Stay Healthy My Friends *Raises a Glass of Sparkling Apple Cider* -Sydney Snow
Typically, these post (not specifically mine, just in general) go into some deep spiritual or contextual conversation, but I am going to write in a slightly different direction. I am going to be discussing personal health with relation to both the text and our everyday lives.
As I first began to read John Donne's Devotions, the first thing that was struck into my mind was personal health. I thought this because, for all of us students here at the university, it is finals week for some of us. For others, finals start next week. Personal health is very important. So, throughout these next two weeks, I want to remind everyone to get an adequate amount of sleep and food to keep themselves healthy. In the first section of "Meditation" on page 7, the author is discussing his illness. As he is doing so, he begins talking about how "we study health, and we deliberate upon our meats, and drinks, and air, and exercise, and we hew and we polish every stone that goes to that building." We put in all this work to keep our bodies healthy, but, at the end of the day, "a cannon batters all, overthrows all, demolishes all" (7). We are unexpectedly hit with illness that we may not be able to stop, like our author here. I honest feel bad for Donne. He has kept up his body and dietary habits, yet his is struck with this terrible fever that he cannot seem to shake. Sometimes, things like that in life happen, and there is nothing we can really do about it. Although that can sometimes be the case, we should still try to keep up our health.
The subtitle of the selection leads me to believe that Donne is talking about more than just physical health. He is also talking about his spiritual health. It is just as important for us to keep up our spiritual health as it is to keep up or physical health. Without one or the other, a balance is thrown off. As Christians, we are expected to keep up both.
Good Luck on finals guys! :) And remember to keep up healthy practices throughout this stressful time!
P.S. I commented on Breanna's and Madison's posts.
As I first began to read John Donne's Devotions, the first thing that was struck into my mind was personal health. I thought this because, for all of us students here at the university, it is finals week for some of us. For others, finals start next week. Personal health is very important. So, throughout these next two weeks, I want to remind everyone to get an adequate amount of sleep and food to keep themselves healthy. In the first section of "Meditation" on page 7, the author is discussing his illness. As he is doing so, he begins talking about how "we study health, and we deliberate upon our meats, and drinks, and air, and exercise, and we hew and we polish every stone that goes to that building." We put in all this work to keep our bodies healthy, but, at the end of the day, "a cannon batters all, overthrows all, demolishes all" (7). We are unexpectedly hit with illness that we may not be able to stop, like our author here. I honest feel bad for Donne. He has kept up his body and dietary habits, yet his is struck with this terrible fever that he cannot seem to shake. Sometimes, things like that in life happen, and there is nothing we can really do about it. Although that can sometimes be the case, we should still try to keep up our health.
The subtitle of the selection leads me to believe that Donne is talking about more than just physical health. He is also talking about his spiritual health. It is just as important for us to keep up our spiritual health as it is to keep up or physical health. Without one or the other, a balance is thrown off. As Christians, we are expected to keep up both.
Good Luck on finals guys! :) And remember to keep up healthy practices throughout this stressful time!
P.S. I commented on Breanna's and Madison's posts.
As I deliberated on how much sleep I *really* need to function during finals, Donne's insight into personal health almost made me laugh because he is so right. To be good stewards of the bodies God has given us, as a way to allow them to best serve God, we must care about physical health to some extent. I appreciate you writing about this because we all know we need this reminder to take care of the only body God has given us as we head into what is arguably the most taxing week of the school year.
ReplyDeleteSleep? What's that? I find it kind of humourous how a lot of poets speak of inner peace and self-care when in reality them writing heir work is the equivalent of me throwing my computer at the wall after this paper. Anyways, there is something about inner peace developed by this meditation he talks about. Most of the greatest masterpieces are more about self-discovery rathe rthan written works. Discovering who you are in times of sickness (mental) and health.
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