Sometimes there are just certain memories that are made much more powerful through the stimulus that surrounds you at the moment it happens. The smell of fresh brownies in the kitchen for a birthday, the explosion of fireworks above your head during a first kiss, or the song playing on radio when driving home from a far away place.
The other night I was at the gym, happily stomping away on the elliptical for my cardio workout (and yes, I was in step with the music) when a certain song started to play on my headphones - "Let's Get Loud" by J-Lo. It instantly brought a smile to my face for the distinct memory it brought to mind.
When I was working in Rotterdam, we played a weekend match down in Luxembourg and the two teams drove down there in the school vans. It wasn't planned this way but it just happened that the Varsity piled in my van and the JV girls jumped in with their coach, Tracy. We had a successful weekend and the girls were in good spirits as we headed back to Rotterdam on the rolling highways of Belgium. And then it happened.
"Let's Get Loud" came on the radio and before I knew it, the volume was cranked and the girls were singing the song at the top of their lungs in the van. It was amazing, the energy of the girls flooded over me as the van bounced up and down the road as they jumped around singing - I was captivated by the moment. The song finished a few minutes later and the girls slowed back down to a more catatonic-like teenage state after their frenzy. I was smiling the rest of the way back to Rotterdam.
And so when the J-Lo song came on over my headphones, I was swept back to that moment and I smiled as I bounced on the elliptical myself. I was reminded of the wonderful girls I had on that team and the fun that we had playing volleyball. Cherished memory indeed.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
get a thicker hide
With apologies to MO, I'll do that story on college football here shortly. But for now, I've got something to rant about. Rosie O'Donnell and her comments made on The View that are getting groups up in arms.
From the Yahoo! news story (click on 'get a thicker hide' to read the full story), the following excerpt.
NEW YORK - Rosie O'Donnell says she's sorry for mocking spoken Chinese on "The View," but an association that represents journalists from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, including Chinese American, says it wasn't enough.
In a Dec. 5 segment, O'Donnell joked about how Danny DeVito's recent — and seemingly drunken — appearance on the ABC daytime talk show had become international news.
"You know, you can imagine in China it's like `ching chong, ching chong chong, Danny DeVito, ching chong chong chong, drunk, "The View," ching chong,'" the 44-year-old comedian said.
On Thursday's show, she told the audience: "To say ching chong to someone is very offensive, and some Asian people have told me it's as bad as the n-word. Which I was like, `Really? I didn't know that.'"
Karen Lincoln Michel, president-elect of Unity: Journalists of Color Inc., said O'Donnell's remarks "really didn't sound like an apology to me."
Lincoln Michel said Unity was waiting for Barbara Walters, who created the show, to respond to a letter asking her to publicly acknowledge that O'Donnell's remarks were "patently offensive."
Ok, so Rosie is clueless and her apology may have been lacking but c'mon folks, you gotta have a thicker hide than to allow something like that to get you all riled up. She said that she didn't know it was a bad word (or expression) and while ignorance isn't an excuse for a lot of things, people have got to understand that it was unintentional and move on. Educate and tolerate. Accept that people don't always know what they are saying and help them to overcome their own ignorance. Don't get all huffy about what someone on TV said and demand a public apology.
Listen, I've made a lot of mistakes traveling to other countries and I can't even count the number of times I must have offended someone by saying something stupid or doing something even worse. And to top it off, I've not apologized to those whom I've offended since I've not known that I've offended them. But hey, at least they are tough enough not to take every little comment as a personal attack on their culture and society.
So America - stop taking everything to heart. You live in a country where free speech is not only allowed but encouraged. It means that you are going to be offended by what people say sometimes. It means you can offend people without fear of going to jail (depending on who you offend). However, it also means that you need to be tolerant of those who say things that you don't agree with. If someone says, "ching chong ching chong" because they don't know a lick of Chinese, accept it and move on. In this case, it was intended as a joke. Laugh at it and move on. Chinese (both versions) is a hard language and the tonal nature of it means that many words sound the same to Westerners. You don't see me getting all pissed at people when I hear someone describe English as two dogs having a conversation (some say that English sounds like a barking dog). I realize that English is a funny language and accept that someone else's perspective is different than mine.
