Becoming something…

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Have you seen the news reports recently? Ever? There is new intensity building over the fear of plastics. It seems the recent surge– we have all had concerns about plastics for a while– is because specific conclusions have been made by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), National Toxicology Program (NTP), and the Canadian government.

The CDC says,

92.6 percent of Americans age 6 and above had measurable BPA in their bodies.

Plastic bottles – are they safe? - The Daily Nightly - msnbc.com

The NYP says,

there was a possibility BPA could be causing brain problems in fetuses and children and prostate and breast problems in adults

Plastic bottles – are they safe? - The Daily Nightly - msnbc.com

The Canadian government says,

“We’re not waiting to take action to protect our people and our environment from the long-term effects of bisphenol-a,” in response to a move to ban polycarbonate infant bottles as it officially declared one of their chemical ingredients toxic.

Canada Bans Plastic Bottles Tied to Health Concerns - New York Times

So what now? What is safe? Pulling from a few sources I’ve managed to sort out what is of concern and their chemical of concern:
1 - One time use only, not meant for reuse, like ever. (PETE)
3 - AVOID, DEHA chemical, and you can find me in plastic wrap. (PVC additives, like DEHA)
6 - Do not cook/microwave in me (styrene)
7 - Not so good, I’m in water/baby bottles and jugs. (BPA)

BPA is the chemical of concern above in the quotes.

Despite this information, the FDA has not yet ban the substance, so plastic industry websites are claiming ‘no fault.’ Despite the current all ok by the agency, both CVS and Walmart have banned shatter-proof waters bottles (like Nalgene, that often use (7)) from their shelves.

I think better safe than sorry. One alternative includes corn plastic products:

Edit: [Links to some related posts elsewhere: Fred Phelps at EMU | Fred Phelps To Protest At Eastern Michigan University | Be on the look-out for a hate group disguised as a church on campus today | Fred Phelps To Protest At Eastern Michigan University]

Gathering at the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) Student Center, supportive members of EMU’s campus and surrounding community showed their support for the LGBT community concerning issues of “inclusion and diversity,” stated Dan Burns, Chair of the LGBTRC Advisory Committee. The group, numbering over fifty, was in response to a charge to protest (see press release) by Westboro Baptist Church. They are commonly associated with Fred Phelps, their minister, and GodHatesFags.com. Per the press release, Westboro Baptist Church was choosing EMU as a way to voice their opinion against Campus Crusade for Christ’s, a national organization, decision in some areas to semi-support (Golden Rule Pledge) Day of Silence, a national movement to speak out through silence. EMU has a student organization representing Campus Crusade for Christ, but is not known to have participated in the pledge.

Their picketers did not show, to our knowledge. I was happy to participate. It was again a showing of support on campus (not to mention the $2500 raised for the EMU LGBT Emergency Fund through a $2 donation per Westboro Baptist Church protest minute, matched by Coors).

It reminds me of people’s varying opinions. In a lot of ways, it is daunting. Speaking of the silence we can feel as members of the LGBT… community, this is another example of a voice that keeps me from acting completely freely on a daily basis. In high school, my car was keyed with the word “FAG.” This served as a intense platform of empowerment but in reality did more damage than good. These voices are due for silencing not through limiting free speech but through supportive voices being louder. I encourage you to be the loudest in support as examples to your friends and communities. Examples of love and care need to be louder than those of hate.

Like how Iraq was mission accomplished 5 years today, I too felt accomplished. I was just about to finish high school and I hadn’t even decided on a college. I was though flying high, mission accomplished. I had recently regained trust by my parents and summer “adult” freedom was ripening on my tongue.

I forgive Hilary for voting for the war. If was voting on mis-information too. Grownup had arrived. Today I know I have a lifetime of growing up to do.

So I am reemerging not to fill the spaces of the pages but to fill some parts of me that I too often look elsewhere to. I know that my mission isn’t accomplished and that I’ll consume lots of coffee to get there. The reset button is close by, could you push it? No, just a soft reset. I don’t want to lose everything.

Lets not fault Bush for calling a war or even calling it to a close super early, lets fault him for not listening to the experience and learning from it. Get out of there!

It is hard. It is what defines his stay in office. Victim to simple quick fixes, time is a difficult illusion. The longer you stay in it, the further you fall face first into reality.

I have spent a lot of time recently on MBA applications. It has been a while since I had to so craftily praise myself in front of others; it was never this specific. I am defending passion and my future career plans. In definition, I have gone through a transition. Unlike the addictions of war, I have turned the red tide. What are you surfing on when you need something else to keep the momentum?

We are not alone for a reason. Use your developing intuition and growing heart in sync to determine self-motivation. Look to those you know to be real sensors of your being. At the very least there is a technique that is simple to surf through the rougher and lonelier times.

List accomplishments of your day, w/o your minds side commentary; if any slips in, you are forbidden from making further note of it at all.

