Anglophile

Why is British TV such a big deal all of the sudden?

Let me be completely honest—for the most part, I kind of hate TV. I find most shows to be dull witted and crude. I think that the jokes are too obvious, and that they often rely on tired stereotypes and promiscuity in order to be interesting.

I think the Bachelor is boring, I think Pretty Little Liars is tired, and while I think shows like Breaking Bad are remarkably well-done, there’s nothing all that surprising in the plot.

We Americans seem to love the glorified bad guy in our entertainment. We like to think that deep down, he’s really pretty cool and the more badly he behaves, the more we take his side and love him.

Which is why it is interesting to me that British TV shows are becoming so popular. Sherlock, Downton Abbey, and Call the Midwife have become hugely followed in the United States despite (or perhaps because) none of them are your typical American TV show. For one thing, none of them rely on over-sexualizing any of the main characters, which (let's face it) is generally a given in most American shows. Obviously, sex is a big part of a lot of stories, but while these shows may hint at and acknowledge sexual relationships, in general they rely on dialogue and avoid nudity or graphic sex scenes that make so many of our favorite American TV shows a bit awkward to watch with family members and friends.

According to an article by CNN, approximately 10.2 million viewers watched the live season four premier of Downton Abbey. And that just shows the people who watched it live! I don’t know about you, but I am an avid Downton Abbey fan, and I have never watched it live. I have a feeling there are a lot of people like me, and Downton Abbey has even more followers that watch the show online or later in the week! Their is even a BBC article discussing the way that the show has impacted international fashion!

In the UK, the show Call the Midwife is even more popular than Downton Abbey.  The show follows Jenny Lee, her friends, and her colleagues as they experience life working as nurses in the slums of London in the 1950’s. Nurse Lee is surprised on her first day when she arrives at Call the Midwife headquarters and realizes that her new place of employment is an abbey! This show is absolutely heartwarming. If you begin to doubt the human race, watch an episode or two for your hope to be restored. Althoughis remarkably popular in England, it is still gaining viewers in the States. It currently has about 3 million live followers on PBS— which although lower than Downton Abbey, is still a much higher fan base than the station’s norm.

Sherlock, also a PBS show, is definitely the edgiest of the three British TV examples and had approximately 4 million watchers when it aired on PBS. This spin on Sherlock Holmes is set in modern London, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch (of Star Trek) and Martin Freeman (of The Hobbit). My favorite part of this show is watching the ice around the stoic, sociopathic character of Sherlock Holmes begin to melt as an unexpected friendship with Dr. John Watson grows.  The show is witty and mischievous and clever and lots of fun to watch.

To me, the resurgence of British shows in American pop culture is an interesting phenomenon. For the most part, these shows are wholesome, especially when compared to their American counterparts. And there is something in the way that the characters relationships are played out. They are never perfect, idealized individuals, but for the most part you see the characters becoming better and stronger. Compare that to popular American TV shows that often portray the corruption or demise of a character with a seemingly strong personal character (Shane from Walking Dead, anyone?).  The writers of these British shows also seem to be masters of conversation. One thing that all these popular shows have in common is that the dialogue is sharp and funny and overall well done.

All of this is obviously just one girl’s opinion. What do you think? Is the reason for British TV’s rise in popularity due to a hunger for more wholesome entertainment and better dialogue, or is it all just happy coincidence? 

If you're interested in watching any of these shows, you can find them all here on PBS's website!

Mary Blair

I have yet another favorite illustrator.

Recently I stumbled upon the work of Mary Blair, and I died a little. She worked as an illustrator for Disney and is responsible for many of the beautiful images you'll see if you watch Peter Pan, Cinderella, or Alice in Wonderland.

I'm including several of my favorite illustrations she drew as concept pieces for the aforementioned movies.

I love the way that the magic of the stories comes through in each of her pieces!

Technology Rant

 “We are all fatter, uglier, lazier and less interesting than our parents.” Those were the words that crossed my mind as I enjoyed dinner with a group of friends  and watched as they sacrificed conversation on the collective altars of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or simply chose to text with other (assumedly more interesting) people not present.

No, my friends don’t hate me, and I don’t hate my friends. Although it would be quite understandable for one to get that impression after observing us neglect each other at an occasion where the entire purpose is to connect and be present in one another’s lives.  My friends and I are actually very kind, fun, attractive, and interesting people, but I can’t help but feel that we grow less so the more we dedicate our spare time to TV, video games, and our phones.

