John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

     Mmm, John Proctor. When I hear that name, it makes me think of a real James Dean type guy – strong, handsome, the kind of guy who could fix your roof, and look really good doing it – and he’s got his own opinions and he’s just got the young girls falling at his feet. He sounds like the type of guy all the girls giggle about when he walks past you in the village, glancing over your shoulder after he goes.
     Besides the fact that he just sounds like an attractive guy, you can also tell he’s got a strong head on his shoulders. He knows what he believes in, and he stands up for it. He doesn’t believe in witchcraft, he won’t stand for his wife being accused. He knows what he wants and he sticks to it. He’s very practical, and much more sensible than the rest of the people in the town who have been hoodwinked into believing the stories about witches. I absolutely love it when he says,
     “Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were
     they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem – vengeance is
     walking Salem.”
I think this is so, so, so so so brilliant. It’s obvious that the people who really need to be accused here are doing all the accusing, and John Proctor seems to be the only one who realizes it.
     He also stands up for the fact that he rarely goes to church, and he has a good reason for it. He says he stays home to worship, which I think is TOTALLY the right way to go. Who wants to go to hours of listening to some preacher talk about how God hates all sinners and everyone’s going to end up in Hell when they could be worshipping God joyously at home? He seems to have a clear idea of who God is, and he sees Him in a much nicer, loving, forgiving way. It is probably part of what makes him so strong.
     Although John Proctor is an amazing, able, strong-willed man most of the time, it seems that he also has his faults. Pretty major faults they are, too. He cheated on his wife with a young woman, Abigail. I don’t know what Elizabeth’s illness is yet, but it seems that this is part of what drove him to Abigail. I don’t know what possessed him to do it, but it’s just wrong. I know what they say, “He’s a guy”, don’t expect anything better from him. But that is no excuse. That’s like a girl going out and spending a million dollars on shoes and then people are saying, “She’s a girl, what did you expect? It’s okay”. No. It’s not okay. The worst part is that, although he’s trying to do the right thing by telling Abigail he doesn’t want her anymore, it seems like he’s doing it because he should, not because he wants to. He’s trying to be perfect, yet nobody’s perfect. I think he needs to figure himself out.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

"The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given...the waters are continually rising and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God that holds the waters back..."

This is a quote from Jonathan Edwards' sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He was a Puritan preacher in America in the 1730s and 40s. The Puritans believed that it was pre-destined that they should go to Heaven. This being the case, they spent their whole lives making sure they would fulfill this destiny. Making sure they could do nothing to screw up this wonderful plan God had for them. They were very, very strict and did nothing really "out of the ordinary".

     This sermon is about how God treats the sinners who end up in Hell. Borrowing from one of my very favorite movies, Bruce Almighty, this sermon pretty much gives the listener an image of God as an angry kid sitting on an anthill with a magnifying glass. It has a certain sadist feel to it. Edwards is saying, Haha all you sinners, God hates you and he's gonna send you to Hell, and I'm going to laugh. His sermon is basically scaring other Puritans into being "perfect" in God's eyes. I'm sure they were all raised thinking, "If I do everything right and never sin, God will love me and I'll go to Heaven." Probably, most Puritans were raised in fear; fear of God, fear of sin, fear of Hell. God does not love you, he is angry.

     I think this sermon is probably one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. God is supposed to be this wondrous creator, who gave life to all living things, who watches out for you, who forgives you. He's supposed to love you no matter what. The Puritans were all scared into their own religion. No doubt if anyone ever has second thoughts about it, they were shunned, or maybe even abused, I don't know. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but somehow I feel like this religion, and also some other religions, aren't one's own opinion. If you were raised to fear God because he's gonna send you to Hell, you don't have a choice. You have to agree. Otherwise you're damned for eternity, and who wants that? I'm not saying it was just the Puritans who do this - I know several other Christian religions use this tactic,  the "be Christian or go to Hell" technique, and I'm sure it happens in situations every day. It's depressing.

     Besides the fact that I think it's wrong to scare someone in to something like that, it just makes me sad. It makes me sad that these people didn't grow up believing in God's grace and mercy and love. I don't care if you're Christian or Jewish or Buddhist or Atheist - as long as you have something good and beautiful to believe in. Without a rock like that in your life, how can you ever be truly happy? I hope that the Puritans were happy doing what they did. I hope that as they were carrying out God's will and not sinning and being perfect, I hope they were thinking, "I'm so, so happy, because I get to go to Heaven." I hope that whatever they did, there was some joy in it.

