I've broken out the sweaters.
No longer is the AC racking up our electric bill.
Renaissance Day has come and gone.
I'm back to working weekends only when I absolutely must.
And the first new TV episodes of the year have been watched.
I don't care if the calender says it doesn't start until tomorrow: It's FALL ya'll!!!!!!
Soon we will be reveling in a swirly mess of decorations for multiple seasons, dancing in turkey suits and donning other assorted costumes, drinking hot cocoa, celebrating birthdays galore, jetsetting to warmer locales, inviting friends to pageants and programs, and enjoying all the traditions that take up the time between now and January.
*Dances around the room in a fit of happiness*
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Spoilers don't spoil?? Puh-lease
My high school English teacher posted a link on facebook yesterday to this article that claimed that knowing spoilers to movies and books doesn't actually spoil the story. They actually did a research study where they gave the ending to people at the beginning (without the people knowing it) and then had them rate how much they liked the story, and compared it to how much people liked the story when they read it the "correct" way.
Supposedly people rated the story higher if they had the ending first.
To which I say WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!??!?!?!
Ahem.
Now, I realize that if you read a story all about a guy's daring escape from prison and then reach the end to find out it was all in his head and now he is being hung, that you are going to be dissappointed and upset...BUT THAT'S THE POINT. That's the experience the author intended. If he wanted you to know it was all a dream from the beginning he would have told you at the beginning. If you want the experience of reading it that way, then re-read it now that you know. Then you have both experiences. But if you read it knowing the ending first, you'll only ever get one experience from the story. You can't un-know the ending.
I read for the experience, not merely the joy of the written word. Who does that? The experience is not only a roller-coaster of uncertainty and expectation, but also reveals things about you, allowing you to learn and grow in a safe environment, preventing you from having to live through unpleasant events to get the same information about yourself.
For example: Harry Potter. (Of course.) If you started the series knowing Snape is a good guy you would merely scoff at the characters for thinking otherwise. You would never learn your own ability to jump to conclusions and misjudge people. You would never experience the horror of being betrayed by someone you trusted because instead you assumed the likely suspect was the culprit. You would never feel the fervor of protecting an innocent person that everyone else has condemned, or the tension of "maybe I am wrong but I am going to choose to trust this person anyway." You would never know the triumph of being proved right, the despair of the proof coming too late. And you would be cheated out of the ultimate revelation that love changes even the most hated people. You wouldn't gain those experiences....unless you had to actually live through them, which would be most unpleasant. My life is richer because of years spent waiting for the truth about Snape to be revealed.
Or take The Sixth Sense. I spent the whole movie on the verge of realizing he was dead, and when it was finally blatant I was filled with unnamable emotion at the mix of surprise and omg-I-knew-it-but-not-really. It's the only reason I liked it. A story merely about a kid who sees dead people and has a dead person to confide in is kind of stupid.
Darth Vader is Luke's long-dead father? Verbal is Keyser Soze? Norman Bates is his mother? The second time you watch these movies (knowing the end) the stories are still good, but not as good as the first time.
I watched Planet of the Apes already knowing the ending and it was only meh, but talk to the people who didn't know and they will cry "DAMN YOU SALAZAR!!!!" with such fervor you think they were Charleton Heston's body double.
So again, I must say: What the heck is wrong with these people???
Supposedly people rated the story higher if they had the ending first.
To which I say WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!??!?!?!
Ahem.
Now, I realize that if you read a story all about a guy's daring escape from prison and then reach the end to find out it was all in his head and now he is being hung, that you are going to be dissappointed and upset...BUT THAT'S THE POINT. That's the experience the author intended. If he wanted you to know it was all a dream from the beginning he would have told you at the beginning. If you want the experience of reading it that way, then re-read it now that you know. Then you have both experiences. But if you read it knowing the ending first, you'll only ever get one experience from the story. You can't un-know the ending.
I read for the experience, not merely the joy of the written word. Who does that? The experience is not only a roller-coaster of uncertainty and expectation, but also reveals things about you, allowing you to learn and grow in a safe environment, preventing you from having to live through unpleasant events to get the same information about yourself.
For example: Harry Potter. (Of course.) If you started the series knowing Snape is a good guy you would merely scoff at the characters for thinking otherwise. You would never learn your own ability to jump to conclusions and misjudge people. You would never experience the horror of being betrayed by someone you trusted because instead you assumed the likely suspect was the culprit. You would never feel the fervor of protecting an innocent person that everyone else has condemned, or the tension of "maybe I am wrong but I am going to choose to trust this person anyway." You would never know the triumph of being proved right, the despair of the proof coming too late. And you would be cheated out of the ultimate revelation that love changes even the most hated people. You wouldn't gain those experiences....unless you had to actually live through them, which would be most unpleasant. My life is richer because of years spent waiting for the truth about Snape to be revealed.
