course summary

This class for me has been an intricate enlightening process. Mythology had always been in the realm of interesting but useless knowledge to me and i honestly had no belief that the progression of mythological history could apply to the world we exist in today. For me, i realize how misconstrued that idea really was. As we read and discussed Ovid i began to see how modern language originates from ideas and events, people and actions from those who lived so long ago. Thousands of years of stories and actions and lives lead to produce artistic ideas musical theatrical language scientific ideas, all of which have resonated through every aspect of our world. Even the progression of idea throughout Ovid can be related back. The creation of our lives, innocence of new life and the using of those new lives by those of greater standing. All actions and struggle we experience in growing up in a world already inhabited by those who have taken our steps before us and wish to use our ignorance to their advantage. Then we come to the second section which revolves around the pain of initiation. Ovid describes this in the most graphic and brutal representation but the concepts remain the same and apply to us once more. As we mature past ignorance we then plunge ourselves head first into our world in order to find our way. Often times we do this with haste in order to grab that foot hold and escape our own ignorance which merely lands us into a knew realm were unfamiliar with that often leads to a painful experience that will help us grow. Thus is life, we plunge head first in blind hopes of reaching an unforeseen bounty of mental or physical gain with a chance of succeeding or failing painfully increasing our knowledge of our world to the day that we reach the final section 3  defined as apocalypse. This is where i learned another large concept i was unfamiliar with. Like many i assumed apocalypse was the end of all, a doom filled term that meant the extinction of all things in our world. I was again wrong. This final theme relates to our lives to me because we defined it as a revelation or revealing of what was once hidden. For me, this is interpreted as the final realization of ourselves. There comes a point in most peoples lives where after they have lived long enough and experienced enough painful initiations that they become self aware of their place and purpose. Apocalypse at it finest. This wraps around to one of the biggest points of my class experience that in order to experience the beauty of simplicity one must experience pain to its fullest in the form of life and initiation. Its all mythology, from ignorant beginnings, to painful rising, to an apocalyptic realization of a complex series of webbed ideas ultimately converging to form one beautifully displaced simplistic flow of life to be shared by all who exist under its dominion. Its a large realization i feel will help me grow as a student and a man in order to accept the pain of life with a more open approach of its means to a greater good. Simplicity, is beauty. Thank you professor sexton.