Week 3 Storytelling: Two Tickets to Paradise

Abel, son of Adam and Eve, awoke one morning to begin his daily duties. After saying his morning prayer, he ran over to a particular wall of the Cave of Treasures that was utilized for keeping up with the date -- a makeshift calendar. It was time! Abel dashed off to find his parents who were with his brother Cain. Cain and Abel always seemed to be scuffling with each other, but it was always ignored under the mantra "boys will be boys." For once in Abel's life, granted he was only four years of age, he wanted to make Cain feel special. So he first gave Cain the special news. 5,500 years had finally passed, and it was time to return to Paradise. Excitement grew quick in the Cave as the family rejoiced. No longer would they be exiled. The continued their day awaiting God.

Breakfast had just ended when two angelic figures appeared before the family. "Behold! God's promise is fulfilled!" the first one proclaimed. The second one then extended out an envelope in hand. As soon as Eve grasped the envelope, the visitors were gone. Many years had passed since Adam and Eve first entered the Cave of Treasures, and the outside world now referred to itself as "2017 A.D." Inside the envelope, Eve found two pieces of parchment, nearly identical in appearance. Unaware of what they were to be used for, they quickly fell to their knees and prayed.

"Dear Lord, the time has come for us to be with you again! We know not what these signs mean, so we pray that you reveal to us your mighty plan." Adam finished up his prayer and awaited an answer. Soon the Lord's Word came upon Adam and Eve, and all was made known. The two pieces of parchment were airline tickets. Using these the family must board an airplane to Paradise. All within a moment, the excitement transformed into concern. Adam and Eve had tickets, but their sons were without. They began packing what little they had within the Cave, finding passports that must have been delivered from God. Surely God would lead them to answer to their conundrum.

As it neared time to leave the Cave of Treasures once and for all, they realized that they must find another way to take Cain and Abel with them. God held onto his promise, only He did so much more strictly than they anticipated. When God made an oath to bring back Adam and Eve, He meant just that. Adam and Eve. No one else was a part of that promise, including offspring. But they knew they must bring their own children with them. And with that, they devised a plan.

Passing through the airport, flashing their passport every few moments, Adam and Eve finally were able to board the plane. They carefully moved down the aisle until they found their seats. Adam took the window seat because he wished to gaze upon the Creation of God. Eve wanted the aisle seat so that she may quickly access the bathroom. Adam and Eve never seemed to have conflicting wants or ideas. Maybe it is because Eve was made from Adam, and this was a sign of mercy from God. Better yet, maybe it was simply because 5,500 together in a cave makes a couple learn the significance of compromise. They both plopped down their carryon bags below their feet and gave a loving gaze to each other.

A loving gaze that was soon interrupted by an elderly woman claiming she had the seat between the two. "Excuse me! Excuse me! I believe I am between you two!" Without a word further, she stepped over Eve's feet and sat down in the middle seat. At first, neither Adam nor Eve knew how to react. Who was this woman? Why was she between them? The only thing Adam could muster up was an offer.

"Why don't you take this window seat so that I may sit next to my wife?" Adam pleaded.

"No thank you, sonny. Looking out the window makes me nauseous," responded the woman.

"Then take my seat! It is quite convenient being able to just get up without having to step over anyone," Eve suggested.

"Last time I sat in the aisle, the flight attendant spilled tea on my new jacket as she had walked by! I just got this blouse, and I will not risk ruining it!" And with that, it was obvious to Adam and Eve that this would be an annoying flight.

All throughout out the flight, the couple endured incredibly probing questions. "When are you having kids?" "How is he in bed?" "How much money do you guys make?" "What are your religious views?" "Did you vote for Hillary?"

Though the elderly woman meant no harm (she was just one to try to make the most of the time when around new people), Adam and Eve had to sheepishly dodge many of the questions. Just as she started to talk about her oddly located moles and black hairs, the plan had landed. Adam and Eve quickly exited the plane with their carry-ons in hand. They exited the airport unsure where to go next, but it was pretty clear once a car with the sign "Holy Uber" rolled up. They got inside the car where they could finally open their bags.