Today:
•  Entry to baited blog
•  Made progress on scholarship guidebook at work
•  Speedily organized home office
•  Felt reemergence of China-fondness
•  Large Mexican latte instead of small

Find your coastline and ride…summer is coming whether you want it to or not.

I feel like I’m trying to escape something, but I don’t know what it is.

Tonight, I hid under the coffee table. This is the dog’s space. He was very confused. Yet, at the very moment that I was trying to get away, I was trying to get closer to the ground.

Are we not just like the dog, trying to recognize one space as constant? This is our grounding. We have evolved as animals, but still need context. Unlike the dog, our being grounded isn’t as easily shattered, we can adjust to some variables but it can still just as easily disappear.

What can we do to stop running?

It may be about turning inward, instead of looking outward. I’ve pulled some interesting bits of information and insight from: Yoga Journal - Yoga Meditation - Teaching Grounded Meditation

These thoughts on meditation provide some great insight into our minds and facing our own moments of wanting to be down with the dog under the coffee table.

+The mind can be our greatest friend or our greatest enemy, the source of many of our problems or the solution to our problems.

+Stages of Meditation Meditation encompasses three distinct stages. The first is self-regulation, in which we teach our students to consciously alter their body-mind functioning and feelings. For example, teach your students breath awareness with the stated aim of inducing relaxation.

Having taught self-regulation, the second stage involves methods of self-exploration, which consist mainly of concentration combined with self-awareness. This allows us to become aware of parts of ourselves that were previously unconscious. Self-exploration techniques develop inner strength and stability.

Ultimately, self-exploration techniques open the door to the pursuit of self-liberation and spiritual growth, the linking of our awareness to higher consciousness. This third stage is called self-mastery, which leads to self-realization.

+…meditation teaches us that we cannot get rid of our problems, that life is inherently problematic and challenging…If we simply seek ecstasy, and hope to avoid sorrow and suffering, then we are actually seeking the loss of ourselves. The ultimate aim of meditation is to remain grounded in self-awareness under all conditions of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, gain and loss.

I hope these thoughts have been helpful. I have tried to start my mornings with some quick yoga exercises. Today, I didn’t. A lesson learned. You can actually find some simple exercises online to get your day started (youtube). You could even start with five minutes in the morning attempting to focus on nothing but your breath (Tantric Breath Exercise or Three Breathing Exercises). Breathing should bring a level of self-awareness, so making noise while breathing is encouraged. I promise you will notice a difference with your day. You can check out what I do each morning here.

Are adults made? A recent article by Kay Hymowitz from City Journal suggests something about young men today in our society:

Today’s single young men hang out in a hormonal limbo between adolescence and adulthood.

Child-Man in the Promised Land by Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal Winter 2008

The suggestion is that for various social reasons, we are bypassing the previous generations’ milestone of marriage and a family when we supposedly begin our adult lives with the start of our careers. That first main job and first step now equals independence. Am I socially stunted, stuck in a culturally locked puberty (video games, the internet, and career changes)? I’m not in college anymore and much of that activity has gone by the wayside. There isn’t much like the structure of a full-time job, other personal pursuits, and a growing long-term relationship to have other things take favor. Yet, I still long for the long nights, long papers, and long haphazard days.

My relationship and new job is the cornerstone to a growing foundation that I think is moving me beyond this immature middle ground. Priorities change and whether or not I like to admit it, I’m heavily invested in both. This is by choice. This implies that this stage is under our own self-control. Is it important to take action?

Action would be contrary to what is rewarded in our culture; action which requires forward thinking loses to the many short-term excited battles our cultures supports. How can the weekend (or even every day) be one of exciting battles if you are settled into a life track, one long battle with something or short ones with quick feedback and results? Immediate gratification is clearly our cultural winner. It usually takes an event or emotional commitment to be able to recognize the importance of the former, long-term action, possibly to just return back afterwards.

Even today, they say SYM (Single Young Males), Hymowitz’s term, or this millennial generation in general is distracted by many new things, a world of instant gratification. Take your college life for example.

[Jones, S] (2002) indicated that 72% of all students check their email daily, and 26% of college students use instant messaging on an average day. A similar survey in 2005 found that 83% of adults in the 18-29 age range participate in online activities [Demographics of Internet Users] (2007 ).

Digital-Distractions

We learned in and with this environment. Conveniences have become crutches.

So what of women? I don’t necessarily think they are excluded from this phenomenon but they sure are talking about it. The child-man article continues,

In Internet chat rooms, in advice columns, at female water-cooler confabs, and in the pages of chick lit, the words “immature” and “men” seem united in perpetuity…Men feel threatened by female empowerment, these thinkers argue, and in their anxiety, they cling to outdated roles.

