A Thing About Covers And Books, This Weekend…

1) Nope, it’s not a myth… Smiling Cats.

No Kidding

This one is not smiling though – it’s high.

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2) 15 year-old bench presses 165. A story about childhood bodybuilding…

Not to be confused with light weight training for other sports; I grew up with lotsa sporty kids who did strength training for swimming and taekwondo, and ran laps to keep their state team spots in hockey and netball. I had uncles who coached, and cousins and ex boyfriends who swam at state and commonwealth games levels and they all used light-in-comparison free weights.

“…Unlike kids who participate in elite tennis academies or practice at a young age for intense sports like tennis, gymnastics or soccer, these bodybuilders train not just for excellence or even to win a major athletic competition. There’s not even any prize money. Rather, bodybuilding is all about looks…”

Is this real??!! (Ok, maybe I don’t look at enough body builders)

So you probably guessed I don’t really approve. It’s hard enough raising kids in a social media world of selfies and Instagram where everything in their pictures is magnified, without adding the competitiveness of a sport to it.

Before I started taekwondo aged 9, I took ballet (and then Chinese dance) for 4-5 years. I didn’t get into trouble much because I was physically a skinny little girl with a small head who was just puppy-dog-eager to please, but I remember this other girl who had a little round tummy and the ballet teacher would keep singling her out in class to keep it in, hide it, etc. One day she whispered something and the teacher told the whole class that she’d said her tummy simply doesn’t go in because it’s too big. I still remember the girl in my ballet class from when I was about 5.

Then I’ve had male senior RMs – brilliant at work, generally very down-to-earth – who complain their 8 year old’s tummy is bigger than their own and they really need to enforce a diet. So, in general I don’t like stuff that increases kids’ awareness of how they look – I think things are tough enough as is… You eat right and exercise right because it’s good for you – healthy, physically as well as mentally, right? Well at some point the preoccupation with eating right/ exercise for appearances sake starts to become less healthy, doesn’t it…

Oh look, 2015 Body Ideal Is More Unattainable Than Ever (in this one, “ideal” = pretty face, tiny waist, big butt. Uh, whatever…)

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3) What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong?

“…Children with learning and behavior disabilities are suspended at about twice the rate of their peers and incarcerated at nearly three times the rate of the overall youth population…” 

This is something that has always struck a chord with me – when I was younger, I thought having kids was too big a responsibility – bringing another human being, another soul into the world. One of the reasons is because of a… “capacity for evil,” that everyone has. (Sorry ah, don’t mean for it to sound so melodramatic.) Some special needs kids I’ve met don’t – maybe can’t – do that, get other kids in trouble, play nasty pranks (worse, on social media, when they get older)… They’re also the ones more likely to get picked on, blamed for stuff and simply misunderstood.

“…The children at risk of falling into the school-to-prison pipeline… include not only the 5.2 million with ADHD, the 5 million with a learning disability, and the 2.2 million with anxiety disorders, but also the 16 million who have experienced repeated trauma or abuse, the 1.4 million with depression, the 1.2 million on the autism spectrum, and the 1.2 million who are homeless. “Behaviorally challenging kids are still poorly understood…”

In fact, smarter, creative kids are arguably better at finding smart, creative ways of getting others in trouble – possibly if they’re also excessively competitive in nature. Many years ago I read Daughter of a Yakuza – The author mentioned at one point how growing up in very proper Japanese society and schools, she “never stood a chance”. The first time she was up against another kid with erm, “better breeding” in some dispute requiring adult mediation, the teachers simply assumed it was her fault. (The other kid was also pretty convincing.)

That Malcolm Gladwell-esque thing again comes to mind – how privilege and perception of “better breeding” is an underestimated disadvantage… I like to think you can have a slow start in life, but the benefits from the strength of character that this builds can carry you further than someone who didn’t get that chance to build that resilience into their personality…

Also, when you’re down is a really good time to take note who your real friends are – you will never have that chance again when you’ve pulled yourself out of that hole 🙂

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Caveat: Skip past this next one if you’re not ready…

4) Knowing How Doctors Die Can Change Our End-Of-life Decisions. One of those things you never think about and then a random curious click gets you reading…

“…performing CPR on elderly, terminally ill patients. …It looks nothing like what we see on TV. In real life, ribs often break and few survive the ordeal.

“I felt like I was beating up people at the end of their life,” she says. “I would be doing the CPR with tears coming down… Because I knew that it very likely (was) not going to be successful. It just seemed a terrible way to end someone’s life.”…”

“…Stanford study shows almost 90% of doctors would forego resuscitation or aggressive treatment if facing terminal illness…”

Several former bosses of mine (3 mergers, restructuring – in one bank I had 5 changes in reporting line in 3 years – you do the math, how many people I’ve worked for) ranging in age from early 30s to mid-60s were diagnosed with cancer in various stages, prompting conversations. I went to work sobbing, the day a beloved 60-something ex-boss (who was overdue for retirement but loved to wake at 5am each day to write rousing emails to his RMs) was diagnosed with Stage 3. He proceeded to refuse to tell wife and family, because he intended to eschew the most invasive procedures and didn’t want anyone to give him grief over it. “If time is all I have left, then quality is of utmost importance…” That was maybe 8, 9 years ago. Yes he’s still around now, on Facebook, and by now has told wife and family 🙂

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5) Blooberg’s Archie And Gang’s new look.

Before.

After.

Feel old?

You’re welcome 🙂

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6) The animals have the skit this week, titled Dodged A Bullet.

JD: “SO happy that’s not me. Dodged a bullet!”

Guinea: “No kidding.”

NB: No Border Collies or Guinea Pigs were harmed in this photo op.

Good week ahead, dears…