Monday, June 21, 2010

TGC: The Taming of the Shrew

So, if you know anything about Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, might sound familiar to you. Shakespeare was genius for his time and would have made a killing in today's world. But anyway, The Taming of the Shrew, was a comedic play written by Shakespeare where this bum who get tricked into believing he's royalty, watches a play that helps him to believe he has what it takes to "tame" his wife. It's 2010, we all know or should know by now that men cannot tame women. Women are strong minded, strong willed, and a more independent than they were during Shakespeare's time and even more than they were ten years ago. However, I have noticed that although women cannot be tamed by men, something is causing women to do away with their adolescent and irresponsible ways a lot faster than any man could ever dream of achieving.
Motherhood is serving as an excellent tamer of adolescent ways. Now this is not applying to everyone and of course some still fall along the way side as far as my observations go, but I've noticed many young women decide to put their children before anything else these days which I find admirable. I mean of course that's what your supposed to do anyway, but I find it shocking how fast nine months changes a person's way of thinking from wild and outlandish to conservative and motherly. However I've noticed a child doesn't change the way men think. For a while, men care about their children as babies, but for the most part leave most of the nurturing work to the ladies. They may re-enter at some point later on down the line but my observations have just been too inconsistent with males to make any claims. But women really do put their children first as far as finances go, time spent, and even medical treatment. As I guy, I hear a child cough I don't really think nothing of it. But I've seen women jump from whatever they're doing to rush the child to a hospital. I find it amazing how motherhood changes women's outlooks.

But what is it for males? What is it that will drive us to all new levels of maturity? Whenever do we take supreme initiative for anything responsible? I know for most of us, it's not graduation, fatherhood, holy matrimony, or even work. We still find time to have and squeeze fun out of something. I'm inclined to say it's when we're likely to hit mid-life crisis stages, but even then men do whatever it takes to feel young again. But I'm curious now, what will it take for men to be tamed? What will eventually cause us to take that huge leap into maturity?

TGC: Is too much of a good thing really that bad?

Over the last few months, I've pondered over this question and wondered why people ignore good things and put themselves in bad predicaments. Is too much of a good thing really that bad? We are taught since birth to strive for success in order to better ourselves, to achieve personal goals, and to do what is best for us. But how often do we keep up those habits? Some of us do. As an adolescent young adult, I used to refer to these people as over achievers. I felt as though they went above and beyond the call of duty for things that just didn't require that much time and effort, but now I'm slowly beginning to understand why they did so and I too am starting to try to incorporate those "over achieving" qualities in all that I do, even relationships.

Relationships have truly taken on a different identity from what our parents used to experience and it's so new that our grandparents literally have no idea what to call it. It's not the same anymore. Men and women are not the gentlemen and belles they once were. There are far more men not aware and ignorant of what it means to be men, husbands, or fathers. There are boys raising boys and cowards raising cowards, if they're doing any raising at all. A lot of people these days don't have real good relationships with their fathers. How could they with Single Family households increasing and divorce rates with skyrocketing numbers? There is no communication anymore, no working it out, no discipline. People get caught up in having fun that they forget and don't see or appreciate the good they have going on for them.

Sex is huge part in relationships nowadays and understandably so. Sex is pretty awesome, but when has it ever been the deciding factor to whether to stay with a person or leave them? Sex is a very powerful influence but always complicates people situation. Some poets and artists refer to sex as a drug. Easily so, because people become addicted to it. It stimulates the body and causes hormones to go crazy but at the end of the day it still clouds judgement especially when making decisions. It's no different from drugs and alcohol, especially when used irresponsibly. We get so caught up in this drug, that more and more children are born before people even can come up with a stable plan. People experience more and more heart ache because the have given something so precious to them away without even knowing all that it's worth. Sexually Transmitted Diseases spread faster and more efficiently because people cut off vital lines of communication before making big time decisions.

So I ask you now, is too much a good thing really that bad as far as relationships go? Despite all of the previous harsh realities mentioned earlier, there are still a ton of great men and women out there, people who have "over achieved" and avoided becoming any type of negative statistic. But I still hear about people who just can't seem to find them, or when they find them, they leave them to go back to the pretty rancid situation they were in before because they were comfortable there. Why is that? I asked. Some people said that it's just easier when you know what to expect out of a person. Some said they don't want to take the chance of getting hurt again. Some said it's not as fun to get everything out of a person. But then I wonder, how can we as a generation of people improve from our current state with a ton of people afraid from what their past has brought them?