On alert the media

It's almost Thanksgiving!! I have way to many things to be thankful for right now that they would definitely not all fit in one post. Please pray for my family as we head up to Ohio for the weekend that we have safe travels and all that. I'm looking forward to a relaxing break. Hope you all have a fabulous Turkey Day!!

On two questions for you...

I'm writing this piece for the Evansville Courier and Press. It's kind of a feature piece and is due December 1, to appear in the paper sometime later. They wanted a teenager to write about prom. I can pretty much write whatever I want. This is my idea and I wanted to see how you all felt about it and whether you think it will make a good story: I'm going to talk about how parents always worry about the shenanigans their kids will get into at prom. Then I'm going to talk about how this could be different if, in a perfect world, we got back to the "prom ideal." You see, this ideal actually comes from a good place and is in fact as pure as a Disney movie. I'll talk about how prom rally should be an affirming, rather than stressful and worrisome thing for both boys and girls. The boy asks, he is required to step up and be a man, he pays, etc. When a beautiful girl allows him to lead her across the dance floor, she is trusting him, making him feel like a man. Unfortunately, boys have taken to other activities on prom night that make them "feel like men" if you know what I mean. For girls, they get to feel beautiful and special and valued, because they are chosen and asked to the dance by a boy and then get to put on a fancy dress, twirl around, and be delighted in. Thinking about prom this way, makes me more excited and less nervous about attending. If all teens could think of it this way, there would be many parents with a few less gray hairs I believe. That's basically the gist of my topic. Input? What do you think? That was the first question.
Here's the second: What should my nickname be?? See, I've been thinking a lot about this and I spend a great deal of time giving nicknames to lots of people, which is fun. But I've never really had a good solid nickname. This is a part of growing up I feel that I'm missing out on. I know that a person cannot nickname themselves so I'm leaving up to you (praying it turns out alright). What should "the friends" all call me?? Nickname away!!
Wow. Okay yes I realize I'm a dork...live with it. At least it's amusing right?

On ROAR!!

I've been rereading C.S. Lewis' The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and I came across something that I'd just kind of read over the first time. It made me so excited that I just had to share it. As I read, it put a huge grin on my face...hopefully the same will be true for you.

"' Oh children,' said the Lion, 'I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh children catch me if you can!' He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail Then he made a leap very high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, though she didn't know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hilltop he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind. And the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together panting in the sun the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty. 'And now,' said Aslan presently, 'to business. I feel I am going to roar. you had better put your fingers in your ears.' And they did. And Aslan stood up and when he opened his mouth to roar his face became so terrible that they did not dare to look at it. And they saw all the trees in front of him bend before the blast of his roaring as grass bends in a meadow before the wind."

On a glimmer of hope

This morning I was in bed and my brother came and woke me up (he does that a lot on Saturdays) and brought with him some of his Halloween candy. HE had separated all his Kit Kats (his favorite and my favorite) and had them in their own bag. Long story short, with no prompting from me, Keaton decided to share his Kit Kats with me. He had 22 Kit Kats and gave me 11 of them. Kit Kats are his favorite and he gave half of them to me. I said, "But Keaton, these are your favorites, why are you giving them to me?" And you know what he said?? He said, "That's 'cause you love 'em." There needs to be more big people like that.