Considerations for Children on Reality TV

Reality television began, according to general consensus and this(1) Variety article, on January 11th, 1973 with PBS’s, An American Family, a show following the daily life of the Loud’s and their five children. The same article quickly pulls a quote characterizing the outcome of that show from their at-the-time review of it, saying, “producer Craig Gilbert ‘set out to capture the living patterns and mentality of a fairly typical middle-America household, but instead recorded the drama of a family in the process of coming apart.” And from this so encouraging a description, there have been birthed dozens if not several hundred of the same type of show, focused around families and their children.

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A non-exhaustive rumination on social media and personal aspiration

For it seems, evermore than before, that to bring a personal aspiration to fruition today, like that of writing or any of the arts which are not utilities with explicit uses, one must degrade themselves, their ideals, and their product by utilizing social media or its style in order to give any relevance whatsoever to their product. Social media itself was created inherently to be a utility that we might use—to connect, to remember, to record—but it, in its permeation of all spheres of life—commerce, love, reputation, socializing—has morphed into something else entirely, more sinister and harder to recant, might we decide to.

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On Leisurely

‘Leisurely’ has become an interesting word and idea to me—an affirmation of sorts that is lived more than merely an adjective to describe You, as a separate being, needing the medicine of leisure to treat a busy life. Leisurely as active life rather than passive description (come to think of it, I would just as easily and confusingly say that leisure as mind is an attitude of passive action).

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Cataphatica

I've become interested lately in etymology, and language in general; how words change meaning, the history of such changes, roots of the word, and how they are used now. Language is, obviously, an intensely integral part of daily life for any human, and yet so many have not an inkling of curiosity as to how the language they are using has been passed down to them. I'm thinking of a particular example right now, which is agnostic. 

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What Religion Are You?

Coming from the religious background I do, I get asked fairly often, "Are you still Christian?" In my view this is a rather cheap way of doing business. I would much rather be asked questions about the mysteries such religions are based on, such as: what does "heaven" mean to you? What is the relationship of man to so-called nature?, man to divinity? Why are we gifted with free will? What does talking to God mean to you? and other questions of that sort. The problem is though, those questions aren't formulas where neat answers can be given, as it is with simply "Are you Christian?" In other words, these sorts of questions aren't rigid classification but an attempt at wiggly understanding.

To answer this question then, I'll have to explain in a sort of roundabout way. 

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