Must-see Basketball clip
I can't resist including this; it's a clip from Rochester, New York, where I lived just over a year ago! The clip is of an autistic teen who was the towel-boy for a high school basketball team when the coach put him in for the final 4 minutes of the game...to see the miraculous ending, watch the tape!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYPaNc57Ik | posted by Cheryl, 2/27/2006 03:15:00 PM | 0 comments |
"When Teen Sex Education Goes too Far" (Boston Globe article)
The topic of how to best go about educating children in the health domain has haunted and provoked me since my pre-pubescent years (anyone else remember the seminal VHS', "Growing up, Feeling Good" and "Am I Normal?").Whose job is it to enlighten kids as to the birds and the bees - Mom and Dad? Schoolteachers? Peers? How much of a say should government have, if any (this becomes very tricky when condom education comes into play)? What separates the kids who want to please the parents/teachers from those who rebel, and how would one teach the "facts" about risky behaviors to a classroom full of kids on all sides of the spectrum?
The fact that Health and Sex Education classes are, from what I have observed, universally taken lightly is unambiguously wrong and, I'd go so far as to say, tragic. What other class contains facts that are absolutely guaranteed to apply to the rest of one's life? More importantly, how are teens to deal with the fact that they live in bodies that are biologically primed to be procreating at menstruation (in many cases, as young as 10-12)? Or, are their bodies simply confused - because of the increase in hormones in our diets, are their hormonal systems ready before their brains?
Obviously, this topic is colored by historical and cultural lenses, but their impact is bafflingly left out of the prevailing American discourses on the topic. What do the teen years mean? Certainly, anthropologically and historically we can see that most cultures have/have had a rite of passage ceremony, but none that i know of take as long as what we in America see as the "teen years." Are the "teen years" just a concept we created from our culture of excess, an extension of parental desires to protect their children, or perhaps an extension of the "feel good" movement?
I've yet to find a comprehensive article that addresses the issue from a historical and/or anthropological standpoint (but i'm sure they're out there somewhere); for now, I'll comfort myself (and, perhaps you) with an article a friend recently sent me the general topic of teen sex education, which reawakened my interest in the subject.
I've pasted the article here, and I strongly agree that the central question this author asks needs to be addressed: what is healthy sexual activity for a teenager?
When teen sex education goes too far
By Ellen Goodman February 24, 2006
SOME YEARS AGO, Rolling Stone magazine published a survey on the attitudes of baby boomer parents. The gist of it was that the people who had gone through the sexual revolution did everything, regretted nothing, and wanted their children to do none of it.
This didn't surprise me. Nothing changes your perspective as much as becoming a parent, and the first order of child-raising is protection. I remember Hillary Clinton's wry sexual advice back when she was first lady and the mother of a teenager: ''My theory is don't do it before you're 21, and then don't tell me about it."
Today parents of teens, boomers, and Gen-Xers alike are often whiplashed by the culture. With one eye, they watch the media sexualizing younger and younger children. With the other, they read the blinking warning signals of danger, from pregnancy to disease to AIDS.
In the midst of this, the loudest promises of protection have come from those pushing an abstinence-only education for schoolchildren that, in effect, is fear-of-sex education. And now we have another product from the protection racketeers: the notion that any and all sexual activity by teenagers should be treated as sexual abuse.
Welcome, Auntie Em, to Kansas.
As I write this, the citizens of the prototypically red state are awaiting a judge's verdict on one of the more bizarre cases to make its R-rated way into the public eye. Kansas is one of 12 states in which underage sex -- under 16 in this case -- is a crime even when it involves teenage peers. In 2003, state Attorney General Phill Kline, a bandstanding prolifer, interpreted that law to require doctors, educators, counselors, and healthcare workers to report virtually all sexual activity by those under 16 to the state.
The Kline Theory goes something like this: If sexual activity between teens is illegal, there's no such thing as consensual sex, and thus every act is harmful. These acts, by the way, include ''any lewd fondling or touching of the person . . . with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires." In short, healthcare workers have to rat on 15-year-old sexual criminals who are lustily and mutually ''abusing" each other in the back seat of a Toyota.
The healthcare workers sued, and the recent trial produced some pretty odd exchanges. When lawyer Bonnie Scott Jones of the Center for Reproductive Rights put Kline on the stand, she asked if anything beyond kissing was acceptable. Is oral sex performed by a boy a reportable crime? Yes, said Kline. Oral sex performed by a girl? ''I'm not certain," he said.
