Random Thoughts

What Am I Doing To My Children?

In the picture above, you can see Logan sporting his favorite present from his recent birthday, an Indiana Jones hat. My brother Jerry and Kirt sent this to him and since he got it, it rarely leaves his head. We also have taken to calling him Indy (I mean why wouldn't we) and it made me think about the influence we have on our kids when it comes to popular culture. I have talked about this before, but it is quite something to realize this kid has never seen any of the movies and yet is just below obsessed with a cultural icon from the 80s that was my hero growing up. Wii Indiana Jones Lego game has a lot to do with it...ok a WHOLE lot, but the only reason I bought it was because he was my hero. Little did I know the fascination my kids would have with that one game. It is really funny that before he got the hat, Logan did not want to be called Indy or Indiana, he wanted to be called Short Round. In fact, would not answer sometimes if you didn't call him Short Round. The irony of that is that Short Round is in the second Indiana Jones movie. I think we all know what that means. Just in case you lived under a rock though, the second Indiana Jones movie is a huge reason behind why we now have the PG13 rating. Beating heart being pulled from a guys chest or something or other, I would prefer not to talk about it. Anyway, it is just funny to me that my five year old is demanding to be called by a character's name from a movie he won't be able to watch until he is 12 or 13...wait, I can hear Shannon's voice in my mind as I write this and she is saying 16 if ever. That is a discussion for a later day, but you get the point. The funny thing is, Abby is also into something that she knows very little about. She got a Batman shirt and absolutely loves it. It is just the Batman logo, but she considers it her coolest shirt. Here again, she hasn't ever seen any of the Batman movies new or old. (I suppose if we are in need of a punishment for her, we could force her to watch the one with Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey.) But she thinks it is cool. Why? I am sure she overheard the constant raving that I did over the Dark Knight. I am also aware that some of her friends at school probably have played a role in this as they have probably seen the movie, but still. I look forward to watching Batman Begins with her whenever I get clearance from Shannon. I don't think I will get to watch The Dark Knight with her as Shannon isn't sure that she was even old enough to watch it at 33. Clearly my wife and I have different tastes in movies. (An aside, isn't it pretty cool that the ageless Richard Alpert is also the mayor of Gotham City in The Dark Knight? Who is this guy? For those of you who are not Lost fans, you won't get this. For those of you who are, that is my number one question as we go into season 6. Who is that guy and where did he come from? I digress)

The Cost of Having It All

You know, over the last few months being in the bishopric, spending time with family and making observations in general, I have come to an epiphany: Marriage can be really hard. Please understand that I am not making any comments on my own marriage and therefore trying to read between the lines will not get you anywhere. I just realize that every marriage has its tough times. So it has been hard to watch this Tiger Woods thing blow up. The prevailing thought I keep coming across is, "What an Idiot!" I can't say that I disagree. (I actually read an article today where the wife of one of my favorite columnists said if her husband ever did this, she would beat him to death with his 2.8 pound book that he just wrote. I have seen that book, and I would caution him to avoid making this same mistake as Tiger, because that book likely could kill him.) But I just can't help but feel very bad for both he and his wife. Regardless of how this ends up playing out, this has to be the worst moment in both their lives and it is happening in front of the world. The fact that it is happening this way really doesn't say much for our society. At least in the days of the Romans and Gladiators, the tearing apart of people in front of the crowd was over relatively quickly and the dead didn't have to deal with it much beyond that. Now we just seem to enjoy destroying someone and then putting them on display for a few weeks to watch them helplessly thrash around. It makes me think of that movie plot where the guy is supposed to be completely under the influence of anesthesia, but he is only part way. So he hears his wife talking with the Surgeon about how they are going to murder him during the surgery. It kind of seems like that is what we want to do to people when we discover shortcomings. There is no winner here and while a 9-iron to the back of the head is probably appropriate, I just feel bad for the both of them and silently wish them the best.

What School Did I Go To?

Shannon was remarking the other day that school is way different than when we went. My children had early release this last Wednesday. Let me be very clear what that means. They had a half day three days after the Thanksgiving holiday. REALLY? Then yesterday, both Abby and Braden come home with tales of parties they were going to be having. Were they speaking of their Christmas parties? Of course not. They were talking about parties for being good. What??? Abby's class had a doughnut party for good behavior. If they continue, they will get to have a rootbeer float party. Braden, meanwhile, is having a party for being good while the Superintendant was in the classroom. That's it. If I had known we could have pulled this kind of extortion when I was in school, back up the ice cream truck and let's get this party started. I mean, is it just me or wasn't having good behavior just kind of expected? Conversely, not having good behavior usually ended in a bad place thus encouraging children not to have bad behavior again. I am not saying one or the other is right necessarily. I am just saying I got completely jipped.

Tomorrow's the Day

I would like to wish my Dad/New Father-in-Law and my Mother-in-Law/New Step-Mother congratulations on their wedding tomorrow. I have to say, there is nothing more fun than just throwing that scenerio out to people with no explanation and then watch the realization come over them. I don't say anything, I just kind of nod. I enjoy the look of confusion transform into understanding as their minds click into place exactly what I have just said. In fact, Alan Sparks came up to me the other day having been the salesperson our parents dealt with at the Ashley Home Store and just took a moment to clarify what he thought he heard, but wasn't sure how that could be. No Alan, it is exactly what you heard. So congratulations parental figures (easier to generalize than use all of the titles that now apply), we love you. I just hope you haven't caused Shannon and I to be in violation of any laws in the process.