I've had a few different thoughts lately, I will now attempt to weave them together here, let's hope for minimal seaming.
I was talking to a friend last night who returned from a trip abroad where she was visiting her brother and family. She was deeply impressed with the spirit and attitude she found there, she described it as idyllic, filled with content and gracious people. Despite being half a world away from their family and a familiar way of life, this family focused on the important things, family, the gospel and their standards. They gave willingly to my friend of their time, food, shelter and spirit. While I was listening to this I was impressed with the total selflessness of these people and how they were rewarded for it.
During this last Conference weekend I was also impressed with President Monson. I was initially puzzled with how he had time to have a professional career along with his Church service (he was a mission president and called into the 12 while in his 30's) yet he is very successful in the eyes of the world. Now I don't claim to know his biography, but from what I heard at conference, he has always been devoted to the 'one', meaning the individual, always sacrificing his own time and energy to help individual members of the Church. I would bet that it is his selfless service that he has been blessed for, both materially and in terms of an increase in
spiritual things.
Another thing my friend said about her family was their impressive ability to do what they know is right regardless of what others think about them.
This is where the post takes a weird turn.
Yesterday Ben and I went to the mall for no particular reason and Ben, speaking of the emo mall rats all around, said, "I can't tell who are boys and who are girls." I agreed and said, "That's what the God of Emo wants." Boys wearing girls pants with feminine hair and girls with masculine looking clothes, androgyny is the fashion of our time. We had several questions, like who is the God of Emo? and where did all this come from? In answer to the question of how the clothes fit the depressed attitude, I decided that the overall feeling is, "you don't know me!" Anyway, if you have any insights, please post comments, and if you look at the above link, just know that it's funny but a bit shocking.
12 comments:
The boys in America are shrinking, that's why they can't keep their pants up. And the girls are growing like Amazons, thus their shirts and pants no longer come together over their mid sections. That's my explanation, certainly no parent exists that would buy or allow their kids to purchase such outfits, so it must be the changing bodies.
Wow. That Emo clip was quite...depressing. Anyway, sometimes when I find myself in big crowds, I'll look at the individuals around me, and ask myself, "I wonder if they believe in God or anyone for that matter. What are they living for? What do they see as the purpose of life." It really does change perspective of life, when you can count your blessings, and thank God as He is the giver.
The following answer to the question "Who is the God of Emo" is not allowed:
Satan
That would be the obvious choice. We're saying, if there were a person or group who could best represent emo, who/what would it be?
Emo Phillips?
that clip is terribly disturbing. I didn't even know about the emo subculture until we went to a live band in Logan and we saw all the slicked-haired, tight-pant kids sort of bending their bodies in a dance together.
I thought I was on the moon. So based upon that assumption, I would say that the god of emo is a giant piece of cheese with tight pants and hair in its eyes.
Where did your friend go?
Diana's comment hit it: "I wonder if they believe in God or anyone..."
It starts with denying that God is a person and shifts subtly to denying that your peers are people, and then your own family. Pretty soon you are the only one that thinks and has feelings. You are justified in treating everyone poorly because they aren't real to you.
This, I believe, is the exact opposite of President Monson's life.
And the god of emo is Tim Burton.
by your logic Thad, and I may be way off because of exhaustion, but wouldn't they then begin to believe that they are deity?
Tim Burton is intriguing but isn;t he a bit too mainstream?
I think Toni might be right. The god of emo needs to be someone we've never heard of. . . which makes it difficult for us to name him/her here.
That's exactly it, Toni! They set themselves up as gods and become annoyed that more people don't respect and worship them. This isn't a problem confined to emos; it's common to everyone in varying degrees, even us.
"Forget yourself and go to work."
Yeah, Tim Burton is too universally-respected. That's the problem with being an emo: you can't be loved or famous.
This dialogue brings me to an observation that I made a few years ago in church:
The opposite of salvation is pride.
Satan is always counterfeiting divine things, and the most essential and basic mortal ambition is to get to heaven--to be saved--whatever your belief system.
So Satan introduces this idea of self-salvation by making us think that WE are doing things OURSELVES and that we are the most important, and that we deserve to be worshiped for the things that WE do. Then we start competing with other people, hating them, lifting ourselves above them. . . pretty soon we think we are exalted on our own.
But we are SO far from it.
I don't really see the emo scene as a 'subculture'. Hot Topics in every mall give just as many bored kids with too much time and money an arena to fit in as Gap, American Eagle, ect.
I had an epiphany at a Wilco concert 3 years ago. Upon arrival, I realized that all the people who showed up were 'indie/alternative'--against the mainstream--yet each person was acutely aware of their appearance- (I believe) not as concerned to show their individuality, but more concerned with being able to fit into the prescribed, unwritten fashion code of the indie scene. We were all trying so hard to be accepted by a crowd of people whose credo was to stop caring what the crowd thought!
Anyway, as for the god of emo, I'll throw my vote in for David Bowie.
As far as emo goes, at least the type of emo we are talking about, they have leaders like My Chemical Romance, Panic at the Disco, Fallout Boy, the Used and a Simple Plan to name a few of the more widely known bands. They are the preachers, but not the gods, of emo. Have you listened to their songs? It's the stuff of which depression is made. Their more devoted following mimic their apparent manner, hairstyle and clothing (no, no one is actually as different as they think).
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