I took a break from intense spiritual texts to read some light chick lit. For many years, I’ve seen ladies reading Jodi Piccoult books on the train. I was pretty sure it wasn’t my style of book, but I was curious. A number of people recommended “My Sister’s Keeper” to me, so when I saw it on sale at Salvation Army for 25 cents, I decided to make the investment.
At first I thought it may be bad timing to read a book about a child that has cancer. But part of me wanted to wallow in the sadness. It turned out, there was no wallowing. Just annoyance with every single one-dimensional character. And that ridiculously selfish mother. She was masterful at making absolutely every situation in life about her. It was as if her kid getting cancer was the highlight of her life because now she could have a real problem to brag about. Also, the writing was beyond corny. Two thumbs down on that one.
Then I read “Some Girls: My Life in a Harem” by Jillian Lauren. It’s your basic tale of a girl from Jersey that leaves home at 16, becomes a sex worker in NYC and then finds herself in a Prince’s harem in Borneo. That ‘ol story. I loved it. It’s not the most amazing writing but I was hooked (that’s what hookers do- they get you hooked! See what I did there!) from the beginning. Her description of a party with the Prince and his harem sounded a lot like a cocktail party on an episode of The Bachelor. In other words, misogynistic, bizarre and something I feel the need to know about. I need to put more tales of polygamy on my book list. It’s a recipe for page-turning.
And now for some really uplifting reading. My recent blog posts for the 'ol church blog:
Some thoughts on death!
Some thoughts on crying!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Looks like it's time for another Rally for Sanity.
Is Crazy Eddie in charge of budget negotiations? Because this is IN-SANE.* This impending government shutdown and the rhetoric surrounding it is completely over the top.
I’m quite politically progressive. I’m all for government funding social services. But all this talk about the proposed cuts to Planned Parenthood as a “war against women” seems a wee bit hyperbolic. Planned Parenthood is NOT synonymous with women. It is one organization out of many that serves women. I get it that people are angry because it’s an organization that is important to them, and the services that it provides are important to them. But if Republicans are pushing to cut funding to that ONE ORGANIZATION it is not an entire WAR against women. Planned Parenthood is not a necessary institution that is required to ensure that women have rights in the United States of America.
How about we get a real healthcare system so that every man, woman and child can get basic medical care and screenings? The fact that one nonprofit organization potentially losing government funding is equated to war points to a much bigger issue. Speaking of which, I’m really sick of the war analogy in general. My ability to get a low-cost pap smear should not be compared to a situation in which an innocent Iraqi child gets obliterated by a missile or a soldier watches his entire battalion die and has to live with the consequences. Yes, health screenings are important and save lives but the repeated analogy to war, when we have multiple actual wars going on, seems very callous to me.
Not that it makes it right but there are worthy organizations going under every day. Good, necessary, programs are folding left and right. Last year Medicaid was slashed and many of the clients served at my job no longer received benefits. These are all people who have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness. Take a large group of people with severe mental illness, who are often either unemployable or unable to work full-time and earn a living wage, and take away their benefits, and now you have a large group of homeless individuals with severe mental illness. Crime increases. Incarcerations increase. And now we’re paying at least five times what we’ve paid to house the person and provide support services, just to keep him or her in jail. And instead of that person being a happy, contributing member of society, he or she is now sitting in jail. Add the cost on society and the crime victims, and the social service employees who lost their jobs and the whole thing is a HORRIBLE IDEA. I don’t know that this was a WAR on anyone. It was just really poor, short-sighted, decision-making.
As proposed cuts go…the proposed cut to the EPA really enrages me. The Environmental Protection Agency is a government agency that exists to protect human health and the environment. Slashing their budget? How does THAT make sense? Just look to the crisis in Japan to see how important air quality is.
The fact that the incessant talk of the importance of spending cuts NEVER seems to include even glancing at military spending- hoo boy…that makes my blood boil.
I don’t know the answers to this whole mess. I do know that it’s both more complicated yet simpler than the media continually makes it out to be. It’s not us/them. It’s us. None of us are beyond a health scare, or a natural disaster that would have environmental consequences, or a layoff. I really pray that everyone involved in these talks right now who are making these extremely important decisions are actually listening to each other, and make decisions out of concern for EVERY human being, and not just to stay true to party lines or to be right. This us/them crap isn’t working. Let’s try something new already.
*Was Crazy Eddie just a northeast thing?
I’m quite politically progressive. I’m all for government funding social services. But all this talk about the proposed cuts to Planned Parenthood as a “war against women” seems a wee bit hyperbolic. Planned Parenthood is NOT synonymous with women. It is one organization out of many that serves women. I get it that people are angry because it’s an organization that is important to them, and the services that it provides are important to them. But if Republicans are pushing to cut funding to that ONE ORGANIZATION it is not an entire WAR against women. Planned Parenthood is not a necessary institution that is required to ensure that women have rights in the United States of America.
