The Stoning of Soraya M

Set in Iran in the 1980s, The Stoning of Soraya M. tells the true story of a woman who is wrongly accused of a crime and consequently stoned. Village leaders condemn Soraya M. to death for allegedly committing adultery. The accused woman’s husband creates this conspiracy to have her killed so that he may marry a teenage girl. In secret, Soraya’s courageous aunt shares her story with French journalist Freidoune Sahebjam (James Caviezel) who happens to be traveling through the area a day after the brutal killing.

so, I watched this movie the other day, and it.... hasn't left me. You know those conversations, articles, or things you watch and see, that seem to follow you everywhere? I am sure we can all recall a thought that seemed to loop around within our minds, that idea or thought, or some conversation.

Needless to say, this movie has been that for me the past few days.

And I was reading about it, because this movie truly just makes you wonder:

Now that I know this, now that I am aware of this injustice, what can I do about it?

Found this interview of one of the actors in the movie.

Read it! I believe the things he says are fairly powerful.

Caviezel: I watch it as a way of practice. Watching a film, how it’s powerful is -- you don’t have to actually live it out. In this little box in this room where the viewer is watching this movie, he transcends from wherever time period he is in and he goes there and he witnesses it. And his soul goes to the place that it knows, which is cowardice, courage. It calls you out. It knows what you would do before you do it.

Let’s say, you watch a story like this and you would have run. You would not have wanted to have been involved. Some people walk away enraged that that secret is out there now or they will cover and say it’s about something else… exploiting women, or you’re attacking religion. Deep down it comes from another place because what you are in private is who you really are. And others will take it as, you know, I’m a coward. I’m not there yet. I got to be there.

I realized the Church isn’t just about Sunday. It’s seven days a week. The gospels are living out on Tuesday when you find out that someone else at your work was raped and now you’ve got to get involved in it. And it may cost you your own name, you may lose your job. In other instances, you may lose your life. But then I ask you, when do the gospels really become real or is it just a book that we read. Many people now look at it as a place of where it’s Happy Jesus… happy talk. Tell me how I’m going to prosper. Well, I think you may financially sometimes. But let me tell you this much, you can’t take it with you. Even if you could, well I won’t even go there because you can’t. But I think the prosperity that God’s talking about is the one where Heaven gains, not yourself. It’s what you do for Heaven. That’s where you’re going to be spending most of your time, not here on Earth. This is just a trial.

We’re all going to go through these persecutions, but what I’ve found now is that many Christians don’t want this. They’ve molded into this pagan attitude of secularism. It’s what I want, what I need, what I’m about, my things. It’s all about me. So a film like this makes you naked. You realize what you would do. It’s hard because this is a film that is relatively pretty recent. And you know, they still stone. Last month, there was a stoning in Iran. There is a stoning in any area that has Sharia Law. They do these public stonings. All I know is what I’ve got to do. And it’s to get involved.

"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." Raymond Chandler

So I'll be honest.

I just really do not feel like reading chapter 8, pp. 127-151 on the many addition and subtraction strategies. As much as I sincerely believe this will broaden my understanding, and give me awesome tools to teach math some day to little tykes, I'm just not in the mood.

No, I do not feel like writing my own version to each of the 11 strategies in the book either.

Or work on my poem

Or study for British literature exam (I didn't even know English Exams existed in college. I remember them in highschool, but since then it's been paper after paper for English. hmmm)

So the gist of what I'm saying is- I used up all motivation over the past two days.

Or that fact that I have to clock away my evening to a restaurant. (Though I can't complain about that, I am grateful that I have a job in a backwards sort of way.)

I wonder if motivation is directly connect with my alarm clock. I refused to wake up to an alarm clock this morning, and now I have no desire to be productive. That's it. My day is missing an alarm clock. Guess I'll just have sit back and do everything and anything else until tomorrow rolls around.

Yeah, welcome to the interior of my brain.

So I am apparently a walking School Supply Kit. It's becoming the running joke in Math class primarily.

So guess what. Homework will be there tomorrow. I think I will go eat a cupcake. Or do my hair for work tonight. Or something else other then ramble on blogger about nothing.

Dinner Time

So, I really only have dinner at home with my family about... twice a week. Tonight was one of those nights. However my family is either moved out, visiting boyfriends, working, or going to school, that today it was only Reed, mom, and I. (well actually, it was only my little 10 year old brother Reed and I who were actually eating, my mom was just there)

And I was feeling rather, frisky, and told Reed, "Lets pretend we are snotty rich people eating dinner together"

He didn't play very well.

But I decided to have fun with it anyway

If anyone knows my mom, they will know that she is a to-do-lister to the extreme degree. She is also an organizer, combined with... a bossy side. Delightful women as well, I should add.

