A Seemingly Uneventful Place

Everyday I walk through campus and I don't think a whole lot about what I am walking by, the history of the place, the people before me who have tread their feet on the sidewalk and sidewalks before.  All I think about is making it to class on time and whether or not I have to stop at the library to print something or if I have to do any forgotten homework before chemistry class.  I'm sure there is a lot I do not know about MSU and it's territory.  Over the years since the turn of the century what has happened here? How did it all begin? What was it like when all that was built on campus was a few small buildings and Montana Hall? I came to find out that Hamilton Hall was one of the very first women's dormitories.  To think  it is now filled with classrooms and newly refurbished! It obviously is very different now then it was back in the early 1900's. I think about all the progression since then, the extraordinary people that have learned before me.  I realize I walk all over, around, and by history all the time.  A seemingly boring everyday walk to class suddenly sparks curiosity in my mind.  Who knows what the whole of the MSU campus has seen from it's birth to the present year.  

The picture is one taken around 1915 on visitor's day, Montana Hall is on the right and as you can see, there is no city in sight! Fascinating to see all the production done in the last century! 

Common Rituals

My everyday rituals are about the same as anyone's I suppose.  I wake up in the morning and get dressed and brush my teeth, eat breakfast head to class. Go to work after class , do homework whenever I can spare some time, and do the same thing every week.  I often feel like a robot when things get busy with my everyday demands.  They become rituals and often times I don't think about much else.  That has be a good and bad thing.  It distracts me from certain personal things that cause me to feel saddened but it also prevents me from feeling good.  I don't have time to do things that make me happy or see people that I enjoy.  So my rituals have put up blocks both ways in my mind.  However, I am working on creating ways to slow down my lifestyle and make time for the things that make me happy.  Sure, rituals and everyday work are important in succeeding in today's world but I think making time for fun and doing what you love is just as important. 

Page 9 Analysis

I chose to analyse a part of page 9; The contents in the section were said by Gustave Moreau, a french symbolic painter of the 1800's that specialized on scenes in mythologies.  This section caught my attention mostly because it asked me questions I didn't really have an answer to.  They were rather dark questions, "What will become of you? What will your destiny be? Where can you hide your fearful passions? " Although I didn't feel that they were questions directed towards the reader I still couldn't help but ask myself anyway.  It was a little disturbing to think about such things. I don't know what will become of me, or what my destiny is. 
As to what the "huge, pale figures, tremendous, lonely, dark, and desolate, fatal, mysterious lovers condemned to titanic infamies" are I am not entirely sure.  However, I think the previous questions that I asked myself were directed at whatever or whoever those descriptions apply to.  Perhaps it is directed towards Io, Telephassa, Europa, Argiope, Pasiphae, Ariadne, or Phaedra.  They are all related to each other in some way, mostly through pain and suffering brought on by their issues with the gods.  Maybe Gustave Moreau was asking them, but also the reader the same question; even the gods! " What terrors, what compassion you inspire, what immense and awesome sadness you arouse in those mortals called to contemplate so much shame and horror, so many crimes, such great misfortune." I feel what he says in this section applies to the gods.  He is, in a way, "calling them out" on all the things they have done to mortals.  Particularly the women mentioned earlier.   Gustave described their names as having an effect like the moon, lighting things up from a distance, a broad pure light (page 9).   Perhaps their experiences with the gods have allowed true light to be shed to the rest of the world what happens when humans get tangled up in business with the gods?  Gustave wishes to warn the mythological world of the dangers the gods pose to mortals? These could be only a few of the many meanings hidden on this page. 

Australian Creation Story

In the beginning, the world was dark, all the spirits on the Earth were sleeping.  The only one who was awake was the Father of All Spirits.  He was beginning to feel lonely, being that he was the only one awake in the Universe, so he woke the Sun Mother and told her, "Go shed light on the Earth and wake the spirits and give them forms.  So she did.  She gave life and created the animals, and when she was finished she was pleased and went back up into the sky.  For a while, the animals lived in peace and contentment, but soon envy crept into their hearts and they began to bicker, because they were jealous of one another.  The Sun Mother heard the racket from below and went down to calm the commotion.  She decided to allow the animals to choose their own forms, but she was displeased with her action.  Animals took strange forms: snakes grew legs, lizards grew large in size, but most particular to the Sun Mother was he platypus,  she did not understand that one at all. She feared the Father of All Spirits would be angry with her; so she gave birth to two gods: The Morning Star (male) and The Moon (Female)  The two gods gave birth to two children as well and The Sun Mother sent them to Earth to govern the animals and rule over them.  She chose them because they had her mind and would never want to change their form. 

Hidden Meanings

I suppose I have walked by this tree everyday and not noticed how splendid it actually was.  It was a huge pine in a cluster of three others of the same kind; being underneath it was very calming.  It was a shelter from the sun, the rain, and eventually the snow.  I felt somehow safer beneath it when I got my picture taken.  I also thought about all the people and things the tree has seen over the years of looking over campus.  It probably would tell good mythological stories of past years. To think I simply walk by things ignorant of its past, story and meaning.  This tree has helped me to dig deeper into the existence of common things, what was their meaning? What have they seen? What does it all have to do with the past and continuation of the world?  It's interesting to think of such things; life is indeed a mystery.  It cannot be solved, but is that not what makes life more interesting?  Even though I find it frustrating when I do not understand things that are happening to me I feel that if I knew why, what would I have to live for?  It would all be pointless. 

An Early Memory

One of my earliest memories was actually a frightful experience for a three year old kid.  It was probably one of the most traumatizing events of my early childhood. I got a Nerd stuck up my nose! I remember simply sticking it up there and somehow I managed to get it up into my brain it seemed. I remember the sting it caused and the panic of not being able to get it out.  I cried and ran to my mom and aunt who were in the living room and they had noticed the purple snot coming out of my nose and the nerd box in my hand so they put two and two together.  Mom tried to get me to blow my nose but I was confused and didn't understand why my favorite candy was hurting me so much so I just cried.  After what felt like hours for a small child, I blew it out; and that was when I learned to never stick things up my nose! Gross but true story.

Chapter One

Though the text is difficult to read and comprehend at times I still found the first chapter enthawling.  I enjoy many forms of literature and being that literature often associates with stories I enjoy exploring Mythologies as well.  As for the question, "Where did it all begin? I believe the stories will combine on themselves to produce an answer.  However, because many myths have so many different endings or even plotlines suggests there may not be a one answer that the mythological stories say.  All of them have multiple forms of the same story.  For instance, I particulary thought the story of Ariadne, Theseus, and Dionysus was interesting.  I felt for Ariadne and the heartbreak she went through with Theseus and Dionysus. Her story is a good example of multiple endings; some claimed she hung herself in the end, while others say she "Rose into the sky, where we still see her today amid the northern constellations." And some believe Dionysus ordered her to be killed.  "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony" says that no other woman or goddess had so many deaths as Ariadne; which in mythologies could imply also that no world had so many beginnings as ours.