Happy Valentine's Day, I respect that we have a day to celebrate our love for one another. The only critism I have might be to consider that everyday should be viewed through pink heart shaped lenses and that if not adorned with choclate covered hearts or jewlery, we should show our appreciation and affection for others more freely on an everyday basis.
Stevie Wonder had it right when he sang..."No new years day to celebrate no choclate covered hearts to give away.... no its just another ordinary day... but I just called to say I love you, I just called to let you know I care."
So on this great holiday I am just blogging to let everyone know I care.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Reflections in the Mud
Recently I went to a screening of an independent film that had a cameo appearance by a friend of mine. Kerri my faithful friend decided to join me on the trip to park city. A city in which neither of us was accustomed. After taking advice from a lady with a British accent, which gave her away as a non-local....we luckily found our way around the city to watch the movie. The following is my thoughts on the film. Not that I am especially qualified in this area of expertise but I have found of late that if you express your opinion with confidence and the air of knowledgablity the majority of people believe you to be the last standing expert in that particular field. That's the easy part, the hard part is keeping up the act.
Anyways, the film, ah yes....as me and the brilliant Kerri discussed the film on the way home. We started out with a bleak review of a film that showed brilliance in idea's and invention but seemed to lack the capability to capture and hold the attention of its audience. But as we further discussed the progression of the film. I came to realize that the movie had an interesting genre that I had not expected to show itself. I came to expect as most of us would expect of a thriller romantic movie, a shoot em' up, blow em' to pieces and a romance smushed in the cracks. My expectations were a bit off. The movie seemed to focus more on the romantic side of the things a progression of the relationship between the main characters and instead of the mushy stuff as the buffers to the action scenes the action was the buffers to the mushy stuff. At first critical of this approach because I, like I am sure most Americans have come to expect what Hollywood feeds to us ACTION! but it was not always so. The great era of "Casa Blanca" and "Gone with the Wind" was much more centered on the love instead of the action. Now I wouldn't necessarily compare reflections in the mud with the great classics mentioned above but it has reinvented a genre that has been dwindled out by the James Bond, Terminator, Batman era of action adventure. A redeeming quality of sorts, Reflections in the mud anwsers the infamous question, "Where is the love?"
An interesting statement of society that we now expect guns and explosions over love. It makes me wonder if Hollywood effects the state of affairs as we know it or if the state of our society effects Hollywood. That might be a subject better consider by some one more qualified.......I will write a blog about it later.
Admittedly I fall into the trap of modern day aggression there is nothing like the sound of a racking slide on a gun that gets my little heart twitter patting. And explosions! well really who doesn't like explosions. Even those professed peace-makers, I am sure have rooted on an occasion to see a nuclear warehouse get obliterated. So in the end I respect the great work that went into the production and the difficulty of even making a production of that magnitude is very impressive. My only suggestion is that, It was once that love selled in Hollywood but in this generation it is gun racking and explosions.
Anyways, the film, ah yes....as me and the brilliant Kerri discussed the film on the way home. We started out with a bleak review of a film that showed brilliance in idea's and invention but seemed to lack the capability to capture and hold the attention of its audience. But as we further discussed the progression of the film. I came to realize that the movie had an interesting genre that I had not expected to show itself. I came to expect as most of us would expect of a thriller romantic movie, a shoot em' up, blow em' to pieces and a romance smushed in the cracks. My expectations were a bit off. The movie seemed to focus more on the romantic side of the things a progression of the relationship between the main characters and instead of the mushy stuff as the buffers to the action scenes the action was the buffers to the mushy stuff. At first critical of this approach because I, like I am sure most Americans have come to expect what Hollywood feeds to us ACTION! but it was not always so. The great era of "Casa Blanca" and "Gone with the Wind" was much more centered on the love instead of the action. Now I wouldn't necessarily compare reflections in the mud with the great classics mentioned above but it has reinvented a genre that has been dwindled out by the James Bond, Terminator, Batman era of action adventure. A redeeming quality of sorts, Reflections in the mud anwsers the infamous question, "Where is the love?"
