Reflections...literally.

I like to play the piano. In fact, I love to play the piano. I've been taking lessons for about 7 years, but I've been playing for as long as I can remember. So I've gotten to a point where I can play without looking at my hands if I'm just playing for fun. Sometimes, I watch my reflection in the window next to our piano- it is really cool to watch my hands play from a side angle instead of staring down at the tops of them. On nights when I'm pressed for time, I combine studying and practicing by putting my notes in front of me while I practice and hoping they impress upon my mind. Most of the time, though, my eyes just search the room for something interesting to focus on. As the most utilized space in our house, our music room collects a various array of junk over the course of a day, and it's fun to check out.
Tonight, as I was attempting to work on one of my pieces and look around simultaneously, resting on our piano was a picture of a house across the lake from ours. The back of the house is beautiful- white staircases on either side leading up to a back porch, red brick, big windows; the works- and the reflection on the lake is breathtaking. Stunning as it was, the scene was not what made my focus turn to the picture. It was the fact that from where I sat, the picture was turned upside-down. It seemed inverted, like the blurry reflection was the actual house, and the house the reflection. I suppose the best way to understand how out of place it felt is to imagine an upside-down human face with eyes drawn on the chin to form a sort of "puppet" for a children's show.
Confession time: In my head, I am a motivational speaker to an imaginary audience. It's not like I catch myself inadvertently bowing to silent applause because of self-esteem issues or anything. My condition is a more mild case in which I take anything in my daily life- i.e. mowing the lawn, driving up a hill, or looking at a photograph- and turn it into an anecdote to use as a life lesson. So naturally (or more likely unnaturally since I don't know anyone else with this predicament), I began exploring the possibilities of my newfound, unsuspecting story target.
I began to wonder, what if life was like that upside-down picture? What if everything- ideas, thoughts, images- was convoluted, and the only way to clearly perceive things was to view them in or through something else? How distorted would our world be? But then I realized...that's kind of how the world is. In a day and age where sarcasm reigns as the dominant form of conversation, implications and undercurrents are the main form of comedy, and lies are considered to merely be a minor offense (if even frowned upon at all), not many things can be taken at face value anymore. In my opinion, that speaks poorly for our society, representing us as a people sure of nothing since truth and the literal word became options for a person to choose when it was convenient for him. We might as well be labeled "The Relative Generation."
If that's hard to follow, I apologize. I have the mind of a girl- we link all sorts of things together and then have to explain how we got from bacon to the cost of our prom dress. So maybe the concept, while still true, is a long-shot from its original inspiration...I'll have to work out the kinks. Hey, I never claimed to be a good motivational speaker.

Why all men should live underground. Period.

WARNING: The commentary in this post expresses views that stereotype both men and women for the purpose of making a point. Many girls like to hunt and lift weights, and many men like fashion and cooking, and I know that. Please don't hurt me. It just makes more sense this way.



I never really got into daytime tv series- not as a kid, and not now, really. Occasionally, though, I would catch an occasional sitcom. One day, 12 or 13-year-old Jenni was watching Boy Meets World; it was the episode where they're in Mr. Feeny's middle school class and they're talking about where they see themselves in the future. I don't remember a whole lot about it- something about Minkus saying he'd marry Topanga and Cory saying he'd never get married (ironic?)- but I do remember Topanga's response: She was wearing a toga and a crown of ivy, and she said that she envisioned a perfect feminist world in which women formed a cooperative socialist environment and all men were forced underground and used only for breeding purposes...or something like that.
She got a rowdy stage "candid laughter" from the make-believe audience. Admittedly, that doesn't say a whole lot about the joke since they strategically guffaw after every other sentence. All the same, it made an impression on me, even after all these years. So the other day in journalism class when Lindsey, Victoria, Bekah and I somehow got on the topic of how life would be without men, I proposed Topanga's solution, giving her all due credit. We were kidding around, of course, but it's something to think about.
What would the world be like without men? Cleaner? Probably not. I know plenty of messy girls...including myself. Smell better? Now there's a thought. But there is a flip-side: cologne. Girls, you know you love a moderate amount. Prettier? Maybe more color coordinated, but not all of us like that look. More peaceful? HAHA. I don't think so. Ever heard of a girl fight? Yeah. Those turn out worse than most locker room brawls. Smarter? ...We won't go there. I'm not even sure where I stand on that one. The point is most of the things I can think of get shot down. There is, however, one things I'm sure of: girls wouldn't care nearly so much about their appearance. In fact, we probably wouldn't care at all.
On the surface level, that sounds great, right? Well I disagree. Let's face it; we'd be pretty gross, ladies. A healthy degree of personal upkeep is how God intended for us to be- bathing, exercising, taking the time to dress up and look nice. Plus, we enjoy looking pretty, but even more than that, we enjoy looking pretty for boys. Seeing that look on their face when we open the door after working extra hard on our appearance. Hearing them say we look beautiful. We don't NEED those things, of course. We have our Heavenly Father's approval, and that's all that matters. But realistically, He made us to want to look beautiful, and guys complete that by appreciating our beauty. Besides that, guys bring a lot to the table that we would miss. Things like recklessness, brute strength, chivalry, and those surprisingly sensitive, insightful comments that make girls think twice about the things they thought they knew about guys.
So my verdict? My title becomes a misnomer. Guys can stay. I kinda like 'em, in all their rugged glory. Besides, we all know they could never survive without women. ;)

