Sweet Tea and a Cloudy Sky

I feel strongly about many issues in society, but the ones I take the most action about are environmental issues and LGBT equality issues.

The environment is important to me because I have always enjoyed being outdoors and surrounded by nature. I also feel as though nature has more rights to the world than humans do, and that destroying things that were there first is wrong. These things can’t stand up for themselves and it is our responsibility to make sure we don’t encroach on the rights of other things.

When I first started high school, I made friends with a lot of people who either fell under the LGBTQ umbrella or felt strongly about the issues raised, and I found that I believed similar things. I feel comfortable around the people I’ve met within the community, and this is a trend that has continued into my life at GMU.

I would like to be able to provide new ideas to whatever service site I do my Service Learning project with. I hope to be able to introdice new ways of thinking and possibly more efficient methods of achieving goals. I expect my service site to be a place where I feel comfortable and needed. I would like to feel that I am actually doing something positive for my community and that my work is actually helping someone. I feel that a service site will probably expect me to carry out simple volunteer duties and daily tasks. The probably expect me to be helpful and friendly and enthusiastic about the cause, which are qualities that I also hope I will be able to exhibit.

I think the only “moment of obligation” I’ve had to speak of in a social action sense would be less of a moment and more of a continued learning and immersion process. As I engaged myself in the LGBT community, I became more committed to the issues and invested in the social change aspect. I began to realize exactly what extent these issues had on my life, my friends and my society as a whole. These realizations combined to get me where I am today as far as social action is concerned.

“Thank you for joining our discussion. We would like to remind you that this chat room is rated E.”

Games are rated on a pretty messed up scale. The most “harmless” games are rated E for “everyone.”
Well, LIFE isn’t rated E. There are things that seriously are just too much for some people to deal with. That’s why people are GROWING. They’re learning to deal with things. The movie scale is much more correct. “Harmless” movies are rated G for General. The general population makes it through life okay. There aren’t too many problems for most people. Next step up is PG. Parental guidance. Some people need help with certain themes in life, need a little guidance, therapy to make it through. Not a big deal. Then we get PG-13 themes. Things that people are expected to eventually figure out how to deal with on their own.
I don’t think I even need to go any farther.

Just some thoughts I had.

This is the first article in the series on normalcy! Article written by Bes.

Recently, while pondering over the idea of what the society dictates for others to follow, Marie Lianne and myself were discussing the idea of what “normal” means in the society. The concept of normal applies to most of the things in our daily lives, even when we do not use that word. If people consider something to be acceptable by the majority, it seems like a normal thing to do, or a normal phenomenon. If there is anything that many people would consider irregular, or not a naturally recurring phenomenon that can be accepted easily, people consider it to be something far from normal.

Look at the picture in this paragraph for a very gentle example. Would you consider what the guy in the picture is doing a “normal” thing that guys his age and size do? I do, because I would want to do that and more myself. How about you? What do you consider normal about this picture? What do you consider abnormal about this picture?

This is the first in a series of articles revolving around the concept of normality, and what “normal” is considered to be. Today, this article will briefly focus on thoughts that revolve around the meaning of the word “Normal.”

Please continue reading this article at TheReasoner.com!

I will be writing an article in response/bouncing off of these ideas that should be published in a while! Please leave your comments, as input will be considered when writing future articles!

While I was in DC the other day I stopped in at Kramerbooks. I wrote out a list of books I want to read. I’m not sure how I’m going to get ahold of them – I can’t afford them and I don’t think I’ll find them at a library.

At any rate. I want to start reading books and posting reviews, thoughts, etc.