Posts

Showing posts from 2015

The Stag

Image
(Stag in Highland by Carl Frederick Deiker) You don't miss me do you? The Stag was so mighty yet so foolish. His charisma was his weapon, sharp as the blade and as intimidating as any bear or wolf that would come across the forest. The Stag was beloved by all and led the other deer. The deer followed him since they were like him. He was one of them, but he was different. What made him different then his brothers and sisters? He did what he had to do. To do right, he had to do wrong. He hid in the shadows among the wolves, befriended the bear, and fell for the fox. He came among the forest when the other animals were not expecting him. They all knew him, yet no one knew anything about him. He was beloved by all, but never knew where he went to lay his head. I did. He was in love. He would sneak beyond the lakes to be with the one he loved. That is what kept him going. Just as the mighty Samson fell so did the Stag. She broke him down into pieces. Cut his antlers, scarred his

The Woods

Image
(Dark Forest by Ivan Shishkin) So one when I started taking my major psychology classes in college, we had to write why we wanted to pursue psychology. We were going around the class saying our names and our interest in psychology. I said "Hi, my name is Jacob and I want to help people. When the person sitting next to me sank into his chair. He looked up and said, "My name is.... but I just want to learn more about psychology. When the professor prompted him what drove him to pursue psychology, the person just responded with, "I don't think anyone will really get it". The professor knew he felt he was uncomfortable and just moved on with the class. I became good friends with this person. Many days I would call him my friend, my enemy, the one that pushed me forward, the one that held me back, a good man, and a wicked boy. I always knew his story, I had one that was somewhat similar, but not as deep as his story. Why he really went into psychology. He was

The 5 perspectives that could make life kinda sorta better...maybe.

Image
As a recent graduate in the psychology department. Many times people will see my degree and automatically assume that I can help them with their problem. Of course I was asked to help with people's issues way before I even graduated. I love helping people, and am in no way complaining about people wanting my advice. I know I sound cocky, but as you know I have written about that in a previous post. I feel really blessed that people see me as a someone they can talk with if they need me, and just listening to someone could really turn their day around So, a friend and I were siting outside a coffee shop as typical "hip young" people do these days, and he asked me how do I stay positive all the time. I first told him that I had no idea what he was talking about always staying positive, due to me having rough patches just like everyone has in their lives, but other than that, I thought to myself on that question and thought on how I view certain people and things differently

Oh Ratican! The world's greatest...well you know.

Image
Everyone has their favorite Disney movie. My favorite was the Great Mouse Detective (1986). The story of Sherlock Holmes depicted by a mouse name Basil. Basil has his trusted companion Dawson (Watson), and his arch nemesis, Professor Ratican (Moriarty). Even though the protagonists are very good, what really makes the movie is Professor Ratican. As I watch this movie now, I never noticed how much Ratican was a developed character. He is truly an intelligent mad man, with a temper. Throughout the movie you can see small traits that he is trying to maintain his mannerism. Throughout the movie, Ratican does not want to be labeled as a rat, even though it is made very clear in the climax of the movie, that you see who he truly is as his stereotype. Just a heads up, this will have a lot of spoilers, and I strongly recommend you watch the movie before reading this so there isn't some confusion. Why Ratican is different. Lets begin with his physical form. As we can see in this pict

The Tale of Victoria B.

Image
(Victoria B. by Victoria B.) There once was a girl named Victoria B. She spent most of her days making sandwiches, and fancy coffee drinks for all the old people in the small quiet town of Newnan. She always dreamed of exploring the wide wondrous world. One day, she was ready for her adventure, and went up to her manager and told him that "work was fo suckas". Victoria's manager, being a retired hustler agreed and let her go on this grand journey. Before she departed, Victoria stopped by her house to ask her loyal companion to join her. Her companion was known as George the Cat. Before we move on with this story everyone should know that George the Cat was a abusive alcoholic who struggles to cope from his past marriage and the constant flashbacks of Nam, George was a loose cannon with nothing to lose. The only reason he manage to have a roof under his head was the agreement that every major holiday, Victoria was aloud to put stupid sweaters on him and upload picture

The Foreground

Image
( A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by  Georges Seurat ) This post was a long time coming. Always just a blank post , ready to type. I had to go pretty low to get to this point. I am having a bit of an identity crisis. I have a lot of people in my life, and with them, comes the titles they give me. They would call me friend, mentor, leader, follower, lover, kind, caring, funny, role model, manipulator, liar,  user, destroyer, monster, crazy, insane, and evil. Sadly, I've heard both sides of the spectrum by some of the closest people in my life. I sometimes begin to wonder. Who am I? Everything was going so right in my life just a couple of months back, and then everything fell on top of me, and no one made it out without a scratch. I made a mistake, a very bad mistake, which led to me to almost losing a lot of people that I love. Sadly, I did lose one of my best friends. I'll just be honest with you, it was really tough having to face my consequences.

