So growing up I was subjected (quite cheerfully though) to a lot of airplane analogies. My dad is a huge airplane geek (which has actually rubbed off a bit) and he knows EVERYTHING there is to know about them (or at least it seems that way most of the time--I wouldn't really know one way or the other). Those analogies still pop up from time to time when I'm making decisions or just thinking about the past.
Today was one of those days when for no apparent reason I suddenly thought of one of those lessons. My dad used to say that there were three things you should have when flying--airspeed, altitude, and ideas--and that you'd better have at least two. "If you don't have airspeed you better have altitude and ideas!"
I've been thinking about this quite a bit today and the more I think about it the more I realize that it's a perfect analogy for my life right now.
We all have bad days. Or weeks. Or months. Or even years. It happens. In all actuality, it's probably a good thing because it gives us the opportunity to feel empathy for each other. It's a universal fact of life. Those bad days can seem pretty overwhelming. I had a teacher once that said, "You can't drown if you don't put your head underwater", but sometimes it doesn't seem like you get much of a choice.
So what does airspeed, altitude, and ideas have to do with this? Well I think each of those components correspond to something in our lives. My dad used that analogy for bunches of different situations in a million different ways, but to me it pans out like this.
Airspeed is just like it sounds. Sometimes the only way to get over things is to keep on going. To get our speed up and just go with it because if we slow down we're going to stall out and then it's over.
Altitude means we have to get above all the junk in our lives that doesn't really matter. Sometimes we get caught beneath our problems when really all we need is a little perspective from higher ground.
Ideas are exactly that. We need a bit of creativty, some ingenuity to figure out how to get over, around, under, or through our problems. Sometimes it's not obvious, but almost every problem has a solution.
So, like I said before--you need two. Sometimes there's the days when you won't be able to just keep chugging along and other days you're not going to be able to get out pity party mode and some days you're just out of ideas. But if you can obtain just two out of the three then you'll be okay for one more day.
If this seems like a far cry from my last (rather scathing) post, then you're right, it is. But I suppose I'm just feeling optimistic. I made it through quite the week--I got a C on my first chem test, but pretty sure I just dominated my first calc test--and I realized that I definitely was only flying on two of the three. I was running really low on altitude...it made for a bumpy flight, but I made it through and I'll do the same thing tomorrow.
It'll all be okay. And tomorrow maybe the sun will shine and maybe it won't, but it'll be another day and another flight and just maybe the weather will be just right for flying. Good night tonight and good day tomorrow.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
SEX. Got your attention? Just wait til you read this...
Okay time for a super awkward (and yet again super opinionated) post...
It's almost Valentine's Day. Some of you may appreciate that; the rest of you (myself included) are uttering a universal groan of disgust. Either way, with the approach of Valentine's Day the web is abuzz with ideas for romantic gifts, presents, and dates.
Unfortunately, they're doing it all wrong. My roommate and I read the articles when our brains are fried from studying and then laugh at the stupidity of it all. Half the articles are giving their readers "advice" that if actually followed will without a doubt tear a relationship apart and the other half are just trying to get a relationship into bed. It's ridiculous.
Say what you like, but the point of a relationship, whether you're married or not, is not just sex.
"Society" would have you believe that that's all it's about. If you don't believe me, let's look at it in a bit more detail...
What's the last movie you saw? Think about it a minute...Was there a sex scene in it? If there was, were they married or even, for that matter, in a relationship? Completely ignoring the sex scene that may or may not have been in the movie, how many innuendos, crude comments, or scantily clad women (or men) obviously sending a certain message were there?
Surprised?
Our society has made sex--with anyone, anytime, anywhere--an acceptable part of life, even desirable. It's also become ordinary and blase, not a special or sacred thing about it.
Take for example my lovely college setting. I know a group of kids who play a game at dinner...if someone burps, everyone says a color, the last person to say a color or anyone who repeats a color already said has to make a sex noise. Now let's think about the implications of that game.
On the surface it appears harmless, if a little dumb. BUT (and isn't there always a but?) if we delve deeper, a game like that has turned sex into nothing more than something that is base and carnal. Something unimportant that can be thrown before a crowd. This view of sex is a mockery of the power we have been entrusted (and if you're wondering, yes, by God). The power to create life. The power a man and woman who have been married have the right to use.
