Miranda: English II, Section F

Uriah Oblinger was a Nebraska settler who made use of the Homestead Act (1862) and wrote a series of letters (in the early 1870s) to his wife and family, who he left at their home in Indiana, while he traveled to Nebraska with his wife’s two brothers to stake a claim to a plot of land and make a new life for him and his family.

Uriah seems to be a very sentimental, compassionate man. The main object of his letters are focused on describing his journey, while minimizing the hardships he faces, and always keeping a positive attitude about the future and especially seeing his wife and children once again. Uriah writes the letters to his first wife, Mattie, his baby daughter Ella, and the rest of his family (in a more general sense). Although he describes the hardships of the weather “a hard storm of wind and rain set in and continued nearly all night” (Letter # 1), he seems to have a positive attitude about everything, and he often contradicts the hardships by saying that everything was better the next day. Uriah seems to be trying to almost console his wife, without actually saying that he is doing that, by maintaining a positive attitude about everything and telling her how much he misses her, and describing how happy he will be when he finally sees his family again. Uriah describes to his wife the conditions of the weather and climate, the topography of the land, the conditions of the horses he is traveling with, and the physical aspects of his journey and claiming land for he and his family to settle on. Uriah is courageous and daring, to be willing to be among the first to settle in Nebraska, and make the journey to the West. He is also compassionate and loving in the way that he seems to console his wife and tell her how much he misses her and longs to see her and their baby Ella. Uriah shows his strength and bravery in the third letter when he manages to keep one of his horses from running away, while also making she that she did not trample or step on him. Uriah displays humility, determination, and he refuses to complain, when he writes: “it is going to cost some privations, but I have made up my mind to stand them for the sake of a home. I know it will seem pretty rough to those who have never tried to do without wood or timber but it looks rougher on paper than the reality seems” (Letter # 3). This quote basically sums up the fact that Uriah has a positive attitude, determination, and he attempts to comfort and console his wife by making his conditions seem less bad than they really are.

Uriah Oblinger and his letters help me to imagine the settler’s life because he describes the hardships of settlement and being away from his home and family, trying to recreate a new life for him and his family. His letters also display the things that a settler has to think about, such as provisions, the legal necessities for claiming a plot of land, the weather, conditions of horses, and more. I think that Uriah’s life and experiences that I have seen through his letters have shown me that settlement was much harder than I ever thought. More than the physical hardship of reaching their destination and claiming a plot of land, and legally, actually having it become legitimized, trusting the government to protect that, Uriah’s letters showed me that sometimes the hardest part of settlement was simply being away from your family and home, and the things you know and love, and trying to almost make a new life for yourself. It makes me miss my family and my home, even though they are much closer to me that Uriah’s were for him.

My Debate with Mr. K

Hello Mr. K, you always tell us to come make a meeting with you if we are confused or unsure about anything having to do with soccer, so here I am. It basically all comes down to why I am not playing. I didn’t make a meeting with you to beg you for more playing time, I just want to know why I am not playing. So, tell me, Mr. K.

Well, when I am putting you out there I don’t see you making a difference for the team.

Okay, what do you suggest I do to make more of a difference out there? I listen to what you say, I work really hard, and I don’t understand why I am not playing more. I want to know concretely what I am doing wrong, or what I can do to do things right.

Well, in practice I just don’t see you working hard enough.

Okay, I am not questioning that, but can you give me an example of what you mean, so that I can have a better idea of what you are talking about.

Yes, for example, at Thursday’s practice, I played you a ball wide and you took a really bad first touch, and earlier in that practice, you gave the ball away about 3 times when we were playing keep away.

Forgive me Mr. K, but don’t you agree that those are only a few mistakes, and that soccer is a game of mistakes, and one of the only ways you can learn is by making mistakes. And everyone makes mistakes, Dominic, Monica, even you make mistakes. Also, if I am not mistaken, you had said that I was not “working hard enough in practice”, and I just don’t feel that these things display that I was not working hard in practice, but simply that I made a few technical errors.

Well, when we were running at Tuesday’s practice, I didn’t feel that you were working hard enough.

