The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Do you remember that game we used to play as a kid, often referred to as telephone ? You'd start by telling the person next to you something random, like, "Johnny has a crush on Maxie." The person next to you would then supposedly spread that same message to the person next to them, and so on and so forth, until the final person in the group blurted out what he or she was told, which often times wound up being something like, "On September 22nd of 1976, a little boy named Johnny once killed an ant he called Maxie with a magnifying glass. He was then grounded for 2 weeks." Unfortunately, social movements have often times followed the same path as this childhood game and, at a certain point, the initial purpose and message appears to be lost in the midst of varying tangents. This has rung true for the Black Lives Matter movement and more recently, the Me Too movement, both of which I'm a part. I'll focus on the Me Too movement. It initially started as a ...

I recently wrote a bit about the new "dad bod" wave and briefly talked about how it seems to set a double-standard as far as men and women are concerned. While, in the eyes of the media, men can often times get away with having a few extra pounds, women are unfairly criticized if they possess this additional weight, even after giving birth to children. After posting that blog yesterday, I decided to do some more research on the matter, and discovered, as often seems to be the case, most people have misconstrued what the initial message was with this so-called "movement." Oddly enough, this new "dad bod" wave was started by Clemson Sophomore Mackenzie Phillips writing a piece for The Odyssey , entitled, "Why Girls Love The Dad Bod." She started her article by writing this: "In case you haven't noticed lately, girls are all about that dad bod. I hadn't heard about this body type until my roommate mentioned it... ...The dad bod is...

Hollywood legend and rumored lead to the film Mister Rogers Blows Up His Neighborhood  - Clint Eastwood - provided the perfect performance at the Republican National Convention, as far as symbolism goes, to illustrate how the majority of the Republican Party views President Barack Obama. For anyone with a half-functioning eye or ear would know, Eastwood's performance showcased the Hollywood star talking to an invisible President Obama sitting on a chair. Like Eastwood that night, it's seemed as if 98.3% of hard-core Republicans (especially Republican leaders) have been telling the American people about an invisible Obama sitting on a chair. I seriously wonder sometimes how many far-right Republicans would be able to spot President Obama in a crowd. It's as if they have been playing the childhood game of telephone with one another throughout the president's first term, and with him being elected to a second term in office, it's not likely to stop anytime soon. In t...

I've always been a firm believer that communication (along with trust) is perhaps the most important factor in any relationship, especially between spouses. As I've aged (an elderly 30, I know), however, I've noticed a trend of de-emphasizing communication and its significance. I can only imagine what the next wave will be in this very trend. We started with face-to-face interaction, before expanding our communicative options with the introduction of the telephone. Years later, Al Gore founded the internet(s) and through the keyboard, a computer screen and Mr. Gore's magic, we were able to contact one another through e-mail. Not too terribly long ago, through our cell phones, we became able to type quick notes to other people with text messages. It seems like just yesterday Twitter became the new smash hit, as people could type up to 140 golden characters of random information and express it to friends, family, the world or to simply amuse themselves. So, what's n...