This week, I had the opportunity to see a musical that was,
to say the least, creative in its analysis of society’s ability to laugh at
itself. To say the most, it was downright heinous.
“The Book of Mormon” was as raunchy and insensitive,
insulting and affronting as could possibly be. And you know what? It was
hilarious. It was fun, it was clever, and it allowed almost everyone at some
point or another to feel like they were the butt of the joke, and that that was
OK.
The timing of things couldn't have been better. I happened
to have seen the play just a few weeks after having a very interesting
conversation with several individuals of different backgrounds who were
discussing, for lack of a better way to describe it, the difficulty of living
in a world with so many social and environmental challenges. We discussed
everything from sexuality and gender stereotypes to obesity, from socio-economic
environments to the educational system. While we covered an incredible array of
material, there were two major concepts that I found interesting and
challenging.
First of those challenges was the frequency with which we
allow people to pass the buck. It is so easy to blame obesity on food producers
or genetics or a wide variety of outside sources. And while that may be totally
valid, it fails to get to the root of an important issue: anyone can, if
presented with the opportunity, change their circumstances. I think we are
writing blank checks that we can’t cash if we allow too many different groups
of people to say that they have no control of themselves because they are in
challenging circumstances. While I appreciate the fact that many are in
extremely challenging circumstances, that is not to say we, as people, don’t
have an obligation to better ourselves. Plus, some of the statistics are a
little skewed. One of the major
arguments for the obesity issue is that it costs an incredible amount of money
to eat healthy foods, while fast food is cheap and easy for low income families.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, though, 35.7% of
Americans are obese, with an individual of minority background actually having
a higher chance of obesity as income increases. It also goes on to say that
obesity became more prevalent across all educational and economic scales from
the early 90s to 2007. That clearly means that, while obesity may more
difficult to monitor at lower incomes, it is something that is becoming a
wide-scale issue, and one that does require some degree of control and
restraint.
We cannot continue to blame “society” for the reason women
wear bikinis. As much as women wear them because men want to see them, most
women want to be seen, whether by men or by their peers. We cannot continue to
blame the government for our obese who don’t take advantage of their
environment to get their weight under control. We have an obligation to start
evaluating not just what someone else can do for me to better my life, but how
hard I’m willing to work to make my life better.
Second of all, it dawned on me how difficult it is to
navigate these conversations for fear of insulting someone. I have no idea what
the political correct term is for a black person in America is. I've heard from
some that “African American” is the best bet, while others say that there is
nothing “African” about many black people. I've heard thousands of options, and
it seems that someone is always insulted. This gets even more complicated with
those with developmental disabilities. I have difficulty with what I have heard
as “differently abled,” because it fails to get to the root of the need for
personal care and attention that these individuals need. With all that in mind,
it would be a tragedy if certain groups of people were left out of important
conversations not because of their need to be involved, but rather because it
is such a mine-field for a neurologically typical white guy to find a way not
to insult, well, everyone.
This was one giant rant, all spurred on by a funny musical, and
meant to be a satire. But with that satirical comedy, we have the opportunity
to look at the world around us and make it better. I can’t claim that I’m doing
a good job, but I’m going to try. We need to take ourselves a little more
seriously and, at the same time, laugh at ourselves a little more. It’s all
about finding the balance.
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