Aggravating Irrelevance

On Wednesday, August 13th, an article was published in the Macon Telegraph (our local newspaper for those unfamiliar) entitled, "Three FPD teachers returning to classroom after having children." The article, written by Julie Hubbard, a regular editor on the Macon Telegraph staff, discussed the thoughts and emotions of three women who were going back to teach at First Presbyterian Day School after having been stay at home moms for a number of years. It had been described to me by my journalism teacher as "a fluff article"- and it was. Consisting of one 2" by 4" picture and about 575 words, it could hardly be considered a headliner. Yet, when an online reader scrolls to the bottom of the page of the web-article, there can be counted 6 pages of comments, most consisting of hateful arguments between online subscribers. Why?
...Your guess is as good as mine.
As far as my observations take me, the article is not attempting to be subtly offensive or to take a jab at anyone. It does not conceal hidden racist comments, nor does it attempt to advocate private school supremacy. It simply is what it says it is, and it should be taken at face level: "Three FPD teachers returning to the classroom after having children."
Some of the complaints of the users are paraphrased in the following list:
"A private school takes the spotlight again! How annoying."
"This is just to try to make FPD look better than all of the other private schools!"
"Let's find a real story to put in the news- people go back to work all the time!"
"There's nothing wrong with being a stay at home mom!"
Etc.
As if those were not enough, there was, of course, the other side of the spectrum: the comments that most likely initiated as harmless praise of the article but which turned out to be...well, offensive.
"Another great reason to keep your kids in private school! There's a big difference between walking into a private school and walking into a public school."
"If those criticizing had something like this going on in their crackhead neighborhoods, they wouldn't have turned out so stupid."
"I attended public schools- that's why my children go to private schools!"
Etc.
Personally- and I really did think over this- I am not sure what any of those things have to do with three women going back to school to teach. They love their family, and they love teaching. That is the entire gist of the article. Some of these people spent the better part of 5 hours dueling their polar viewpoints. If prejudice was the main concern, perhaps it would have been wiser to have taken one of those hours to learn a bit more about the article. Maybe then macon.com could have been saved from a few pages of hate-mail.
For example, Julie Hubbard has written more articles on public schools than any other subject, including, but not limited to, advertisements for the Bibb Co. back to school festival, positive expectations for Howard High School, and the work put into redistricting schools for the upcoming year. If that was insufficient, the photographer, Beau Cabell, has taken pictures of noteworthy students from every public and every private school. I even know for a fact that his daughter goes to public school; we both went to Howard, and he took pictures for our show-choir performances. From what I can gather from the situation, the problem at hand seems like a continuation of Macon's age-old source of tension: public vs. private schools.
In Macon, GA, the debate over which type of education is the best is a topic which is either deliberately avoided or vehemently argued. I see no benefit from starting up a new paragraph in this blog to perpetuate the argument- I don't have a good answer, nor do I think that a feasible one exists. I have been a part of both parties in question as a student at both public AND private schools; I have received cold and awkward glances from people no matter which school I go to. What I will say, however, is that this article was a victim of debates over a subject that it did not cover. The comment feature at the bottom of the page of an article about three housewives going to teach elementary school is not the place to start a debate over injustice and inequality, unless they were withholding crayons from their students or leaving their own children cold and hungry on the doorstep. It is also not appropriate to use such an article to advocate the school which it references; the article was not about the school itself. Only post those comments which you would be willing to post your name- your REAL name- with.
If a person would like to praise the subject or the style of writing, or even offer a word of constructive criticism about the matter which is being discussed, then (and only then) should that person click the "Post Your Comment" link and proceed to do so. Those types of comments are beneficial and even help add to an article. Otherwise, please take up irrelevant arguments in private.