Reading Diary A: The Gospel of Mark

(John the Baptist, by John Lorenzetti)

I chose The Gospel of Mark unit because the gospels were recorded by more than one person. Now, it was recorded by one person that was not there at the time. So, I decided to read John the Baptist and Jesus as one story to see what similarities and differences their would be. 

Their were not many differences from the original recordings, but this got me thinking. If a number of people have similar accounts of Jesus, does that make them accurate? You see I believe that these things did happen, but a part of me wonders if there was some embellishment for creativity similar to how we write in our assignments. I don't believe if this is so that it would make the stories any less true. Perhaps they just thought they'd grab our attention more using certain visuals. Either way, its helping me  take stories that have already been written (lets call them true stories or originals) and think about how to change them in a positive way that doesn't take away from the original story's purpose. 

Next, I read about Jesus and the miracles he performed. The one that stunned me the most was how He fed thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Since it is not explained how this miracle transpired, I reminded myself of my earlier theme of how to change stories in a positive way and keep their theme. Now, maybe we are not supposed to know about how the miracle happened, but I started brainstorming how I could write an explanation for the miracle. I will not reveal what this is since I plan to use it in my next story so you will have to wait and see! The bottom line is that the more I read stories that are believed to be true, the more I start to think how to turn them into fiction. This class has made me think outside the box and take stories people have known their entire lives and make them entirely different yet pleasing. 

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