"I could hardly breath! We're never doing this again!" cried Cain. Abel was simply begging for water. The two brothers had been stuffed in their parents' bags to avoid purchasing two more tickets! The Holy Uber came to a stop, and they were there. Paradise. And Cain and Abel never again had to be stuffed in bags.

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Author's Note: I based this story mostly on The Forgotten Book of Eden. God promises Adam and Eve that he would bring them back into Paradise after 5,500 years. I imagined a scenario where society still reached its current form. Essentially, this serves as a sequel. I took inspiration from the Bible to include Adam and Eve's two most well-known children, Cane and Abel. I found this entire thought to be absurd, so I decided it would probably be best to make the story itself outlandish. I kept Cane and Abel at a young age because I figured it could be the basis of the conflict present in the story.

Bibliography:  
The Forgotten Book of Eden, edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. (1926)
The Bible (KJV)

Image: Boarding Pass, generated using MusicAirport 

Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche, Part A

I've always been a fan of mythologies, so I do like that there are fairy tales rooted in those mythologies. I chose Cupid and Psyche because I am somewhat familiar with Cupid (and his Greek counterpart "Eros"), and wanted to expose myself to more about him. I like how Roman (and Greek) fairytales have pretty simple and direct storytelling while still being a strong story. Like Laura notes in the overview, the story is "very similar to the story of 'Beauty and the Beast,'" and she is complete right. There's something clean to stories like these that I appreciate. 

Many stories in mythological folklore are told by following one particular character. However, something I think I would like to try is telling the story through the perspective of everyone else. How would the story follow if it were told by the people Psyche interacted with or onlookers? With such a straightforward tale, it should be easy to do so. There's not much auxiliary action occurring meanwhile.

Would the gods and people she interact with her be rooting for her? Would they be annoyed? What kind of information would they know? I think it would be a neat way of looking at the story. In addition, with the noted similarity between Cupid and Psyche and Beauty and the Beast, I wonder if I could throw a Disney-spin on the story. I might take inspiration from Disney's Hercules to do so.

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Bibliography: Cupid and Psyche by Apuleius and translated by Tony Kline, source

Image: Cupid and Psyche by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, via Wikimedia Commons

Feedback Thoughts

Something that resonated with me is the idea that we should look for the positive feedback and not just the negative feedback. I feel like the word "feedback" carries a negative connotation because it is meant for improvement. How do you improve? Take the bad and make it better. It can definitely be hard to accept positive feedback, but it's essential because whether we realize it or not, the positive aspects are just as important as the negative aspects. And beyond that, just because something can be improved doesn't mean it wasn't something positive. Similarly, a big aspect of feedback that can be difficult to manage is separating you as a person from your performance. Many times it's easy to slip into the mindset that your final product directly reflects you as a person. Clearly, this is not true, but when in that position, it sure feels like it. It's all about the mindset you are in when receiving feedback. Choose to only see the negative, and you will live in the negative.

In regards to giving feedback, I am quickly reminded of the growth vs. fixed mindset. A large component of that philosophy is praising effort, not results. Like the "Narcissism vs. Healthy Self-Esteem" explains, when giving praise, it is vital to not inflate someone's ego. That only will incentivize they remain at that level of effort and comfortability. However, it should not be thought that positive feedback is bad. In fact, it should be encouraged. It's just all about phrasing. Let them know how the positive feedback directly relates to the work ethic or persistence in that particular project or task. Compliment them overcoming challenging and difficult tasks. Make sure they know the effort was worth it. The change in the way of providing praise has shown more and more to be key. Even the Army is now using this method because it, so far, has been the best way of improving people.

