If there is one inescapable fact of life it is that the life process begins at birth and ends at death. There isn’t much we can do about that. To be sure, we can shorten or lengthen that continuum based upon the extent to which we choose to live a healthy or not-so-healthy lifestyle. We do have some control over that, and sanity suggests that we pay some reasonable degree of attention to that variable.
Like so many aspects of what we are all about, Americans tend to take this issue to extremes, as well. This has led us to a pre-occupation with remaining forever young, and obsessive about how we are going to hold on to the Fountain of Youth. If it weren’t so pathetic, it would be humorous in a morbid sort of way. Ponce de Leon tried to no avail and we haven’t the God-given sense to realize that it is forever beyond our grasp. Despite the extent to which we go in order to engage in the grand self-deception that it is somehow within our power to halt the aging process, it continues to elude us.
All one has to do is watch advertising and entertainment images on television, plus an occasional walk through a local shopping mall to realize just how far a field our obsessions have become.
The risks of bulimia and anorexia not withstanding, the ideal woman must still be little more than a skeleton covered by a tightly stretched covering of human flesh. Add to that a humongous set of boobs and you have the personification of the perfect female. Women with a well-rounded figure are a thing of the past; a relic from the days of old movies and glamour queens. Frankly, I’ll take the figure of a Marilyn Monroe to these human sticks any day.
Modern day mothers seem incapable of permitting their daughters to have a normal childhood. That is passé these days. No matter how young, the sooner they can get them into hip huggers, a bra and a plunging neckline, so much the better. I can only attribute that perversity to some warped notion of the mother’s sense of self-worth. Children deserve to be children, with all the innocence and wonder that goes with it. Instead, they are the objects of doting mothers who want the world to see what a perfect little living doll they have made her into. Conformity comes at a price. Individuality requires courage and a sense of proportion.
Men don’t get a free pass on this one either. Women are not only what they think men want them to be, but too many men, as well, want to be the perfect physical specimen for adoring women, as defined by entertainment figures and advertising executives. In order to do their part, you find them doing all they can to become the perfect male physique; big biceps, washboard abs, etc. This, of course, is the prelude to maintaining their sexual prowess and the envy of others, both women and men. Good luck, guys, because it won’t last forever and when you fall, you will fall big time. Father Time will stare you down and bring you back to reality.
I object to the advertising of prescription drugs, but don’t count out the limitless greed of the drug companies to do their part in this grand deception. Our households are bombarded with advertisements for no less than three different drugs for the purpose of addressing the problem of erectile dysfunction. They have no business being advertised in the media, and children have no business being subjected to that crap either. We don’t need to make a public spectacle of any man’s inability to get it up when “the need arises.” If that isn’t a private matter, I don’t know what is. The health of the prostate is yet another example of a potential male imperfection, and one more case of an industry-induced obsession with the pelvic region of the male anatomy. What is wrong with going to a physician when you have a problem, get a proper remedy and keep it a private matter? Do we really need to subject mixed company to this trash as an interlude in our entertainment bill of fare?
As if the foregoing isn’t enough, we are subjected to advertising of all sorts that shows the male and female of the species just short of total nudity. You would have to be from another planet not to realize that it is all pointing to the success of a sexual conquest. They are laying together in a bed on the beach, sharing a bathtub as the female appears to dutifully begin her decent to the lower reaches of the male sharing the experience, or speeding towards the nearest motel for the culmination of the Viagra experience. I can’t help but wonder how long it will take before we are all treated to the joy of witnessing full penetration as part of our daily entertainment. Sick though it may seem, I don’t discount that possibility one bit. I fail to realize what all the fuss is over a physical act that has been the basis of human procreation since we first set foot on the planet. Common decency dictates that it be a private matter between two consenting adults.
The one ad that I find the most repulsive is for a certain diet program based on a panoply of prepared meals that are guaranteed to produce the female equivalent of Aphrodite and the male equivalent of Adonis. I am convinced that the casting call for the human players in these vignettes go something like this: “Only slutty airheads with big breasts, bone-headed male caricatures with subnormal IQ’s, and has-been actors need apply.” What most strikes me about all this is what more is to be emulated by modern mankind, given his total preoccupation with the physical aspects of what he is all about. Somehow that seems a bit out of balance to me.
