Random

For someone who has a blog called: Random thoughts, it occurred to me I haven't had a post about that in a while.

So...here it goes:

I saw 2 news casts today about "phenoms". One was a kid who broke the worlds record at Guitar Hero http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1093048082342&saved

And the other was a 1st grader named Brett Sodetz who is a golf prodigy: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4776658n

My thoughts, and this is probably really mean, but who cares?

Maybe the kids parents obviously, but is this really newsworthy or is this just the "the real news is so freakin' depressing let's throw a little something else in there" story?

Alright - let me confess, I put my dinner on hold just so I could watch BOTH of these stories so obviously I care.

Guitar Hero befuddles me. I have never played it only because I'm not that big on video games anymore and I've never had the opportunity, but people who HAVE played it say it is awesome.

I played a little guitar when I was younger and, believe it or not, I actually taught lessons to kids who were just learning. (Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method #1). FOR MONEY!

Really!

I think my son has my guitar somewhere. It's a Suzuki 3S and that's all I remember about it. I just remember when I was trying out guitars to buy I just loved the sound that came out and that is what made me buy it. I put a down payment on it and the owner of the music store let me teach little kids Med Bay's beginner book for $6 an hour. $5 for paying off my guitar and $1 to me.

Those were the days when you could make arrangements like that.

Maybe I'll take it up again someday.

Doubt it though.

The guitar is still my most very favorite instrument and a good Spanish Guitar can still make me weak in the knees.



God, look at those fingers!!!(That's how I learned by the way - classical style)

Dive you up to that challenge? ;)

Ok...never mind!

Let's go on to the next subject - the mini golfer Brett Sodetz. Did you see the swing on that kid?

He's in 1st Grade!

1st GRADE!

Geez, the only thing I was good at in 1st grade was coloring in the lines.

Damn

Well, I know it's not really "news" but I am a sucker for those feel good stories every time.

If I were the parents of those kids I'd be sending the link to those videos to everyone I know!

Disturbing

I just read in the news that 8 teenagers in Lakeland, FL were arrested for beating another teen.

http://www.wsls.com/sls/news/national/article/sheriffs_office_releases_shock_video/8406/

The victim arrives at the home of a "friend" and then was struck several times on the head and then had her head slammed into a wall before losing consciousness. She was then driven somewhere else and warned that if she went to the police and told them what would happen, she would be beaten again.

The reason for the beating: she supposedly trash talked one of them.

They lured her to the house so they could tape it an post it on YouTube.

What kind of world do we live in where people lure a friend to their home, beat her unconscious and tape it???

There is a great book called: Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons about female bullying and how particularly nasty it can get. Most of the bullying done by girls is emotional, but it can turn physical as well. It's amazing how young it starts.

mmmmm...OK

I'll probably get a lot of flack for this one, but it's been kind of bothering me.

The pregnant man story.

In case you haven't heard this one it goes like this:

Thomas Beatie was born a female and via the wonders of modern day medicine - had gender reassignment surgery and now is surgically a male.

With me so far?

OK so when she has her gender reassignment surgery she/he had the option of also removing his female reproductive organs. He decided to keep them.

This part confuses me.

Why would you keep them? Aren't they part of the sex that they do not want to identify as?

There are a lot of psychological issues dealing with Transgendered people - the inner conflict of being born one sex and then feeling/knowing that deep down inside you are the other sex.

I know someone who went through male to female surgery and he/she didn't want to have anything male associated in her after her surgery. All her life she felt like an alien inside her male body and the surgery was the metamorphosis into the person she has always felt that she is. There are a large number of post-op transgendered people who after surgery do not want to identify with the GLBT community because then it's an acknowledgement of what they were...not who they are now.

On the flip side of that...there are more and more post-op trans genders who are speaking out for Transgendered rights.

It's an odd grey area in the GLBT community.

Back to the story though - so...Thomas gets married and unfortunately his wife had to have a hysterectomy many years ago - even before they met but they want to have children. So...he decides that since he still has the female "parts" he'll get pregnant.

This is the simplified version obviously - there had to have been a LOT of discussion about this between he and his wife.

Now we have...a pregnant man.

When I first heard this story - my first reaction was: What the? Then my next thought is why would you go public with this?

Oy - what kind of hornets nest is this going to stir up?

He's told his story in The Advocate: Labor of Love. It's been quietly circulating it's way around the news, but the they went on Oprah. To see some of the interview with Oprah, you can go to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XyJlWQnMTU&feature=related

At one point during the interview, Thomas tells Oprah that they contacted many different organizations to get some advice, they had questions obviously because they didn't know how to proceed with this and they wanted to see if anyone in the community has gone through this before. He states that half of the people they called never called them back and the other half were pretty hostile and even advised them not to go on Oprah.

Whew- I am extremely conflicted by this story. I am not saying they don't have to right to do this, but I am concerned about going public because of the possible backlash that it will create. Thomas and Nancy (his wife) are adults and can and will have to deal with friends, neighbors, family member, doctors and the religious right who are soooooo quick to judge.

And what about this child?

She will be born with this and will have to carry this around with her as well.

This isn't like the first test tube baby or the first test tube twins or surrogate parents - this opens a whole other can of worms.

Maybe I'm just over reacting to the situation, but as a parent, I have tried to shield my children from harm as much as possible...it's hard enough being a gay parent, but this is a new category.

I guess there always has to be someone brave enough to "go first".

Still - I can't help but worry about Thomas, his wife Nancy and this tiny baby they are bringing into the world.

I wish them all well, I really do.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?