Ya know, there is a certain thrill when groups like the formerly homeless veterans win, or the lady tonight, who's 58 years old and sings in the subway, wins. But I feel so bad for the children contestants. There was an adorable little girl on. She and her older crew (maybe family?) did a song that was probably too old for her. But she has great projection, and I was amazed to hear such a big voice coming from such a little girl.
I thought she did great, and I waver about this public judging of our children. On the one hand, I think that Showtime at the Apollo's practice of making "All. Of.Them. All. Of. THem." winners. That allows no-talent people to proress, and does not sufficiently distinguish between those who have talent and those who do not. But to have kids up against adults is unfair, I think. I watched this little girl give it her all, and felt so bad for her as she listened to the judges tell her she was good, but not good enough for Vegas.
Of course, this isn't just a cultural issue; the parents have to bear some resonsibility for putting their children in a position to be so disappointed. But couldn't they have a category for kids under 16 or something? At least level the playing field for them? I think this group was kinda patterned on the Jackson 5 or the Osmond family. If a child is such an incredible talent, they will stand out, but since children's voices don't mature like adults' voices, is it really fair to judge the kids with the adults?
People may say that the ability to make music is independent of age. That may be truel but the ability to perform, even to become a seasoned performer -- these are things that get better with age. Why not give young people a chance to grow up first? They'll have the rest of their lives to be adults....
Today the president of our Seminary, Dale Irvin, released a statement on the BP Oil spill. I listened to it shortly after I'd posted on our CME website that I wish more CMEs would comment on our Biblical mandate to care for the earth, instead of just spending time going to conferences. Here's a link to Dr. Irvin's vlog:
http://nytsdialogues.blogspot.com/2010/06/nyts-president-speaks-out-about-bp-oil.html
When I was sitting in the San Jose airport, I ran into a group wearing shirts saying “Here I am Lord, Send Me.” They were from the Houston Conference of the United Methodist Church, and they go down to CR once a year to do physical, occupational, and speech therapy. At the time, I wrote, "I wish our church could organize an annual missions trip – maybe we could go to the Haiti or the Africa conferences and spend a week or two doing mission work. That might attract the youth, and give us a bit more purpose. It sure would be more meaningful to me than going to Annual Conference. Or maybe we could do it and make reports to annual conference. It just seems to me that our church has gotten busy with the business of being church, and is no longer forwarding the mission of the church."
Don't know if I posted here about my high liver enzymes or the liver sono. I personally think the high liver enzymes are present because, since the surgery, I'm no longer diabetic, but continued to take metformin for a while. But with my history, doctors can never assume anything. So I had to have a sonogram of my liver. I got a little thrill a couple of times: once when the ultrasound technician told me she couldn't even imagine me as a large person, and a second time wshen she told me there was no evidence of fatty liver. I used to take CLA (can't anymore because it's oil based and my body doesn't absorb oil too well), but CLA is supposed to guard against fatty liver. Perhaps all the rest of these vitamins I take will continue to show positive side effects!
this concludes my second post of the day. Thanks Rafael for letting me know you read this. It helps motivate me to write. Even if I'm just rambling, it's important to continue to write....
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