Movin' On Up

I would like to officially announce that Blustery Day will be moving to a new home. It is time to move on to bigger and better things, but in my heart, this will always be where the magic started. It's been swell.

*wipes tear*

Narrator: And so we come to the last chapter, in which Pooh and Christopher Robin go to the enchanted part of the forest, and we say goodbye. 

Winnie the Pooh: Goodbye? Oh no, please. Can't we just go back to page one and start all over again? 

Narrator: Sorry, Pooh, but all stories have an ending, you know. 

Winnie the Pooh: Oh, bother. 

From Up Here

From up here,

you can tell that 

the earth is round.

You can imagine

that great sloping 

curve in the distance.

From up here,

you can tell that

the earth spins

around the sun—

that the clouds

are only just

the beginning.

From up here,

great sprawling rivers

can fit in the space

between your fingers

and you can watch

the sun making 

its burning arch

across the sky.

And suddenly—

you feel very small

in comparison.

In Light of This

A shadowed earth—
the darkness painting and covering
its dips and swells,
its plains and shady forests.
Erratic spider webs of dotted light
are a beacon of humanity.
They reach for one another—
tendriled arms of mottled amber,
green and yellow fade
and are consumed in darkness.
Yet elsewhere—
even in the purest of the black,
there remains a persistent cluster
of light, like a rebellious celebration.
And the pulse of this lighted center
is living and spreading.
Until the black is not so dark
and the surface of the world
is cased in golden netting.
And then you can see
how we have made this place our home.
And it seems
that perhaps we are better in the dark.
That when given the chance, we make our light.
And it is truly beautiful.

By the way...

One half of a peach is all I need.
And a handful of sunflower seeds will be enough.

And I have always wanted a rocking chair—
Since you asked, I would want it to creak
When I rocked back and forth, like it knew
that I only wanted it to talk me to sleep.

Three hundred pages are all I need.
And if not, two hundred will be enough.

And I have always wanted to write,
Since you asked. A thick tome that would
Rest on a back corner shelf where its gold
Embossed letters would shine on their own.

Two gold hoop earrings are all I need.
And my frizzy brown hair will be enough.

And I have always wanted to see what it’s like,
Since you asked, to cut all of it off— feel my fuzzy
trimmed scalp and know that you like me the same
as when my hair, tangled in gold, made me beautiful.

Four or five centuries of knowledge are all I need.
And a simple white T-shirt will be enough.

And I know I can’t dance or sing well.
Since you asked, I do both anyway.
And now you know who I am
And I hope
that for you,
it is enough.

Sure

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.

"Pooh!" he whispered.

"Yes, Piglet?"

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you."

- Winnie the Pooh

I just wanted to be sure of you
Just to know you were there
So I reached out my arm to touch you
And found that you were

I just wanted to be sure of you
Sure that you’ll always be my friend
So I laced my hand with yours
And found that you are

I just wanted to be sure of you
To know that I’m not really alone
So I sat down beside you
And found that if
I am sure of one thing,
It is that I am sure of you

If It Is True

If it is true
that you noticed
how my eyelashes sometimes
get tangled at the corners,
then you must see me.

If it is true
that you listened
when I hummed so softly
to myself that day,
then you must hear me.

If it is true
that you laughed
with me when I stumbled
momentarily in the wrong direction,
then you must know me.

And if it is true
that you turned me around
and saw the ends of my lashes curl,
heard my secret song,
knew my funny missteps,
then you must love me.

What The Kids Are Watching

Every human being is entitled to four basic rights: the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the right to excessive battles over the television set. In a house of seven people, and only two TV sets, I have had to tap deep into my most primal instincts when it comes to television survival. Because my younger siblings outnumber me about four-to-one, I have remained in a never ending vortex of children’s shows, even as my friends began to move on from Nickelodeon to VH1. This exposure to the children’s shows of the past and today’s more modern equivalents has caused me to notice a dramatic change in the world of children’s programming.

As young teenagers, many of my contemporaries and I were exposed to what would become the first waves of the “pre-teen” movement in the entertainment industry. Prior to this, we were seemingly pigeonholed into the extremes, flipping channels between Blue’s Clues and MTV Hits. It was not until the likes of shows such as Lizzie Maguire and Boy Meets World that we were introduced to a type of show that was at once more mature than the slow-paced programs of childhood, and less graphic than the adult shows of the time. From this breed of children’s programming came the phenomenon of pre-teen based shows like Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, and more recently, the High School Musical craze. Finally, the children who were at that awkward stage between childhood and adulthood had something to watch that covered tough issues like peer pressure, smoking, and romantic relationships, without being inappropriate. The entertainment industry had struck gold, but this wave of success has led to the elimination of programming for the younger age group, and therein lies the issue.

In my own home, the effects of this pre-teen movement are quite apparent. I have witnessed my six-year-old brother switch from Dora the Explorer to Seventh Heaven in what seems like overnight. Though inevitable, this switch from the infantile to the mature is one that is meant to occur during the transitive period of the early teen years, not during kindergarten. Parents must consider that informing their children about the challenges they will face as they grow up is an important conversation to have, but it is unnecessary and unwarranted to do so at such a young age. However, many of these shows raise questions that do not and should not concern the small children who watch them. In almost every episode of Nickelodeon’s sitcom Drake and Josh, young viewers are shown the character of Drake, a rakish heartthrob who is girl-obsessed and is seen kissing and dating many different girls in the course of one episode. My young cousin who watches the show ever refers to Drake as her “crush.” It is rare to find such young children thinking in romantic terms, which are prompted by this representation of Drake as a blatant object of affection, rather than an ordinary character who happens to be a boy.

Another means of exploitation with the children’s programming industry lies in its film audience. For my brother’s tenth birthday, I took him to see the movie Robots and was surprised by how clever and poignant it turned out to be. I was even further surprised when I discovered that my brother had found it “boring.” Upon a second viewing, I realized that much of what I had found enjoyable about the movie were the many jokes and innuendos aimed at a much older audience than that of my younger brother. Much of the childish humor from children’s movies have been eliminated and replaced with subtle, adult oriented jokes, and regurgitated under the guise of a children’s film. The industry has given children a reason to want to see these movies, and parents a reason to want to take their children to see them. This promotes further confusion and ambiguity about what is and is not appropriate for the children who fall into the age group between toddlers and pre-teens.

In the short amount of time between my childhood and that of my brothers and sister’s childhood, the whole industry had changed and the change was not necessarily for the better. The entertainment industry must re-evaluate children’s programs to make them more consistent with their targeted age groups. The failure to do this could result in a loss of innocence and a desensitization to mature and important issues starting from a young age. The introduction of the pre-teen show is one that is beneficial for that age group, but should not be geared at children younger than the pre-teen age. I believe that a compromise could be reached by the industry that satisfies children’s interests with their social and emotional development. Parents have a responsibility to monitor what their children see on TV and in the movies and if these steps are taken, being concerned about what the kids are watching could become a thing of the past.