School Spirit

Posted by: gretchen on October 17, 2007 | 8 Comments

Kel sent me a link to this article about two girls kicked out of a high school football game for wearing body paint on their entire top halves, plus a bra.

Girls in Body Paint

 

When the girls showed up at the game, several people complained to school officials about their “attire”. A spokeswoman for the school said “We have never had complaints about the men or the boys.”

Hmm…interesting. When I first saw this, I was thinking “yeah, that’s really not appropriate,” although I have seen fans dressed in the exact same way on a televised professional game, so it’s not like this is a first. It may be a first for this high school, but these girls didn’t invent anything new.

The question here is that had they shown up in just a bra, would that be ok? My response would be “no” simply because the school policy surely does not allow girls to come to school wearing just a bra for their top and the football game was clearly a school function.

On the flip side, tho…I wonder how many times the boys have done this at that very school and not been reprimanded. Surely there is a school policy requiring them to wear a shirt to school events. Is this a double standard?

8 Comments |

The truth is always exciting

Posted by: gretchen on October 16, 2007 | 2 Comments

Today’s random quote:

“The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.” ~ Pearl S. Buck

I’m honestly not in the mindset to write this morning and for the life of me I’m not coming up with anything to say about this one. Maybe it’s because I think it’s a bit backwards. Don’t people usually make up lies in order to create excitement because the truth seems boring to them? Maybe she means the truth is really more exciting than we actually realize. I don’t know. What are your thoughts on this one?

By the way, if you don’t know who Pearl S. Buck is, you’re missing out. She’s a great author who wrote many, many books and often about women’s rights. I encourage you to find out more about her.

2 Comments |

I am my own experiment

Posted by: gretchen on October 15, 2007 | 4 Comments

Playing roulette with the quotes at the top of the page over last week has been fun. I never know what I am going to write about until I refresh the page. No cheating - I take what I get. :D

Today’s randomness happens to be from Madonna. I am no closet Madonna fan. I will openly admit to liking a lot of her music. As an artist, I am constantly amazed at the many ways that she can reinvent herself and carry on with her career. I don’t think her success is any kind of fluke. Madonna can recognize opportunity, works hard and is not afraid to take risks. Her words to us today are:

“I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.”

Some might interpret that as “be unique,” but we have already learned that “unique” does not describe us. I think the key point to take from her statement is that we must not let others make us into something we are not. We must use our resources to be our OWN experiment. Don’t try something just because everyone else is trying it. Do your own thing. Madonna certainly has. Whether you agree with her choices or not (and let’s not get into that because I know that is a huge can of worms), Madonna has bucked trends right and left. She doesn’t look at the norm and try to fit into what everyone else is doing. She tries new things and we all learn from her experiences. Sometimes we learn that maybe we shouldn’t do what she is doing and sometimes we learn some really cool stuff.

One thing I’ve learned as I’ve grown older is that sometimes I think I don’t like something, but I find out later in life that I actually enjoy it. A good example (and I am so gonna get busted by my band for confessing this) is singing. I don’t like singing in public and for nearly my entire life I didn’t even sing privately. I was forced to sing in college classes, since it was a requirement to pass my ear training classes as a music major, but I HATED it. I’m pretty sure it is because I was traumatized by my grade school music teacher who once told me that I couldn’t sing. Regardless of her opinion, my grades in college from those ear training exams proved otherwise. I can carry a tune and recognize pitch. I majored in music, afterall, so what did she know? ;) Read more

4 Comments |

What does discouragement cost?

Posted by: gretchen on October 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Another favorite quote of mine comes from one of the world’s most-loved comediennes:

“One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.” ~ Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball PhotoWhile I do agree that optimism is the way to go, I think that discouragement can also be a good thing for us at times. Sometimes we have to sit in the bottom of the pit in and wallow around in the muck for a while until we can’t stand it anymore. Eventually you will get to a point where you can’t stand the darkness anymore. From that vantage point, we can study our options and decide the next move to get out of the pit.

Discouragement can often be catalyst for making a change. If you don’t see the negative, then how are you going to tell the difference between what is good and what is bad? If I were Lucille Ball, I would have changed that statement to say it doesn’t pay to STAY discouraged. Just my two cents.

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Is Cheerleading A Thing of The Past?

Posted by: gretchen on September 26, 2007 | 38 Comments

I attended a local high school football game this past Friday and sat down a with a few neighbors to chat while we watched the game. (Ok I never really watched it - I don’t like football). About midway through the second quarter, my husband commented on how few cheerleaders we had. Granted, our school district is rather small, but there were only 5 girls on the squad. I looked across the field at the opposing team from a larger school (who were slaughtering us at the time) and they had about 16 girls lined up in front of the crowd.

Being relatively new to public school, I asked my neighbor (who works at the school) if it was normal for our team to only have 5 cheerleaders. She said they actually used to have a lot more members of the cheerleading squad back when girls sports were less popular. Now that sports have opened up girls teams for golf, volleyball, soccer and basketball, more girls are concentrating on sports than cheerleading. (This is the part where someone jumps in and says “cheerleading IS a sport!” - have fun with that.) She said it seems now that cheerleading is just an activity anyone can do if they want. They don’t even hold tryouts! Wow - that is so not the way things were when I was in high school. I knew girls who would kill for those coveted pom-poms. (Not me. I was too busy making the boys basketball team. ;) )

So is anyone else noticing this trend? Are girls choosing to play the game rather than cheer for it?

38 Comments |

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