Shannon Corcoran Blog #5 The Decalogue

The Midrash in the first segment of the film can be the computer compared to a false god. The father trusted the computer for detailed calculations while not putting his faith in God. The father believed in everything the computer said but he did not believe in God. When his son went out ice skating, the ice cracked and the boy drowned. The father paid an ultimate price for putting is faith in the computer, a false god. Although the meaning of the film was not obvious because it was a little hard to find out what the other god was and what the punishment was.
The Midrash in the second segment of the film is the act of killing. The main character killed a person but later on he regrets the killing. He kills not thinking on the crime he did nor what the reactions were going to be. To me it was harder to find the meaning behind the story and how it will affect the characters in the story.
Some of the visuals that gap the understanding of the film are the snow in the first segment. The snow is a symbol of death. Also snow is a symbol of sadness. The death and sadness is of that of the little boy. The ice breaks killing the boy. With the ice breaking also can symbolize in the film the breaking structure of truth the father had with the computer. Once the ice broke the truth in the computer also broke.
A visual in the second segment of the film is rope. Rope ties us together and shows where it have been. When the main character kills with some rope. Later, when the main character is being executed, he dies by being hung. The material on which he is hang is rope.
The films relate to feeling because we know what death is and the fear of death. The films shows how some people try to avoid death, either by trusting in a computer or fighting to avoid being executed. The films also shows the effects of death, either it is new or been a while. They show people are sadden by the deaths.
With the flux of the moment people do things on what they think is right or fun. But with the eternity on their hands people will regret the actions they did. In the first segment the action the father regretted is trusting solely on the computer and nothing else. While in the second segment the main character regretted killing the person because now he has to die. The father has to live with eternity regretting his actions. While the eternity of the main character in the second segment is death. He will forever be dead.

Shannon Corcoran Blog #4 Northfork

The story about Northfork is about about a town that is about be flooded and the town is dealing with the situation. When the film starts most of the town is deserted and the last few people are packing up and moving away. One scene of this is when there are three cars that take different paths in three different paths at a crossroad. This is like the people of the town are scattered into the four winds. The father and son have the job to eventuate the people from the town but they have some of their own trouble about the moving. The trouble is whether or not move the father's wife from her grave. They don't know what is better, move her from her resting place to move her to a better place or leave her in her resting place but have it covered in water.
The film Northfork had several different religious symbols. Some of the symbols are obvious like an ark with two of everything (including two wives), some angels, and a great flood. Some of the symbols are not too obvious. One of the symbols is when the boy dies, he takes a plane ride. This could symbolize him flying off to Heaven. Also it shows that the other angels can too “fly”.
One of my favorite symbols is the term of moving to a higher ground. The term higher ground could mean a better life. With some people the higher ground can mean heaven. The people move to heaven in order to get safe. They are going to be saved from the flood. The flood can be the great flood in The Bible but this time the people are saved.

Shannon Corcoran Blog #3 Witchcraft and Religious Services

Every year the Harry Potter books are up on the list of books of people wanting to ban. A main reason for this is because people believe the books are promoting witchcraft. But what is really witchcraft? To me, witchcraft is just a form of a ritual. A ritual is a set of actions performed with symbols. With witchcraft the ritual is casting of a spell, even though it is a very fast ritual. One would have to cast the spell in a certain way, saying certain words, and for potions mix certain items together in a certain way. When one is casting a spell they have to pay attention to the signs and symbols because if the signs and symbols are wrong then the spell is no completed.
With religious services, they are mainly based on rituals. The religious leader says certain words and act in a certain way. The way on how the religious leader conducts is based on symbols. Some people believe if one performed the service based on the symbols then there be a result. The results will be slower and not in a way someone would expect.
To me, religious services and witchcraft are both rituals. Although they are both very different and used for different reasons. They both had to be performed in certain ways, have words said in a certain way, and both have symbols. They both are used to get results even though the results are different. The results may for different things and may have different timely for the results. So some religious services may count as a ritual as the same for some witchcraft. In the end they are loosely based on the same foundations of a ritual.
If some people want to banned the Harry Potter book because they have witchcraft in them then the same people should look at the religious services and then try banned them.

