7 Year Old Gets Plastic Surgery to Avoid Bullying

It's worth it.  As someone who has been the victim of severe bullying, I can personally attest to the fact of the lifelong damage that it does.  It made me absolutely hate school and dread going.  In fact, it's why I dropped out of high school, even though I'm a relatively intelligent human being.  Bigger bullies awaited, though, as people look down on you for not having a degree.  Schoolyard bullying is not child's play, it can ruin your entire life.  If only someone had intervened.  If only I had been sent to a different school.  If only I had had the right clothes.  Bullying can have a life-long impact on a child if nothing is done.  It made me know that I was all alone in the world and no one was really on my side.  And adults can be as bad, or worse than the kids.

Years later, when I was teaching religious education to children at day camp, there was a girl who was being bullied by a boy.  She came to me for help.  I told her to tell the nuns, thinking that, of course, they would do something about it.  They laughed it off and just said to the girl, "That means he likes you."  I was pretty disgusted.  I tried to return to teaching the class as normal, but could see how ruined this poor child was.  Why was it that bullies always won?  Why were they always accommodated?  As an adult, though, I knew I could and had to intervene.  I really had to put the pressure on that nun to do something about it.  He was expelled.  So all could be well in my class.

It really is the job of parents and educators and administrators to create a safe learning environment for all students to learn and grow in.  I guess it's human nature to ignore bullying if it doesn't affect you personally.  And, indeed, that is much of how the adult world operates as well.  But to do noting about it is really to give up on younger generations.  It's a way of saying to the victim, you don't matter.  People tend to be protective of themselves, and that same protection ought to extend to people who are weaker, or an easy target.  It really would lead to a more civilized and better world.

School Nerves

I've been to the school registration, I've taken the placement tests, but I've yet to step foot into an actual classroom.  That won't be until May 23rd.  And I'm full of nerves.

I fear that community college might be the pits for me since most of my fellow students will be significantly younger than me.  We'll see how that goes.  It might not be so bad.  But this is one of the reasons why I am so eager to get into the University of Pennsylvania's LPS school.  It's a school specifically designed for adults.  It will be nice to work alongside others who are intelligent, interested in learning and in the same general age range as me.

Once classes get started, I'm hoping the quality of my blog will improve too.  Not only will I be able to share stories (and pictures) from the trenches, but if I write any good papers, I'll probably share those too.

It's been so long since I've been to a school, that I just don't know what I'm in for.  Actually, I hope it isn't anything whatsoever like high school, since that was quite terrible for me.  Hopefully the professors will be able to jumpstart my brain.  It's been so long since I've had any intellectually challenging and invigorating work.

Long ago, when I almost had a career, I did some interesting work.  I was a guest panelist on Philly After Midnight, a local ABC show.  I was a semi-finalist for Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, and I was selected as a guest panelist when the ABC show The View did its "View Across America" tour.  I wrote, produced and hosted my own little local cable show.  I don't know what happened, exactly.  I guess I sort of gave up.  I didn't believe in myself.  I began to fear that even if I was "successful" that I still wouldn't be happy.  I feared success and failure.  I had no guidance.  People were becoming jealous of me and hateful towards me for the little success that I had.  I didn't want more of that.  It was a venture into the unknown, and I bailed from it.  I gave into the naysayers.  I shouldn't have.

So now, in my old age, I'm trying to find my way.  I don't really know what I want to do with school, but it has to be better than just stewing in regret.  A new beginning, despite my fears.

Fundamentalism is Alive and Well and Living in Greater Philadelphia

Last year, my neighbor, who is a born-again Christian, talked me into going to a community Bible study.  It was inordinately stressful for me, well-intentioned though she may have been.  From the beginning, they expect you, on the first day, to make a school year long commitment to the community Bible study.  I asked whether or not I would have to go to every single one, and they said, of course there could be exceptions for vacations.  But other than that you were expected to go every single time.  What if I just didn't feel like it?  Or what if I just wanted to try it out a few times to see if I could stomach it?  So, that was the first danger sign.

This was supposed to be a Bible study, but even the workbooks extrapolated from the Bible, not new and wonderful insights or historical context, but personal questions about how these few verses relate to YOU.  Personal disclosure was not only encouraged, it was expected.  The way it was handled didn't even foster community, but a spirit of competition and one-upsmanship about who was the best Christian and who did God favor the most.  Well, no one has to remind me that I am not favored by God, but remind me they did.  My core group leader said at the beginning that you didn't have to know much, if anything, about the Bible in order to participate.  But I wondered, are you allowed to participate if you DO know something about the Bible?

Sin.  It deteriorated from there.  It became a place where people could air their grievances about "sinners."  People they worked with, friends, family, anyone who wasn't a "real" Christian.  How one makes this determination was never explained, but for some odd reason, it was never the accuser who was guilty of sin.  Even worse, it became a political venue for people who espouse very conservative beliefs in the crudest way.  We would have to listen to these diatribes against abortion and gay marriage before breaking off into our little groups.  As it is with preachers, we had no opportunity to respond or discuss with the lecturer about their, not God's opinion.  Because, of course, their beliefs about God or Christianity are tantamount to God's truth. :sarcasm:  Nothing could be further from the truth, but try explaining that to fundamentalists, or the average preacher.

In all, I had to leave.  Especially the personal attacks against "sinners" made me feel even personally attacked.  There was great hostility in the air.  And I'm not perfect either.  I would hope that a thorough examination of conscience would lead others to that same bombshell. 

Still looking for that which I have not found.    O Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Pell Grant Made the Cut

And thousands of students across the country breathed a sigh of relief.  The Pell Grant made it through this years federal budget after a government shutdown was barely averted.  They must have read my post about how important Pell Grants are to the health of the nation. ;)  One less thing to worry about.

