#388

I wrote before about beauty and the superficiality – and artificiality – of magazine covers these days, and magazine content. It's interesting to note, however, that tabloids in their current form have been around for a hundred years, and publicized political bullshit and nonsense for thousands of years, since the Romans for sure, and probably long before that. Dignitaries in ancient Egypt probably spread lies and back-stabbed each other in struggles for rank; the pharaoh must've enjoyed rumors and gossip, even if patently untrue, especially about people who annoyed him. Or annoyed her; several pharaohs were women, don't forget, Cleopatra and others. This is assuming that 'annoying the pharaoh' didn't get you immediately executed. King Tut: "Please take So-And-So to the pit of misery." You know the commercial. "Dilly-dilly!" So the difference I think, between pharaoh's Egypt and today's America, is the over-abundance and ever-presence of it. Unrealistic, sensationalized media I mean; it's in our pockets, literally, on our nightstands, everywhere, and it can be harmful. I guess the magazine racks, and all the bikinis and shirtless-dudes, are only part of it. I just don't want Megan wanting someone else's life, and I hope her primary goal isn't "a life lived as if through the pages of a glossy magazine" (a phrase I'm stealing from Jojo Moyes' book Me Before You). If Megan cures cancer, of course she'll be on magazine covers. But the 'goal' would be the former. If she pursued a career in art, acting, or modeling, I would support her. And success might include magazines and mass media, but.... never mind, I sound like a parent, a really boring and annoying one. Ah, yes, give him a private tour of the pit of misery! Hey, not to be melodramatic, but that's parenting sometimes. We never make perfect sense to our kids. I don't make sense to myself, half the time. Maybe because parenting is emotional, complex, important, awesome. Experts don't exist. Opinions, methods, philosophies, personalities, perspectives vary and vary wildly, it seems to me. Blah blah. There's a point I'd like to make, however, that sort of eases my concerns about glossy magazines and the ubiquity of hyperbolized media, and it has to do with YouTubers. YouTubers are celebrities to our kids; they have been for years; this is old news. M 'n' m can't name any movie stars, but they can recite and mimic popular YouTubers like it's their job. And here's what I see: YouTubers are messy. It's not magazine cover stuff. It's real, even if outrageous and staged, even if obnoxious and stupid. So maybe that's a blessing in disguise. Real people. But again, that's me looking through a lens – and a childhood – that didn't have YouTube. We didn't have photoshop either, or thousands of mainstream fitness, modeling, entertainment, and fashion magazines and websites. Life was simpler back then, wasn't it?

I mentioned F-words in #387 and Grandpa Mike should thank me for not mentioning him. I remember when he was very frustrated with his smartphone at a hotel in Orlando the night before he took M 'n' m to Disney World. Megan heard some new words for sure. But hey, Disney World. And I believe grandpas are supposed to be great seasoners of their grandchildren. It's their job, and the great ones do it richly. My grandpas were two of the very best. M 'n' m are similarly blessed. For that, I'm grateful.

"One of the guards who looked after my grandfather told me how he smuggled me in when I was eight months old, so my grandfather could hug and kiss me."
      — Nelson Mandela's granddaughter

"The reason grandchildren and grandparents get along so well is that they share the same enemy."
     — Sam Levenson

"Trying to explain how much I love my grandkids is like trying to count the stars."
     — internet meme

"Saw it... liked it... told Grandma... got it!"
     — internet meme

"Grandma: like a mom, only cooler."
     — internet meme

"My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition."
     — Indira Gandhi

"More and more, when I single out the person who inspired me most, I go back to my grandfather."
     — James Earl Jones

"I'm very proud of my gold pocket watch. My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch."
     — Woody Allen... had to end with a funny one