Please don’t misunderstand me—I don’t hate technology and I’m not of the opinion that we should burn our computers and televisions and only use landlines and swear off watching movies. As a twenty-five year old resident of Orange County, I am surrounded by a culture that respects show business and sees it as an art. I too, think the new iPhone is really cool and often the first thing I do when I wake up is grab my phone and check for emails, texts, and notifications on social media.

Lately though when I look around and see so few men and women my age accomplishing anything other than incredible amounts of debt and really awesome Instagram pictures, I can’t help but wonder why we are all so dull. Does anyone create anymore? Does anyone think anymore? Does anyone do anything interesting just for the sake of it, or are they choosing their extracurricular activities based on what will get them the most likes on Instagram? Just once, I would like to go watch the sunset at the beach and not see anyone take a selfie.

Do you want to know why I think dialogue rich shows like Downton Abbey are so popular right now? It’s because my generation has no idea how to have a conversation, and is astounded when they see it done well. I think we have forgotten that people are actually kind of interesting—not their facebooks, or their websites, or their instagrams, but people themselves. What they think and wonder and dream about and have to say if they’re asked is interesting.

If asked, many people would say that I live in one of the most interesting places in the world. Southern California is hailed as a mecca of entertainment both in the entertainment and outdoor recreation industries. Yet, if you ask the average person who lives in my neighborhood what a typical day looks like, they will say that they wake up, maybe go on a run or to the gym, shower and eat, go to work, run some errands, and then come home. They will then typically eat dinner and watch TV until they go to bed. If you ask them how much time they spend having intentional conversations during the day (not counting with customers or clients at work) they will probably say they spend about 15-20 minutes. If you ask them how much personal time they spend on social media, watching TV, on the computer, or playing video games, you can rest assured that their answer will be anywhere from 1-5 hours.

As a human being, I am irritated by this. Maybe this is why it’s so hard for single women my age to connect with a worthwhile man. They’re all too busy playing video games to notice us.  Maybe this is why it’s hard to connect with new friends. They’re all too connected to their hundreds of pseudo friends on facebook to bother with new friendships.

As a human, I am irritated, but as a Christian, I’m appalled.

I sincerely believe that when Christ died for us it was with the expectation that we would not take His gift and hide it. The Bible makes it perfectly clear that we are meant to connect with other believers and non believers. We are meant to have fellowship and we are meant to be in the world but not of it. We are meant to have community.

Just as sincerely as I believe that, I believe that my generation is both hungry for real friendships and numb to the fact that they are hungry or lacking of anything. Because let’s face it, friendships are hard. They take time and work and real effort. They aren’t always pleasant or pretty, they take grace and love and compromise.

So, let’s talk about this. TV, video games, social media. In my opinion, someone who delegates all of their free time to these things will be effected in two different realms—the temporal and the spiritual.  For instance, if you choose to only be entertained by other people’s adventures (TV and video games) you’ll never go off and have your own. You will become boring, and when you go on vacation you won’t want to leave your hotel room. You’ll just want to stay in and eat and watch a movie. So now you’re fat and lazy and boring. Spiritually you’ll be affected because eventually you will lose the drive to really delve into a friendship. You’re focus in life will have shifted to your own cheap entertainment and you won’t want to take the time to go and do all the things that having relationships require you to go do. It’s much easier to sit at home alone and not connect with anyone other than characters in our favorite TV show or with a game. Our hearts and spirits and souls need other people. When we starve ourselves of that, we miss something vital in life.

In a way, social media is even worse. Instead of connecting with no one, you’re connecting with everyone, and trying to sustain a ridiculous number of cheap and shallow friendships with people you don’t even really know, and most of the time, with people you don’t even really like. 

According to my Instagram my life and the lives of all of my friends is perfect. All we do is watch beautiful sunsets and look gorgeous in perfect outfits. Our boyfriends and family and friends are always perfect and nothing is ever wrong.  We hide behind a façade of perfect pictures and clever tweets. We live lives that aren’t vulnerable and we do not invite others to share any imperfections in your apparently perfect world.  We cheat ourselves from the beauty of real friendship, as messy and hard as it can be.

But we are commanded to love, and love is both a choice and an action. You can’t love the way that Jesus loved if you can’t even handle twenty minutes of conversation with your friends. Conversation is a tool that we have to hone, because in order to love someone well, you have to have some basic understanding of them, and in order to understand someone, you really must talk to them.

Our obsession with TV and being entertained with other people’s stories is halting us from pursuing our own story. 

When our focus is more on technology than on the simple day to day moments of our life, we lose our ability to be genuine.

