Oh my gosh, I feel like I can’t breathe. I’m like overflowing with happiness. It feels so awesome to see everything all that I’ve learned in Richey finally fit together. The feeling is akin to admiring a finished puzzle after hours of just frustratingly looking at puzzle pieces and not knowing where they belong!

I know Jesus swears in the Bible sometimes…for example when he’s rebuking the Pharisees for being so self-righteous.

But here’s the condition to his swearing. He’s edifying. In Matthew 12:34, Jesus isn’t merely showing his anger and disapproval. By swearing, Jesus is trying to edify the Pharisees, to show them the true, sinful nature of their self-righteousness. To the Pharisees, self-righteousness did not appear as a huge problem, and it makes sense…especially when you compare self-righteousness to things like murder or adultery. It was seriously Jesus’s last attempt at changing these Pharisees. He had already told them countless times to stop being so self-righteous. Jesus was trying to open the Pharisee’s eyes to the true, satanic nature of self-righteousness. Sin leads to destruction, and Jesus was trying to prevent pharisees from destruction (their self-righteousness kept them from accepting Jesus as their savior).  

So to wrap things up, swearing is not to be used merely as a sign of disapproval…or even anger… If it ABSOLUTELY MUST be used, it should only be used to edify the church/others. Even better, no harm is done in going cold turkey and just not swearing at all. Why put yourself in a position where you can easily make a mistake?

More times than not, however, swearing doesn’t edify. It’ll break relationships, arouse anger, and hurt people. So my best advice would be to just not swear at all. (:

*disclaimer: the purpose of this post is to explain how Jesus’ swearing in the Bible does not give us the right to swear freely

OH MY GOSH THIS IS SO TRUE

 I mean, when someone yells at you, they’re venting some of their anger as they do so. When you whisper, all that anger is being saved…for something scarier O:’

(Source: awesomephilia, via catielovespink)

general-decline:

Sometimes, I wonder what morality means to those who…

… don’t take English class seriously.
… don’t have the opportunity to have really good English teachers.
… don’t really care about the humanities.

Just a thought 

And I also wonder if people that didn’t take Richey this year think that the world is still a dirty, hopeless place…

You know, after Fulton’s depressing topics?

…actually, it was only today that I just realized that all hope wasn’t lost

Got my ideas set for Richey’s final. I was able to incorporate realism, democratic vistas, and gatsby into mine (:

YEAHHHHHHH DEMOCRACY!

Wow, okay

so I’m turning 17 soon…still no driver’s licence…no permit…

THUG LIFE

Do you like my…

Read More

totofufu:

This was always me the day before an APUSH or bio test lolol. THEY’RE OVER NOW :DD

Well now you have the APUSH final

It’s never over mwah ha ha ha ha

(Source: megustamemes)

Today, I just realized why we need laws and institutions. Democracy needs them for everyone’s voice to be heard…equally. (Sorry, Whitman, I don’t completely agree with your “we need to get rid of structure and work together in harmony” idea).

During Richey, a group of us went outside to discuss Democratic Vistas. However, everyone tried to talk at once and no one could understand what each other was saying. This one person would keep making unnecessary interjections when someone was talking (which I find rude…), and everyone would try to talk at once. Everyone probably had something valuable to say, but they couldn’t share. It was too unorganized—chaos. Then people would just give up and start talking about something else. So productive…

But here’s the point. Democracy is about working together and sharing ideas. But it’s so hard to do this without someone mediating (like the discussions we had during Richey) or with some set of rules/structure that would allow everyone to be heard. 

Also, Walt Whitman also writes about how we need to work together, like the different parts of nature do as well. Well he forgot that nature doesn’t come together to discuss their different ideas and plan out what’s best for them. It’s a dog eat dog world—nature’s harmonious bond comes from survival of the fittest. And remember, the fit merely coexist. They don’t work together—they fight for nutrients, niches, resources and in their endeavors, some creatures create alliances while all other creatures are enemies. Sounds like Mankind…ha. Savages…Whitman is comparing us to savages—animals. Nature has been romanticized to the extreme. We need to have a more balanced view of nature. It’s beautiful, but contains many dangers as well. Don’t forget the predation, parasites, bloodshed, poison, mountains and other dangers of nature.

We need to go one step higher than nature—we need structure. Politics need to be reorganized. It needs to be less savage. Instead of animals, they’re ideas fighting against each other. Ideas fighting for dominance…making alliances…creating enemies. Ha…at this point, we’re no different…no better than animals. We need some kind of structure to let everyone voice their opinions. Everyone needs to be heard…everyone needs to work together.

Democracy is hard…because it’s a very new concept. Nature doesn’t function through democracy. The Lions, pigs, and mice don’t talk together to discuss how they would like to rule the animal kingdom. But it’s possible, and the rewards are great. Once reached, democracy will definitely bring humans a level up above nature’s savages we prophetically call inferior.