Creative Imitation of the Gospel of Luke

Previous post aside, I am providing another one of my stories. This project was due way back in May. Since I hadn't been on in a while, I never thought to put this up. But I was extremely pleased with it and my grade for it. I had missed class that day when the writing project was being explained and yet I was still able to get a high grade on it. (I will refrain from stating any grade as I don't find it important to share over a blog.) This was a creative imitation and I had to look up what the heck it was before I started writing it. Out of all our options, I decided to do the New Testament since I found it the easiest to understand than the rest of our readings which included Socrates, Plato, Dante, Ivan Ilyich and the Old Testament (a philosophical, but not necessarily, type of class). I would've done Dante but I didn't know how to recreate the story. Anyway, the NT (or rather to avoid offense, the Christian Bible) gave me easy access to recreating a modern version of faith and philosophy. The teacher in the story bears resemblance to Jesus, but he is in no ways Jesus just to make things clear. We'd been told to explain our reasoning behind the story, so there is an explanation within the paper. So enjoy:

¹ He was nothing but a mere teacher; the difference between him and other teachers was that he was a teacher adored. ² People from all over would come to listen to his wise words. Not a foolish thing slipped out his mouth. ³ We loved him and we couldn’t believe that such a sagacious being was among us. ⁴ None of us dared keep his wise words to ourselves; we had to spread them. ⁵ But as soon as word was out and about, danger ensued. For the teacher was accused of treachery, and he was to be brought in for questioning. Our teacher was one who’d gather others in protests against injustices made to the citizens in our country. ⁶ The governor hoped to bring us all in. ⁷ We told the teacher what was happening and he took us all away, in private, to a small, rural area outside the city. ⁸ But of course, our small group wasn’t enough. Many of his students had heard of his departure and came to follow him.

            ⁹ Speeches about freedom, about faith and hope, speeches about what’s yet to come. ¹⁰ No one seemed to understand his words at first. ¹¹ He was a bit…eccentric…but he dummied it down so we could understand. ¹² And we believed every one of his words, whether others thought him crazy or not. ¹³ Dusk had come and we wondered if everyone would be safe out here. We all came from a bustling city; we never came close to the outskirts unless it was to a resort in the countryside. ¹⁴ But the teacher grew up in the outskirts; he knew almost everything there was to it in order to survive. ¹⁵ He told us, “Just let them sleep.” ¹⁷ We, students, looked at each other and back at him, “But, sir, there are bears out there. ¹⁸ And we can’t possibly defend ourselves against these…beasts…” ¹⁹ He raised an eyebrow as if annoyed, but he calmly said, “Do we have any cans? Like soda cans or anything similar?” ²⁰ We replied, yet quizzically, “Yes?”

            ²¹ “Then go find some pebbles. Place them in the cans. And there you have it.”

            ²² “What is ‘it’ exactly, sir?”

            ²³ “A rattlesnake.”

            ²⁴ Again his ideas proved quite odd, but we listened obediently. ²⁶ Searching for pebbles in the dark wasn’t easy but we managed. ²⁷ We placed them carefully in the empty cans as if one pebble dropping to the ground would end the world immediately. ²⁸ We shook them and realized just how alike to a rattlesnake a measly can and teeny pebbles sound. ²⁹ Later on, one of the students encountered a bear sniffing around in our things. He looked around for the teacher only to find him fast asleep. ³⁰ Everyone else has woken but lied still in fear. ³¹ The student looked on anxiously at the can beside him.

