On the first of May in 2009, we featured this song by Men Without Hats. It was a joyous tune to welcome in the spring, as is done throughout the British Isles on that day. Meanwhile ...
At the high school I attended back in Ohio in the early 1970s, the idea that one could be honored for anything other than athletic or academic achievement was completely foreign. Nothing else brought honor and glory to the school, so what was the point? Maybe it was just the school I attended. Actually, I'm pretty sure it was. The good news is, they've wised up since then. I believed it happened in the 1980s, when Huey Lewis announced to the world that it was finally “hip to be square!”
I don't usually watch the TV series Glee. I can't even remember what network it's on. Watching a series is an investment. You have to stick around for the next episode and see what happens to so-and-so, and I just don't have that kind of time. But I did have time for this number, which could happen at any time, at any shopping mall, on the part of those who have the right to be themselves. You may hear about kids with same-sex attraction being bullied, and how serious the problem is. It's not the whole story, not even close. You never have to be different in sexual proclivity to be bullied. All you really have to be ... is different.
And so, we celebrate being the way God made us, with the hope of living according to His plan, during this Octave of the Resurrection of His Son, and for this week's Friday Afternoon Moment of Whimsy.
And "thank you for letting me be myself ... again."
1 comment:
You are so right. My daughter (17) started singing along with the Lady Gaga song "Born this Way" in the car the other day. She was making up words that went something like, "It doesn't matter how lame I am, you can't say anything about it because I was born this way." I don't remember the lyrics but her point was: A hundred songs have already said this, it doesn't matter who you are or what you do, you can excuse anything by saying you were born that way.
Like most teens she is hardly a social conservative, but she's not a libertine either and has little patience for fatuous sentiment that would excuse being a gang member or a child molester just to justify whatever else you want to justify. A kid can be taunted for ANYTHING, that's the kind of behavior adults need to step down on hard. Telling them not to taunt gay teens is not the same thing as telling them not to taunt anyone for any reason. They notice who is a protected class and who isn't!
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