I realized I never posted some of my writings from the Covid-19 quarantine in the spring. I guess it never felt like the right time (and still might not be). But it seems like I should share them at some point, so I guess now it is!
Continue readingStephanie Overanalyzes Children’s Entertainment: Elephant & Piggie & the Enneagram
As a mother of 2 small children who experiences repeated viewings/readings/etc. of the same kids’ media ad nauseam, I have found myself growing overly critical of what is meant to be simple, innocent entertainment for small children. I share my sarcastic analyses of harmless kids’ entertainment in this ongoing feature: Stephanie Overanalyzes Children’s Entertainment.
Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems are some of my oldest son’s favorite literature. They fall right into the sweet spot of his sense of humor, and he easily memorizes them, allowing him to “read” them to himself & his little brother. They really are terrific kids books; you should pick up a few for your own youngsters on your next trip to the library!
As I was recently reading I Will Surprise My Friend to Isaac, it suddenly struck me: Gerald the Elephant is SUCH an enneagram 6. Quietly amused by this thought, I continued to read the story aloud and gradually noticed that Piggie acts a lot like an enneagram 7. These new insights caused me to ponder over the entire Elephant & Piggie oeuvre to test my hypothesis, and I have indeed concluded that this series is all about the friendship between a 6 and a 7.
In Defense of Musicals, Bonkers TV, & Joy
Recently a friend asked for TV show recommendations on social media. I, of course, had plenty to say in response, but the truth is I actually held back a little. I was hesitant to recommend a couple of my most dear & favorite shows because, well, they are completely bonkers.
This need I felt to defend or keep quiet about entertainment that I actually really love got me thinking about some themes I’d been considering for a few months… the ways we numb or downplay our enjoyment of certain things as we become older, more ‘mature’ and ‘realistic’.
I began mulling over these themes when my husband & I saw Finding Neverland last spring. This Broadway musical highlighted for me the tension people feel to leave behind ‘immature’ things in favor of grim reality. We stop believing in fairies or flying or magic… and at the same time largely stop believing in innocent fun or hope or joy. We mistake the fact that life can be sad and serious for the belief that life is only sad and serious.
Lament of a Woman, Wounded
I will not keep silent.
I want to. Speaking up, fighting, exposing my strong feelings – these are difficult for me. I wrote the below lament months ago, for myself. It was deeply personal, an exercise I needed for my own emotional journey. I wasn’t planning on posting it publicly.
But then another social media storm erupted, stirred into existence by unbelievably awful words from a room of Christian men about spiritual teacher and leader Beth Moore. For days I’ve watched on social media as dozens of women, some I know and some I’ve never met, cry out in pain. It is a pain we women of faith know all too well – when a handful of words that happen to appear in the vast, beautiful Word of God are removed from their original intent, meaning, audience, and context; twisted into cruel ammunition; and loaded into patriarchal weapons that pulverize our female souls.
My Girlhood as a Tiny Badass 80’s Female Action Hero
Perspective is the lens through which any story is told, and using a different perspective can drastically change how one event is seen and understood. Imagine if you will the story of To Kill a Mockingbird from the perspective of Tom Robinson instead of Scout. Or if Catcher in the Rye were told from a third-person perspective instead of from inside Holden’s mind. We’d understand those stories completely differently in those instances, though the events of what actually happened would remain the same.
A wholly objective biography of my pre-teen years would tell the relatively unexciting tale of a mostly quiet, kind of odd girl with a huge imagination and moderate anger management issues, raised in a loving family and community, checking the boxes of a ‘normal’ white, middle-class suburban life. But! From a certain perspective, my girlhood is the true* story of a tiny badass 80’s female action hero, a la Sarah Connor or Ellen Ripley. I’m here to give you that story.