Give Beer A Chance

From what I read, the beer summit between President Obama, Henry Gates Jr., and Sgt. James Crowley went very smoothly. According to the Huffington Post, Obama thought it was a "friendly, thoughtful conversation," and praised both Gates and Crowley for taking the time to listen to one another. If this works out, then maybe this approach can be used for future summits. For example, North Korea:

OBAMA: "Hello, Kim? Hey, it's me, Barry. How are you? Listen, I need to talk to you about something . . ."

KIM JONG IL: "Forget it!"

OBAMA: "I'm sorry?"

KIM JONG IL: "Don't play dumb with me, I know that this is about my nuclear weapons. Well you can forget it! There is nothing you can do or say that will make me change my mind. We will consider all challenges to be a declaration of war."

OBAMA: "That's a shame, Kimmy. 'Cause I was just think that, since I've got some Courvoisier on ice . . ."

KIM JONG IL: "Courvoisier? Well, uh, in that case, how's Friday at nine sound? I would do it earlier, but we just arrested some Christians distributing Bibles and . . . well, you know how it is here."

Of course with Islamic nations it might be a little bit harder, so Obama might have to find some sort of compromise before discussing anything:

OBAMA: "Listen, Mahmoud, I was thinking we can meet-up sometime over beer and discuss your nuclear program."

AHMADINEJAD: "Alcohol is a disgrace in the eyes of Allah!"

OBAMA: "Okay, that's fine. We have plenty of Cokes if you want."

AHMADINEJAD: "We will not be corrupted by your Western carbonated drinks."

OBAMA: "Alright then. Umm . . . my wife just bought an espresso machine the other day."

AHMADINEJAD: "Now you're talking! Can you make mine with soy milk? Lactose intolerant, you know."

So who knows, maybe all the world leaders need to do is just sit down and have a few drinks, and then the world will be a much more peaceful place. That is, unless certain world leaders tend to get violent when they're drunk, then we might want to rethink things!

Mental Puberty

The other day I picked up from the library an old book called Seen and Heard: Teenagers Talk About Their Lives. It's a collection of black-and-white photographs and interviews with various teenagers about their lives and what they hope parents would understand about them. The kids profiled include some farm boys, a couple of Phish-heads, a goth who loves Ayn Rand, Schuyler Fisk (yep, Sissy Spacek's daughter), a gay teenager, a girl recovering from an eating disorder, and Shura Baryshnikov (yep, the daughter of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jessica Lange) among others. I wonder what the kids in the book think now, looking back on their teenage thoughts. What have they learned since the book was released? How are they different?

Sometimes I wonder how much I have changed, or even if I have. I mean I have changed a lot physically: I've gained a lot of weight, I grew a Van Dyke, and I live in a different town. But sometimes I find myself going back to my old way of thinking. Sometimes I'm still that angry kid stuck in the corner who is lashing out at all the phonies of the world. Have I really grown up since those days?

Zach Braff once said that you go through physically puberty in your teens, and mental puberty in your twenties. So even though I have changed a lot--both mentally and physically--my mind hasn't fully caught up with my age yet. But I am learning.

By the way, out of curiosity (I swear!) I Googled a couple of the kids to see where they might be now. Shura is a raw foods teacher, and Peach Friedman--one of the Phish-heads--is the author of Diary of an Exercise Addict.

A New Start

I must confess that I was pretty close to leaving the blogosphere altogether. When I first started blogging, my original intent was to meet new people and inspire them with my story. During the past year, however, my focus shifted big time. I wanted to be one of the Big Name Bloggers. I did everything I could to gain popularity--from writing about topics I didn't know about to writing about pure garbage. It just wasn't me, so I decided to delete my old blog and start all over again with this new one.

Hopefully this time I can stay focused!