Thoughts from the Valley: Perspectives on the Penn State Scandal

I'm a proud Penn State alum (as well as a normal human being), so the scandal rocking Happy Valley has been dragging me through a series of emotions that I'm still trying to come to grips with.

I haven't felt adequate to comment on this catastrophe. Thankfully, others are more equipped than I. So, I've compiled a list of online articles I've enjoyed and found insightful in my own quest to understand this situation and deal with it, for my own soul and sanity. Here goes...

First and foremost, here's a fascinating Biblical perspective on this tragedy by a good friend of mine who has worked at Penn State for more than ten years. 

A Deficiency of Love: what the Bible has to say about obligation, love and the Paterno in all of us.

These two articles by Grantland writer Michael Weinreb helped me process this situation. He's got some great perspective as a Happy Valley native and diehard Penn State fan.
Growing Up Penn State: an initial reaction to what the scandal meant for him as a Penn State devotee.
The Culture of Unrest at Penn State: as PSU students gathered to protest, Weinreb tries to explain the       reasoning behind the rioting.


Here's a blogpost from the most loyal Nittany Lion I know, the Pretentious Filmmaker.
The Penn State Scandal:his time at Penn State and whether his memories will be tarnished forever:


One of my best friends recently posted this reaction on Facebook--
I am so sad for Joe Pa: defending the coach he's come to love and respect.


One more Grantland writer, Charles B. Pierce, encourages us not to look away from the scene of the crime.
The Brutal Truth about Penn State: A problem that can't be prayed or wished away.

I know how my heart works--it wants to move on, to forget, to brush this whole mess aside and pretend it doesn't matter. Instead, I need to lean in to the shame, process through it and come out the other side wiser and stronger, more ready to live the best way possible. Each one of these posts has helped me in the process, and I recommend them all to you.

Thanks for reading!

Our 'Idiot' Brother: How "The Idiot" Should Have Ended

Reason #1 that I love my IPhone: it stops me from looking stupid in front of other people. Walking out of the movie theatre after thoroughly enjoying Our Idiot Brother, I was having a hard time trying to talk intelligently about the movie because I couldn't remember the name of Paul Rudd's character. You know, the one the movie revolves around. He's kind of a big deal.



Turns out, his name's Ned. You could have given me a thousand guesses, and it wouldn't have been enough. And this was in a movie I LIKED! Rudd rocked it, fun story, great acting all around. And I forgot his flipping name. Who does that?!


So thanks to IMDB and my AT&T data package, I can sneak my IPhone out in the car and find out who Rudd played before I have to say something like, "Yeah I LOVED when, uh, what's that guy's name again?" and I've intellectually soiled myself.


I'm a forgetful person in general: this morning I forgot my wallet at home, even though I distinctly remember patting my butt twice to make sure I had it. Apparently I'm just fondling my own rear for fun now. I think I know why I forgot Ned's name, though--I was distracted. Watching Our Idiot Brother was like randomly bumping into an old friend.** A friend whose name I definitely remember: Prince Mishkin. He's the protagonist in Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, and the more I watched Ned on screen, the more I was reminded of the Prince. I couldn't get the comparison out of my head--and I'm pretty sure that was the intention.

You're Welcome, Hollywood: 5 Movie Mashups That Need To Happen Immediately

I've been obsessing over mashups ever since Glee started popping them out like the Octomom. I love the idea of fusing two amazing things together to create the Perfect Storm of Awesomeness. It's that kind of innovative thinking that led to the Lasagna Sandwich (exactly what it sounds like), Halloween Trail Mix (Reese's Pieces and Candy corn combined), and Captain Planet (not my idea).


Hollywood's been a bit behind on the technology, so I'm going to do them a solid and give away some must-see movie mashups. Feel free to cherry pick. Just invite me to the premiere!


5. The Rocky Balboa 
  Horror Picture Show
During a spontaneous weekend getaway, TripAdvisor leads Rocky, Pauly and Adrian to an out-of-the-way B&B. Unknowingly given LSD by the owner/operator, Rocky faces his toughest test since the beach scene in Rocky III when Adrian reveals to him a dark secret: Adrian used to be a man's name. But, is it all a dream? To escape this psychotic vacation spot he must fight the owner to the death. The owner's name? Sylvester Stallone. Weird, right?!  

