Creative Art, Monday Period 2, Week 3

[screwyoumarvel]

"I hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day last week," Steve said at the beginning of today's class, "and that the weekend wasn't too...much." Steve had had a cameo as a lawyer, so he was pretty much fine. "So we're not going to do anything too complicated this week. I understand that your brains may need a recovery period. We have colored pencils, we have crayons, we have drawing paper. Your assigned theme is to draw something from this weekend, but should you choose to deviate from that theme that's fine, so long as you keep it clean. So, go ahead and work, and talk quietly among yourselves if you want to--especially if it's about your art--and I'll be here if anyone needs me."

Cultural Understanding, Monday

[badnewsandwit.livejournal.com]

There was smoke wafting out from just off the island. Okay. Alistair was just going to... let that go. Maker, he hoped this didn't mean more darkspawn. He glanced towards Morrigan.

"Religion," Morrigan began, "Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity - and other sentient races - to spirituality and moral values. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature."

"They are usually wrong, and rarely compatible with each other."

Oh, Morrigan.

"Sure, if you want to be dry and boring and wrong about it," Alistair argued (though at least half just to disagree with her, which he hadn't done enough lately), "Religion is about right and wrong, about the values we should hold dear to our hearts." Just because he'd hated living in the Chantry didn't mean he hadn't had the Andastrian beaten into him from a young age. "That doesn't mean that those who stand for it are always right," he ameliorated, "Much death and destruction can come of it, if you take it too zealously. But take the Chant - despite how rabid the Chantry can be, at heart Andraste's teachings are about being kind to one another. Bringing some light back into the world despite overpowering darkness."

"Then 'twas turned around and used to justify the genocide and enslavement of the elves who had made her Chant possible," Morrigan pointed out. Nicely. "While a religion may start small, they often grow and claim to be universal, believing their laws and cosmology to be binding for everyone."

"Especially once it becomes law."

"Look," Alistair said, turning to Morrigan. "I did say that a good portion of the Chantry consists of people who'd rather shove a Sword of Mercy straight through anything that offends them, but that doesn't mean all of the teachings are wrong. Andraste stood up to put an end to slavery - to put an end to all the sacrifices and turn the Maker's attention back to us."

"This is why tolerance and acceptance, while rare, are needed to survive," Morrigan replied. "A good example: I don't steal children from the local village - contrary to popular belief - and in return, the local Chantry only occasionally sends a templar after me. We tolerate each other until someone can't stand it anymore."

"And a lot of patience it's got to take them, too," Alistair muttered under his breath. He turned back towards the class. "The dwarves worship their ancestors, or so I hear. They say they hear their Paragons speaking through the stone they live in. Some of the clerics say they worship false Gods, but I don't believe that gives us the right to go after them. Or the elves-- they believe in their gods of nature."

And Morrigan's mother, but she wasn't going to discuss that here. "We would like to know how religion in your world is associated with with common rights such as education, healers, the family, government, and politics. Things in which one religion should not dominate, but often does. What sort of balance has been achieved between faiths, or do you have any faiths at all?"

"'Blessed are they who stand before the corrupt and the wicked and do not falter. Blessed are the peacekeepers, the champions of the just," Alistair quoted; it was one of the few verses from the Chant of Light he remembered, but the class didn't need to know that. It was important to him, that was the thing. "Do any of you think religion can lead to peace?" he asked. "That the good things might overpower the bad?"

That came out sounding more wavering than he'd hoped, but he wasn't going to go into why.

"Do we need religions to be good people, or are we capable of it on our own?" Morrigan asked. "For 'All things in this world are finite. What one man gains, another has lost. Those who steal from their brothers and sisters do harm to their livelihood and to their peace of mind.'" Take that, Chantry Boy.

Sure, pick one from the canticle he only half-knew. Alistair looked thoughtful for a few moments because he was trying to remember the blasted thing, after spending so much time either ignoring the clerics or trying to forget what they were teaching him just to spite them. "That's the same canticle that says that the faithful repenter, unshaken by the darkness of the world-- is unshaken even a word?-- will know peace, isn't it?" he said. "That the Maker is our beacon and our shield, foundation and sword. I think that stands for something. But whatever, this isn't for us to decide, Morrigan. Class? Opinions?

Library, Monday

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

William's weekend had been remarkably uneventful. Mostly because he'd decided it was perhaps best that he stay within the confines of his room and avoid... whatever was going around.

The library, apparently, had decided this was the perfect time to offer unsolicited advice. Just about every available surface was covered with books on relationship issues, memory loss, and, curiously, even parenting tips for new parents.

Aesthetics of Badassery | Monday - 1st Period

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

Bobby was not a badass. Anyone who had ever met him knew that, and he knew it more than most. But he was somehow the TA for this class, and goshdarnit, he was going to give it a shot.

Instead of Mr. Bond, Bobby was standing at the front of the room with 6 chessboards carefully set up with all their pieces.

"Hi guys," he said with a dorky little wave. "So Mr. Bond isn't here today. Obviously. And so I'm going to teach the class. I don't know of a lot of things that are badass - other than volunteering and getting involved in your political process because changing the world and making it a better place is the most badass thing I can think of. Decisions are made by those who show up."

He paused. "But that's not what I'm going to talk about today no matter how much I want to. Today I want to talk about chess. Chess doesn't seem like that badass a game - it's just a board game, right? But chess is one of the closest ways you can get to fighting a war without any casualties. And chess is the best way to get to know someone else. If you're paying attention to your partner's strategy and moves, you can figure out how their brain works - and then use then when dealing with them in other situations." Or so he'd heard. He hadn't exactly figured out how yet.

Bobby gave a remarkably succinct explanation of the history of chess and how to get started on a game, which pieces move where, etc. He summed up with "uh, so if there are any questions? I can answer them. Otherwise it'd be cool if everyone wanted to pair up and try a game. I put a sheet with all the ways the pieces can move by every board in case you want to refer to it again."