(Zombie, disease, nuclear war, end of resources, or other).
I decided to write about something very random that I've been thinking about. Partially because I don't want to do homework and partially because just writing about anything is very relaxing and distracting. Keeps me from thinking about the stabbing pain in my side that I should probably get checked out. Seriously though, if you know a person who looks into those types of things. Call me.
Anyway, a couple of friends of mine who wish to remain anonymous (Jimmy Harper and Wynton Graise) and I had a 45 minute discussion in class yesterday about two topics: how would we survive a collapse of society, and how would we organize ourselves if stranded on a desert island.
The question about society's collapse was definitely more multi-layered. How would we get fresh water? Protect ourselves from looters? Survive on something besides sugary foods taken from 7-11's? Barricade our houses?
Would we move to a remote farm or island? Would we fortify our own house and occupy other empty apartments/homes?
No doubt, it was one of the nerdiest conversations to take place. But with the Dow dropping 3% today, conflict in the Middle East, disease and starvation all over the damn place, nuclear proliferation by Iran and possibly other countries, and constant use of resources (coupled with climate change) a global collapse is at the very least plausible some time in the future. Even I, a master of survival, will admit that living in an electricity-free world with no infrastructure for a prolonged period of time (like years) would be more than difficult.
Similar to all that, when I asked my buddy good 'ol Alice what 5 foods she would take with her if she was barricaded in her room for years. Not only did she NOT go with my golden choices of rice, bananas, steak, eggs, and cake, she picked PIZZA, ICE CREAM, and other such unhealthy foods. Which made me think: given the ultimatum of eventual death, would we choose to prolong our situation for as long as possible, or die in comfort quicker? My answer may have to be revised.
This was quite a rant. But it was fun for me. I hope it was fun for you. Here's a couple British people doing a Michael Caine impression:
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Musics Part 2
This'll be a quickie, because it's late and there are some things that I should be doing that I am in fact not doing at this current place and time.
I've gotten a couple really good songs recently, and when I listened to them for the first time, they literally gave me chills. The music was that good. Somehow simply hearing a combination of sounds gives me a physical and emotional reaction. Like when I play Eminem while entering the school and strut in like a b0$$. Certain songs can literally lift (or lower) my mood.
Music, in a strange way, is also a deterrent against the blending of memories into one mish-mash of monotony and occasional excitement. When I shuffle my music library and a song comes on I can pinpoint when (within a month) I got it and what was going on in life at that time. Similar to a picture, it gives me a weird flashback or snapshot of the time period that it originated from. My "Best of" CD's for Queen, the Who, and the Rolling Stones are embedded in my memory as a 16th birthday present, while I got most of my music by the Roots right after the winter of junior year.
People say that music is slowly becoming worse and worse. I guess in some ways it is. But if that were true, the songs that I listen to now wouldn't have the effect on me that they do, because they would be bad. Yet particular songs can take me away from where I'm sitting to a completely unique place. Treasure your music and consciously remember it, instead of mindlessly getting a bunch of songs.
If you do, your music can become a sort of scrapbook of your life, which I find to be a really interesting concept to think about.
Let me know what you think about this and whether I'm just crazy or this actually makes sense to you.
Regardless of all that ^^^^^^^^, get LA Woman by The Doors. One of my all time favesies.
I've gotten a couple really good songs recently, and when I listened to them for the first time, they literally gave me chills. The music was that good. Somehow simply hearing a combination of sounds gives me a physical and emotional reaction. Like when I play Eminem while entering the school and strut in like a b0$$. Certain songs can literally lift (or lower) my mood.
Music, in a strange way, is also a deterrent against the blending of memories into one mish-mash of monotony and occasional excitement. When I shuffle my music library and a song comes on I can pinpoint when (within a month) I got it and what was going on in life at that time. Similar to a picture, it gives me a weird flashback or snapshot of the time period that it originated from. My "Best of" CD's for Queen, the Who, and the Rolling Stones are embedded in my memory as a 16th birthday present, while I got most of my music by the Roots right after the winter of junior year.
People say that music is slowly becoming worse and worse. I guess in some ways it is. But if that were true, the songs that I listen to now wouldn't have the effect on me that they do, because they would be bad. Yet particular songs can take me away from where I'm sitting to a completely unique place. Treasure your music and consciously remember it, instead of mindlessly getting a bunch of songs.
If you do, your music can become a sort of scrapbook of your life, which I find to be a really interesting concept to think about.
Let me know what you think about this and whether I'm just crazy or this actually makes sense to you.
Regardless of all that ^^^^^^^^, get LA Woman by The Doors. One of my all time favesies.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The Stigma of Jewish "Youth Groups"
Organized religion is on the decline. In a few decades, it will be the remnant of a different type of society. The numbers show that. There are a few reasons. Teens and kids are always the next generation for a church, synagogue, mosque, or other place of worship. When they don't go in their early, formative years, they're likely to not go in their adult years.
I myself am the co-President of my synagogue's "youth group". Right there, at that sentence, you judged me. Likely you are thinking that I believe in God, pray at least semi-frequently, and am doubtful of science. In fact, only one of those three things are true. I believe in God-kind of. But that's a different topic. The point is, the connotation that these youth groups have are largely negative and boring to those not participating in them has stuck. When I think "youth group", I immediately picture a group of stern, Christian kids in a circle reading Scripture. I personally wouldn't want to associate with people like that, who have no sense of fun.