 


4. Phantom of the Opera 2: 
     High School Musical 4
Deep in the underbowels (Boiler Room) of conveniently named Harmony High lurks an outcast freshman sporting an awe-inspiring voice and an equally jarring pimple on his forehead. Otherwise strikingly handsome, he haunts the choir room, teaches a girl to sing, and eventually goes to Junior College.



3. Fast 2 The Future
Brian and Dom are working undercover as car thieves for whatever reason when they stumble upon Doc Brown's Delaurean hidden in a warehouse. Accidentally traveling back to the early 80s, they decide to change the course of their own history by stopping Terreto's Dad from becoming a race car driver. Instead, they convince him to open a neighborhood pizza parlor, but when the mafia steals the Delaurean they must choose between their future and a slightly profitable pizza place.


2. Point Break: Airborne 
        "Skate Or Die!"
Johnny Utah, retired FBI Agent, loves his life as an NFL Analyst. But when he offends the wrong crowd with an derogatory Heelys joke, a gang of unruly skater-types takes his dog, Bohdi, hostage. The FBI won't help; the police are on the take. Johnny has no choice but to go back undercover, this time as a rollerblader, to rescue Bohdi from the hands of some pretty angsty teenagers. But when he falls in love with the devil-may-care lady leader of the pack, he must make the life-or-death choice between skating and surfing.



1. Kindergarten Robocop
Aging officer John Kimble can't accept the fact that he's getting old. Desperate to reclaim his youth, he enlists in a top-secret police experiment to build a new race of super cops--by creating androids! Kimble becomes the first cybernetic organism on the force, and he's better than ever. There's just one problem: he has forgotten how to feel. Facing permanent shutdown by the Chief of Police, Kimble turns to his last hope: a classroom of kindergartners. Once upon a time, children melted his heart --can they do it again, before it is melted down?

        

What I'm Reading: The Green Mile and Twilight

Who Wants To Live Forever?

“…years later, standing in the pouring Alabama rain and looking for a man who wasn’t there in the shadows of an underpass, standing amid the spilled luggage and the ruined dead, I learned a terrible thing: sometimes there is no difference at all between salvation and damnation.”

-Paul Edgecombe, The Green Mile

“Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars—points of light and reason…and then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire, everything was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone…my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything.

I can’t live in a world where you don’t exist.”

-Edward Cullen, New Moon

(from the Twilight series)

Paul Edgecombe, head prison guard at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary, treads the green-tiled floor of Death Row your average guy. Just a Joe Prison Guard who accidentally peeks behind life’s curtain and sees a reality that, for him, had been the stuff of campfire stories. That reality alters him forever, and gives him a chance to change the world. At least, his humble corner of it.

What you need to know about Paul to understand why he’s lamenting his “salvation” is that some supernatural power from behind that curtain healed him of a disease while he was still on the rich side of the train tracks of middle age. What’s more, the residual effects of the healing kept him incredibly, impossibly young. Paul was blessed with a miraculously long life, the gift that kept on giving.

In fact, it gave until it hurt.

Now, I’m in my thirties, old enough to wish that Life would put on the brakes, a member of the “where does the time go?!” support group. The thought of being healed from disease, protected from sickness and enjoying unnaturally long life seems at first like a dream. It’s only years down the road that those extra years lose their luster.

For vampires, Everlasting Life is one of the curses, not the blessings, of undeath. Just ask the Cullens, the loveable family of bloodsuckers from the Twilight series. Edward, two-hundred-year old teen heartthrob, has been around the block a few thousand times. Frankly, he’s bored. What do vampires with hundreds of years to kill (sorry) do, exactly? Apparently they play baseball, learn the piano, and repeat high school every ten years or so. Not the dream life we’ve all imagined. Vampire or not, high school sucks (again, sorry).

Edward’s SO over it; life for him had become unbearably mundane. And for Paul Edgecombe, it turned damnably cruel. 

What I'm Reading: John Donne and Zombies

"No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; 


if a clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; 


any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; 


And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. 


And, also, beware of zombies."


--John Donne, Meditation 17
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions