“Unexpected, the Moment of Serendipity”

Guns, darkness, sadness, sorrow, depression, anger, loss, misery. All these unpleasant feelings that we would never want to experience are al found in Steve McCurry's photographs. He is the top traveler, photographer and humanitarian known worldwide who silently but deeply touches our hearts. Born in Philadelphia in 1950, McCurry began his journey around the world taking photos that touched thousands of hearts with unforgettable and memorable characters in the photos. His photos are eye-catching and heart-touching to the world, expressing the humanity of the subjects. "A great photograph really needs to say something about a person or give some insight into their life or how their life is different than yours and mine. A good picture makes us curious and makes us want to know more." -Steve McCurry- Steve McCurry’s photos mostly show the depression of environmental conflicts and difficult circumstances. McCurry struggled to reach his dream as a documentary filmmaker, travelling to a variety of different places around the world. In return for his hard work and compassion into his photos, McCurry proudly received eight awards with four first prizes. Steve McCurry’s photos still move lots of people’s hearts as they spread throughout the world.

Most of McCurry’s photos are classical balanced, meaning his subjects in his pictures are clearly shown. In this photo, the first thing that comes into your eyes is the girl holding a gun. Seeing that the size and height of the gun is about the same as the girl, it indicates that the girl is still young. The expression on the girl's face sinks deep into many people’s hearts which are depression, anger, horror, terror, hatred and sadness. The girl's eyes are unfocused. They are just staring into our eyes as if everything is hopeless, given up. Her body is stiff as a statue, showing the viewers that there is no freedom in her heart to be child-like. It shows that she is scared and fearful of something. The girl is holding the gun very tightly to her body like a precious treasure showing that she doesn't want to let go of something very important to her, maybe her family. McCurry used dark colors instead of bright eye-catching colors, which creates the dark mood in the photo symbolizing depression, tension and a nervous atmosphere. Those emotions are put together into one photo. Looking at the photo above throws such questions at us… ‘What are we fighting for?’ ‘Why is this war needed in this world?’ Through his photo, McCurry shows us how ignorant humans are killing each other with violence and absolutely no exception of the victims.

McCurry takes us on a journey when interpreting his photos of war and death, a reflection of our lives and thinking back on what unnecessary things and chaos we are creating. How ignorant we are when killing each other of greediness. McCurry’s photos may look simple, but contain deeper meanings and explanation in each photo. "...Most seemingly mundane activities can be inspirational when you look beneath the surface." -Steve McCurry- McCurry pours all his heart and mind into his photos and give the viewers a chance to think deeply and concern about what he is trying to tell through his photos. Through his magnificant photos, Steve McCurry invites us on an eternal journey around the world with the same dreams of serenity and the same wishes of hope.

Jason and the Argonauts Reflection

There are many different heros who went on difficult quests in Anicent Greek. Whenever a hero went on a journey, they often fit into the cycle of the hero. This cycle was created by Joseph Campbell, which shows the life cycle of a hero. Like most myths, Jason and the Argonauts is a good example of the cycle of the hero.

Birth/Home: Jason’s father was an honorable king named Ioclus, but Jason’s uncle, Pelias, took over the throne from him. Then Jason’s mother hid Jason from his uncle because she knew that Pelias will immediately give an order to kill Jason when he found out Jason was alive.

Call to Adventure: When Jason got older, he went to Pelias himself and ordered his uncle to hand over his throne. Pelias responded to Jason that if Jason brought him the Golden Fleece, only then Jason could take over the kingdom.

Elixir: The Golden Fleece was Jason’s goal and aim of the journey.Helpers: In the story, Jason’s helpers were the Argonauts. The Argonauts were a group of stron and powerful people such as Hercules.

Crossing the Threshold: In order for Jason to reach the Golden Fleece, he and the Argonauts had to go through the ocean and get to the kingdom of King Aeëtes. In the ocean they had a challenging time with the massive waves, and had to go through difficult obstacles, which made their journey even more of a challenge.

Helpers/amulet: For Jason, his best helper was Chiron and his sword. Chiron and the sword gave Jason hope to carry on the journey in difficult situations and supported him trust himself and believe that this journey was possible to accomplish.

Tests: Throughout the task for the Golden Fleece, Jason and the Argonauts went through many tests. Some examples are the dangerous clashing rocks in the ocean, the fire-breathing bulls, and the dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece. Each test showed how courageous Jason and the Argonauts were.

Climax/Final Battle: Jason’s climax of the journey was when he had a battle with Medea to save the Argonauts from going into the Underworld. Chiron’s sword was a huge help to destroy Medea, to free the Argonauts and to bring the Golden Fleece to Pelias.

Return/Flight: Jason and the Argonauts returned to Jason’s kingdom on a ship through the ocean and made haste to prepare for Jason to take over the throne from Pelias.

There are a huge amount of different variations for the myth, Jason and the Argonauts. In some myths, Aphrodite puts a spell on Medea to make her fall in love with Jason and help him throughout the quest. In other different myths, Medea is on the bad side and uses magic to stop Jason from accomplishing the quest. Another difference between the variations of the myth was Jason’s strength. In some of the myths, Jason is expressed as a weak hero and depended on the Argonauts for strength. But on the videos on the class blog, he is shown as a very courageous and strong hero. Even though there might be different thoughts to the myth, the story is basically the same; Jason going on a journey to get back his throne.