So I would sit there, eat, and listen to my mom rattle off chores and things needed to be done that day, and I would comment and say such things as, "My, so many servants you have" (Much to Reed's delight)

And once I finally got Reed into it (with a British accent too!) my mom interrupted us to tell Reed the homework he needed to complete after dinner. I gave this look that said, "Oh my, how rude." at the interruption.

And much to my sheer enjoyment, Reed turns to me and says, "I apologize, for my mother is not very reverent"

bahaha!!!

Now this is the same boy who managed to catch a duck in the bill a week ago while fishing.

How fun.

Though it is sad to see how some children today do not use their imagination that much. Do you think its all the technology? Or the video games? No need to imagine things when they're right in front of you? Is it something you have and don't have? And when, where, and why do we loose it sometimes?

Ok, back to homework. I have to teach a math lesson tomorrow, teach a tag lesson, and turn in a paper. And considering that editing (grammatically speaking that is) is not my forte, this will be a fun evening.

"That was then, This is now"

Two years ago, I hugged, and kissed 40 kids away ad I walked away with my baggage to return home.

That was then,

This is now.

Two years later I stood in the middle of the International Guadalajara airport, holding my baggage. I looked for the familiar face of my friend.

Two years ago I had no familiar faces

That was then,

This is now.

I traveled south to Colima, Mexico in a minivan. I returned to the orphanage which i coulentered at two years prior. This is where I lived and worked with the children and workers, helping wherever with whichever.

Two years ago I did not know any spanish.

That was then,

This is now.

I hugged Leslie for the first time in two years. She is now 12. She used to call me mom.

That was then,

This is now.

I smiled and laughed again with my best friend Yubi. She tried to match me up with her brother two years ago.

That was then,

This is now.

I held Raquel's baby Dara. She was pregnant for her two years ago.

That was then,

This is now.

I reconciled things with Oscar, we planned on dating two years ago.

That was then,

This is now.

I was reminded everyday on how little has changed in Colima, but realized that I was the one who changed.

Because, I was then,

But here, I'm now.

Three weeks rolled by, as I slowly learned,

To always live in what was then,

You risk the chance of loosing sigh of what is now.

To always push for what will be,

You may forget to do the will-do's and will-be's now.

For I see, to take the then's, and the now's

with the good's and the bad's

to be in present in full.

Because, yeah, that was then.

But hey, this is now.

Teaching writing workshop. Oh I love school oh so very much. we were asked to write about something that happened to us this past summer, and then after listening to a story the organized writing in this style ("That's Good, That's Bad" book), we were asked to revise our previous story and see if we can create our own version.

Caged Bird

A free bird leaps


on the back of the wind


and floats downstream


till the current ends


and dips his wing


in the orange sun rays


and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks


down his narrow cage


can seldom see through


his bars of rage


his wings are clipped and


his feet are tied


so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings


with a fearful trill


of things unknown


but longed for still


and his tune is heard


on the distant hill


for the caged bird


sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze


and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees


and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn


and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams


his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream


his wings are clipped and his feet are tied


so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings


with a fearful trill


of things unknown


but longed for still


and his tune is heard


on the distant hill


for the caged bird


sings of freedom.

- Maya Angelou

"A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never outgrows it." Frank Howard Clark

Ok. Sit down, and ponder this question:

What would you do, to break the bonds of materialism in your life?

This may seem like a silly question. In some aspects, it very well may be. First off, what is materialism? And is it a negative aspect of life? Is it what you can buy with money, or what makes life comfortable? All the stuff, all your stuff, from the most expensive to the least of all value... do you need it? Can you live without it? What is it, that you have in your life, that if it is missing, what would leave a void? Or possibly, not a void, but inconvenience?

Now I am not really talking about the aspects of life necessary to... well live. Say a mode of transportation so you can go to work, so that at the end of the week you may have enough money to at least feed yourself and maintain a form of shelter from the elements.

I'm talking about your stuff.

Now take away your stuff.

There. That void you see now.

What to do with it?

Could you.... handle it?

How bound are you to maintaining your desired level of comfort?

What things do you refuse to let go?

What "toys" do you have, that would make life less enjoyable if you no longer had them?

What would you do? Go crazy?

How many of us can honestly say we are not bound to our stuff? Stuff that, when your gone, will mean little to others. Maybe even burn in a fire, or get stolen, or just sit and decay.

Thus, back to the start.

What would you do, to break the bonds of materialism?

Not an easy thing to do. And for most of us Americans, not really necessary. But I realized however, if we are not careful, we can begin to worship and idolize our stuff. I mean, why do most of us go to college? To get a good job. What defines a good job? One that pays a lot of money. And why do we need that much money? Big house and new cars. The American dream.

I am not saying the desire to make ends meet is bad. For anyone who knows me well, they know I manage life to always try to make ends meet.

But thats not all there is to life. I do not believe God took the time to breath life into us to see how much wealth we can accumulate.

That's what the they expect of us.

That's the driving force of so many evils of this world.

So.....

What would you be willing to do?