National "Chill Out" Week, 2009!

I really, sincerely want you to chill out. I've discovered that my tolerance for tension and confrontation is close to zero. I would much rather have a good conversation sharing funny stories from the previous week or talking about how stupid the BCS is than to actually talk about something that is relevant and important to everyone.

Unfortunately, this attitude is pretty weak-minded and generally wussy and doesn't do much for standing up for what you believe in... but I still dont like it. So here's the deal. I have an idea that I think will help alot of us... and especially me.

Though not unprecedented, I believe the political rhetoric in this country is at such a vitriolic level that hardly anything can even be discussed beneficially, let alone actually get something accomplished. I believe, as do many others, that the main reason for this is the 24-hour cable news stations and in particular the pundits that rail daily from their small, air-tight studios claiming to know deep truths about government, religion, society and everything else. We have got to chill out if we're going to have legitimate conversations about all of these important issues facing our country, our church and our world. These are conversations that are necessary and need immediate attention (despite my discomfort).

But do you think these pundits want anything to do with a national "chill out?" No freaking way... that's their whole deal, right? Everything that they are talking about has to be incredibly important and everyone who agrees with them is a "normal" American, Christian, human being, etc. And everyone who disagrees is a complete imbecile that most likely have racist, fascist, or satanic tendencies. This mentality isn't just stupid, it's toxic. It brings us farther away from truth and leads us towards blind acceptance, anger and hatred towards anyone who doesn't watch/listen to the same programs ... and that's lame.

So here's my idea. Let's all chill out... seriously. Let's intentionally stay away from 24 cable news networks, talk radio, politically aligned blogs or websites for one whole week. Just a week to see if this works. And I'm not just talking about one side of the argument here. Many of you reading this blog will know my political leanings but even if you dont, I'm going both sides here.

For the entire week of Nov. 1st - 7th, I'm not going to watch anything on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, or anywhere else with similar programming. I will not watch or listen to anything Beck, Limbaugh, Stewart, Olbermann, O'Reilly says nor anyone else with medium to influence public political opinion. And I was hoping you would join me...?

But let's not just be passive in this. Let's do something as we collectively fast from pre-packaged bias. This isn't a media blackout. As a matter of fact, during the week, be intentional about watching your local news, read your local news paper, the more local the better (but I'd still stay away from the opinion section). We can begin to better understand the needs and concerns of the people in our communities. But lets not stop there. Our week of freedom from mass media punditry should be used talk to each other.

We have let these masters of the airwaves tell us how we should think, talk and act and often we are more than willing to follow. But the pundits don't stop there... they also tell us what the other guys thinks- and how stupid and racist and fascist they are because of those thoughts.


Instead of believing that nonsense, we could make it a point talk to someone who you know has a politically opposite point of view. It should be a week filled with calm, cool and reasonable discussion. But in these conversations, be intentional about listening to what they think and why they have that point of view. Dont go into it ready to disprove them or trying to create an argument. Instead, listen to what they say and ask them if they would be willing to listen to your point of view.

What if we had a ton of people do this next week? What if we turned off the tv and radio and stopped reading our blogs for a few days and just talked to each other? Would it help the national health care debate? Inspire widespread activism? Spur millions of fist fights? Maybe... but at least we'd get to hang out with each other and actually talk about stuff that matters.

Let's just try it. Lets all just chill out. For one week. Nov. 1-7 is National Chill Out Week. Spread the word...

-Josh

Movie Wednesdays!

Cause who does movie reviews on Wednesdays?

Last Friday Josh and I saw Where the Wild Things Are with our good friend Dana and her good friend Brittany (who is now our friend as well!) So this is going to be our first "together" review. We'll see how this goes ...

K: So Joshua, Where the Wild Things Are ... first thoughts?

J: Great book made into a good movie. The movie was visually striking and I thought the kiddo who played Max, Mr. Max Records, was really impressive. But I would have hated it if I was 8 years old.

K: Yea, you know how you wanted to name our first dog Max and I said no because I thought that Max was a weak name and that we could do better? Well I think a combination of Max in the movie and how awesome and precious little Max Records was when he was on Conan changed my mind. I think we can name our first dog Max!

J: Holy crap, that's fantastic. I'll hold you to that. You told me you enjoyed your movie-going experience while we were still in the theater... still feel that way?

