Birth and Death Portfolio Guide

Story 1: The Songbird's Fate
This story elaborates on the life of the little songbird in the opening of Buck's Ramayana.

Story 2: Chatterbox's Worst Day EVER
A story of a manipulative brother and a poor gullible little girl.

Story 3: Loving A Crazy Lady
Santanu's thoughts, ideas (and maybe a few regrets) about marrying that crazy lady Ganga. 

Story 4: The Fate Of The Disobedient
We all disobey our parents from time to time, right? But this time, for Ferra, things end tragically in her world.

College Writing Review

            Writing has always been a strange thing for me. I was an absolutely box-minded, horrible writer when I was younger until I was inspired by a teacher of mine in 5^th grade (see “Writing Review Week” post during Week 8).  Since, I have had no real trouble with it, that is, until recently. This past semester I have written more than I have in over two years. This class, as well as my Law & Society class, has forced me out of my comfort zone of technical writing into a more creative realm I hadn’t visited in quite some time. Writing without the strict constraints of  “hypothesis, steps, justification, etc.”  has been incredibly difficult for me to get used to. Many would argue that there is no “wrong” writing, and anyone who has written a technical report would quickly refute that: hence my struggle. Many times I sat down with my fingers resting on my keyboard and no idea what to do. I didn’t have an outline. I didn’t have a set goal. I was just supposed to write. And I did, and more often than not, beauty fell out.

            Writing, especially in a college setting, always seems to have so many constraints placed upon it. “Make sure it’s five pages. Have an obvious thesis. Stay on topic. Follow this format.” and so on and so on. I always sit there with a rubric in my hands, holding back a little scream and all of my creativity. It’s a little backwards. If I can adequately convey my point in four and a half pages, why must it be five? What if my thesis isn’t blatantly stated by design? It’s a big no-no to cross the rubric in collegiate writing, and granted the constraints are there to weed out the excuses, but is completely restricting my thinking better than half a page of babble? I’m not sure I know that answer but to that I say:

            I am SO incredibly thankful that I ended up taking this course. While it may have been stressful at times to think of a story and execute it with proper grammar and punctuation, it re-opened my thought processes and my love of literature and prose. I am really excited to finally have time to read over the summer for the first time in months. I’ve even decided to start a blog of some sort for me to babble about my struggles and successes, at least through the summer. Hopefully throughout the rest of my college experience as well.  I have a feeling that blog is going to be a lot like me: confusing, random, ridiculous and overly sarcastic… but that’s beside the point.  “Epics of India” was much more than just another class to get through, but an eye opener to culture, stories, writing…creativity! I would have thought I would enjoy something like this as much as I did and I am so glad that a strange series of events led me to this rekindling of such a wonderful thing.

Image which reads
"Find your voice.
Express yourself.
Creative Writing"
Provided by Wikipedia Commons

             

Meme Generator Tech Tip

In Lieu of the end of the semester I made this meme with memecrunch.com

Week 12 Essay: The Life of Buddha

        This week, I explored The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold translated by Paul C. Blum. The original text was written in French but the translation by Blum was seamless. The story flowed very well, and gave enough background information within the story itself to keep confusion at bay. Each chapter was relatively short, but incredibly descriptive and entertaining. It is obvious that this book was well thought out, and each word was placed with intention.

        The Life of Buddha was my favorite Un-Textbook story I have read. The simple, modern English made the reading so much easier than a couple others I have come across. The only issue with the available text was a lack of PDF. I often close everything out, without thinking and found myself having to re- find the website and re-find my place in the book. Not a huge deal, but enough of an ordeal for me to think of it as a hassle.

        I have always been somewhat acquainted with the story of Buddha, but told from the Asian point of view which, believe it or not, is different. Every piece of information I gathered from Buddha throughout my life focused almost exclusively on him after his revelations. Learning the story of Buddha from birth was so informational.

