For all of my love and patience, being at home is a huge challenge. Or should I say being near my parents is a huge challenge? Feeling judged, misunderstood, and forgotten in the presence of a favored elder sibling... etc.

Anyways, I'm the lazy, unmotivated, unbusy one apparently.

How does he not know who I am? Of all things, why is the response to my exceptional academic performance surprise? Why is it that they know everything about my sister's life but have no idea what I'm up to? Why are the things I'm excited about in my life met with.... a change of topic?

Perhaps it's because I concern myself with abstract, unacademic things as my major. Perhaps it's because i have a new interest in issues of social justice and actually knowing what's going on in the world.

For the longest time, I was able to forgive all that and just remember that it isn't what others think of me that makes me what I am, but I seem to have gotten weaker in this area.. Maybe this is a perfect example of how having an easier life is not necessarily beneficial. After what my K-12 years were like, I'm pretty much spoiled by the acceptance and accolade I get at Michigan.

But going back to knowing what's going on in the world... This house is like a bubble. We just got a television on Black Friday 2007. It doesn't have cable. We don't listen to the radio. We don't receive the newspaper. We have dial-up. Internet is really used only for email. We don't have these things because my parents don't want to hear about the bad things going on in the world.

I will assure you that every single word on every single page or in every single movie in this house is completely wholesome too. But that's a good thing right?

Sunday School answer is yes, but in the context of this bubble I feel like it's all in this huge effort to be separated from the world. Not in the world and therefore not of the world.

And so it bothered me when my dad got upset over my sister bringing "Day after Tommorow" home for the family to watch. He was upset enough to send an email out to both of us with 'stern advice' to reconsider our lives and entertainment options.

If you've watched Day after Tommorow, you proly would never have imagined that there would be something objectionable in it. But there is a girl and a guy in a bed. *shakes finger*

Even though it annoys me to no end when my dad advises us to completely rid our music and movie collections of anything remotely sinful, as a Christian is that what should be done?

Sunday School answer again is yes... but i dunno about that.

To me that would sorta be like avoiding all the people I know that will curse, or do drugs, or talk about sleeping with some guy. because it's all too unwholesome for my holy ears and eyes? Isn't it better to learn how to live in the world without becoming of the world? So be able to live with that kind of stuff while keeping personal holiness? Quite honestly, I'm not about to go have premarital sex just because I watched Day after Tommorow. After going to a high school where pregnancy was literally the trend, seeing what i've already seen in real life in a movie doesn't seem like a big deal.

Some wise Christian out there, tell me if I'm wrong.