Down the Line

Sunset last night. Lake Michigan.

I. We should be healthy not just to be healthy but because our health affects our feelings and our feelings empower or disable our actions. Our actions are our relationships with others, our world.

II. A camper shared this with me: Think beautiful thoughts and you will choose beautiful actions. Beautiful actions make a beautiful life.

Is It Necessary?

During Pre-Camp staff bonding day, the entire men's and women's staff came together for a team-building exercise in the pine forest. The exercise was simple enough--fourteen members of the staff were to scare a fifteen-foot wall using only their bodies to hoist and lift one another over. The rest of us were to watch. The catch--everyone was to be silent. The release--you could speak one time. Everyone was handed a speaking coupon with one of these questions on it:

Is it true?
Is it helpful?
Is it inspiring?
Is it kind?
And, finally, Is it necessary?

You could use your coupon once to say thing as long as it affirmatively answered the question it asked. I was given the last question. Necessary.

As counselors squatted and pulled and pushed and threw their legs over the wall we would pause every so often to hear something inspiring, a helpful piece of advice, a true memo of something worth nothing. I stayed silent, staring down at my question. There were many times I had something uplifting to share with the group, but they weren't particularly down-trodden. There were times I had a tip, but they figured it out without my words. Is it necessary? Is it necessary?

I never used my coupon. I just couldn't justify my voice.

As a good metaphorical activity should, I've kept this experience in my front pocket during this first week of camp. I want to tell the girls in the bathhouse the breakfast bell rings in one minute--they need to scoot. But I suppose they will do what they will. put my toothbrush away. I walk outside, flip flops soaking in morning dew. I want to tell the 4th grader the waves sound extra big today as we make our way down the beach stairs. is it necessary. I let the waves do the talking. Last night I looked out my bedside window in my head counselor cabin. The oldest girl's lights were still on at 10:25 PM. I pulled back my wool blanket, ready to tell them Enough. Good night. But I thought of my question, pulled the covers up again, kept reading Viola Spolin. The cabin went dark in five minutes.

I wonder long and hard about this question. Two years ago I spent most of my meals with a trips counselor who loves the earth. I frequently jabbed her on this point--she loves the earth and preaches recycling but ate meat. These two don't go, I joked (not a joke). At the end of the summer, she still ate meat. But, this summer, she doesn't. And hasn't. For over a year. Is it necessary?

On Bridesmaids & Changing Your Mind

People are wiiggin' about Bridesmaids. (Get it? Wiiggin?) I have to admit, I am very interested. I like women. I like comedy. I love women doing comedy. I really love Kristen Wiig.

I like that people are accepting women as naturally funny because of this movie. It doesn't have to be an anomaly anymore. But, this movie was still produced by Judd Apatow. I don't hate or even dislike this guy as much as I probably should. The truth is I laughed a lot at Superbad. Like, a lot.

Muff hates his movies because they all remind us that men spend mucho percent of their time talking about and noticing hot women. Whether it's art imitating life or vice versa, I don't really care. It's something I'd rather not have continue in society, and splicing comedy with an unfavorable male habit tricks everyone into liking it. Or, at least accepting it subliminally.

So, naturally, Jamin suggests Bridesmaids to me because he knows what I said in line one: I am all about women busting into comedy. And I said, "No, thanks." Because I read an interview with Wiig about the process, and there's at least one part of the movie she didn't want in--some scene where all the girls, like, get diarrhea or fall in mud or something. So, that bugs me. I don't really want to contribute to box office sales of a movie that could have been perfectly funny without Mr. Apatow butting in and asking for all the girls to lose all self-respect just for a while. Maybe it's purely because anyone falling in mud and losing face is funny, but it's different having men, who already run comedy, get involved in shtick. I guess you could argue it's sexist to NOT have women do the same stupid stuff men do in movies. There's a point there, but it's balancing on the fine line of...something.

Jamin said, "But Wiig co-produced, and you probably want to support her." Which is true. I do want to support her. I am really involved with how I spend my money, because I really do see it as a vote. I don't personally have a problem with my health because of McDonald's, but I know a lot of this country does, so, if I can, I don't contribute to the problem--even though it doesn't directly affect me. But, that's really just half the battle.

The other half is not exposing yourself to things that you don't support because they do change your mind. It's pretty naive to think we can just enter restaurants we feel fundamentally against and not slowly come to like them better, to watch movies we know will involve themes we don't support and leave with the same pure mindset we had before showtime. Even though I will be a vegetarian forever, when I enter McDonalds, I see the prettiest picture of chicken strips--with a vibrant purple backdrop. Maybe I'll never act on the sudden impulse to eat some, but the thought has been planted, and that makes my ideas on the subject just a little weaker. Just a little cloudier.

Seeing Bridesmaids may be a big step for women in comedy, but it's still women in comedy as a man views them. And even if I know that going in, I'm obviously going to leave subliminally thinking things about myself as a women and a comedian I didn't think before. And, I'm not ready for that.

Recap:
*Our actions are important because we actually give physical support to things. Let's make it stuff we do support.
*Our actions are important because what we do changes our minds whether we recognize that immediately or not.
*The part where McLovin says he almost got "Muhammad" is the funniest ever.

Not Watching Spring Break!

1. At the gym, turn on MTV.
2. See that it's MTV's Spring Break.
3. Wonder what the point of MTV's televised Spring Break is. Kids that are doing it are there--having fun. Kids that aren't are watching and feeling lame about their lives.
4. Wonder if the majority of kids currently on MTV's Spring Break spent a Spring Break watching MTV's Spring Break, feeling like a loser middle schooler/ high schooler, and promising to one day BE on MTV's Spring Break.
5. Therefore, by broadcasting what a "cool" Spring Break is, MTV has defined it for hella peeps and perpetuated it through peer pressure via programming.
6. Realize a sad cycle for our youth.
7. Decide to watch MTV's Spring Break to see how lame it is.
8. Change my mind!
9. Decide not to even give MTV's Spring Break that satisfaction!!!!!
10. Listen to "Put on a Happy Face" from Bye Bye Birdie!


My Spring Break partners in crime. Photo post-Robin Hood. May 2010.

And spread sunshine all over the place. Just put on a happy face.