Category Archives: Deep Thoughts

Finals.

creative writing, Deep Thoughts, letters to readers, plagiarism, ,

WARNING: THIS PIECE IS A REPRIMAND.

Dear Alleged Students of Creative Writing,

Some of you might be surprised to hear from me. I’m the blogger whose essays and poems you’ve been pilfering for the past several months.

You’ve likely garnered for yourself some kind of “passing grade”, using the efforts of those from whose lives you’ve been flat out stealing. But, the back end fee for you will come in its own time.

It’ll arrive in the form of some casual slip.

Never having actually spent any energy writing your own story, you’ll be forced as you move through life to keep some seriously sharp razors. You’ll have to take stock of everything you do and say, sorting through the lies and the truths until you can no longer make such distinctions. You’ll probably resort to escape, in that case; you’ll depend more heavily on products to dull your wits and numb your senses. And, you’ll attract those of like precious faith. The vermin. The bottom feeders.

You might acquire much in the way of material goods, and run with the wealthiest. But, you won’t have developed any real style or character, no definitive brand apart from the trendiest copies. What you think passes for sophisticated will be cheesy, kitschy, been there/done that. You’ll become heavily dependent upon those whose job it is to set the patterns for people like you, the ones who have no creative spark, no ideas, or what has always been recognized as originality.

As time passes, you’ll get frantic, noticing signs of age. You’ll spend all you’ve acquired trying to maintain the illusion of youth. You’ll be a bore, a load, an undesirable. People will pretend to like you, until your money and your luck runs out, and then you’ll do something rash in the hopes of getting caught so that you can spend the last years of your life in a closed room where the meals come three times a day and you sleep until you die.

All that.

Just because you chose to sneak your way through a college course on the back of somebody who made her own way in the world – who showed up, never quit, and made an honest wage doing respectable work, honoring her parents gifts by living them out and then writing about it. Somebody who saved money, then bought her own house, her own car, and set about living a life that didn’t prey off of others.

Yes. You’ll sail through the last weeks of finals, on the efforts of those whose lives will have left something of worth behind. I’d wish you good luck, but you don’t deserve my earnest wishes. You’ll get exactly what is coming to you: an empty shell that pretends to be a life.

Sincerely,

The Blogger.

p.s. if you are reading this site for the first time, do us all a favor; print this post, and distribute it to your English professors. Oh; and, include the blog address: littlebarefeetblog.com 

Maybe enough college departments will visit this site, recognize a couple pieces, and catch the little lizards by their tiny little tales.

Thank you very much.

© Ruth Ann Scanzillo

4/15/15

littlebarefeetblog.com

How To Be Irrelevant.

Deep Thoughts, personal proverbs, ,

1.) Get out of bed with no regard for what just happened.

2.) Eat or drink whatever tastes good, when you are hungry, as long as it is not spoiled or contaminated with the following:

  • a.) unacceptable microbes;
  • b.) known poisons;
  • c.) plastic;
  • d.) paint

3.) Look at your hands, or your feet, and decide what they can do today; then, use them and do it.

4.) When you have finished what you started, decide whether the result is clean, beautiful, appreciable, or useful; if any of the above, keep it.

5.) Choose a place for what you just did, either solitary or capable of being shared with others, and put it there – offering to barter for life’s essentials in exchange, should your needs arise.

6.) Then, do something else.

7.) Go to bed, sleep until you wake up, and do it all again.

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Nobody will notice. Nobody is watching. Eventually, somebody might, but you won’t. You’ll just be living.

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Dedicated to Mum and Dad, who did just that.

Happy Monday! 😀

© Ruth Ann Scanzillo

4/10/15  all rights the author’s. Feel free to share, with credit thereto. Thank you.

littlebarefeetblog.com

Absolution.

Christianity, contemplative essays, Deep Questions, Deep Thoughts, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
 Absolution.
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This morning, John Paul Downey, priest to St Paul’s Episcopalians, exhorted his congregation in prayer. He asked God to renew our hearts to look “beyond our absolutions.”
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I heard this from my seat at the cello, near the pipe organ and the rest of the musicians. And, as is so often the case during one of John Paul Downey’s homilies, the Spirit set my mind to contemplation.
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On Good Friday prior to this Resurrection Sunday ( now so – called by the Church, lest we confuse Christ’s triumph over death with the holiday otherwise celebrated),  the atmosphere had been emotionally charged. Pastor Timm, of the high Presbytery at First Covenant, had embodied Christ on the cross like nobody since my own father, and was a much larger and more cavernous resonating chamber than dad could ever have hoped to be. My whole body’d reacted to his thunderous declaration of the Son of God’s final words:
“IT.IS.FINISHED!“
and, I’d spent the rest of the service in tears.
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But, “absolution”.
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After a brief stop for Russell Stover creme eggs, I came home and went for the Webster’s. First, the root:
Absolute:

free from imperfection; perfect; not mixed or adulterated; pure.

free from restriction or limitation; ultimate; positive; certain; complete.

And, then this:

something that is not dependent upon external conditions for existence or for its specific nature.
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Buzzwords come and go in our society, and I’ve lived long enough to witness many an incantation. Perhaps we can credit the talk show circuit for these trends, but somewhere between 1997 and just last week, the response: “Absolutely!” locked in as the only hip retort to any pursuit of affirmation. We had all become, for reasons I have no authority to cite, ultimately, positively, perfectly sure  – and, remained so for over a decade.
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But, “not dependent upon external conditions for existence………”……now, there’s a state.
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One of the most baffling aspects of Christ on the cross, as he had come to be recognized by Christians over the centuries was his having taken, upon the body he bore, the weight of all the transgressions of mankind committed against his father, God. Or, Eloi, as he’d called him from Golgotha (and, probably earlier, in the garden of Gesthemane.) Jesus had agreed to die in exchange for the entire creation’s absolution. Yes. Complete, total forgiveness. And, he being believed to be uncorrupted, was the absolute sacrifice – pure, perfect, complete, AND: believed to be holy and divine, not dependent upon external conditions for his existence.
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Now, I’m neither linguistics expert nor historian, but the source indicates that the term “absolute” first appeared in the 13th century. Thirteen hundred years after the birth of Christ. I don’t know what earlier thought evolved the concept, but its embodiment in the form of an omniscient God who, paradoxically, needed no body to house His Spirit was sufficient for me from my birth. Perhaps this is merely indoctrination (the source of any faith?) ; tradition, the result of its practices. Yet, I do have science on my side.
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Because, I also consider the state of utter and complete distinction, of total independence from external conditions. Apparently, such “absolutes” exist in nature, in chemistry and mathematics. But, when did we first lay hold of, and then depart from, a “belief” in Absolutes? Were there external influences affecting this? Can we blame Relativism for whole generations of entirely too much flexibility of position? Have we weighed both sides of every issue for so long that we can no longer come to any decisions that will hold up under the fixed scrutiny of finality?
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One thing seems clear: When we read the words of Jesus, we never find ambiguity. Whenever he is challenged, he responds with the conviction of inner authority. And, neither is he shy of leaving one with a question as an answer. He had a gift for knowing when to declare, and when to let a query be the impetus for further inquiry. Could this be because he knew the answer was absolutely discoverable?
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Father Downey urged us to look beyond our having been forgiven. I should be so thankful that, more than once a year, I am called to witness Christ’s declarations from my seat in the musical ministry. I should be so grateful that he still provokes me to search out the truth. Most importantly, I am truly and deeply moved to be certain when I have found it.
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Absolutely.
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© Ruth Ann Scanzillo
4/5/15  all rights those of the author. Thank you. Selah.
littlebarefeetblog.com