Solitude

This is an SAT practice essay I wrote a few weeks ago.

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In Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe, the island where the title character is trapped is, for the first part of the story, uninhabited. Crusoe is alone with himself and his thoughts. Having no one to talk to, he begins to talk to himself, asking and trying to answer questions like “Why?” This introspection gradually helps him understand his past, a possible purpose for his shipwreck, and even a little more about how God is working in his life.

In this ultimate solitude Crusoe is better able to develop an objective worldview. There is nobody to interrupt or argue with him. Emily Dickenson, a Romantic-era poet, stayed concealed in her home with little outside contact, and her poems are deeply thoughtful and even, at times, theological. Like Crusoe, she found her worldview by herself.

There is a downside to a sealed environment, though. Mark Twain wrote a short story called “The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg,” in which the inhabitants of Hadleyburg protect themselves so carefully from any dishonesty that when one man is able to sneak a temptation into the city, every person in the town falls to it in a matter of weeks. Untested faith is often blind and useless.

Perhaps introspection and solitude are necessary to develop ideas and achieve goals, but then everything must be tested in the ordinary world. An experiment that works in a closed system may quite possibly crash and burn outside. Nothing will past the test of time if it cannot first pass the tests of experience, thought and argument. And worthwhile argument is seldom put forward when a person is talking to himself.

A Few Things I Figured Out Today

There is a poster on my wall with information about nuclear fusion and plasmas.

Plasmas are the fourth state of matter. I don't know much else about them, because I usually don't read that poster, but this morning while I was fixing my hair I started reading it and I noticed something.

There is a chart on the poster that has examples of plasmas. Most of them are unfamiliar and scientific-sounding, but one of the first ones on the list is Fire. Beside it is a list of the first three states of matter - gas, liquid and solid.

All of a sudden something clicked in my mind.

The Greeks believed everything was made up of four elements - fire, water, air and earth. They weren't quite right with the element idea, but if you look closely at their list you will notice something. Fire is a plasma. Water is a liquid. Air is a gas. Earth is a solid.

The Greeks were right. Everything is made up of those four kinds of matter - though maybe not fire, water, air and earth in particular. A substance must be either a plasma, liquid, gas or solid to exist physically.
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The other thing I figured out was Global Warming. The people who are worried about it just need to take a deep breath and review the Ecology chapter of their biology books.

Global warming comes from the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is where gases - mostly carbon dioxide - are trapped by the atmosphere to heat the earth so that we do not become a freezing planet where life cannot be supported. In global warming, carbon dioxide just keeps stacking up against the atmosphere and it can't escape. It heats the earth more than necessary. Ice caps melt and the sea rises.

Carbon dioxide can be taken out of the air in two ways. Plants can breathe it in and turn it into oxygen. Or... it can dissolve in the ocean.

Ergo: if there is more carbon dioxide, the earth heats up. But if the earth heats up, the oceans rise. And if the oceans rise, carbon dioxide is dissolved in it.

I just solved a mystery! Global warming is not a problem. It's part of the earth's natural cycle.

If You Give Leonardo da Vinci a Paintbrush...

If you give Leonardo da Vinci a paintbrush, he will want to paint the universal picture.

When he figures out he can’t do it, he will be sad and need a handkerchief.

When you hand him the handkerchief, he will notice that the way you are holding it makes it look like a face. He will immediately cheer up and ask you to hold it just like that while he sketches it.

After a while he will get tired of drawing the handkerchief and start drawing you instead. You will not notice until he asks you to look at the picture. Since you were not paying attention, you look like you were staring off into space. (People for years afterwards will wonder why you have that strange smile on your face.)

Since he finished the picture, he will be very happy. But since he is so easily distracted, he will forget why he is happy, and eventually think it is because he has figured out how to unite the universal and particular. You will ask him to explain it, because it sounds interesting. He will try to explain, but he will not be able to, because he does not know how to unite the universal and particular without bringing God into the matter, which he does not want to do. He will get very confused and confuse you too, and the two of you will sit and be confused together for a while.

After a while he will forget why he was confused and want to paint a new universal picture. And if he tries to paint a universal picture, he’ll need a paintbrush.

New Year Resolutions... or Whatever They Are

This is my first time actually writing down a New Year Resolutions list, so it's not quite so polished and complete-looking as some of the lists out there....

• Finish writing the unnamed book that looks as if it will be a prequel to an already-planned trilogy.
• Play Charlotte in Charlotte's Web at one or more productions (and hopefully do well...)
• Keep time spent on the Internet to a minimum.
• Learn to speak Welsh, complete with grammar.
• Learn to sing "Almost There" from The Princess and the Frog.
• Participate in a Shakespeare play.
• Learn to drive.

Cornflower saw me and she wants to put down her resolutions here too, so here they are:

Bake a cake.
Read books I haven't read.
Catch up on math.
Have my friends over.
Go to the movies!!
Learn "Fur Elise" on the piano.
Give my sisters hugs.

Meet Sir Ursius and Galahad

I would like to introduce the newest members of my diverse toy family - Sir Ursius and Galahad. Sir Ursius is a large, plushy, white bear with a cheerful countenance. Galahad is similar but much smaller in size, and wears a red bowtie. They are an inseperable pair, owing to the fact that Galahad is sewed to Ursius. Cornflower has taken an instant like to the bear knights, and has kidnapped them from their fortress at least four times in as many days. I think Galahad likes her, but Sir Ursius is not happy with these proceedings. Galahad, I've discovered, likes anyone who will hug him.

Pie in the Sky

Oh dear
i fear
that i
can't fly
but if
you sniff
you soar
for more!
more what?
a glut
the sky
is pie
and i
know why
because
of fuzz
that flies
and cries
and sighs
and dies
and then
the jinn
comes through
the slough
and takes
and bakes
the pie.

this poem is by
mother auma and i.

Glenna Sere

Il seria melë glenna sere:
Si muna tisera na ayë.
Si lanta srim yrram ra ila osse,
Tiaril il laene ran ayosse,
Si lynna ri melë riëlis,
Lyarem srim si taeth rithis!
Si ossla anore srim ynnde,
Il seria melë glenna sere!

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I see with new eyes:
The world glistens in light.
Rain has come through my night,
Trees I know all sparkle,
The meadows shine brightly.
Gone is the veil of mist!
The darkened window has vanished,
I see with new eyes!

1 Corinthians 13:12 – For now we see through a glass, darkly…