Imagery

This summer I want to teach those girls that we are all made in the image of God. This being said the truth would hold that we are all actually made in the image of God. This is where the Love Your Enemies statement comes into play. It was today that I realized no matter how much I dislike someone or how much stress they are causing me, they are showing me something about God. As a Christian, it is my job to find whatver it is and learn more about my Creator and have a greater appreciation for the person. Caution: this is much harder than it seems.

Stewardship

Dear God,

Please help us to be good stewards of your blessings. I know we don't deserve it but You have graciously bestowed it upon us. Sometimes it is so hard to love your enemies but God teach us what that means. Show us how to give unconditionally while loving unconditionally and give us the strength to be those kinds of givers.

I love you.

In the spot there will be an entry I wrote in my journal- the end

A Blank

I had something really interesting that I was going to write about tonight but as I sit here I am drawing a blank. I really don't understand where this came from. I was so happy earlier today. I mean ridiculously happy and stress-free and everything was so good. And then tonight I came home and I sat and watched TV alone and then did the dishes alone and then folded laundry alone...and well I guess when its nighttime and I'm doing all those things in the dark alone, it makes me feel, well really lonely. And then lonely leads to depressed. And well there ya go. And I'm trying really hard not to be this and there really is no excuse and its really not fair for me to use the fact that I am a girl...but I just feel needy and depressed right now. And I want to tell Chris to buy a plane ticket but I know better than that and I know that we need the money for Germany and "the future" and I know that tomorrow I will feel a lot better (hopefully), but right now I just feel a little selfish. Maybe its because of where I live, everyone is pretty much selfish all the time. Maybe it is finally rubbing off on me. Or maybe I am just maintenance needy. Or maybe I just needed a little attention.

Dr. Seuss

I said what I meant and I meant what I said. An elephant's faithful 100%.

Horton hears a Who is one of my new favorite movies. It is hillarious, precious, witty, and has a great moral message in the end. Horton will teach your children faith, love, how to believe in yourself and other people, how to love your enemies, and forgiveness. And that a person's a person no matter how small. 5 stars and 2 thumbs way up for Horton!

Case Study Part 5

This study of the East German culture evolved from a personal passion for the people of East Germany and a desire to inform the world of a culture that has not received much attention in its short life. However, as I have continued to study and interact with the East German culture I have learned a greater importance in studying. The German Democratic Republic and the culture it enforced was a brief time in the history of the German people and yet, the effect that it had proved to be lasting. By studying the culture of East Germany before the GDR and after the GDR, we can more easily understand to what degree people are affected by their culture. During this time we saw a sharp change in the government and a culture forced upon the people. By understanding how the culture and the people were affected by this, we can better understand how sharp changes in government will affect other cultures. Currently, it could help us to better understand how the change to democracy will affect the traditional culture of the Arab nations that is also rooted in many centuries of history. So, although this was a short time in the history of the German people, studying it could prove to be a useful tool in a world that is becoming more global daily.

Case Study Part 4

Perception is reality. This basic theory continues explain the problems people face when communicating, especially across cultures. Perception is defined by Gamble and Gamble as “the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory data in a way that enables us to make sense of our world.”[1] A person interprets his world based on the way he sees it which is affected by past and present constructs. It is this definition that supports the phenomenological tradition of communication which places the individual’s experience and interpretation as the utmost authority.[2] When studying cultures, this means that knowing how individuals in a culture interpret their experience is crucial for understanding the totality of the culture itself.

Based on this evidence it is important that we take another look at the culture of former East Germany. As Americans, we believe that the fall of the Berlin Wall which marked the end of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) saved the people of East Germany from dire oppression. However, the people of former East Germany voice a different opinion. Their conditions appeared unbearable when the world saw what was on the other side of the Wall in 1989, but the East German citizens, in general, reported living “perfectly ordinary lives.”[3] Although the East Germans had lived under what Americans consider cruel and unusual conditions, aspects of the communist culture had been adopted as the people’s own and helped to shape their new sense of identity. This paper will compare the culture of traditional Germany with the culture of current East Germany to show the influences that communism as a governing power had on the identity of the former citizens of East Germany.

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[1] Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter, and Edwin R. McDaniel, Communication Between Cultures: Sixth Edition. (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007), 129

[2] Com Com Com

[3] Mary Fulbrook, The People’s State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker (London:

Yale University Press, 2005), xiii