The End of Blue Like Jazz

It was really easy to get through Blue Like Jazz compared to some of the other books we've read.  Once I got past the first few chapters and started to feel a connection with Miller, I started to read the book out of pleasure instead of for homework.  I truly enjoyed how he wrapped up the end of his book with his theory on love and how we need so much more to be given to us and to be given by us.  I really liked his account of him and his friend Paul hanging out with the hippies in Oregon, where he could truly be himself.  I think to be yourself is an incredibly important part of whether we can truly love each other.  If we are always trying to impress or conform to a group, we can't jump totally in to the concept of love.  Love is always something that is both very hard and very easy to give.  I think it is most important that we try our best to give love to those that are harder to love because they are the ones who need it more.  I really agree with Miller on his views of who we should love, and I think his book really opens up a lot of good conversations that every Christian should talk about.

Blue Like Jazz

In reading the first couple chapters of Blue Like Jazz, I really didn't enjoy the book that much.  But in the second go at the next couple chapters, I actually started to really enjoy the book.  The thing that I liked best about this part of the book is because he talked so much about problems that many Christians have but hesitate to bring up.  He talks of faltering beliefs and questioning the church's motives.  This is stuff that I do all the time.  It's always nice to know that you're not the only one out there.  My favorite party in this reading was the paragraph about his conversation with his friend Tony about who he would die for.  I thought it was really cool how Tony points out that it's a lot easier to die for something than to live for something.  I think this is a really good point and I believe it to be true.  To live for something is to dedicate your ENTIRE LIFE to one certain thing or person or belief, to die for it is to give one moment.  It may seem like I'm making death look that bad, but maybe death isn't that bad.  None of us really know cause we're still alive.

Final Project Update

Right now, my project is going pretty well.  I just emailed the four people I want to interview yesterday and I already got two answers back.  They both agreed to be interviewed over the phone and I'll be calling them both sometime later this week.  I think that the five questions that I'm going to ask are pretty legit and will be really great to show to the class.  As for my presentation, I think I might do a powerpoint that contains five pages for each person and their answers to each of the questions.  I'll probably just read right off of it I guess, and this way it might be able to be used for future classes.  Hopefully, my two other contacts will get back to me and I think it's going to be pretty cool interviewing them.

The End of Neumark

I was very happy that Neumark had a happy ending, or as happy as it could get in their situation.  I liked how throughout the whole book she talked about all these terrible problems that are present in the South Bronx, but in the end still left hope with the reader.  I was actually not surprised to learn she was leaving the congregation.  I feel like no matter how hard we try to not get tired of something, we always do.  I think she lasted a lot longer than just about anyone else could, but sometimes you have to change things up for the better.  I know that God ask us to live our entire lives in pursuit of justice and to not really care where we are or how well off we are, but it's just human nature for us to want to be in the best situation possible for ourselves.  Now with that said, I believe that her whole book was simply a way to make people truly feel for the people who aren't as well off as ourselves.  She did a great job too.  With her numerous allusions to Bible stories and her dreadfully true statistics, it really made me think that we need to do something to change how America treats it's people.  Sure, some of us have no problems, but in my eyes, none of us should have problems and we need to try to get to that point as soon as possible.