Grinding

There are two types of teenagers... there's girls and there's boys. One can usually find these creatures at school dances, and when there are girls and boys in a sweaty room together, the inevitable happens... grinding.  For those of you who have never heard of it, here is the urban dictionary definition:

Grinding: Also Known As Dirty Dancing. When a girl is rubbing her butt all over a guys dick until it comes to the point where he gets a woody

In recent years this cultural phenomenon has been increasingly popular. Let's first look at the causes. This era of music, particularly hip-hop (although country is this way too) is dirty. And by dirty i mean very suggestive in the sexual realm. As a teenager we tend to listen to this music on a day to day basis, which means we engrave in our brains that it is okay for people to be blatantly sexual in the dancing/music category. And like i said the surroundings don't help either. dark room+ girls showing skin+ dancing+ dirty music= teenagers doing dirty things.. grinding. Seriously, that is not exactly a formula for purity or abstinence.  The next cause is hormones. I don't really need to go into an elaborate explanation, it's pretty standard.

Now let's look at adults. Teachers, Parents, Administrators, etc. have been going acrad over this issue for about the last ten years. And somewhat drastic measures have been taken because of it. In fact I have read several articles where parents took evasive action to prevent the grinding from happening. Particularly, by way of public disgrace. The idea is that at the dance, adults will bring flashlights and shine them on the grinders, exposing them to public disgrace, and stopping said behavior. While this is a great idea, i don't think shining a campfire flashlight at a teenager will stop them because in reality they can just move to a different location.. but great job mom. I have also heard the technique of teaching teenagers some fun dances before the school event. (i.e. Salsa, swing, etc.) I honestly would love to have a lesson or two myself but as far as the goal of preventing grinding goes, there is still that equation listed above. Dark room+girls showing skin+dancing+dirty music. SO nice try but it doesn't eliminate the fact that we're still horny teenagers no matter how many "neat" dances you teach us.

I personally have been exposed to many forms of grinding, and in my experiences i have found that there are two kinds. The first i like to call "standard grinding", which is more like dancing and less like having sex. The girl and guy are in more of a standing position and her butt is slightly touching his genitals but by and by it's.... slightly okay. The other form of grinding is the type that you see and you basically feel like you're watching a live porno. The girl's butt is scrunched into the guy's genitals, usually their knees are slightly bent, and the guy is putting his hands all over the girls mid to upper thighs. That my friends is a significant difference.

And to be honest not many teens fight anyone on the subject, but as i made my transition to a private school i started to hear "the rebels" (mostly horny guys) defending it. They said things like "All grinding is, is dancing. So what's the big deal?"

First off let me say that nobody in there right mind would start off an argument like that.

Well i have to agree, that grinding is indeed dancing, but the reality is, it is completely unacceptable. But it is very inevitable (Like i mentioned in the formula). In order to take away the effect, which in this case is grinding, You must take away the cause, which is I'm sorry to say is hormones. And this simply cannot be done and for good reason to, because we would have no more babies and everyone would die out.

But hey, I'll let you know when adults actually come up with a solution to grinding. You never can tell what bright ideas they will come up with next!!

The Lies that Plague us All

T.S Eliot was born in 1888 and when he was just 26 he wrote "The Hollow Men". A poem about humanity that is plagued by a loss of will and faith. As i thought about this i started to observe our society through an objective lens. And I came to the conclusion that all around us, society entices us to be hollow... in  our magazines, commercials, music, stores, etc. Everyday we read thousands of adds that say a myriad of different things but all mean the same thing.. "The key to happiness is buying this product". But with that comes an empty soul... and a lust and passion for nothing but the dust in the ground.
  As Eliot so beautifully puts it " Shape without form, shade without color, paralyzed force, gesture without motion."

I am afraid we all find ourselves hollow. Striving for what? For a pair of eyes to gaze on us in acceptance. to feel revered in society. But where does that get us.. it creates beautiful skin, beautiful complexion, but underneath.. a heart of stone. And all too often we find our identity in the lies of society. Crawling and holding onto the worthlessness of the world. This is our curse. Eliot was right, we are a doomed people stuffed with straw... flowing with nothing. nothing but shallow lies.

 "This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
this is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."

I love that line. It's so simple yet so powerful..as if the final moments of life on earth are full of cowards writhing, spitting, coughing. Never fighting or trying. Not a victorious cry but a sad, sad whimper.
Although it seems like i am writing, about the doom and gloom of the world, i am here to tell you that my objective is completely the opposite. To say and encourage the world that we can be so much more, we can stare death in the face and know the divine victory. We can love with every pore and beat of our hearts, and look at the broken and call them beautiful. I am convinced the only reason why we stoop to being hollow is simply that we can't stand to face the world. Our childish innocence turns into open eyes, and we realize the core of the world, and frankly it scares us. It scares me. To know that there is the sting of loneliness and the reality of time. 
However, what T.S Eliot doesn't mention is the hope that humanity has. We are often a people of hollow ambition, but we also rise against the doom and evil in the world to reveal the divine truth. And show our brothers the victory of love, truth, and life! That apart we are weak, but together we are courageous.


To Read this Beautiful poem click the link below:
"The Hollow Men": http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/784/

The Art of Blogging

Invariably blogging is like talking out loud, to people. I came to this conclusion today while i was reading John Scalzi's, oh so random blog titled The Terror of Bad Chocolate, and from that came the thought that there is no real way to blog. Take John Scalzi for example, one of the most well known and beloved bloggers of the century and he writes a blog about fake chocolate and how it's somewhat like bad sex only worse. By and by, a perfect example of how a blogger can write about nothing and call it the blog of the century. Woop dee doo, Scalzi managed to stealthily talk about his sex life juxtaposed to fake chocolate.

Then there are the idiot bloggers.. I honestly don't even know why they blog because everything they say is just so dang idiotic. But yet i find myself reading their blogs... sort of mesmerized by their complete lack of intellect. It kind of reminds me of high school in a way..

 But by far one of my favorite things about bloggers is sarcasm. It comes off as a little pessimistic but it makes a topic ten times more funny. It sort of draws you in and you just can't stop reading no matter how hard you try.

And of course you have those bloggers that go on and on and on... and by the time you read half of their blog your eyes are crossed and your brain is falling out of your skull. A good way to avoid this unfortunate occurrence, is if you go to their blog and one post is the whole length of the screen in tiny font... I say run. Or brave it, but you were warned.

Yes, it's true, blogs are like mystery prizes, you just never know what you will get..

In fact life is a little like mystery prizes. Maybe the reason why we all like reading blogs is because we find human connection in a blog. We realize that whatever we're going through, our joys, fears, and pain is not all done alone. That we stand together in this world, even though it feels like we're completely alone. So you see my friends, there is no real way to bog, and that is the true art of blogging.