Q2 Ruth

I don’t know if we have to do a blog post this week, but I’ll do one just to be safe. This week I read Ruth from the Bible. Ruth is the story of a young girl who is recently widowed. Her mother-in-law, Naomi, tells her she and her sister-in-law can return to their families and their home town. Ruth’s sister-in-law returns home but Ruth tells Naomi, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord read with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me” (Ruth 1:16b-17). Ruth goes to Bethlehem with Naomi and decides to gather grain or wheat that the workers have dropped. Boaz, the second in line to marry Ruth after her first husband died, sees her out gathering and tells his men to drop good pieces of grain for her to gather and to treat her well. That night when Ruth goes home, Naomi tells her to go to Boaz’s harvest party that night and to “note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down” (Ruth 3:4). Ruth does this and Boaz falls in love with her. He knows that he cannot marry her unless Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer denies her. Boaz goes to him and convinces him to deny her. He does and Boaz married Ruth. Ruth had a child, Obed. He grew up to be the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Q2 Emma

This week I continued reading Emma. I really enjoy this book but find it hard to read for long periods of time due to the language and length of each section. I am now on page 70 of the book. One part of the book I liked was when Mr. Knightly said to Mrs. Weston about Emma, “She always declares she will never marry, which, of course, means just nothing at all. But I have no idea that she has yet ever seen a man she cared for” (5, 37). I thought a lot about this quote this week because while talking with my friend one day she claimed she would not date anyone in high school. I immediately thought of this quote in Emma. My friend, like Emma, may be able to make that claim now and mean it with all her heart. But when a man comes along that captures my friend or Emma’s attention, they will probably go back on their word. The ironic part of Mr. Knightly saying this is that he goes on to fall in love with Emma. He may have even loved her when he said this. Mr. Knightly thinks that when Emma meets a man that captivates her, she will marry him. Mr. Elton will come along and propose but Emma will refuse because he does not interest her. But when she begins to see Mr. Knightly in a new light, she is horrified to find that Harriet likes him. In the end, Emma and Mr. Knightly marry even though she has known him for a long time and even though he sees so many faults in her. Perhaps my friend also already knows that man she will love. She just needs to see him in a new light.