An interesting statement of society that we now expect guns and explosions over love. It makes me wonder if Hollywood effects the state of affairs as we know it or if the state of our society effects Hollywood. That might be a subject better consider by some one more qualified.......I will write a blog about it later.
Admittedly I fall into the trap of modern day aggression there is nothing like the sound of a racking slide on a gun that gets my little heart twitter patting. And explosions! well really who doesn't like explosions. Even those professed peace-makers, I am sure have rooted on an occasion to see a nuclear warehouse get obliterated. So in the end I respect the great work that went into the production and the difficulty of even making a production of that magnitude is very impressive. My only suggestion is that, It was once that love selled in Hollywood but in this generation it is gun racking and explosions.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Let's skidoo, we're making sunny!
I believe I have a quantitative duty to explain the newest title that introduces my blog. -It's funny how an innocuous phrase when missinterpreted by another can be so skewed as to not even resemble the original statement... and laughter inevitably follows, hence the funniness. And so it was with the new title of my blog. I can't even remember the original verse but the interpretation has sure stuck with me. I believe it to be the new and bestest catch phrase of 2009. It's fresh and makes no sense. Two of the most important qualifying attributes of a catch phrases in my opinion. So don't think about it, just add it to your repertoire of conversation starters or enders depending on which way your going!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Delayed Culture Shock
I have finally realized after almost 3 months of being home; that returning from a year and a half over seas is not as easy as I once believed. It could have possibly been denial or a suppression of the changes that I had made over the last year and a half but the facade is over. The culture shock of being back in the US has set in with tragic deepness this last week. To understand I will back up a little. Almost two years ago I decided to serve an LDS mission, at the time it was more of a decision to escape from looming decisions about my future than a search for spirituality. Ironically I found the latter and only prolonged the first. So in this desperate escape I found myself with a paper that told me I was called to serve in the Singapore Mission(which turned out to be the Malaysian mission for me) and a one way ticket to South East Asia. Understandably frightened about the huge change I had just made in my life the first couple of weeks were a nightmare and I found myself wishing I was home. Then I fell in Love!....(not with a boy, that's against the rules) I fell in love with the people and the food with crazy unfamiliar customs and traditions; with traditional music and with the land that I now called home. Now it was the thought of leaving this amazing and awesome place that frightened me. Unfortunately, countries don't make a habit of giving residence to persons that fall in love with there country. So at the end of my service I was given another one way ticket that scared me more than the first one did. I was headed for America. A scary place of well spoken English and lots of white people and blan food. You might think my fears are silly as to being able to speak English and seeing lots of white people but anyone that has lived in a foreign country like Malaysia for an extended period of time will agree that those fears are horribly justified. And yet the acceptance of returning was not over powered by the since of panic I felt when reaching America. At least not until last week when I hit a brick wall and realized that my running was finished and that I had to face and over come the culture shock of being a real person again in the country I was born.
In Malaysia I could be who ever I wanted to be a fantastically liberating feeling. No one there had preconceived notions of my personality or my flaws. I was free to grow and become anyone I chose to become. This provided me with a unique situation in which I could develop with out the hindrance of presumption. Coming home I wanted to naively continue that dimension of my life but that was impossible because when I returned I was seen not in the eyes of those who had witnessed me change but in the eyes of those who expected an ideal of the same person that had left a year and a half before. I went from being completely free to being confined helplessly in the views of others. Have you ever heard of the saying that a river will always run the path of least resistance. Well so does human behavior, unless motivation and determination are released to push us in a different direction. So I was trapped in the flow, sure I put up a fight at the beginning. I tryed to prove, by my superior demeanor and example all that I had learned and changed in myself over the last year and a half but 21 years of conditioning people to think of me in a certain way was not easily over come. So instead of fighting I hid my new enlightenment to keep it safe, hoping someday I would use it again. In the next few weeks with out even a second thought I started to drift into what I remembered as comfortable. It was the path of least resistance. It was easier to act the way people perceived me then to let my new and more brilliant self show through. An interesting concept, that the way we treat others could be directly correlated with the way they act. It was true in my case and all the things that I disliked and that I had mended on my mission crept back into my life with a vengeance. Those tumultuous habits of behavior became my life again. It was not a direct decision but rather a slippery slope of unconscious acts.
