Week 5 Extra Credit Reading Notes

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I focused on Jatayu and Sampati during my extra credit reading so I can get a better grasp on how to form the rest of the Vengeance of the Sun God storyline.

Bibliography

Nivedita. Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists ... With Thirty-Two Illustrations in Colour by Indian Artists under the Supervision of Abanindro Nāth Tagore. Edited by Ananda K Coomaraswamy and Abanindranath Tagore, Dover, 1967.

Currently Reading: 

The Shining

by Stephen King

Week 5 Story: Vengeance of the Sun God, Pt. 1

**Update**

A copy of this story is located at http://mrsedenela.oucreate.com/indianepics/story-1/.  That is the version that will be receiving revisions.  Thanks for your help and support!

                                                              

                                                                                            -Eden  

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Vengeance of the Sun God

     Daedalus let the rope slip quickly over the window sill.  He had saved weeks of his rations and packed them along with valuable tools to trade for additional supplies for his son Icarus. The young man and supplies were now on the opposite side of the rope disappearing into the darkness below.  Daedalus sent his son on an impossible task: find feathers from the wings of the mythical giant eagle so both father and son could escape from the prison of King Minos.  

     There were no giant eagles, Daedalus knew, but Icarus refused to escape without his father.  The long years Daedalus spent engineering the labyrinth below the city of Crete had taken its toll.  There was no way he could manage an escape from the island, so he created a design for magnificent wings that could carry him on the wind across the sea to Greece.  The design was scientifically sound, and it was easy to convince Icarus that giant eagles existed.  The search would take the boy far away from the prison tower and keep him safely away from their enemies.  Icarus was a determined boy and would not return until he found the fabled feathers, which would be never.    

***

     Icarus traced the stories of the giant eagles to the land of India.  His journey was long and arduous.  He had traded all the tools his father had packed away for him, saving only the knife his father smithed for him: a large dagger, shaped to represent Zeus' thunderbolt, the tang buried into a piece of the Minotaur's horn.  His remaining supplies were scant, but now he was standing on the mountain overlooking the roosting site of the giant eagles; the nearly empty bag was now a welcome supply. It had plenty of space to fill with those coveted wings.  

     Two young, strong eagles had breezed in on the evening air, settling to roost. As the night deepened, Icarus crept along the thick branches and slew the two eagles.  As the second body fell to the rocky mountain terrain below a gleaming light appeared beside Icarus.

     "What have you done?!" a throaty feminine voice cried as the light dissipated around her strong form.  "Grandson, what caused you to act so unwisely?  This is not the way of our clan!"  It was Athena, the matriarch of the clan Metionid, and the benefactor of Icarus's father Daedalus.  "Do you know who you have just slain?  These corpses were Jatayu and Sampati, beloved sons of Aruna, the charioteer of Surya- the embodiment of the Sun God that serves the people of India."

     "I was sent by my father.  Their wings are the only way that he can escape the tower we have been trapped in," replied Icarus defiantly.  "You once favored him, but now he rots in a prison, a slave to King Minos."

     "Because your father's actions resulted in the loss of Aruna's sons," prophesied Athena, her stormy grey eyes boring into the sky blue eyes set in the face of Icarus, "your father will also lose his son."  In a flash, Athena disappeared.  Unsure of what else to do, Icarus remained committed to his quest and climbed to the base of the tree to remove the magnificent feathers that made up the wings of the Aruna's sons.

***

     Intermittent plinking sounds began at the window shortly after sundown.  Assuming it was the clouds struggling to produce rain, Daedalus hurried across the room to close the shutters.  As he reached the window, something stung his forehead.  Looking down at the floor, he noticed several pebbles strewn under the window.  He thrust his head out the window and looked to the base of the tower.  Fortunately, Icarus saw his head extended out the window, and froze, arm cocked, ready to loose another pebble.  Shocked, Daedalus quickly lowered a rope to his son.

***

     The two Metionids stood atop the tower.  Daedalus had affixed assorted instruments to the ramparts in order to gauge the weather.  The finished wings were stored safely in a pine box waiting for the seasons to turn and bring the hearty spring wind that would carry them to Athens.  Icarus watched the instruments closely.  The wind toward the mainland, bringing about a barometric change.  "Father, it's time," stated Icarus as he threw open the lid of his pine box.  They strapped on the wings and climbed to balance on the ramparts.

***

     The experience was both shocking and wonderful.  Wind zipped through Icarus's hair as he worked to gain control of his wings.  Not too high, instructed Daedalus when he was giving Icarus ground lessons, hiding behind the ramparts struggling to remain unseen, the wax holding the feathers to the apparatus will melt.  Not too low, Daedalus reminded his son before they jumped into the wind, the sea spray will weigh you down.  

     Icarus's confidence increased, but he remained mindful of his position between the sun and the sea.  Suddenly, an odd movement from above caught his eye.  He looked toward the sun, tracking the motion.  When his eyes adjusted, he realized that a flaming chariot was quickly approaching him and his father.  As it got closer, he saw two men within the chariot.  One man driving, and the other testing the strength of his bow.  The men's bodies shimmered like the heat off of desert sand.  Each man was a dual image, first looking like the Greeks and the next moment sharing the facial features and dress of the Indian clans that Icarus traveled with on his quest.  

     The bowman drew an arrow of pure fire and aimed it at Daedalus.  "This is for Aruna, my most faithful servant!" he cried.

     "You slew my sons," stated the charioteer staring directly at Icarus.  His face once again shifted and solidified into the face of the man who was surely Aruna.  "Your father will pay with his life!"

