Blog 33: Due Dec. 21 by Midnight
(You will not have a blog over the break. I know this makes you sad...)
THIS BLOG HAS TWO PARTS--PLEASE DO BOTH for full credit:
1. Watch either the TedTalk embedded above, OR one from this playlist:
http://www.ted.com/playlists/14/are_you_there_god.html
or this one, by Benedictine Monk David Steindl-Rast (heavy accent, beware!)
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful.html
First, tell me which one you watched. Then, write about it reflectively: what is familiar to you about it, what is foreign? What do you agree or disagree with, on an individual basis. What does this talk tell you about a more global perspective and understanding? Was there anything that was new to you? A concept, a way of looking at things, or a piece of information about a religion/spirituality/belief different from yours?
2. We are steeped in a holiday season. Whether you see the holidays as a mass-market money-making scheme, as a reason to gather family together, or as a time of celebration and reflection of religious tradition, it is a time when those in the areas of the world influenced heavily by Judaism and Christianity give one another gifts. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a lengthy essay about gifts in which he talks about the graciousness and gratefulness he feels when given a gift, be it something he can hold in his hands, or something he can hold in his heart. Hopefully, it's the latter that makes you truly humbled.
In thinking about gifts, try to answer this question: what is the greatest gift that you have been given? (This gift can be tangible, intangible, for any reason or for a specific reason, it can be symbolic/metaphoric...think about something you are grateful to have!) Why was it such an amazing gift? Who gave it to you? What gives this gift meaning for you? How did you or do you show your gratefulness for this gift?
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