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We started class with a story from Anne; she had been having dinner with her son and his girlfriend, Katie, when Katie offered to take them to see her cadaver. Of course Anne accepted because its clear she loves a good adventureJ Once they got their, Katie began to describe all of the parts of the body that she knew, but Anne did not see the body in the same way Katie did. While Katie was proud of all of the medical knowledge she had, all Anne could think about was the interior of the person—their soul, perhaps. Anne could only see the human side while Katie could easily look past it to the medical side. It was interesting to see the array of reactions: some looks of disgust; some wide-eyed-eager-to-learn-show-me-to-the-body looks; and some looks of those still deciding.

         Then we started talking about a poem that Anne had posted. We discussed how we felt that the poem’s meaning was that the nature of reality is chaotic and storytelling tries to find a pathway within the chaos. Many people felt strongly about it, saying that the lines about how “stories are lies” and “stories are impossible” just didn’t make any sense. Calling a story a lie is perhaps going to far. And to say that stories are impossible…”If they’re impossible, then how can we create them?” asks Al. Anne continued, “ I interpreted it differently, I think. I took it to mean they are impossible to figure out because they can be so chaotic.”

         We read two papers—one from Audra and the other from Meredith on their own particular cultures. Audra’s was written in the second person making the reader an active part of the story, yet at the end of her paper, many people responded by saying they felt very excluded from her paper—and her school. It was written in an almost fairytale way with everything being perfect and happy, but at the end, the entire class went right to the underside of this culture, or the dark side. Very interesting. With Meredith’s paper, we discussed a lot about the LGBT community (which isn’t even a community within itself at all, apparently). Anne finished class by asking, “What makes a culture?” Only a couple people had the guts to take a stab at it: Krista said, “Within a culture, there is an unspoken or tacitly known agreement.” We then discussed that this may be true, but in order for that to work, everyone in that community must be aware of this “tacit” knowledge.