We lose our ability to connect.

We forget to value what it means to delve into a friendship.

We sacrifice our ability to love well and to be loved well.

I don't mean to say that it's bad to be watch TV or to be linked in to social media. Wonderful stories are communicated through film, and social media can be an invaluable way to keep up with people. I guess it can all be summed up in a pretty simple question. Are you connecting more with technology than you are with the humans that surround you? If so, something needs to change. 

Choose to be interesting, and you’ll meet interesting people. Choose to obey God and love other well, and see how He uses you and blesses your obedience.

So this is a challenge to my generation. Go do fun interesting things just for the sake of having a good adventure. Invite your friends over to cook dinner, and instead of instagraming your dinner (I'm very guilty of that) and trying to decide what the most clever hashtag can be, talk about how everyone is really doing. Next time you’re waiting in line at Starbucks, don’t pull out your cell and try to look busy on it. Talk to a stranger. Connect with someone you otherwise never would have connected with.

And in all of your experiments, ask that God help you to choose to love whoever it is that you’re coming into contact with. It’s a beautiful thing to be loved as someone’s brother or sister in Christ. I know that for me, being loved well by believers is what moved me to choose this path. So let’s be intentional in our time and recreation and conversation. Let’s talk to people and open ourselves up and be inspired and original when it comes to have our fun.

Maybe we can even end up as interesting as our parents. 

Reasons Why

Last week I laid in my bed at my parent’s house in Tyler, Texas. It was around 3 in the morning but I couldn't sleep.

My mind was full of thoughts about my last year and about a certain application waiting to be sent.

This last year has been amazing for me. It has been hard and easy and filled with days at the ocean, hikes in the sunshine, and dinners with new friends. This year has been a chance for me to take a break in a strange kind of way. I still have many of the same concerns—finances, career, direction, friends, love. It’s all still there in my thoughts, but it’s smaller.

When I arrived in Laguna Niguel I was hungry for something to change. I was tired. I had a heart that was afraid of everything and tried to control everything. Don’t get me wrong, I was pretty happy most of the time, but I could feel something down deep inside of me that needed to rest, and I have received that rest.

This year has been a lesson in letting go. My five year plan no longer exists, except in very loose terms. I hope I’ve learned how to hold things I love loosely rather than hanging on to them for dear life. Because the One who put those things into my hand knows my dreams and promised to take good care of me. Easy to say. Harder to believe. Harder still to hold up as a banner that I live under.

I learn these lessons, and as I learn I gain much needed perspective in my life and am able to really evaluate where I am and why I am there. What is good and needs to stay, and also what needs to change.

As I have followed this train of thought I have realized how much I dislike how focused my life is on me. It’s not even that I consider myself particularly selfish, but when you're unmarried and independent and young your days naturally become focused on yourself. And I don't even know if I think that's wrong or if it's just the way things are, but I do know that my days centered around myself feel empty, and I want to see what else I can do with my time and focus and energy.

All of these thoughts—the prayers, the self examination, the gaining of perspective— it's all been happening as I’ve spent most of this year reading the book of James in the Bible, which is full of practical, useful stuff about what to do with the faith you have. As I’ve read and thought and questioned, there’s one verse that seems to sum up the shape my faith should take: “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

I’ve read it before and I’ll read it again, but this year it planted itself in my mind and took special meaning to me. This year, it finally occurred to me that as a Christian I am commanded countless times to go serve others, yet I very rarely put myself in a position of service. There is no treasure on this earth that Jesus cares about as much as people, and I want to learn to truly cherish the same things He does. 

Last week I laid in my bed at my parent’s house in Tyler, Texas. It was around 3 in the morning but I couldn’t sleep.  

I couldn’t sleep, so I got out of bed and went to the computer where my application for a six month Discipleship Training School with Youth with a Mission sat in a file, completely filled out and waiting for me to make a decision.

I sent it in. There was no big dramatic moment, just lots of thoughts that told me that I would be fine if I didn’t go, but I would probably be better if I did. Thoughts that told me that there were questions that needed to be asked and specific things my heart is longing to learn, and that this would be a safe place to question and to learn.

I don’t want to go to be anyone's “savior,” though I would like to tell them about mine. Mostly I want to go to learn how to serve well and love well.

I want to go because this is a great opportunity and the door is open, and I know that if I chose to stay then those six months would be spent enjoying myself under the sunshine on the beaches of California—a beautiful prospect, but eternally empty.

