Speaking out

The US is one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world.  We are the host of the UN and are a pivotal part of the world economy.  We are a God fearing nation and as such should be practicing the creed of the Christian majority—do unto others as you would have done unto you.  We are not doing this.  I am dismayed by the attitudes of some toward gay folks in this country.  This morning I read an article on CNN {http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/28/arkansas.anti.gay.bullying/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn} about an Arkansas school board member that wrote an extremely derogatory message on Facebook.  I am torn about this post and this man’s right to express himself.  Though I strongly believe in a person’s right to express themselves in any forum, if you are in a public elected position—especially where there are children and young people involved—we need to hold them to a higher standard.  Once again, I firmly defend his right to say what he wants—but not as an educator or policy maker.  We all know how the public reacts when other elected officials—Senators or Representatives—have made derogatory statements.  They are held to a position of authority and should be held to that higher standard of conduct.  They were elected to represent all of their constituents regardless of who they are and as such, they should not be making any kind of derogatory remarks.  I believe that if you are an elected official, you should not be speaking in a public forum in such a negative fashion.  If you believe that strongly about the issue, you should not be in that type of position and accordingly, should step down.  Again, I defend the right to speak about anything, anywhere.  The fact that this particular comment came from a simple request by GLAAD to remember those who have committed suicide for anti-gay bullying—in a public forum, makes it even more despicable.  The message was insensitive, inflammatory, and downright crude.  “The only way I will wear a purple shirt is if they {gays} all commit suicide” is not the type of message we should be getting from an educator or policy maker.  We as Americans should be teaching our children tolerance and acceptance.  Instead we have groups of ultra-conservative christian (with a small c) individuals spreading messages of hatred and intolerance, dividing the nation.  We need to step up as a country and do what we have done throughout the entire history of our country and right this wrong.

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again to all of you thanks for reading me and stay tuned for more interesting articles.

Christopher

Crazy Kids or Am I Too Old?

Is it just me or have the kid’s gone crazy?  I look at some of the things my kids and my nephews are doing and try to think back to when I was their ages.  Were we really that bad?  I would say comparatively speaking we were not.  Things were different back then though.  Discipline was a mandatory thing, paddling’s happened at school (hope mom and dad don’t find out), and we had a certain behavioral expectation.  The majority of the time we did not do something we thought we might want to because of what our parents might do to us if we got caught.  We did not have Xbox, PS2, PS3, GB, GBDS, or any of the rest of the alphabet soup to take away and TV was only 3 channels—when we got to watch something besides the news it was a special thing.  So what did they have to work with?  Yup you guessed it…we got spankings, stood in the corner, sent to our rooms (which was a terrible place back then—all we did was sleep in there!!), or were assigned extra chores.  There weren’t any of this “time out” or bad marks…we were the ones that got the bad marks on our butts.  Was that a bad thing?  In retrospect I think not.  We had manners.  I would never have dreamed of cussing out a teacher, or yelling at my mom in the grocery…it just was not done.  The consequences were far too great.  We might lose our precious Saturday morning cartoons or have to stay in our room (you know-the dungeon) all weekend with nothing to do-not even a book!  The other thing we had over them is that we were creative and we were without all those computer games, and game systems, and other nifty electronics we can’t live without today.  We actually had to think of things to do.  One of our favorite things to do when I was a kid (we had a dirt backyard-no grass to cut) we would create mazes in the dirt, complete with safe spots and dead ends or we would build our fantasy houses complete with 2 car garage and swimming pool—and we had books!  Oh my god the places I went as a kid, and without ever leaving my yard.  Kids today have no imagination or creativity short of finding more intricate ways to cut themselves to deal with how bad their life sucks.  That isn’t to say that it was all good for us either, just not as bad as it is today.  Kids today think they have it bad…I have news for them.  They have it way better than we did and yet somehow, we ended up better off for it.

