IRJ # 19 Good Vs. Bad: A Never-Ending Battle January 29, 2010

Good Vs. Bad: A Never-Ending Battle

In Genesis 11 the descendents of the original Man and Eve have finally united. But of course, this unity and happiness cannot last for long. God intrudes and splits all the people apart, confusing and disrupting them.

Nothing good lasts. Even from the beginning of mankind, as told in The Bible, bad things occur just as happiness and content set in. This never-ending cycle lays gloom over my mind whenever I find myself in a pleasant state. Happiness only appears as a warning to the evil ahead. But why does this occur? Why can’t peace live permanently throughout our world, leaving the earth and people’s state of minds free from evil? If peace were to occur, the world as we know it would exist as an entirely different place.

However, would this different world be more preferable? I don’t think so. The juxtaposition of good and evil in our world needs to occur in order to appreciate our happiness and even sometimes our unhappiness. The times that people cherish mostly derive from experiences of joy. This only happens because people understand dread and compared to that unhappiness, they can enjoy the delight in their life even more. Even in times of unhappiness, people realize and understand the different aspects of life and therefore put things in perspective and come out of this dread in a better, clearer state.

In order to appreciate the better things in life, unhappiness and pain must occur. No matter how much peace on earth seems better, good and bad combined will bring forth a more interesting and profound life.

January 28, 2010

Insight into the idea of Good Vs. Evil derived from The BIble.

IRJ # 18 Black Or White?: We Don’t Need to Choose January 28, 2010

Black or White?: We Don’t Need to Choose

In The Bible, God gives a command to “’Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1.3-1.5) This quotation from the Bible is known and familiar throughout the world. It symbolizes the beginning of life for those that believe in this religion and is believed as a common theory to the question of how the world was created.

As I read this opening to this astonishing (in size) book called The Bible, I take note on this repetitive concept of light and dark. So far, every book I’ve read in ninth grade, as well as many others I’ve read in my lifetime, portray this same concept of juxtaposition in color. Whether the contrast of color is used symbolically or not, everywhere in our culture we see this extremity between good or evil. Light indicates purity and dark indicates sin or evil, this concept is even stated by God.

What interests me the most is not the repetitiveness of this concept, but instead the irony that in so much of our culture the idea that things are black and white, when this could not be further from the truth. In reality, people are not always purely good or purely bad. Humans consist of juxtaposed morals and complicated emotions that define them as neither good nor bad, but instead the combination of the two define us.

Every person is a mixture, a different concoction of morals and sins. We come from different backgrounds and display different ideas on life. Our actions consist of sin as well as morality. Just because someone has evil inside, does not mean that is what they consist of all the way through. In truth, the balance of these two extremities displays our inner self, not one alone.

My Interactive Reflective Journal January 12, 2010

Hello, my name is Alyssa and this blog contains work from my ninth grade english class. Enjoy the different creative pieces and reflective posts I write throughout the year,