K: Yes definitely! I mean, let's be real - I cried - but who wasn't ready for that? And I'm pretty sure that my mom can vouch for how I would have hated it as an 8 year old too! But watching it as a 24 year old with all the memories that I have of reading the book when I was younger it was incredible! And much more relatable than I expected. I knew the book was a short picture book with 10 sentences total and movies are long with much more than 10 sentences. So, I was expecting a lot of "artsy filler" I guess and I was a little nervous about it feeling long or stretched. But they did a fantastic job of making Max's story accessible and believable. I don't want to ruin the story for those that haven't seen it yet so I won't elaborate! The characters were really what sold me though. The heart, struggles and personality that the movie gives to the "wild things" are so endearing and felt so realistic even though they were puppets! I just think that Spike Jonze did a great job of giving life and extra dimension to 2-D characters that we all know and love.

J: A movie about childhood that's not really for children. My first reaction after the credits rolled was how scared I would have been if I was a kid. I read this article about how some parents were pretty upset. I'll just say that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie but I feel it should have been a bit more geared to a younger crowd. We talked about how many levels there were to this film. Symbolism is everywhere. Max does a great job showing the frustration and incapacity of an 8 year old. But its much too realistic and complicated to be enjoyable to a child. I dont know if that was the right move.

K: I don't know. I see your point but I liked the levels and the symbolism just like you did and I liked how realistic and complicated it was (which is surprising for me). It gave the movie that depth that makes me want to go see it again. And I realize that I am not your typical movie-goer but from the moment I saw the first preview I was not thinking about it as a kid's movie because I was a little creeped out (in an awesome way) by the previews. And from the little that I did hear about it I was able to get the feeling that it was going to be more intense than say Up or Monsters vs Aliens. And I hear the argument that it is a children's book about an 8 yr old so why shouldn't I be able to take a kid to see the movie. However I feel that the movie allows "kids" to continue to grow up with the story. To me it means that someday when we have a kid, they will grow up hearing Where the Wild Things Are and looking at the pictures and let their imagination create the story. When they get older they will have a chance to watch that same story as a movie that presents the characters they know with a lot more going on under the surface that they can connect to and I hope learn from.

J: I'm looking forward to the DVD so Jonze can spoon-feed me what in the world he was talking about.

K: You could also get the book based on the screenplay - that would probably tell you alot too. It's called The Wild Things by Dave Eggers and it is a novel based on the Where the Wild Things Are screenplay. I think Spike Jonze, Maurice Sendak and Dave Eggers all worked pretty closely on both projects. Just saying ...

J: That's probably a better plan. I think we both agree this a film you should see at some point... just not when you're 8. Right?

K: Yes! Absolutely! Agreed!

Lessons Learned

I am a high school theater teacher. Some days are better than others, but on my best days I try to teach so much more than theater. I understand that I will make mistakes and I understand that it is my responsibility to learn from those mistakes. What I am beginning to understand more and more is that it is also my responsibility to learn from my students. I was blessed with a reminder of this on Friday during 4th period.

My 4th period Theater 1 class is an interesting mix of 23 girls (freshman thru seniors) and 2 freshman boys. They are always a fun class to walk into because they respond well to me and I am able to have a lot of fun with them. We usually start off the class with some sort of improv/icebreaker type game to get them talking and up on their feet. On Friday I introduced the game 2 Truths and a Lie. It's pretty self-explanatory. One student at a time they stand up and tell us 3 things about themselves, 2 of which are true and one of which is false. The class then tries to guess which one is false. It is a fun way to learn more about each other and get them used to standing up and talking in front of people. We had been playing for a bit when one of my students (we'll call her Mary) stood up and gave 3 facts that the class thought they for sure had figured out. Fact 1 was about her being a middle child, fact 2 was that she had Turrets and fact 3 was that her favorite color was pink. "Mary" has been at Goodpasture for awhile and has quite a few friends in that class. All of them knew that number 2 was false. Until she told us that #2 (her having Turrets) was true and that actually pink was NOT her favorite color. There were a variety of typical high school student responses to that ranging from "I've known you for like forever and you never told me that!" to "But you don't LOOK like you have Turrets." Mary went on to explain how it was worse when she was much younger but now it only affects her at times when she is super stressed (like exams) and that she is able to do things to keep it under control and to keep it from being too obvious. But one response in particular really caught my attention. One of my more outgoing students said this: "But I was just making fun of people with Turrets at the football game last week! You never said anything." Before I had a chance to try to respond with a "teacher type" appropriate answer Mary said this: "I know. I've had it my whole life so I've gotten used to people making fun of it. I don't want to be the one to ruin everybody's fun."