     Without thinking, Icarus banked to the left and caught a thermal pocket that sped him closer to the chariot, placing him above Daedalus.  The image of Surya solidified as the arrow was loosed.  Icarus spiraled out of the sky and hit the water.  The weight of the wing apparatus dragged him below the waves.

***

To Be Continued...

Author's Note:

The story of Sampati and Surya made me think of Daedalus and Icarus.  I thought it was strange that the eagles' father would be annoyed enough at them soaring around the chariot that he would strike out at them, causing Sampati to suffer serious damage.  If you want to know how they showed up in the Ramayana if they were murdered by Icarus, you'll get that part of the story during the next writing session.  I've got some cool ideas about that, but it would definitely double the word count limit.  The next part will be more India heavy than this one was.  India has cooler creation gods, and I think they can handle reanimating a couple of sentient eagles.  

Bibliography

Daedalus   https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Daedalus/daedalus.html                          

Daedalus 2    http://www.maicar.com/GML/Daedalus.html                                             

Icarus    https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Icarus/icarus.html                                        Apollo    https://apollogreekmyth.weebly.com/areas-of-rule-and-weaponspowers.html                          Helios  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios#Conflation_with_Apollo

Athena's Weapon  https://sophia-nick-athena.weebly.com/tools-weapons-or-attributes.html
Jatayu https://www.giantbomb.com/jatayu/3005-19521/
Sampati https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampati
Aruna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aru%E1%B9%87a
Surya https://www.ancient.eu/Surya/

    

Story Lab Week 4 Tutorial

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I tracked my experience of working with Twine as my Twine Story.  The link below will take you to my Twine Story.

Story Lab Week 4 Tutorial

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part C.2

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Bibliography

Narayan, R.K. The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic. Penguin Books, 2006.

Currently Reading:

Four: A Divergent Collection

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part C

(Image courtesy of Giphy.)

Bibliography

Narayan, R.K. The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic. Penguin Books, 2006.

Currently Reading:

Four: A Divergent Collection

by Veronica Roth

Feedback Strategies: Thinking Past Yourself When Giving Feedback to Others

Thinking Past Yourself When Giving Feedback to Others

When Your Toughest Conversations Are the Ones You Have with Yourself

by Erica Ariel Fox

Harvard Business Review, March 22, 2017

A Simple 5-Second Habit to Rewire Your Harshly Self-Critical Brain

By Joel Almeida

tiny buddha







In my last feedback blog post, I featured two articles that discuss the science behind the fear of feedback and tips to overcome fear of feedback.  I also discussed the maladaptive personality disorders of avoidant personality disorder and rejection sensitive dysphoria.  This week, I want to encourage you to see that you can take steps to gain control over your fear of feedback by battling self-criticism. 

The first article, When Your Toughest Conversations Are the Ones You Have with Yourself, discusses how many top leaders and managers that have built successful departments and teams by building an environment centered on practicing and providing useful and encouraging feedback to peers and staffers still struggle with self-criticism.  These are people that seem the most fierce and confident, yet they succumb to imposter syndrome- the fear that they will be 'found out' by their peers as not being as knowledgable or competent as they seem.  Often, this is related to perfectionism- assuming that love and respect are only earned through success.  Both of these concepts are related to APD and RSD.  What makes these leaders different from other individuals suffering from these issues is that "The ones who make it to the top learn to deal with the universal voice of self-doubt head-on" (Fox). 

I want to point out the operative word: learn.  In spite of their inner voice, these leaders actively seek out insight for strategies of conducting difficult conversations with others and make it part of their work culture.  They meet the fear of feedback head-on not just by applying techniques for combatting self-criticism, but they use these effective strategies to train their brains to talk to themselves with the same understanding and empathy that they have developed in their work culture. 

The second article is a technique for combatting self-criticism that the author Joel Almeida calls "REBS, short for reality-based self-congratulation."  I'd like to point out that although Almeida claims that he has done extensive scientific research, there is no link to any studies in this article or on his personal website.  I do think his concepts are worth considering because they encourage mindfulness and build a habit of consciously articulating self-positive thoughts when you succeed instead of just articulating self-critical thoughts when you fail.  This way, you have a bank of positive thoughts to anchor yourself from spiraling out of control each time you feel the need to criticize your own actions. 

Once we build connections between how we give feedback to ourselves and how we participate in providing feedback to others we can build the empathy necessary to seek out practical feedback on our own projects and efforts and learn how to give substantive feedback to others.








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Topic Research: Choose Your Own Karma

Choose Your Own Karma

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Hello All!

I'm at a weekend conference for Oklahoma DeMolay, so I've been busy training judges and keeping teenagers out of trouble!  

I haven't identified which stories I want to focus on, but I think I've narrowed my project down to a Choose Your Own Adventure layout.  I'll title it Choose Your Own Karma.  I may pair this with one of the lesson plan projects that I write for one of my education classes.  

9.2.W.3 Students will develop drafts by choosing an organizational structure (e.g., description, compare/contrast, sequential, problem/solution, cause/effect, etc.) and building on ideas in multi-paragraph essays.

9.3.R.1 Students will analyze works written on the same topic and compare the methods the authors use to achieve similar or different purposes and include support using textual evidence.

I will be using the above OKELA Standards to formulate a plan for my project.  Using Karma as a means to study cause/effect and problem/solution builds literary and cultural awareness and empathy (hello, hidden curriculum!) into my lesson plan.  I want to see if I can find similar stories within the three religious disciplines listed below. Although I will not be evaluating whether these stories are achieving similar or different purposes in this project, I will build the requisite knowledge working on this project that I need to fulfill the example for my lesson plan project.  I have linked the bellow disciplines to Britannica.com  articles to help me dig further for story ideas.

Hinduism

Buddhism

Jainism