Saturday Evening

This next three weeks is going to be pretty stressful, I think. We got the basement thing straightened out. The owner has a company hired to come in and fix it and is starting on Tuesday. We are having the first of our home's inspections done on Tuesday. Next weekend is L's dance recitals. Three shows in two days! Enough to drive any family crazy! And, I haven't figured out what to do with C, yet. Last year, he was in two of the three shows. This year, I could not get him to even take a hip-hop class. The two weeks after that should be moving in earnest.

One of my most recent reads was Branded by Alisa Quart. The book is about the buying and selling of American teens and tweens. It is a real eye opener and should be at least glanced at, if not read, by all parents (even if your kids aren't yet tweens). Most of us are aware of the advertising that is done to our kids overtly. The book opened my eyes to the increase in advertising that goes on in schools these days. However, lest I get on my high horse about how I would never let my precious angels set foot in such an evil place as a public school classroom, she pointed out that advertising is getting ever more subtle and that many of us who partake of such things as McDonalds (even on just a week moment) will find that our children are getting more than just the fast food advertising. Fast food advertising is melding with movie advertising is melding with clothing advertising, ad nauseum. While I keep a hawk-like eye on my kids' computer usage to make sure that they are not inappropriately solicited, I am noticing that Neopets website is using games from cereal brands. The layers of advertising are deep.

Ms. Quart also evaluate the level of consumption that goes on in some areas of this country. In some places, the parties to go along with coming of age religious rites have become excessive. But, this has not gone unnoticed. At that same time, there are groups of teens that are making an attempt to rid their schools of advertising and to divest themselves of the corporate world. While some of their gestures may be impractical and unfounded, they have seen through our twenty first century materialism and are standing against it. If you get a chance, you should read this book. I hope it opens your eyes to the logical end of atheistic materialism. Our country's prosperity can only exist without crushing itself by our learning to live by the moral precepts of Christianity. (I suppose I should back that last sentence up with some evidence, but it's getting too late. You'll just have to believe me or send me an email to ask me later.)

Well, I guess that's enough of my critique of twenty first century American culture. I'm tired and my head hurts (why I haven't been blogging lately). Off to bed for me.