Loneliness finds her own way

So I woke up this morning just feeling lonely. It's been about seven months now that I've lived here in Sioux Falls. I've learned my way around fairly well and met a lot of people. I've had friends and family come to visit me. I've reconnected with some friends and am on the way to making a few new ones. That's all normal and good, and from years of living with and by myself I have learned that I may appear, at first, to be a bit aloof. The fact is that I am a bit shy, and it just takes time for me to feel at home in a new place.

All that said, I'm just damn lonely today.

There's a difference between solitude and loneliness. I often appreciate solitude. Loneliness is an unwanted burden. I do hope that does not end up my fate--to be alone. I guess most of us worry about that a bit. Here's hoping I don't end up alone...

The new new wave

Speaking as a graduate of the class of 1985, I have to say I'm wholeheartedly supportive of the trend toward the new new wave. It's nice to see new wave updated for the new millennium, but it's still new wave when it comes right down to it.

Bands like Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, the Killers, the Futureheads, the Features, and Dogs Die in Hot Cars, among others, are resonating with an increasing number of music buyers. That's especially refreshing after about five years of former Star Search winners, Britney clones, boy bands, and American idols. (Even Kelly Clarkson's new single sounds somewhat like it could have been a hit for the Cars back in about 1984.) Could the wasteland that is American pop music be heading toward an oasis?

And now I've learned of the U.K.'s Kaiser Chiefs. The song "I Predict a Riot" is wonderful--retro and current, simultaneously! Check it out at www.kaiserchiefs.co.uk/music.php. You'll be glad you did. Althought it hasn't been released in the U.S. yet, I'm hopeful...

Now let's just hope the this stage in the evolution of popular music doesn't give way to a resurgence of hair metal for the 00's... (I hope I didn't just jinx it.)

Calling for the stoning of SpongeBob

Long sigh...

Just when I thought we Americans couldn't get any less intelligent and/or holier than thou, we are told (and some are, I'm sure, buying this) by right-wing evangelical groups that SpongeBob SquarePants is now luring children to a life of depravity. According to a Reuter's News Agency report, the American Family Association and Focus on the Family, two conservative groups, singled out the popular yellow cartoon character in criticisms of a new video that promotes tolerance and diversity.

No matter that SpongeBob's creator has previously stated that he views SpongeBob and his buddies as asexual. No matter that the video includes other characters like Barney, Winnie the Pooh, Bob the Builder, the Rugrats, and characters from Sesame Street (Tinky Winky the allegedly gay purple Teletubbie is conspicuously absent). No matter that the video's producer, Nile Rodgers, says, "You have really got to look hard to find anything in this that is offensive to anyone. The last thing I am going to do is taint these characters."

The main problem, according to the conservative groups, is that there is a link to a pledge on the We Are Family Foundation (WAFF) website that refers to another organization promoting tolerance. That group, Tolerance.org, apparently is open minded enough (or immoral enough, depending on whose side you are on) to include sexual identity, along with race and religion, as one characteristic of people that we can all be a bit more accepting of.

The main problem, in my mind, is that the media even picked up this story. The WAFF didn't pursue the limelight, but the conservative groups sure seem to have relished the coverage and the opportunity to persecute their gay neighbors and judge others. These groups are also having an anti-tolerance field day capitalizing on the coincidental name similarity of the WAFF and WAF (WeAreFamily), an organization dedicated to supporting GLBT youth.

I'm wondering why they singled out SpongeBob. One report said it was because he and his friend Patrick, a starfish, sometimes hold hands and skip. Well, geez, if that doesn't corfirm SpongeBob's flaming homosexuality, what would?!?! It doesn't help his case that he's not married and lives in a flamboyant but tidy pineapple under the sea.

While we're at it, I always thought it odd that Bert and Ernie, two single "best friends" from Sesame Street (neither of whom I've ever seen on a date with a woman) live together. Something immoral must be going on there. And what about Dr. Benton Quest and his "bodygard" Race Bannon. Not only are they suspiciously close friends, but there's no mother figure in the Quest household for poor Johnny to be nurtured by.

Sigh. Sigh. Sigh.

I guess we should probably go back to stoning homosexuals and bring back slavery, since those are acceptable social practices in the Old Testament. Maybe I'll go to hell for saying this, but I just don't think God wants us to treat anybody that way... As Rodney King said, why can't we all just get along?

Visit the We Are Family Foundation and Tolerance.org to draw your own conclusions.

A good day, a sad song

Today was a great day at work--super busy, but very worthwhile for some reason. I just had a very positive attitude and vibe going all day. I didn't accomplish anything special above and beyond the norm. I guess I got a few ads and commercials lined up and finalized, which carries a certain amount of closure. But mainly I simply had this very enjoyably zen-like day living and appreciating things for what they were from moment to moment.

