The Truth About Honesty

Hoorah for a four-day weekend! Everything that would've made me busy today was cancelled so I had the opportunity to waste a little time and watch movies and procrastinate so much that I've forgotten how to type. Seriously. It took me five minutes to type that first bit; sitting around all day does some weird stuff. Anyway, I just finished watching the movie People Like Us. I've been meaning to watch it for a while... I love me some good family dramas.

People Like Us is about a man who's not doing so well with his job. He thinks he is doing well until he destroys his career with a technical error, shooting him into a pile of debt. Meanwhile, his father just died, though this gets an odd reaction from him since the main character (Sam, played by Chris Pine) hated his father as a kid. His father leaves behind a little bag full of $150,000 to give to a nephew he never knew he had, so Sam gets to know his nephew and half-sister without telling them who he really is. There are a ton of subplots too, but I've gotten my main point across.

The real problem with almost all of the characters in this movie is that they lie. I can see their lying faces, and they can see each other's lying faces, but other than getting angry about it, nothing is done to fix the constant lying. It's the whole reason there's a conflict of emotions for Sam and it's why he waited so long to tell his sister about the money.  I realize if he had just been straight with her and told her everything, there wouldn't have been a story, but honestly, it's hard not to think about those kind of things.

Keeping secrets, telling lies, and avoiding people are some of my biggest pet peeves. Mostly, I'm a terrible liar so I avoid it when I can, but when I hear someone talking about waiting until the "right moment," I just want to go up to them and tell them to cut the crap, because there is no singular right moment. There are an infinite number of "right moments." Whether it's telling someone you're their brother and that you've got $150,000 sitting in the car or you're nervous about telling someone that you love or don't love them or anything else, there is no limit to the number of right moments that a person can say these things. I understand that in some cases it's a good thing to wait until there's more information available so you don't go making stupid mistakes caused by a lack of knowledge, but having a secret or keeping up a lie and just telling yourself that you'll come out with the truth later is complete bullshit. 

Lies and secrets are ironically like money in the bank: the longer they're there, the bigger they get, and sooner or later it's going to get out. Only one of those scenarios is good, and we all know it. So what is it that makes us procrastinate when it comes to telling the truth? We know that the lie can only get worse, but we get stuck with it anyway. I guess lying could be compared to avoiding homework or taking out more and more loans from a bank, but unlike those things, you have complete control over the scenario. With homework, your dog could have actually eaten it, and with loans, maybe the bank decides your credit score is questionable, but with lies, it's much harder to lose sight of the truth that you're keeping to yourself. Fear's a big factor in all of this, but it'll be a bigger factor the longer you wait.

Oof... I tried avoiding using "you" to make this not look like it's a personal attack on you lovely readers. I assume nothing! Maybe you've never told a lie in you're life; how would I know? It was just easier for me to write in second person and I'm too lazy to change it. End of lecture. Time to go regain feeling in my legs... and brain.

Time for Some Edumacations

Greetings, strangers! It's certainly been a while. I've been pretty busy... doing nothing. Lucky for y'all, senioritis got so boring that I'd go crazy if I really spent the last few weeks of school sitting around being so unproductive my brain melts and I revert back to being a monkey.

So yesterday I came back from Washington D.C., where I spent three days touring around with some of my friends in the music program at my school. Friday started off with a bang -- I got to see Stephen Schwartz perform and talk onstage at the Kennedy Center, featuring songs in tribute to his successful career. Last year, the music trip was in New York City, where we watched Wicked on Broadway, so it was simply a happy coincidence that I had the opportunity to listen to the composer and overall mastermind behind what I saw last year. Long story short, IT WAS REALLY EXCITING. As a lover of creative processes and writing stories, I was incredibly happy when Mr. Schwartz began explaining how he came up with ideas for Wicked and how the story changed over time. He also played snippets of concepts for songs that never made it in the musical, which was a real treat. Also, for you Smash fans out there (awkward, I'm not one), Jeremy Jordan appeared throughout to sing some of the songs.

Though I did also see Show Boat, a dolphin show, and various museums, I did actually have something I wanted to talk about today. On the bus rides to and from the captiol city, I got super bored so I started reading a book I found called Mirroring People by Marco Iacoboni. Did you know that if you press the palm of a newborn baby's hand, its mouth will instinctively open? This is because our hands and our mouths are controlled by nearby parts of the brain. It's an evolutionary feature of many species that use their hands to eat, which is why we eat with our hands and our dogs and cats do not. Allowing a baby to suck on its thumb is a way of training for bringing food to the mouth.

Ever wondered why we get so emotional during movies? Those guys are fictional; you don't need to cry because they're not really dead! When humans see facial expressions, we literally mimic those expressions with our muscles, sending signals to the brain that recognize the emotions as sad or happy or angry. Put a pencil in between your teeth and try recognizing different facial expressions. It's harder to do, right? The pencil acts as a mental and physical block, disabling your ability to mimic the expression and fully understand the emotion connected with the face being made. Mirror neurons in the brain allow us to recognize any action  that we see or hear. For example, the same part of our brains light up when we type on the computer and when we see or hear someone else typing on the computer. Confused? Awesome.

Speaking of mimicking, humans can pantomime; monkeys, apes, gorillas, and chimpanzees cannot. Pantomiming is using motions to reference an action without actually doing it. For example, air guitar. Even if monkeys could play guitar, they would not be able to understand air guitar because of the absence of the actual instrument.

Basic mimicry is instinct for many species though. Yesterday at the Baltimore National Aquarium, I saw a dolphin show where many of the complicated tricks were achieved through copying exactly what the trainers were doing. This is probably the most basic type of training, since it's natural for animals to imitate those around them, especially trainers with whom they have a stronger bond and relationship. I'm guessing the training to get dolphins to splash the audience takes a lot more time and energy.

Am I boring you yet? Ha, of course not because this stuff is AMAZING. I've laughed and gasped in shock at this book more than I've ever done for a novel. Nerdy? Yes. Unproductive? No.

I have a theory about all of this psychological business. It'll probably be discussed later in the book (I haven't actually finished it yet), so before I ruin it for myself I'll share my thoughts with you guys. This book covers all of the rules that human beings follow regarding feeling empathy and learning through mimicry, but what it hasn't covered yet are the exceptions to the rule. There are people out there who either don't feel empathy or do a darn good job hiding it. Sometimes our anger or hatred can override pity or sympathy, and as I read this book, it suddenly feels like that goes against human nature. We are built as a species to help each other out and understand each others' feelings by showing outward emotion; it's why we blush and cry. How can people possibly not understand another's pain or even cause another's pain? I believe the experiences we have in life (just the really bad ones) can create chemical blocks, preventing our mirror neurons from either working or from sending those little empathy vibes that make us understand one another.

So get those mirror neurons whirring and just be human. It's why laughs are contagious, it's why one Negative Nancy can cast a cloud over a whole group of people, and it's why people in this world can be inspirational and loved. Point is, be happy. Hakuna Matata.

Because APs

So with AP tests coming up in... Oh wow, that's tomorrow? Right-o! Well then! Better get studying!

Just kidding. I'm a second semester senior; it's all good. Anyway, to procrastinate, I've been watching the most random YouTube videos ever. I'm a big fan of humor, and I hope you are too, because I now present to you some of the craziest people I wish I knew. Mostly I was just too lazy to write a lot.

This is me, only with a sip of coffee.

Someday I'll follow their advice and become the best mother ever.

This be mah favorite.