1. Twilight
2. Politics
3. Life in General
4. Some DUMB ideas people have about parenting.
1. One of the most controversial topics in today's world, and one of the most loaded words in the human language as of now. Twilight. It makes me sad to see the same enthusiasm for Twilight as for Harry Potter, but with three times the negative feedback. Twilight is a book. It really doesn't matter if the Vampires sparkle, and aren't conventional. It isn't even a very big part of the book. The biggest reason for this dispute seems to be the idea that they are "out of the norm", and that they "aren't real vampires". I find this second statement to be rather ironic, since vampires are fictional creatures, and therefore cannot be 'real', or 'not real'. I do understand the relative terminology, but the basic fact is, it's all fiction, so it can be whatever you want it to be. Twilight haters have really hit a nerve with me, not because I am an adamant Twilight fan, but because of their general outlook. Every person that I have spoken with that dislikes Twilight has had one of around three reasons. 1. They sparkle. I addressed that already, with the idea that it is fiction, and therefore anything and everything is possible. 2. Edward is unrealistic, and Bella is too. In all actuality, Bella isn't all that unrealistic, and neither is Edward. There have been plenty of people in my life that I could relate quite well to these two, and I find it unfair that people are so mean to people that don't even exist in reality to defend themselves. and 3. Twilight is dumb because ______________*insert the other reasons here involving grammar and/or general whining about how Sister Meyer "Can't write". This is the one that gets me the most. Sister Stephanie Meyer has written a series of books that came from her own mind. She worked hard on them, and is now very successful because of it. They are generally found either in the Twilight specific section of the bookstore, in the popular fiction section along with a slough of other vampire novels, or where they originally resided, in the young adult fiction section. People that critique Sister Meyers on her work in a literary sense are rather rude. You wouldn't look at a Dr. Seuss book and say "well this isn't written well, why, it doesn't even have real words in some spots", but this same idea is being applied to her books. The books are meant to be for an audience of teenagers, and anyone else that wants to read them, but they are written so that they are easy to read. Just the same as the first Harry Potter book didn't challenge me past what I could read, I found Twilight an easy read. Now, I'm not an avid fan, as I said before, but there is nothing wrong with these books that you couldn't find wrong in just about any publication. There will always be typos, and sentences that don't make sense to someone, but when it really comes down to it, it's just a book. You can choose to read it, or not to, and that's really all that you can do. If you don't like it, then well, so what? If you did, good for you. There is nothing else that need be said about it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it isn't always something that you should share. Opinions can make and break relationships, and while it is a good thing to share how you feel, be sensitive to how other people may react. Social graces are few and far between, but they are still important.
2. The President (and the Government). I don't care who you are, if you're in America, you've been involved somehow with politics. This is where I stand. America has lost sight of what politics are really about. The vast majority of Americans are so obsessed with party lines that they have decided that it is better to stick with parties then to vote having read up on the issues. Lines are drawn where they shouldn't need to be drawn, and people are just not knowing what they think they know. I guess the thing I have with politics is that people just go with the flow, and don't actually vote according to their own beliefs. Our government is something that is supposed to take care of us, but all I seem to see is people needlessly complaining about it. My thoughts on this? Suck it up or do something about it. Anyone has the power to become active in their community as a leader in a political sense. All it takes is effort. This, however, is where most of the population falls short *myself included a lot of the time*. We just have so much else going on in our lives that there isn't anything that we think that we can do to possibly better ourselves or those around us. We need to be better people together to form a more perfect union, because goodness knows that there is nothing less perfect then anyone's view of the government right now. Be active in your community, and do something to help. That's what I think we need to do.
3. Life in General.
Okay, so this one may be a little more angry then others, but it's how I feel, and I feel that I need to share it.
We are here for a reason. I don't believe that the universe just sprang into life one moment, and started growing legs from there. I believe in a higher power, that he is called God, and that he cares for us. I believe that he created us, and this Earth, and that we're massively screwing it up. But, the thing is, we can totally fix it!!!! Each of us, as I've mentioned, has untapped potential. Doctors and science will tell you exactly what you want to hear if you don't want to do something, and they'll prescribe you with enough pills to make you think that your life is wonderful for a while, but the truth is, you have to do something for yourself. I'm tired of excuses. I'm tired of letting myself think that I'm not good enough, and I am tired of the people around me doing the same thing, or worse. As a man thinketh, so is he. This is possibly the truest non-biblical statement I know of, and there is nothing better then the idea that we are amazing people that can do amazing things.
