Art: Useless and Unnecessary? (I think not!)

So, apparently when I said "let's go do something better and not be pigs" meant taking a three-month hiatus. Sorry! Mea culpa! But let's not wallow in our grief, and let's get down to business.
(Insert obligatory Mulan reference. Oh wait, I just did.)



In today's culture, there is an awful lot of emphasis on "success". Success is often synonymous with power, wealth, and the like. As we grow up and go to college and pursue careers and practice adulting (cuz let's face it, we're all just faking it til we make it), the most successful career choices seem to involve business, engineering, medicine, laws, etc. Very black-and-white, straightforward, critical, logical.

But lo, this is not Allison. No, I majored in Communication Arts and Theology and minored in History. In other words, I don't really have a problem when it comes to the liberal arts (which is really funny because those who know me know I like black-and-white and dislike grey areas). But liberal arts aren't exactly successful in the same way being a lawyer or a doctor is successful. Really, these majors can be pretty worthless in the eyes of the world since you don't exactly have a six-figure salary right out of college. I have even been told the following joke: what's the difference between a pizza and a Theology degree (or insert another liberal arts degree)? A pizza can feed a family of four.

And you know, they're right. Art doesn't exactly give you the most money in the world. But that doesn't mean it's useless. In the words of the late Robin Williams, from his character-whose-name-escapes-me-because-I-only-saw-the-movie-once in The Dead Poet Society:

"Medicine, law, business, engineering...these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love...these are what we stay alive for."

Don't mistake me for downplaying math and science. We need these. We'd be dead without them. Buildings would collapse, plagues raging, and pizza probably wouldn't exist (a real travesty) because cooking is just culinary chemistry. But let's not also downplay the arts either. We need both!


Art has a place in our world and our lives. It takes many forms--painting, drawing, music, poetry...art can even be found in science (remember culinary chemistry?). The ability to be creative and bring about something new is beautiful and mindblowing. Art allows us to express ourselves, our emotions, to reveal a glimpse of a piece of our own souls. It requires vulnerability and the courage to say to the world, "Here I am!"

Whether you express this creativity in poetry, sketching or even coming up with a new creative math problem or activity--all yourself to be vulnerable! Allow people to see a new part of you, or even just allow yourself to live!

Becoming Pigs and How to Avoid It

So, I finished reading "Lord of the Flies" a week or two ago. 

I have never read said book before (I wasn't forced to read it in high school or college), and I can't say that I enjoyed it. Seriously, half the book involves the boys arguing on what to name the island (which based on their obsession with the pigs and even a kid named Piggy, they should have just named it "Bacon Island" and moved on with life), screaming "I've got the conch!", and "kill the pig, slit it's throat, etc. etc.", so on and so forth. Which on contemplating the latter, this was some creepy group of boys. 

Surprisingly or not so surprisingly, The thing that occurred to me most about this book was how much talk there was about pigs. Not just the talk of pigs, but how much pigs are associated with evil. A group of the boys in "Lord of the Flies" are obsessed with hunting the pigs. This group of boys become extremely violent and end up killing two other kids. 

Another book where pigs show up in the theme of evil is "Animal Farm". (seriously, who wants to hang out with this pig? (I don't)



The pigs are downright nasty. For gosh sakes, they kill the horse (seriously, I think I cried).

So anyways, it got me wondering as to why pigs are associated with evil (at least in these books). According to the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, pigs represent "extremes of human joy or fear, celebration, ridicule, and repulsion." They also represent greed and gluttony. Being compared to a pig isn't exactly a compliment--I mean, c'mon, I'm pretty sure this isn't what we have in mind when we compare someone to swine:



Seriously, LOOK HOW CUTE. But I digress. 

Gluttonous. Greedy. Ridicule. Repulsion. You know, to be honest, this sounds like a lot of traits that we, who are supposed to be decent human beings, have today. We over-indulge ourselves on sex, technology, anything that makes us feel good. We're greedy about our time and are more likely to spend 6 hours with our buddy Netflix than a couple hours with our good friends. (and I don't mean physically being in the room with them; I mean put-the-phone-away-and-talk-to-each-other) We're quick to judge and gossip and detract the reputations of other people (especially if they drive us batty and we're more right than they are :p ). We're repulsed by the people we dislike and disagree with (and then enters "ridicule"). 

I think all of this points back to one thing--we are so self-centered as a society. We would rather overindulge ourselves for days than spend a minute thinking of someone else. But isn't that part of the lesson in "Lord of the Flies" and "Animal Farm"? The boys associated with the pig hunting clearly don't value their neighbor (they're actually pretty quick to call a manhunt on another kid), and the pigs themselves only use the other animals to rise to power. When we focus on ourselves and our own gratification, what do we lose sight of? Our fellow man, the suffering in the world, true beauty and goodness. Instead, we have tunnel-vision on ourselves only, and we miss the world around us.

My point for this long blog post is a call to action: take at least one hour of this week and go outside of yourself. Read a book. Go for a walk in nature. Call that friend you haven't talked to in months. Give of your time and your self to someone, and don't expect anything in return. Let's stop being pigs and start being people again.

