again

YES i know i already posted a blog this morning.
i'm dealing with this 'blog withdrawal' from which i suffer after such a long time since last week whenever my last blog was.


so today, in photography class, someone used three quotations (among a list of about 10 random 'feminist' quotations from sigmund freud to judie foster and back again) from the bible in TOTALLY the wrong context. pointing fingers at religion and the bible for oppressing women and looking down on feminist movement ETC. taking specific verses way out of their biblical and relatively metaphorical or symbolic context (i forget where exactly her quotes were borrowed from...ecclesiastes, 2 corinthians, and i forget the last one---i can double check and get back to y'all) to prove her point, saying in the meantime how the bible really does contradict itself and isn't that interesting. (how can it preach God is love, while oppressing women, it doesn't make sense--this oppression is God's fault in the first place--he made man first, and made woman out of the man.)

this project seemed to be controvercial within the class because of the feminism issues (we have 2 guys in the class, who both were worried about being a little outnumbered and also sometimes picked on, feeling they had to defend themselves)
the argument certainly wasn't focused on the 'biblical contradiction' aspect, which made it hard to jump in. in that class is one other christian (that i know of anyway) and we both protested against the misuse of the Word...but it ended up being a huge deal because everyone was yelling at each other about other issues besides their biblical misinterpretation. (and yelling fast, because we had about 5 minutes till the end of class--too bad, because some people left in a huff)

why is it that appropriation of various cultural issues, like a national symbol or a buddha or something, is not encouraged or in some cases not even allowed, while people can just take what they want out of the bible and use it however they want. it seems to me that the issue is the same in both cases, even though we're talking culture vs Truth: in both cases it's something that someone is not familiar with and they're using it as if they are familiar with it...meanwhile they're misinterpreting and misusing the cultural, national, or religious reference. while we who are familiar with it and hold it dear watch the bad guys stomp all over our beliefs.

back in guido they said we'd run into some pretty crazy challenges in our christian faith. they said the world out there was BAD and MEAN. people would laugh at us, make fun of us, mock us, call us jesus freaks, etc. up until now, the worst i'd run into was having to learn about evolution. i must admit that i was surprised at 'how easily i got away with' being a christian---everyone was easy going and friendly and polite about it, i guess until it comes down to being informed (yes, kindly!) that their photography project is morally wrong.

yes i'm venting.

and i don't want to be a bible thumping nitpicky reformist and give christianity a snobby bad name, but i'm working on being a positive christian presence in the art studio.
IT CAN BE INTERESTING!
and i guess it can take a bit of prayer.



but this is cool: after class (around 9:15PMish), a bunch of us were walking down the hallway, and there was this huge owl in a tree.
you remember owls?
i'd forgotten about owls. totally forgotten. it's weird how you can not think about something for a long time, and forget it even exists. this bird was really weird looking, just because i hadn't looked at a picture of an owl in a while.
beautiful owl though. it kept showing off its flexible neck... (not fair...mine's stressed out and sore. massage, maybe? please?)

ok so i've taken a...half hour break from cutting cardboard with this puny little xacto knife...my hands hurt and i'm tired and i wanna go to bed...and i'm nowhere near done...sigh... eventually, i hope