There are lots of evidences that indicate that this myth happened for real. Although I am not 100% sure, maybe Jason really existed as a person who went on a challenging task to take over the throne from his evil uncle. Here are some evidences I found while watching the video in humanities class…

· Mount Pelion does exist

· The myth happened at the time of the Trojan War, which is a true history

· Archeologists found the Argo ship that Jason and the Argonauts used and people could manage to build one for real

· The first quest took place on the real island of Lemnos, Greece

· The cliff where the Lemnian women murdered the men exists

· Jason and the Argonauts wanted to reach the Black Sea

· Istanbul, which is where they went exists

· There is a sacred cave with drawings of Jason

· Georgia is the “Land of the Golden Fleece”

· There is a drawing and a record of all the people who went on the quest.

. The bronze maze destruction, which was a historical artifact, was found by Archeologists

The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step -Lao Tzu-

I chose this quote because even though a journey might be challenging and almost impossible to achieve, you must at least try and do your best. You should never give up and keeping on going and there will be greater chance you will achieve your goal. Having a go at something is still better than giving up and doing nothing about it.

Curiosity in Orphan Boy and Pandora

The African myth, Orphan Boy, and the Greek myth, Pandora, warn us that curiosity can often lead to unpleasant change. In the Greek myth, Pandora, Pandora couldn't bare with her curiosity and opens the box that Zeus gave her. Therefore, all of the evil things came out and spread across the world. In the African myth, Orphan Boy, the old man couldn't bare his curiosity and follows the Orphan Boy. When trust between the Orphan Boy and the old man was gone, everything that used to be wonderful died. Because of the old man's curiosity, even water dried away and the world was left with nothing. Curiosity made a negative change in both myths. This is fascinating because many things were discovered and created through curiosity. Curiosity can lead to a positive change in the world.

My Name

Unknown like a single leaf on a green meadow. Outstanding. Difficult for some to sound. Bright as my personality. Graceful as a crane. Kindness flowing everywhere. Full of wonder as cranes flying and dancing together. Like an unknown forest in the middle of nowhere. A song of pleasure. A fantasy.

When my mom was pregnant, she wished to have a good and graceful girl. So my parents named me as ‘Sun Hae.’ Like most of the Korean names my name has a specific meaning when written in Chinese letters; ‘Sun’ means goodness and ‘Hae’ means grace.

Since I was a baby, my ear and heart was well acquainted with my name. Mom and dad used to call my name with heart-felt love and other family members also called me with a lovely voice.

Sometimes people question about the meaning of my name; they may think it’s weird or beautiful and they may also make an unidentifiable face. Although these kinds of concerns on my name are none that matters to me, I’m always ready to explain the meaning of it.

I love my name which was given by my parent. And I think I should have a responsibility to keep my name in bright shape. I used to pray to my God for the sake of my name. ‘Sun Hae’ should be a devoted Christian and a compassionate girl at school and future lives to come.

Common Themes of Creation Myths

From the beginning of the human history, the curiousity of the existence of earth was driving people in chaos. Even now, people are still wondering how earth was created. That's how myths were made. 'The space of the universe was in the shape of a hen's egg. Within the egg was a great mass called "no thing." '-Chinese creation myth (Phan-Ku). This quote shows that in most Chinese creation myths, the universe had 'no thing' in the beginning, which is one of the common elements in many other cultures. Themes of 'from chaos or nothingness/void,' 'from earth-diving' and 'supreme creator who dies' are at the center of many creation myths, which is unusual because those countries with similar themes might not even have known each other. 'From chaos or nothingness/void' is a common theme both in Chinese and Japanese myths. Considering that China and Japan might not have known each other, it is interesting that they have a common theme. Other theme, 'from earth-diving' was shared between Native American Indian and Japanese creation myths. While thinking of the far distance of these two places, it also seems very strange to hold a same theme. The final theme, 'the supreme creator who dies-body gets incorporated into earth,' which was co-existed in the Chinese 'Phan-Ku' and the Autrailian Aborigine Creation myth is another amazing mystery despite of their rare communication each other. As shown above, from the ancient times, people liked to make a variety of different myths. However I, as a Christian, have a firm belief that our almighty God has created the universe and all things in the world as stipulated in the Genesis of the Bible.

'The Giver' Fishbowl Discussion

For humanities today, we had to expand on the fishbowl discussion our class had based on the book, 'The Giver.' We had a few good questions to discuss about, which were broken into two groups. One was about stirrings and the other one was about releasing. Here are my thoughts of what a release and a stirring means.

I think stirring is kind of like the beginning of puberty/adolescence. In Jonas's dream, he felt the wanting and need to be with Fiona, which obviously means that he likes her. With adolescence there also comes marriages and babies. I think the community made them take pills for stirrings because they want to keep the community perfect and nothing different, and if people start liking someone, they might not be focused during their work time and etc. Stirring is kind of like growing-up and when you start having crushes on a certain person.

I think releasing is some what related to killing because in the book it says that in the House of Old, they talk about a person's whole life time before they release them so it's like you're life is ending. When I read the book, 'The Giver,' I realized that people actually celebrated the release and was very happy and excited about. So, I think that maybe the community themselves might not know that being released is not a good thing. But, I am still not sure if others kill them or they naturally die.

I am looking forward to reading more of the book and finding more about the stirrings and releasing.