        My favorite story from the reading was Siddhartha’s trips into the city in Gopa’s Dream and Siddhartha is Eager to Know the Great Truths. Siddhartha was shocked to discover pain and suffering. So much so that he completely changed his entire life path toward seeking the end of these terrible pains. These two stories took me by surprise not because of their content but the message. We so often brush off the pain of the world and accept that sickness and age and death are inevitable, and while that is true and should be remembered it is all too often a justification. To see that Siddhartha was so incredibly inconsolable, reminded me that suffering is not mundane. Life is not mundane. The parallels between the story of Jesus and Siddhartha was also a little unexpected. I have always been aware of the principle of universal history but these two stories were much more similar than I had originally realized.

        I absolutely loved The Life of Buddha. It is one of those things that I feel was unjustly excluded from being a classic. The religious aspects aside Siddhartha’s story is such a good “Food for Thought” provoking story. This story has inspired me to re-kindle my exploration of the Greek, Roman, and now Eastern classics. 

Image of Buddha Meditating
Provided by Wikipedia

Bibliography: The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922) 

Translated by Paul C. Blum (1927)

Mentioned Stories: Gopa's Dream & Siddhartha is Eager to Know the Great Truths

Week 12 Storytelling: Siddhartha's Diary

Hey, Diary!

I have exciting news! Dad finally decided to let me leave the palace! It’s so exciting I've been waiting to do this for years. I’m glad he realizes that I’m mature enough handle what’s out there.

I am so excited!

                                                     Siddhartha

Dear Diary,

I know it’s been a while since I've talked to you. I've just been so heart-broken. It’s been hard to figure out what to say. Dad finally let me leave the palace about a couple weeks ago and explore the city. I know it should have been fun and exciting but the things I saw….. I will never be the same…

Let me explain. So you know that I've lived a pretty sheltered life. I know that Dad just wants to protect me and keep me innocent but so much exposure all at once… It scared me.

Each trip started out great. The guards opened the gates and off we went into the streets of the city. It was so cool to see the land that we rule. We traveled down the road seamlessly until I saw this weird looking- man and turns out he’s sick. Not only is he sick, but anyone can become sick. Anyone can suddenly be stricken with complete disaster.

I got over it the first time. I just accepted that there is sickness out in the world and took another trip into the city. That trip started out well until I saw a beggar and the next trip an old man. I put my disappointment and pain aside and took another trip into the city today and this time someone was DEAD. People DIE. I just don’t understand how everyone can go on about their life knowing that it’s all for nothing. Why are we living if we are just going to die? Why am I living if I’m just going to die?

Until next time,

Siddhartha

Hi, Diary,

I know I promised I would talk to you again, but I have been so busy trying to figure out what to do. There is just so much despair in the world and here I am living a lavish life in the palace. I have to do something about it. I can’t just sit back and live my life without purpose. I have to find the end of death and suffering. I have to.

Siddhartha

Diary,

Today is the day. Today is the day I've figured out what to do to end the world’s pain. I have to leave the palace. I know Dad and Gopa are going to be so heart -broken, and Rahula is going to grow up without a father, but I just can’t take it anymore. I have to leave and find the answer to my questions. I’m not sure where I’m going, and I’m not sure what I’m going to encounter but I have to go. I have to leave tonight. Gopa and Rahula are asleep. The chariot is ready. I have to go now.

I hope to be able to talk soon, Diary.

Siddhartha

Image of Siddhartha Leaving His Family Provided by Imgarcade

Author's Note: I wrote this story based off of The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold Translated by Paul C. Blum. In this story, Siddhartha is finally able to leave the palace but because of his sheltered life, he is completely shocked by the pain that exists in the world. He cannot believe that everyone continues to live knowing that sickness and age and death are just around the corner, ready to truncate life at any moment. Siddhartha becomes convicted of his lavish life and goes on a pilgrimage to find "True Knowledge" and end the world's suffering. In this story, I took the thoughts expressed in the book and elaborated into a further detailed narrative of what is going through Siddhartha's Mind.

