Story Telling in Real Life

This semester I am in writ 201 with Professor Jill Davis. It is pretty much a pay it forward class. We work on creating something that will help the community or world. We have this opportunity to join an organization that is already created and work on it for the semester. I jumped at the chance to join one because, honestly, it sounded better than creating a brand new one. The one that I joined is call Tuesdays with Morrie. Inspired by the book by Mitch Albom, Mitch is talking to one of his old college professors, Morrie, who is dying from ALS. They talk about everything, from how they are doing in their life now, and the main theme is dying.

I am doing essentially the same thing, but the person I am talking to is not dying soon from a disease. I get to talk to a senior citizen named Jack Staples. I get to listen to all the stories he is willing to tell me, from the time when he was a little boy to the present, where he is living alone, just a few months after his wife's passing. I take as many notes as I can, and write an 'essay' about their life. I pick a common theme, one direction I choose to discover more about. I then present my story to Jack and show him the care I took to create it. This takes the entire semester and I am only in two out of six meetings with Jack so far but it is exciting to listen to him just telling me stories.

  Morrie doing his all time favorite thing, dancing, before he was diagnosed.  

Myths for Quiz

Apollo and Daphne

• Cupid shot Apollo, (sun god) with a gold tipped arrow to make him fall in love with the first person he would see
• Cupid shot Daphne (daughter of a river god) with a lead tipped arrow to make her flee from the first person she saw
• Apollo sees Daphne, falls in love, and persues her
• Daphne fleeing and needing help, pleas to her father to help her and save her from Apollo
• Daphne is turned into a laurel tree and Apollo, upon seeing this, makes the laurel tree his symbol and his tree

Io 

• Jove sees Io and tries to seduce her without Juno's knowledge 
• He covers the land with clouds and when Juno finds out, he disguise Io as a beautiful cow and gives her to Juno
• Juno has her watched by the 100 eyed monster named Argus,
• Mercury is sent to fetch Io and slay the monster
• He tells a story to the monster to get him to fall asleep
• Pipes of Pan
• Mercury slays the monster 
• Io lives as a cow, sees her father and he does not recognize her
• She writes her name in the dirt to show who she is
• She is eventually turned into a human again 

Europa 

• was seduced by Zeus, as a white bull, 

Semele 

• another of Zeus' love interests, 
• Juno found out about the affair and told Semele to ask Zeus if she could see him in his turn form 
• She asked Zeus for a favor and he said of course (gods can not go back on their word) 
• She saw him in his turn form, she exploded, while a child was inside her, 
• Zeus put the child in his thigh and was born from it
• the child was Dionysus 
• Dithyromb - ancient Greek humn sung and danced in honor of Dionysus
• meaning - he of the double doors ( divine birth and human birth)

Callisto 

• Was seduced by Jove when he turned himself into a woman
• He kissed her, disguised as Diana 
• She was a nymph of Diana and banished when she become pregnant
• Gives birth to Arcas 
• Juno takes her revenge and turns her into a bear 
• Arcas tries to kill his mother as a bear while he is hunting 
• Callisto is in the form of Ursa Major 
• Arcas is in the form of Ursa Minor 

Actaeon

• Was a hunter who was the grandson of Cadmus 
• He stumbled upon Diana bathing with her nymphs 
• She caught him and turned him into a stag, and sent his hunting dogs after him and they ripped him to pieces 

Narcissus

• Blind prophet, Tiresias, prophosized that it is important that he does not know himself or else he will fall in love with himself 
• Nemesis leads him to a pool of water and there, he falls in love with himself  
• He stays there for his entire life, never leaving, trying to grasp at his reflection 
• Turns into a daffodil 

Tiresias

Pentheus 

Orpheus 

Myrrha 

Pygmylion 

Cadmus

Class Notes 1/23 - 2/13

Shakespeare Sonnet 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold 
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, 
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. 
In me thou seest the twilight of such day 
As after sunset fadeth in the west, 
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. 
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire 
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, 
As the death-bed whereon it must expire 
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by. 
   This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
   To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Apollo and Daphne - winners (of any kind) and military victors get laurel leaves place upon their heads 

Etiology - study of causality or originality 
Etiological myth - myth intended to explain origins 

Four types of creation myths:
Ex Nihilo - creation out of nothing
Earth Diver - aquatic birds sent to the bottom of ocean/sea to bring up particles of earth
Dividing in 2 of a primordial deity 
Dismemberment of immortal being 

Enuma Elish - Babylonian creation myth 

Tree is an axis mundi - world center/connection between heaven and earth 

Three kinds of myths:
Full circle - wholeness
Two half circles - separation 
Dashed circle - return 

Eschatology - concerned with last four things: death, judgement, heaven, hell 

Archaea vs. Athena 

• weaving contest 

Initiation myths 

Types: 

• puberty rites
• entering into a secret society
• mystical vocation 

Common Things in our Creation Myths

The most obvious common link in these creation myths is that they all start with the words 'in the beginning' or something along those lines.

Almost all of them referred to 'a time in the beginning before there was actual time.' Which to me seems a bit ironic to always put in this little line just so people have the knowledge that there was no time before the earth was created.

There is always one to two beings who create the earth.

The earth and its elements always seem to be created out of the being's body parts and/or bodily fluids.

The humans of the earth are usually molded out of mud or something from the earth.

Earth divers were a common way to begin making land from everything being a primordial sea.

Everything and the majority of beings are changing or metamorphosing into something else in order to help create the world.

Most of the creator beings are worshipped in their own cultures are deities.