Above The Fold

Everywhere I look I see the face of 8 year old Martin Richard, the little boy killed, along with 2 others in the bombings at the Boston Marathon.  He has become the face of the tragedy. I cannot imagine what his family is going through. It wrecks me and brings me to my knees.

However!

On the same day as the bombings in Boston, 27 people were killed and over 100 injured in multiple bombings in Iraq. You can bet there were many children killed in Syria on April 15. I know it is much easier to be emotionally invested in the face of one little boy and yes I'm going to say it, a little boy who looks like "us", than the breathtaking numbers of dead in international conflicts. 70,000 killed in Syria so far, and each and every one of them has somebody grieving for them. Hearts broken, holes in lives that will never be filled again.

If we could all muster as much outrage for the people suffering in all the dirty little wars around the world, whose faces are not all over social media.  If we could grieve for ALL of them as if they were part of US, because they are people, they just are.  If we could do that, maybe we could change things.  Because politicians ain't going to do it.  But when enough ordinary folks get together with one message, they have to listen.  Witness the Velvet Revolution, Arab Spring, Idle No More.  The message it seems to me is that violence and indiscriminate violent actions are unacceptable and should be condemned  EVERYWHERE,  and not just in the United States.  Yes the irony of that last statement is not lost on me, but you get my point.

So, remember Martin Richard and make him the poster child if you must.  But also remember the hundreds of thousands suffering daily, dodging bombs and gunfire daily, trying not to become a statistic, daily.

" Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King

Anything you can do I can do better.

There used to be cooking shows.  Now there are competitions to be the next Iron Chef, the next best cupcake maker, doughnut maker, next best maker of anything you can think to eat and lots of things you would never in a million years want to eat.  There are competitions to see who can eat the most.  Really?  When did eating more food at one sitting than a reasonable person would eat in a week, become a good thing?  And more to the point, why does anyone want to watch it?

The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, at least both sexes have an equal opportunity to make idiots of themselves.  Yeah and same sex unions are threatening the sanctity of marriage!

ALL TALENT SHOWS. Thank you Simon Cowell, please stop.

 Toddlers in Tiaras.  Who thought of this?  How do you judged a group of  baby dolls with fake hair, fake teeth, fake tans, fake smiles, who all look exactly the same?!?

Back in the mists of time, when I was dancing, there was no such thing as competitive dance.   I did however  coach some competitive dancers, didn't last long, and I did for a while teach dance to elite competitive skaters.  It seems to me that in the rush to be the shiniest, sparkly-est, most scantily dressed dancer, something gets lost.  Musicality, soul, creativity!  If you are concerned about your every move being judged, how do you develop the freedom to take chances, to risk, to try?  There is more to dance than the perfect arch or the best extension. I want to see an artist let the moment move through her/him and share the magic when it happens.

I think in the end that is my biggest beef with the rush to the bottom of the competition game.  It turns everyone into interchangeable, generic automatons.  I want to cheer for quirky, fierce, individual folks too busy doing their own thing to worry about competing against anyone.

Todays last word:
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.~ Ayn Rand