Back to being tired. I’m not even gonna edit this blog. Thbhppppt.
Had an interesting meeting at church last night. The J2A is doing a section on sexuality, and the leaders met to plan. Yes, sexuality. To make a very long story short, the premise of the program is to incorporate everything that a kid goes through during adolescence into the life of the church, with the following two basic concepts: “Manhood and Womanhood are gifts from God, and Adulthood must be earned.” Cool, yes? It’s kind of amazing how much societal tripe goes into efforts to prove one’s sexuality. Once you realize you don’t have to, you have a lot more time for fun stuff.
Obviously this isn’t an easy thing to talk about, especially with teenagers. We leaders are struggling a fair bit. So last night, our student pastor sat us down and made us go around the circle, saying what we thought about sex. The thing that shocked me was that, to a one, we all think that sex outside of marriage is okay, if the circumstances are right and respectful, etc. None of us have any qualms about people living together or even about homosexuality, which I at least would have expected more controversy about in a Presbyterian Church. Clint, the student pastor, summed up our attitudes pretty well: we make up our own minds for our own behavior, and respect other people’s decisions. Crazy, huh? Frankly, I didn’t expect that from this stodgy group of folks, so I’m pleased. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that saving sex for marriage makes you stodgy, I’m just saying that otherwise this group is pretty conservative and…oh, you know what I mean.)
So, this semester in class has been pretty interesting. The kids have been remarkably open to discussion, especially the section on sexuality in popular music. They realized very quickly the contradictions in the current trend of women power songs by groups like Destiny’s Child, who sing about survival while basically wearing underwear on stage. Personally, I like Destiny’s Child, but I’m wary of the message they’re sending. I find myself listening more and more to groups like Sleater-Kinney and Ani DiFranco, indie bands who aren’t bound by what MTV is selling. I’m not forsaking Janet Jackson and Nelly Furtado completely, mind you, I just don’t bring their cds to work every day.
Whew.
I didn’t expect to go off on that much of a tangent. I’ve really got a heap of work to do today — what’s new, eh? I want to throw myself into work so the day passes quickly. Mom’s spending the night with me on her way back south from PA. I’m pretty thrilled — I love having family stay at the farm, and Mom and I always have a blast. Plus, she gets to meet the puppy. I figure we’ll go out to dinner in Ashland, and then watch the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special, which comes on ABC tonight. Hooray!
Happy Friday, everyone!