We (me and my imaginary readers that I pretend to have) need to step it up a notch. Everyone's talking about the end of the world, some as if it is going to be tomorrow, and others like it won't happen for Eons, but if you think about it, it doesn't really matter when it happens, because someone's going to be here, and we need to make this world the best it can be for when that happens!! What I mean is, we are responsible for the future generations. Our forefathers fought and died to bring us this freedom, but I sometimes think that they gave us too much. We are taking for granted their sacrifice, and have become lazy, corrupt, and above all, prideful and greedy. I don't like to think about what we really have become, but it is the truth. Just sixty years ago the idea of a girl that wasn't married being pregnant was enough to bring shame to your entire family, and to get you ostracized from a community, and sixty years before that, you could find yourself dead. Now we think nothing of it, and allow ourselves to be lax in all parts of our lives. I'm being awfully blunt here, but I feel the need to be. We think that sex, drugs, alcohol, pornography, video games, and other worldly things are fun, and that they aren't that bad, but THEY ARE. We are whiling our lives away in front of a monitor or screen, and we don't know how to live anymore. What I wouldn't give some days to live in an era without cell phones and wifi everywhere, so that we could just enjoy the splendor of nature around us. There is so little of the wild left in the world, and all we care about is if our order was right at McDonalds.
My point here is that the world sucks. It is really hard to be optimistic when all around me I see people not caring, and just giving in to this sick sleazy greasy fat low unhealthy dark (continue on with depressing words that talk about America today) world that we have become accustom to! Oh how sad it is when I see a young child of four or five, already too obese to run around, because of the restrictions that "help them stay safe". This brings me onto point four.
4. Parenting. I'm not a parent. This is obvious. I am an eighteen year old(soon to be nineteen year old) young man, that seems to have more common sense then most parents in america today. I don't care who you are, or where you're from, there are some things that are fundamentally wrong with parenting, and the way that children are forced to act in school.
When I was a young kid, we had an old wooden play structure at my elementary school. It had real tire swings (the kind that were a real tire with three chains that led from the tire to a ball bearing in a large wooden cross-beam) and real fun. A boy was playing and got his leg stuck in one of the other pieces of the play structure, and broke his leg. He ended up being fine, and our play structure got torn out because it was "unsafe". Come on! What is unsafe about an old wooden play structure??? Not much more then what was wrong with the plastic coated metal one that replaced it. When the new one was finished, a little boy fell and broke his arm. We didn't get another new play structure then. Why? Who knows. The reason that I am typing about this is because it was ridiculous. Parents have decided that they will keep their children safe from harm, and in doing so have doomed them. The Bible says that there is opposition in all things for a reason. Children that aren't allowed to run around and play, that aren't allowed to get their elbows scraped, that aren't allowed to get their feelings hurt every now and then, are socially retarded compared to those that came before them. Allowing children to watch TV that is childish in nature, not for children, is also a contributing factor. Shows like Chowder, Spongebob Squarepants, Flapjack, and many others have sophomoric and degrading humor, whereas shows like Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street are underwritten because they teach children how to be a good role model, and a decent human being. These shows also generally are slotted next to things that end up exposing children to things that they are not emotionally or developmentally mature enough to correctly comprehend, and end up giving a skewed version of reality that is vastly disproportionate to a realistic world.
Video games can never be a match for actually doing something with your life. I am a very guilty party to the idea of video games. I have played them for years and enjoy them, but I see how they suck away my life. The thought of racking up over one hundred hours of playing only one of many games in a matter of months is sickening, and yet it happens. I even in the last couple of weeks have spent over forty hours playing Poke'mon Soul Silver. It is something that I am ashamed to admit, but I do. I spend too much time in front of the computer, TV, and DSi, and as a result other parts of my life are diminishing. I can't remember the last time I went on a jog, or a hike, or just went out to enjoy the weather and play.
We need to bring the world back into our lives before it is too late to do so, and we need to do it soon! People, we only have one life to live, and how are we going to feel if, when God asks us what we did with our lives, all we can talk about is how far we got in Halo? There is nothing more devastating to me then the realization that I am wasting my time on something, so I think I am going to do something about it! And to you, my imaginary readers (since no real person will probably make it this far in my long winded rant about life) I say, Live each day as though it is your last, and be happy in the morning when you come to find it wasn't. Be the person that you want to be, and it'll happen. Don't sell yourself short, but don't worry about being name-brand. And finally, Be happy, because life's awesome.
-Doug Knuth
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