Willie Mears, blog 15 personal choice

I am very excited to hike the Appellation trail in 10 days. As I have already begun preparing myself physically and have already invested time and money into the endeavor it is save to say that I am locked into going. It is strange though that although I am getting closer and closer to leaving the trip is still very far out of my mind. Maybe it is because finals are in full swing right now or maybe it is because I just don’t look very far ahead, but either way I have not really thought at all about the fact that I am going to be out in the wilderness for two week very much at all. Maybe that is a good thing because there is a lot to worry about, but there is also a lot to be excited about. I am hoping that the trip is truly a chance to rest, not physically, but mentally and spiritually. Rest is a very difficult thing to truly achieve, I can sleep for 12 hours and still wake up not feeling like I am ready for the day, I need to be alone, I need to think and to pray, it is only then that I will find true biblical rest.

Willie Mears, 14 personal choice

Easily one of the move embarrassing things that can happen from the day to day is when you and a buddy are sitting in a car, driving, and listening to a song. It’s a really nice day out so the windows are down, the wind is blowing and man life is good. You are rocking out to a sick song on the radio and singing at the top of your lungs and just when you get too comfortable, boom you accidently scream one of the wrong lyrics. I know it sounds totally stupid but when/if it has ever occurred to you, it is surprisingly embarrassing. Not that anyone else cares, and not that anyone else even notices, but regardless when it happens you fill with shame at the fact that you got a little overconfident with your memorization of a pop hit song and botched your shot to sing it loud and proud.
Now this event is not all that uncommon for myself because I enjoy driving and do it quite a lot, I am involved at Grafton High School in York county and drive there daily; and I also really enjoy singing tunes with the windows down. So from experience I can tell you that when it happens you feel like a total idiot.
All I am gonna say is be responsible, learn the lyrics.

Willie Mears, Blog 13, Personal Choice

Good Will Hunting is a really fantastic film. It was the one that brought Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to fame. The two, now famous actors, wrote the script when they were still dirt poor and trying to scrape by. Now both are hugely famous actors that make multiple movies a year and are known by just about everyone in the country. The film is about Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT who has an amazing gift for mathematics, however problems with an abusing family have kept him trapped in a low paying job so that he can remain by the comfort of his childhood friends.
The film has aspects that make you laugh, and it certainly has no shortage of emotional scenes as well. Throughout, Matt Damon’s character, Will Hunting, is working with a respected mathematics professor from MIT. Will is a genius and organizations from all across America are looking to hire him for high paying positions. Will though doesn’t want to take any of them, he doesn’t want to because they will require him to leave his three best friends, Sean, Morgan, and Billy who are a source of comfort and love for Will. It is powerful in the sense that, for those of us that don’t have any personal experience with physical abuse it is crazy to think of how long it can affect someone. Will is well into his twenties in the film, and was abused as a teenager, and still he is very much trapped because of what his father did to him. It is only when he falls in love with a girl named Skylar and decides to follow her across the country that he breaks out of his shell. He sets himself free, but he also sets his friends free who only want the best for him and want to him take advantage of his brain. Overall, maybe my favorite movie of all time.

Willie Mears, Blog 11, my Choice

I saw that someone else did a blog on the movie Book of Eli, and immediately knew that I had to do one on it also, it is such a sweet flick. It is one of those movies that are so good the first time you watch it; the shock value is unparalleled. Throughout the movie you are in awe at Eli’s ability to thwart his enemies, and that is the filmmakers idea. He is trying to get the viewer to think that Eli is the biggest, baddest killing machine the post-apocalyptic world has ever seen. Then, at the end of the movie, you find out he has been blind the entire time! It is an awesome picture of the power of the Holy Spirit, which was Eli’s driving force, and also the importance and power of scripture. Eli had no fellowship, he did not have the luxury of going out two by two, as the disciples did, but rather his only weapon was the brail bible that he had.
It is also powerful when you see the way the Carnegie, the bad guy, viewed the Bible. Although he view was totally corrupt, there is still power in seeing that he recognized the impact scripture can have. He doesn’t understand the gospel at all, but still knows that the Bible is powerful. For a movie to be freakin action packed, and spiritually eye opening, cannot beat that.

