My Experiences

This last assignment was the hardest for me out of the three papers we wrote throughout the semester. All this religious talk made me question my own religious ideas and values. Change is a very hard thing for me to grasp, and these essays really had me thinking that I should change the way I view the world. The experience I had while reading the Thurman essay was negative and I wanted to throw the book in his face. The Abram essay on the other hand is really what made me think otherwise. He just had a gentler way of expressing the ideas of a more peaceful and meaningful lifestyle. My first reaction to Baraka was anger. I was really upset about what they were doing to the chicks. I'm not an animal rights activist, I just don't like to watch people doing mean things to helpless animals. But after Micaela mentioned how the chicks were being compared to the humans going through the turn style, I realized that the whole movie was just one connection after another. I noticed there was lots of rituals going on within many cultures. Ya know like those guys chanting and shouting and then those other people jumping and other people painting themselves and singing in groups. In my past I really haven't been very religious or spiritual and I think that is a direct connection to my negative outlook of the world. I feel like this assignment and more specifically the Abram reading has opened my eyes to a more sententious way of living.