Two years ago I was an unemployed teacher. I was eating A LOT. Not just a lot, but A LOT. I kind of lost track of days and such, but I'm pretty sure I was eating a box (note: not a small plastic package) of those Little Debbie's a day for about a week or two...oh, and the pizza...and the chips. I easily gained 25 pounds, which I've been whittling away little by little for about a year and half.
At the time I was really pissed at myself for everything. I was blaming myself for everything. All I wanted was the fairytale.
You know, the perfect job, the perfect boy, the perfect hair, the perfect life.
Guess what I learned?
THE FUCKING FAIRYTALES AS WE KNOW THEM DON'T EXIST.
Although most of my progress through years of depression (I admit that it's been going on for years, I've been cutting myself and scratching myself since I was little) was gained though counseling not all of it was explicitly a result. I would like to point out that I at one time I thought all those people who analyzed the stuff in your head were full of bologna. They're not. They can actually help.
However, the very interesting part of my story is just beginning. See, I
While we were reading poems by Anne Sexton I chose to analyze "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Yeah...I had to do reasearch because the poem emphasized the gory side of Grimm's Fairytales. How the woman was denigrated for being how she was, poor, yet beautiful. I soon realized just how bad our culture is at glossing over what they don't want to see.
I see all of these headlines about Darfur or about some celebrity adopting a baby from a foreign land and all I can think of is, "WHY AREN'T YOU LOOKING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU?"
First, let me say I think that what's going on in Darfur is horrible. I want it stopped. I'm glad some attention had been brought to it, don't get me wrong.
However, what about little Jimmy down the street from me who only ate a cheese sandwich tonight because Mom and Dad are having a hard time paying for rent and utilities even when they both work? Or, how about those teenagers who were killed the other night just because they live in a run down neighborhood and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Why aren't celebrities adopting some the meth-adict babies? Or, helping more innercity kids.
Oh, and the big one. Why aren't there more RESPONSIBLE role models?
I'm tired of turning on the television and seeing sex-crazed teenagers. When I was 12 I was watching Saved by the Bell, not Sex and the City. Teenagers who were getting in trouble, but were some-what cute in that preppy way vs. sex crazed women who sleep with every man they can sink their meat hooks into.
Jeff and I watched The Breakfast Club the other day. He had never seen it before. I on the other hand LOVE IT.
Why?
Sure, they smoked a little dope and were crushing on each other, but not once did they go "American Pie." OMG! NO! SEX! IN! A! MOVIE!? How did people ever get along without SEX! IN! A! MOVIE!?
!? That is called and interrobang, by the way. I figure if you're reading this far into my entry, you should learn something constructive.
Anyway, it was nice to see teenagers who were being teenagers. They were worried about appearances and images, but they didn't go off and have sex just because they thought they saw a sparkle in one another's eye.
Our culture is so good at seeing what they only want to see. They want what they want when they want regardless of how it affects others.
Then, they want glory when it comes to 'fixing' people or ideas, because this generation is just blowing everything to hell in a handbasket.
Maybe if culture took a good look at itself we would realize we're only hurting us.
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