Why I'm Wrong About Mostly Everything

My perspective has been all wrong. As one gets older, other people don't lose sight of what is proper and right. What really happens is that, as you get older, you become wrong about what is proper and right. If everyone else thinks things should be a certain way, you are not the lone keeper of truth -- you are a rebel thinker; you are incorrect in your assumptions. If "perception is reality," and you perceive things differently than everyone else does, you are out of touch with reality, especially when it comes to social issues.

A young -- and highly respected -- former student responded to my recent (satirical) "The Emperor Decrees" post about sports. His contention is that that showboating and arrogance in professional athletics, today, is just part of the game. He also believes that a player's behavior off of the field is irrelevant. I disagree, on both counts. It's why I have stopped watching certain sports.

Anecdotal evidence tells me that my former student's contemporaries mostly feel the same way as he does; therefore, I am wrong. Period.

Recently, I had a conversation with someone slightly older than myself. I mentioned that I recently saw a statement that maintains that the average Londoner is captured on surveillance cameras hundreds of times a day. Shaking my head, sorrowfully, I also mentioned the intended use of drone surveillance machines by police departments. Expecting to hear "Good God. Orwell was right," instead, I heard, "Well, it's necessary with terrorism these days."

Is That a Fact?

The internet can really be a horrible place. The worst thing about it may not be the lasciviousness, but the constant purveying of bad and unsupported information.

I can't count the number of times I have seen people post pictures of the supposed time-machine settings from Back to the Future with the caption "Today is the day Marty McFly went to, in the movie!" Well, it ain't and it won't be for another three years.

For your info, the date was October 21, 2015. Cripes. How much of a hurry are we in to feel old? (You can check me -- I looked it up on Snopes, whose writer cites an article in The Chicago Tribune, that verifies.)

What really got me thinking about this, though, is a Twitter account I decided to follow. It is called "Injustice Facts." I, too, spent some time reading horrible "facts" about injustices around the world and shaking my head in sympathy. Then, after seeing a "fact" that claims that 43% of women who move to Hollywood to get into movies wind up in pornography, it occurred to me: they never seem to offer documentation for their claims.

43%? It makes a solid impact on the reader, but can this possibly be right?

Shark on a Leash

I'm losing weight. Again.

I've never been really obese, but I have often ventured in and out of the land of Flabbesia. I've done the up-and-down thing.

Losing weight? No problem. This time, I dropped ten pounds in three weeks. Nothing new. This advantage has been a bit of a disadvantage to me: "Well, I can drop the weight any time," I say, as I dive into a gallon of ice cream. Literally. Dive in. And chew my way out.

As far as appearance, when I gain weight, people start asking me if I have been lifting weights. I short, I am cursed/blessed with proportional weight-gain. I can carry it off -- to an extent.

"You're not fat," people say, kindly. But I know the numbers.

A Question of Intimacy

There are still people out there, you know, who think boys and girls ought to be separated during the educational process. I am not one of them, to be clear. But I do sometimes wonder if we are taking things too far in some cases. We need to be careful not to confuse equality with sameness.

Now, we are even integrating sports. Early on, in baseball, for instance -- or in soccer, even -- I see no problem with this. And, to be fair, we do separate them when the stakes get higher. You simply do not want a 200 pound boy flying toward a 110 pound girl on a kick-off return. It's just not safe.

Today, though, I sat and watched a Saturday karate class at my sons' school. Girls and boys are mixed into the classes. This all seems okay to me when it comes to practicing kicks and punches on the bags or when working on Tang Soo Do forms; but, during this particular class the kids were asked to partner-up and work on take-downs.

Should girls and boys be practicing jiu-jitsu (which is more of a wrestling form) together?

Atticus

I'm teaching my creative writing class to write fiction, now. This quarter, they start writing a novel. I know it is a novel that most of them will never finish, but the least I can do is to give them a push in the right direction.

As part of my plan, I am showing them two movies. They have read novels, but, for my purposes, the movies I have picked (Dances With Wolves and To Kill A Mockingbird) are effective in having them explore novel-style story structure.

Scout and Atticus

Today, we started talking about To Kill A Mockingbird, which they have all read at some point or another (way too early, as per the ridiculous and ubiquitous assumption that it is a book that kids are intellectually ready for simply because kids are the main characters), and I had an epiphany.

I stopped the lesson. I paused the film after Atticus hugs Scout good night. I told the girls that I wasn't talking to them for the moment. They laughed. I addressed the guys.