All the stranger, then, to cosider these lyrics from the song "Cheap Parades" by Holly Williams. I've really grown to like this song, and on the way home the lyrics just struck me as really beautiful:

I love you with more tears than any pain could ever bring me
I fight it most everyday
I hurt you with more truth than your own eyes could ever teach you
I'm tired of living this way, when I know it's wrong

I don't really know why they resonated so strongly, but they did. Weird.

Church and state: gotta keep 'em separated

Last Thursday I caught ABC's Nightline, which discussed the new push by an incresing number of public schools toward teaching "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution. The story focused on one example, the Dover Area School Board in Pennsylvania, which has voted to require the teaching of intelligent design along with the "theory" of evolution. In its purist form, intelligent design holds that life is far too complex to have developed accidentally without the guiding hand of an intelligence or a creator.

I guess if I were pushed, I'd probably say that I'd agree that God, an ultimate Intelligence, probably designed the universe in all its complexity. But that doesn't mean that I don't believe in evolution--or that this Intelligence has guided the development and evolution of human beings over millions of years. Why do they have to be mutually exclusive?

What became quite evident as I watched the interviews and coverage of schoold board meetings was that these proponents of intelligent design in Dover were simply viewing this as a foot-in-the-door opportunity to promote full-blown creationism in its most biblically-literal sense. When pressed, many of the board members couldn't convey the concept in their own words other than it meant that God was directly involved in creating the world.

A friend of mine recently mentioned that he had some home schooled high school students taking one of his college biology courses. When he discussed evolution, they bristled quite visibly. The next day their mom was on the phone to question the appropriateness of teaching evloution as anything more than a theory. Her boys, apparently, were in danger of questioning their home schooled beliefs that God created the earth and everything on it in seven days.

I'll weigh in here since this is an excellent (but not the only) argument for the need for separation of church and state. There is substantially strong evidence to support the theory of evolution. Those who take the Bible literally deny this, pointing out that the evidence in the fossil record, carbon dating techniques, traceable commonalities in anatomy and DNA similarities between various species are, simply put, trickery produced by Satan to lead us all astray. In their view the Earth is only about 6000 years old and dinosaurs never existed or were all killed by Noah's flood. It's these delusions and their strong faith that protect their literal interpretaion of the Bible.

Why, oh why, can't all this hard earned scientific evidence be maintained and a simple thought like this suffice: time works differently for the Creator, who over millennia, has guided the development of the Earth to a point where it could sustain life and, eventually, produce a thinking, reasoning human race. Is that such a threat to their faith? There is, apparently, no tolerance for anything that would question that literal translation.

I like the idea that public schools teach evolution and diversity of thought, even though it is always endangered. If you don't like what is universally taught in the public schools, please don't try to ban it or rewrite it or discredit it. There is a thing such as freedom of religion, and there are more than enough Sunday schools to add whatever dogma is required. Then, there's always the homeschool option.

I guess I don't come across as a very good Christian, or maybe I come across as a weak-faithed secularist. But geez, let's teach opening the mind and critical thinking rather than closing the mind and blinding, unquestioning faith. God must have had a purpose for the questioning mind. And while I can't claim that I know what Jesus was thinking, what I take from His message is a gentle and loving tolerance and a move to understanding and helping each other. This rather than judging and controlling others by censorship and manipulation in His name.

And they will wallow in their own ignorance...

It takes intelligence to appreciate satire, and I think that's why so many average citizens living in Bush-lite America have trouble with it. Okay, so I'm stereotyping people in Mississippi. (And, basically, all the red states--and I can get away with it, maybe, because I live in a red state. Let me say, however, that I don't subscribe to most of the values red-staters hold dear.)

It had to happen. Jon Stewart's best-selling satirical book, "America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction," was banned by the Jackson-George Regional Library System in Gulfport, Mississippi. Then, a couple days later it was reinstated, much to the chagrin of a many board members, one of whom, David Ogborn, stated, "Our libraries are not a trash bin for pornographic materials."

Why was the book banned? Admittedly, it was not because of the sartirical, sarcastic content, which Jon Stewart himself called "much worse" than the actual reason: the fake naked photos of the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

First, I own the book, and I certainly wasn't aroused by these pictures of shrivelly and saggy bodies. I know I don't represent the typical American viewpoint, but I would hazard a guess that a vast majority of those who have seen the photos are far more repulsed than attracted... A naked body does not constitute pornography!

Second, WalMart, bastion of Christian morality that it is, has apparently also declined to carry the book. Before casting a stone at Stewart, let's try paying a truly decent wage and benefits to our associates, not undercutting mom & pop stores, and not taking advantage of overseas near sweatshop-like labor conditions all for the sake of the new god: profitabiltiy!

