Monday, July 23, 2007

Why am I compelled

I am just going to put this out there. I love Wife Swap. It is such a good show. Now, the name, if you haven't seen it might throw you for a loop. The truth is, the producers of the show get two families that are polar opposites, and forces them to live together for 2 weeks. They move the mothers to opposite houses. The first week the mothers must follow the rules of their new house. It is interesting to watch them go against the grain of their comfort zones. As you could imagine they do it kicking and screaming. They bite their tongues knowing that that their redemption and pay back is coming. They make it through the week begrudgingly to say the least. The next week, the moms get to make new rules. The family must follow them. The rules, as you would suspect, are the opposite ones. This creates a rift between the family and the new "mom". It sets up nine kinds of angst. The rule changes usually expose some sort of bigotry, unfairness, lack of respect, or oppression.

Tonight episode had an ultra conservative Mennonite family, and a more liberal "punk rock" family. You can see the writing on the wall, I am sure. The mom from the "punk" family fronts the family band. Well, the new mom must sing in the band. Well, let's be honest punk rock and Mennonite don't so much mesh. The mother, after some kicking and screaming and talking about how this went against her religious convictions, got on stage and told the audience that Jesus loved them. It was okay, and she told the "punk" father his son's video games were too violent. The next week she taught this same child about the crucifixion. Now, call me crazy but isn't that the most violent story in history. The show exposes biases on both sides. In the end, the families figure out how crazy they are, and they realize they need to loosen of tighten up the way they parent for treat their spouse.

While they hate each other, at first, they usually have a "sorry I yelled/disrespected" you moment. It is a really good show. I am really impressed with it. You should check it out. Mondays 7pm ABC.

Vaya Con Dios

-broc

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Freedom

What is Freedom? I am not sure exactly, because I am not sure I fully have it. I think i means having the ability to accomplish all that is in front of you. I think it's the ability to get out of any situation unscathed. I think it's the ability to stand up and live in full, peace, joy and enjoyment with unrestricted access to everything. I think it also means breathing in fully where your lungs tingle because they are so full. I am going to get there, I will be unrestricted in everything I want to accomplish.