Child-Man in the Promised Land by Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal Winter 2008

The CEO phenomenon is one example of the ever growing worth and exchange value of a single individual. Females with this power, on this scale, is historically rare; they have a right to enjoy it, even in the face of the above mentioned masculine uncertainty. It would be wrong to not point out that only twelve of Fortune 500 companies are headed by female CEOs, which debunks Hymowitz’s argument above.

I’m not sure if I see it as gender specific because I feel like many women face the the same cultural pressures that us males do.

Are these trends any different from the activities of young women who are often unwilling to surrender personal freedoms to be “shackled” by motherhood? The Sex and the City generation who see marriage as an anchor and drag on their personal lives, who embrace disposable relationships and are obsessed with designer clothing?

Editorial: Beware the Child-Man?

I’ll admit my cravings and notice that I see many peers expressing their freedom. I even would go as far to say, because of a different social experience in my youth while dealing with my sexuality, I am even more immature in certain areas. My immaturity is supported. More than ever we are rewarded for growth of self and not of family or relationships if it is in the way.

So, do we continue because we can?

We all may need to read more, converse more, and look at how thin we are spread in our social world (especially if it’s virtual). I keep wondering if I should be focusing harder or caring less? I am not a SYM, the relationship disqualifies me of that title, but the cute voices on my shoulders are both telling me that the SYM life is calling. Most of us now have the freedom to develop in the context of something, say a relationship, or develop outside of that structure.

The child-man, gay-infant, and adult-girl are real. Stuck playing video games, exploring deep relationships for the first time, and keeping time with image and power, we are our own segment of society. We will become a generation around it. It feels good, but I feel detached. Our 30s will come soon, but should our goal be to cum as much as possible before it does?

Adults don’t emerge. They’re made.

Child-Man in the Promised Land by Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal Winter 2008

I remember taking a “purity test” back when we were all on livejournal spilling our guts and taking quizzes to find out which Muppet I am most like. I don’t remember being told that I was the purest thing around. I really wondered how perverse that made me. I still don’t feel pure, but upon recent thought, I’m not even sure I know what it is.

Perverse is defined as being turned away from what is good: improper, corrupt, and wrongheaded.

Don’t we all feel this way sometimes?

In fact, it feels like it is all over the place these days. A search on Google News for “perverse” in the last day of news turned up over a thousand results. The commonality of something isn’t a reason to claim appropriateness, but it doesn’t bring any clarity. It is tough to make our own judgment calls in this type of climate. Here, though, it can be a blessing to grow older, as experience brings more and more things to compare and ponder. In my head I do have a rule of thumb.

Perversion is what has hurt you as it will probably hurt someone else; it is what your mind may accept but your heart rejects.

Easy nuff?

But…you see it and you know something or someone that is perverse, deeply perverse. You think, I’ve thought that, I’ve fantasized that, but I’ve not actually acted on it. This is of course bothersome. Are we not all perverse?

I’ve thought up a litmus test:
Be alone. Feel alone. Now add what you are questioning. If it hurts, it’s perverse. If it interrupts, you have some more thinking to do. If it enhances, embrace it.

Thoughts?

Like a strong dialect, we speak different languages within the same. “I don’t understand those kids,” from the g-rents telling us more about the language we speak than our peers. My friends have trouble speaking the language of relationship, a topic to cover later. It appears as though that as we get older the WEs and the USs enter our vocabulary more smoothly than the I and ME of independent youth.

Are there intergenerational dialects? Songs speak different and cultures can be worlds apart, that sounds like grounds for a different language. Thinking of ourselves, is the youth that different? I still don’t think I have the vocabulary for my relationship and my friends still leave out the WE and US when referring to it.

I was recently told that this is the time of life to think of ourselves. It can be hard to really look at life beyond the simple sphere of ME.

So we aren’t alone and we can’t ALWAYS focus on ourselves. So heres some tips on acting and speaking in a healthy selfish head space while acknowledging the US and WE in those around ourselves.

1) Take pause because sometimes when you feel extended, taking some time to pause and center yourself can actually enlighten yourself to others around you. I think in a time of when we are supposed to be focusing on ourselves we need to remember to do just that. We’ll get the language and get the awareness of the spaces around us through this openness to others. This openness which comes through recognizing and appreciating ourselves first.

2) Don’t hide from what you do and don’t know. Age brings experience, not always knowledge. Experience will build off of knowledge, one depends on the other. The fear of letting someone know that you don’t know something really says I’m not open to learning. It’s called being real, in our language, or honest in theirs.

3) One IS the loneliest number. Thinking only of yourself, just yourself and no one else, isn’t expansive. I encourage a focus on a group of people but not at the expense of forgetting that you are more through others. To look at this from a selfish angle, people can and will enhance you. Interact and learn from everything around you. Feed yourself.

Live to learn because that will help you to learn to live. Know that time and space won’t stop for you so the best way to “grow up” is to move with the times and the spaces. WE will get through it, even if I am using you to do it.

Am I casual in my use of others? Can being selfish be a good thing?