Extra Credit Blog-Still

Still.

After many trials, revisions and more. The theme for our yearbook this year is still. In my opinion, we could not possibly have a more perfect theme. 

Thank God for this theme, thank God for still. This word is what has gotten me through this entire year. Specifically, this semester. Drama doesn't leave you when you leave high school. Things get harder. Things get tougher. People hurt me. I, in turn, hurt people who never for a second in their lives deserved it.  Then what do you do?

And the drama is just the backdrop, right? There are still obligations. There are still things that I have to get done. I can try as hard as I can to make everyone happy, but in the end I end up being a failure to everyone. How does this happen? This isn't fair. It's just not.

And then, I am alone.

And then, I remember.

Still.

Be still, and take a breath. Be still, and pray. Be still, and wipe your stupid sorry eyes and next time, you will do better.

That's what you tell yourself, even if you are lying. Because at this moment, this moment when you are still, everything is okay.

Even If that's all that you have.

But.

Still is not a selfish word. Still is not just here for me. Be still and look around.

The whole world is in motion. Be still, but don't be alone. Be still and do something. Make a plan, do something right. Just do these things with peace. In order to stay at peace with yourself, you must stay still. 

I must stay still. 

Taking the time to be still is like taking the time to recharge the battery on your phone. (You know, except you are the phone and you apparently have a battery). 

I was never good at analogies. 

Once I have taken the time to be still and take a look around me, life is easier. I go through life with a different perspective. I am more calm, I am more collected, I am less worried.

Thank God for still, because sometimes motion causes sickness. 

Change is unavoidable. Still, however, still is something special. Still is something to embrace. Still is a gift. It is a gift from God to us, and it has been a gift to have a reminder of this gift constantly around me. 

Still is something that we all need, and something that I will never forget to cherish. 

Final Blog-Book Review

You probably didn't read it in high school, but that doesn't stop it from being a classic. The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, is probably one of the greatest literary works of the 20th century, so they say. (You know, whoever they are). The novel comes from Russia, and the history behind this book is much longer and more eventful than I have the time to write about in this blog, but I promise it's interesting.

The plot is crazy, it's a whirlwind experience, and it's all over the place. The set-up is basically like this. Two intelligent men are having an intelligent decision about how God doesn't exist when, all of a sudden, a mysterious stranger arrives. Soon enough the characters remain unaware, but the reader has caught to the fact that this man is the devil walking around in Moscow, Russia. 

What is he doing here?

The devil affirms the existence of Jesus, but denounces the accuracy of the Bible. He predicts the (almost immediate) death of one of the men that he is talking to, and finally he proceeds to introduce the true character of Pontius Pilate- a major theme throughout the story. 

So that's just the beginning. After that it gets really crazy (don't let me spoil it for you but the devil throws a grand ball on earth). 

In my opinion, this novel does in fact deserve all of the attention that it gets as one if the greatest novels of the 20th century. It is written amazingly well, and it asks philosophical questions that really do speak for our generation. It blurs the line between reality and the fantastic, or at least seriously demands the reader to question it. 

The reader is never given any illusion that they will be able to understand completely the nature what is "truth" and what is "real". However the importance of philosophy, literature, and the pursuit of knowledge are encouraged through the themes in this book.  In fact, at one point in the novel, the devil saves a book that one of the characters, Master, had attempted to destroy. "Manuscripts don't burn" the devil tells him, as if that is an explanation. 

This novel is more than an adventure or religious (of some sort) piece. It achieves without effort a spot among the literary classics. It's themes run deep, and its encouragement of the pursuit of truth, regardless of how in vain that attempt may be, speaks for our generations desire for and struggle with the pursuit of religion and knowledge.