It's a shame: I had hoped to keep up with my blogging more consistently than I have. I have been busy the past few days, though. First, a little background. At the end of March, I drove back to Canton to see my friends graduate. Around New Philadelphia on I-77, I was pulled over for speeding. The officer claimed to have clocked me going 78 in a 65, and I was issued a ticket for about $120. I did not and do not believe that I was speeding, and cannot believe I was speeding by that amount. I have various reasons for believing this, but long story short, it was resolved yesterday. While I couldn't "win" the case, I did manage to get the speed lowered from 78 to 74, which means I don't get any points on my license. The downside? Between the increased fines (beats me how they can lower the charge and raise the fine, but I wasn't in a position to argue) and court costs, I had to pay $255 instead. The biggest downsides of this are that I am already broke and I need to save up money in hopes of moving to Los Angeles next year.
But that isn't why I decided to update again. I've had a number of odd musings. One of them I can trace back to my finally reading Allan Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind," which has been sitting unread in my book collection for some time. In the introduction, he refers (very briefly) to the nuclear family and its shift from the more traditional view of the family--the extended family. That prompted an observation for me. At one time, humanity was one family. Then we became nations, but nations were considered family (ie-the Nation of Israel). Then tribes became family. Then a single lineage, as with the aristocracy, nobility, and royalty. Now, we think of the core family: mother, father, children. The term "nuclear family" may be more apt than most people realize, for what we are experiencing, I think, could rightly be called "familial half-life." As time goes on, every few generations or so, we stop thinking of people as our family who are are on the "edge" of our family. Who is next to go could be anyone's guess.
Also on my mind recently was a conversation I had with some friends not too long ago about growing up. In particular, we were talking about an early episode of Boy Meets World in which the young Cory Matthews discusses having his own girlfriend whom he can "kiss on the lips whenever [he] want[s]." Herein lies our observation: when you're younger, a kiss is on the cheek or forehead unless otherwise specified. The emphasis isn't "I kissed her on the lips," it's "I kissed her on the lips." Then, we grow up. I don't know when the change occurs, but for almost everyone, it's taken place by high school. And suddenly, a kiss is always on the lips. Can you imagine a college student having this conversation?
Romeo: And then I kissed her!
Ben: And did she kiss back?
Romeo: What? How can she kiss back, I was kissing her cheek?
I thought not. Unless you specify kissing elsewhere, we typically assume the lips. Now I wonder, is there a reason for this shift, or does it just happen at random?
Anyway, I have more things I could throw in, but I've held you for long enough, and I may want to use those other ideas later. God Bless!
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