A Confession...

I have a guilty pleasure I must confess.  I picked it up from my old roommate Paige.  It all started when she showed me the trailer for this really cool documentary called No Impact Man.  We watched it and it was awesome, so I asked her how she came across it.  She then introduced me to what quickly became my own personal heroin, the Apple Trailers website.


Nowadays, when I find myself trying to procrastinate things like writing a paper, going to bed, or exercising, the Apple Trailers website is there calling for me in all its glory.  This doesn't happen very often, I promise, because they update the list of movies only every two weeks or so.  Nothing can describe the rush of seeing two or three rows of new trailers for me to watch.  What a sweet, sweet rendezvous. 

A current favorite of mine.  

Since being a faithful trailer follower, I have noticed movies come out in trends, just like fashion.  Some recent skinny jeans of the film industry have been romances targeted to teens, full of passion and angst, such as Beastly and Red Riding Hood, and alien action thrillers, like Cowboys vs. Aliens and Battle Los Angeles. A month or so ago I discovered the latest and greatest movie trend.  And it has left a super bad taste in my mouth.  See if you can guess the trend.

Need I show more?  If you guessed that affairs and adultery are the latest film trends, you are correct!  Apparently what the people want to watch in the movie theatres these days is the demise of commitment, the intrigue of infidelity, and the glamour of all that adultery entails.

And things just keep getting better.  I discovered this from a fellow blogger earlier this week.  Have you heard of Ashley Madison?  With the mission statement of "Life is short, have an affair", Ashley Madison is the latest and greatest in online dating, guaranteeing to help you find a cheating partner AND change your life.  No, REALLY?!  

I'm beginning to fear that society thinks betraying trust, breaking vows, and destroying marriages is really cool.  Heck, it's even in that stupid movie trailer I posted above!

I am not married.  But I think I might know why this is happening.  Please enjoy the rock yard analogy, courtesy of Rena Gibb.

The summer after I graduated from high school, my mom and I would go on night time walks.  It was so awesome to enjoy the warm summer nights, walking and talking with my mom.  Almost every night we would pass this one yard and every time we would, I would complain about how ugly I thought it was.  The homeowners had chosen to cover up their entire front yard with red and white shale and landscaping ties.  Not only did it look awful, I felt this sort of landscaping was as good as putting up a sign saying, "Hey everybody, I'm especially lazy!"  I am sure my mom can remember the disgust in my voice as I rambled on about how the only reason someone would put in an "ugly rock yard" is because they were simply too lazy to mow their lawn.  She laughed at me, agreed and then shared some insight that I will never forget.

Rock yards are only going to become more popular.

I was boggled by her thoughts at first, how could more people decide to follow suit with this ugly rock yard?  No way could this ever be a trend!  However, there was more to my mothers logic.  To her, rock yards represented taking the easy way out and she described ways she was already seeing this come to pass.

"Why are less and less people choosing to get married?"

"Why are divorces on the rise?"

"How many kids are people choosing to have these days?"

"Why are people choosing to landscape their yards with these awful rocks?"

Then it all made sense.

Caring for a yard takes a fair bit of work.  You have to fertilize it, water it, and do the awful task of mowing it.  Work takes time, work takes effort, and most of the time, work isn't easy.  So why not bypass all this work by dumping a bunch of rocks on the grass and calling it your yard?

Raising kids takes work.  Why not just have fewer?  Why have any at all?

Marriage takes work.  Why even bother with it?  Why stay married?

My mom taught me a valuable lesson with this analogy.  Some things just aren't worth taking the easy way out.  It is disturbing to see how popular the easy way out is becoming.  To make ourselves not feel so guilty about being lazy, society glamourizes things like not getting married, never having kids, or having an affair. According to Ashley Madison, this is all justified because, life is short, right?  Why not grow old with just your money and toys all by yourself, life is short!  Why not just proclaim yourself as "not a kid person" and buy a couple dogs to keep you company, they'll be pretty fun to have around on Christmas morning, and besides, life is short!  Why not just indulge in a mindless affair instead of reconciling any differences with your spouse, that way you will have a reason to end your marriage, an easy way out, and we're all looking for an easy way out of anything because, life is short!

I don't know about you, but I have a little more self respect than to choose to live my life in the easiest way possible.  People who choose the easy way out are surrendering their most valuable possession, their CHARACTER.  How big of a person does it make you when your life is spent backing down from all the work and opposition you face?