I have been studying the epithets and every time I visit the page that Chris created for it, I laugh! These pictures and epithets are hysterical and VERY memorable! Sometimes, I find myself walking on campus and I will see someone from a distance from this class and no longer think of their name, but their epithet! How great is that! My friends think that I am strange, but I don't care because I they are just jealous that they don't understand "our world"!
This class has been great! All the way from Yates to Kane to Ong to lists, epithets, memory theatres. I am sad that it is coming to an end. This is my last final- a great way to end the semester I would say!
Good luck to all!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The stories I tell...
Everyone tells stories, but most often those stories are non-sense, mundane stories of what happened that day or what someone heard...been there, done that. My stories though have evolved, thanks to my 5 year old niece. She is my little rockstar and as any child would, she LOVES to hear stories. I can tell by the look on her face that she will ask me that question "Can you tell me a story?" How could I deny that gorgeous little girl's request?! I can't, I never do.
This summer was when she really got into the storytelling mode...And I must admit, so did I! Our adventurous roadtrip from Minnesota to Montana was filled with imagination, creativity, laughter and imporvisation and in her eyes...wonder! To see her face light up or questions race through her mind fills me with a feeling of happiness and imagination. Children need stories told to them orally, they need to be creative, imaginative and live in a world of storytelling!
My sister-in-law criticizes me for "Making- up" stories and filling them with such non-sensical ideas! Her saying this makes me tell even more stories! How on Earth does she expect her child's imagination to bloom into something beautiful and unique if we do not share these stories! Thinking about this infuriates me, so I will move on to a new point.
The stories I tell her are about things that she has heard before such as princesses, unicorns and animals...then there are MY stories...the stories of hobbits and fairies and the lands in which they live. I like to set the scene for her, give her physical descriptions...the whole shebang! What I love most is the fact that none of the stories I tell her are written down, never again will she hear the exact same story. She knows this too- she will ask me to tell her a story of a hobbit, but ask me to change it or knows that it will not be the exact same. This though does not bother her!
I have tried so hard to write her a story and send it to her, but find myself ripping it up or deleting it. I do this because instead, I pick up the phone and call her, then I tell her a story. Often she has questions that follow and I come up with some imaginative answer to suit her curiosity and 5 year old imagination. No one else tells her stories like this, except maybe my dad, but even then it is not the same.
We tell stories in the car, after school, before bed, at dinner...you name it and we are storytelling! What better way for a child to pass the time. She doesn't need TV or movies, she has her aunt to tell her stories! Sometimes she even calls me before she goes to bed to hear a story. This makes my heart melt because I know that for her, I am the best stroyteller because I allow her to live in a fiction world even for a moment and to use her imagination! That girl is going to grow up to be a great inspiration and storyteller!
One last thing before my next class...
I began to grow tired from telling the same stories so now I ask her to tell me stories and we alternate...
She began one day by telling me a story of the 3 billy goats! I was amazed because for each goat she changed her voice and when she narrated she went back to her own voice. Then the troll steps onto the bridge and her voice goes deep and mean! She is a true stroyteller using her memory and imagination. Reciting stories she has heard and also coming up with her own! I told you she was a little Rockstar!!!!!!!!
This summer was when she really got into the storytelling mode...And I must admit, so did I! Our adventurous roadtrip from Minnesota to Montana was filled with imagination, creativity, laughter and imporvisation and in her eyes...wonder! To see her face light up or questions race through her mind fills me with a feeling of happiness and imagination. Children need stories told to them orally, they need to be creative, imaginative and live in a world of storytelling!
My sister-in-law criticizes me for "Making- up" stories and filling them with such non-sensical ideas! Her saying this makes me tell even more stories! How on Earth does she expect her child's imagination to bloom into something beautiful and unique if we do not share these stories! Thinking about this infuriates me, so I will move on to a new point.
The stories I tell her are about things that she has heard before such as princesses, unicorns and animals...then there are MY stories...the stories of hobbits and fairies and the lands in which they live. I like to set the scene for her, give her physical descriptions...the whole shebang! What I love most is the fact that none of the stories I tell her are written down, never again will she hear the exact same story. She knows this too- she will ask me to tell her a story of a hobbit, but ask me to change it or knows that it will not be the exact same. This though does not bother her!
I have tried so hard to write her a story and send it to her, but find myself ripping it up or deleting it. I do this because instead, I pick up the phone and call her, then I tell her a story. Often she has questions that follow and I come up with some imaginative answer to suit her curiosity and 5 year old imagination. No one else tells her stories like this, except maybe my dad, but even then it is not the same.
We tell stories in the car, after school, before bed, at dinner...you name it and we are storytelling! What better way for a child to pass the time. She doesn't need TV or movies, she has her aunt to tell her stories! Sometimes she even calls me before she goes to bed to hear a story. This makes my heart melt because I know that for her, I am the best stroyteller because I allow her to live in a fiction world even for a moment and to use her imagination! That girl is going to grow up to be a great inspiration and storyteller!
One last thing before my next class...
I began to grow tired from telling the same stories so now I ask her to tell me stories and we alternate...
