My Veil-Like Post

In The Minister's Black Veil, Hawthorne is giving us his own description of the Puritan's. In giving his description of the Puritans he is also giving a description of people that applies to today. He tells the story of the minister to show that everyone is always hiding something. Even if we do not know what he is hiding is does not matter because it is not necessarily our job to know. The only importance is that he is hiding something. Near the end he reveals his belief that everyone is hiding behind a veil even if it isn't a physical veil. The final revelation is that those that acknowledge their sins and show their veil are more worthy of going to heaven than those that refuse to believe they have sinned and constantly hide behind their veil without ever letting anyone see it.

Where's Waldo?

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The beginning talks about how if a person focuses on the works of others instead of concentrating on what he believes, he will kill his mind by not exercising it. He won't be able to think for himself and come up with his own ideas because he will be focusing on memorizing others' ideas. Emerson says that this is a form of mental suicide. He then goes on to say that a man must take what god gives him, whatever that is and decide what to do with it. However, Emerson says that a man cannot must create his own good with what god has given him. He cannot trust the ideas of others to do good for him. He must feed his mind by creating good, intelligent works with whatever gift that god has given him. Only through this gift can he achieve true intellectual capability and function as a higher being. I believe that what Emerson is saying is true. That we must take whatever our talents may be and use them for an intelligent purpose. However, if we count on others to define the purpose of our talents for us then we are not helping to increase our mental capacity. We must use our god-given talent to strengthen ourselves instead of weakening ourselves by strengthening others.

Just Another Face in the Crowd

One of my friends and ice hockey teammates from North Dakota IS going to play professional hockey some day. This is not an "if" or a "maybe," this is an "is." He is by far the greatest young man I have ever seen play the game. He is not only a great hockey player, he is also the high school football team's starting quarterback and a valuable member of the baseball team as well. He is an amazing all around athlete. He is one year older than me and used to play for the Grafton-Park River Spoilers of Grafton High School. His name is Chad Demers. When I played youth hockey with him there was no one that could stop him. Even as he progressed to the high school level he was still unstoppable. In his final season, as a Junior, with the Spoilers he was the leading scorer, captain of the team, and third in the league in points with 57 total. As I mentioned his Junior year will be his last playing hockey for the Spoilers. This is because he has transferred to Fargo South High School in order to be closer to the Fargo Force, a Junior hockey team in the USHL. Dean Blais, former head coach for the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux hockey team, is the head coach of the Force. He has coached many college players that have gone on their way to the NHL and there is no reason to believe that he cannot help Junior players reach their potential as well. However, early in the season, Chad sustained a knee injury that will most likely keep him out of most, if not all, of the season. It is a disappointing turn of events, but Blais has promised Chad that he will stay on the team even if he is hurt. There is no doubt in my mind that Chad will come back from this injury stronger than ever and continue his dominance all the way up to the professional level. To finish I leave you with this. Remember the name Chad Demers as it will one day be one of the most recognized names in the sport of ice hockey.

Interesting Things About Lapland, Sweden

In my middle school in Grafton, North Dakota I was in my Social Studies class and we were learning about this interesting place called Lapland. I was immediately interested since my last name is Lapp. When my teacher, Mr. Johnson, started talking about Lapland everyone immediately looked directly at me suspecting that I instinctively knew about this place. Unfortunately I had no idea it had even existed until then. However, I was curious if my heritage had anything to do with this frozen wasteland in Northern Sweden.

I went home that night and asked my father what exactly my heritage is. He told me German, Norwegian, SWEDISH, and maybe some Czech. Upon hearing that I was part Swedish I immediately wanted to know more about this Lapland. I have not found a great deal of information about this place. Even the great "Wikipedia" does not have it's usual wealth of information on any subject. It does say that Lapland (Lappland in Swedish) makes up almost a fourth of Sweden's landmass, it was originally populated by the Sami people, but they are no longer the majority and that they have an amazing flag(above) which should quite possibly be the recognized flag of all men. Another fact that I haven't seen anywhere else but my middle school class is that their most important celebration occurs around December. They have a large festival and the focal point of this festival is a great reindeer race. It is apparently similar to the Iditarod in the US. This interesting, but unknown place may have something to do with my heritage, but I may never know for certain.