Random Thoughts Thursday 65
- Drama at the playground! On Sunday, there were two boys (maybe 8 or 10 years old) with a girl of the same age when I showed up at our neighborhood playground. Then a group of girls arrived later. A girl from the later group spoke to the girl in the first group, telling her “I don’t want to play with you. Everything I do, you tell me to go away, you don’t like me.” Geesh. I felt proud of that girl for standing her ground, but dang, that sucks to have a “friend” saying those things to you. Eh. Learn it when you’re young, I guess.
- Ha ha, over three years ago we picked up a weight bench that someone was throwing out, and stored it in our garage because we didn’t have use for it at the time. Recently Steven started a workout DVD series so he pulled it out to use (and our neighbor Troy, in the photo below, helped him put it together). It’s a nice bench. I am still surprised someone was just throwing it out. And happy we are making use of it now!
- For the third year in a row, I will be an ambassador for the Wisconsin Marathon and Half Marathon! This was the first half I ever ran (with Steven!) in 2009, and I have run it every year since! I really love this race – it’s just the right size for me (not too small/not too big), well organized, has a great course by Lake Michigan, a fun after party, easy parking, it’s cheap, and a ton of my friends do it (so many that I am usually overwhelmed!)! This year the race is on Saturday May 2nd (in Kenosha, WI). Registration opens this Monday, the 15th! It looks like a 5K was added this year as well as a team challenge. I love to see this race growing! Let me know if you are running it, and use coupon code KIM2015 for $5 off! (note, I am provided free registration to this race, but I wouldn’t talk about it and keep running it if I didn’t love it)
- Did you see this story about a woman who faked a trip to southeast Asia by manipulating photos and posting them on Facebook? She said she did it to “show people that we filter and manipulate what we show on social media, and that we create an online world which reality can no longer meet.” This story really interested me because I see how easy it would be to fake something like that. And because I’ve been thinking about social media and how people create stories about you based on what you post. We do have the ultimate control over what we share… but not how people interpret it. I feel like this is a good reminder to actually be involved in people’s lives, and not just rely on social media, if you want to be a true friend (something I sometimes fail at, hence reminding myself!).
Themocracy
I’ve been thinking about the third item a lot. I’m finding it hard to blog lately because I don’t want to get too deep into the issues in my personal life right now on the blog, but I feel like I am misrepresenting my life if I just keep posting about running as if everything is all sunshine and roses
It’s a hard place to be in… because you don’t want to share other people’s business online, but you don’t want to be so vague that it has people making up stories in their head! I hope things get better for you soon!
I don’t know why I started picking up on this over the past couple of months, but I feel like I’ve been particularly observant of the behavior of kids “in the wild,” if you will (on public transportation, walking down the sidewalk, etc.), and I’ve found it fascinating/shocking/upsetting just how MEAN they can be to each other and how rude they can be just in general. It’s made me wonder a lot about the “why” of it all, and how it changes as we grow older. I don’t cry when I don’t get my way anymore (or at least, not usually 😉 ). I’m not going to pick on someone or speak my mind to them candidly if I have a problem with them (I’ll just gossip about them instead, which is OBVIOUSLY a much more mature route to take. Ha.). Are we socialized out of these tendencies? Are kids a more accurate representation of human nature than adults? I don’t really know anything about child psychology (or psychology in general, for the most part), so I don’t have any answer to my own questions, but it definitely has made me think!
That is interesting you have been noticing it too! I think you hit the nail on the head – they are a raw example of human nature before they’ve learned manners. Or at least, a filter! When you’re a baby, you cry to let people know what you want. It must take awhile to learn the many ways to communicate your needs.
And I bet it would be even more interesting to be around kids in other cultures, because they wouldn’t be raised to the norms we know, so some behaviors we kind acceptable may not be and vice versa!
I think it’s important to take social media with a grain of salt. A lot of times it’s the truth, but it still has to be taken with a grain of salt. Like comparing your everyday life to a highlight reel!