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Fifty Shades of Grey: Some Points to Ponder
So unless you’re living under a rock, you know that the new film, Fifty Shades of Grey, releases this week. Today actually. Timed for a Valentine’s Day extravaganza, the marketing behind this film has been pushing the erotic romance in this story hard. The problem is that it’s not an erotic romance. And before anyone assumes that I don’t know what I’m talking about because I haven’t seen the movie, I read this story when it was free online. When it talked about Edward and Bella. Not Christian and Ana. Did I finish? Nope. I’ll be honest. But I did get through enough of it to know what happens in…
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Faith vs. Belief
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” Hebrews 11:1-2 Have you ever heard of a faith walk? This isn’t a new term for me, but when I sat down to write this article, I decided to look it up just to make sure that I was referencing it properly. You know what I found? Not much. Wait. Let me clarify that. I found churches, Bible studies, organizations, devotionals, blogs, groups…tons of things. But none of them was a specific definition or description of origin. So let me say that I’m not a theologian.…
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Biblical Messages in Iron Man 3
A friend and I were talking recently about trends in entertainment and I brought up the idea of broken heroes. When I was a kid, I remember idolizing characters on the big and small screens. I played Wonder Woman and Princess Leia on a pretty regular basis. These were people I wanted to emulate because they nearly always saved the day. Even the highly tortured and abused Sam Beckett of Quantum Leap (yup, I’m a Leaper!) who was thrust into the heroic spotlight, still managed to push all of that aside and do what needed to be done. In recent years though, a lot of time has been spent covering…
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Behind the Scenes vs. Highlight Reel…How Do You Compare?
“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:3 This week I posted an article about the dangers of comparison marketing. When you’re looking at someone else’s company or marketing plan and trying to replicate what they’ve done, it will only create frustration. Their plan isn’t yours and it’s not designed for your business. I experience this more often on a personal level. Women in particular, tend to look at other people and compare their lives to others. I know many women who are extremely candid when they do this. Walking into a room or a situation, often women will ‘size up’ the rest of the…
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Bullying Part Two: The School’s Responsibility
Recently, I posted an article about bullying. I asked if it had changed or if we, as a society, had changed. I think that this is a really complex answer and I don’t believe that it can be addressed with any measure of value in a series of blog entries. Still, this is my platform and bullying hurts my heart in a personal way, so this is my attempt. My family has dealt with severe and powerful bullying on more than one occasion. A few years ago, a little girl at my daughter’s school decided that she didn’t like my daughter. It happens all the time and unfortunately, it’s something…
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A Wolf in Kid’s Clothing: Upcoming Trends in YA Fiction
This morning I was looking through catalogs of upcoming releases in Young Adult books. I’ve already been pretty vocal around here on the trends that are happening in YA fiction, so people won’t be surprised to learn that I’m bugged about it. But you might be surprised at what some of the new trends are. Not talking about vampires, demons, fallen angels or other supernatural things. This is something new. I was looking specifically for YA books to review, so I was browsing the teens and young adult sections when I came across a cover that looked more like the poster for Magic Mike than a YA novel and I…
