06.30.09
Posted in Politics, Society at 11:22 am by JC
“Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”
Wow.
I was just thinking about this yesterday (before I saw the quote today), how every group is represented not by the best people, but by the loudest people. An example. I remember having a conversation once regarding homosexuality. The other person said something to the effect of, “Well, there must be something abberant about it; look at all those people marching in parades with leather thongs on.” And she gave a couple more examples of more extreme behavior. And while I don’t see anything weird about being gay, I have to admit, I think it’s weird to wear a leather thong in public. (Not that “weird” is an evil thing; if you have a desire to do something that I or anybody else considers “weird” and it’s not hurting anybody, get on with your bad self. Just, also, don’t be mad if I continue to think it’s weird. You can think things I do are weird. I promise not to get offended.)
So, anyway, her logic ran “I’ve seen lots of weird behavior by gay people. Being gay must therefore be weird.” Not terrible logic, but the flaw is exactly what I told her next. “You’re talking about a marginalized group. The people that don’t want to be perceived as “weird” are not marching. Or they’re in the center of the pack wearing sunglasses and a hat so that their number is represented, but their boss / family / pastor / whoever doesn’t see them. The people you see are the ones who don’t care what you or anybody else thinks. Those people are also more likely to wear a leather thong in public.”
Not everybody’s going to be as “you go with your weird self” as I am, and so the 10,000 are judged by the “socially unacceptable” actions of the 10.
I think Christianity lately has gotten a really bad rap for this same thing. (This is why I was thinking about it yesterday; my dad and I talked about faith for a little while while he was helping me tile my shower, and it was a cool conversation; my dad’s a pretty amazing guy. Anyway, back on topic.) Here we have a faith with millions of people doing Habitat for Humanity and Meals on Wheels and going to church and living good, quiet lives. And then we have Jerry Falwell, the loud one, with his infamous quotes such as:
“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped [9/11] happen.’”
I’m on that list like three times. All but the most extreme conservatives knows and likes somebody on that list. And then your average American, reeling from this attack promoted by blind, prejudicial, religious hatred (and I’m talking about 9/11 there… ) is gonna draw an easy comparison between “My version of Islam or die” and Mr. Falwell.
And then then 10,o00 look like zealots because of the accusations of the 10.
This is my rationale for going against most members of my faith regarding issues like prayer in school. I think we should encourage expression in all it’s forms, and instead of shutting it down, we should simply make sure that more forms get a voice. Pray at graduation. Just make sure there’s 3 or 4 short prayers, maybe a Christian, an Islamic, a Buddhist, and a humanist (I guess that wouldn’t be a prayer, but a “good vibe address”). Let people see a sample of the beautiful diversity of the school’s student body. Pray before a game, but each week let a different faith group lead it (and Baptist this week, Fundamental Baptist next week doesn’t count as different – and I realize that’s where the problem with my ideal is gonna come in). But the world needs to see this. The 10,000 must speak.
I’ve challenged myself to not be “in your face” about it, but to be more open about who I am and what I believe, not because I want to “convert” anybody to my way of thinking, but because the more we can be honest with each other about the fact that we’re all different, the more understanding and united this world can be. Remember the rule of 10. Don’t let the wrong people be the only ones heard.
So in that line of thought, now you know that I:
- play paper and dice games. Yes, I’m a gamer. Though it’s not my favorite system, I have played Dungeons and Dragons many times, and playing a rogue/sorcerer is my specialty. Check out Eden’s Unisystem if you want to see something really cool.
- am 32 and still afraid of rollercoasters
- have never smoked pot, but would vote for its legalization
- think babies are ugly (except Avery; she’s perfect in every way. Even Seas, my devil cat, likes her)
- love Britney Spears and am developing a serious fascination with Lady Gaga (who also wears completely inappropriate clothes in public)
- was a virgin when I got married
- write romance novels!!
- listened to Rush Limbaugh religiously when I was in high school (yes, you can do that and still grow up normal)
- practice Eclectic Wicca
- worked on George W. Bush’s original gubernatorial campaign and voted for him the first time he ran for president. It was the last time I voted Republican in a major election. (To clarify, YES, I voted for Obama. Don’t hate who I was, love who I am. I’m promoting honesty and diversity here. *sheepish grin**)
What’s your list?
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06.26.09
Posted in Personal, Society at 5:26 pm by JC
With all the news surrounding Michael Jackson’s death, I came across somebody discussing Smooth Criminal, what a weird plot it was and what a cool video it was. I’d never listened to the lyrics, and I’d never seen the video. Did both. It is a cool looking video, but I spent the whole time wondering what dancing at a speakeasy had to do with a song about somebody breaking into a girl’s house and killing (and maybe also raping) her. The lyrics to the song are seriously disturbing, and it was really popular.
I wonder sometimes about how we really don’t listen to the words of our songs. When The Killers’ first album was released, I intro’d a poetry unit in my English class by having the class analyze “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine“, which was all over the radio at the time. About half the kids in my class hadn’t realized it was about a murder, and none of them had realized it was the testimony of the murderer as he was questioned by the police. (“I know my rights; I’ve been here all day and it’s time for me to go” “She couldn’t scream as I held her close. I swore I’d never let her go.”)
