On RockBand and Being Human

So this is a bit of a double post. Firstly, I have long ridiculed the people who get all excited about RockBand, Guitar Hero, and SingStar. The video games always seemed silly. People just sitting there in front of their t.v, pretending to play guitar/drums/sing, even though they can't play that instrument. And then I actually played it. And guess what. It was so much fun. So Brandin, my brother and I pooled all our Target gift cards together from Christmas and bought it for our Playstation 3. Yes, we may look really stupid, sitting there, playing a plastic guitar. But really, who cares what people think when you're having so much fun?

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I got the book Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris for Christmas. I put it on my Amazon wishlist mainly because I thought it sounded like an "Office Space" type novel, and since I love the movie, I figured that I would love any book of the vein. Well, I am a little over halfway through the book and already know that I got much more than I expected. It's not just simply vapid, office meaninglessness, but there is something deeper. The characters in the novel are office caricatures; that weird guy in accounting who tells long stories with no point, or the receptionist who sends out mass emails of chain letters or stupid pictures, gossips, the watercooler: These caricatures are not new. Yet Ferris brings new life to them and we, as readers, become invested in the life of this office.

The novel is written in the all-inclusive first person plural, "we", which sucks the reader in and I found myself identifying with the office workers as their boss had breast cancer, as lay-offs came, when their coworker overdosed on antidepressants, when their ex-coworker became mentally unhinged, etc. It's really not a complex book on the surface, but meaning simmers just under the surface. How well do you really know your coworkers? Heck, it doesn't even have to be coworkers, it could be friends, even family. So often we are content to give and receive cursory answers that we may never really know what the other person is going through.

After reading this book, I am left with a feeling of vague discontent. The disconcerting realization that the people that I spend the most time with (coworkers, friends), I truly know the least. That by "just getting through the day", I am somehow missing the fundamental reason of being human: To care for people, invest in them, and receive care in return. I think it's a lesson well learned, and one I'm sure that I will continually need to relearn.

The Horror! The Horror!

An innocent family strolled through the gates: Mom, dad, a baby in a stroller. The autumn breeze wafted through the parking lot, blowing papers, empty coke cans, the dross of an unhappy childhood. The family closed in on the windswept courtyard, unaware of the eyes following them, or the danger that threatened their every step. They continued on into the bowels of the beast, into the very depths of the dragon's lair: This insidious thing called highschool. . .

So I needed to get a highschool transcript for my grad program. Brandin, Judah, and I stropped by to request one. I honestly haven't been back there since I graduated 6 years ago, and would you believe it, the maelstrom of emotions were still there. All the inadequacy, the nervousness, the feeling of being judged, the paranoia, they were just as strong in me now, as they were when I was sixteen. So strong, in fact, that I actually surprised Brandin into laughter (and I must add, a bit of justified ridicule) when I stopped before a corridor between classrooms and hissed, "We can't go that way, people will see us!" Am I an adult now, or am I an adult?

Hmm, isn't it interesting how influential highschool is to a teen, that 6 years later the feelings are still so influential and negative. It certainly gave me a new perspective on my teens in our youth group, that we cannot treat the highschool experience as trivial or insignificant. Those emotions that war so furious within these teens will not just "go away", but linger, perhaps buried and unnoticed, yet still strong enough to stop me, a relatively stable, happy adult, in my tracks. I walked through the hallway to the registrar's office and saw clumps of teens looking at us, then looking away and I felt a primal fear that seemed to permeate throughout my entire body: They're looking at me. They're judging me. They're laughing at me. I don't belong here.

I hope to re-read this, or at least remember these thoughts when I deal with our teens in youth group, or when Judah goes to school, so I can remember to listen and understand. Teenagers do not need another judge or executioner; they seem to do that all quite well in their own mind. Perhaps the next time your teen comes to you talking about perceived threats or judgments (however real or delusional it may seem to you), you listen instead of writing their fear off as unfounded. It certainly still feels real enough to me.

Dignity and Justice for All of Us

As a kind of segway from my post a week ago, this week I am joining with millions around the globe (or at least, those who know about it) in promoting Human Rights Day on December 10th. The United Nations uses Dec. 10 of each year to remind people of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This seemed like a good day to pay tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate of Burma. She has been on and off house arrest for the last eighteen years. Her 1997 book, Voice of Hope is being re-released and updated in paperback, and it coincides with the restart of dialogue and negotiations between her, Burman government officials, and the UN. It was her wish that we would use our liberty to promote theirs.

So, on this Human Rights Day, I am using my liberty of free speech and dissemination to remind us of how lucky we are to be able to debate and (if the Right has their way) possibly repeal an extension of a child's civil rights in education bill (see my previous post). It really puts things into perspective when you think of how much we take for granted that we don't even realize that we take for granted: Voting, a system that works (usually), free speech, personal liberties, the list goes on and on.

So, the next time you engage your neighbor in a political debate, or participate in politics, remember Aung San: The woman who gave up her freedom to fight for a seeming lost cause, so that her people might enjoy the same liberties that we enjoy.

Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!!

Are you ready for the fight of the year? Or, at least the newest political/religious/demographical mud-slinging melee? Senate Bill 777 is a wolf in sheep's clothing, to hear it from the right, and for the left it's all about equality and love and harmony in schools. Is it, as the Christian Right would have us believe, a Satanic attack on "Traditional Morals" and "Family Values", or as the Liberals claim, just another logical Civil Rights bill? Or maybe somewhere in the grey ether between all the polarity?

I encourage you to read the bill before making any reactionary decisions in either direction. I've read debates on this bill as well, and I understand both points of view. Discrimination in classrooms is something that should not be allowed. Previously, the typical "protected" classes of people afforded equal rights and opportunities were "regardless of sex, ethnic group identification, race, national origin, religion, mental or physical disability, or regardless of any actual or perceived characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes set forth in Section 422.55 of the Penal Code." This bill changes one meager word that has resounding consequences. The bill eliminates the word "sex", which was usually defined as being born either male or female, and replaces it with "gender", which the bill defines as "sex, and includes a person's gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth." This is the main difficulty I see with the bill.

Now, let me be clear: I agree that all people, regardless of sexual identity, should be afforded equal rights and opportunities. I am in no way for discrimination of any kind anywhere. Let's all put aside our political and doctrinal beliefs, just for the moment, have a seat at the round table and actually look at the bill. I have to point out the obvious logistical problems that may arise after the bill is passed. By defining gender as identity and behavior, what happens when a transgendered boy feels discriminated against in the boys locker room (highly possible) and appeals to the school board citing this bill? It seems ludicrous that he could be allowed to use the girls locker room, because then all the boys (who truly feel like boys) will do the same thing just to get access to that nirvana of male adolescence. So then what? Do the schools add locker rooms for the gender-unsure? Should schools really have four locker rooms, boys, girls, boys-who-feel-like-girls, and girls-who feel-like-boys, wasting taxpayer money that should be spent on things like computer labs, textbooks, and libraries? Where this issue might have only been an issue before the bill, it now has a basis in law and feasibly could lead to possible litigation for the school districts.

I think that there is no right or wrong with this bill. There are good points and bad points. Maybe the question boils down to this: Is any possible fallout (i.e. litigation, argument, taxes) worth it to keep our children from discrimination? It seems that this bill puts the school in a tougher position than it was in before. While before, schools could resolve their issues on a case by case basis, this sets a precedent with a recourse in law. Maybe I'm being alarmist and the situation that I'm imagining is ludicrous and no sensible person would ever do it. But if people were sensible, would we really need any "discrimination" laws in the first place?