What's Beef?
I've been thinking about community a lot recently. In particular, I've been thinking about immigrant communities in the United States. I saw "Hancock" today and it reminded me of that Indian movie theater in Edison and how strange it used to seem to me that there would be an entire theater of movies in Hindi (Hi, I'm racist lol). But it felt so comforting to watch a B-level Hollywood blockbuster. Side note was it just me or did "Hancock" have a crap load of untied up loose ends? Did anyone else notice that while he was in jail Will Smith repeatedly drew a bunch of pictures of a silhouette of a man holding a child's hand and they just never explained it? You can't foreshadow massive daddy issues and then not deliver some back story! Don't tease me Will Smith!
I've also been thinking about community lately because I am so grateful for my Christian community at Penn. More importantly, I am so grateful for my wise wise christian friends. Recently I've been having a wee bit of 'beef' with this random dude that lives in my dorm. Not to rag on the Midwest but he's like the prototype of what I consider to be the worst aspects of that region. He's that guy from Middle of Nowhere, IA/Dakotas/MN/IN who inexplicably thinks that he knows everything and who of course is always 'Christian.' By 'Christian,' I mean thinks that smiling a lot and sending a check to Heifer International once a year makes you a good person and feels no obligation to try to understand anyone who isn't exactly like them (i.e. from a two parent home, upper-middle class, religious). Obviously I'm being harsh and overgeneralizing (btw this doesn't include Chicago) but when I lived in the Midwest I honestly ran across a lot of people that perfectly fit this description. Anyways, so this guy said some really judgmental and passive agressive ish to a bunch of my friends. Usually if I feel that someone is inconsequential or just a terrible person I wont confront them when they do stuff that offends me if I can just avoid them in the future. So the first time, I just let it go. Then he of course did the SAME THING again which of course made me want to call him out (nicely of course). The issue though was that he has a rather prominent physical deformity (missing limb) and as mean as I know I can be I do feel for him. So for a couple of days I was pretty much torn. Half of me was like "c'mon sarah, he clearly is going through a lot." Meanwhile, my other, meaner, half was like "Screw that, I'm an Equal Opportunity reality check provider!" But then I talked to Mariya and she really put things in perspective in terms of the fact that there's probably a reason I have had to deal with this type of person over and over again. What she was saying was that usually in these type of situations people respond 1 of 2 ways. 1) give in to the intimidation 2) get angry and talk crap about the person back thus proving that you are just as immature and obnoxious as they are. But what she said that blew my mind was just to remind me that I'm not bound by the patterns of this world. I don't really know what that looks like yet but I definitely feel a lot more peace in that regard. So I guess more updates of this situation are yet to come.
So everyone went out with our Korean professor yesterday and it was quite an adventure that I will have to write about another time as I've procrastinated enough already. ciao.
btw good song:
"Someone Please Call 911"- Wyclef t. Mary J. Blige
I've also been thinking about community lately because I am so grateful for my Christian community at Penn. More importantly, I am so grateful for my wise wise christian friends. Recently I've been having a wee bit of 'beef' with this random dude that lives in my dorm. Not to rag on the Midwest but he's like the prototype of what I consider to be the worst aspects of that region. He's that guy from Middle of Nowhere, IA/Dakotas/MN/IN who inexplicably thinks that he knows everything and who of course is always 'Christian.' By 'Christian,' I mean thinks that smiling a lot and sending a check to Heifer International once a year makes you a good person and feels no obligation to try to understand anyone who isn't exactly like them (i.e. from a two parent home, upper-middle class, religious). Obviously I'm being harsh and overgeneralizing (btw this doesn't include Chicago) but when I lived in the Midwest I honestly ran across a lot of people that perfectly fit this description. Anyways, so this guy said some really judgmental and passive agressive ish to a bunch of my friends. Usually if I feel that someone is inconsequential or just a terrible person I wont confront them when they do stuff that offends me if I can just avoid them in the future. So the first time, I just let it go. Then he of course did the SAME THING again which of course made me want to call him out (nicely of course). The issue though was that he has a rather prominent physical deformity (missing limb) and as mean as I know I can be I do feel for him. So for a couple of days I was pretty much torn. Half of me was like "c'mon sarah, he clearly is going through a lot." Meanwhile, my other, meaner, half was like "Screw that, I'm an Equal Opportunity reality check provider!" But then I talked to Mariya and she really put things in perspective in terms of the fact that there's probably a reason I have had to deal with this type of person over and over again. What she was saying was that usually in these type of situations people respond 1 of 2 ways. 1) give in to the intimidation 2) get angry and talk crap about the person back thus proving that you are just as immature and obnoxious as they are. But what she said that blew my mind was just to remind me that I'm not bound by the patterns of this world. I don't really know what that looks like yet but I definitely feel a lot more peace in that regard. So I guess more updates of this situation are yet to come.
So everyone went out with our Korean professor yesterday and it was quite an adventure that I will have to write about another time as I've procrastinated enough already. ciao.
btw good song:
"Someone Please Call 911"- Wyclef t. Mary J. Blige
posted by Sarah S | 11:59 AM
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