Willie Mears: Blog 10, outside reading

Outside Reading: The Reason for God, by Timothy Keller

I recently read the book The Reason For God, which is a series of chapters that attempt to answer the difficult questions of Christianity. I read it because I feel like if I am going to talk to skeptics about Christianity, I better be able to back-up my talk. As I waded through the book of concepts, which I usually don’t even think about, I realized just how many difficult questions there are about the Christian faith, and for some reason none of them really bother me. Now why is that? One idea is that it is because the Holy Spirit has blessed me with a faith that is confident in my God, and other would say it is because I have been raised a Christian and since it has been spoon-fed to me I haven’t addressed the questions that are difficult to answer. Well whichever it is (I’d like to think the former) I think that every difficult question has an answer, some people just don’t like them.

Willie Mears Blog 9, Kpax

K-Pax was a sweet movie. I had seen bits and pieces of hit on television before but never got that roped into it, but when we watched it in class I was hooked. Throughout the entire film I was trying to figure out whether or not he was a crazy smart but also just plain crazy guy, or if he was in fact an alien. I don’t know if it is really debated but my take on it is that he is from K-Pax, and he used that guy’s body as a means to being on Earth. The scene when the water freaked out Prot was especially powerful. Up until then Prot was completely peaceful, didn’t hurt a fly, however the memory of the sprinkler when his family was murdered triggered something inside of him that made him go bezerk. Now he still was not violent, he was trying to protect the little girl, however he reacted in such a harsh way that it scarred the family mightily.
Another powerful element of the film was Prot’s ability to help people in the ward. The film portrayed it as though everyone that society deems as ‘crazy,’ has a very real and very fixable issue going on. The most prevalent example is with inmate Howie, who Prot gave three tests. Each test Howie took very seriously, and he thought they were to get him off of planet Earth when in fact they were to help him grow out of his problem. It painted a positive picture of the clinically insane; society often paints them as crazy people who are dangerous to society, and often are viewed as sub-human. However Prot is able to reach them, he is able to get onto their level and help them with their problems. His approach is not as a superior helping an inferior, which is how I think most people view that kind of relationship, but since he is an inmate just like them they are willing to take what he says seriously, and the fact that they think he is an alien doesn’t hurt either!
Overall it was easily my favorite film of the semester, a very entertaining movie, in English, and color! So what’s not to like?

Shannon Corcoran Blog 2 Source Code

The film Source Code seems like Groundhog Day mixed with The Matrix. The main character Colter finds himself in a chamber one which he is alone. He keeps on going back to the same eight minutes in which a bomb explodes. His job is to find the bomber and the bomb. Each time he goes back he learns something new from the first eight minutes. Even though he is keeps on going back to the present time, he is trapped in profane time. He learns that the eight minutes he is given are sacred time to find the bomber.
The profane time is the same eight minutes on the train. Even though he tries to save other people on the train, he fails each time resulting in his “death” or termination of the eight minutes and the same outcome occurs. The people on the train die. It was not until when he finds out who the bomber is; he wants to try to act as God and save the other people on the train for good. The way he tries to act like a god is to stop the bomb on the train from going off. It became his mission to save the other people on the train.

Whitney Hendricks Reading #1

On Friday April 22, I was reading the DailyPress and came across an article called “Last Supper was not Jesus' last supper, researcher says”. I thought this was really interesting, especially being in the paper on the day Jesus was crucified. In the article a British researcher has concluded that “The Last Supper was probably the next-to-last supper of Jesus' life”. He has been using ancient calendars and astrological data to rethink Holy Week. A scientist explored Exodus and believes that the day Jesus gathered his disciples for the Last Supper was actually on a Wednesday not a Thursday. “The Last Supper was on Wednesday April 1, AD 33 and Jesus was crucified April 3, AD 33”. They exclaim that this resolves an apparent conflict with the Gospel accounts of Jesus' last days alive. There were many more details about all different types of calendars and confusion on when the actual date it. I think it is all really confusing with the many different types of calendars there are. Makes me think, how do they know the world is going to end in 2012, the same thing could have happened with the Mayan calendar that happened with the calender we went by for the Last Supper.

Whitney Hendricks Personal #5 Return to Me

Recently when I was at home my mother and I watched one of our favorite films, Return to Me. This movie is a definite tear jerker! The film open with a husband Bob and his wife Elizabeth going to an important fund raiser for the zoo she works out. Elizabeth works at the zoo as an animal psychologist, working with a specific gorilla for several years. The evening ends with a horrible accident and the loss of his wife. Meanwhile there is a woman named Grace in the hospital dying and in need of a new heart. Bob's wife's heart saved Grace's life. Because of confidentiality and such, Bob did not know where her heart ended up. A year later Grace is adjusting to her new life where she isn't counting her days and actually being able to go out and do things. One day Grace went to the zoo and the gorilla that Elizabeth worked with came out and gave Grace a high five through the glass, something only the gorilla did with Elizabeth. Bob is still trying to adjust to life without his wife, his friends are trying to get him away from working so much and set him up on blind dates. As he was on a blind date he ended up being more attracted to the waitress than his date, there is just a spark. They both still don't know that Grace has Bob's wife’s heart. They end up falling in love, but she did not want him to know that she had heart surgery. One night she was over at his house and discovered the letter she had written to the donor family, she now knew that she had Bob's wife's heart. She quickly grabbed the letter and left, he came after her and after finding out the news he ran away too. She ends up going to Italy to paint but has no inspiration, all she can think about is Bob. He ends up coming to Italy because he couldn't stop thinking about it. We just have to ask, it is Grace he is in love with or is it Elizabeth's heart? A mere coincidence?

Whitney Hendricks Personal #4 Toy Story 3

Like I mentioned in my last blog, I love cartoon movies especially Disney Films. Toy Story 3 is another Disney-Pixar movie that parallels to Christianity. First we can look at the characters and settings as biblical references ; Andy is seen as God, Woody is his prophet, Lots-o is satin, Andy's room is heaven, and the dumpster is hell. We first see Andy has Woody's God in the first movie when he writes his name on Woody's boot, he is the owner and it's proof of Andy's love and commitment to Woody. The ideology of the toys is to be owned and played with. When Andy started to get older he paid less and less attention on his toys. As college soon approached Andy cleaned out his room and put his toys, with the exception of Woody, in a black bag to put in the attic. The toys have doubts about Andy's loyalty to them, with Woody's beliefs based on his faith, he assures them that they are just going to the attic. Some how by accident or change in fate they end up going to the curb. Woody saw the whole thing and knew it was just an accident, the toys feel abandoned and question Andy's faithfulness. The toys end up going to “Sunnyside Daycare” where they meet Lots-o the teddy bear. He explains to them that “no owners means no heartache... we don't need owners; we are our own owners. Masters of our own fate”. This makes Lots-o seem like an atheist. He has the belief of no higher power because he feels angry that his owner abandoned him causing him to become a villain with no remorse and self-preservation. Woody knows what Lots-o is up to so he tries his hardest to get the other toys to regain their faith and Andy so they can go back.

Whitney Hendricks Personal #3 UP

Truthfully I am a sucker for cartoon movies, they are just so amusing and exciting to watch. One of my favorites that has come out in the past couple years is Disney-Pixar's UP. This movie was a lot different than most cartoon movies, the symbolism focused on death and old age. I viewed this movie as a spiritual love story of an old man Carl and his wife Ellie. The film first starts off in the past, showing Charles Muntz with his blimp called the “Spirit of Adventure”. Carl and Ellie first met when they were kids, Carl was walking down the street and heard her voice coming from an abandoned house. He goes inside to find a little girl his age wearing the same goggles and flight helmet he is, just like adventurers. His accidentally lets go of his balloon and falls, causing him to go to the hospital. From then on, Carl and Ellie were inseparable. Ellie always had the dream to go to Paradise Falls in South America, Carl “crossed his heart” that he would take her there. They became soul-mates, got married, and fixed up the abandoned house to make it theirs. After many years of being happily together, Ellie passed away. Carl was devastated, he didn't know what to do with his life now that his true love was gone. When she passed Carl believed that she was still alive in the house and her spirit was still there, the house was a representation of her. Losing his wife caused him to live a very isolated life alone in the house until he was being forced to move into a retirement home. This was not an option for Carl so he decided to carry out Ellie's dream of going to Paradise Falls, attaching balloons to the house and floating away. Balloons were a major symbol in UP, they floated like angles. I saw this situation as the balloons lifting Carl's spirit, getting him out of the sad funk he was in. Soon Carl found out that Russell, a little wilderness explorer was on his porch when he floated away, he was stuck with him on this trip. Russell annoyed him at first but then Carl got used to him and started to appreciate him. After hardship in Paradise Falls, Carl realizes two things: 1. Paradise Falls isn't what he was expecting and hoping for, and 2. Ellie isn't the house, she is in his heart. He doesn't need to be obsessed with the house and all the old artifacts, he can let go and have fun again with still having Ellie close to his heart and in his memories.

Whitney Hendricks Personal #2 Cast Away

The other night while I was going through the guide on TV I saw the film Cast Away staring Tom Hanks was on, I hadn't seen it in a couple years so I decided to go ahead and watch it. I had never realized how much the meaning of life was depicted in this film until I watched it recently. It starts off with Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) being consumed in his busy corporate life working for FedEx. He lived his life by the clock, always being on time and sticking to his plans. Chuck was so consumed within his work that he paid little attention to his girlfriend. He was always traveling for work and ended up having to go on a business trip on Christmas Eve. While flying they hit a bad storm and crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Chuck was the only survivor, washed up and deserted on an island. Realizing that there was no one on this island he had to choose between dying or fighting for survival. He cared a lot for his girlfriend, had to do what he could to get out of there. He now had all the time in the world which was something he was not used to. Adapting was also probably the hardest thing for Chuck, he had to figure out how to get the means of survival such as food and shelter. As FedEx boxes started to wash up on shore he used what was in them to help him, such as an iceskate used as a knife to make a sphere for hunting. He didn't open all of the boxes however, there was one with wings on it that he saved and wanted to take it to the woman as soon as he returned home. This box can be viewed has hope, hope that he will make it back home to deliver it. Companionship was another thing he lacked on this island, in one of the boxes he found a volleyball and named it Wilson. The ball had a hand print of Chuck's blood on it that made the appearance of a face, being that there was no one else, Wilson become Chuck's only friend on the island. After four long years on the island Chuck was able to go back home, back to civilization. It was not an easy transition for him, I saw it as he was reborn. When he was back and settled he decided that he was going to return the box with wings that he had been holding on to for all that time. He left it at the house with a note saying “This saved my life”. It's crazy to think that a mere box with no direct connection to him motivated him to survive and live through the hardship of being castaway. At the end they show him at a crossroads, his life back home had completely changed due to everyone thinking that he was dead, so this was a point where he had to choose where to go. We are left with the saying “Tomorrow the sun will rise and you never know what the tide will bring”.

Whitney Hendricks: K-Pax

When I first saw the previews for the film K-Pax I thought it looked rather boring and poorly made, after watching it in class last week I changed my opinion. I realized at the end that I didn't want it to be over just yet, my question of weather or not Prot was actually an alien from K-Pax or if he was just a “touched” person was not fully answered. I made the parallel between Prot and an angel because of the impact that he had on everyone at the hospital, including the doctors. It almost seemed like Prot was sent to the hospital (or earth) to give hope to the patients and help them cure themselves. K-Pax can be viewed as some sort of spiritual or heavenly place. It was a place that everyone wished they could go to, somewhere they could be happy and carefree. The connection came clear when one of the Patients asked Prot, “Are you really from up there”? It almost seemed as if it was just Prot's spirit in the body of this man, and the spirit left when he completed what he came to do, place hope and faith into the people who needed it. He did this when he chose Bess to come with him to K-Pax, she was in fact gone when he had told everyone they (not Bess in particular, but him and who he chose to come) were leaving and she was gone. The interesting thing about this film is how open for interpretation it is, I viewed it this way but there can be many other ways in which the meaning can be seen.

Whitney Hendricks Personal #1 Snow White

I thought that our discussion on myths and fairy tales was really interesting and something I could definitely relate to. I grew up watching Disney movies, reading fairy tales, and playing make believe, as most children my age did. My favorite characters were princesses, so when we were discussing fairy tails I thought of one of my favorites, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Although I never noticed at the time, Snow White contains some apparent biblical content. I remember in particular learning in Sunday School about some of the references we could find in some of the Disney movies. I believe that the most prominent religious symbol in Snow White would have to be the apple. We were first introduced to poisonous fruits in chapter two of the book of Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve. God warns Eve that she is not to eat the forbidden fruit form the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or she will die. Eve did not have the intentions of eating the fruit God told her not to touch until a snake in a tree told her that it was okay. The witch in Snow White reminded me of this snake, they were both evil creatures that wanted to harm an innocent woman. The witch offered her an apple, even knowing she shouldn't eat from a stranger, Snow While decided to take a bite anyways. After tasting the poisonous apple, Snow White went into a deathly sleep. Although Eve did not die, she no longer had God's spirit with her. I found the meaning of the word apple to be very interesting and has a deep connection to the film. Apple comes from the Latin word “malum”, which means evil. It has never been said what kind of fruit it was that Eve ate, but we have always seen it as something sort of like an apple.