How about we get a real healthcare system so that every man, woman and child can get basic medical care and screenings? The fact that one nonprofit organization potentially losing government funding is equated to war points to a much bigger issue. Speaking of which, I’m really sick of the war analogy in general. My ability to get a low-cost pap smear should not be compared to a situation in which an innocent Iraqi child gets obliterated by a missile or a soldier watches his entire battalion die and has to live with the consequences. Yes, health screenings are important and save lives but the repeated analogy to war, when we have multiple actual wars going on, seems very callous to me.
Not that it makes it right but there are worthy organizations going under every day. Good, necessary, programs are folding left and right. Last year Medicaid was slashed and many of the clients served at my job no longer received benefits. These are all people who have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness. Take a large group of people with severe mental illness, who are often either unemployable or unable to work full-time and earn a living wage, and take away their benefits, and now you have a large group of homeless individuals with severe mental illness. Crime increases. Incarcerations increase. And now we’re paying at least five times what we’ve paid to house the person and provide support services, just to keep him or her in jail. And instead of that person being a happy, contributing member of society, he or she is now sitting in jail. Add the cost on society and the crime victims, and the social service employees who lost their jobs and the whole thing is a HORRIBLE IDEA. I don’t know that this was a WAR on anyone. It was just really poor, short-sighted, decision-making.
As proposed cuts go…the proposed cut to the EPA really enrages me. The Environmental Protection Agency is a government agency that exists to protect human health and the environment. Slashing their budget? How does THAT make sense? Just look to the crisis in Japan to see how important air quality is.
The fact that the incessant talk of the importance of spending cuts NEVER seems to include even glancing at military spending- hoo boy…that makes my blood boil.
I don’t know the answers to this whole mess. I do know that it’s both more complicated yet simpler than the media continually makes it out to be. It’s not us/them. It’s us. None of us are beyond a health scare, or a natural disaster that would have environmental consequences, or a layoff. I really pray that everyone involved in these talks right now who are making these extremely important decisions are actually listening to each other, and make decisions out of concern for EVERY human being, and not just to stay true to party lines or to be right. This us/them crap isn’t working. Let’s try something new already.
*Was Crazy Eddie just a northeast thing?
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The proposed funding cut to the Arts ENRAGES me.
This proposal to cut arts funding infuriates me. It makes NO sense. First of all, we have the money. That’s totally not the issue. We all know those depressing stats about how the top tiny percent has as much money as the bottom ginormous percent. Our economy didn’t crash because money evaporated. The people at the top are living larger than ever. We know this. It’s a fact.
Ask anyone what they like to do in their free time or what makes them happiest and the large majority will mention things like seeing live music, listening to music, going to movies, reading, photography. Ask Chicagoans why they love Chicago and you’ll hear most mention things like theater, comedy, music and art. When we try to communicate with people who don’t speak our language, we immediately can share art. It’s the friggin UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, people! Why on earth would we cut the universal language?
Arts programming for kids. These are the classes kids enjoy. These are the classes where kids are paying attention. And learning teamwork and discipline and building self-esteem and having healthy outlets for stress and developing creativity and thinking of new ways to see things and adding beauty to a freaking beautiful world. WHY THE MOTHER F WOULD WE CUT THESE PROGRAMS?!?
I’m pretty sure if you asked my Thursday night Guitar 4ever class at Old Town what the top 3 highlights of their week are- every single person would include that class. I can not stress enough how important that is. That one class is adding happiness to that group of 15 or so people. A healthy outlet for stress, a way to make friends, a way to develop a new skill, a way to create something new and lovely. I way to remember how awesome “Love My Way” by the Psychedelic Furs is. All that goodness adds to how that group of people will carry themselves out in the world. Multiply that by the thousands of students at that one school. Then multiply that by all the theaters and the dance studios and the writing workshops in every town across our country. That’s a lot of goodness going out into the world. Sure, it may not always be goodness in terms of quality but it’s still goodness.
When I was leaving work today, there was a group of clients in the lobby waiting for their theater rehearsal to begin. They were giddy. They're always giddy on Wednesdays before rehearsal. Chatting and laughing and talking about the upcoming performances. This group of people, who suffer from severe mental illness and are often ignored by society, have a chance to express themselves and make friends and have a purpose. They're learning new, healthy ways, of living. They're developing skills. They're having fun. Having spent a large portion of the day pouring over sobering statistics of the number of mentally ill in prison, it's crystal clear to me that programs like this theater program or no small thing. From a purely economical perspective- we should pour a ton MORE money into the arts. Drama class is WAY cheaper than prison.
