Responding to the Culture of Today

The news of the horrific attack in Aurora, Colorado this week really made me think about the world around me in a fresh way. It wasn’t new, just fresh, just brought to the surface of my mind.

I’ve always thought that our culture is violent and growing more so all the time. I think it goes unnoticed, under the radar. We expect it, we don’t really interact with it. We turn a blind eye to it. We are just “used” to it. Desensitized. As a Christian and a parent, this deeply concerns me and how I’ll introduce and protect myself and my children from the violence our culture just accepts, me included.

An ABC news story I read said, “The number of casualties makes the incident the largest mass shooting in U.S. history.” “Witnesses in the movie theater said they saw smoke and heard gunshots that they thought were part of the movie until they saw Holmes standing in front of the screen, after entering from an emergency exit. Holmes methodically stalked the aisles of the theater, shooting people at random, as panicked movie-watchers in the packed auditorium tried to escape, witnesses said. At one point the shooter exited the theater only to wait outside the doors and pick off patrons as they tried to exit, witness Jennifer Seeger told “Good Afternoon America.”

It was so disturbing to hear people interviewed saying that they didn’t engage with what was happening right away. They thought it was part of the show. They sat there, just watching this violence happening in real life completely unaware it was real. Then, as they finally realized what was going on, they all tried to get away. Patrons said that there was an eery silence in between shots. No one spoke. The gunman never said anything. The people never said anything. It was just silence filled with gunshots and screams in between.

I think it is interesting that no one tried to take this guy out, no one said “STOP IT!” or spoke to him or called him out. Especially in the light of post-911 America, where it seemed to me that people did not want to be attacked and had a new-found sense of protecting one another. Not so here though. People had to be filled with insurmountable fear and this man was clearly deranged. He was aiming. He was going slowly. People tried to help those who were wounded and then left them because their own fear was so great. The news reports today are saying that many of the injuries incurred were from the people trying to escape hurting one another, trampling each other.

I am disturbed by all this and to the point that I question what I watch. Am I encouraging this? Am I feeding into this culture of violence? I know movies are false and just stories, but they have become so violent and it is clearly seeping into real life like an oozing sludge.

I remember when I first saw the movie “Man on Fire”. I left the theater DEEPLY disturbed. I remember being completely shaken by the emotions I was feeling and the depths of the violence I had just watched. I told my husband, “that was the most violent movie I have ever watched”.  And I say violent with intent on violence. I mean war movies aside, this is murderous.

I admit that I like action movies. Not the action or the violence itself, but I like seeing people rescued. I like knowing that in dark times there is light. I need to know in my soul that there is light. But the dark times keep getting darker and story is becoming reality.

How do we respond to this as a culture? Do we just sit back and write on our blogs about how horrible this is and keep on watching these movies? Or do we start thinking about the violence we are already desensitized to? Do we start questioning what we put before ourselves and our families? Can we take a stand? Can we call it murderous?

The thing that tugs at me the most, is that I could have been there. In fact, I could have been there with my baby on a date with my husband. One such family was. A little baby, about the age of my baby daughter, was at this showing guys. The baby is ok by the way. But still, this could have happened to any of us.

This shakes me up. I’m not sure how to respond frankly. I want to run away like those people in the theater. But realistically, how long will the fear and the shock that I feel keep me from the violence?

I have a feeling females will feel much differently about this than males. Boycotting a Batman movie will lead to many a heated discussion between husbands and wives. I don’t think that’s sexist and I hope it isn’t taken as such. I just think this will be an interesting point of contention in my home and many others as we struggle as men and women to answer the question we all should be asking ourselves: how will we choose to respond in the face of such horror? It will be a different answer by gender I imagine.

I hope I’m not the only person who is thinking afresh about such things. How are you responding?

Shallow Admonishons

Notice my tag on this post? Yeah…it’s about tv. I love tv.  Quick, watch this hilarity that is Jim Gaffigan.

So anyway, I, like Jim Gaffigan, love tv. Fall is nice and all, but you know, good tv starting up is probably the best part.  However, if it weren’t for Hulu, I would be one sad momma. For starters, we no longer have the beloved DVR. I know right? You’re thinking “how does she SURVIVE?”. Like I said, Hulu.

