Why can’t it just be that most religious beliefs were developed on purpose by man as a means to guide their behavior? Can you imagine a pre-religion life? What would keep one from stealing, enslaving or murdering another without a sense of developed conscienceness? I believe that the bible is a guidebook for mankind, a moral frame that guides people to behave in a civilized manner that creates an atmosphere for safety, order and growth. The bible, the only religious text I am somewhat familiar with, is filled with stories of retribution and miracles that captivates the human mind with the mysteries of the unknown and the fear and pleasures of it.

To me the bible is a frame or a foundation for people to build their lives on. Unfortunately some of these people with these frames also look down upon others that lack these frame or frames of a different type. Frames are not only used as metaphors with religion but also with culture, money and your friends and family. According to a statement taken from Rob Burton’s Artists of the Floating World, a professor at the California State University of Chico, George Lakoff, a professor at the University of California Berkeley stated, “frames are mental structures that shape the way we see the world. As a result, they shape the goals we seek, the plans we make and the way we act.” The challenges of frames are also examined by an author named Bessie Head.

Bessie Head born in South Africa was born without parents in a mental hospital in a society that viewed children created from an interracial union as being the lowest class of human. There was actually a name for such people, Masarwa. In Bessie Head’s 2nd book “Maru” this word is described as “…is the equivalent of ‘nigger’, a term of contempt which means, obliquely, a low, filthy nation.” In the situation Bessie was born into, one without frames, how does one learn to behave and act? If frames are supposed to shape our thoughts and actions and develop our moral character, how does one live without them?

Bessie Head without a doubt was born into one of the most difficult frames I have ever heard of. It is my opinion that seeing where she came from and what she had accomplished in her short life is a testament that anyone from anywhere can achieve anything. Frames can both be helpful and harmful. Rich kids brought up in a rich house hold will definitely benefit from the abundance of money and power but as it happens all too much many people fall prey to the pressures of not accomplishing what their peers expect and seek routes to escape these feelings with drugs and sometimes worse. On the flip side people brought up in poor households are more used to not succeeding and therefor are more likely to follow a darker route to get ahead.

I was born into a middle class, middle income household that disintegrated in the modern family grinder called divorce. I had no religious frame, my family has no culture and I like many others was born of a family with a lost heritage. What I did have was a great mother and a supportive cast of fill in childhood friends that themselves were good people. Within the fragile frame I once had I was able to reinforce it thoroughly by learning from the mistakes of my peers and the fortunate opportunity to attend and graduate from a university. Bessie and I have something in common and that is we are the types that are, or were, trying to constantly improves ourselves. My days are not over yet but when I am done I hope I can improve myself (from Masarwa to accredited author) as much as she did. I think that will have a positive impression on who decide to follow behind me.

Comments:

I think the more stuggles we go through, the stronger and smarter we are. I beleive we go through struggles to prepare us for future things. I feel for those who are handed things without fighting. They don't gain anything inside.