So what about that whole satire thing I started with... Unfortunately so many Bush-lite and neocon types don't have enough intelligence or enough of a sense of humor to appreciate the true snarkiness of the book. They take it quite literally, like all their favorite books (i.e. the Bible). Apparently satire is evil because it begins with the letters s-a-t.

Come on America, keep your minds and your libraries open to all viewpoints, ESPECIALLY those that run against the grain of "majority" opinion. Only by exposing ourselves to such ideas and thoughts can we really deal with each person's uniqueness. Remember, the best democratic decisions are usually made after consideration of the varied viewpoints. Besides, having a book on a shelf or a show on TV does't mean you HAVE to chose to read or watch it. But others might want to. Apparently one man's pornography is another man's satire...

Presweetened cereal-induced pop culture nirvana

I remember back when I was a kid in the early 1970s there was one day of the week that I highly anticipated: Cartoonday (read Saturday). I'd get up well before 6 a.m. and watch some snow and then the test pattern and then the National Anthem and then a morning filled with NBC cartoons. I wish I felt that level of anticipation today. Now I look forward to sleeping in 'til 8 a.m. or so on Saturdays.

There was one particular Cartoonday each year, usually in September, that I'd get up extra early to catch the debut of all the new cartoons. I wouldn't want to miss any of it, even if it was an oftentime lame live action show ("Land of the Lost" was a major positive exception in this genre). Occasionally during a commercial break or slow spot, I'd turn the channel dial to try to catch another network's offerings. If I was lucky I could catch a snowy picture with intermittant sound from ABC or CBS.

Breakfast was a bowl of Cap'n Crunch, Trix, or Lucky Charms, eaten conveniently and somewhat defiantly on the livingroom floor directly in front of the TV. (I already said I didn't want to miss a single minute). I clearly remember moments of presweetened cereal-induced blissful pop culture nirvana in front of that TV.

These days, I occasionally find strains of those feelings of rapturous anticipation while awaiting a new CD release by a favorite group or coming across something really cool on the Internet. These moments are fleeting, however, and cannot compare to those nostalgia-laced sugar-coated memories of Saturday mornings past. Sigh.

Es schneit und mir friert

It's interesting what sticks in my mind sometimes. Es schneit und mir friert (German: it snows and I freeze) comes from a passage I had to memorize in ninth grade German class. It snowed here in Sioux Falls Tuesday night and into Wednesday. First real snow of the winter and it measured about six inches. Cold? Well, relatively. It's been in the single digits and sometimes slightly below.

My friend Pam in Crookston sent an e-mail with a photo of the bank's time and temperature sign. Its unsympathetic, logical computer sensors indicated -35 (I understand it was -60 with wind chill). Ah, I really DON'T miss northwest Minnesota, although I often miss some of the people there. I might actually be able to deal with only three months of winter here rather than six months in Crookston! Whoo-hoo!

Anyway, the snow is rather an inconvenience. It's pretty, but very bad for traffic here, and I end up having to shovel the driveway. The first snow always forces us to renegotiate our driving skills too. Maybe I should consider snow tires or a four-wheel drive vehicle. Then again, my little S-10 usually does all right. A $10 investment in sandbags for the bed above the wheel wells would probably do wonders.

This is rambling, so I'll end with a little haiku I just came up with:

Snow swirls above us

Lit like stars by nearby lights

I dream of fireflies.

Hello 2005 (and welcome!)

So I woke up on January 1, 2005, and found myself in Solon, Iowa, of all places! I guess it really wasn't surprising, since I had driven down to visit my friends Chris and Heidi Patterson and their kids. It was a 390-mile, five-and-a-half-hour-drive, but it was worth it to see them all and spend some time ringing in the new year with them. Just two weeks ago they moved into their new home, which features a great family room, now complete with a very nice bar. We welcomed in 2005 with a few drinks, we talked, and we ate some great food.

Some of my favorite moments included watching the move "Garden State" with Chris and Heidi. They had never seen it, and I'm a big fan who is trying to spread the word about this nice, quirky film. I also enjoyed playing shot checkers with Chris (and winning!) and watching the extended version of "Return of the King." They are good friends and I miss them, but we just sort of pick up where we left off whenever we get together. I consider them more like family, actually. They say you should spend time with good friends on New Year's Eve, and I felt very good about the whole weekend.

It rained on New Year's Day! Then on Sunday, it was in the low 40s and sunny. It was so nice we could walk outside without jackets . What an interesting winter we're having. Driving back, the interstate got a little icy near Albert Lea, but was fine by the time I got closer to Sioux Falls. Now I'm back home and digging into work, which is also good. I look forward to the year ahead and the many possibilities.