rosered’s blog

     Usually when I watch something on t.v. it's a form of escapism.  It's me retreating from boredom and this life.  There's this show that I'm watching lately though that's not so much like that.  When I finish watching it, I feel like doing something, not like I've just wasted my time on something of no use to my real life.  It's Joan of Arcadia.  A basic feature of this show is that God shows up in human form every now and then to tell Joan to do something in her life that ends up with positive results for somebody or other. 

     I just finished watching the fourth episode of the first season (called "The Boat") and in it, Joan was told by God to make a boat, fir which she has no idea why.  The boat ends up being something that her recently disputing dad and his oldest son can work on together.  I don't know.  This show just makes me want to do something instead of just sit around.  Has anyone else seen this show? 

My brother's moving out this summer.  And my parents are starting to talk about moving into a house.  They say it won't be for a while, but still.  Then I just helped my friend Robin move some things into her newly acquired house which is to be her residence after she gets married in August.  I went to like 2 weddings last summer.  Everyone is moving on in life!

     I view this with the bittersweet feeling of someone who loves the way "things used to be" most of the time.  I don't like change, and, as it doesn't appear as if I'm moving along with that change, it discomforts me.  Reality bites sometimes.  I'm going to have to do something to make sure I don't stay behind too much.  I don't mean so much keeping up with the Joneses as just keeping up with life...making sure I don't stagnate somewhere just because I'm not at the same stage as my friends are. 

When do you start your holiday shopping?

When I have the money.  And if I happen to see something someone likes.

Hi, people who come to my blog.
My Dad has a website.  He has written some books, including poetry and novels, as well as working on some audio books.  Writing kind of runs in the family.  The Shennan family can't really help themselves :)  My Dad has written for as long as I can remember, and has come  up with some childrens' books, inspirational poems, and some more thought-provoking studies on the Bible as well.
Here is my Dad''s website: www.christophershennanbooks.com

Can we define ourselves outside of a community?  Is it possible? 

Can I do what I'm told for once in my life? 

When I went to high school, I did not really do anything. 

There it is.  That is the story of what I feel I am about these days.  I didn't do anything much in high school.  What would I be if I had done something?  Well, I did some things.  There was English class and there was Mr. M. Klassen who was funny...

What did I do with my life?  What have I done?  Who are all these people?  I didn't get it.  I didn't get who I was supposed to be.  I was idealistic about going to high school, but as for anything else, what was there? 

That is why I am at Emmanuel right now.  I am there to figure out how to be a person.  How did Shane "get it?" 

Where is the farthest you have ever been away from home? Did you get homesick? 
Submitted by Melissa.

I have gotten horribly homesick before.  The farthest I've been away from home without any family has been about an hour and a half away at this college I'm attending.  It was pretty horrible because I've never been away from my family before for very long.  This is where it would have been a great idea to be able to drive :)  But I don't drive and it made things really hard.  What does one do in such a situation?     

19 Oct., 2007
Thoughts to Expand Upon

1. Does anyone else hate the fact that they're hooked to technology?  Maybe you're not, but you may be in denial if you have your own computer, cell phone and i-Pod.  Do you find it hard to do anything unless it's technologized (if that's a word)?  Like, can you pick up a pen and notebook and write a journal entry instead of a blog?  As for me, I'm finding it harder than it used to be...and I don't completely like that fact.  What is it about computers that is so alluring?  Is being allured bad?     
I think that this is important to think about.   What do you believe?

Hi people...thank you for returning after my last post, which was pretty-much a rambling cathartic flow of confession culminating in a group of obscure, inscrutible personal resolutions.  Such things are good for the soul, but I am not sure it was good for anyone else's soul but mine :)  If it helped anyone else, I am glad, but otherwise I thank you for braving Rosered's corner of the woods again. 

    As I typed that last sentence, it occurred to me that part of it actually fits into the theme of this session. 

What's in a Name? 

        You may have been wondering about the name of my blog.  When I was younger, I read the name Rose Red in a beautiful fairy story (1).  It was an interesting story because it had Snow White in it, but not she of the seven dwarves...so right away there was something interesting, or even intriguing, about a fairy tale that repeats an apparent "once-in-a-storytime" name like "Snow White." 

        I remember having a hard time deciding which I liked best, for Snow White was a pale beauty and was quiet, while Rose Red was more energetic and-- either in the story, pictures or my imagination-- rosy-cheeked.  I finally decided that I liked Rose Red a bit better.  I think it was because she had colour in her name and face.  (Interestingly, red was the first favourite colour I remember having).  But there is also the way that the "R" sounds...it is rich and deep and tastes like raspberry juice in your mouth.

        Names have always been important to me.  Within the past few months, I have learned at school that, to the ancient Hebrew people, a name was what you were, not just a word.  For example, Isaac's son--Jacob's-- name meant "deceiver."  After he had wrestled with the heavenly being, he was given the name "Isreal".  He was no longer "deceiver", but someone who had been given a real part in God's plan for His people.  He had wrestled with God and could thus not be considered the same person anymore.    

        I wonder at some of the names you come across today...hybrids of more than one name and names like "Apple." (one celebrity's daughter's name).  I'm of the opinion that, unlike the dye job on your hair, a name should show some roots right up front.  Being old-fashioned, I think those roots should go a bit further back than a fruit.  Sure, apples might have been around forever, or a very long time, but...they are apples.  What is an apple?  Can an apple be called "beloved, favoured of God" (the meaning of the name Sheena), for example? (2) 

Because meaning is what names are all about. 

A name roots you within something, plants you

It connects you to something bigger than yourself, bigger than your world, something that has the power to nourish you--who you really are. 

Next time's topic: Time

"Footnote" Links

(1)  a link to the story, "Snow-White and Rose-Red":   

http://www.authorama.com/grimms-fairy-tales-63.html

(2)  where I found the name that means "beloved, favoured of God"

http://www.mybaby-name.com/babynames/origin-alphabets/309-s/1

time

I'm glad we read some John Donne in university...
sometimes you need something like this:

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for You
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit You, but Oh, to no end!
Reason, Your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love You, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto Your enemy:
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to You, imprison me, for I,
Except You enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except You ravish me.

--John Donne (1633)

(The Norton Introduction to Literature, 8th edition, p. 966;
from Holy Sonnets: [Batter my heart, three-personed God; for You])