And here's another one: this week at my school it's apparently "Sexual Responsibility Week". SHAPE (Sexual Health Awareness Peer Educators) are going to be giving out condom grams (I really don't even want to know) and condoms this week as well as information on how to avoid getting sexually transmitted diseases.
Yet again, I'm sure there are people who are fine with this, who think it's a good thing, because, hey, if the kids are doing it shouldn't we at least help them be safe? no. No. NO. Handing out condoms? Seriously? I can just picture the meeting, "Hey, I've got an idea, let's hand out condoms! That'll make sure everyone is safe!" Yeah, and I'm sure it'll also keep everyone from getting STDs or getting pregnant too. And that my friends is what we call the logic disconnect.
Maybe if we taught our kids not to sleep with everyone they had a momentary connection to and maybe if we didn't expose them to every sleazy piece of junk on the TV and radio, we wouldn't have such a big problem. Maybe if WE set a better example, then the future generations won't be as messed up as this one.
Think what you like, but a people who live like we do and at the speed we do, aren't going anywhere good. We're going somewhere bad, fast. Maybe if someone decides to take into account exactly what they're doing to themselves--physically, emotionally, spiritually--it'd get a bit better, but like I said last time, that would require people to start thinking again instead of just following the crowd.
As for me, I've never had the desire to be a lemur.
It's almost Valentine's Day. Some of you may appreciate that; the rest of you (myself included) are uttering a universal groan of disgust. Either way, with the approach of Valentine's Day the web is abuzz with ideas for romantic gifts, presents, and dates.
Unfortunately, they're doing it all wrong. My roommate and I read the articles when our brains are fried from studying and then laugh at the stupidity of it all. Half the articles are giving their readers "advice" that if actually followed will without a doubt tear a relationship apart and the other half are just trying to get a relationship into bed. It's ridiculous.
Say what you like, but the point of a relationship, whether you're married or not, is not just sex.
"Society" would have you believe that that's all it's about. If you don't believe me, let's look at it in a bit more detail...
What's the last movie you saw? Think about it a minute...Was there a sex scene in it? If there was, were they married or even, for that matter, in a relationship? Completely ignoring the sex scene that may or may not have been in the movie, how many innuendos, crude comments, or scantily clad women (or men) obviously sending a certain message were there?
Surprised?
Our society has made sex--with anyone, anytime, anywhere--an acceptable part of life, even desirable. It's also become ordinary and blase, not a special or sacred thing about it.
Take for example my lovely college setting. I know a group of kids who play a game at dinner...if someone burps, everyone says a color, the last person to say a color or anyone who repeats a color already said has to make a sex noise. Now let's think about the implications of that game.
On the surface it appears harmless, if a little dumb. BUT (and isn't there always a but?) if we delve deeper, a game like that has turned sex into nothing more than something that is base and carnal. Something unimportant that can be thrown before a crowd. This view of sex is a mockery of the power we have been entrusted (and if you're wondering, yes, by God). The power to create life. The power a man and woman who have been married have the right to use.
And here's another one: this week at my school it's apparently "Sexual Responsibility Week". SHAPE (Sexual Health Awareness Peer Educators) are going to be giving out condom grams (I really don't even want to know) and condoms this week as well as information on how to avoid getting sexually transmitted diseases.
Yet again, I'm sure there are people who are fine with this, who think it's a good thing, because, hey, if the kids are doing it shouldn't we at least help them be safe? no. No. NO. Handing out condoms? Seriously? I can just picture the meeting, "Hey, I've got an idea, let's hand out condoms! That'll make sure everyone is safe!" Yeah, and I'm sure it'll also keep everyone from getting STDs or getting pregnant too. And that my friends is what we call the logic disconnect.
Maybe if we taught our kids not to sleep with everyone they had a momentary connection to and maybe if we didn't expose them to every sleazy piece of junk on the TV and radio, we wouldn't have such a big problem. Maybe if WE set a better example, then the future generations won't be as messed up as this one.
Think what you like, but a people who live like we do and at the speed we do, aren't going anywhere good. We're going somewhere bad, fast. Maybe if someone decides to take into account exactly what they're doing to themselves--physically, emotionally, spiritually--it'd get a bit better, but like I said last time, that would require people to start thinking again instead of just following the crowd.
