Friday, November 30, 2007

And There Is Another Like It

Here's another video from the Campaign for Real Beauty I think it makes an even sharper point than the first one...



Be good to each other
(and yourself)
Rev Josh
113007

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Talk to Your Daughters

Talk to your sons, too. I'll always remember a study shown to me in my high school health class. It consisted of a series of drawings of women ranging from skeletal to obese and a series of drawings of men from skeletal to steroid-abuse-muscle-bound. Every participant in the study was asked to pick the drawing that they thought the opposite sex would be most attracted to, and to pick the drawing of the opposite sex they were most attracted to.

Without fail, the girls believed that the guys wanted them to be more skinny than the guys actually wanted.

And the guys believed the girls wanted them to be more muscular than the girls were really attracted to.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

On a similar note, one of my favorite people showed me this video recently, and I simply must share it with you, my faithful readers!

Turn up the sound and hold on tight.



Be good to yourself
Rev. Josh
112907

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

All Apologies

Greetings loyal readers. I know you must be loyal, because if you're still reading my blog after a month of inactivity, you must be loyal! And so my first apology. I'm sorry I waited so very long to update my poor, neglected blog.

Which begs the question, what's my second apology? Well, I recently received some anonymous feedback as part of my official yearly evaluation process that questioned the appropriateness of my last post for our teens. Apparently the primary message these folk got out of the post was "My mom didn't want me to get a tattoo, but I did it anyway."

If that's the message I was sending, then they are right. That is not an appropriate message to send our teenagers.

To be fair, I was trying to send the message that it's ok for a 30 year old man to come to a different conclusion than his parents. That I was glad that I did not get a tattoo as a teen, because I surely didn't know enough as a teenager to warrent a perminant alteration of appearance.

However, I learned in communications class that what you communicate is defined by what is received, not what you sent.

So I apologize for my previous post. And now I'm going to try to be clear.

Teens should not get tattoos. The biggest part of being a teen is the process of figuring out who you are and what you believe. Things change very fast for you now, and all through college. So until you're out on your own, making your own living, and able to deal with the rights and responsiblities of being an adult, listen to your parents. They really do know better than you do. I know you're going to rebel, that's part of growing up. But for my sake, don't get tattooed to rebel.

Get a piercing instead.

Be good to each other
Honor your Father and Mother
Rev. Josh
112807