Huh. I wonder what’s up with that.
Up with what you may ask? *waits for appropriate response*
Up with my old, old, old… not even friends – up with old school mates.
Every couple of weeks there’s a philosophical flare-up on Facebook. Whether it’s SOPA or the NDAA or Trayvon Martin or gay marriage, some cause comes to the fore and goes viral and a lot of people get righteous and get upset and generally “Like” a cause. There’s a lot of reflexive “that’s horrible” or “that’s great!” and my social networks are broad enough that I hear at LEAST two sides of every issue – and I’m (I believe) well-read enough that I can have an opinion of my own that I may or may not express, that may or may not jive with anyone ELSE’S opinion, that may or may not be popular with most anyone else [this was a particularly obnoxious sentence to write in the month of May with a Microsoft product] and I’m willing to do the research to GET an opinion on anything that’s causing a ruckus that I’m NOT opinionated on.
I very rarely agree fully with most of what’s being spouted – but I’ve run across an interesting pattern. I’ve found people that I almost ALWAYS agree with. They’re not people that I know particularly well and they’re not ones that I socialize with. When I first met them often they weren’t people I liked, but we almost always match on a moralistic, spiritualistic and / or philosophical level.
They’re the people that I went to grade school with and have reconnected with on Facebook. They’re generally NOT the people that I went to high school with – I knew them BEFORE entering the Suitland Center for the Arts University High School – these are people that I went to elementary and middle school with. After we’d all entered the test-score juried magnet school system, but before we split off into our various specialist high schools.
It’s not the age group. I can point to plenty of people my own age that would be horrified by my own opinions and with whom I’ve had plenty of arguments. I learned to “agree to disagree” years ago, and to be quiet with people who I didn’t think could be that mature if it wasn’t the right battle to fight or the right time to fight it.
I don’t particularly think it’s geography. Yup, we’re all from the same area, but not necessarily originally. A lot of these kids were first-generation Americans. A lot of these kids were moved to Maryland for the educational opportunities presented by the desegregation-inspired magnet program. Yep we’re all from blue-state suburbish, but Maryland’s extremely diverse and the children that were drawn into the program came from the projects and from affluence and some were farm-fresh and some probably had never seen a large patch of grass till they saw the grounds outside of Glenarden Woods Elementary.
I don’t know that I can even totally point to just the education. After middle school we really DID go pretty dramatically different ways with at least three area high schools drawing us apart from one another on dramatically different tracks. Most of my friends went to the science magnet. There was an aerospace-focused school and my own visual and performing arts magnet. All had very rigorous academic programs focused on college-bound students with AP and IB courses and lengthy school days to accommodate that AND their specialist focuses – but from the friends I maintained through high school I definitely learned our experiences were vastly different as we were mixed with other students from other places – I’d have thought that THIS was where our philosophies would’ve aligned.
Nope – there are plenty of people from my arts magnet high school who I disagree with. It’s the kids before that where the agreements come from – so not necessarily the full education – which points to something else. Something that admittedly sort of strokes my ego, so I find it suspect, but I’ll go with it for right now: We were the smart kids. And we’re still smart kids. And if that’s the identifying trait of the people who share opinions, maybe we’re even right!
Shame we very rarely agree with anyone in power. Definitely a shame that most of my generation was particularly self-realization obsessed… we’re artists and scientists and all sorts of different things now… not a single one of us became a politician. Little did we know that those were the people who were going to run the world. Little did we know that if WE weren’t going to run it that we’d turn it over to miscreant idiots by default.
If I knew then what I know now… if nothing else I would’ve taken more computer classes. Oh, and I would’ve taken Spanish for eight years. Rather than French. I might’ve even aimed for public office. Shh, don’t tell anyone. They might try to send me back in time.
Kristen sassin the trees all up in the park. Neither of us is completely used to “terrain” and got the Lovely leg cramps within 48 hours. Down by the river in the Patapsco River Lake Park. That accounts for the river – where’s this lake? We were following the railroad tracks along the river when Kristen spotted this little guy hiding in the leaves. The tracks eventually lead to a train tunnel which we absolutely were NOT interested in exploring. You hear stories, you know? Construction of a bridge through the Patapsco River Lake Park has long been wreaking its special brand of havoc on route 40 on the way towards Ellicott City – but it its own kind of beauty.