I like the idea of devoting three months to learning about Jesus and asking questions about my faith and challenging myself and being trained how to serve the community I will be sent to. I like even more that the following three months will be focused purely on serving others.

I think I will grow. I think I will learn. I think it will be good for me.

I went through the interview process and yesterday I was officially accepted into the Awaken DTS in Kona, Hawaii. I will be attending from July until September, at which point I will be headed off to another nation to serve in ways that the ministries local contacts see as most useful until I return to Hawaii in December.

I am nervous and I am excited, and I’m not sure what to expect. I’m familiar with going on adventures, but this will be a different sort than I'm used to.

I ask that anyone who reads this will take a quick moment to pray for me and for this experience. It's completely out of my comfort zone, and I'm nervous to be stretched.

Pray that God will speak things into my heart that previously I’ve been too busy to learn. That I will learn how to love and serve well and with all of me. That I will find a good job to raise the money to fund this adventure.

I'm setting these six months apart and in every way am placing them in the hands of my God.

And I can't wait to see what He will do!

Wise Words

 Insightful words from a woman whose stories inspired my imagination as a child:

Fight Night

ar·gu·ment

noun\ˈär-gyə-mənt\

: a statement or series of statements for or against something

: a discussion in which people express different opinions about something

: an angry disagreement

People should argue more.

I’m not talking about fighting over small things that don’t matter—I’m talking about sitting down to have a good conversation with someone. They present their opinion about something, you think it over, and then you have a nice exchange of theories and opinions. If the other person’s logic is weak, then you have the opportunity to point that weakness out without the fear of World War III breaking out.

Don’t you wonder if  our society (with all of its diverse peoples and cultures and worldview and backgrounds) would be a better one if we encouraged good, healthy arguments with well founded, well thought out ideas-- without either party getting angry or stating that the other person is wrong or small minded.

I think that the pros of a good, healthy argument are undervalued and unappreciated.  I hate that in our culture the words “I think you’re wrong” are often synonymous with “I hate you.” I long for healthy exchanges of beliefs, ideas, and ideals, with each person listening and considering, and at peace with not coming out on top. Arguments like that breed strong thoughts and open minds and the ability to really know why you believe what you believe, because you’ve built confidence by defending it well in a conversation where someone is respectfully questioning and challenging you.

Not only does our inability to argue well breed a spirit of defensiveness when disagreements do occur, but it means that we often have no idea how to communicate (even to ourselves) why we think about things the way that we do. Most people cannot communicate why they hold certain beliefs-- even ones that are integral to them. When asked to explain themselves and/or their beliefs, the response is to get angry or defensive, and I hate that.

I think that the reason for that attitude is simple—fear. I think that we are all terrified of being wrong, but I’ll tell you one thing: a belief that can’t survive a simple argument is a weak belief.

Healthy, non-angry arguments make you sharp. They make you think and question and challenge things you think about. They make you think and question and challenge things that other people tell you instead of swallowing it mindlessly.

I’m all for my generation changing things. I want us to be men and women who know exactly what they believe and why they believe it. I want us to brave enough to argue about important things—and I want us to learn what it really means to have faith in our beliefs. To test things as we learn them and to not let our world tumble around our ears if one person argues better than we about something vastly important to us.

How good for our characters to think long and hard about why we believe what we believe, regardless of topic—politics, religion, gender roles, family. To think long and hard, and to explain it to ourselves, and to bring it up in healthy debate with others. Let’s test things before swallowing them. Lets defend things well, and lets be aware that while some beliefs are worth holding onto like a pit bull, there are others where you may be wrong.

Let’s argue, and let’s be better people for it.

I love the idea of seeing friends as whetting stones. A whetting stone is a hard stone used to sharpen steel blades. Your mind is a tool and a weapon. A steel blade, per se. And it is priceless to have friendships where you both desire to sharpen one another. I encourage every person reading this to have an argue partner. Someone (good friends are best) who is different from you and holds different beliefs than you do who you can go have coffee with on occasion with the sole purpose of learning to argue well.

I promise that if you’re both their with the purpose of learning to argue healthily and well, then your friendship will last some disagreements, and you will probably be a better person for the experience. 

Saturdays

Generally, I think that we can all agree that Saturdays are the best day of the week.

They're the day of play instead of work, of no traffic (unless you decide to go somewhere fun), of wearing pj's all day if you want to. Saturdays are pancake breakfast days, new book finding days, days to recover from long hours and late nights, days to be shared with friends.

Last Saturday was the best Saturday I've had in a while.