When I hear "Jewish youth group", I picture a bunch of suburban Jewish white kids aggressively praising Israel and living in a bubble. But I know from experience that that's not the case. The grouping of youth that I am a part of is called SHMUSY. I hesitate to call it a youth group because 1. We don't have prayer sessions or Bible/Torah study sessions (a phrase that makes me cringe when I think about) 2. None of us are significantly religiously Jewish. 3. It's less of a youth group than it is a collection of Jewish kids from the city looking for free food and fun place to hang out on Tuesday nights and do events on the occasional weekend.
The problem is that when I ask even close friends or acquaintances to come to a Tuesday night (often barbeques, board games, Guitar Hero, or discussions about things like whether Israel is an oppressive regime or not) I can literally see them internally cringing.
And I don't blame them. Like I said, I'd do the same thing if someone asked me to come to their "youth group". But they have common misconceptions that are preventing them from having a genuinely good time. They will not be preached to. They will not have to study an "ancient texts". In fact, the only thing they HAVE to do is show up. SHMUSY is in essence the Jewish Student Union at a different location and time.
I've been participating in SHMUSY since 6th grade. That's 6 years of my life. As I got older I spent more and more time in SHMUSY. I've probably spent over 500 hours doing SHMUSY related things. That is a disgusting amount of time. There is simply no way I would invest that much of my time over the years into a single activity if I did not truly have a great time doing it.
Some of my non-Jewish friends have asked me why only Jews are allowed to SHMUSY. I've asked the same question of the rabbis who work on Anshe Emet. And what I've learned from those talks and from my (too) extensive reading of Jewey books is that the issue of assimilation for Jews is touchy. For well over 3,000 years Jews have been in situations where they could assimilate and lose their traditions, or stay separate . Nowadays we have struck a balance. Based on a Jew's understanding of the traditions, they will choose to only another Jewish person. This stems from a long, long, long, troubled history of persecution because of our Judaism. So it's understandable why Jews have been uneasy with intense mixing with other faiths.
Maybe after reading this you'll come to a Tuesday lounge night, at 7pm at Anshe Emet. Or not. Just understand that if you think this is a training grounds for religious Jews, you're more wrong than the head of the US patents office in 1899 when he said, "All the things that can be invented have been invented".
I myself am the co-President of my synagogue's "youth group". Right there, at that sentence, you judged me. Likely you are thinking that I believe in God, pray at least semi-frequently, and am doubtful of science. In fact, only one of those three things are true. I believe in God-kind of. But that's a different topic. The point is, the connotation that these youth groups have are largely negative and boring to those not participating in them has stuck. When I think "youth group", I immediately picture a group of stern, Christian kids in a circle reading Scripture. I personally wouldn't want to associate with people like that, who have no sense of fun.
When I hear "Jewish youth group", I picture a bunch of suburban Jewish white kids aggressively praising Israel and living in a bubble. But I know from experience that that's not the case. The grouping of youth that I am a part of is called SHMUSY. I hesitate to call it a youth group because 1. We don't have prayer sessions or Bible/Torah study sessions (a phrase that makes me cringe when I think about) 2. None of us are significantly religiously Jewish. 3. It's less of a youth group than it is a collection of Jewish kids from the city looking for free food and fun place to hang out on Tuesday nights and do events on the occasional weekend.
The problem is that when I ask even close friends or acquaintances to come to a Tuesday night (often barbeques, board games, Guitar Hero, or discussions about things like whether Israel is an oppressive regime or not) I can literally see them internally cringing.
And I don't blame them. Like I said, I'd do the same thing if someone asked me to come to their "youth group". But they have common misconceptions that are preventing them from having a genuinely good time. They will not be preached to. They will not have to study an "ancient texts". In fact, the only thing they HAVE to do is show up. SHMUSY is in essence the Jewish Student Union at a different location and time.
I've been participating in SHMUSY since 6th grade. That's 6 years of my life. As I got older I spent more and more time in SHMUSY. I've probably spent over 500 hours doing SHMUSY related things. That is a disgusting amount of time. There is simply no way I would invest that much of my time over the years into a single activity if I did not truly have a great time doing it.
Some of my non-Jewish friends have asked me why only Jews are allowed to SHMUSY. I've asked the same question of the rabbis who work on Anshe Emet. And what I've learned from those talks and from my (too) extensive reading of Jewey books is that the issue of assimilation for Jews is touchy. For well over 3,000 years Jews have been in situations where they could assimilate and lose their traditions, or stay separate . Nowadays we have struck a balance. Based on a Jew's understanding of the traditions, they will choose to only another Jewish person. This stems from a long, long, long, troubled history of persecution because of our Judaism. So it's understandable why Jews have been uneasy with intense mixing with other faiths.
Maybe after reading this you'll come to a Tuesday lounge night, at 7pm at Anshe Emet. Or not. Just understand that if you think this is a training grounds for religious Jews, you're more wrong than the head of the US patents office in 1899 when he said, "All the things that can be invented have been invented".
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