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A Change Over Time
As a Portuguese Water Dog that does not serve as
a working dog like my ancestors, but strictly as a companion, I could not help
but realize how the focus of lives have greatly changed over the course of
hundreds of years. Times have changed ever since the separation of church and
state, and so have people’s views of religion and commitment to these religions.
Upon the Burning of Our House, by
Anne Bradstreet, is a Puritan poem that takes a look into the life of a devoted
Puritan Christian that places all her faith in God. Although the Puritans valued
centering their whole lives around God and believed all things were done
through his will, this is something we do not see nearly as often today. The daily
values discussed in Bradstreet’s poem were directly linked to God, and the
hardships and losses the narrator faced were comforted by her belief that “It was His own, it was not mine” (line 17).
On the contrary to the common modern
approach of dealing with loss and destruction, most people are not content with
the situation shortly after the devastating event. Instead, people put in place
many barriers to attempt to prevent these types of hardships, or at the least,
minimize the negative effects. Where the Puritans found protection and relief
in God alone, in modern society we find additional protection from these
tragedies from our savings, insurance, and regulations that contribute to our
feeling of being secure and in control.
As a Portuguese Water Dog that does not serve as
a working dog like my ancestors, but strictly as a companion, I could not help
but realize how the focus of lives have greatly changed over the course of
hundreds of years. Times have changed ever since the separation of church and
state, and so have people’s views of religion and commitment to these religions.
Upon the Burning of Our House, by
Anne Bradstreet, is a Puritan poem that takes a look into the life of a devoted
Puritan Christian that places all her faith in God. Although the Puritans valued
centering their whole lives around God and believed all things were done
through his will, this is something we do not see nearly as often today. The daily
values discussed in Bradstreet’s poem were directly linked to God, and the
hardships and losses the narrator faced were comforted by her belief that “It was His own, it was not mine” (line 17).
The description and analysis of the Puritan religion is so interesting. The fact of how the lives have changed over the many years and what contributes to that. The first sentence,mentioning that the blog is told through a dogs life, is very interesting. However, I was looking forward into hearing more of the dogs side of the facts and analysis of the Puritan religion. The comparison of the modern approach to things and the Puritan approach exemplifies and gives a better understanding of the Puritan religion. It's interesting to think why Puritan religion is what it is.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you decided to compare religion and how people deal with tragedy during Puritan and modern times. I also like how you analyzed that this division began when people began dividing church and state in their communities. When talking about modern coping strategies, you mentioned that people put up barriers in attempt to prevent times of hardship. Do you think these barriers people put up to cope are human instinct? If not, when do you think we developed the need to protect ourselves from devastating events?
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