There Goes the Neighborhood

     My neighborhood has always been pretty much the best neighborhood ever. It has the feeling of a small town in a big city. You need a cup of sugar? Well, why don’t you just hop on over to Debbie and Pete’s house and borrow one? Want to go eat food from all over the world this week? Walk around just outside the neighborhood and find Chinese, Thai, Greek, German, Mexican and home grown American only a few steps from each other. It’s definitely my idea of a Utopia.
     The people in the neighborhood have pretty much always been the same: Stella, the nicest old Polish lady you could ever meet; Marian, her next door neighbor, always watching at her front window to make sure you don’t step on her lawn; Mrs. Speilvogel, the scariest old woman in the world – she hates it when you step on her lawn, too, but she can be deceivingly nice; Pete, the master of all nature, and his wife Debbie (who makes the most amazing food out of that beautiful nature), and their three kids, who aren’t quite kids anymore; Big Jim, the alcoholic who sits in his car all day and smokes, and his son Jimmy; the Filipino family who seems to have a never ending stream of different people going in and out of the house, one of them being my brother’s best friend, Darwin; my next door neighbors Annie and Alan, with the two little girls of the block who everyone baby-sits, but nobody really wants to, Olivia and Kate. There's Celeste, the six foot high, wide as she is tall, loud woman with her dogs Duffy and Pal, obnoxious and unleashed all the time, and her fellow dog walkers who talk as their dogs frolick in the grass and leaves. Then, of course, there’s me and my family, and my four best friends in the world – Rory Johnson, Anna Tai Malone, Nicky Parker, and Ian Reeves. All right on the same block. We had the perfect thing going on.
     Today, all these people are still here, with just a few changes. Mrs. Speilvogel’s husband was whisked away one night in an ambulance and never came home. Deb and Pete’s two oldest are married, and the oldest has a little girl now, Nicole. Olivia and Kate are too old for real baby-sitters (everyone’s secretly relieved). The five best friends are still here, but we’re not really best friends anymore. The three of us girls are, but we’ve drifted away from the two boys. We’re all still friends, and we sometimes hang out in the summer, but not too much anymore.
     Despite most of the same people being here, some people are gone – moved away, died, gone off to college – and new people take their place. At first it was slow, a new family moving in maybe once a year. But now all of a sudden, it’s like an explosion of babies and little kids. Young couples moved in, some with kids, some without, and within a year there were at least six or seven new little kids running around outside with no clothes on. They’re everywhere.
     Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore little kids. I want to be a midwife or a pediatrician when I’m older, so don’t think I’m annoyed. I love it. But it’s created this weird barrier between the people of the neighborhood. There’re the older people, the ones who’ve been here for ages, who all stick together. Then there’re the hip young moms who organize “the best block party yet”, while their husbands sit around drinking a couple beers and their kids running around in the sprinklers. It’s like the younger generation is reforming the neighborhood. Besides that, it’s created a sort of barrier between the five of us ‘hood friends. We all have our certain kids that we baby-sit, and no one else really baby-sits them. We’ve all got our own families.
     This may not seem like a big change, but to someone who has lived in the same environment her whole life, it’s different. I’m not even saying it’s bad different (I’m so glad there are new little kids and babies to play with and get to know), but it’s different. Luckily for the new guys, the entire neighborhood is really, really nice. In everyone's eyes, more new people means more love to go around. J

Introductions

     My full name is Alaina Louise Stacey. I guess I'm proud to be a Stacey, but I regret to inform you that my original, straight from the Mediterranean name, was way, way cooler. If my great-grandfather hadn't come from Greece with the desire to be as American as possible, I would be Alaina Louise Stasinopolous. How cool is that? Tres cool.
     I really love country music. I feel like I am the odd man (woman) out here, but it doesn’t bother me too much, because I’ve got a pretty wide range of musical taste. My favorite country artists are Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Kasey Chambers, and Miranda Lambert, but I also love Iron & Wine, Amos Lee, Counting Crows, Bruce Springsteen, R. Kelly (weird, right?) and I am absolutely head over heels in love with Ben Folds. Check him out; he’s a musical genius. (One kind of embarrassing thing about me is that one time I was writing to my friend that I’m a genius and I wrote “genious”. Hehe woops.) I also write and sing my own music, as well as some of my brothers’ music and my dad’s music. We’re just one big musical family!
     I have three brothers named Jordan, Julian, and Gabriel. We all get along swimmingly; thank the dear lord baby Jesus. My parents met when they were my age, and my dad says he loved her from the moment he saw her. Everyone in my family loves to be together (maybe a bit too much), and we love to vacation. So far we’ve been to Greece, Thailand, France, and England.
     I enjoy reading authors such as J.K. Rowling, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Lee, J. K. Rowling, George Orwell, and J. K. Rowling. I absolutely love walking outside on beautiful days, and I would have to say my favorite season is fall. Or spring. It changes depending on how cold I’m feeling. But mostly fall. I think. I play the flute and the guitar and attempt the piano when I’m feeling brave. For the past five years I’ve done a triathlon every summer, which is very rewarding and exciting (especially the bagels and medals at the end).
     A few random facts: I want to be a midwife when I grow up, and I’m going to attend a birth any day now (she’s about ready to pop!); one of the greatest inspirations in my life was my grandmother “Tada”, who had a squillion faults but was one of the most beautiful people I ever knew; I love Australia and everything to do with it; I wish I knew more Spanish; and my favorite movie of all time is the Princess Bride – I could watch it every single day and never get tired of it – followed closely by Love Actually and Overboard.
     I’m the kind of person that babbles on and on, so I shall bid this blog adieu. Now I have a few hours of homework to look forward to ☺. Life is beautiful.