I personally believe I have made huge strides in improving how I give feedback. At first, my feedback was weak. After all, the only form of feedback I had been exposed up until that point was an out-of-one-hundred grade written in deep red at the top of my assignments. Where was the constructivism? But after joining the Union Programming Board freshman year of college, I've seen a major improvement in my feedback. It's no surprise that an organization that remains critical of itself would teach its critics (read: members) how to properly critique. It's not something easy to learn to do. You have to learn what constitutes good feedback, you have to learn to not let emotions sway feedback, and you have to learn how to balance the positive and the negative. Too much of one or the other can lead the receiver to dismiss the other, leaving you in a debatably worse situation.

Got Feedback?, via Flickr

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Articles read:

Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head

5 Tips for Taking Feedback Like a Champ

The Difference Between Praise That Promotes Narcissism vs. Healthy Self-Esteem
Presence, Not Praise: How To Cultivate a Healthy Relationship with Achievement

Week 2 Story Planning: Two Tickets to Paradise

Adam and Eve have resided in the Cave of Treasures for nearly 5,500 years. They know that God promised to bring them back into Paradise, so they begin to ready themselves for the fulfillment of that promise. But civilization has advanced, and so they must board an airplane to head to Paradise. Adam and Eve have two young kids, Cane and Abel, but their conservative lifestyles in the Cave have led them to refuse to purchase tickets for their kids. Now they must figure out how all four of them will make it to Paradise.

How did each day occur during the wait?

• They awoke each as the sun rose. They pray to God. The Lord provided them with animals for nourishment once a week. They prepare their first meal and consume it after praying again. 
• They clean what needs to be cleaned in the Cave of Treasures.
• Cane and Abel bicker a lot. I wonder what that will lead to...
• Adam makes dad jokes. Eve rolls her eyes.

God sends angel with two tickets to Paradise

• They need 4 total, but God argues that he only ever said he'd bring back Adam and Eve. 
•  Adam and Eve devise a plan to get their sons to Paradise

Packing to leave the Cave of Treasures

•  Abel accidently leaves behind his favorite rock, but will later find a better one in Paradise. The rock will need an endearing name.
• Should I include a scene where they need to find their misplaced passports?
• They figure out how to get Cane and Abel to Paradise. They will just stuff them in their carry-on bags!

At the airport

• Adam gets "randomly" selected for a strip search while at the airport.
• He argues it's against his religion.
•  Eve has the aisle seat, and Adam takes the window seat.
• A random 70-year-old grandma gets placed between them, refusing to switch with Adam or Eve so that they can sit together. 
• She asks incredibly invasive questions not knowing they were invasive questions.
• The plane experiences turbulence
• Adam thinks this is God trying to kill him (again).
• Adam goes to the bathroom to pray for mercy.

Plane lands

• God sends the Holy Uber to pick them up.
•  They arrive at the pearly white gates.
• The family of four get inside Paradise and begin to explore their former home.
• Somehow Abel finds his a new favorite rock. Try to make this part of the story a long-con joke.

~ ~ ~

Author's Note: I based this story mostly on The Forgotten Book of Eden. God promises Adam and Eve that he would bring them back into Paradise after 5,500 years. I imagined a scenario where society still reached its current form. Essentially, this serves as a sequel. What would someone that old who has been ostracized for so long do if he or she were to emerge from a cave? I then took inspiration from the Bible to include Adam and Eve's two most well-known children, Cane and Abel. I found this entire thought to be absurd, so I decided it would probably be best to make the story itself outlandish. I kept Cane and Abel at a young age because I figured it could be the basis of the conflict present in the story. I tried to include aspects of the source material such as Adam believing the turbulence to be God's way of killing him just as he believed many other things to be God killing him in The Forgotten Book of Eden.