Sleep Cycle

There are some times when I lay down to go to sleep because I am just beat only to lay there and stare at the ceiling for an hour, sometimes more.  I wonder sometimes if it is because my body is just too tired to sleep or if it is because my brain won’t shut up.  There are many times that I get my best story or poetry ideas at that time of the night.  Often I am too tired (or lazy) to climb out of the bed to write it down.  I wonder how many potential best-sellers I have dreamed away.  There are sometimes that the story idea gets so embedded into my conscious that I can’t help but remember it in the morning and when it does, I usually come up with a brilliant poem or interesting story—but alas the majority of the time it is not the case.   I am finding that this is becoming more the norm for me, the more the years pass.  I am not ancient (well I guess according to some people I may seem that way) by any stretch, though the more I age the more I am reminded of that time not too long ago when my own parents went through the same thing.  The good news is that I know eventually I will get to the point where I won’t have any trouble sleeping—anytime, whether it is bed time or not.  I listen to my mom talk sometimes about how tired she is and I have no doubt that she is as tired as she says.  So that is what we all have to look forward to—sitting in front of the TV letting it watch us sleep while we pass into the ether just at the pivotal moment in the show.  Hehe, growing old sucks—but it beats the alternative.

Cross-generational Rift

You know, every now and again I question where I am in my life.  I am nearly…wait…not going there  lol…let’s try it this way, at my age I should be firmly established in a career and working toward saving for my retirement.  The dynamic has changed unfortunately though, and in today’s world we are finding more and more (older) people going back to school to either get new skill which are critical to compete in today’s workforce or because of this blasted recession..nay! depression, causing them to find work in other fields as their’s has become obsolete or was outsourced.   Finding a job has become a job in itself as we can no longer go to a business, ask for an application, and interview at the same time.  Technology has made that process obsolete.  Instead we have become a stack of virtual résumés without faces, only qualifications.  No longer can we sit face to face with a person after filling out an application and schmooze them into giving us a chance.  If we don’t fit into just exactly the parameters of what they are looking for-virtual file 13 for you!  I don’t know how this world is going to recover from this mess or even if we can.  One thing I do know for sure though is that without some sort of education or skill that makes a résumé reader go “ WOW! I want this person”, we are doomed.  I guess where I am going with this is, one need not be discouraged if you are 40 something and have no direction.  There are a ton of us in that bracket who are having to do double duty to get into the tech of the 21^st century as well as try to provide for some sort of future for ourselves.  When I was in high school, we had one computer on the whole campus—remember they were thousands of dollars back then—and it was a DOS machine, TRS80.  In college—the first time—we had a lab of them:  all P1 running DOS as well with 5.25” floppies as our save medium because the hard disks were barely big enough to hold DOS.  Yeah it really was like that.  The point is that because of our lot in life and simple timing, we are caught in a cross-generational rift.  We can get into tech and become successful, but it is going to take much more hard work than the 20 something’s that were born with Microsoft in their teething rings.  Please know that  I am not complaining, I am just blogging here.  I suppose where I had wanted to go with this wasn’t where I needed to go…instead this is what developed. 

my opinion of what art is

An artist is one who can take an idea or an emotion and make it real by creating a picture of it.  This picture does not have to be in chalk, oil, watercolor, wood, canvas, words,  or any other medium.  It can be any of those and more.  The ability to take that concept and make something out of it that will carry on throughout the ages, is to me the epitome of artistry.  Think back to the last time you saw a photo, or poem, or painting that stirred in you such emotion that it made you cry.  Then try to think of that moment in your life when you last experienced that emotion.  That is what art is...when I write poetry, I try to think of how I would describe the color blue to a blind man...and then I write it.  If you can associate other senses to describe something that is completely intangible and untouchable then you have succeeded in creating art.  Wait you say?  Aren't paintings tangible?  Why yes they are, but the emotion or feeling you get from looking at it is not.  I could say the same thing about music or poetry...they too are tangible but the emotions or feelings one gets from reading them or listening to them are not tangible...you cannot touch happiness or sadness or loneliness....those are feelings that we have all endured at one time or another in our lives so we know what they are and what they feel like...yet each time an artist creates art, we stroke those emotions as surely as if we had physically touched you.  I am not going to say that all art is good art, but anything created from the heart should be respected as a work of art.  I urge each and every person to read this blog, to go out and create art...take a color and describe it as if you were teaching a blind man what that color is....capture an emotion in a photo....write a poem...write a story...paint a picture....draw an emotion...do something artistic in your life and you will reap the rewards of having touched a soul.

