Graduation and Family

My parents came up for my graduation. While we got many photos of me and my family, me wearing the silly cap and gown (but it does represent a lot), none were with my camera. Graduations are a little on the boring side, but it was fun to see my supervisor for my student teaching one last time. She may be older than me, but she snapped this picture of me as I was crossing the stage and sent it to my e-mail from her iPhone. And of course my parents and I were glad that I now have a BA. My Carpenter grandparents, Davy, and Jay were also attending. Thanks to all of them, and everyone else who's been supportive :)

Steven and Stacy hosted dinner for all of us several times. One day Jay and I will have a home to invite people into, rather than a studio apartment. We brought a pineapple to share, so that was fun.

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er was my niece, Clara's, blessing. She's so cute! I got some pictures of Jay holding her.

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xplain the war bonds ph

oto--as you probably have no idea what it's doing on my blog. When my parents and Davy came to visit, one thing we did was go to the Museum of Art on campus. Among the exhibits was old war posters from WWII. This has made me think about how changed America is from that. time. Once when we went to war, citizens saw it as their patriotic duty to help fund the war, via war bonds. People lived with rations of meat, gas, etc. Somehow seeing all the posters made me realize that this isn't at all what current America thinks of war. War in my lifetime has just happened and we expected it to be funded from "somewhere" or to just go into debt for it. Sure, we're patriotic, so long as we're not complaining about taxes and how expensive everything is... but I don't think we've really felt the expense of everything we want from our government

the way we did in WWII.

I really see this in education, too--wanting good education, but not funding it well. In my student teaching of 7th and 8th graders, my smallest class was 35 students and the largest was 38. I hear that there are elementary schools with 35-45 students per class in the upper grades (3-6). I feel like although we expect a great public education, we're not willing to pay for it in our taxe

s.

Of course it's good of me to say this, you say... since my husband and I got a tax refund last year so I haven't paid many taxes at all in my life. I guess that this art display just made

me realize that Americans right now are raised thinking that they're entitled to the best of everything--the best freedom, the best education, the best rights--without paying for it.

I need to mention all those men and women who still serve in the armed forces, who recently took down Osama bin Laden, and still put their lives on the line for our country. While the general public no longer sacrifices

to buy war bonds, we still have remarkable people who are willing to sacrifice so much more for the shared goal of safety.

And while in America we don't buy war bonds, many do donate to causes for natural disasters around the wor

ld.

The main exhibit in the MOA was the Carl Bloch exhibit and his depictions of Christ. I didn't actually know much about him, but I've seen his paintings. It's interesting to see the commentary of the paintings on the plaques, describing some things you might have missed. In one of Christ healing the sick, the plaque pointed out that 2 of the individuals are looking at you. I figure that this is what makes the audience feel a part of the painting. It suggests that Bloch was inviting his audience to be healed by Christ, too.

Another painting has Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, being comforted by an angel. He wears red to symbolize the scripture, "he sweat as it were great drops of blood" without actually putting in the blood, making a meaningful, rather than simply gruesome picture. Some artistic license is good.