Mr. K, I feel that this is a really one time thing, I happened to be tired after working hard in the defensive drill we were doing, and I knew that if I went all out on the first sprint, I would maybe not be able to work hard in all of the others, but, I mean, I wasn’t jogging, I still feel that I was working hard.
Can we go back to my original question? Why aren’t I playing in games, and more importantly, why am I not starting? There are several girls who it is their first year playing on the team, and they start every game, but me, I don’t. Do you think that they are better than me? If so, why? And if it is about the position, I don’t care what position you play me at, just let me play. Do you want to know why I want to play? I’ll tell you, Mr. K, because I want to make a difference for this team, I want to work hard, and I want to make a difference, and to be honest with you, I don’t feel that you are giving me a chance. I don’t think that you are playing me enough to understand me as a player, and I don’t think you trust me. If I seem lost in 30 seconds of the game, boom, you yank me out and don’t put me back in until the last five minutes of the game, Dominic, she is having an off-game, she seems tired, or as the assistant coach put it, she seems like she doesn’t want to play, however, even though both of you keep saying “what’s wrong with Dominic”, “she seems like she doesn’t want to play” for 10 to 15 minutes, you still don’t take her out until like 15 minutes into the game, then the assistant coach takes her aside for a few minutes, and talks to her, and she goes right back in for the rest of the game, with out even putting on her warm ups, but why is it that I, who am trying to sort out what is going on for 30 seconds, get pulled out of the game, and get sat for the rest of the second half, until the last five minutes, why?

Well, Dominic is a very different player than you.

Look Mr. K, I think Dominic is great, what I am trying to get across to you is that I feel that you aren’t giving me a chance to show you what I can do, because if I am a little lost, I get pulled out right away, and sat for the rest of the second half, until the last five minutes. I understand that Dominic is a very different case from me, but, why does it seem like you and the assistant coach are watching my every move, and taking me out as soon as it seems like I am doing something wrong.

That really is not the case.

Very well, Mr. K, explain to me why, from you perspective, I wasn’t playing well enough to be kept in the game, and I will explain to you exactly why this happened.

To be honest, you looked like you were asleep out there, I just can’t have that.

Okay, first of all, I wasn’t asleep, and second of all, the reason I was lost out there was because, our sweeper at this time, was not making it clear to me whether I should be dropping back and marking, or just playing a defensive role in the mid-field. I was trying to listen to her instructions, while you kept yelling at me from the sideline.
Here is something else I want to tell you, I feel that you aren’t seeing the good things that I am doing in the games, but when I do something wrong, you take me out of the game. For example, after Saturday’s game against Culver City, you mentioned one play at the end of the game between Zoe and Sarah, and “if only we could have scored from that beautiful play”. Well, you know what, that was me too. I played it to Sarah, she played it back to me, then I played it to Zoe, who layed it off to Sarah, and then Sarah played it to Zoe again. I started that play and I was waiting for you to say my name, but instead, it seems like you just gave credit to Zoe and Sarah, when the beauty of that play had started with me. I understand that you can’t be expected to remember everything, or credit everyone for everything, but it makes it seem to me that you don’t see the good things that I am doing out there, and instead, you seem to just take me out when I do something wrong.
So, please tell me why I am not playing, and why I am not starting, because I want to make a difference on this team, and I don’t feel that you are giving me a chance.

Well, I don’t know.

Thank you very much Mr. K, I think that concludes our debate.

Exit, Miranda.

(This blog was posted today, Sunday, but it should have been posted yesterday, Saturday, so it is a day late, I am really sorry about this.)

1. Course Website, Art Gallery, “Kindred Spirits” and “Early Morning”
2.On your blog:
(Yes, this can count as an entry for this week or next week)
How do these paintings convey the individual’s relationship to nature? Use specifics…

Kindred Spirits

Summary:
2 men in the painting, the rest of the painting is a beautiful landscape that includes cliffs, a waterfall, and birds within it. In addition to many plants, and a flowing river or creek.

Initial Reactions:

The painting displays a beautiful landscape, and two men, one, at least, or whom, seems to be a scientist, or a knowledgeable researcher, who is most likely not only appreciating the landscape for its beauty, but also for its scientific value, probably containing several different types of birds, and other animals, as well as plants, and specimens in the water.