Bibliography:  
The Forgotten Book of Eden, edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. (1926)
The Bible (KJV)

Image: Boarding Pass, generated using MusicAirport 

Reading Notes: Adam and Eve, Part B

Part B of the Adam and Eve unit tells a story of Adam and Eve after being sent out from the Garden. This eviction was caused after Satan came to Eve in the form of a serpent and convinced her to eat the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil. I wonder how this narrative would play out if it were instead Satan who was the one banished from the Garden to live in the Cave of Treasures. Would God show pity and mercy to Satan as he does to Adam and Eve?

Another thing I note about these stories is how depressed Adam and Eve become after being ostracized from God's presence. Thrice Adam ends his own life, only to be revived by God. An odd parallel that comes to mind is that of a drug addict. People will cut out drug addicts from their life while still showing pity. The drug addicts will make mistake after mistake, desperate for the mercy of those he or she once had in their own life. And just as God promises Adam that he will bring him back into the Garden after 5,500 days, people will, too, promise to rekindle relationships with drug addicts if they are to overcome their habits.

One thing I note as Adam exits the Cave of Treasures is that he believes the sun to be God. This interests me because the sun is often believed to be a god in many cultures and religions. Shortly thereafter, Adam and Eve encounter the serpent Satan. After attempting to kill Adam and Eve, Satan was noted as being thrown to India. I wonder if anything comes about of his arrival there. I also wonder if this passage refers to the land we currently know as India.

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Bibliography: The Forgotten Book of Eden, edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. (1926)

Image: God the Father with His Right Hand Raised in Blessing, by Girolamo dai Libri, via Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: Adam and Eve, Part A

Something that has always interested me about the Bible is how its stories are usually told. Among believers, it is commonly held that the Bible is the word of God, yet it is (mostly) written from the 3rd-person perspective of an omniscient author that isn't God himself since God is referred to as a separate being from the narrator. A couple of ideas stem from this observation. What if the Bible were written with God as the narrator? Would this influence anything significantly? The current narrator states how God feels about various actions and events. How much, if any, of these details would be lost if God were the narrator? It also makes me wonder if I could find a way to formulate an experimental telling of the same story from the perspective of multiple, objectively omniscient narrators. Could I get each story to leave the reader with different thoughts or feelings without using any subjective narration?

Another widely-held belief is that the Bible, more specifically the Old Testament, is a series of symbolism and metaphors. Rather than the literal interpretation, they are merely stories created to explain the numerous facets of life, nature, culture. The stories describe what is not fully known. Where did we come from? Perhaps it is much easier to tell a story about two people named Adam and Eve than it is to try to comprehend the concept of people being willed into existence. Maybe I should find creative ways to explain more abstract ideas through relatable stories.

Regardless of one's interpretation of the Bible, literal or not, Adam and Eve are integral to the beginnings of Biblical history. Rereading the accounts of Creation, and that which shortly follows, reminds me of a high school assignment I once had. We were tasked to write our own "Creation" story, modifying any existing story or creating something entirely new. World building has always been something I've enjoyed seeing whether in a book, movie, video game, or TV show. Maybe my stories would benefit from strong world building. But could/would that make them needlessly long?

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Bibliography:
The Bible (KJV)
The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg

Image:

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, via Wikimedia Commons

Tech Tip: Canvas Mobile App

In less than a minute, I had downloaded an app onto my iPhone that would give me convenient access to any course I am taking. Of course, the app to which I refer is the Canvas mobile app. Installation was very straightforward, and logging was just as easy. I've found the app to be incredibly useful because I'm not always around a computer, and an app (when properly made) makes navigation much more intuitive than using a browser on a phone. If I need to reference a syllabus, it's a few taps away. This is alone justifies switching from D2L. Education is further relying on technology and the Internet by the semester, so it makes perfect sense that this content should be just as available as seeing what a friend had for dinner on Instagram or what "share if you agree" is the latest trend on Facebook. In the past, I have constantly referenced the Canvas app, and I only see myself referencing it more often as more classes migrate to Canvas. I plan to continue using this app to keep up with the multitude of assignments and class alerts I'm sure to have. This app has been a bug-free, hassle-free experience I'd recommend to anyone.