There was also the testimony of Dr. Elizabeth Shadigian, best known as a stalwart of the abortion-gives-you-breast-cancer misinformation campaign. She said that teenage girls are always the victims of sexual activity because ''there's always a power differential between a boy and a girl." When girls have sex, they aren't doing, she said, ''they have been done to."
Frankly, I hadn't heard this argument since the late Andrea Dworkin maintained that all intercourse was rape. Radical feminism meets the radical right in the Puritan revival.
I assume that Kline's real purpose in mandating reports is to scare teens away from birth control and abortion clinics. If Kansas actually believed that all under-16 sex was harmful, why would it allow 13-year-olds to marry? But the most sensible remark came from the exasperated Judge J. Thomas Marten who insistently asked the state: ''Where is the clear, credible evidence that underage sex is always injurious?"
This is what passes for a radical question these days. In defense against a culture that is sexually provocative, the dominant messages are sexually overprotective: They run the gamut from ''just say no" to ''just say not now." The focus today is on unhealthy sexual activity. It's become virtually taboo to even ask: What is healthy sexual activity for a teenager?
In Kansas, instead of homing in on real sexual abuse of children, they are redefining all underage sex as abuse. As for the notion that girls are invariably victims of sex, unable to consent to ''lewd fondling": Do we want to return to those wonderful yesteryears when women were supposed to be sexually inert until their wedding night when they magically became eager sexual partners?
Phill Kline has produced the ''Reefer Madness" of teenage sexuality. I can only hope that the judge overturns the idea that health workers and educators have to report petting as if it were pedophilia.
In the meantime, worried parents need to explore what we wish, as well as what we fear for our children. We need guides as we navigate the tricky shoals of adolescent sexuality between panic and protection. Let's begin with the simple edict: We're not in Kansas anymore. | posted by Cheryl, 2/27/2006 02:16:00 PM | 0 comments |
"An Art we Explore with Mystery and Integrity"
"Chocolate is sacred. There is an art to the alchemy of flavor infusion, an art we explore with mystery and integrity." (Dagoba organic chocolate bar wrapper)Imprecise statements of this sort beg the questions: what is it that draws people to this kind of language? Is chocolate sacred? Can the noun "mystery" be used to modify the action "explore?" And, most importantly, what's so unorganic or unnatural about our everyday vernacular?
In the following paragraphs, I will attempt to translate the aforementioned claim into plain English.
"Chocolate is sacred"
This one's a no-brainer; after visiting chocolate museums from Belgium to Barcelona, I know that the ancient Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs used chocolate for religious ceremonies (although it's worth mentioning that the waxy substance we consider "chocolate" is far from what they actually consumed at the time).
"There is an art to the alchemy of flavor infusion"
According to dictionary.com, the word "art" has 16 potential meanings. I can safely assume the wise chocolate-package-writers at "Dagoba" were referring to this definition: "High quality of conception or execution."
Simple enough; there's a high quality way to do the "alchemy of flavor infusion." So, what does "alchemy" mean? Dictionary.com gives us two potential definitions:
1. A medieval chemical philosophy having as its asserted aims the transmutation of base metals into gold, the discovery of the panacea, and the preparation of the elixir of longevity.
2. A seemingly magical power or process of transmuting: "He wondered by what alchemy it was changed, so that what sickened him one hour, maddened him with hunger the next" (Marjorie K. Rawlings).
I'm guessing that the statement is indended to conjur up images of the first definition in the reader; suddenly, chocolate becomes more than a tasty dessert or indulgence...it can be not only sacred, but perhaps hold the key to the elixir of life!
However, they most likely meant the second definition in the literal sense. Thus, "There is an art to the alchemy of" translated into plain language likely means, "There is a high quality process of changing."
So, what is "flavor infusion?" Technically, an "infusion" is "something introduced," and a flavor is a "distinctive taste." Thus, the first half of the second sentence can be translated to mean: "There is a high quality way to go about introducing a distinctive taste," or even more colloqually, "There's a good way to make something tasty."
"An Art we explore with mystery and integrity"
While the above claims may feel overstated upon scrutiny, they nevertheless make some basic logical sense. However, this ending really makes me question my grasp of the English language.
Using our above definition of "art," we can continue to finish our translation by saying, "There is a high quality way to go about introducing a distinctive taste, a high quality way we explore with mystery and integrity."
The first major question I had upon first reading this statement was: can something be explored with mystery? Let's take it step by step: "explore" means, "To investigate systematically; examine," as in, "explore every possibility" (thanks again, dictionary.com).