Holy cow.

It's moments like those that I wish I had a phone booth in my classroom that I could jump into and then jump out of 5 seconds later dressed as "Superteacher" so I can truly take advantage of those opportunities and use them to impact and change my student's lives. (on a side note: I wonder what Superteacher's costume would look like and if that's something I should look into for Halloween ...)However, I do not have a phone booth or a secret persona and this is only my second year so I did the best I could. I tried to tell them about how Mary was helping us be more aware of something that we had never noticed or thought of before and that it shouldn't make us treat her differently but instead, it should help us be more aware of what we say when we think it's "just a joke" or "just funny". I can only hope that it affected one person in that classroom like it affected me. Because I have not been able to stop thinking about it.

I love being funny. I love it when people think I'm funny. I love it that Josh is hilariously funny make people laugh all the time (including me). I love laughing and I love funny. How many times has my "funny" come at the expense of something or someone else? This has been a humbling question for me. I am the teacher who gets on her soapbox at the beginning of the year and bans words and insults that alot of other teachers don't ban. My students know that you do not use the word gay as an insult in my classroom. At all. The guys in my class know better than to use words like girly or sissy to try to insult another dude in class. It is a big deal to me. I believe and feel strongly that using the word gay to mean that something is stupid or bad or dumb is detrimental to an entire group of people. The same goes for girly and sissy. Using these words to describe something or someone as being weak or not good enough is harmful to an entire sex. They are insults and they are hurtful. But how many times do I look over things that are just as hurtful because they are not phrased as an insult but in a "just kidding" or joking manner. A lot of times I think that I know the people around me. But I haven't taken the time to really get to know them. Superficially and selfishly I want them to like me and I usually try to do that by making them laugh. I hope and pray that I have not every put any one in a situation like I'm sure "Mary" finds herself in all too often. But I know in my heart that I more than likely have.

For some reason, society (and understand that even more specifically I mean high school society) has made it an "uncool" thing to say that anything that was meant to be a joke was actually offensive and hurtful. Jokes are made every day about disabilities, different races or nationalities and lifestyle preferences. To stand up and say that those are anything more than jokes can be very socially damaging. People get defensive. "Geez. Can't you take a joke?" "Try getting a sense of humor." We have this way of turning the victim into the bully. They are the ones that are treating us wrongly and ruining our fun because they had the nerve to get offended. I understand that there are a lot of things out there that have the potential to be offensive to all different types of people. I refuse, however, to understand the excuse that because there is no way for me to know all of these things or be aware of everyone's situation that I shouldn't even worry about trying because people should just get over it. Hearing my students have this discussion really inspired me to begin taking more advantage of the position that I have and to start trying to be more aware myself.

I will be more aware of the jokes that I make, the statements that I laugh at and the attitude I have towards people. I will think twice before speaking to make sure that what I am saying does not come at the expense of anyone (whether that be the words and phrases that I choose to use or the things I say for a laugh). I will not get defensive when someone points out how something I say is offensive. And I also will be intentional about gently letting others know when they say something that is offensive to me. It may seem overwhelming and tedious but I really do believe that taking the time to learn more about each other AND all our differences can only help. I will not always succeed and I will not always be perfect but it is important to me that I try.

Movie Mondays!

Cause who does movie reviews on Mondays??

So I'm thinking this will be a weekly (maybe bi-weekly when my life is crazy) feature in which, I will review movies. Since Josh and I don't have a money tree growing in our back yard they won't always be new movies. Sometimes I'll pull out some oldies but goodies just in case you haven't gotten around to renting/netflixing them yet and need that extra push!
But today the movie review is a new movie, playing at a theater near you .... FAME! One of my college girlfriends, Amanda Lee, is in town for the month while her husband Chris does a crazy med-student rotation thing at Vanderbilt Hospital. I didn't have school on Friday and so we went to get a fabulous pedicure and to see the movie Fame!

Full Disclosure: I was worried. I was definitely excited but I was also nervous. I just wasn't sure if it was going to live up to my expectations of everything that I wanted it to be.

