Origins Blog post Ryan Collins 4th hour

In genesis 1, god essentially creates all that exists. He creates light, plants, animals, mountains, oceans, and finally, god creates man in his own image, to reign supreme amongst these other creatures. "[to] subdue it [the earth]" (Genesis 1). He created all in 6 days, and sanctified the last, 7th day. God then creates the garden of Eden for Adam, the lone, first male human, to tend to. He forbids Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, or he will "surely die" (Genesis 2). God then creates a Woman out of Adam's rib, called a Woman because she was created out of man. Next, the part most are familiar with: a sly snake tempts Eve to try an apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which she promptly gives to her husband. God becomes infuriated and sentences the snake to an eternity of being on its stomach and eating dust, the Woman to serve her husband, and banished them from the garden. I had a similar upbringing. I was born in the beautiful lush city of Lexington, Kentucky, in the Summer of 1996. For the immediate years following my birth, I was living a paradise; my own garden of Eden. I had no duties, no responsibilities, and my only job was to be coddled by my loving parents and to look as cherubic as I could when taken to social events. However, similar to the calamity that befell Adam and his Eve, I ate from the theoretical Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. I do not recall specifically what it was that I did, but I do remember shortly after I was coldly cast away (for 6 hours of the day Monday through Friday). I was struck with assignments and responsibilities that I could not have dreamt about in my prior blissful ignorance. Now, I live the life of an outcast, yearning to be returned to the joyous paradise I had been so cruelly exiled from. Other than that, I have relatives who own a horse farm, so I spent many summer days on their bucolic plot of land; I have a heavy background in athletics, and have been participating in organized sports since I was able to score a touchdown in the toilet. I studied in a bilingual immersion program at Maxwell and Bryan Station until 7th grade, so Spanish has had a big impact on my life.

Poetry blog

Two

BY TED KOOSER

On a parking lot staircase

I met two fine-looking men

escending, both in slacks

and dress shirts, neckties

much alike, one of the men

in his sixties, the other

a good twenty years older,

unsteady on his polished shoes,

a son and his father, I knew

from their looks, the son with his

right hand on the handrail,

the father, left hand on the left,

and in the middle they were

holding hands, and when I neared,

they opened the simple gate

of their interwoven fingers

to let me pass, then reached

out for each other and continued on.

(taken from "The Poetry Foundation" http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/248688

written by Ted Kooser 

I had been aimlessly browsing the multiple poetry-filled sites until i stumbled upon this piece and it instantly caught my eye. This short poem reflects a more multicultural theme, a theme of family dependence. From the lead to the last stanza I was intrigued by this work, especially the specifics of the descriptions.