Karl Mark and Consciousness

July 5, 2020July 5, 2020 JayneLeave a comment

Karl Marx and Consciousness

It is not the consciousness of man that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.

Karl Marx

Do you think your status affects your consciousness, does your consciousness come from above, or somewhere between these two?

I read the quote above today and decided to share it with my Instagram family before I did my research. I wanted to know what people’s opinions were before I started digging in.

What does the quote mean?

Well, Karl Marx was a materialist who, unlike his teacher Hegel who was an idealist and believed in spiritual forces, [Marx] believed that consciousness came from social ranking. So, he believes that if you’re in a lower class that determines one form of consciousness verses being in the upper class which determines a different form of consciousness.

Being Alive

July 4, 2020July 4, 2020 JayneLeave a comment

I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. — Joseph Campbell

I have spent far too long waiting for my life to finally begin.

We are going to die, and I refuse to live one more minute of my life keeping my mouth shut in order not to ruffle any feathers. If my mouth ruffles your feathers, get out of the way because this mouth isn’t going to close. I’m going to say exactly how I feel. I’m going to explain why I’m upset. I’m going to walk away from the things that try to make me smaller than I was when I woke up. I’m not hiding my voice anymore.

Joseph Campbell said,

The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.

I’m going to say yes to being alive. I’m going to dive headfirst out of a plane in the sky. I’m going to approach the tough topics no one else wants to talk about. I’m not just going to approach them I’m going to rip those topics out of everyone’s minds and place them front and center so they have nothing else to look at but the ugly truth.

Being alive for me means walking down as many paths as I can. Finding as many stories as I can. And bringing people along with me here and there for the ride. We’re here, on this flying rock together, but most of the searching is done alone. My only interests in life are for my own growth, to admire the growth of others, and to do it all with as much hard work and enjoyment at possible.

I sign off with words from the great Hunter Thompson,

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

Can literature act as a preparation for life experiences?

June 30, 2020 JayneLeave a comment

Spoiler Alert Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

I vividly remember when I finished reading Charlotte’s Web in fourth grade. I cried when Charlotte died. Her loss left me in a strange place where I was contemplating death for days. I also remember the day my grandmother died. These two experiences are not the same. The loss of Charlotte did not prepare me for the loss of my grandmother. There is no book that can prepare you for some life experiences.

Literature supports in experiences we are going through or have gone through. When I thought of death without the real life experience of losing someone, the understanding felt distant. It was something foreign to me that I wanted to grasp without gaining it through my own experience. I was left with a world full of uncertainty and hugged my mom a little tighter after reading it.

Trying to prepare someone for a new experience is like describing what an orange tastes like to someone who’s never tasted an orange. We can explain how to eat it and that the peel isn’t the good part. We can even tell them the juicy fruity part is on the inside, but we can’t tell them if they will enjoy it or how much they will enjoy it. They may even find a different way to eat it than we taught them. That’s how I feel about literature. It can explain what to do and give some insight on how to do it, but an individual can not be prepared for how they will feel in new experiences using literature.

I do believe seeing how characters react to an experience can suggest the right thing to do and it may even give some insight on how someone else is feeling. I don’t think literature can prepare us for how we will feel going through our own life experiences. I do feel it can help readers learn to use understanding and empathy toward someone else’s experience by seeing the world from another characters point of view.

Solipsism

June 29, 2020 Jayne2 Comments

She’s gone

snuffed out with just a thought

not a person could save her

or her body

or her works

dead and gone

the gift of being mortal

the gift of life

to gift your body into the hands of another

because there is no fight

there never was

pain is an act of life

death is the grand-finale

but there’s no going out with a bang

it will be far less extravagant than that

-Saschia

The Creative Process

June 28, 2020June 28, 2020 JayneLeave a comment

and why we need to get it.

Two reasons why it’s important to understand the creative process:

First, with any job it’s important to understand the workings of the entire machine, the same goes with writing. In writing, the creative process is the machine. It’s what we’re using to put pieces together to make a product for our consumers, so it’s our job to value our machine by knowing and understanding as many pieces as possible.

Second,

There’s many things that go into the creative process including where ideas are born and nurtured, how they are brought to life, and how they are pruned and molded into something digestible for a specific audience.

Once each of these things are fine tuned, it will give the writer space to spend more time on play.

When there’s more time for play, that gives more space for imagination.

And since there’s no rules in imagination, that’s where freedom lies.

So…

it’s important to know the creative process not only to know the inner workings of the machine, but also to help the writer gain freedom. What an amazing way to set a strong foundation in our writing endeavors. I say it’s worth any writers time and efforts.

Writers challenge:

Let’s give your imagination some freedom. I challenge you to use your imagination freely for 20 minutes no limits no boundaries just imagine something great. Don’t write anything til your 20 minutes is up.

And then when your 20 minutes is up write write write. If you’re brave enough, share your experience with me.

Life Sucks, But You Don’t

June 26, 2020 Jayne3 Comments

Life sucks, but in a beautiful kind of way.” — Axl Rose

Life can be a fucker. It can destroy everything you thought you had in an instant. It could take all your hard work and set it on fire leaving you standing there with tears in your eyes watching as it turns to ash.

Life doesn’t care about you. Life isn’t a being. You are a being. You are the one that feels what life takes from you. And you are the one that puts in the effort and hard work to create everything you’ve dreamed of.

And that’s what makes you great. The fact that you are aware of your effort and hard work. The fact that you feel so broken when your hard work goes up in flames and burns to ash right in front of your eyes, is the gift. Sometimes it’s hard work, sometimes it’s just life mowing you down to your last nerve. But you feel it.

That fact that you feel it means

My Top 5 Distractions

June 26, 2020 JayneLeave a comment

We all have a few things that we just can’t seem to tear ourselves away from. It adds time onto my writing but I have no regrets. We all need brain breaks, right? Here’s my top 5 from least distracting to greatest

5. Cleaning.

There is always cleaning to do. When I sit down to write if I see something I can sort out quickly, I will do it. Then once I start on that small task I find another thing, then another, and I have to remind myself that my story isn’t going to write itself.

4. The Outdoors.

I will, mid writing, get up and sit outside in the sun.Simply cuz I want some vitamin Sun splashed on my face.

Where My Ambition Came From

June 24, 2020June 24, 2020 JayneLeave a comment

I was not always ambitious. I grew up in a single parent home with a mom battling depression. She, with the help of my family, made sure we had everything we needed while prioritizing a deep rooted relationship with Christ. I was blessed with a father who loved me and did the

Jan Toorop

June 23, 2020 JayneLeave a comment

According to Mutualart.com, “Jan Toorop was a Dutch visual artist who was born in 1858. He has had numerous gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and at the Rijksmuseum. Many works by the artist have been sold at auction, including ‘Portret van mevrouw M.J. de Lange — Portrait of Mrs M.J. de Lange’ sold at Christie’s Amsterdam ‘TWENTIETH CENTURY ART INCLUDING BELGIAN ART’ in 2005 for $964,318.

When Things Workout