POW RIGHT IN THE KISSER

Howdy,

I know this is ridiculous, but this is my first real post for this blog. Since I missed over a week of school, I had so much work to catch up over the past week staying up all the time, but that's no excuse.

Wow. I have read Grapes of Wrath a few years back and barely remember seeing a movie in regards to this novel, but when I read it this time, Amazing. Now, I have read so called "Great Novels," such as Crime and Punishment and Leaves of Grass, but they were all boring. Sure, a lot of philosophy was adapted into those novels, but Grapes of Wrath has not only of philosophy, but relevance to one's life, a sense of excitement and most importantly, a sense of realism. One of those relevancy is the infamous T.O.

Transcendental over soul, is a repeated concept in Grapes of Wrath which is plainly hard to ignore all throughout the book, but particularly on page, 26, "it's love... love people so much I'm fit to bust..." And True Dat. This whole book is about love, love to your family, and how far each person is going to go for it. At first, after reading some one's previous post, I thought that family was an excellent topic to barge in with. Then I thought, now days, family isn't what it used to be. For instance, it was always family first, family business, family love, or maybe it was just an Italian thing. While Grapes of Wrath has insane levels of love shared between the family members, in the modern times, all we hear on the news is "Husband kills Wife over Love Affair," "Wife Runs Away with Children to Lebanon." I hope the reason why we hear mostly about negative aspects of human lives rather than "good," is that's what media companies think is interesting.

Personally, I believe there is more good on this Earth than bad, but whenever we hear bad things, we tend to remember much more of it, thousand times more. I think most families have good intentions, and "... so much [love] [they're] fit to burst," but then what makes families in the past so much different from the "now?" Let's take the Great Depression. Like the Joads family, everyone has had a terrible time and is now heading to California. They have one dream. The families he lead all merge, in their hearts, all the children seems to be every one's children, and the dream to find a safe haven, is their one dream.

So, from what I understand, it seems when the world was in more peril, more people seem to bond. Just like during the tsunami disaster in South-East Asia, billions of donations poured in from around the world, whether it was political, or whether it was just humane, people united eventually to try to get those victims literally, out of the water and on their feet.

As to religion, many of you stated that religion is not a factor in T.O. but I think otherwise, while I am not a religious man myself, my grandparents on my mother's side are Super Catholics, and my dad's side is Uber Buddhists. Though both religions promote peace and well being a like, just because the other party is promoting peace and well being in different ways, they will tear at each other's throats. There for, religion is a definite no-no subject in my household, so I don't believe in one. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be religion. Spiritually is what some folks were saying that leads people to the ultimate T.O., but if you look at society, so many people rely, if not enslaved (perhaps too strong of a word), to religion for their spiritual guidance. So, religion is a nessecity in this very Earth an even though it divides us, it unites us, because we are all looking for the same thing, "hope for the best."

So in order for us, humans, to become more "peaceful" and "united," there has to be more disasters, perils, and division among us.

Have a nice day,

P.S. I haven't re-read my post over yet, I'll do it later in the evening when I get my thirty pages of Chem done. I'll post another one.

psst...I have made comments... Let's "discuss." =D