Zen Parables

Zen Parables Explained

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Henry David Thoreau: "Where I Lived and What I LIved For"

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Journal Entry: What is complicated in your life?  What causes you undue noise and stress?  What do you feel that you could do to simplify your life in some way? What does the simple life look like and feel like for you? Objectives: --Students will read a text from 1800's, becoming used to a more difficult writing style. --After we read, students will showcase their ability to write a style analysis paragraph on their own. In the last text we read, "The Chase", Annie Dillard argues that you need to throw yourself into life one hundred percent.  Life should be thrilling and full of passion. However, if we go back by about one hundred years in American History, we have another author, Henry David Thoreau who was trying to figure out that big philosophical question: "What is the good life?"  He had a slightly different take on this question. Basically, Thoreau was upset with the way his daily life was going.  In the late 1700's, the age of t...
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Journal Entry on the Themes in The Chase/ Motto for Life

As a warm up today, write a journal reflection on the following theme:  In "The Chase", Annie Dillard's motto for life is something like "you have to fling yourself at what you're doing, you have to point yourself, forget yourself, aim, dive" (74).  In other words, throw yourself into your tasks, your work, your life.  Be engaged and embrace your fears.  What is your personal motto for life, as your life stands right now? In other words, what would you consider to be your personal philosophy?  Sample Journal Response. (Caveat: these are simply Mr. Ogden's thoughts and are not authoritative in any real way.  I encourage students to make their own philosophy.)   If I had to come up with a motto for life, I would say something like "The purpose of life is to study it, and by studying it change it for the better."  Our first task is to be a fair, unbiased observer of what is happening around us.  We must practice mindfulnes...
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Avoiding "Dead Wood" and Painting a Picture in Our Writing

        "Dead Wood" is obvious cliche'd language that "floats there" and doesn't give the reader anything to latch onto. Here is a sample opening statement to a student's essay: "The internet is a culmination of technology that has been brought together to create a platform for shared information."  Doesn't "culmination" already mean "brought together"? What if instead we said: "The internet is a culmination of technology that creates a shared platform for information." Then again, what if we used active verbs? "Culmination" is an "tion" word, what many writers call "zombie words"; in other words, they are not active.  We can make words like this more alive if we put them in the present tense: "The technology of the internet culminates in shared information." Or, what if we paint a picture instead.  What if we drop the sentence entirely? Everyone knows what the...
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