Sometimes we find ourselves far from our destination because we inadvertently took the path of least resistance and when we finally realize we are not were we are supposed to be, that's the definition of an epiphany. We have all had those epiphany moments when life comes crashing down around us and we realize that what we have been doing is completely irrational. Well mine happened last week. I had an experience that opened my eyes to the fact that I had been running from my problems instead of facing them. Funny thing was, I was running at the time. I realized as my feet slushed through the snow and looking up into the darkening sky that blanketed the mountains. I wasn't in Kansas any more. That's when it hit me, the wall came down and two worlds clashed. In two words I believe we could call that, "culture shock". Integrating back into life here in the US has been a struggle. but, Now it is apparently clear to me why the word shock is associated with earthquakes, the aftermaths of tragic accidents and cultural changes. It's not as pleasant as one would guess, it's not even amusing but it is a mechanism to show that the worst is over and it helps us prioritize for the next event.
Don't worry, I don't have everything solved. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with all the really tall white people and blan food.
In Malaysia I could be who ever I wanted to be a fantastically liberating feeling. No one there had preconceived notions of my personality or my flaws. I was free to grow and become anyone I chose to become. This provided me with a unique situation in which I could develop with out the hindrance of presumption. Coming home I wanted to naively continue that dimension of my life but that was impossible because when I returned I was seen not in the eyes of those who had witnessed me change but in the eyes of those who expected an ideal of the same person that had left a year and a half before. I went from being completely free to being confined helplessly in the views of others. Have you ever heard of the saying that a river will always run the path of least resistance. Well so does human behavior, unless motivation and determination are released to push us in a different direction. So I was trapped in the flow, sure I put up a fight at the beginning. I tryed to prove, by my superior demeanor and example all that I had learned and changed in myself over the last year and a half but 21 years of conditioning people to think of me in a certain way was not easily over come. So instead of fighting I hid my new enlightenment to keep it safe, hoping someday I would use it again. In the next few weeks with out even a second thought I started to drift into what I remembered as comfortable. It was the path of least resistance. It was easier to act the way people perceived me then to let my new and more brilliant self show through. An interesting concept, that the way we treat others could be directly correlated with the way they act. It was true in my case and all the things that I disliked and that I had mended on my mission crept back into my life with a vengeance. Those tumultuous habits of behavior became my life again. It was not a direct decision but rather a slippery slope of unconscious acts.
Sometimes we find ourselves far from our destination because we inadvertently took the path of least resistance and when we finally realize we are not were we are supposed to be, that's the definition of an epiphany. We have all had those epiphany moments when life comes crashing down around us and we realize that what we have been doing is completely irrational. Well mine happened last week. I had an experience that opened my eyes to the fact that I had been running from my problems instead of facing them. Funny thing was, I was running at the time. I realized as my feet slushed through the snow and looking up into the darkening sky that blanketed the mountains. I wasn't in Kansas any more. That's when it hit me, the wall came down and two worlds clashed. In two words I believe we could call that, "culture shock". Integrating back into life here in the US has been a struggle. but, Now it is apparently clear to me why the word shock is associated with earthquakes, the aftermaths of tragic accidents and cultural changes. It's not as pleasant as one would guess, it's not even amusing but it is a mechanism to show that the worst is over and it helps us prioritize for the next event.
Don't worry, I don't have everything solved. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with all the really tall white people and blan food.
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