She began one day by telling me a story of the 3 billy goats! I was amazed because for each goat she changed her voice and when she narrated she went back to her own voice. Then the troll steps onto the bridge and her voice goes deep and mean! She is a true stroyteller using her memory and imagination. Reciting stories she has heard and also coming up with her own! I told you she was a little Rockstar!!!!!!!!
Things we must do everyday...
These are a few things that I was thinking about as I lay in bed at 3am...thoughts run wild as you are preparing to enter the dream world. I came up with a list of things we really need to do everyday...
~Embrace in poetry (silently and orally)
~Dance and sing (preferablly in the rain)...this should be done because it allows us to immerse ourselves in both rhythm and sound- letting our creativity flow
~Tell a story
~ Leave our phones and music behind (I am after all Lisa the Luddite...) at least for a little while
~Take a walk and embrace the sounds of the Earth
~Listen to the Earth and interpret what YOU think it is saying or signaling
~Listen to a story
~And...well there is so much more I could add, but let's be sure to give at least one person a genuine smile each and everyday...
~Embrace in poetry (silently and orally)
~Dance and sing (preferablly in the rain)...this should be done because it allows us to immerse ourselves in both rhythm and sound- letting our creativity flow
~Tell a story
~ Leave our phones and music behind (I am after all Lisa the Luddite...) at least for a little while
~Take a walk and embrace the sounds of the Earth
~Listen to the Earth and interpret what YOU think it is saying or signaling
~Listen to a story
~And...well there is so much more I could add, but let's be sure to give at least one person a genuine smile each and everyday...
La Paix dans la vie
I don't know why I am posting this...it just goes along with my blog about the beauty of languages and how I came to this idea in my french class after presenting my poem...so even if you don't understand it, read it...try to read it outloud (I can't even read french outloud that well, so just give it a try)!!! The french language to me is beautiful written and oral, but there is something about a fluent french speaker or at least a graceful one reciting poetry...
Je m’assieds sur la barrière, il pleut.
Je pense…
Nous sommes tous connectés,
Par la passion, l’espoir et les rêves
Nos langues et cultures sont entre nous,
Mais nous habitons ensemble dans le même monde.
Nous devons accepter toutes cultures et langues
Et les gens comme ils sont.
Je chante à la lune et j’attends le prochain lever de soleil.
Je l’attends tranquillement
Pour le renouvellement, la paix et l’acceptation.
Ensuite, la nuit vient.
La nuit ne discriminez pas.
Accepter la vie que vous donnez.
L’amour de votre vie,
Et écrivez votre propre histoire.
Je m’assieds sur la barrière, il pleut.
Je pense…
Nous sommes tous connectés,
Par la passion, l’espoir et les rêves
Nos langues et cultures sont entre nous,
Mais nous habitons ensemble dans le même monde.
Nous devons accepter toutes cultures et langues
Et les gens comme ils sont.
Je chante à la lune et j’attends le prochain lever de soleil.
Je l’attends tranquillement
Pour le renouvellement, la paix et l’acceptation.
Ensuite, la nuit vient.
La nuit ne discriminez pas.
Accepter la vie que vous donnez.
L’amour de votre vie,
Et écrivez votre propre histoire.
Yates, blogging...dreaming- Bonne Nuit!
To be honest, Yates is a bit over my head. I think that Yates is over everyone's head! Tomorrow, I am going to dive in to her book one more time before my blogging adventures end...temporarily! I think that I will continue blogging on this page for quite awhile actually because I would very much enjoy that! Anyways...all I wanted to say was that it is 2:30am and this is no time for Yates and my brain to interact. AND...I love blogging!
More to come after I dream a bit...
More to come after I dream a bit...
My thoughts on Helena's thoughts...
After listening to Helena's brief presentation of her term paper "Sounds of the Earth in Myth and Oral Tradition", I just had to read it! The thing that caught my attention right away was the way in which she incorporated sounds into it. The echos, the river and the thunder. Sounds are so poetic and add so much to each and every experience. I am a person who loves sound, even silence to me is a sort of sound. The hum of fluorescent lights in the hall, pattering of the rain, a swoosh of a bird's wings. All those sounds can be so serene. What is it that calms babies? The beat of their mother's heart. Helena discusses the importance of sound before writing and how sound is involved in the Earth directly. Animals, weather, humans, and nature are all part of the sounds of Earth. Sound can be daunting or harmonizing. I got to thinking, the experience, mood, moment or place can impact how a person or animal reacts to that sound. For example, in the stillness of a forest when the rain falls lightly we are calm, if that calmness is interrupted let's say by a loud, roaring clap of thunder, we jump- we are then startled. The calmness turns to fear in a matter of seconds, all because of a sound. In a moment of excitement or exhilaration if we were soaring through the air, the rush of the wind and whistling or the atmosphere as we glide through the sky would add to the serene, yet exciting experience of flying.
Back to Helena's essay and Earth, sounds not only represent emotions, or invigorate those feelings/ emotions, but sounds represent the seasons. Sounds signal a season- whether the beginning or the end of it. As Helena pointed out, we know when spring is approaching because the birds sing. Fall is at its peak when the leaves are crunching inder our feet.