# 15 Michael Romett - reading 5 - homeless

I want to talk about an article that I read a few months ago about homeless people within the United States. I cannot find the exact article again but I have the main idea down. First I want to state that I believe God created everyone the way they are and the world around us today. Whether we are environmentally killing out planet or not that is another topic of discussion. Everyone in the United States has right and I believe with the evolution that we have taken over the past 100 years there should be no issue with people sleeping on the streets. We spend trillions of dollars each year trying to keep drugs off the street when in turn we have people sleeping on the same streets and when we spend all of this money then that leaves less money to help other problems. Medically, when a homeless person has to go to the hospital and does not have insurance, then tax dollars are going to pay for health care for that individual. In turn, the same tax dollars that we are paying to keep drugs off the street are the same tax dollars that are paying for this health insurance. Which is why taxes raise when there become more homeless or more drug problems. This article talks about creating a home for these homeless people giving them the minimal medical benefits. This is going to be saving money when the homeless go into hospitals and they have some benefit compared to the zero benefits that they had before it will save tax dollars. Religiously I believe that this is a silent act of God working his magic. Helping out these individuals that cannot house themselves, and solving one of the biggest problems in our country is a big step. When all you hear about is the criminals and problems with our country on television, religion I believe is what has given this country the power to help out these individuals. We all have rights, and I believe in treat others the way you want to be treated, and it that means possibly saving a life by creating homes for homeless, then I believe my religious background will help voice my opinion about taking care of the people in this country who cannot take care of themselves.

# 14 Michael Romett - reading on religion is schools

I recently read an article about religion in school systems. I know that being a philosophy major, I have learned about different religions from different regions all over the world. The topic of discussion that is brought forward is should there be specific religions that are mandatory for students to learn about, maybe not in college but especially grade school. I believe that this is going to be a topic for years to come. There is no plausible solution that could verify to make everyone happy in this situation but I believe that a trial and error system could bring some solutions. There are a lot of questions regarding regulations that would have to be place in effect and terms that deal with separation between church and state. I know that this is not a topic that we have discussed during our semester of class but I think it is an important one to put some thought toward. Religion to me is a means to base the way we live our lives, the things we do, what we believe in, what we stand for, etc. and should be recognized on the same level as other problems in our country. There are going to be different opinions on the subject and there is no saying that mine is anymore justifiable that another, but since our country is so diverse in religion then I believe that there should be a policy in order to make student learn about various religions at a younger age. I am not saying that there needs to be a plethora of classes for each one, but a basis that generalizes the beliefs would be beneficial.

#13 Michael Romett- reading 3

I want to bring up the topic of change and the way that it has formed the world around us today. If you look at our culture, we are one of the most evolutionary civilizations on Earth. We are constantly changing the way we live, which is different than the rest of the world in some cases. Religion is something that has been around us since as long as I can remember, however, the way we view religion is up to the individual to decide. I read an article on yoga and the way that it differs in America than in other religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. This was a very interesting topic in my opinion because, the two ways that yoga is view is similar in characteristics but far from relative in the way it is used. In the Hindu religion, yoga is a way of life, something that is seen within every member of their culture. When you think about yoga in America we think of different stretches, poses, etc. that can help one with sports, physical therapy and things of that nature. After reading about yoga and where it came from I realize that the yoga we took from Buddhism, is the way they live their lives. Yoga to Buddhist is a for of enlightenment, a way to become one with Self by ways of stretches and meditation. The important factor that I want to get to is that yoga means so much more in the religion of Hinduism and Buddhism, an act that they could not live without, serving as a detail within their common goal in life. In America, it is something that you can go down the street and pay someone for an hour session to help loosen your back. I know that the two difference are not right and wrong by any means, I believe that each use is solely representative of the culture that it belongs to I just thought it was interesting in this article to compare the way that Americans use yoga and the way that Hinduism and Buddhism live their lives and their religious beliefs around yoga.