I hope you come to see your tv as more of a friend... your window to the world. I often sit back and look at what I'm watching with a critical eye. I think about how this is our culture before me, represented in these pictures. I think about how it instigates and perpetuates the globalization that I so often hear about in my studies. I watch as all of the cultures of the world appear to often blend into one - sadly, it's dominantly yours they're blending into ;)

Just a few days ago I stopped on a free to air music channel. It was an Asian music special and what I saw was quite disturbing. These little Japanese women (singing/rapping in Japanese) with their pretty pale faces. Something that in my mind has had a stereo-typical purity as I link their images back to the days of the Geisha. But the way these pretty young girls were bumping and grinding, wearing little more than their underwear... what I saw was an American film clip that had collided at great speed with my idealic Geisha image in what I saw as a high-speed train wreck... and I just stared in disbelief.

Perhaps I'm just sounding like an old lady haha. Obviously all cultures progress over time but my point here is... allow your new window to the world to entertain and educate you. Even if you don't always like what you see... it's your invitation back into the world you've been shut away from. Or an escape if you let it be. Of course, you won't always like what you see, but perhaps it will open up new thoughts and possibilities in that hungry mind of yours.

On another note, I'm guessing I'm one of the penpals you've been missing. I'm sorry. I finished my final exam for the semester last week and I've been going through my pile of things to do one by one, catching up on everything. I have a few pictures that I printed out a while ago to send you, just images from Facebook. Of course I also owe you some reading materials & again I'm sorry for falling behind. Poor Sean has been counting the days between the letters he's received from me too. :(

I'll be with you soon. I hope you're feeling a lot better now. You're often in my thoughts Jeremy, take care my friend.

Nicki

I fail to see why marriage rights are not equal for all in our modern societies. But I guess when you consider issues like segregation & apartheid were only abolished fairly recently, (& I don't believe either your country OR mine have racism under control to this day).

I guess change for the better just takes time as governments & laws catch up with societal attitudes. High fives to your government! You've set a precedent for Australia; we're still catching up down here. New Zealand legalized gay marriage earlier this year, as did France and I do believe we will follow suit very soon.

One of my favorite (tongue in cheek) arguments for equal marriage rights for all is that 'all people have the right to experience the misery of marriage'. haha (Perhaps I find this funny as I've never been married myself)

I have struggled to understand why the Catholic Church still has such a strong hold over our governmental decisions, but even the recent comments from Pope Francis

"If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"

this suggests to me that it may be time for those ancient walls of exclusion to come tumbling down. In many ways, we live in exciting times.

...But as a side note, it appears on his comments you will still be judged for not searching for the Lord. :D

Take care Jeremy. It always makes my day when I find your comments here, I love hearing from you & will send you something this week (I promise) :)