people - and i mean people with whom i interact with some regularity - tend to judge things, primarily art, using hyperbole. it's really starting to bug me. it would bug me even more...if i didn't do it myself.
example.
upon being asked 'How was the movie?': "It was great! I mean, it wasn't the best movie ever made or anything, but it was really good!"
or
"It was terrible! Not the worst movie I've ever seen, but still really, really bad."
this type of judgment is absolutely inane. you (and i) are offering no real evaluation of a film or musical artist - or whatever it be - when we use hyperbole in this manner. to say something is not the best or not the worst is to say nothing at all.
compare it to another film. compare it to some standard (your own, a critics, etc.). use descriptive language. grab on to something tangible, for elysium's sake! but do not compare it against the end of either extreme on the spectrum; it is, like resistance against the Borg, futile.
Hurray...for voting!!! I hope we all will make a difference in this upcoming election. The world needs to see that we conservatives exist & are a force to be reckoned with!!!
yeah...my nerdy fiance researched it for me! ;-) It's by some like Moose quartet or something..but still yeah..impressive..very impressive. LOVE THE WORDS OF THE SONG!!!
A certain principle has come to my attention recently. It’s a new revelation to me, so the details are still a bit foggy. Only time will tell if I can master it in practice.
The enactment of this principle will not be necessary for many, as they are already participating in it – knowingly or not. I think it is a greater challenge for men, and it has certainly proven to be a difficult hurdle for me to clear, as even its absence was difficult to detect.
The principle is this. To truly love someone, you must give them the license to hurt you.
It’s trite to say that the people you love hurt you the most. The analogy is common of guarding ourselves around strangers and enemies but opening wide our arms to those we choose to love – making it that much easier for them to stab us in the chest.
In my experience, men are capable of refusing this license. I know I am. I can choose to love, but I do not necessarily give the people I love the power to hurt me. Those people might do things that should hurt me, by their words or behavior, but I have effectively cauterized the nerve endings that were designed to be startled by such events.
The reason is obvious: no one likes pain. And however it happened – whether it was through years of subconscious training, or in reaction to being hurt deeply in the past – we learned how to withhold the power to hurt.
Nothing bothers us. Unkind words don’t faze us. Being slighted, being abandoned, being betrayed rolls right off our backs. We’ve learned how to toughen our shells and roll our eyes when anyone does something hurtful.
Men are supposed to be strong. I believe part of this tough disposition is God-given. If we are the protectors, the hunters, we need a level of armor that prevents us from being wounded or distracted by every mean person and every disappointment that comes along.
But I believe God also set a standard of giving those whom He loves the license to hurt Him. Who more than the Almighty has the power to refuse pain?? Who more than He could choose to remain emotionally absent from the conflicts we create?
And yet He does hurt. Knowing full well that we will disappoint Him, reject Him, and engage in every kind of hurtful behavior at His expense – He still weeps. His heart still breaks. He grieves over the pain that is caused by our sin.
When he was a human it was the same story. He wept when the one he loved died. His heart was moved with compassion by sinful, hurtful people. I have no doubt that it broke his heart to see His once loyal followers, His disciples, abandon Him in His darkest hour.
Paul was hurt when the people he trusted betrayed him. Elijah was hurt when he felt completely alone. Joseph wept when he saw his brothers again in Egypt.
I realize there’s a big difference between your wife saying something mean to you and her dying. My point is: it is healthy to be affected by the people you love.
You may read this and say, “Of course the people I love have the power to hurt me! They have that power and I never even gave it to them!” Like I said earlier, I believe it’s much more natural for some people to give this license than it is for others.
If you’re in my camp, and you have learned to entrust this power to no one, not even the one you love the most – then give it up. Why?
Why does God give us the power to hurt Him? Doesn’t it proclaim His love is real? Doesn’t it tell us that He is interested in a real, genuine relationship with us? That He has invested His very heart into that relationship? Doesn’t it imply that He has something to lose, that He has taken the risk of being hurt by loving us?