A few years ago a couple friends and I were volunteering at an orphanage in Cambodia. One of our jobs was to teach English classes to the kids. My one friend and I were assigned to a class. Neither of us are teachers. We were faced with a class of about 30 eager, smiling children, ready to learn. It was quickly clear to us that none of the kids spoke a lick of English. They smiled at us. We smiled at them. My friend and I looked at each other, not knowing what to do. The book we’d been given was WAY over their heads.
So we sang the "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Soon enough, they were singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Throughout the few weeks we were there, we attempted lessons on colors and animals and basic phrases and directions, but the thing that stuck were the songs. Every day the highlight of the class was the run through of our set list. Soon kids were teaching us the Khmer words for animals and colors and basic phrases, but the thing that really stuck with me the most were the dances they showed us how to do.
It’s not really news that the arts are pretty much the best way we have to share stories and sharing stories is what builds relationships and energizes communities and helps us to understand each other and that is what is going to prevent war and allow every person to live the life of freedom and peace that he or she deserves to live. This is not hippy bullshit. It’s how it would motherfreaking work if we actually recognized it and valued it. Valued it with cold hard cash.
I better go write a song about this before I break something.
But before that, let me leave this on a happy note. Here's video of that class in Cambodia singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider."
Ask anyone what they like to do in their free time or what makes them happiest and the large majority will mention things like seeing live music, listening to music, going to movies, reading, photography. Ask Chicagoans why they love Chicago and you’ll hear most mention things like theater, comedy, music and art. When we try to communicate with people who don’t speak our language, we immediately can share art. It’s the friggin UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, people! Why on earth would we cut the universal language?
Arts programming for kids. These are the classes kids enjoy. These are the classes where kids are paying attention. And learning teamwork and discipline and building self-esteem and having healthy outlets for stress and developing creativity and thinking of new ways to see things and adding beauty to a freaking beautiful world. WHY THE MOTHER F WOULD WE CUT THESE PROGRAMS?!?
I’m pretty sure if you asked my Thursday night Guitar 4ever class at Old Town what the top 3 highlights of their week are- every single person would include that class. I can not stress enough how important that is. That one class is adding happiness to that group of 15 or so people. A healthy outlet for stress, a way to make friends, a way to develop a new skill, a way to create something new and lovely. I way to remember how awesome “Love My Way” by the Psychedelic Furs is. All that goodness adds to how that group of people will carry themselves out in the world. Multiply that by the thousands of students at that one school. Then multiply that by all the theaters and the dance studios and the writing workshops in every town across our country. That’s a lot of goodness going out into the world. Sure, it may not always be goodness in terms of quality but it’s still goodness.
When I was leaving work today, there was a group of clients in the lobby waiting for their theater rehearsal to begin. They were giddy. They're always giddy on Wednesdays before rehearsal. Chatting and laughing and talking about the upcoming performances. This group of people, who suffer from severe mental illness and are often ignored by society, have a chance to express themselves and make friends and have a purpose. They're learning new, healthy ways, of living. They're developing skills. They're having fun. Having spent a large portion of the day pouring over sobering statistics of the number of mentally ill in prison, it's crystal clear to me that programs like this theater program or no small thing. From a purely economical perspective- we should pour a ton MORE money into the arts. Drama class is WAY cheaper than prison.
A few years ago a couple friends and I were volunteering at an orphanage in Cambodia. One of our jobs was to teach English classes to the kids. My one friend and I were assigned to a class. Neither of us are teachers. We were faced with a class of about 30 eager, smiling children, ready to learn. It was quickly clear to us that none of the kids spoke a lick of English. They smiled at us. We smiled at them. My friend and I looked at each other, not knowing what to do. The book we’d been given was WAY over their heads.
So we sang the "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Soon enough, they were singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Throughout the few weeks we were there, we attempted lessons on colors and animals and basic phrases and directions, but the thing that stuck were the songs. Every day the highlight of the class was the run through of our set list. Soon kids were teaching us the Khmer words for animals and colors and basic phrases, but the thing that really stuck with me the most were the dances they showed us how to do.
It’s not really news that the arts are pretty much the best way we have to share stories and sharing stories is what builds relationships and energizes communities and helps us to understand each other and that is what is going to prevent war and allow every person to live the life of freedom and peace that he or she deserves to live. This is not hippy bullshit. It’s how it would motherfreaking work if we actually recognized it and valued it. Valued it with cold hard cash.
I better go write a song about this before I break something.
But before that, let me leave this on a happy note. Here's video of that class in Cambodia singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider."
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