I feel the poem is talking about how cultures either deal well with death or look at it as a disasterous horrible thing. In the poem it states " the cliff shall rise or subside until the plate of earth is without fissure.(ryan)" I think this is stating the different ways culture handles death. When someone dies we find it sad and if we are close to the person we morn and it is hard for us to look past the dying part, the fact that they are no longer in the world with us. We see them as being out of reach from ourselves, and think about how we will never see them in this life before. What most people forget or look past during these hard times, given their religion is that they have a chance to see this person again some day. There is always a way to think about the posatives of dying, and in my religion it is based on how the person lived their life. My grandmother recently passed away, and it broke my heart into. She was the most loving, caring, happy, religious woman I have ever known, and just knowing she went to Heaven made her death easier. I'm not saying I was not sad, but knowing that I will one day see her again and that she is with the Lord rejoicing and all her pain and sarrows are gone, it makes my heart happy. I will admit I am selfish at times and that sometimes I wish she were still here, because she was always there for me, no matter what and now with her gone I find it hard, because I will have a problem and go to call her then remember I cannot do this. I think that the poem is saying that even though people die, life still goes on, the world still revolves, and will not stop because people have left it. So if someone close to you dies, remember this, and even though it will be one of the hardest things to do, remember them and think of what they would have wanted for you. Sometimes people are in denial, and live life like nothing has happened, this I feel is one of the worst things to do, in any situation for that matter. To ignore something completely will only make it worse when true realization comes about. It is not healthy and in the long wrong will not make things any easier than before. The poem is insisting that even though souls have gone it is a cycle of life, people will leave, things will change, but this will change nothing given the world view. Everyday babies are born, and for every death there is life. I think this is what "All shall be restored(Ryan)" is getting at, that death is natural and even though it is hard to deal with or even understand why it happens, but for death there is life. I think a lot of people have a life change after a death, I have seen and experienced this myself, and I beleive it is because they realize that life is too short, and even though they may have known before hand, death is like an eye opener.

In "Imagine There's no Heaven" it is as though he is confused as to what to beleive himself, but it sticking to a point of letting the child know the options of the world. When thinking about all the religions in the world, when it comes down to it they all have some higher form of power, whether it be one or more, there is something greater going on than what humans are expereincing. Everyone beleives in something, even those who say the big bang theory is true, it is the wanting to know more about our existance and understanding it. Why are we here? Where did we come from? I think that looking to a higher power than ourselves gives us hope that one day we will have something better, more meaningful than the life we live on earth, because if there isn't than what is it exactly we are living for? Possessions never matter in the end either way, no matter what route you take, when you leave this earth everything you own stays, so beleiving that good doings and following certain rules and living with morals of beleif will get you into a better place is much more promising than beleiving it's all for nothing. I can't imagine not beleiving in something higher than myself, I did not just appear or evolve, and if I did evolve those creatures had to come from somewhere as well and although the theories are testable, they can not be proven either. I think it is the power of religion, to make you have faith to make you beleive without seeing. You cannot see it, you cannot hear it, but it's there and you feel it, something within your soul is touched and it is unlike any other sensation in the world. I would much rather live my life based upon dogma, than to choose unbeleif. I may not be able to prove existance of my God, but I know that he is there, and I will not argue against other religions, if you have felt something that shakes you to the bones and makes you want to raise your hand and rejoice I think that is fantastic. My beleif is my stability in life, and I will stand by it until I die.
I think humanity is something that goes along with religion though, it is something given to us to study and all of it at some point will lead back to religion anyhow. So to say that you are choosing humanity over dangerous divinities is odd to me. I do not understand it fully to be honest. Are the dangerous humanities the religions, the beleif of a higher power? How may I ask are they dangerous? Because of the wars they cause? The conflicts? In all reality wars would be going on without religion, people want things, they want and want and want and are willing to fight for it, alot of the fighting and crime going on is based on things, not spiritual conflict. Although I will say that there is religious conflict, clearly with the war and all we know this, but to say that they would stop completely and we could live in peace without religion is ridiculous.

