Life goes on

When I was a Freshman in high school they had a little thing called "Freshman Initiation."  It was a day when the senior class made all the freshman boys wear skirts and girls wore their clothes inside out. We had to race grapes down the halls of the school with our noses as the only means of propulsion and stuff like that. It wasn't quite "hazing," but still, it wasn't much fun to be a freshman for that day (especially if your brother was a senior as mine was).  The only thing that got us through was knowing that in three more years we would be seniors and justice would be done.  That was, until the class of '85.  When we became seniors the school administration decided freshman initiation was getting out of hand (perhaps the squirt guns filled with bong water had something to do with it) and festivities were scaled back to the point of having the senior class dressed formally and the freshman class dressed foolishly. Our turn was abruptly taken away from us.  What a gyp.

In the bigger scheme of things, I remember being a kid and yearning for the freedom of adulthood.  Having been raised by a single mom, there wasn't much catering to the whims of a pre-teen.  I lived in a grown-up world that I didn't have access to as a child.  And when the grown-ups said, "jump," we asked, "how high."  Now that I am a grown-up, it is my time to be free, right?  My kids will have to deal with the fact that I don't have the time or money for all their childish things, just like I had to deal with it 30 years ago.  But, you know what?  They turned the tables on me again.  

We watched whatever was on TV when I was a kid.  It was variety shows like Merv Griffin and Carol Burnett, and dramas like Emergency and M.A.S.H.  You can't compare Carol Burnett's comedy to anything available in today's TV environment.  What is supposed to pass for Family Comedy (cartoons like The Simpsons and Family Guy) is completely inappropriate for my kids.  The only comparison to be made between shows like Emergency and M.A.S.H. next to C.S.I. or Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is that it used to be that we didn't need to explicitly see graphic violence to be intrigued by a story.  Again, I'm not letting my kids watch that, or the daily news for that matter.  Forget about watching a movie after dinner like I used to before kids.

So have we been gypped again?  Is this one of Life's cruel jokes.  I used to think so.  I used to think, "if not for these kids, I'd rent this movie to watch tonight," or "I'd have enough money to buy that band's CD." But lately I've just been handing it over to them.  All my time and my little scraps of money, and you know what?  I don't miss it.  The times I've spent making a scavenger hunt for my son or watching silly cat videos on youtube with my daughter have been some of the best times I can remember.  I guess raising kids is one of society's ways of maturing parents like me who would otherwise remain as irresponsible as…hmm…I don't know, maybe a high school senior with a squirt gun full of bong water.

Reading

I finished The Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman a week or so ago.  I thought it came before American Gods, but I was mistaken.  It was a great story in and of itself, but as a Neil Gaiman fan it seemed to be riding on the coattails of American Gods a little too closely. Almost like Neil was stuck with the idea of gods living amongst us and couldn't move past it.  I like original storytelling, especially from a mind like Neil's, but this seemed like a spinoff.  It could've been a subplot to American Gods and fit in the same book. Still, I think Neil is the king.  The story was filled with surprises and cleverness that kept me turning the pages.  I finished it in a couple days (which is super fast for me).  I eagerly await another piece of work by him.  His latest effort, I believe, is an episode of "Doctor Who" for the BBC.  Great fun and all, but I'd rather read a comic book series or novel by him than watch a show.

Next came The Magic Pudding, which is a children's story written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay in 1918.  I like children's literature, and this was sitting on my nightstand for a long time before I actually read it.  Something of this sort I like to read before giving it to the kids and I'm glad I did.  It would be fine for my daughter of 12, but my son, who is 7 years old, can be a chameleon and, like me, become too much of what he perceives.  Lindsay believed, "kids prefer food and fighting," which may be true, but we are trying to keep our young man from resorting to fisticuffs in his dealings with his peers (and parents).  There was a little too much punching and pounding in this story for me to share it with him, at least in this stage.

So my next book, that I am only half way through, is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  It seems to have become a manifesto for the Tea Party.  I have continually heard about it over the last few months to the point where I must have it under my belt just to know what the world is talking about.  Because Hollywood has so few original ideas they have pilfered this, too, and part one of the movie version has just premiered.  (Click here for the trailer, and here for a sampling of reviews). I'd be very interested to see the movie, but not until it is completed (the books has 3 parts - will the movie version be a trilogy?) and I can watch it all at once. In the meantime, I can only say that Tea Party comparisons to our current state of affairs in this country and this book are far-fetched to me.  We aren't quite living in the socialist version of what Rand calls the People's States of America in my opinion.  Perhaps if the government had taken control of the "too big to fail" banking industry instead of just bailing them out, then Rand and the Tea Party would have me on board.  As it stands, I still have faith in our government and President.  Capitalism is safe from the kinds of regulation that Rand uses to describe "evil" in her writing. The world she portrays is very black-and-white, very extreme, and her beliefs are very heavy-handed.  My world, at least, is more subtle than that.  Still it is a great book and a legitimate, strong warning to our society.  I dig it.

Don't blog angry

It seems lately that I'm only writing when I need to vent.  But that's not all I'm about.  I'm not just another angry writer.  I have peaceful, happy thoughts to share as well.  I do so.  How do you know?

So, here we go with my own space on the internet to prove to the world that I'm more than a grumpy old man in training.  My inspiration to write may generally come from frustration, but I'm looking to channel that through this blog's "happy" filter in order to find productive solutions to life's little disappointments.

They say to be a successful blogger you need to specialize your content.  Become an authority.  Well, I'm not much of an authority on anything except my own life, which involves being married to the most beautiful and smartest woman in the world, raising the greatest kids, playing the drums, reading comics, listening to great music and watching TV shows and movies. That means you are going to find posts about relationships, marriage, parenting, special needs, technology, songs, music, comic books, and entertainment along with politics, the environment, food, news and whatever else I feel like.  So much for specializing.  We'll see where it gets me.

Please drop by once in awhile to check out what's up in my small world, and if you are so inclined, leave a comment.  I'd love to hear from you.