As for me, I've never had the desire to be a lemur.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Let's Be Frank
Okay, let's do it. Let's be Frank. But first we have to ask ourselves...who is Frank? Just kidding. Super lame joke to start out your day or night or whatever. If we're being Frank we'll all agree that my first post was not that great. That's okay with me...I've never claimed to be eloquent. However, that never stopped me before.
I guess while I'm being Frank about how awful my first post was I should clarify it's main problem...I never really explained how critical young is, in fact, a paradox.
As I've grown older (but not ever really old enough) I've noticed that those of us who can refer to ourselves as youth are slacking on our duty to ourselves and to our society. People in general, but especially this younger generation that we belong to, no longer criticize anything.
Oh sure, we complain a lot. But when I say criticize I don't mean we sit there and whine or that we silently critic our neighbors awful fashion sense or the way our parents run our family. I mean that we take every piece of information we come across--whether we discover it or it's given to us or it's force fed to us--and we search it out for ourselves.
That's right. We WORK. We STUDY. And we do it, not for a grade, not for praise, but for the SAKE OF KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge is the only thing we really have and so if we're going to fill our heads with stuff it might as well be good.
So there you go...something for you to fill your head with...something to THINK about...
My paradox, this critical young, shouldn't be a paradox. Not by a long shot. So like I said, let's be Frank, is the stuff in your head really worth knowing?
I guess while I'm being Frank about how awful my first post was I should clarify it's main problem...I never really explained how critical young is, in fact, a paradox.
As I've grown older (but not ever really old enough) I've noticed that those of us who can refer to ourselves as youth are slacking on our duty to ourselves and to our society. People in general, but especially this younger generation that we belong to, no longer criticize anything.
Oh sure, we complain a lot. But when I say criticize I don't mean we sit there and whine or that we silently critic our neighbors awful fashion sense or the way our parents run our family. I mean that we take every piece of information we come across--whether we discover it or it's given to us or it's force fed to us--and we search it out for ourselves.
That's right. We WORK. We STUDY. And we do it, not for a grade, not for praise, but for the SAKE OF KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge is the only thing we really have and so if we're going to fill our heads with stuff it might as well be good.
So there you go...something for you to fill your head with...something to THINK about...
My paradox, this critical young, shouldn't be a paradox. Not by a long shot. So like I said, let's be Frank, is the stuff in your head really worth knowing?
Saturday, February 5, 2011
I am the critical young
Hey. Welcome to the show. I am (as you've hopefully figured out by now) the critical young.
I suppose this needs some explaining...
I'm a paradox. I remember the first time someone told me that...it was my dad and he said, "Allison, you're a paradox--you play the piano like an angel, but you sure eat like a linebacker". That doesn't describe me in full--not by a long shot, but I guess I've never minded being a paradox...you might even say I relish it. And so among a plethora of other paradoxes comes this one, this critical young, which really started out as nothing more than a joke.
"Critical Young" was the name of my middle school rock band that never even existed (because what kid with a love of music doesn't have a non-existent rock band?). It became a running joke among my friends and a convenient pen name to replace my mundane and boring email addresses and whatnot. But, as I got older well I changed and I realized in a way it fits quite neatly.
Don't get me wrong...the word critical tends to have pretty bad connotations...I'm not a pessimist and I'm not a jerk (usually anyways), but I'm definitely a critic. And, well, as of now I'm still relatively young. So there you have it...the critical young.
I suppose this needs some explaining...
I'm a paradox. I remember the first time someone told me that...it was my dad and he said, "Allison, you're a paradox--you play the piano like an angel, but you sure eat like a linebacker". That doesn't describe me in full--not by a long shot, but I guess I've never minded being a paradox...you might even say I relish it. And so among a plethora of other paradoxes comes this one, this critical young, which really started out as nothing more than a joke.
"Critical Young" was the name of my middle school rock band that never even existed (because what kid with a love of music doesn't have a non-existent rock band?). It became a running joke among my friends and a convenient pen name to replace my mundane and boring email addresses and whatnot. But, as I got older well I changed and I realized in a way it fits quite neatly.
Don't get me wrong...the word critical tends to have pretty bad connotations...I'm not a pessimist and I'm not a jerk (usually anyways), but I'm definitely a critic. And, well, as of now I'm still relatively young. So there you have it...the critical young.
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