So far I have been successful in improving the world. I did accomplish my goal of giving blood. In the beginning, I did not think it would be as difficult as it was to donate blood. There are no donation sites in the city itself anymore. To donate with the blood center at least, you have to go to a donation center in Metairie or on the Westbank. Even after going to the center in Metairie, I was met with what seemed like annoyance and indifference instead of welcome and appreciation. Through all of that I still did not have high enough Hemoglobin levels to donate. After weeks of eating iron rich foods, I donated on Halloween day and finally achieved what I had been trying to do since the very beginning. That donation cost me though. I felt bad the whole rest of the day until the next morning and I was not able to perform my job like I should have. Even so, I think it was a worthy sacrifice to be able to save up to three lives. The pain of the needle, the headache, the faintness and the nausea were all worth the chance for someone else to live.

Since that episode I have not donated again. I have not found the time or been able to coordinate it so that I could rest immediately after
I donate. I also never got around to passing out flyers or posting posters around school about blood donation statistics and so forth. I had made two separate attempts to get friends to donate but they were unsuccessful for one reason or another. Still I feel proud that I did donate and gave a part of my living self so that another person might have life. In that respect my project has been a success.

Jesus was crucified for being worshiped as the messiah. In his ministry he was counter cultural. He associated with the outcasts and rejects of his society. He was surrounded by people like debt collectors and prostitutes. He gave equal treatment to both women and men. In those times people who were not rejects of society did not associate with those who were. Men did not have as much respect for women as they did for other men. But Jesus did not care about that. He taught through stories and parables. He went around healing and teaching. He said the kingdom of God is here in the sense that it is dependent on the love people have for one another and for the Lord. He preached a message of love and forgiveness. He taught people to look for and work towards the kingdom of heaven and that God came before all others. Basically he undermined the authority of the chain of government power in his area. They feared his power because of his growing following and the consequence of his message. What could be more important than following the laws of the society? Jesus said following Gods law was more important. Who could be more powerful and more respected than the Sanhedrin, or the king or the emperor? Jesus said God was all powerful and to be respected and that through himself was the way to the Father. The government would like you to have the eye for an eye mentality rather than a love your neighbor attitude because a divided population is easy to control. Jesus was bringing people together through love and making them think about the life to come, which created an informed thinking unified group of people who one day might not have been easy to control. The potential for an uprising was what Herod, the Sanhedrin and Pilate saw in Jesus and his message. That is why they nipped him in the bud as quick as they could. Herod had even tried to do this as soon as Jesus was born because he foresaw a threat in Jesus’ coming. That is why the chain of power hated Jesus. But to many of Jesus’ own people, the Jews, he was not what they wanted, or he was not what they expected. The Jews had been awaiting the coming of a savior that was from the line of David and would come like a warrior and deliver them from the roman oppression. He would bring them back to the Promised Land and the glory of the old days. They looked for someone who would fight for them, who would “kick some ass” so to speak. Jesus passive loving approach was not what they had in mind. To some he was a shining light and the answer. To some he was just another disappointment.

It all culminated at Passover, a celebration of the Jews throwing off their oppressors. By Jesus more and more becoming the symbol of the messiah he committed two offenses. He committed political offence by being worshiped as a king. The Romans would not have that since their highest power was the Emperor, who was to be worshiped himself. Jesus committed religious offense when he was called “messiah” or “son of God” because that was blasphemy to the Sanhedrin. High priest Chaiaphus is in so much disbelief when Jesus does not deny that he is the messiah that he tears his clothes. Supposedly the roman governor Pontius Pilate does not really want to kill Jesus but the Sanhedrin demands his crucifixion, so he washes his hands of the matter and allows it. This is why the Jews get blamed for Jesus’ death but really they get blamed for everything. People hate them because they come off as a selfish, money-hungry, controlling people and they don’t assimilate. Jesus is crucified through his arm not his hands. They nail him up through his radius and ulna and through both feet. Later when he is still not dead, they break his legs so that he will not be able to support himself and will suffocate. This is done on a Friday and they put him in the tomb. Of course he is dead Friday and Saturday then rises on Sunday. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the best guess for Jesus’ actual crucifixion site today.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 9:47 pm and is filed under Week 13: Accomplishments/pics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.