The King who was Afraid

There was once a King, who was afraid of his subjects.  Not because he was not loved and revered by them, but because he was afraid of people.  In fact this king was so afraid of people that he had all the staff in the castle wear costumes to disguise them as non-people things so he would not show his fear.  He also had all the mirrors in the castle removed so as to not fear his own image.  Well one day he was in his study doing the things kings do when a wizard appeared—disguised per royal decree—in front of the king.  This wizard—dressed as a candelabrum—asked the king if he could help him with his affliction.  The king was so enraged that a mere candelabrum would suggest that he had any affliction, that he flung the wizard out the door.  The wizard who was not to be dissuaded so easily, again appeared in front of the king, but this time as himself, undisguised.  The king, who saw the wizard appear again, cringed in the corner in holy terror.  After a few minutes the wizard again magically enchanted himself into a candelabrum and again asked the king if he would allow him to help him get past his affliction.  The king picked himself off the floor and went to the corner and began a story of how he became the person he was.  It seems that when the king was a child, he was never allowed to see or be exposed to any person because of his status as next in line to the throne.  As such, he never saw anything in his life but inanimate objects and animals.  These animals were all people, it turns out, that had been enchanted to appear as talking animals.  These people were the most trusted in the land and were born to serve the king until their death.  They were enchanted at birth and even they had no idea that they were people.  Then one day, the old king died and the new king was elevated.  The restriction of not being exposed to people was lifted by the death. The new king explained how he fell into a panic when he saw the people as he had never seen a human person before.  He locked himself in his chamber and called for his personal servant who dutifully appeared in the chamber.  At once the king fell to the floor cringing at the monstrosity—in his eyes—that was in front of him.  The servant at once left the chamber and went to find the royal enchanter who again returned all the staff to their original enchanted selves.  Such was the discomfort of the king with humanity that it was soon decreed that all subjects in his land were to appear as either an object or an animal in the presence of the king.  After finishing the story the king stood with his back to the candelabrum wizard for many minutes and again began to speak.  This time he turned to the wizard and told him that if he could vanquish this demon from his life that he would become a royal vizier and could have half the gold in the treasury.  The wizard told the king that he had no interest in a title or gold, but that the people of his land needed a king that showed no fear.  He said that it would be his honor and privilege to serve his majesty in that capacity.  Without a warning, the wizard poofed out of existence.  The king turned to notice that the wizard had gone and resigned himself to the possibility that having exposed himself to the wizard, his reign would be coming to an end shortly.  Many days passed and the memory of the conversation with the wizard passed into the distance.   On the morning of change, as it would come to be called, the wizard again appeared to the king in the guise of a candelabrum.   The wizard told majesty that he had come up with a solution that would make the life of the king normal in the aspect of seeing people.  The king nodded at the wizard and told him to do what he came to do and turned his back to the wizard fully expecting to be killed.  What came after was nothing short of miraculous.  The wizard started chanting in ancient tongues a spell that took many days to create that forced the king to turn and face him.  The king offered no resistance to this as he had come to terms with his demise.  Once facing the wizard the wizards began to change slowly from a candelabrum to an ape.  The ape was curiously wearing clothing that included a pocket watch.  The wizard now turned ape, pulled the watch out of the pocket and began moving the watch like the pendulum of a clock and continued with the chanting.  Soon the king had fallen into the distant chanting voice.   Once the king was completely under the spell of the wizard, the wizard began to speak in words that the king understood.  The wizard told the king that he would no longer fear that which had plagued him.  From that day forth, the king would no longer harbor that irrational fear.  After completing the spell and indoctrination, the wizard told the king to go to bed and sleep.  He told him that by the crowing of the cock in the morning sun, he would wake up and no longer be afraid.  The king repeated the instructions and complied with the order.  The king dreamed of his childhood and instead of seeing the animals and objects, he saw people—and was not afraid.  He lived his entire youth all over again in his dream.  In the morning as promised the rooster crowed the morning sun and the king awoke.  Not remembering why he had been so tired, he called for his servant.  When the servant appeared as the animal he had been accustomed to being, the king told him to remove that silly costume.  The servant left the chamber of the king afraid that the king had slipped his mind at last.  He had gone to the enchanter and told him of the king’s instruction telling him to become human again.  The enchanter complied and the servant went to the royal kitchen to fetch the king his breakfast.  As he entered the chamber of the king he quaked.  Afraid of what the king might say to him for not being in his illusion.   The servant announced his presence to the king and waited.  The king emerged from the royal bath and saw the servant standing there.  Upon seeing the servant standing there, he waved toward the table in the corner and told the servant to prepare two plates, thus informing him that he was to dine with the king.  It was never spoken of again in the land.  The knowledge that the king was ever afraid of people fell into myth.  The wizard was called to the chamber of the king.  The wizard did not go.  Despite the fact that he never asked for anything in return he was made vizier to the king and half of the wealth of the king and the southern castle were given him in payment.  The king never saw or heard from the wizard ever again.  The kingdom was prosperous and the king was loved for a hundred years.  Every now and again the king would wonder whatever happened to the wizard.  The king had visited the southern castle many times in his years as king, but never saw the wizard.  One day toward the end of his life, the king got a letter from a woman.  The letter was from the wife of the wizard.  The wizard, it was written, loved the king with all of his heart and soul.  The letter had told the king about the death of the wizard.  The widow told the king that her husband had so loved the king and kingdom that he made a sacrifice for him and it.  The wizard had lived all of these years as a hermit that feared people. 

