Running for Eliot and Yeats

This past week, we had some really great poems that spoke a lot about the way one should live their life. Yeats and Eliot both suggested to readers through their works that we should slow down and enjoy all that life has to give to us, but not to slow to the point of over-thinking things and missing out on the real meaning. Today, I got the perfect application for that principle. Today I ran the the OKC Bombing Memorial Marathon, on the 5K relay team. This should be the point where I also mention that I am not by any means athletic, and I didn't train prior to the event (smart, I know). At 5 AM, when I got downtown, it was freezing cold (esp. in my pink shorts), and it was raining out. My bus got stopped on our way to the checkpoint, got lost, and almost didn't make it in time for me to catch our first runner and make the exchange, and then I had 3.1 miles ahead of me, wind in my face, and hill like crazy....and yet it was SO much fun!! For the past two years I have done this event, not because running is my thing, but because I love what I take away from it. I run beside nearly 1,500 different strangers, and you befriend people along the way. I had such a blast joking with perfect strangers about bad bus schedules, angry steroid-crazy runners, and the crappy weather that after awhile, you forget about being cold and uncomfortable and really focus on the good parts of the race. Making it into a positive experience, and finding that meaning in such special events is, I think, what these authors were striving to present. The best part of all today? I ran my leg in about 34-36 minutes, which is under my time from last year. Good times.

As this class goes on, it's getting harder for me to pick which era of English Lit. I like the most. I always thought it was the Romantic period, with all of its eccentric characters and amazing literary themes. After this week, though, I like what I see from Victorian Literature as well. I really like that, with this era, we get to see more of the voice of women, because this was around the same time that many got politically active in the women's rights movement of England (I think). We've now gone from seeing women as strictly inferior, to those that are almost equal to men with Tennyson. The works that we get to read in class are actually enjoyable to read, as opposed to really dry "college-ish" material that students usually get stuck with. I already read Mrs. Dalloway, and, although it was more challenging to follow along with, it was a great read. This class just keeps getting better.

Frakenstein's Theme Modernized

Another week, another post. In reading Shelley's Frankenstein, I posted as my "What is Shelley's message" answer that the question revolved around the responsibility of the maker vs. the responsibility of the created. I think that this theme has played out in several modern-day instances, including in the cinema. Tonight I watched the movie (very gory) The Mist. In it, the mist that covers the New England town is from a military lab who went too far in the ways of science, looking for ways to get to "other dimensions." Horrible things happen (I know, who would want me to ruin such a thrilling plot), but my fiance and I got to talking if David (the main character) would face implications after the military accident was cleaned up, or if the military should take full responsibility for all of the bad things that happened because of their massive mistake. Kind of a weird twist on Frankenstein, but still nice to see a common theme arise out of both. This movie also had serious religious undertones, and followed the same lines of Shelley, in that humans should not try to be God (else they be ready to meet their maker). Who should have been held responsible in this situation, the military for being dumb and stretching too far, or the townspeople, because they just starting acting on their own free will instead of relying on common sense. Again, that never-ending question. . .