Life imitates art, or is it the other way around?

I'll admit it, my current #1 favorite show on TV is not South Park, is not Lost, it's not Dancing with Emmit Smith, and it's not Man vs Wild or Survivorman (although those two are quickly climbing the charts). Nope, my #1 favorite show at the moment is "The Wire" on HBO. If you haven't seen it then you have no idea what you are missing and I can't really take the time to talk about it here. For more information see this wonderful running commentary (currently twenty-six entries and counting) on Slate and check out HBO's web site. Or check your On Demand if it is available to you and start catching up. You won't regret it.

The current season of the show revolves around the lives of four middle school aged boys. Each boy comes from similar circumstances and much of the season has been spent examining the events that cause good people to become bad, bad people to become good, and what happens when seemingly insignificant decisions lead to bad things for everyone. For instance, one of the boys, Randy, begins the season as a cheerful outgoing type with an entrepreneurial spirit. He hustles candy bars to classmates at school and is always eager to make a buck. At one point a local drug dealer (Little Kevin) pays Randy to pass a message to a fellow drug dealer (Lex) to meet a girl at a local park. Unbeknownst to Randy, the message is a setup and Lex is subsequently murdered.

After getting caught with his hand out once again, this time being paid to stand lookout while three students have sex in the restroom in school, Randy gets caught in the net when the initially willing girl alleges rape and upon threats of criminal charges or expulsion Randy confesses to the school principal that he knows about Lex's murder. Randy's teacher, Mr Prez (a former police officer) gets Randy to talk with the police by contacting a detective that he trusts (Detective Carver) and having Carver promise that he will keep Randy's involvement quiet and keep Randy safe. When Carver gets other, less diligent, officers involved word gets out on the street that Randy is a snitch. Eventually Randy is beaten on the street in front of the school and police watch is stationed in front of Randy's house waiting for the whole issue to blow over while Randy stays at home and away from school. After the police watch on Randy's house is called away by a false call to dispatch, Randy's house is firebombed and in the last scene we of the most recent episode we see that Randy's foster mom is in the burn unit at the hospital and that Randy is in the waiting room alone. Detective Carver shows up (after many promises to keep Randy safe, all of which have failed) and what at the beginning of the season was the bright cheerful face of Randy is now sullen and full of rage.

Randy's life has now been destroyed because of seemingly insignificant decisions that he made but also by external forces that he had no control over. I fear for what will become of Randy in the next few episodes.

Yesterday in my life something significant and bad happened between some people I know. I am not going to comment on who or what, but just as Randy's life has been ruined by seemingly insignificant decisions that when combined with external forces suddenly cascaded into a heap of trouble, and although the causes for the people I know are a source of speculation and amateur psychology at my house I believe insignificant and bad decisions combined with external forces may be the case for the people I know. Also, last night it was raining, just the type of rain that if you saw it in a movie you would think something bad was going to happen. So you tell me. Does art imitate life? Or, does life imitate art?

As for what is going to happen with the people I know, the situation can only get better or worse from here on out. Fortunately for them that script has yet to be written, and they get to have a hand in how their life will be played out from this point on. I hope they will make the right decisions, for Randy's sake.

Yin and Yang

As the holiday season approaches I've been doing a lot of thinking about needs and wants. I've noticed that while I have everything I could possibly need in order to sustain my life I always want more. Oh, you've got more food I'll have a second helping. Oh look, Nintendo Wii comes out this weekend and even though you already have a 360, that Wii sure looks nice. Man, would it be nice to have a laptop, or to get Vista when it comes out. Those Bron's at Finish Line sure look nice. Want. Want. Want.

Tonight we watched an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in which the featured family was one where the 20-something Mom was full-time breast cancer awareness advocate after witnessing her own mother's struggle to beat breast cancer. After dedicating her life to fighting breast cancer she herself was diagnosed breast cancer and it was currently in remission. This women had dedicated her life to helping others, and all I can think about half the time is what stuff I want to buy.

Where I work you can designate part of your check to go to charity. The first couple of years out of college I donated about $10 or $20 a paycheck to the United Way. After that I decided I would like to keep that cash and volunteer my time instead. I volunteered for exactly one thing and that has been the extent of my personal community involvement in the last two years. The problem is that I am not good at actively seeking out volunteer opportunities. When someone asks me if I would like to help out with something then I usually will find the time, but I do not get excited about cold calling someone and volunteering my services.

When I was growing up my parents always did a good job of taking us to church, nearly every Sunday we were there. I always bitched about it, but mainly because I found the sermonizing part of it EXTREMELY boring. I always liked the social aspects of it, especially Sunday School, and Youth Group. Looking back at that time in my life I see that it was easy to find opportunities to do good for the world, something that I feel like I am sorely lacking right now. I'm pretty sure recycling and buying a programmable thermostat don't count too much on the scale of helping humanity.

I feel like I've been sucked too far into the consumer culture and because of that I haven't been doing a good job of helping other people out. I need to strike a better balance between helping myself and helping others. I'm not sure where to start, but something needs to change. In my past church has provided avenues to help, but currently my mindset is about 75% against going to church because I have mixed feelings on religion. I would like to find something where I can make a difference that will be easy for me to get my foot in the door. There are so many bad things in the world, there's got to be something I can. Send me some ideas and/or links.