How does this painting convey the individual’s relationship to nature? :
In this painting, there are two individuals. One of which, who seems like more of a scholarly fellow—or maybe he is an artist!!! At first I thought he might be a scientist, judging by the folder that he is carrying, which I originally interpreted as a notebook, or a compilation of papers, with which he could take notes about his discoveries and observations. However, looking at the painting with a new light, it seems that the man is not carrying enough equipment to take evidence back to wherever he works, all he seems to be carrying is a brown folder or notebook, and some indiscernible long stick, which he is using, at the moment, as a pointing stick, showing the other man something off in the distance. The relationship of these men to nature is shown, not only through the fact that they have taken the time to go to a jungle to see nature, even though they seem to be wealthy men, who may live in the city. Their hats and clothing seem to show that they belong there, not that they are out of place, but that they have made an expedition to go out and see the wilderness. The man who is pointing to something off into the distance, is probably one of three things: an artist, who has come to paint this beautiful landscape, a scientist who has come to make observations about nature and different specimens, or an explorer, who has come to chart the lands and the wilderness. The most likely of these seems to me to be the artist. The man carries few materials, and the most needed to do artwork are a pencil and paper, both of which the man potentially has, and the way he is pointing seems to me to be pointing at a point in the landscape for him to paint, perhaps. Also, if he is a scientist or an explorer, he seems to have too little equipment or stuff with him to be either of those things. If the man is in fact an artist, his relationship to nature is that he shares it with the world through his paintings, and inspires a love for nature in people all around him. In this painting, it seems that he is trying to excite the man he is with, with a love for nature by pointing out a beautiful part of the landscape.

However, in a broader sense, the real answer to the question is that the individuals’ in the painting relationship to nature is conveyed in this way: they are tiny in comparison with all that is out there. In the huge landscape, the ratio of the unknown wilderness and the two men is almost scary. They are so small compared to the vast beauty of the landscape and the wilderness, which continues through the rolling hills of in the distance of this painting.

Early Morning

My first reaction to this painting, even though at first it was difficult to make out the details, was how astonishingly beautiful it is. The calm scene with a single solitary person in it is so peaceful and beautiful, and it is so sad that there are only a few places left like this in the world now, compared to what there used to be. If you think about it, every place was wilderness a long, long time ago.

This painting is just beautiful, and it is somewhat blurry in the version that I am looking at, but the simplicity and beauty of the nature is still very clear. The thing about nature is that, even though it seems so simple in comparison with computers and complicated technology, because it is just there, in comparison with the machines that have been invented, but then again, it is also so complicated, the shape of leaves, the shadows, the color tones of the water, the smooth ripples and rocks, the grass and the dirt, the huge trees in all of their fullness. I mean, this might be the first painting that I would actually want to own, because it is so beautiful. I feel that I understand nature more than other people might, because I have stayed in a cabin on a lake for, basically every year since I was born, with my family, but, then again, every year there are more and more motor boats, and (I can’t remember what these are called) but, little one person motor boats, I think they are called water skis. One side of the lake is settled, but the other side is really not settled at all going there. Also, for probably about the last five years, I have gone to a place called Mono Hot Springs with my family, where there are natural hot springs, and my dad likes to get up early in the morning and watch the sun rise between his toes, it is unbelievably beautiful, and we hike to two different lakes, and the San Joaquin River flows through the entire campground, and I have already mentioned the natural hot springs. When I am in these places, I feel really in touch with nature, and it is an unbelievable experience to go every year, we always have a blast. Anyway, these paintings really remind me of these places, and it makes me so happy to think about them.

The Individual in this painting’s relationship is shown through “its” proportion to the beauty of the nature and the big trees, and the vast body of water, and how small it is in comparison to the rest of the painting. I think that the fact that this painting doesn’t show the person’s face, or anything about them, except for their silhouette on the rest of the picture, shows, not only that nature kind of takes away your identity, and when you are really in touch with nature, you almost forget who you really are, and you can be someone else if you want, but also, the fact that it really doesn’t matter who the individual in this painting is, the fact that they are simply a silhouette shows that they could be anyone, which displays to me that anyone and everyone can appreciate nature, no matter who they are.

These paintings conveyed two main things to me:
1. That nature is so much bigger than people, and vast landscapes of wilderness can be so much bigger than a few small people.
2. That anyone, and everyone can appreciate nature, no matter who they are.

These paintings are so unbelievably beautiful!!!!!!!!

[ This blog (which is actually two blogs in one) was actually supposed to be posted yesterday (Saturday), but am posting it today, Sunday...I am so sorry about this...but it was a really fun blog because it made me think about the Adirondacks, and Mono Hot Springs, and nature, which is something that I love, and I thought that the paintings were just absolutely beautiful]