I believe that the things we wear, listen to, and watch are only little matters as to defining ourselves. I know that you can tell a lot about a person by what they watch and listen to, but I think that clothes are simply something we wear, people may want to define themselves through clothes, and some may truly beleive their clothes define them, I think that ones actions are what is important when meeting someone, yes I would like to be compatible in what we watch and listen to, but I also love music so any music is fine by me. I think it is better to be defined by ones beliefs and actions rather than their looks.
On a different note, I do believe that the things I carry can define someone. For example I do not go anywhere without my ipod and phone. Many girls carry purses, and while I do carry one,l I do not take it everywhere, it is not attached to me like a fifth limb. I think my cell phone is important because it keeps me connected to the people I love the most and my closest friends. As for my ipod I adore music, it is something that can fit any mood that I am in, and comfort me no matter what. I am not a big fan of rap, although, I do find it catchy and tend to "like" most songs for this reason, not because the lyrics are good, because let's be honest, most lyrics these days are inappropriate and stupid. I think by this one can tell that I am conservative. I think the things said on the radio now a days are way mature for the age that is listening. Then we wonder where our children learn certain things.
I love clothes, they are something I can always have fun with and feel comfortable in. Even though I love them though, I do not feel like they define who I am, my style changes day to day I can go from lazy sweats and a t-shirt, to skinny jeans and a baby doll shirt. I think my style could say that I like to switch things up, I like trying new things and seeing how I like them, because you will never know if you do unless you try. I say this only to things that will not harm my body, I would never try something that could harm me. I think a lot of people are into labels when it comes to clothes and I don't feel it is important at all, as long as I like what I am wearing, who cares if it has an american eagle tag on the inside or not. Money is not something I am worried about, of course we all need it to live and to do extra things, but having the best of the best to me is not crucial. I like my knock off purses that I paid 1/3 of what someone would for an original. People get to caught up in owning things, with possessions, when in the end it will never matter what kind of car you drove, or what brand of pants you wore, what matters is the type of person you were, the kind of life you lived. It's not things that define us, it is our personalities that tell who we are, everything else is just like icing on cake, and some people just aren't crazy about icing.

In “Hanging Fire” The fourteen year old is seeing life in the now, but questions what would happen if she died, before he could do any of the things she wants and needs to do. She thinks about all that needs to be done, but states that she states she has nothing she wants to do. Which makes me believe that all she does do is not for herself, but to impress those around her, and fit in so to speak. The fact that she is fourteen thinking about death so often is worrisome to me, why would a fourteen need to think about death so much. Why would she be worrying about all that needed to be done, if it wasn’t what she wanted in the first place? Are they things she feels should be done, or things that someone has put in her head have to be done? She is also very repetitive with the fact that her mothers’ door is always closed, which makes me believe her mother is not around a lot.

In From “The Diary of An Almost-Four Year-Old” The child is questioning what will happen when she gets her fake eye, what will she see, what will she miss? I don’t feel she thought about death imparticularly, but about the lives of others, such as the nine month old. She is not old enough to understand why she was the victim, why she suffered? She the baby didn’t know any better, why is a almost four year old in the middle of shootings and soldiers, and why are soldiers shooting her in the first place? It reminds me of war times, and the fact that children actually go through these things saddens me greatly. She imagines about how her life will be with the new eye, how her view of things will change. She imagines it to be strange, I think she fears not being able to see everything the same way everyone else does, she isn’t sure how her life will be affected by it.

The one has had a near death experience while the other one thinks about what would happen if she were to die. They both seem to be in hard situations in life, stressed, and not really sure what to think about the world around them. The fourteen year old expresses her feelings on growing up by explaining her room is too small and she needs to learn to dance by the next party. She hates her braces, which will benefit her one day, but she going through the changes of puberty does not understand how. The child on the other hand isn’t thinking about growing up, but about the now in her life, and how bad things are in the world she is living in. Both girls are going through changes in life, both not having any control over it at all. Neither of them chose their fate, and neither of them fully understand what is going on, they have questions that cannot be answered to satisfy them. The one thing they are both sure of is that it is not fair.