All Things Rachel

For all of the time I spend on the internet, I have never gotten on the Twitter bandwagon. I guess between Facebook, blogging, google chats, and all that good stuff, I don’t see a need. Also, okay, I don’t quite get the way it works when I go to the website. I usually only hear of Twitter on celebrity news, and by the way, watching celebrity news leaves me with a lot of “WTF moments.” It’s like, Paris Hilton tweeted the following after her arrest… and So-and-so accuses her ex of blah blah blah on Twitter saying… I bet Hollywood publicists are so pissed about Twitter– it pretty much made their jobs obsolete.
But that said, this cracks me up: Kanye New Yorker Tweets . They paired Kanye West’s tweets with New Yorker cartoons. Such a mash up of high culture and pop culture is pure genius. I wish I thought of it.

Since my English 100 students are reading and writing about consumer culture right now, it’s been on my mind more than usual. When I reflect on my own ridiculous habits, I occasionally get to feeling guilty. I start thinking about how I could use my money to help others, to give it to a worthy cause.
But when you think about it, giving to most good causes still involves participating in consumer culture. Some of the times we’re convinced that we’re making “thoughtful purchases” because proceeds from a certain purchase go to a certain organization. Sometimes we might already desire a thing, and then we’re convinced to buy it because 10% goes to a good cause. Case in point: some pink heels that I bought where 10% went to breast cancer research. Throughout the month of October, hundreds of pink items are sold in the same way. Sometimes we brand ourselves as conscientious consumers– remember those rubber bracelets for every cause under the sun that were all the rage a few years ago? As much as I dig the concept, TOMS shoes have become a similar situation: wearing them is a way of showing that you’re as worldly and charitable as you are stylish. (To be sure, I wear TOMS quite often so I’m not criticizing anyone who does; I’m just sayin’ that we’ve all got other motivation behind wearing them then shoe-less kids in South America.) When participating in some kind of event that is supposed to be for charity, there is all sorts of advertising and branding going on. And many are really an excuse to do something that we’d already want to do in the first place, and that the money benefits someone in need makes us feel good: think a charity concert. No one really sacrifices any thing. Why don’t the people just give money directly to those in need?

And I’m really not judging because I’ve participating in all of these things. They did make me feel good about myself at the time. But I wonder if much of the time, we’re driven to help others because it makes us feel good about ourselves. And if we can feel good about ourselves for doing something we already enjoy, then even better!

Something that didn’t make me feel good about myself is this article from The Atlantic that hypothesizes why Americans are not giving donations to Pakistani flood relief when we were so eager to help Haiti. I have to confess, donating money to Pakistan doesn’t initially strike me as a priority, and I haven’t felt the urge to help in the way that I usually do after disasters strike impoverished people. Why? I’m not certain. It could be the donation fatigue that people talk about. It could be about politics. It could be about not being able to find a personal connection to the victims. None of these reasons are really any good, and the more I think about it, the more uncomfortable I feel about my ethics. What if I, and others like me, really only like to help others when it benefits us in some way?

Golden Girls is one of my all time favorite shows; those ladies never fail to crack me up and I love the late- 80s fashion and pop culture jokes. They play several episodes in a row on the Hallmark channel, and I leave it on as background noise while I work in the evenings. But the Hallmark channel seems to think that the only audience who would enjoy the show also need One-A-Day Menopause formula, Activia yogurt, and wart removers.
You don’t have to be an old lady to enjoy a show about old ladies!

Last night I watched The Rachel Zoe project on Bravo. I’ve seen it a few times, and I figured I’d like it– Bravo is the purveyor of many of my guilty pleasures, and a show about a Rachel must be awesome. Then she goes around and dresses and accessorizes celebrities. I thought I’d love it, and yet I can’t sit through an entire episode. Which has made me watch a few more, to try to figure out why it bothers me so much (I know, neurotic, right?).

I think what bothers me is that for some reason, the people on the show are so stressed out. And I can’t figure out why! I mean, really? I can understand being a little bit obsessive about matching the right accessories and all, but stressed to the point of illness? Is not getting the right pair of shoes really a legitimate cause for a meltdown?
I get the feeling that it is really more for dramatic effect, but I don’t find that kind of drama compelling. I just can’t relate to it.

I’ve come across people in real life who have a similar problem– for reasons I don’t understand, their lives are also so stressful. My roommate is this way: her job stresses her out; she comes home and announces dramatically that she “made it through another day,” takes anxiety medication, and declares that some day, she is going to find a career that she enjoys.
Now, she works in billing. It isn’t like her job is particularly stressful. I can understand not liking her job, but I don’t understand why she lets it stress her out so much. I also don’t understand why she doesn’t just look for another job.

I think that most people’s stress is their own making. Sometimes we put ourselves into stressful situations; I do this a lot by taking on too many projects or obligations, and I have to suck it up and deal with it. Other times we can’t help it, and crappy things do happen to us, and we have to remind ourselves that it will soon pass. But if a stressful position is one that a person has put his or herself into (a job is a perfect example: you do make the choice every day to go to work, after all), the only person responsible for the stress is the person who is stressed. It is a matter of taking responsibility and control over your own happiness. If you’re unhappy in a current situation, change it; don’t wait for the change.

It reminds me a lot of a quote from Maya Angelou that is simple and yet so wise: “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

Which is why I change the channel when a show is about unnecessary stress.

I am an English Professor. When students write positive reviews on ratemyprofessors.com, but the review is full of spelling errors, should I be flattered or disappointed?

So one of my goals for 2010 is to read that bible, cover to cover. I’m doing it mostly to find out why exactly people insist on killing one another or denying rights or inciting hatred over the words in one book. And you know, academics insist on going to the primary source.

So yes, it is as boring as you’d imagine. And more depressing than I thought. For example, the breezy justification for genocide (see Joshua) is a little disturbing. Judges only gets worse. Honestly, making sense of David’s downfall is tricky (a census= bad news), and even more confusing in light of the things he did that resulted in relatively light punishment.

But then I got to Ecclesiastes. For one, it’s fun reading through to find the verses that folk songs and modern philosophers allude to. But more importantly, it had a message that I could get behind. The world doesn’t make sense, and as humans, we will never be able to understand anything. It is tempting to view existence as futile, but as “The Teacher” says, “Anyone who is among the living has hope– even a live dog is better than a dead lion!” (9:4) And so we should celebrate life, continue on with that hope, seek wisdom where we can, and just generally do what is right.

Surprisingly, (or not?) the inclusion of this book in the canon was heavily debated by Jewish scholars for its inconsistencies with other books.

Fortunately it was included, and I highly recommend it. I only wish there were more of this, and less of the, you know, senseless killing in the Old Testament.

I live on Wilshire Avenue. So do a lot of cats. Some have homes, and some just consider Wilshire Avenue their home. One of these days, I am going to write a poem about them. I just don’t know how it goes yet.

When most people go to Yogurtland or Tutti Fruiti, they pick  appropriate yogurt-topping combinations to suit their cravings.

I wish I had that kind of restraint.

But I want it all! Mango! Chocolate! Pistachio! Coconut! Blueberry! And it’s not complete without more chocolate/kiwi/cookie dough/mochi/berries/fruity pebbles/bananas and whatever else looks fun. My concoctions match those of the 7 year old bouncing in front of me.

I like that every bite is different. Every bite is a new discovery.

Some spoonfuls are serendipitous– strawberry and brownie?! pistachio and mochi?! Hell to the yes! Some– pineapple and cookie dough– not so much. But that’s okay, because the next bite will be different, as will the next…

Life is all about finding adventures wherever you can.