I've been up to my knees in it. Ethan turns six on Tuesday. I can hardly believe that my baby is such a little boy. It's incredible! Yesterday, was a once-monthly celebration at the school that I am student teaching. At the end, they sing their school song. It's really upbeat and impossible not to dance to. So there it is. The only time I have to go dancing is with a bunch of third, fourth, and fifth graders. It's not that I went dancing before--though I would've loved to. It's more that if I wanted to, I couldn't.
This week:
-Finish Ethan's Mario-Inspired bedroom for his present.
-Hair did.
-Hang out with Michael and Brandy for a minute.
-Talk to my mom more about all of the nasty, horrible afflictions she has. (Bless her heart.)
-Do some schoolwork.
-Go to my student teaching school.
-Not go dancing.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Bathroom Politics
Right now I'm sitting in my guest bathroom. It is the safest hidey-hole we have. We are under our second tornado warning of the day. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a deep-seated fear of storms. While I sit here though, I can't help but concentrate on the sentiment just uttered by my firstborn, "Mommy, these tornadoes are attacking our world!"
As quickly as he said that, I thought...No, I know what is attacking our world; and, just like that, as a gift to me from him, he gave me my out. I am no longer concentrated on the storms that beat my country home. Right now, I am on my internal soap box.
I'll tell you right now what is attacking our world. It's apathy. People don't give a shit. I'm guilty too often of this. People don't care if others are discriminated against or wronged or run over in some way. We largely don't care to let our government have the reins without holding them accountable or asking questions, or let's face it...without giving two shits what happens once less than fifty percent of those eligible have decided to vote for an R or a D.
Thomas Jefferson warned against this. He said in as much that we need ideological rebellion by the citizenry every twenty years. So, it's been a long time since the Civil Rights movement, two cycles of supposed-to-be-rebellion, with nothing. Are things so great that no one is moved to action? For eight years we unwittingly sat back and allowed Cheney and Rove to sit at the helm with their arms stiff up W's backside.
I got a C on a paper in my Comp. II class a few years ago on an opinion paper. My paper at one point equated the struggles of homosexuals to the struggles faced by African Americans during the Civil Rights movement. Apparently, that was a very un-Democratic thing to say, and because of my opinion, I was given bad marks. In fact, in the margin of the word document that I had submitted, this was the professor's only criticism, "How can you compare what African Americans have gone through to what the gays are going through?"
Right then, I realized that this almost passive in-fighting and this desire to keep things copacetic is what undoubtedly keeps people from participating in democracy. Jefferson also said that in order for democracy to work, the citizens have to be active participants. I'd been thinking about this for weeks, and then this happened:
In one of my education classes, this guy was telling about one of his student teaching lessons. He told us the subject matter, Africa in a ninth grade World Geography class at Tupelo High School, and he told us his teaching strategies: a PowerPoint presentation, asking leading, thought-provoking questions, and my favorite, class discussion. He opened it up for questions. No one spoke, not even the young Hermione Granger-ish girl that ALWAYS has something to offer. He wondered if he had done something wrong, when Hermione raised her hand and handed him a piece of notebook paper. It said, "I'm really sorry. I have taken a vow of silence. We are protesting the bullying of gays in our school."
Upon reflecting on this, I have hope. Those students (many of them) were taking the opportunity to participate in their democracy. They had seen injustices and were not going to stand for it. Jocks and cheerleaders and geeks and drama kids and goths and gays united one day to say, "This is bullshit, guys." It makes me nostalgic for Bobby Kennedy and the 60s; though, I was not there. It makes me a bit less cynical, and it makes me feel like--even if it's only a group of fifteen-year-olds in North Mississippi, somebody gives a shit.
As quickly as he said that, I thought...No, I know what is attacking our world; and, just like that, as a gift to me from him, he gave me my out. I am no longer concentrated on the storms that beat my country home. Right now, I am on my internal soap box.
I'll tell you right now what is attacking our world. It's apathy. People don't give a shit. I'm guilty too often of this. People don't care if others are discriminated against or wronged or run over in some way. We largely don't care to let our government have the reins without holding them accountable or asking questions, or let's face it...without giving two shits what happens once less than fifty percent of those eligible have decided to vote for an R or a D.
Thomas Jefferson warned against this. He said in as much that we need ideological rebellion by the citizenry every twenty years. So, it's been a long time since the Civil Rights movement, two cycles of supposed-to-be-rebellion, with nothing. Are things so great that no one is moved to action? For eight years we unwittingly sat back and allowed Cheney and Rove to sit at the helm with their arms stiff up W's backside.
