everything is beautiful
We own a television, but do not get any channels. The big black box in our rumpus room is a vehicle for VHS tapes only. This isn't because we hate television; on the contrary, it's because we love it ... we think it's beautiful: it's compelling even when it's really bad. When we end up a hotel between long drives, we'll turn the thing on immediately and talk at it, curse at it, stare at it while getting dressed, brushing our teeth, talking on the phone. We don't turn it off and we'll watch most anything, and most anything is there for the watching. The story of one woman's head-to-toe makeover had me rapt ... we had to postpone dinner.
But what does Sprint mean when it claims wireless is beautiful, business is beautiful? They made this claim on a television commercial I saw today. (I do watch some TV while on the treadmill at the gym, but it's limited to how many workout minutes I can endure.) At first I thought it was odd, but then I thought it was ... well, beautiful. Why not? Their technology allows people to connect efficiently and effectively, and ultimately put food on the table. That's beautiful, isn't it?
But what does Sprint mean when it claims wireless is beautiful, business is beautiful? They made this claim on a television commercial I saw today. (I do watch some TV while on the treadmill at the gym, but it's limited to how many workout minutes I can endure.) At first I thought it was odd, but then I thought it was ... well, beautiful. Why not? Their technology allows people to connect efficiently and effectively, and ultimately put food on the table. That's beautiful, isn't it?
1 Comments:
'Beautiful' is a beautiful word. It just sounds nice. It sounds mature. I remember when I was little I looked up to my older sisters a lot and tried to emulate much of what they did and said. Some of it felt natural; some of it felt forced and I would get embarrassed. I remember getting over the hump of describing something as ‘beautiful’ or 'excellent.' It didn't feel right at nine years old to say those words but it sounded right coming out of my 16 year old sister's mouth. Same as swearing, come to think of it. I used to practice swearing until it sounded natural. Strange, now that I write it. But back to 'beautiful.'
I love the word ‘beautiful’ but I don't agree that everything is beautiful. I just saw my little sister (of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program) for the last official time on Wednesday. Her name is Tatiana. We've been sisters for over two years. She's graduating from fifth grade and therefore leaving the school associated with the program, so we'll no longer have set time together each week. It would be beautiful if we could maintain our friendship and make plans on our own. I'd like to see her grow up. I've seen her progress over the past two years (albeit slowly) and I want to see her progress more. I want to talk to her about boys and drugs and sex when the time comes. I'm terrified for her. She was dealt a bad hand. Born to drug addicts, her godmother took her in at six months old and has had her for the past eleven years. I’ve met her godmother once and she’s a very caring woman. But they live in the projects in a small apartment with God knows how many people (I feel like I hear about another one every time I see Tatiana) and Tatiana longs for more attention than she'll ever get. I want to give her some of that, but I know in my heart of hearts that keeping up our sister friendship will be difficult if not impossible. While her godmother signed her up for this program, I'm not sure she sees the value in it enough to put the effort into keeping in touch. I'll do what I can, but I fear the outside forces in Tatiana's life will prove stronger than my efforts.
My father never let us forget what a great hand we were dealt as children. While I didn't ever and don't now agree with the way he went about ensuring we didn't take our socio-economic position for granted, I am extremely grateful for the life he and my mother provided for us. We were born lucky. I get frustrated with Tatiana often. She's incredibly smart, a fantastic actress and has a beautiful voice, but I would bet a lot of money that she will end up in a very bad place as an adult. Simply because she was born unlucky. And her environment, as well as technology - access to poisonous content twenty-four hours a day on television and the Internet - only serves to reinforce the badness. I’m not conservative; I’m not a stiff. I have just spent too much time with elementary school children over the past two years not to recognize the effect our technologically advanced society is having on our youth. Granted, my experience has been the New York City public school system, but I can’t imagine it’s vastly different elsewhere in the US. These kids haven’t hit puberty, but they know more at ten and eleven than I did senior year in high school. Have you seen the movie ‘Thirteen’? I haven’t yet but my co-workers were just talking about it yesterday. It’s about two thirteen year old girls growing up in Los Angeles. It’s apparently based on a true story. Far from beautiful, it really makes me sad.
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