Bibliography: The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922) Translated by Paul C. Blum (1927)

The Life of Buddha 

Siddhartha is Eager to Know the Great Truth

Siddhartha Leaves His Father's Palace

Week 12 Reading Diary B: The Life of Buddha

Siddhartha is so distraught from the discovery of age and sickness and death decides to leave the kings palace to commence his quest for good. *tear*

He reaches a forest full of hermits and here he decides is the place he will begin to find a way to destroy old age and death.

This quote on page 63 is really great“Unhappiness is born of desire; that man is to be pitied who is a slave to his passions. When a man dies, there are always heirs to his fortune, but heirs to his virtues are rarely found, are never found.”

And this one
“…the practice of virtue is never untimely.”

When Gopa and Suddhodana find out Siddhartha is gone they are in complete despair.

Siddhartha meditates for many years eating nearly nothing, exposing his bones

Image of Siddhartha Meditating
Provided by Wikipedia Commons

Siddhartha is beginning to collect disciples, beginning with five, who leave him calling him crazy because he has yet to gain true knowledge.

He has several crazy dreams and upon awakening he realizes that he has gained the true knowledge- he is ready to become Buddha.

    

Week 12 Reading Diary A: The Life of Buddha- His Birth

The beginning of The Life of Buddha has been quite interesting. His mother, Maya is the Queen to Suddhodana. She gives up her “worldly” evil desires for a life of good, virtue and abstinence. She heads to an apartment to act out her creed.

While she is away she has a dream that she becomes pregnant with a white elephant with many tusks and the Gods praise her and her good deed. When she woke up, she was overjoyed and wanted to speak to the King, her husband.

He agrees to meet her and as he is approaching her, he feels a sense of weakness and uneasiness. Shortly, a voice from above tells him that his wife, Queen Maya, is going to carry this wonderful son of the Gods, Buddha. He is overjoyed by the knowledge of having this son.

Months passed and the time came for Maya to give birth to Buddha.  She goes to give birth in the garden to allow Buddha to begin his life surrounded by the innocent purity of the flowers. When she entered the forest, she saw a beautiful tree full of flowers and suddenly and easily, she gave birth to Buddha. The Earth was full of joy. Every creature rejoiced as this wonderful child came to be born on earth.

The Birth of Buddha
Provided by Wikimedia Commons

The Life of Buddha by A. Ferdinand Herold,translated by Paul C. Blum

Week 11 Famous Last Words: I'm Only Twenty

Dare I say it, but I think I have finally gotten my life together. Now that I’ve completely jinxed myself… Last week, I was questioning every step of my life. OChem really made me reevaluate if I wanted to do this; if I was cut out to do this. I had always known that it would be tough, but I severely underestimated my work-load this semester. Each of my classes is a completely different evil, but I am ready. I’m ready to tackle the last of the semester full force.

I’ve teetered with the idea of not going to law school for several months. It just seems like such a crazy goal to have on top of engineering. The LSAT, my GPA, the lack of background—I have really been wondering if it was a good idea.

This weekend, I went home to visit my parents for Easter. I brought up these concerns with my dad who said “Don’t worry about it. You’ve still got time to decide.” It seems obvious, but I felt as if I had to have everything ready; that I had to have my “Ten Year Plan” and stick to it to a T.
With my anxiety distinguished, I ironically mapped out my entire life. I always knew I was awkwardly ahead in my coursework, but little did I know I had 9 hour semester in the spring next year…the perfect time to prepare for the LSAT in June. Funny how life gives you all the answers if we take a step back and let it.

It’s nice to remember every once in a while that I’m only Twenty, and barely through a quarter of my life. In retrospect, I really do have time. In other news I read the Twenty-Two goblins translated by Arthur Ryder and let me tell you. I loved it. It was weird and confusing and sort of wonky, aka perfection. I would definitely recommend reading it for an un-textbook option. Heck, I’m ready to read it again.