So, Dagoba systematically investigates how to go about introducing a distinctive taste in a very high quality way; this makes sense. But can they be said to partake in this investigation "with mystery?" Integrity makes sense; integrity can mean morally sound and/or unimpaired, so you can go about the investigation in a morally sound and unimpaired way.
But mystery? The word "mystery" means, "something that is not fully understood or that baffles or eludes the understanding." Although both "mystery" and "integrity" are nouns, it just doesn't make logical sense that one could investigate how to introduce a distinctive taste in a very high quality way, one which is also morally sound and unimpaired, but is also not fully understood or that baffles the mind.
Just taking the three words, "explore with mystery," I'm hard pressed to figure out a clear way to dilute what specifically i'm supposed to be concluding here. This is the part of the statement that makes me question the vagueness of this kind of writing; is there some sort of value judgement connoted by it? Are mysterious explorations more enticing for some reason?
I love that life has some mystery; heaven forbid we humans become predictable! Yet, is this quality required for me to enjoy my chocolate bar? I'd go so far as to argue that I want the process of finding the best flavors to infuse into my chocolate to have as little to do with mystery as possible!
Anyway, the point isn't that this statement is "bad" or unuseful, but that the process of distilling the fluffy language surrounding many products (particularly those of the "natural" or "organic" variety) can be revealing. Often, what the claim leads us to conclude is far more interesting and enticing than what it is, literally, saying.
Of course, I'm not going to say I'm "beyond" the power of such statements; after all, it was me who purchased the bar in the first place! | posted by Cheryl, 2/14/2006 09:31:00 AM | 0 comments |
Doctors are to patients as Hospital Maintenance Staff are to...
Doctors!(is the answer to the above analogy)
This idea has occurred to me repeatedly while I've worked at the University of Washington Medical Center's Operations & Maintenance department: while the doctor's job is to "fix" the person, the Maintenance workers "fix" the physical body of the hospital (plumbing, heating/ventilation systems, lighting, carpentry, and other various utilities).
I wonder whether this analogy occurrs to the docs/nurses who call our department, expecting immediate answers and treatments...just as they must tell patients to wait for test results or for available appointments, we at Ops & Maintenance tell the nurses and docs to wait their turn for their maintenance work to be done!
I recognize the slight tone of panic and frustration due to a lack of control in the nurses who call us to request work to be done, and I am reminded of my own experiences with not knowing how to "fix" my own body as a patient. I believe it's even harder for people accustomed to the caregiving and "helping" role to wait around for someone else to help.
Back to the analogy: I never thought of buildings this way before working in the Ops & Maintenance Department of the hospital, but they really are like living beings themselves (heating and air ventilation systems being analagous to lungs, plumbing systems being analagous to the kidneys/urinary tract...or would they be the capillaries?), although I can't quite decide what part of the hospital would be the "brain" (perhaps the people working within it, to guide it's activities? or is the hospital really more like a cell, with the humans being the nuclei? or, nowadays, would computers be the nuclei? if a light bulb burns out, is it really an instance of "equiptment failure?" is there a God?)...
Before I lose myself in abstract-land (so much fun!), I'll end my sentiment here; i'm tempted to get on a soapbox and expound upon how vital maintenance workers are (despite their relative lack of respect compared to doctors), but I'll allow my aforementioned thoughts to lead readers to whatever conclusions they wish to draw (and, yes, i understand i'm being wildly optimistic by referring to those who might peek at my blog as "readerS" rather than "reader," the singular tense referring, of course, to my mom). | posted by Cheryl, 2/08/2006 11:51:00 PM | 0 comments |
Love is Easy, Relationships are Hard
This subject has come up repeatedly in my life recently, so here are my 5 cents:I love love! Love is so easy, because it simply arises. It occurs despite all potential negative traitsl; you love someone despite the fact that they snore, or that they are stubborn, or have bad breath in the morning...
Although through time it may becomes work to overlook the small things, in general I seldom question my love for close family members, friends, and relationship partners.
Romantic relationships, however...ay me! They are actively created by us imperfect folks, and have to do with so much more than love: timing, compatibility, communication styles, changes through time, and so much more...timing's been a biggie for me lately.
Love is so perfect, so transcendent, and so powerful that we often wish to will love into being strong enough to make a romantic relationship work. For many, of course it can! One may have an idea for the timeline of one's life (get married at age x, get job y at age z) and then completely change priorities once they meet their furture wife/husband due to the strength of that love (you'll notice i'm not even bothering to define platonic love versus romantic love, etc...it's just too late at night for me to do that!).