Life Lessons from Walking Dead

I heard a concept from the podcast "Catholic Stuff You Should Know" about "baptizing truth" and recognizing what is good in today's world. Well, I feel like quite a few of these posts are going to be doing that--baptizing truths as I find them.

Here we go:


Characters from "The Walking Dead"

Yes, I watch The Walking Dead. Now, I know what you all are saying: "Isn't this show about zombies?" "Isn't there a lot of killing on this show?" "Is this show okay to watch?" 

Yes there are zombies. Yes there is death. However, I don't recommend the show for just anyone, and I think you need to watch it with a proper lens and outlook (ie, don't watch to enjoy killing and violence when it does come). I do think (like with The Hunger Games and other dystopian stories) there are some good truths and ethical questions to ponder that do come from this show, and that is exactly why I watch it. Here are some reasons why I love this show:

The Human Person

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love shows that show the growth and story of human persons. Love. It. My good friend Sam (#shoutout), who also introduced me to this show, describes Walking Dead in this way:

"It's really an exploration of what it means to be human. Put realistic characters in extreme conditions and let it play out. We are who we are at our worst." 

Truth bomb. Since Sam described the show to me like this, it has totally changed my perspective in watching it. Some of the characters have a continuous struggle with good and bad (sounds like life). Some of the "weaker" characters are actually strong in their morals and continue to be optimistic or hopeful. Some of the "strong" fall--VERY hard. 

What I love about this show is that you walk with these characters and see why they are the way the are, why the choose the things they do...I then like to place myself in their shoes and ask, "What would I do? What would I hope I would do? Would I remain true to myself and be the person I hope I am?"

Community
Community is tricky in Walking Dead. You come across a stranger, and (somewhat naturally) they're often treated with suspicion. If they seem good, they're often allowed to join the main characters and their community. If they're bad, often times they end up dead (eventually). However, a general theme in this show is that no one can survive by themselves. 

Walking Dead shows some situations where people are left alone and who they turn out to be. One woman goes absolutely bonkers, and another guy is happy-go-lucky in a zombie-infested forest because he DOESN'T have to be by himself anymore.  Pretty much, if you end up alone at any point in this show, most of the time you're screwed. 

It's a harsh way to learn this lesson, but there's a huge emphasis on not splitting up the group. Sure, you're stronger physically in numbers, but community is something we all need, zombie apocalypse or not. If we are all by ourselves, we become "I"-obsessed. What do I want, what am I going to do, what's going to make me happy (okay, the last phrase has "me" and not "I", I'll admit it). Having a companion and friends moves us out of ourselves and prevents us from becoming selfish. We are more willing to give up ourselves for the other, as the group in Walking Dead often save each other's lives rather than their own skin.

Living
Now, I know what y'all might be thinking (aside from how weird it is for a Midwesterner to be picking up Texas lingo): Duh. They're trying to stay alive and not be eaten by zombies. However, I think there's a key difference between surviving and living. Surviving is based on instinct and your generic needs (food, water, sleep, etc.). But truly living--falling in love, being able to work, having leisure time...all of these things are important to being human. 

You see the group on the run constantly at the beginning of season...2? 3? Something like that...either way, they're exhausted. They readily admit that it's no way to live. In one of the first seasons, you see Carl in awe of the beauty of seeing a deer.  A few seasons later, you see Beth (one of the characters) saying and teaching that you have to believe there is good in the world and enjoy life. You see when they are truly living, and not running for their lives, a huge difference in their demeanor. 

While we're not running from the undead, we can fall into a sense of "non-living". We may not fall into mere survival, but we can go about our day just breathing. Going through our routine. Eating. Sleeping. Aimlessly surfing social media. But is this living? Nope. What are you doing to find beauty in today's world? What are you hopeful for? And what are you going to do about it?

The First Post

I always find the first posts of blogs to be the worst. You have to do introductions, say who you are, why you're doing this blog, yada yada. Well, I'm going to keep this relatively short so we can move on with life and much more interesting topics.

1) My name is Allison, I'm from the midwest and currently live in the third largest city in the US. I graduated from college last May with a communication arts and theology degree from Franciscan University of Steubenville, and my hobbies include playing the organ/piano, crocheting (hey, old-school hobbies can be fun!), watching and analyzing tv shows and movies, and so on.

2) Well, like I said, I majored in communication arts, so I thought I'd try my hand at "new media" and blogging. I've also been told by a few of my friends that I should start a blog (whether or not they're right is a different story, but it might be fun). I might want to try vlogging in the future, but let's face it--I don't have the camera equipment other than a webcam to do so. And videos by webcam are no bueno. So, between that and allowing myself another outlet in which to muse about life.

I am Catholic, and so my faith and morals will certainly be a part of this blog, but I mostly hope to do exactly what I said above--muse about life, discover beauty in the everyday things, and find truth wherever it may hide in the world.

On that note--time to end this post and on to better things!