Through the Fog
The morning sun rose higher in the overcast sky; the dense town of Cloisterham came into the eerie state of existence of a new day. The mysterious haze that rolled in overnight strangled the town. The sun appeared, as if it were trying to burn through a fogged window; the brightness of the day was merely the glowing of the haze. A sluggish day it would be, as the townsmen awoke slowly. The few early risers stomped like walking dead on the cold streets, neither a sleep, nor awake, dead or alive. The stiffness of the haze shrouded the town with an uncertain mysteriousness, like a dark figure lurking around the corner.
Jasper fell into the every new day, which had become a hell to him. With the ominous anniversary pushing closer every minute, no longer did daylight provide freedom from his nightmares. Previously, he had only been vulnerable during his sleep, which currently, he rarely received. Lately he held had no safe haven, his nightmares consumed the days. The two years of pain melted into one horrible day, repeating itself over and over again. After resigning from his position as choirmaster, he spent every day wading through his deep depression, his great conscience sat upon him, suffocating him of the little life he still held. He had few visitors, but many watchers. So frequently he checked over his shoulders that concentrating on any task became impossible. As the murderous haze swept in under his door and billowed against the window, he enclosed himself in a world of fears, which proved never to release him.
Below the postern stairs, Mr. Datchery prepared for a new day. He opened a cupboard door to retrieve a cup and grinned when he saw the hundreds of chalked lines. At this great score, he knew that the truth would soon surface. A knock on his door interrupted his thought, opening, Helena walked into the room. Surprised, Datchery exclaimed, “What are you doing here? Someone could see you.”
“I got word that you needed to speak with me. I became worried, so I couldn’t wait until later.”
“Soon these two years of work will fall into place. There exists no way of telling what will happen, alas, it will be very dangerous. All the more so if you refuse to leave town…”
The "Fog" reveals, illuminates, widens, and intensifies; it gives sight. There is a pleasing poetic irony in Clampitt’s ability to render so present to the mind’s eye precisely what the eyes themselves cannot see at all. " A vagueness comes over everything, / as though proving color and contour / alike dispensable" (Clampitt 610). As things disappear, "the lighthouse extinct, / the islands’ spruce-tips drunk up like milk in the universal emulsion; / houses reverting into the lost and forgotten," the experience of the vanishing develops (610).
I read House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III. This story is one of classic tragedy which also contains a nearly unbearable amount of suspense. It tells a story of the conflict between people of different races who have an inability to understand each other. They each want possession of a small house in the California hills but for very different reasons.
Life tends to put stepping stones in one path to help one grow. Sometimes it can feel like nothing is ever going to be okay but do not ever let that be the case. Sonny, who was going through a trapped feeling found his way of dealing through a good and bad way. Isabel cries every night and has occurring nightmares but she is dealing with the death of her daughter. Sonny’s brother, the narrator, even though it took him a while to deal with his suffering, he cried and finally understood why Sonny tried so hard to say free through music. Suffering can be truly difficult but dealing with it will help you continue to move forward in life.
The deathly ringing of the clock resonated throughout the chambers and faded away like they always had. But this time, the festivities did not flare back to life, for the new figure had control over the attention of everyone. This unique figure was shrouded in a robe as black as a void that covered all of his body except for his face, which was concealed by a peculiar mask. Contrary to the darkness of the robes, the lean mask was a pure, ghostly white with two blood red, curved lines, thicker at the top of the mask and thinner towards the bottom, through the eyes which were void holes. The air around him was cold and stale, like death lingered around him, waiting for its next victim. From the outskirts of the crowd, he moved in closer to the revelers, with each step echoing unnaturally loud. People shuffled away from him, afraid some terrible fate may befall them if they get close in proximity to him, as he strolled toward some unknown destination.
As emphasized again and again by author Robb Wolf in his popular book, The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet, “Agricultural diets of today make us chronically ill.” The Paleo Diet, by forcing us to eat more like our caveman ancestors, fixes all of our detrimental, highly-processed, ca...