Sadly, science and technology have the ability to decrease the importance of sounds to people. Why listen to the trees or the birds to signal a seasonal change when we can pullout our calendar or surf the web to check the weather and Earth's position?!
Well, let's all go back to the storytelling tradition. Let's pretend even for a night. Don't look online to see when you can catch the full moon, instead, open your window, go up in the mountains and listen for the wolf howling to the full moon. Listen to the crickets chirping to signal to you when you can begin your storytelling around a campfire. I must say, this all sounds so much more exciting and appealing than getting online to find this information!
Thanks Helena for opening our eyes a little wider to the fact that nature has so much to offer us and to help us better understand what a deep connection nature has to the oral world!
Back to Helena's essay and Earth, sounds not only represent emotions, or invigorate those feelings/ emotions, but sounds represent the seasons. Sounds signal a season- whether the beginning or the end of it. As Helena pointed out, we know when spring is approaching because the birds sing. Fall is at its peak when the leaves are crunching inder our feet.
Sadly, science and technology have the ability to decrease the importance of sounds to people. Why listen to the trees or the birds to signal a seasonal change when we can pullout our calendar or surf the web to check the weather and Earth's position?!
Well, let's all go back to the storytelling tradition. Let's pretend even for a night. Don't look online to see when you can catch the full moon, instead, open your window, go up in the mountains and listen for the wolf howling to the full moon. Listen to the crickets chirping to signal to you when you can begin your storytelling around a campfire. I must say, this all sounds so much more exciting and appealing than getting online to find this information!
Thanks Helena for opening our eyes a little wider to the fact that nature has so much to offer us and to help us better understand what a deep connection nature has to the oral world!
The power of names
The class was full of presentations and comments regarding "the power of names". One would not stop to think about this unless they were told to or it was presented to them in class, I suspect. Kari's presentation was wonderfully informative in the way of this power and naming. Jana also did a great job presenting this AND putting me on the spot! Names are powerful in the sense that they are intimidating, personal, form a connection between listener and speaker and in general give power to either the namer, the one being named or both!
Names have the power to exclude, include or be a part of a prelude (I just wanted that to rhyme). Then I thought- thanks to my parents, this is my name...in a way THEY are the ones that had power over my name for so long! Why name me? Why didn't I have the power to choose? Maybe the whole time I was crying after birth was me chanting my name! Ok...this is a bit far fetched, but it's a point nonetheless!
Names also at one point in time represented class! They can represent culture, attitude, religion, beliefs...the list could go on and on. I am amazed at all of these thoughts that I am having regarding simply one thing...NAMES!
Isn't that the first thing you ask when you meet someone, or the first thing they tell you?
"Hi what's your name?" OR "Hi, I am...!" It is familiarity, manners, sincerity. Names have meaning, significance, sentimental value- very similar to objects.
Another random thought- I like the way a name can make you shiver...well I also hate it at the same time! Who's that one person you dislike so much? The one person that makes you happiest? The one person who really hurt you? Isn't there an electrfying feeling that goes right through your body when you hear their name? This happens to me sometimes. At times the feeling is a shiver of excitement, other times it is a wave of regret or hurt. Maybe it is the turning of your stomach or the rose tint to your cheeks that give away your feelings of the name.
I could go on and on with names and feelings, names and sounds, or names and significance! I think it would be fun to make a list of random names, hand the same list out to everyone in a class or group and next to each name write the first thing that comes to mind! I am sure for every name someone would have a feeling/emotion, person or experience/moment to relate back to that name! Just a thought...
Perhaps I will be back for more name knowledge later...
Names have the power to exclude, include or be a part of a prelude (I just wanted that to rhyme). Then I thought- thanks to my parents, this is my name...in a way THEY are the ones that had power over my name for so long! Why name me? Why didn't I have the power to choose? Maybe the whole time I was crying after birth was me chanting my name! Ok...this is a bit far fetched, but it's a point nonetheless!
Names also at one point in time represented class! They can represent culture, attitude, religion, beliefs...the list could go on and on. I am amazed at all of these thoughts that I am having regarding simply one thing...NAMES!
Isn't that the first thing you ask when you meet someone, or the first thing they tell you?
"Hi what's your name?" OR "Hi, I am...!" It is familiarity, manners, sincerity. Names have meaning, significance, sentimental value- very similar to objects.
Another random thought- I like the way a name can make you shiver...well I also hate it at the same time! Who's that one person you dislike so much? The one person that makes you happiest? The one person who really hurt you? Isn't there an electrfying feeling that goes right through your body when you hear their name? This happens to me sometimes. At times the feeling is a shiver of excitement, other times it is a wave of regret or hurt. Maybe it is the turning of your stomach or the rose tint to your cheeks that give away your feelings of the name.
I could go on and on with names and feelings, names and sounds, or names and significance! I think it would be fun to make a list of random names, hand the same list out to everyone in a class or group and next to each name write the first thing that comes to mind! I am sure for every name someone would have a feeling/emotion, person or experience/moment to relate back to that name! Just a thought...
Perhaps I will be back for more name knowledge later...
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