I missed the season premiere of Parenthood and I was so sad. But then, Hulu made it all better…with limited commercial interruption too. I’ll probably miss Grey’s Anatomy and all the other shows I like too…but Hulu, oh how I love you.

So, I’m going to go watch some Hulu right now and pretend I don’t miss the DVR. “I ain’t missin’ you at all, miss’in you”.

 

National Dance Day 2010!

My favorite show is So You Think You Can Dance. I love, love, LOVE the show so much because it’s taught me to appreciate dance! I’ve always loved to watch people dance, but the criticism from the judges is so constructive and encouraging that I have learned things I never knew.

I have been watching the show for about 4 seasons now (I think) and I just can’t get enough of it! I saw that the show is promoting this new thing Nigel Lthygoe created called National Dance Day, which is July 31, by trying to get people to learn this “Nappy Tabs” routine. (Um, that’s Tabitha and Napoleon for all you non-show watchers.)The idea is to encourage people to just be healthy and get moving.

I watched the first part of the video and decided I should go to bed (it was approaching midnight, oiy) but, I really want to learn it! I did practice the first 3 parts. You know you wanna see it right? Here is the routine! Try it ok? It would be fun to see if we can video ourselves doing it and repost! EEEK! That makes me nervous. But how fun, right?

Monday and How I’d Interview Ty Pennington

I guess you could say that come Monday afternoon, I feel like it is my civic responsibility to update my blog.  Happy Monday!

This sense of blogging responsibility goes whether I really have something worthy to say or not. Which, I suppose, is sometimes unfortunate for my readers! (hence my subject for today’s post and the lack of pictures-sorry Amber!) But, I just hate it when I check my stats and they are through the floor on Monday night. WHEW! What a downer….he he he he

This past week was very busy. In fact, I thought for a moment that we had graduated from the “relaxed family” (defined as the family who eats dinner together and enjoys a nice evening at home together about every night of the week) to the “busy family” (defined as the family who eats dinner on the run and spends their evenings running kids to swim lessons, church meetings, Bible studies and such).  As a result of the afore-mentioned busy week, I slept all afternoon on Sunday. Ah….sweet bliss.

Because we were gone every night last week, we had to catch up on some of our favorite shows last night. Usually on Sunday nights, we watch AFV and eat popcorn before Coop goes off to bed. But last night it wasn’t on because Extreme Makeover Home Edition did a special on Ty Pennington! I’m no Ty-Swooning gal, but I do think he is a very interesting person and I’ve always wanted to know how in the world the man has a life outside of the show.

Last night’s show did a great job showing us some bloopers on the set and it was fun to take just a little peek into the life of a guy like Ty. However, I’m thinking that somebody needs to interview Ty for real. Maybe even the annoying Babwa Wawa could do it.  Who ever does it is fine, but I was thinking last night about all the questions I would have in an interview with Mr. Pennington. So here goes, and feel free to leave your burning questions for Ty in the comments!

Tiff’s Questions For Ty Pennington:

1. How has doing the show, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, changed you as a person? I.e. tell me about the pre-EMHE Ty and the post-EMHE Ty.

2. Tell me about some of the soul-moving things you have witnessed amongst the families that have been helped through ABC’s show. What are some of the lessons you’ve learned, some of the values you’ve seen and changed your mind on as a result?

3. In last night’s footage, they showed a few bloopers of your special projects that almost didn’t get pulled off. In them, while you were frustrated, you were incredibly calm under the pressure. You were kind to the people you were working with, you were ready to do whatever needed to be done (including a little dumpster diving) and you were respectful of others. That’s pretty remarkable in an age of shows like “Hell’s Kitchen” where that guy (don’t know his name) freaks out on people when things don’t go right and just tears people apart.  Talk to me about how you’ve learned to act/react under pressure when important things are on the line and how that has changed you and influenced the people around you.

4.  You and the team work a lot. In last night’s show, you said you are on the road 300 days a year! How have you learned to manage a schedule like that and what do you do about the important relationships in your life?

5. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

6. If you were to retire from EMHE, how would it change the priorities in your life? Do you foresee yourself “settling down,” is that something you want to do eventually, or do you see yourself continuing to take on these types of “others-based” charities and organizations?