I will be the first to acknowledge that we have lost our moral compass traditionally provided by religious institutions. That they have become a means to acquire vast amounts of wealth for those in power, or that they have become gigantic bureaucratic monoliths requiring a battery of ecclesiastical experts in order to interpret the way to salvation goes without saying. But, I raise the question as to whether it is in our best interests, as people and as a civilization, to simply walk away from them and seek to define human conduct and morality strictly on our own terms? It seems to me that is an open invitation to slide into a state of total depravity, given our proclivity to rationalize our own self-indulgences at the expense of the finer aspects of our human nature, and at incalculable cost to our civilized existence. Is it not better to stick with what we have as religious institutions and try to change them from within, rather than abandon the only guiding lights of human decency we have left?
Christ walked with the common man and chose his disciples from the most humble among us. That is good enough for me and seems like a pretty good starting point for insisting that those to whom we have entrusted our salvation address our needs. Duping us into believing only they have the answers we seek, and only for a price, just doesn’t make much sense. In the final analysis, we are their “customers” (to use a chick term). I don’t wish to minimize their knowledge or the purity of their intent, but they need to understand that those who sit in the pews are not a bunch of sheep waiting to be led to slaughter. Rather, a goodly number of them have minds capable of critical thought, and have significant expectations of the clergy to respect that and to deliver the goods. Using the ecclesiastical shroud of mystery as a method of control just doesn’t wash in today’s world.
I don’t see that being glued to a television screen, a computer monitor, or staring blankly at the latest hand-held electronic companion is necessarily good for us. Maybe it is time for us to take some time away from all those electronic toys and reacquaint ourselves with family, friends and the human race. I have no doubt that would produce a wonderful world of re-discovery as to who and what we are, and would enrich our lives immeasurably.
In so many ways, we are a lonely, empty, and impoverished people. We not only need to take care of the earth we share, but we need to share a common purpose and care about each other through every step of this earthly journey. When we come to the end of that spectrum from birth to death, I choose to believe we will be much better off for having done so, and our immortal souls will be ever so much more pleasing to our Creator when we make that final journey. I accept that is beyond empirical proof and is nothing more than a simple act of faith. But what hope do we have without it?
Cowboy Bob
July 11, 2008
Like so many aspects of what we are all about, Americans tend to take this issue to extremes, as well. This has led us to a pre-occupation with remaining forever young, and obsessive about how we are going to hold on to the Fountain of Youth. If it weren’t so pathetic, it would be humorous in a morbid sort of way. Ponce de Leon tried to no avail and we haven’t the God-given sense to realize that it is forever beyond our grasp. Despite the extent to which we go in order to engage in the grand self-deception that it is somehow within our power to halt the aging process, it continues to elude us.
All one has to do is watch advertising and entertainment images on television, plus an occasional walk through a local shopping mall to realize just how far a field our obsessions have become.
The risks of bulimia and anorexia not withstanding, the ideal woman must still be little more than a skeleton covered by a tightly stretched covering of human flesh. Add to that a humongous set of boobs and you have the personification of the perfect female. Women with a well-rounded figure are a thing of the past; a relic from the days of old movies and glamour queens. Frankly, I’ll take the figure of a Marilyn Monroe to these human sticks any day.
Modern day mothers seem incapable of permitting their daughters to have a normal childhood. That is passé these days. No matter how young, the sooner they can get them into hip huggers, a bra and a plunging neckline, so much the better. I can only attribute that perversity to some warped notion of the mother’s sense of self-worth. Children deserve to be children, with all the innocence and wonder that goes with it. Instead, they are the objects of doting mothers who want the world to see what a perfect little living doll they have made her into. Conformity comes at a price. Individuality requires courage and a sense of proportion.
Men don’t get a free pass on this one either. Women are not only what they think men want them to be, but too many men, as well, want to be the perfect physical specimen for adoring women, as defined by entertainment figures and advertising executives. In order to do their part, you find them doing all they can to become the perfect male physique; big biceps, washboard abs, etc. This, of course, is the prelude to maintaining their sexual prowess and the envy of others, both women and men. Good luck, guys, because it won’t last forever and when you fall, you will fall big time. Father Time will stare you down and bring you back to reality.
I object to the advertising of prescription drugs, but don’t count out the limitless greed of the drug companies to do their part in this grand deception. Our households are bombarded with advertisements for no less than three different drugs for the purpose of addressing the problem of erectile dysfunction. They have no business being advertised in the media, and children have no business being subjected to that crap either. We don’t need to make a public spectacle of any man’s inability to get it up when “the need arises.” If that isn’t a private matter, I don’t know what is. The health of the prostate is yet another example of a potential male imperfection, and one more case of an industry-induced obsession with the pelvic region of the male anatomy. What is wrong with going to a physician when you have a problem, get a proper remedy and keep it a private matter? Do we really need to subject mixed company to this trash as an interlude in our entertainment bill of fare?
