to the actions of the department.
Biases refers to the shared beliefs that are not only associated with personal characteristics, but also the pattern of behavior of groups of individuals. In most cases, biases are directly connected with the creation of mindsets, which refer to the shortcuts that are used to find quick solutions to problems that are not efficient. Mindsets makes use of similar thinking approaches and solutions that were deployed to solve past problems and applying them in the current problems (Moore, 2012). In order to avoid being victims of mindsets and biases, it is important for individuals to ascertain the various ways through which mindsets and biases are formulated, with the main objective of devising strategies to overcome the formation of mindsets and biases in the critical thinking methodology that is applied by individuals (Richards, 1999). This paper discusses how mindsets are formed and the strategy that can be used to overcome. In addition, the paper also discusses specific instances of biases that have appeared in the Homeland security context.Mindsets and biases can be perceived to a form of mechanical instincts of individuals, in the sense that they determine the prejudice of people (Richards, 1999). The effect of prejudice in individual thinking is that individuals usually find too problematic to think, or rather they deploy an effortless thinking towards the formulation of solutions to current problems. There are diverse ways than mindsets and biases manifest itself in people according to the situational context. Mindsets and biases are an integral element of an individual’s cultural heritage. In addition, they are just transmitted in an analogous manner to the way in which values, habits, principles, beliefs are transmitted (Richards, 1999). Mindsets and biases are subjective to factors such as the language, religion, gender, social circle, race and the place that one is living. These factors shape the individual perception of the world and the things that happen around them. This means that different people will have different viewpoints towards an issue depending on the above factors on the sense that people are quick to make and generalize assumptions concerning situations and other people basing on factors that shape their perception of the world (Richards, 1999). Mindsets and biases can be as result if parental influence, who in most cases are the first foundation of knowledge. The media can also result to the formation of mindsets and biases, owing to the fact that it is influential in the process of making unconscious assumptions regarding certain problems and issues that we are facing. The assumptions basically reflect the way of thinking that an individual used in problem solving (Richards, 1999). Cognitive factors also play a significant role during the formation of mindsets. It is the nature of human kind to make conclusions that are erroneous in certain scenarios basing on cognitive elements rather than the available evidence. The human mind can be perceived as a data processing machine makes use of various approaches that are not based on the diverse information around us. The underlying argument is that despite the fact that the approaches deployed by the human mind facilitate easy information processing; an outcome of this is that it results to the formation of mindsets and biases (Richards, 1999). Cognitive biases comprises of mainly mental errors that are as a result of simplified approach to information processing by the human mind. Cognitive bias is distinctive from other kinds of bias that may be in the form of cultural, organizational and self-interest biases, which are mainly imposed by self-interest. It is important to note that cognitive bias is not imposed by emotional and intellectual factors that predispose individuals towards certain decision making methodologies. Instead, cognitive bias is an outcome of the subconscious mental procedures that are used for processing information around us in the subconscious mind (Richards, 1999).In order to overcome mindsets and biases, it is imperative for individual to appreciate the significance of being open-minded, and learn the various methods that can be deployed in reviewing the thinking process. It is also helpful to reform our individual thinking strategies and develop strategies that can be used for categorization and differentiation of the information that caused the current issue or problem (Moore, 2010). The initial step in overcoming mindsets and biases is to admit individually that it is the nature of human beings to be biased. The next step is to identify problem and the potential cause of the problem. It is important to take into consideration all the facts without avoiding external and internal influences. This is an effective strategy in confronting prejudice and cases involving the omission of other interpretations possibly due to rejection and ignorance. Basically, countering biases and mindsets entails having an understanding of the problem without basing on prediction, formulation of alternatives, and clarification of any assumptions made and the core variables involved in each of the formulated alternatives. In addition, it is vital to resist any instances of temptations that may try to eliminate cases of analytical uncertainty (Moore, 2010).An example of mindsets and biases in the homeland setting is the events that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks that resulted to a perception that individuals originating from the Middle East are potential terrorist attackers (Secunda & Moran, 2007). The main cause of the mindset and bias after the 9/11 attacks were the grief and ignorance that was due to the fact that the people responsible for the attacks were from Middle East and they were residing among the United States population. The outcome of this mindset and bias saw the government pass the Patriotic act into a legislation that aimed at increasing the immigration policies, incarceration of individual perceived to associated with terrorism, which were mostly from the Middle East. The second example of mindsets and bias in the context of homeland setting is the War against Iraq initiative. This was because of the high level of ignorance by the government and decision making process regarding the war against Iraq was based on its preconceptions (Secunda & Moran, 2007).
ReferencesMoore, D. (2010). Critical Thinking and Intelligence Analysis. New York: DIANE Publishing.Richards, H. (1999). Psychology of Intelligence Analysis. New York: Bernan Associates.Secunda, E., & Moran, T. (2007). Selling war to America: from the Spanish American War to the global war on terror. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group.