            ³² Finally overcoming his anxiety, he took the can and faced the bear. He put his faith and trust in our teacher. ³³ He shook the can to make it sound like that deadly, slithering creature. ³⁴ It got the bear’s attention and he yelled at the bear, “Leave! Shoo! Go back to the forest where you came from!” ³⁵ And he threw the can beside the bear, where the small stones made such a loud, hissing sound. ³⁶ We thought him an idiot for making such a ruckus, but in reality, ³⁷ the bear was so afraid of the fake sound that it scurried off. ³⁸ The teacher barely gave us instructions, yet one of his students was able to ward off the bear. ³⁹ It was truly amazing. Something like a miracle! ⁴⁰ We looked back at the teacher, who still, after so much commotion, was still fast asleep and didn’t stir once. ⁴¹ If we just had more faith in the teacher like that one student did, ⁴² we wouldn’t have been quivering in fear. ⁴³ And our knees were shaking so badly, it felt like they were going to cave in. ⁴⁴ But the teacher was calm from the start, and for some odd reason, our fears ceased. ⁴⁵ We all slept and were satisfied. ⁴⁶ The pebbles in the can were extremely tiny and the can had not been sealed. ⁴⁷ But when we awoke the next morning, ⁴⁸ not one of the pebbles had fallen out. ⁴⁸ Yesterday night, we were so careful not to spill any. ⁵⁰ We were happy because they were secured inside the soda can, unstirred.

I chose to imitate Luke, one of the gospel writers of the New Testament. In the Gospel of Luke, I chose text Ch. 9:1-17 to illustrate the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. In my imitation, I did not include any names nor did I claim any numbers. But the moral theme of the story remains. The teacher is not exactly like Jesus, but he is an extremely charismatic leader who has a way with words. The teacher comes from the rural areas which gives him knowledge of his and his students’ whereabouts. In the forest, rattlesnakes can be prominent and bears usually steer away from them. The fact that the teacher grew up in an area like this exempts him from performing miracles. He’s just a guy who knew how to “tame” wild animals.

            The style of the story basically followed the text, especially at the beginning. And to add to it, I decided to put in superscriptions that the Bible uses as verses. The thematic style behind the stories within the chapter was about faith in God. And with faith comes God’s miracles. I decided to get rid of the miracle aspect of the story and rely on pure knowledge. As Jesus in the Gospel of Luke had faith in God, the teacher had faith in his upbringing. It seems like a miracle at the end but it’s far from it. The stones became a mere coincidence that alluded to Jesus’ miracle in the feeding of the 5,000. Close to the end of the imitation, I used a direct line from the chapter: “We all ate and were satisfied” becomes “We all slept and were satisfied”. This was to simply touch upon the followers’ reactions to their teacher. All in all, the basis for the imitation was faith and the knowledge that the teacher held.

 

Love and Marriage

I have not been on in a long while and I do apologize. I wanted to post a story that I thought many would love to hear, just in case they're going through a bad breakup or divorce. I'm young, have never been in a relationship, and therefore cannot speak for people who are in love with someone. I have my prejudices and I am deeply sorry if I come off as rude when I say marriage no longer means commitment in this country. Marriage to others means falling for someone, believing that love is all you need, and that if that person you married doesn't make you happy, you have every right to divorce them. Even if the two of you have children together. Children of divorce are more likely to have a divorce as adults than children of marriages that have remained intact. I wouldn't condone divorce but I do believe people have a definite right to divorce, especially since marriage is more of a legal matter than a religious one. But I also believe that marriage is not just love; it is commitment, trust and honesty, and pure hard work. Loving someone without working on the relationship won't do much for the relationship.
Take a rebellious child and their parent. A rebellious child does not hate either parent; s/he loves both but because s/he is young, they are less likely to know exactly how to mend a relationship. When they get older, many (not all, unfortunately) rebellious teens turn out okay and come back to work on their strained relationship with their parents. Once that rocky relationship has been tackled, there's more room to grow. And yes, parenting is whole 'nother level of love. It's love between child and parent and can't compare with love between two people. Yes, I understand that. But it's the importance of working on a strained relationship rather than giving up on it.
Again I'm not going to judge anyone, especially those who have been abused. I am not criticizing anyone, I simply wish that marriage stayed traditional otherwise marriage means nothing in this country. All it means, legally, is that you receive certain benefits. (The ones who have been abused, I recommend you try to do your best to get help immediately. It's difficult, my mother's been there. But it's not impossible. I pray for you.)
Here is a link to a story that I would like to share with you for those facing divorce (there are other stories on the site that are quite meaningful--these are stories that contain morals, life lessons): http://www.moralstories.org/until-death-do-us-apart/
If you'd like, you can leave a comment. Thanks for reading :-)