As if the foregoing isn’t enough, we are subjected to advertising of all sorts that shows the male and female of the species just short of total nudity. You would have to be from another planet not to realize that it is all pointing to the success of a sexual conquest. They are laying together in a bed on the beach, sharing a bathtub as the female appears to dutifully begin her decent to the lower reaches of the male sharing the experience, or speeding towards the nearest motel for the culmination of the Viagra experience. I can’t help but wonder how long it will take before we are all treated to the joy of witnessing full penetration as part of our daily entertainment. Sick though it may seem, I don’t discount that possibility one bit. I fail to realize what all the fuss is over a physical act that has been the basis of human procreation since we first set foot on the planet. Common decency dictates that it be a private matter between two consenting adults.
The one ad that I find the most repulsive is for a certain diet program based on a panoply of prepared meals that are guaranteed to produce the female equivalent of Aphrodite and the male equivalent of Adonis. I am convinced that the casting call for the human players in these vignettes go something like this: “Only slutty airheads with big breasts, bone-headed male caricatures with subnormal IQ’s, and has-been actors need apply.” What most strikes me about all this is what more is to be emulated by modern mankind, given his total preoccupation with the physical aspects of what he is all about. Somehow that seems a bit out of balance to me.
I will be the first to acknowledge that we have lost our moral compass traditionally provided by religious institutions. That they have become a means to acquire vast amounts of wealth for those in power, or that they have become gigantic bureaucratic monoliths requiring a battery of ecclesiastical experts in order to interpret the way to salvation goes without saying. But, I raise the question as to whether it is in our best interests, as people and as a civilization, to simply walk away from them and seek to define human conduct and morality strictly on our own terms? It seems to me that is an open invitation to slide into a state of total depravity, given our proclivity to rationalize our own self-indulgences at the expense of the finer aspects of our human nature, and at incalculable cost to our civilized existence. Is it not better to stick with what we have as religious institutions and try to change them from within, rather than abandon the only guiding lights of human decency we have left?
Christ walked with the common man and chose his disciples from the most humble among us. That is good enough for me and seems like a pretty good starting point for insisting that those to whom we have entrusted our salvation address our needs. Duping us into believing only they have the answers we seek, and only for a price, just doesn’t make much sense. In the final analysis, we are their “customers” (to use a chick term). I don’t wish to minimize their knowledge or the purity of their intent, but they need to understand that those who sit in the pews are not a bunch of sheep waiting to be led to slaughter. Rather, a goodly number of them have minds capable of critical thought, and have significant expectations of the clergy to respect that and to deliver the goods. Using the ecclesiastical shroud of mystery as a method of control just doesn’t wash in today’s world.
I don’t see that being glued to a television screen, a computer monitor, or staring blankly at the latest hand-held electronic companion is necessarily good for us. Maybe it is time for us to take some time away from all those electronic toys and reacquaint ourselves with family, friends and the human race. I have no doubt that would produce a wonderful world of re-discovery as to who and what we are, and would enrich our lives immeasurably.
In so many ways, we are a lonely, empty, and impoverished people. We not only need to take care of the earth we share, but we need to share a common purpose and care about each other through every step of this earthly journey. When we come to the end of that spectrum from birth to death, I choose to believe we will be much better off for having done so, and our immortal souls will be ever so much more pleasing to our Creator when we make that final journey. I accept that is beyond empirical proof and is nothing more than a simple act of faith. But what hope do we have without it?
Cowboy Bob
July 11, 2008
2 comments:
"Modern day mothers seem incapable of permitting their daughters to have a normal childhood."
How true. I see it most of the days when I work as a crossing patrol officer (lollipop lady, as us English call it). It saddens me that parents walk their kids to school in high fashioned gumboots then gripe when the kids want to run through puddles. I'm just cruising the good side of 40 (is there a bad side?!) and will still take a running leap with my two if we've got any hope of making a pavement tsunami in a downpour.
Live life. Live it full. Live it well. Pick the dandelions, splash in the puddles and let the children grow old in their own time. May we all never grow up!
Bob,
That was a GREAT post!!! A GREAT POST!! Would you mind if I do a trackback to it on my blog or perhaps even republish it there?
Ciao!
CW
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