Or take The Sixth Sense. I spent the whole movie on the verge of realizing he was dead, and when it was finally blatant I was filled with unnamable emotion at the mix of surprise and omg-I-knew-it-but-not-really. It's the only reason I liked it. A story merely about a kid who sees dead people and has a dead person to confide in is kind of stupid.
Darth Vader is Luke's long-dead father? Verbal is Keyser Soze? Norman Bates is his mother? The second time you watch these movies (knowing the end) the stories are still good, but not as good as the first time.
I watched Planet of the Apes already knowing the ending and it was only meh, but talk to the people who didn't know and they will cry "DAMN YOU SALAZAR!!!!" with such fervor you think they were Charleton Heston's body double.
So again, I must say: What the heck is wrong with these people???
Monday, September 12, 2011
10 years later
I have two theories about my spiritual life.
1. I was saved when I was 4 by acknowledging Christ died for my sins and accepting the gift of salvation, but I didn't make Him the master of my life, didn't align myself with Him and eventually even went to His enemy like a whore but He loved me anyway and accepted me the second I realized my mistake and turned my back on my former life, on Sept 12, 2001.
2. I wasn't saved until I was 15, standing in church, completely terrified of the future, turning to Christ as the only One who I knew could save me, again on Sept 12, 2001.
Who knows, I don't really care when it happened, only that it did. Either way, Sept 12 is an important day for me and I claimed it as my birthday. That in mind: today is my 10th birthday!!!! Woo hoo! What better way to celebrate than go to the Crossroads Game Change update? (Answer: there's not really a better way!)
No one needs to be told how excited I was for this update, or how many times I was on the verge of tears, or how many times I threw my head back laughing, or how many times I clapped oh-so-excitedly...because you all know me.
2012 is going to be a very exciting and very life changing time, if I let it. CityLink opens in the fall, they're resuming South Africa trips, and the permanent aftercare homes will finally be open in India too. These are the things that I care about. These are the things I was made for. These are the things that when other people talk about them, my heart falls into it's best rhythm. Like when you reach that speed that your car was built to go and it kind of calms into it's most efficient and smoothest ride.
What does the next year look like for me? I don't know. This year was supposed to hold a big move from apartment to house but that didn't happen and I'm no longer convinced that is the best plan. What I do know is that my job in the ED was never supposed to be a long-term thing. I was never going to retire there. I was never going to be one of the nurses who worked there for 25 years. It was just never the plan. Whether that means I'll eventually take a position at CityLink, or move to South Africa, or get married and adopt and raise a bunch of little lives, or enter full-time ministry, or just transfer to the NICU for a while, I still have no idea. But I feel more and more like my time in the ED is drawing to a close. I still enjoy the work but my heart feels more and more out of rhythm there. I feel drawn to live in a smaller place, spend less money, volunteer more, be around people who have the same vision and passions.
What I do know is that I don't want to look back on my life and think "Blah."
1. I was saved when I was 4 by acknowledging Christ died for my sins and accepting the gift of salvation, but I didn't make Him the master of my life, didn't align myself with Him and eventually even went to His enemy like a whore but He loved me anyway and accepted me the second I realized my mistake and turned my back on my former life, on Sept 12, 2001.
2. I wasn't saved until I was 15, standing in church, completely terrified of the future, turning to Christ as the only One who I knew could save me, again on Sept 12, 2001.
Who knows, I don't really care when it happened, only that it did. Either way, Sept 12 is an important day for me and I claimed it as my birthday. That in mind: today is my 10th birthday!!!! Woo hoo! What better way to celebrate than go to the Crossroads Game Change update? (Answer: there's not really a better way!)
No one needs to be told how excited I was for this update, or how many times I was on the verge of tears, or how many times I threw my head back laughing, or how many times I clapped oh-so-excitedly...because you all know me.
2012 is going to be a very exciting and very life changing time, if I let it. CityLink opens in the fall, they're resuming South Africa trips, and the permanent aftercare homes will finally be open in India too. These are the things that I care about. These are the things I was made for. These are the things that when other people talk about them, my heart falls into it's best rhythm. Like when you reach that speed that your car was built to go and it kind of calms into it's most efficient and smoothest ride.
What does the next year look like for me? I don't know. This year was supposed to hold a big move from apartment to house but that didn't happen and I'm no longer convinced that is the best plan. What I do know is that my job in the ED was never supposed to be a long-term thing. I was never going to retire there. I was never going to be one of the nurses who worked there for 25 years. It was just never the plan. Whether that means I'll eventually take a position at CityLink, or move to South Africa, or get married and adopt and raise a bunch of little lives, or enter full-time ministry, or just transfer to the NICU for a while, I still have no idea. But I feel more and more like my time in the ED is drawing to a close. I still enjoy the work but my heart feels more and more out of rhythm there. I feel drawn to live in a smaller place, spend less money, volunteer more, be around people who have the same vision and passions.
What I do know is that I don't want to look back on my life and think "Blah."
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