GAYS & STRAIGHTS FOREVER

On a positive note, there have always been and always will be gay (bi-, gay, lesbian, transgendered) people. Laws, threats, oppression, torture, and death have not been able to stop them. Just as, on a negative note, there will always be hurtful affairs outside marriage, spousal and child abuse, addictions, hypocrisy, greed, corruption, injustice, and poor people. The flawed wiring of human creatures demands it....Now, is it possible to stop hitting our societal heads against the wall of fact, and start improving the sad, often tragic lives of us all?

LAUGHING AT MY NIGHTMARE.COM

There are a so many things to do on Facebook, YouTube, 

and even in real life....

Some are worth spending a few minutes of your time.  

This is one of them.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shane-burcaw-laughing-at-my-nightmare-documentary?c=home

GIVING UP THINGS WE LOVE

STANLEY FISH May 27, 2013, 9:00 pm 414 Comments

Moving On

By STANLEY FISH

Stanley Fish on education, law and society.

I have sold my books. Not all of them, but most of them. I held on to the books I might need while putting the finishing touches on a manuscript that is now with my publisher. I also kept the books I will likely need when I begin my next project in the fall. But the books that sustained my professional life for 50 years — books by and about Milton, Spenser, Shakespeare, Skelton, Sidney, Herbert, Marvell, Herrick, Donne, Jonson, Burton, Browne, Bacon, Dryden, Hobbes — are gone (I watched them being literally wheeled out the door), and now I look around and see acres of empty white bookshelves.

JOSS WEDON, DIRECTOR

GRADUATES:  Action is more important than words....but words are more important than nothing.  Here are 13 minutes of funny, serious, true words than can help you, if you occasionally think of them.

The two professor-administrators at the front, who probably invited him, get his dark entertaining humor and agree. The professor in the back is probably bored and thinks he's a jerk.  You can make your own decision.  (The English is clear and non-academic.)

The problem is that at graduation ceremonies, students are thinking about partying, their dates, supportive and non-supportive families, no job, the terrifyng future, being hot or cold, holding on to their caps in the wind, eating, texting, boredom, and having a good night's sleep, hopefully with someone.

Still, the Graduation Speech Ritual is one of civilization's more useful inventions, too often unused.

http://www.upworthy.com/behold-the-bluntest-funniest-and-deadliest-graduation-speech-in-the-history-of-the-known-universe?g=2&c=upw1

CULTURAL DIFFERENCE

Pakistan is America's ally.

http://www.upworthy.com/watch-a-brave-little-girl-take-on-her-rapists-her-village-and-her-culture-2?g=2&c=upw1

STRAIGHT MARRIAGE / GAY MARRIAGE

Does the fact that on average married people are happier mean that we should promote marriage?

REALITY TV LIFE

I watch "The Voice," "American Idol," "Undercover Boss," etc....for the pain and tears, not for the talent. Like in sports, I don't care who wins, as long as everyone appears to grow. If they reveal themselves, I feel less alone. Death is less scary if we all die, even at different rates. Thank you cynical exploitative producers for allowing us to share each other's suffering, so our own is less unique and intense....I mean it.

Vivienne Flesher

More:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/opinion/sunday/bruni-show-us-your-woe.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130519

FLAPPERS

Women were allowed to own and drive cars in the 1920s and 1930s. They could go dancing, have fun, have sex, explore life, make their own decisions, and live independently....

Then World War 2 came, and women worked physically hard in factories building guns, tanks, boats, and planes for America's (male) Armed Forces....

Then Peace came, and women were sent back into the home to do dishes, clean, cook, and take care of babies.

Now woman can serve in the Armed Forces, where they are often raped like Comfort Women. They can also go into battle and get killed equally with men.

Progress.

AMERICAN BEDROOM

DARK ALLEYS OF THE BRAIN

Art by Guillard Emmanuel

Another valid scientific research project: "X" numbers of priests molest children. "Y" numbers of priests become archbishops. All Popes were archbishops. Therefore, it is statistically logical that "Z" number of Popes have molested children. Yet Popes set the official doctrine, and enforcement of that doctrine, in the Catholic Church....Another study would be: "Do a larger percentage of priests molest children than do the leaders of each other religion, than teachers, doctors, Boy Scout leaders, and parents?"

AMERICA

Non-Americans must understand that America is not culturally insulated, cloistered, monolithic, evil, or good. America consists of people from every other country, culture, religion, race, and language in the world....including Americans who are brilliant, stupid, open-hearted, prejudiced, terrified, brave, creative, boring, super-rich, homeless, nationalistic, internationalist, fundamentalist, atheist, power-mad, immoral, amoral, moral, greedy, charitable, humanists, environmentalists, and people who hate people, nature, and the Earth.....America gives wrong and even insane people the freedom to be wrong and insane, but not to legally kill, rape, or abuse each other.... America is full of lofty philosophical ideals and destructive hypocritical reality, because America is not Heaven, and Americans are not gods...only human, and very flawed.

HAPPINESS

SADNESS

LOVE

SEARCHING

HATE

Why do fundamentalist clerics, extreme conservatives, ultra-nationalists, and the super-rich almost always look so tormented and ugly?

EGO

An experience to learn from....Last night, I was an "expert" in a professional panel, and treated as important. This morning, I was clumsy in beginning dance class, and treated as someone to avoid. The 24-hour highs and lows of my ego are useful....to put me in my place as part of this massive flood of humanity, all desperately trying to survive, not feel invisible, be treated with respect due all human beings, and maybe even get a little love.

CHANGES

Transitions are difficult....

Changes of neighbors, friends, lovers, spouses. Changes in the environment, politics, economy, habits. Flowers die, favorite trees are cut, beautiful buildings crumble, leadership changes, friends and loved ones disappear. Life is constantly changing and challenging us. It can't be stopped.

REMINDERS

W  H  A  T     I     L  E  A  R  N  E  D

                      

I was a teacher for the past 5 months. Sometimes I think I was a great teacher. (Some of my students wrote me emotional letters...after I gave them grades.) Sometimes I think I was a bad teacher, because there was so much I wanted to communicate, but could not. (Laziness? Language and cultural barriers? Just Life?)

Most of all, I was and always will be, a student....Paid more than my students. Treated with more respect than my students. With more life experience, self-confidence, and the "wisdom" of age (maybe), than my students.

What did I learn? (Of course, as soon as I learn something, I forget it and must continuously re-learn it.).....

I learned that everybody's pain feels the same.

CHILDREN & THEIR FAVORITE TOYS

Revealing, moving photographs of children around the world, by an Italian artist....

http://www.gabrielegalimberti.com/projects/toys-2/#