Summer is Just Around the Corner

And to prove it, it's going to get into the 80s today in the normally chilly NE US.  No longer will I be able to use the dark cold winter as my excuse for being lazy, and not exercising as I ought.  Time to get my gardening act together too.  Last year the heat killed/damaged many veggie plants.  We'll see if global warming will do the same kind of damage this year.  No matter how bad the heat gets, though, it's better than a freezing cold winter as far as I'm concerned.

The Friday Fast

This is what I'm giving up for Lent this year--food on Fridays.  It may seem a little extreme, but when you consider that there are people in this world who have to go without food involuntarily for days, it isn't so bad.  I actually failed Friday April 1st, and ate midday on.  But I have made it every other Friday so far.  It works out well, because according to official Catholic practice, we are not to eat meat on the Fridays of Lent.  If I don't eat anything on Fridays, then I definitely won't eat meat.

An official fast, according to Catholic practice, is to eat two small meals and one normal meal for the day.  For some reason, though, moderation has never gone well with me.  That kind of a fast, in some ways seems more difficult because you really have to pay attention to what you do.  It's more like a healthy diet than a fast.  Perhaps that's why they encourage people to do it.  You end up not feeling very deprived.  Either way, one day of fasting won't make much of a difference on the scale.  If I were really intent on losing weight, I would do well to do my fast on Fridays and the official fast the rest of the week.  People often think that religious rules are so severe, but sometimes we're harder on ourselves than any outside institution would be.

But imagine if I had to fast, not by choice, but because there was no food.  The kind of fasting that people throughout the world in poorer countries have to do.  Or what if I was deliberately deprived of food by a brutal dictator, as is the case in Libya.  After a few days of fasting, I would probably quit expressing myself and fighting for ideals.  Fasting by choice can only give me a small insight into the frailty of us humans.  So, then, a fast should lead to gratitude for that which I do have.  For me, it is only a personal choice.  For some, it is beyond their ability to control.

Blog Comments

Well, now that I have some readers, thanks to the magic of cyberspace, I have a new goal.  I'm hoping to get some comments.  I realize that I haven't written that much, so for the time being, that may be asking a lot.  This whole blog world is very exciting to me.  I love the idea of being able to connect with people from all over the country.  Now to get some comments.  I've set it so you don't have to be a registered user of any sort in order to comment.  I would prefer nice comments over mean comments, but being as I have no comments at the time being, maybe I shouldn't be so picky.  I plan on continually improving and updating the content of my blog, so maybe things will pick up as time goes on.  Thanks for reading! :)

Book Review: Light of the World by Pope Benedict XVI with Peter Seewald

Here's my review of Light of the World, previously posted on Amazon.com:

If I hadn't previously read John Paul II's wonderful interview book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, I might have given this book 5 stars. That's a tough standard to measure up to. Light of the World is still a good book and definitely doesn't require a theological background to understand. While many of the subjects covered are quite interesting, they aren't covered with the same depth as Crossing the Threshold of Hope.

The Pope

The Pope emerges as a down-to-earth, humble man, somewhat remarkable in his ordinariness. I was surprised to learn that he was the son of a police officer. He is at home in questions of both ordinary and extraordinary importance. He offers a view of God that is more than cheap moralism or oppressive reductionism.

The Church

Peter Seewald gives the Pope a chance to clear up some past scandals in the Church such as lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop. I feel satisfied with his explanation but that he lays partial blame at the feet of the Anglican Church.

There are a few disappointments. When speaking of the sex abuse scandal, he downplays the role of clerics in fostering clericalism, and instead casts blame on the laity for putting priests and religious up on a pedestal. This attitude denies the fact that the Church hierarchy is designed to put priests and religious up on a pedestal. And if religious leaders cannot be trusted, then there really isn't much of a Church.

Overall, though, Light of the World is informative and interesting, and a tiny window into the life and mind of the Pope.

Adult Education in the NE

The following are the top 2 colleges in the NE for adults seeking a bachelor's degree, according to me.  I'll admit, I haven't done  a thorough researching of all of the possibilities.  But from the research that I have done, these were the two that I had to decide between.  It's kind of a toss up for me between the two.  If I lived close to Harvard, I'd probably go there.  But since I live near the University of Pennsylvania, that's where I'm hoping to go.  Realistically, there really isn't that much in the way of undergraduate schools specifically for adults.  So this list may well be comprehensive.  Here's what I found about these two Ivy League schools:

#1  University of Pennsylvania
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Offers a regular bachelor's degree to adults through their College of Liberal Professional Studies (LPS).

Admissions: Does not require SAT scores.  Requires a B average or higher, and an admissions essay.

No average age of students given.

#2  Harvard Extension School
Location: Cambridge, MA

Does not offer a regular bachelor's degree to adults, but their equivalancy degree has led students to academic success as graduate students at good schools.

Admissions: Take 3 classes at the Extension School including one expository writing class, get a B+ average or higher, and write an admissions essay.

Does not require SAT scores or prior GPA.

Offers long distance learning for a few concentrated areas of study.

Average age of students: 35

Only 47 Days to Go...

...until my classes start on May 23rd.  I'm taking four classes this summer--English Composition I, and Art History I for the Summer I session, and English Composition II, and American History I for the Summer II session.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to find out what books will be used until the classes start.  Otherwise, I would have the opportunity to familiarize myself  with the material now and be a little better prepared.  I have, though, purchased the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.  It was pretty slow and repetitive reading, but undoubtedly very valuable for future work that I will have to do.