Ever heard the saying laughter is the best medicine? In an article discussing research findings on the release of feel-good brain chemicals authors write, "When laughter is elicited, pain thresholds are significantly increased, whereas when subjects watched something that does not naturally elicit laughter, pain thresholds do not change and are often lower. These results can best be explained by the action of endorphins released by laughter" (Welsh).
Thanks to many researchers, such as Loran Cordain, mankind has successfully developed the Paleo diet, a dietary plan modeled after the paleolithic age that consists of lean natural meats, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Unlike,the diets previously mentioned the Paleo diet has all the essential nutrients such as protein, Vitamin D and B-12, that make humans develop lean muscle, have more energy, lose weight, and be able to live a healthy lifestyle. For these reasons, the Paleo way should be the diet of choice in order to make America healthy again.
Malpass, L.F., & Fitzpatrick, E.D. (1959). Social facilitation as a factor in reaction to humor. The
This diet is actually designed after people who lived in the Paleolithic era of Earth’s history. It’s also called the Caveman diet by some people. The general idea is that to be your healthiest, you should eat the way our earliest ancestors did.
The spectrum of therapeutic techniques available within the health care continuum is very complex and varied. From traditional medicine, to holistic remedies, and anything in between, nurses have a rather large arsenal at their disposal when it comes to treating the patients that are under their care. Humor as an alternative therapy has long been understood as a proven means to aid in the recovery process. “With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health” (Smith & Segal, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to discuss situations in which humor would be a viable alternative therapy
This essay explores the advantages of following a Paleolithic type diet. That is, to eat the foods our bodies have been ingesting and evolving on over the last 10 million years. Today’s highly refined grain, sugar, and carbohydrate based diet has been introduced into our lives only in the last .4% of the time we have walked upright on this planet. This drastic shift in our nutritional intake is the basis of many new age diseases of modern man.
C.B. has joined a long list of clinical cases that are described in medical literature as pathological laughter and crying (PLC). All of these patients suffer from brain damage that has destroyed or impaired small areas in their brains. Usually, the lesions are no bigger than a few cubic millimeters. However, since the lesions do not always occur exactly in the same spot in the brain, it is hard to determine based on these cases, which brain areas are in charge of laughter. Nevertheless, PLC suggests an interesting linkage; the same tiny lesion can cause both laughter and crying. That means that the same brain regions are involved in both laughter and crying. But most surprisingly, these laughter and crying are not associated with mirth or sadness. PLC patients suffer from "mechanical laughter". The pleasant feelings, happiness, amusement or joy that usually accompanies laughter are absent. Patients like C.B. often even suffer anxiety and fear with their laughter.
During his stay at the house of Usher, the narrator finds himself unable to draw his friend out of the abyss of misery in which he has enshrouded himself, both figuratively and literally. Admitting to his sister's approaching death being one of...
Uninterrupted, I felt like floating all night. Just before the light of the day presented itself, I was staring from the terrace of the plaza that housed the temple and its stupa at the visible dense fog below that was pierced by the sporadic lights of the village that was waking up. While the day made its timid, slow entrance, the dissipating fog revealed the roofs of the houses below and the chanting inhabitants, who were walking up the 365 steps. Their voices gradually grew louder step by step until it reached and permeated the square where I was temporarily residing.
The sunset was not spectacular that day. The vivid ruby and tangerine streaks that so often caressed the blue brow of the sky were sleeping, hidden behind the heavy mists. There are some days when the sunlight seems to dance, to weave and frolic with tongues of fire between the blades of grass. Not on that day. That evening, the yellow light was sickly. It diffused softly through the gray curtains with a shrouded light that just failed to illuminate. High up in the treetops, the leaves swayed, but on the ground, the grass was silent, limp and unmoving. The sun set and the earth waited.