The Bear

Image
(The Bear went over the Mountain by Vivian Boswell) Am I contradicting myself? The bear wasn't much different from all the other animals in the forest. He wasn't the fastest, but he was the most powerful. He didn't lash unless you poked him. He roamed the forest. He tried to make right and bring justice into the forest, yet he had no right to be the judge. His heart was noble, yet he had the most flaws out of all of them. He knew what the wolf was doing, yet he did not stop him. He built up the deer, yet knew he wouldn't rise. He assured the rabbit, yet knew she would be devoured, He lead the fox, yet knew she was going to be lost in the forest. He saw the potential in the animals, but the longer he stayed in the forest the longer he did not want to stay in it. The forest was toxic to him. He went to the mountain, and he just sat there. He looked down and wondered why he wanted to be at the top. He began to lose focus after he reached the top of the mountain. He

The Deer

Image
(Deer by Monte) How are you holding up? The deer was such a majestic creature. His loyalty made him reliable. He was the strongest out of all of us. The deer always got caught in our crossfire. Thrown into our little wars that we made everyday. He despised the wolf. He wished he had the might to play along with his cause. He befriended all the animals except for the wolf. They were rivals. The deer could never win against the wrath of the wolf. Even though he was always struck down, the deer always arouse back into the forest a few days later. Usually to the thanks of the tenderness of the rabbit, or the empty hope of the fox, or even the ideas of the bear drew the deer back into the forest. Which made me love the deer. He was never trying to reach the mountain but just to make a place in the forest. To find refuge from the chaos. Just like the rabbit, we never knew why he kept coming back into the forest. He didn't descend into darkness like the wolf, he didn't sit and

The Fox

Image
(The Fox Hunt by Winslow Homer) Do you feel empathy? What about for the fox? Could you ever feel empathy for her? Do you keep telling yourself that she got what she deserved? You can't help both sides and not expect your downfall to be inevitable. She wanted to be the strongest. She craved power, yet she did not wait patiently like the wolf. She tried to please everyone. She loved the wolf, trusted the rabbit, befriended the deer, and followed the bear. This  was the problem at hand. To raise one up you must bring down another. The fox knew she had to stab one to please another. She accomplished this thoroughly. Sure she broke hearts and lead people astray, but that is what she wanted. The fox was beautiful with her red fur. She always tried to find people to follow her. She lead them to the mountain. She knew that she could not reach that mountain. She wanted to feel accomplished, that it was because of her someone would rise. Little did they know she would lead them to the

The Rabbit

Image
(A Hare in the Forest by Hans Hoffman) How did you end up here? I never knew why the rabbit was in the forest. She knew she was going to be ripped apart, yet she stayed. She enjoyed sitting back as the wolf marched around and took over. The rabbit never opposed him, she never went against anyone. She was fast yet very   fragile. We took good care of her. She was always there in that forest before we ever stepped foot, yet she never stopped us, nor greeted us when we came into that forest. She just went on her way. She was my friend. She was everyone's friend. She never journeyed far, just hopped over to us and sat down calmly to listen. I admired the rabbit. With her big ears, she managed to know every little secret, yet did not hold our weaknesses over us. She never tried to please like the fox did around all of us. No, the rabbit was the easing when we felt pain. She listened to us. She cared for all of us, she even cared for the wolf. That is why she stayed. That we wou

The Wolf

Image
Black Wolf by Shadowfire101 What would you like to know? That I was lied to the whole time? That he was playing all of us? Don't act like you are surprised. Don't act like you didn't see him coming. We all knew that he was a wolf. We knew what he was, yet we all welcomed him into our sanctuary. He was fierce and focused. He knew what he wanted. Why didn't we stop him? Because, he was the wolf among all of us. He was smart. He couldn't take us all out in a fatal blow. He had to watch. He had to plan. He manipulated us, and turned our roots around each other, managed to have us ripping each other apart as if this was all our fault in the first place. You looked to me to stop the wolf, but I too have failed. He found my weakness, he found my nerve, and he exposed them. Did you want to know what was being exposed? I am not mad at him. He did what we all wanted to do, in the end, to reach the top of that mountain. We always do look up to whoever is on the mountain

On the Other Foot.

Image
Throughout my life I have been a part of this culture that has an opinion on the issue of homosexuality. As for a little background of my own, I was raised in a southern mega church in Griffin, Georgia. As a bible belt southern Christian, I was raised to believe that being a homosexual was considered demonic and an abomination to God. With many people in my church community, we knew very little of the LGBT community and therefore we feared them and labeled them ungodly. As I grew up and entered adolescents, the LGBT community began to gain momentum and began to be shown as a large movement across the country with the famous slogan, “come out of the closet”. This slogan was to express the LGBT community to not fear their sexual orientation and to take pride in their sexuality. With such a wide spread movement, the issue could no longer be pushed aside as it did in the beginning. My church had to finally voice their opinion as support or against The LGBT community. Like many other church