When I bring this up, ’cause I really have to know the words to the songs I like, and every now and then they bother me enough to not listen to the song any more, but a lot of people say something like, “it’s MUSIC it’s not about the words” or “it just has to have a good beat; I don’t really listen to the words.” But if words are so useless, why is music with lyrics overwhelmingly more popular than music without? Is it comforting to sing the same five words from the chorus every time they come up? (people do at least register the words in the chorus; several kids told me that The Killers song was, in fact, about a guy with a friend named Jenny) Or do we just like being able to sing along, even if our brain is so disconnected from meaning that we don’t actually know what we’re saying? And is that kinda sad that we don’t even know what we’re condoning and advertising by proclaiming it in song?
In the car the other day, Laura plays LadyGaga’s Just Dance for me and says something to the effect of, “I love it. I was listening and listening to it, because I love to dance. And then I realized that I think it’s actually about a girl who got so stoned at a club that she’s afraid to leave, so she’s just dancing. Which, I guess is a better moral lesson than getting stoned at a club and driving home with a stranger. Eh, I still like the song.”
I’ve since downloaded it. I like the song, too. Not as much as I like Poker Face (off the same album), which I think, maybe, could possibly be about a girl who’s trying to hook a boy by sleeping with him before she tells him she loves him (genius plan, honey). But I’m not really sure, I just like the beat. And singing ‘Ma-ma-ma Poker Face!”
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06.23.09
Posted in Personal, Writing at 7:05 pm by JC
My second book, got it done. Well, got it done in that “written 64,194 words, including ‘The End’” sort of way. But I’m pretty good about revising as I go, and this one has been written in enough fits and starts that I had to review previous work (and, of course, edit that same previous work) to get started again the next time.
And book two was SO much easier to write than book one. It kinda flowed. I mean, writing is always a challenge, but jeez, getting that first monstrosity on paper made the whole process make sense in a way that it didn’t when I started Fish in the Sun (my first book ; contemplating changing the title to Fischer in the Sun as somebody pointed out that the title might be perceived as smelly). So, I guess what I’m saying is, if you want to be a writer, just finish that first book however you have to. Study a crap ton of craft as you go. It gets easier.
Granted, you’re always on a high when you finish a major project, but I have a special feeling about this one. I wrote a character that I really feel something for; not like that writerly infatuation that we feel for all our characters (god, I know what that is; get it all the damn time), but like he’s… got real pathos. And it’s been backed up by people who’ve read sections of the book; they’re coming to me later and saying something to the effect of “Logan has stuck with me.” I dunno. Maybe it’s just hopeful thinking, but it’s a really good feeling.
So there’s one section I gotta update ’cause it ain’t where it needs to be, and then I gotta read and edit the ending again (the finale sequence is like 10,000 words). And I gotta write a synopsis as almost everyone wants that as part of the query package. And then… I gotta send out some emails and wait. And be prepared to dive in the broken heart chest at the next ARWA meeting. And maybe, just maybe, be prepared for success.
Oh, yeah, and I gotta start writing another book. That’s the cool part; no matter what happens, no matter how many queries get accepted or rejected, each story that finishes means I get to pull the next story from my whirling brain and wrestle it on to the page. And I LOVE it.
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06.14.09
Posted in Reviews, Society, Writing at 4:44 pm by JC
I always thought that Star Trek was fun, but kinda sterile as a series (hence my ultimate preference for Star Wars in the ST vs SW battle of the geeks), but J.J. Abrams take on it… MAN. It’s like Star Trek with a Star Wars sense of character drama. Awesome!
It got me thinking about science fiction in general. I’m looking at the Starship Federation and noticing that most of them are human. And, granted, this could just be budgetary constraints (alien actors being so much more expensive to hire 
), but in sci-fi, humans are almost always weaker, slower, less agile, and not as educated/intelligent as other species. And yet we are always in charge. I’m looking at this situation, and wondering… how do we get there if we’re weak and stupid compared to everybody else? And what does this say about what we value most in humanity, if we choose heroes who don’t succeed by strength or speed or intelligence? After I talked around the issue for awhile, Scott finally hit on the word.
Determination
Our heroes, in more than just sci-fi, get hit, shot, flung, mashed, diseased, and stabbed… and then they get back up. They still believe they will win when the chances of success are 725 to 1. They take off after the enemy, head on, full bore even when logic says regroup and reinforce before proceeding, and, of course the audience knows what the character only guessed – that if the party had taken the time to regroup, it would’ve been too late.
Foolhardy? Well, yeah. But I find it interesting that as a species (or maybe this is an American thing?) we champion this trait that everybody can have. I mean, no matter how we train, most people are not physically capable of Olympic sprinting; no matter how we study, most people are not capable of Einstein genius. But when you give up is a choice. Granted, nobody can actually take the beating that a hero gets in a movie and still, well, LIVE, but the principles of “Never give up; never tell me the odds; charge in like a big damn hero even when it’s stupid” those are choices. Indiana Jones, Capt. Kirk, John McClane, Mal Reynolds… bleeding and bruised, these people crawl their way back to the badguy, and somehow through sheer willpower, beat ‘em anyway. And we LOVE them for it.
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06.12.09
Posted in Politics at 10:44 pm by JC
… Obama’s speech last week in Cairo was pretty damn amazing. I know that we have to do more than pretty talk to make a difference in what the world thinks of us, but that’s where actions begin – in our words. The words we choose, the way we present them, this is the start of who we are. And I have really appreciated the start this man has made. Now let’s back it up with action.
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