Christopher Anderson

My Personal Spider

The title of this essay is a metaphor for those things that we are all irrationally in fear of.   Many people are irrationally afraid of spiders, so thus, the title.  Delving into the mental processes of people, one will find a myriad of fears from spiders to people.  My personal spiders are just as elusive as those pesky eight legged things.  I have a tendency to face my fears head on and overcome them so that they lose their power over me.  Now that being said, the one thing I can think of off the top of my head, that I cannot seem to overcome, is the fear of success.  I don’t mean making a ton of money or becoming a whiz at something:  I mean, who doesn’t want those things?  So, what I do mean is that I am afraid of becoming known.  I am a writer and am currently in process on 3 different books-one of which is a multi-volume series and another is a volume of poetry.  There are famous writers in my family and as such the success I am seeking I want to be my own, not as the relative of so-and-so.  That is my fear.  I know it is an irrational fear as there are no guarantees that I will ever become successful at writing (on my own or anyone else’s merit), nevermind famous.    Despite the fear, I do continue to write and create, though I am reluctant to seek publishing.  In my heart I know I want it, but on the other hand I am scared to death that I will succeed at some point.  What causes this fear?  Why would I not run into the fire of fame and infamy?  I mean, I am certain that I am not afraid of failure—I have a ton of experience in that arena.   Perhaps I am afraid of notoriety of possibly changing the person I am.  We all know that person that went on to make themselves famous and that person changed on a fundamental level.  Not that they became a bad person, but that the notoriety necessitated distancing them from the mainstream.  Along with notoriety comes the negative aspect of stalkers or people that are so jealous of a person’s success that they have no option than to hurt them.   An example of that kind of problem is most notably remembered and mourned in the Selena murder.  Not that I ever expect that kind of fame, but who knows what exists in the future.   If there is just one thing I want anyone to take from this essay, it’s that one cannot let their personal spider stand in the way of one’s happiness.  I am trying to kill my personal spider by exposing my work to the world and sharing my vulnerability with it.   So arm yourself with all the courage you can muster and charge into it.  If you never try to confront your fears, you will never overcome them.

Christopher Rei