However, from my observations and personal experience, during one's mid-20s external life issues (timing, vocational questions, & existential angst, for example), which all feed into the creation of the relationship, can overwhelm the love to the point where love's simply not enough.
I don't know where I'm going with this; I suppose I observe confusion after break-ups which has to do with a confluence of the concepts of "love" and "relationships." When things don't work out in a relationship, people sometimes question the validity or strength of their love. However, especially at my stage in life (mid-20s) I often see it as reflecting a problem with the relationship. I suppose my main point is that separating the two can be useful! | posted by Cheryl, 2/06/2006 10:06:00 PM | 0 comments |
The Many Musical Moods of Me
Recently, my friendly coworker (Ryan) asked me to name my top 5 albums...of course, being me, I refused to give him a straight answer, arguing that musical preference was too contextual to lend itself to static preference lists.He retorted that my answer was a cop-out (blasphemy!), and after a brief discussion I agreed to do my best at ordering which music I liked the most at this particular point in my life...I still couldn't resist putting things into contextual categories at the bottom, but I was surprised at how easy it was to look across genre and mood and pick which I thought was the "best!"
Small side-note: 4 of my top 5 albums were given to me by good friends rather than being chosen by my own idea of what i'd like...I should learn from this for the future!
Favorite Albums
#1) "Texas Flood," Stevie Ray Vaugn with Double Trouble
#2) "Live in Australia with the Melbourne International Orchestra," Elton John
#3) "Automatic for the people," R.E.M.
#4) Gypsy Kings (not sure albums, friends just gave me mp3s from various)
#5) Parachute (Guster)
(runner up: Ray Soundtrack)
Favorite Songs
#1) "Texas Flood" Stevie Ray Vaugn (Texas Flood)
#2) "Nightswimming" REM, (Best in Time)
#3) "A Mi Manera"/"Caminando Por la Calle" Gypsy Kings
#4) "The Greatest Discovery" Elton John (Live in Australia)
#5) "Parachute," Guster (Parachute)
(runners up: "Ice Cream Man," Tom Waits, (Closing Time) and "Maryland," Vonda Sheppard)
Songs to fit my moods:
Happy songs to wake up to in the morning:
1) "ABC," Jackson 5
2) "Hallelujah, I just love her so" (Ray Charles)
3) "My Girl," The Temptations
4) "Walking on Broken Glass," Annie Lenox
5) "King of Wishful Thinking" ("Pretty Woman" soundtrack, group: Go West))
Good summer songs, or car songs
1) "Hound Dog," Elvis (and 97.3 KBSG oldies radio!)
2) "Bubble Toes" Jack Johnson, live version (original from 'Brushfire Fairytales')
3) "Cheek to Cheek" Eva Cassidy (Live at Blues Alley)
4) "She said Yes" Chad Brock (Yes!)
5) "Come on Over" Christina Aguilera (Christina)
When I'm in the zone, doing artistic stuff/writing
1) "Nightswimming" REM (Automatic for the People)
2) "Maryland" Vonda Sheppard (Travel the World With Putumayo)
3) "The Four Seasons," Antonio Vivaldi (performed by the Cambridge Chamber Orchestra)
4) "Apple tree," Erykah Badu
5) "Let's call the whole thing off," Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald (Best of " ")
Sad/extremely chilled out
1) "Georgia on my Mind"/"Hard Times" Ray Charles, live version (Ray Soundtrack)
2) "Parachute" Guster (Parachute)
3) "Split Screen Sadness," John Mayer (Heavier Things)
4) "Jolene," Ray LaMontagne (Trouble)
5) "F-stop Blues," Jack Johnson, "Brushfire Fairytales)
6) "Blue Avenue," Elton John (Sleeping with the Past)
7) "Landslide," Fleetwood Mac
Manic music, to pump me up on the way to go "out"
1) "Hey Ya"/"Rosa Parks" Outkast (Speakerboxxx, The Love Below)
2) "Travelllin' South," Albert Collins (Big Blues Extravaganza, The Best of Austin City Limits)
3) "Lovers of Light," Afro-Celt Sound System (Volume 2)
4) "Ants Marching," Dave Matthews Band (Under the Table and Dreaming)
5) "Estoy Aqui," Shakira | posted by Cheryl, 2/01/2006 04:28:00 PM | 0 comments |