And for your viewing pleasure...

A photo of me and my brother... 

With our eyes closed... 

The typical Henderson sibling dysfunctional photograph. 

We now celebrate open eyes in photos.

Photo of My Brother and I From Easter 2015
Photo Taken by Chon Henderson

 

Week 11 Storytelling: The Fate of the Disobedient

“Dad, I’m so sorry! I didn't mean to be out that late!” began Ferra as she was startlingly confronted by her father who was posted waiting in the living room.

“You KNOW that you have to be home for dinner. Do you have any idea what time it is?” her father sternly stated, attempting in vain to hide his anger.

"I'm sorry! It won’t happen again! I promise!" she said with sadness.

“You’re going to have to prove yourself,” he said trying to be understanding. “If this ever happens again, you’re going to be in some serious trouble."

“I promise! This is never going to happen again,” Ferra said as she gave her forgiving father a hug.

A few months went by and Ferra was the usual good child that she had been her entire life. She feared what would happen if she disobeyed her father and knew better than to cross him. 

Ferra managed to keep her promise, that is, until this incident happened again. 

"THAT'S IT!" her father screamed as she, once again, attempted to sneak into her home without her father noticing.

"You're in serious trouble, Missy. I gave you a second chance and you blew it. What were you even doing? It's midnight! Dinner is at 7 o'clock every day. I was patient until 8 o'clock.... and then 9 o'clock came and went and then 10 o'clock rolled by, and you NEVER answered your phone. Do you know how worried I was? Do you have ANY idea what that feels like? To have no idea where your kid is?"

"Well, no. I'm not a parent," Ferra thought as her father looked at her with angry eyes. She suppressed her sarcasm and expressed another apology.

"Really, Dad. I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? How do I make it up to you?"

Ferra's father was silent as thought for a moment before he came up with the perfect solution. Suddenly, it came to him. His eyes lit up and Ferra saw evil wash over his face. Her father smirked as he looked at his daughter and dictated her punishment.

"So….Ferra…” he maliciously began.

"Think of your most HATED task. You know, one I never make you do because you hate it so much? The one that I always do because I'm just such a nice father? Now dig deep," he arrogantly and teasingly stated. 

Ferra's face dropped and her eyes filled with terror as she realized what was happening. 

"Oh God. No. Dad, ANYTHING else. PLEASE. Please, don’t make me do it. Dad! Anything!" she begged.

Her father giggled as he realized the genius of his plan.

"Come on. Why don't we start right now?" he said as he walked toward the back door.

"Dad! No! PLEASE! Anything else! Don't make me pick up the dog poop!" Ferra wholeheartedly begged as she hesitantly began to walk toward the back yard.

"How long are you going to make me do this?" she asked already dreading the answer.

“Every weekend,” her father replied.

“Forever?!” Ferra gagged as she filled with fear of the impending doom of dog poop.

"Oh, no, of course not forever,” he said, hardly settling Ferra’s worry.

“Then how long?” she hesitantly asked.

“Oh, you know... We will see, but I'm thinking until, well, you're married!" he said teasing her as he grabbed his sulking daughter's hand.

Image of Father and Daughter
Provided by Pixabay

Author's Note: I wrote this story based on the story of the Eleventh Goblin in the story of The Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. In that story a King falls in love with a Fairy and asks her to marry him. She agrees to marry him as long as he lets her disappear four times a month. The King cannot hold back his curiosity and follows her. The Fairy is swallowed by a giant and the King nobly saves her, or so he thought. The Fairy was punished to this fate of being eaten because of an issue she had with her father long ago but she does not remember the pain of being eaten until the King "saves" her. I found the back story so incredibly interesting. In writing this story, I explain the series of events that led to her fate with her father in a modern-day situation. I changed the Fairy to "Ferra" and used a different story-line but the plot stays similar. Both the Fairy and Ferra were late and needed to be punished. While it may not seem so to Ferra, the severity of the is drastically reduced in this modernized story. The end of my story hints to the fate of the Fairy in the Twenty-Two Goblins when she meets her King and is married.