I got a C on a paper in my Comp. II class a few years ago on an opinion paper. My paper at one point equated the struggles of homosexuals to the struggles faced by African Americans during the Civil Rights movement. Apparently, that was a very un-Democratic thing to say, and because of my opinion, I was given bad marks. In fact, in the margin of the word document that I had submitted, this was the professor's only criticism, "How can you compare what African Americans have gone through to what the gays are going through?"
Right then, I realized that this almost passive in-fighting and this desire to keep things copacetic is what undoubtedly keeps people from participating in democracy. Jefferson also said that in order for democracy to work, the citizens have to be active participants. I'd been thinking about this for weeks, and then this happened:
In one of my education classes, this guy was telling about one of his student teaching lessons. He told us the subject matter, Africa in a ninth grade World Geography class at Tupelo High School, and he told us his teaching strategies: a PowerPoint presentation, asking leading, thought-provoking questions, and my favorite, class discussion. He opened it up for questions. No one spoke, not even the young Hermione Granger-ish girl that ALWAYS has something to offer. He wondered if he had done something wrong, when Hermione raised her hand and handed him a piece of notebook paper. It said, "I'm really sorry. I have taken a vow of silence. We are protesting the bullying of gays in our school."
Upon reflecting on this, I have hope. Those students (many of them) were taking the opportunity to participate in their democracy. They had seen injustices and were not going to stand for it. Jocks and cheerleaders and geeks and drama kids and goths and gays united one day to say, "This is bullshit, guys." It makes me nostalgic for Bobby Kennedy and the 60s; though, I was not there. It makes me a bit less cynical, and it makes me feel like--even if it's only a group of fifteen-year-olds in North Mississippi, somebody gives a shit.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
New Year's Resolutions are for Nancies!
I'll take your New Year's resolution and raise it one broken promise. I don't care to make them, but when I bent my super hot body to make a snowball, my pants split. Maybe you have a point!
The other night on The Biggest Loser, this five hundred pound Italian guy lost over thirty pounds in a week and mused, "Can you see my abs?" I ask, "Can you see my ass (in my busted jeans)?"
It really happened! I bent to make a snowball, and . . .
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Social Experiment: Perry County, Tennessee
While in town for a get-together with friends, I went to the Food Giant in Linden, TN. While cruising the aisles with my bum-wheeled shopping cart, I passed by a number of adolescent to mid-twenties young men. The first I passed looked down immediately refusing to meet my eyes or return my fake-smile pleasantry. I thought...Weird. Perhaps he is just socially awkward. When I passed another young man and he did the same thing, I most earnestly felt that I was deep within the Twilight Zone. Surely, this isn't something that is taught to young men in Perry County. "When you see a lady, don't you dare look in her eyes. They're all just like that damned Eve. They're here to pull the wool over your eyes and make you get them pregnant."
I then thought it was my duty to seek out other young men (most of them worked there) to verify my paranoia. I looked for them, and my results (without a control group) were startling. They all did it! They all looked at the floor. Now, one would think to inspect themselves before drawing too many conclusions, but I didn't think it was necessary. I had checked the mirror before I'd left my mom's house. I wasn't wearing any potentially revealing even accidentally revealing clothing. I wasn't wearing makeup, so I was neither strikingly beautiful or painfully unsightly. No toilet paper on my shoes. No fancy clothes, accessories, etc. There was no reason for these young men to be just plain un-Southern in their angst. They outright refused to greet me or meet my half-smile. I thought for a moment that there was a strange, Emmett Till-type mentality in the town. They were afraid of me maybe.
I do think that these boys are taught either implicitly or explicitly that they should not look into the eyes of women. It's sort of disgusting. They are hobbled by their raising. How are they expected to make anything of themselves? What if a woman is the interviewer? Or...is any semblance of communication with women possible for them? Is it even anticipated that they will cross the county line?
What is it, friends?
I then thought it was my duty to seek out other young men (most of them worked there) to verify my paranoia. I looked for them, and my results (without a control group) were startling. They all did it! They all looked at the floor. Now, one would think to inspect themselves before drawing too many conclusions, but I didn't think it was necessary. I had checked the mirror before I'd left my mom's house. I wasn't wearing any potentially revealing even accidentally revealing clothing. I wasn't wearing makeup, so I was neither strikingly beautiful or painfully unsightly. No toilet paper on my shoes. No fancy clothes, accessories, etc. There was no reason for these young men to be just plain un-Southern in their angst. They outright refused to greet me or meet my half-smile. I thought for a moment that there was a strange, Emmett Till-type mentality in the town. They were afraid of me maybe.
I do think that these boys are taught either implicitly or explicitly that they should not look into the eyes of women. It's sort of disgusting. They are hobbled by their raising. How are they expected to make anything of themselves? What if a woman is the interviewer? Or...is any semblance of communication with women possible for them? Is it even anticipated that they will cross the county line?
What is it, friends?
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