Quote Circle?

I for one love the quote circles we do in class before each quiz. Since we have no time to do this before the quiz on Monday I thought it might be helpful to have one on the blog. I guess I'll start, you're welcome to follow. :] pg 142, first sentence: "Some people will send a bread and butter note...Anatole sent us a boy." -I particularly like this one because it shows the difference between the life in Georgia and in the Congo. It also says to me that Leah is starting to acknowledge the differences and take them into effect in her new life. pg 173, last sentence: "Our Baptist ears from Georgia will never understand the difference." -This is when Adah was talking about how they pronounce words differently for different meanings. I thought it was interesting that Adah pays so much attention to this and no one else, especially Nathan, does. And she used the word 'ear' rather than mind or anything else, maybe cause she chooses to hear things instead of say them. pg 196, 2nd paragraph: "That was the last I would...and trust in the miracle of good fortune." -This is from Orleanna when she is recalling the accident that happened to Nathan in the war. It gives me the impression that she now sees a clear dividing point between her life before and after Nathan's accident. Her life seems so much worse now, but Nathan seemed like he had changed for the better. Well, I hope this gives some recollection of what happened in the early parts of the book (it helped me to skim through it all again).

Crossing the Line

I'm sitting in the car right now, getting internet from my dad's evo. We're in Maryland right now--it looks a lot like Michigan, except the temperature is 66 degrees right now instead of the 40 degrees I'm assuming Michigan is. I'm listening to a song by Trust Company called "Crossing the Line" (notice title of blog...). It kinda reminds me of Nathan. I haven't read the book we were supposed to read yet. I tried reading it earlier while laying on Virginia Beach, but it was too windy, so the pages were blowing making it impossible to read. Back to the song and Nathan: I always thought that Nathan crossed the line in going to the Congo. Obviously, the people there didn't really need him--they help him more than he helps them--so he really shouldn't be there. That is kind of like my Mexico trip. We went to be a blessing, but we were blessed overwhelmingly in return. We helped with building things and painting and cooking, and we really wanted to help out with the kids, but they ended up changing us more than we wanted to change them. I'm noticing that I'm having a hard time keeping on the same thought. There are so many things going through my mind right now, so it's difficult to only talk about one thing the whole time.

Paradigm Shift!!!

In my own words Paradigm shift is a change in perspectives that can result in the alteration or abandonment in beliefs. Relating to the PWB in the climatic ending of judges when the ANTS attack Adah and Leah go through Paradigm shifts that drastically alter each's beliefs. For example this quote "That night marks my life's dark center, the moment when growing up ended and the long downward slope toward death began. The wonder to me now is that i thought myself worth saving. But I did" shows how Adah comes to value her life as oppose to before when she felt her disability devalued her life, ironically though the moment she realizes her life is worth saving her mother abandons her for ruth may. Leah on the other hand abandons her faith in religion and her father for faith in Anatole, this is showed in this quote "I repeated his name because it took the place of prayer. Anatole's name anchored me to the earth, the water, the skin that held me in like a jar of water." Overall i think pardigm shift is an idea that most of us are resistent to in our society. Nobody likes to be wrong and so when an idea or opinon arrives that challenges our own beliefs we become defensive and inturn lose rationality and common sense for the sake of being right.