I woke up and instead of grabbing for my usual uniform of leggings and a cozy sweater to begin my day, I threw on my swimsuit, grabbed my wetsuit, towel, a cup of coffee, and I was off! It was time to go belatedly celebrate my birthday with friends at the sea.

The first stop was Costa Mesa, and driving there to meet some friends was one of those rare drives. You know the kind of drive where traffic is easy and all your favorite songs are on the radio, and you hit only green lights? It was good.

I met up with my friends, and we were off to the ocean! 

I don't think I can quite explain how and why I love the ocean as much as I do. For all the same reasons that everyone else loves her, I guess. The ocean is wild and playful and beautiful and calming and dangerous. She's the most compelling type of lady. The kind that calls to you to come see what all she's hiding, but loves to maintain her mystery. 

So spending the day at the ocean with some of my favorite people was a good way to begin.

First I have to be quite clear-- I am not a good surfer. I've only been a handful of times, mostly because California water is freezing cold, but also because surfers scare me and I'm too intimidated to go alone. Buying a wetsuit last month was a good first step. I've gone more in the last few weeks than I have since I moved to Orange County! But anyways, don't get any impressive mental images of me surfing, because you'd just be deluding yourself. I only got up once; the rest of the time I practiced falling. A lot. At one point I surfed backwards. It would have been kind of cool if it hadn't been so clearly accidental. 

But still, having fun and being ridiculous in the ocean with your friends is a good way to spend a Saturday.

After being in the water for a couple hours and achieving complete and total loss of feeling in my fingers and toes from the cold, we left the beach and went back to a friends apartment for coffee and doughnuts and good conversation. I ended up having wonderful chats with a newer friend about all kinds of things-- politics and God and adventures and travel. 

Finding new kindred spirits is one of my favorite things about life.

Celebrating a belated birthday at True Food

That night, we all got dressed up and went off to dinner at a new restaurant called True Food Kitchen! The menu was wonderful. Everything was fresh and hot and healthy. When we went up to the bar the first thing I noticed was that it smelled the way my kitchen had when I was doing the juice cleanse. All their mixed drink used fresh ingredients from fruits that were juiced in front of you at the bar! The result was pretty incredible. My favorite was the ginger margarita-- incredible.

There was nothing bad about that Saturday. I spent my time outside enjoying the beautiful California weather while I played with my friends. I had great conversations, and I was celebrated by a group of friends that is so good at making people feel loved. 

Three cheers for Saturdays! I can't wait to see what all the following ones will bring. 

Juice Cleanse Results

I waited a few days to write the result on the DIY BluePrint Juice Cleanse.

You see, I hated it exceptionally, and I had to give it a few days to let the passion of my hatred wear down a bit.

Maybe my expectations were a bit off. Before I started this cleanse I'd been told time and time again how these cleanses make one feel full of energy. Sure, you don't eat for three days, but you have juice! Who needs food when you have juice?!

Me. That's who.

Lets begin with the process of creating the juice. Granted, I don't have a juicer, so the process of juicing was much more labor intensive for me than it would be for the average juice enthusiast.

The process began with me blending all the fruits and vegetables. Next, I put the mixture in my french press and strained it. Over. And over. And over. Just imagine you have a french press full of blended vegetables, and then press down on it as hard as you can. A bit of juice rises to the surface, which you pour into your cup. The level of liquid in the glass rises about a centimeter. So you stir up the mixture in the french press and repeat. Over. And over. And over.

That part was definitely the absolute worst. I was getting gray hairs by the time I strained the mixture and squeezed out the correct amount of juice. It took about an hour and a half to make the juice for the entire day.

That however, would have been worth it if it if that was the only negative aspect.

My least favorite part of this cleanse was the fact that I had an insane headache the entire time I was doing it. I guess the toxins get very angry as they leave your system. At least that's the only explanation I can come up with that explains the nonstop ear-splitting headache that stayed with me all day (and night) long.

Honestly, if I'd expected to feel miserable, and if I had a juicer, I would have been pleased with my DIY BluePrint Juice Cleanse. Because I didn't really feel miserable. I felt tired and weak and my head ached, but as soon as I started eating again, I felt incredible.

I would recommend this cleanse to anyone who:

#1. Has a juicer at their disposal.

#2. Is not addicted to caffeine and can forgo it without agony.

#3. Does not have an active job and can go days with zero food.

So, that is my opinion on the DIY BluePrint Juice Cleanse. To all those who wish to go forward with it, I wish you my best, and highly recommend that you wean yourself off coffee or tea before you get too ambitious with the juice.