Demon Clown Baby

When I was in school, I was always in the Honors classes. I never bragged about that fact, however, because it really only meant I wasn’t an idiot, not that I had any special brains or talent. (I am in fact quite brilliant, just not because I was in the AP classes.)

In 12th grade, we had to write an essay on moral systems. My teacher took some of the more incomprehensible statements from these HONORS students and compiled a list so we could see what dunces we were. (Thankfully, nothing of mine ever made it onto the Handout of Shame.)

Here then, for your amusement and chance to feel superior, are some of those excerpts.

But before you laugh too hard, remember: these were the best and brightest, and they’re probably all now in various positions of authority…

Excerpts from 12th Grade Papers

• There would be more of a conflict with a person and the one moral standard than a conflict with the person conflicting with someone else and his morals.
• The majority of individuals need high standards which they can follow because having high standards is better than none at all.
• Many people, for example, hold different morals when it comes to abortion, and such laws as stealing.
• Setting your own morals and standards is very important because it not only makes you a stronger person inside, but allows you to express your feelings on the outside.
• We wouldn’t have to worry about people like Mussilini and Hitler who think they are ferior to other people. Everyone would believe that God was on top and try to live our lives to please him. If one knew they were being watched on how they lived their lives for an award you would do everything to your best ability.
• Even if you take the most remote tribe in the jungles of Africa, you have the same standard of ethics. A tribe can’t just go about the tribe and kill other members of the same tribe. He would not be able to do this because it wouldn’t be in the best intrest of the entire tribe.
• Everyman know what the highest standard is and by peer pressure or belif in goodness should be convinced to live by it.
• Their moral standards may be no pre-marital sex, no swearing, no caffeine and learn that everyone is good. Being a Mormon you have no choice but to follow these moral values.
• The one who should decide on such standards should be the person itself, and once this is happened it is the beginning of the standards of ethics.
• Whether it’s a good past or a bad past, a person with high standards will not refuse a better future. His standards would be a better experience than the good one and an improvement from the bad one.

The wife and I went to see Show Boat at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center last week. Tickets still available at Broadway By the Bay.

It was the first play I’d been to in a long, long time where I didn’t already know the whole story. I knew it was set in 1887 and spanned 40 years, and that’s about it.

But it was great. The showstopper was Lawrence Beamen’s performance as Joe. I had heard of the song, “Ol’ Man River” before, but never really heard it. I don’t know anything about Mr. Beamen but I’m sure he was never actually a slave or ever picked any cotton. It’s 120 years after the setting of that scene, yet he made me believe that he was a terribly oppressed second-class citizen, and I almost wept at the injustice and hopelessness he had to deal with. That was simply a terrific acting job, and he’s got an amazing voice.

The play ends with the reunification of Magnolia and her husband that had deserted her. But it’s a tacked on ending; I saw no real evidence that Ravenal had changed; he was gone for 28 years! Although the majority of the play concerned the Ravenals, the true heroes to me were Joe and Queenie. 40 years later, and they were still together.

Last November or so I rented Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy and loved it. I since bought the first game which is the prequels, and it was decent but much shorter and easier. I’ve finished everything, and wanted to buy the original trilogy game now.

Well I won’t be buying it from Pinnacle!

Click for full-size picture.