Letting My Freak Flag Fly

I decided to celebrate National LGBT Pride month by watching The Last Song, a fair to slightly above average coming-of-age film starring Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear & Liam Hemsworth.  Consider this your alert of spoils. 

A couple of things took me out of the movie experience

• The movie is based on a Nicholas Sparks book.  So as I'm watching it, all I can think about is, when's cancer coming.  I know someone's gotta have it.  I swear, Sparks writes his books like a mad lib & just enters in setting & characters, as opposed to nouns, adverbs & similes.  
• No female is playing hard to get with Liam Hemsworth.  I'm sorry, Hemsworth has drawls droppin' everywhere he goes, just a fact. 
• Every time someone said Miley's characters name, Ronnie, instantly I heard Rihanna busting out a, 'shy Ronnie...' and I lost focus. 

A couple of revelations

• Greg Kinnear is a crazy good actor!  I can't think of one bad performance he's ever had.  
• Miley Cyrus, not so much.  Anything slightly serious or emotionally stretching reveal her glaring growth areas. 
• I need the beach soon.  Even just watching the beach scenes had a soothing effect on my soul.  
• Hemsworth is going to kill as Gale.  I really need to start tempering my expectations for the Hunger Games movie.
• Girls like interacting with animals.  Why?  I really am curious.  I fear that I may need to relent on my aggressive stance of animals needing to be in the wild in order to interact with girls.  
• Tangentially related, I Love You, Phillip Morris is not about tobacco.
• Also just as timely, I've recently watched the SNL that Elton John hosted.  If I was gay, I'd be extremely offended by that episode.  It was basically an hour and a half of 'hey, I'm gay' followed by overly aggressive sexual innuendos & overt stereotypes.  It would be comparable to Ken Jeong hosting & the whole show being about math, chopsticks & bad driving.  You couldn't have one sketch were Elton wasn't just 'the gay guy'.  C'mon man!  Its not creative & you're better than that. 
• The need for human connection is immense.  
• To my knowledge, I've never had someone tell me a big lie.  I don't know how I'd react upon discovering the truth.  What's the ratio of built-up trust versus size of the deception.  In my closest experiences, I lean towards understanding & wanting to move forward.  Maybe a defense mechanism, I don't know.  I'll hop on the couch another day for that one. 

If you haven't yet, watch the movie & let me know what you think.  

Apathy Is Assent

Apathy is assent!  If you don't care and keep silent then you are agreeing with any outcome.  The current injustice that I aim to speak out on is the renewing of the patriot act, which was signed via Presidents Obama's robot last Thursday.  Rep. Ron Paul of Texas has cried out against this way better than I could, so please enjoy this video.  Do not be deterred by his creepiness in appearance or his place of origin but just close your eyes & hear his words.  



  
Thinking about the patriot act sends me into a whirlwind of emotions.  First I am just angry.  Angry that we let people lord over us with fear.  Angry that we let people shove a false sense of national security down our throats.  Angry that we come out in droves to vote for American Idol, but can't really find time in our busy schedules to protest in any form.  Then I adjust the periscope a little wider and start to think about Palestine.  Or Libya.  Or Yemen.  Or Pakistan.  Or Bahrain.  Or Somalia.  Or Uganda.  Our problems seem to pale in comparison.  I didn't grow up with bombs going off.  No one in my family has been raped by someone in a uniform.  No one has set up concrete barriers between me & Fry's.  Then I just feel sad.  Sad for us, sad for the world.  It all just feels hopeless... But it is not hopeless! After some delay, I finally come to my base emotion of serene trust.  I remember that God is sovereign.  No entity can outsmart or out-evil God's plan to bring maximum glory to himself & complete good to his children.  God's been running the world for a long, long time; He's got this!  Unlike the faux-picture of the cross above, God did not tell us to f off or to figure out the problems of the world ourselves.  He did go on that cross & carry the weight of the world's evil.  He did rise on the third day, defeating satan, sin, suffering & death.  And He is coming back, where He will finally and completely restore all things & drive away all injustice.  In light of these great truths, I do not think we are called to sit back on our laurels.  These truths do not give us license to laziness & apathy.  I do not know necessarily what to do, but I do know this; WE MUST CARE!!

PS For a snarky take on the pledge of allegiance, click here.