Stop the Political Correctness. Don't be so worried about always saying the right thing, just say WHAT you mean and deal with it later. Holy shit, Americans come across as being the bitchiest, whiniest, non-tolerant bunch of ignorant red-necks on the entire planet. Get over the comment and live your life. Stop worrying about what she said about you or what he said about them and start worrying about the things that ARE important in life. If people spent more time and gave more attention to issues like poverty, homelessness, and lack of a decent standard of health care, imagine what the US could truly be like. Now THAT would be an amazing country.
From the Yahoo! news story (click on 'get a thicker hide' to read the full story), the following excerpt.
NEW YORK - Rosie O'Donnell says she's sorry for mocking spoken Chinese on "The View," but an association that represents journalists from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, including Chinese American, says it wasn't enough.
In a Dec. 5 segment, O'Donnell joked about how Danny DeVito's recent — and seemingly drunken — appearance on the ABC daytime talk show had become international news.
"You know, you can imagine in China it's like `ching chong, ching chong chong, Danny DeVito, ching chong chong chong, drunk, "The View," ching chong,'" the 44-year-old comedian said.
On Thursday's show, she told the audience: "To say ching chong to someone is very offensive, and some Asian people have told me it's as bad as the n-word. Which I was like, `Really? I didn't know that.'"
Karen Lincoln Michel, president-elect of Unity: Journalists of Color Inc., said O'Donnell's remarks "really didn't sound like an apology to me."
Lincoln Michel said Unity was waiting for Barbara Walters, who created the show, to respond to a letter asking her to publicly acknowledge that O'Donnell's remarks were "patently offensive."
Ok, so Rosie is clueless and her apology may have been lacking but c'mon folks, you gotta have a thicker hide than to allow something like that to get you all riled up. She said that she didn't know it was a bad word (or expression) and while ignorance isn't an excuse for a lot of things, people have got to understand that it was unintentional and move on. Educate and tolerate. Accept that people don't always know what they are saying and help them to overcome their own ignorance. Don't get all huffy about what someone on TV said and demand a public apology.
Listen, I've made a lot of mistakes traveling to other countries and I can't even count the number of times I must have offended someone by saying something stupid or doing something even worse. And to top it off, I've not apologized to those whom I've offended since I've not known that I've offended them. But hey, at least they are tough enough not to take every little comment as a personal attack on their culture and society.
So America - stop taking everything to heart. You live in a country where free speech is not only allowed but encouraged. It means that you are going to be offended by what people say sometimes. It means you can offend people without fear of going to jail (depending on who you offend). However, it also means that you need to be tolerant of those who say things that you don't agree with. If someone says, "ching chong ching chong" because they don't know a lick of Chinese, accept it and move on. In this case, it was intended as a joke. Laugh at it and move on. Chinese (both versions) is a hard language and the tonal nature of it means that many words sound the same to Westerners. You don't see me getting all pissed at people when I hear someone describe English as two dogs having a conversation (some say that English sounds like a barking dog). I realize that English is a funny language and accept that someone else's perspective is different than mine.
Stop the Political Correctness. Don't be so worried about always saying the right thing, just say WHAT you mean and deal with it later. Holy shit, Americans come across as being the bitchiest, whiniest, non-tolerant bunch of ignorant red-necks on the entire planet. Get over the comment and live your life. Stop worrying about what she said about you or what he said about them and start worrying about the things that ARE important in life. If people spent more time and gave more attention to issues like poverty, homelessness, and lack of a decent standard of health care, imagine what the US could truly be like. Now THAT would be an amazing country.
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