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder (1917)

Google Define Tech Tip

Bourgeois

I have always found this word rather interesting so I figured I'd get to know more about it!

Week 11 Essay: Twenty-Two Goblins Overview

Essay: Twenty-Two Goblins

          This week, I explored the Un-Textbook Stories of Twenty-Two Goblins translated from the Sanskrit version by Arthur Ryder. These stories began with an introduction of King Triple-Victory, the indirect focus of the stories.

          In this introduction, King Triple-Victory received fruit every day from a Monk. The King did not want the fruit and would give them to his Treasurer. His Treasurer also finding no use for the fruit would throw them out of the window. King Triple-Victory gave the fruit to his monkey who decided to open the fruit one day to find a gem in it. Shocked, King Triple-Victory went and asked the Treasurer if all of the other fruit had gems in them as well and soon realized that there were heaps of gems. The Monk returns the next day and King Triple-Victory asks him why he gives him such a nice gift each day. The Monk leads him to a tree which contains a goblin, beginning the series of stories.

          Throughout each story, there is a weird paradox of morality that King Triple- Victory must answer to the satisfaction of the Goblin. Each story is a different strange situation that seemingly has no real answer. However, King Triple-Victory manages to answer to the goblin’s satisfaction leading to another story each day.

          These stories were quite strange to read but so entertaining. Each story was a strange series of events that did seem to go together. The introduction of the story was hardly a preparation for the first series of events, which was different from the next set- each sentence was something a little… wonky, could I say? The goblin also asked equally as strange morality questions that King Triple-Victory always instantly knew the answer to. It was as if the stories King Triple-Victory were hearing were not the same stories I was interpreting which made it even more interesting to me; everything came together as an incredibly interesting story.

          Each story was something of a “Food For Thought” that made me pause in my busy day and think about what this story was truly about and what the point and lesson of the story was. While I still don’t know for some of these stories, I really appreciate the process of “Read and Think” that Twenty- Two Goblins led me to do.

Image of a Book Cover of
Twenty- Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder
Provided by Tumbler

Links: 

         Twenty-Two Goblins

          Introduction 

         And also because I thought it was a strange word to choose in this          mythical setting: Goblin

Reading Diary B: Twenty-Two Goblins Continued

My Favorite Story From The Second Portion of The Twenty-Two Goblins

The Eleventh Goblin: The King Who Won a Fairy

• Oh no. A corrupted King… He only cares about his pleasures and his desires. This can’t be good.
• The poor counselor just wants a few days away from the King and he won’t permit it.
• So now the counselor has to sneak out on his own pilgrimage.
• He finds a merchant and decides to go on his voyage with him. This pilgrimage isn’t so bad after all.
• And now a magical tree in the ocean with a fairy???
• Farsight tells the king about his journey and he falls in love with the fairy. Must of been a good story…
• And of course he wants to go on this journey to meet this fairy.
• So the King gets out of the boat to find a beautiful city with jewels and pillars and pearls but it is an abandoned city. (Having images of Disney’s Ariel)
• They decide to get married on a CONDITION that she can just disappear for 4 days every month. This is NOT going to end well.
• She goes to visit a giant who swallows her because of a curse her hungry dad cast on her???.... WHAT?
• The King follows her and kills the giant and conveniently breaks the curse. Oh and she conveniently remembers all the pain. And how to fly. Ok.
• So now she has to disappear again… and she comes back without her powers.
• And the counselor dies of sadness because…? What?

Image of The Mermaid and Satyr inspired by
The King and The Fairy
Provided by Wikipedia