Giving the person you love the license to hurt you is not only healthy for you, but it shows them that you truly love them. Making yourself vulnerable, opening wide your arms, is a deep expression of love that speaks much louder than any word.
It’s not easy. For many, it’s not natural. It involves being exposed and susceptible to unpleasant pain. It involves risk, and there’s no telling if your risk will pay off.
But isn’t that the point? Can it truly be love without risk?
Wow....thats deep! Carri Hawkins here.. I'm somewhat new to pleo. I've been married 28 yrs and there have been a few times we both have said or done something that hurt the other...either unintentionally or unfortunately very intentionally....because we are two imperfect people. I don't think men aren't hurt any less or are less sensitive than women are: Criticism, Rejection, Comparisons, Betrayal, Disrespect, Thoughtless Comments or Behaviour, Avoidance/Ignoring, and the like can hurt or cause conflict or a reaction (inward or outward) in just about anyone. When I married we made vows to love & cherish each other for "better or worse"...sometimes the "worse" can be what is inside us or feelings at the time and not some outside source. You're the greatest & Keep in touch!
i couldn't swallow the ending.
A)what about life boats? People can swim right?
Joker said BOTH would blow at 12am. If they decided not to blow the other one up that meant they should be swimming back to shore or boating w/e.
B) I would have blown up the other ship w/o a 2nd thought. That was the right thing to do. It would have saved everyone else's life. They had no way of knowing they would get disarmed. But no they decided that 2x the number of people should die.
Seriously, you don't see Batman going "well... if i cant save both Dent and Gyllenhall, then i wont save any because then by choosing i would have killed the other one." No! he saved one! *sigh
plus he saved dent the first time for 2 reasons: not to let evil win. and so gotham would have a hero.
and at the end if he had let the people know Dent caused his own death and Batman was still good, Evil would have lost and batman would still be a hero. But no! batman messed all that up, "Tell the people evil won by taking out Dent and tell them i am bad too."
Very nice, I enjoyed reading that! After the first viewing of the Dark Knight all I knew was that I had to see it again. Today, after viewing #2, I saw a lot of Christ, Satan, and Job. I think I need to see it one more time to fully formulate my thoughts.
Brian, there is a significant moral difference between not being able to save everyone and being the one who kills somebody else. The Joker (or more specifically his henchmen) killed Gyllenhall's character...not Batman. It is one thing to sacrifice my own life to save another...it is another thing altogether to deliberately blow somebody else up to save my own skin.
I agree though that the whole "who takes the rap" thing at the end with Dent and Batman was messed up. There were other alternatives that would not have involved villifying Batman or destroying the reputation of Dent...but the alternatives would probably not have made as dramatic an ending.
I have to agree with you, grizzlytwelve. I don't think I could willingly kill a boatload of people and still be at peace with my conscience. To me it's not a matter of my own death, it's a matter of living with the decision I would have made. I could have lived with the guilt of killing a few hundred others, or died knowing that my conscience was clean.
a review will be up soon of The Dark Knight, most likely after I've seen it a second time and had a chance to really digest it.
the verdict, though, at this point...is that I like Wall•E more than I like the long-awaited sequel to the brilliant Batman Begins. and that's just scary.
i am currently in life's proverbial blender, feeling very unsettled and unstructured.
i have many goals for myself at present - from improved fitness and diet to job hunting to just keeping track of my receipts. and they all prove difficult in the execution when life lacks calmness and predictability.
i like my life. i am truly blessed. i just need to find that balance between having some discipline and control over my own "ship," as it were - and relinquishing the control that rightly belongs to God and God alone. i would much prefer God at the helm than my own hands, but i also don't want to contribute to the chaos.
meanwhile, enjoy the bizarro cousin business from my German heritage at left.
i drove past a farm today "Jim Docheff Dairy: and Quality Compost" and i started making up funny ad slogans about dairy and compost in the traditional old-timers-looking-back routine, but it wasnt the same without you there.