Thankfully, it did that and more! I absolutely loved it!! And Amanda did too! The movie takes place over 4 years (Freshman-Senior) at a Performing Arts academy in New York City. You follow the journey of about 8 students from the moment they enter with their dreams and hopes high until the final graduation performance. You get to watch their auditions, performances, and how lunch in a cafeteria turns into a straight-up musical number. Amanda thinks that that's what heaven will be like - spontaneous musical numbers - I could definitely get behind that! The movie incorporates the storyline and some music from the original while adding in artists and music that is recognizable to today's generation like John Legend, Santigold and Anjulie. (I already bought the soundtrack on iTunes!) As a theme, the movie dealt with what each of them was willing to give in order to "make it big" and, not to ruin anything for you, but not all of them make it which I actually really liked. Their teachers guide them through a lot of decisions through those 4 years and as promised in a speech at the very beginning, the school trains them to be "disciplined in their craft" not to be famous. I will say that it was weird to watch a movie like that and for the first time relate more to the teachers than to the students. It was a reminder to me of how much I love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else!
To sum it all up: Go see it! It's fun and will make you want to dance in the aisles on your way out of the theater!

-Kaitlyn

So ... a blog?

Josh: You're starting a blog? Don't you always judge people who have blogs?

Kaitlyn: No I don't!! I love reading everybody's blogs, I just always worry that people wouldn't really want to read what I would put in a blog.

J: Yeah... are you going to start blogging about cool weekend getaways you go on or new shoes you buy or awesome new cupcake recipes or something? because then no one would care...

K: That's not true ... I think my mom would care and my grandma definitely would. So yea maybe I will blog about new shoes and awesome weekends... probably not cupcakes though cause I don't cook. I could blog about Amanda's or Dana's cupcakes! :) But I want to blog about other stuff too. Like how there was a March for Equality on the National Mall today. I wish I could've been there but I wasn't so I want to write about it. Does that make sense?

J: So, new shoes and equality marches... I could get behind that... what else?

K: That's where you come in ...

J: Are you going to blog about me?

K: Nope! You're going to blog too! It's should be our blog. Cause I think you are a good writer. And I know you have things you could write about. And then it would change it up so people wouldn't have to read about me or what I write the whole time ... variety is good!

J: I'm a great writer... but I refuse to be a part of something lame or girlie. Like that picture up there... that seems lame... and its not going to be "Kaitlyn's blog with Kaitlyn's husband sometimes" is it? Will I get title recognition?

K: Ok whoa. First of all, if you want a better picture then maybe you should buy a better camera and take more pictures with me. And yes you will get recognition beyond "Kaitlyn's husband". It will be our blog- for both of us. Which means I promise not to pick a really girly theme or decorations or anything like that. And I think it will be awesome. We'll talk about all the things that we usually talk about with just each other except now we'll just start sending it out into the wide world of the internets. Like for example, awesome sports posts, movie, music and tv review type things, we can tell awesome stories about things that happen in our classroom and just in our life (like how a baby kitty got stuck in my Mustang today ... more on that later), and then also some "deeper posts" about faith and politics would be cool too I think.

J: Ohhh yeahhhhh that little cat was freaking outtttttt..... I get it... we have awesome conversations all the time and now the world will get to hear how awesome they are. I'm down... but you said politics in there... we always freak out about people finding out about our crazy liberal leanings... you're ready to put that out there?

K: Yea they're not leanings, hon, we're straight up liberals. And I guess hopefully people will still love us... and if they don't like it they don't have to read it?? maybe?

J: Haha... alright. Is it going to be super intense all the time?

K: No I don't think so! We'll throw in the funny/awesome with the intense/awesome and it will hopefully just be all around awesome! Or I guess at least tolerable? I don't know, I guess if nothing else it will just kind of be an outlet for our random musings and creativity and jumbled thoughts and stories. That kind of outlet is always important.

J: "That kind of outlet is always important"... nerd alert... but alright, I like the fact that it's going to be awesome...

K: Definitely, so all that's left is a name .....

J: Oh man... this seems like something that we'll spend way too much time worrying about and taking a long time deciding

K: Yup. hmmm. maybe we should take suggestions?

J: Great plan.

K: Welcome to our blog, guys! Title suggestions?