The Original Egg
Well it's about time for another serious post, so those of you who only want to laugh may not want to read this one. This is a post that I have meant to write for a few weeks now and have simply put off out of laziness. I am writing it today not in the heat of passion, so my language will probably not be as rash and breathtaking as it can be when the juices are flowing from all the feelings and sensations and ideas overtaking my body and rushing through my fingertips. Oh well. We can't always be brilliant now can we? Especially when "we" are just make-believe-bloggers who aren't even REAL writers in the first place.
So a few weeks ago while reading and doing Pilates (remember when I mentioned that I'd perfected that art??), I came across a quote from a New Age spiritualist named Marianne Williamson. When I read it, I nearly lost all concentration on my core and keeping my legs extended and toes pointed because I wanted to run to scream to Jesse about my new discovery that was now going to change my life entirely. Ok, well maybe not change my life entirely, but at least make me feel so vindicated about something, and that's always a nice (somewhat sinful when felt in large amounts) feeling. But Jesse was doing his jumping jacks and toe wiggle thingies with his P90x friends, so I stayed inside my bedroom and kept my excitement to myself and my med ball (and Jirem, who licked me as an expression of his co-joy).
What could this woman have said, you ask, to make me so roused? After all, I am a not a New Age spiritualist, am I? No, I am not. You are correct, but I am reading a somewhat apologetic book about some New Age spirituality, and in this particular chapter, this woman, Ms. Williamson, is speaking on the topic of terrorism and racism, sexism, etc. This is what she says, and I quote: (Be prepared; it's long, but important. Also, be prepared NOT to be astounded. For until I EXPLAIN to you the entire POINT, the response evoked from your reading will remain a lesser degree of titillation than that which I have previously described).
Alright, now with all of that SAID, does ANYONE have ANY idea why I got so excited? Any? Well if you are NOT really good friends with me, you probably won't, and if you don't talk with me frequently enough to hear me speak with you about my job and my students, you definitely will not know the answer, but if we are good friends, and if I do talk to you about GFC and the CC frequently, then you have a PRETTY good chance at figuring this out. Actually, if you worked at GFC during the Spring of 2011, then you could figure it out. Everything in this paragraph has been a pretty big hint about what excited me, but here are a few more:
You see, a while back, a trend developed with some of the kids at GFC. They started getting REALLY into Lady Gaga, listening to her music a lot, and some even became somewhat obsessed with her. As a good over-protective youth leader would, I did my research about Lady Gaga, even though I figured I already knew enough about her to be able to make an educated guess about the type of influence she would have on the kids. Nonetheless, trying to respect them, I did do additional study and inquisition, but I didn't come to any conclusions or find anything to assuage my doubts about Ms. Gaga. In fact, I kinda ended up disliking her more. I am careful not to use the word hate because that is the thing of which I was accused many times. Students: "Ms. Megin you just HATE her. You think she's EVIL. You think she worships the DEVIL. She believes in God you know. She loves JESUS!" .............. Me: "I didn't say that. Or that. Or that. Okay that's good, but what does she believe. Oh she does? Ok, well that's fine. That's actually not that important; I'm talking about her behavior and how it-" interupted by students, "But she's just being free. She says be yourself! Express yourself! You can't NOT be who you are! It's a free country. God created you who are you! Everyone sins. If you sin, God still loves you. He created you, and you sin. It's ok." Me: "Ok, you're not getting my point, let's back up, and I'm not trying to argue...."
Probably one of the parts about the whole shebang that agitated me the most was that many of the kids would come back around to praising how original LG was and how THAT was such an inspiration. No matter how heinous her behavior was or how blatantly and obviously wrong it was (like being practically naked on stage or nearly having sex with a guy supposed to be Jesus in her music video), the kids would say they were encouraged because she accepts everyone and judges no one, and there has never been anyone like that. She helps everybody. She's so original. SO WORSHIP HER!!!!
Starting to understand my excitement at finding this quote from Marianne Williamson yet? See, when I came across this quote, it just was ONE MORE PIECE of tangible evidence, (not that I needed anymore) that Lady Gaga is not just full of ALL THESE ORIGINAL, CREATIVE, new ideas; rather, she copies most of her ideas from tons of different New Age Spirituality movements and cults. SO, I can debunk the kids' most staunchly held to argument, (not that I REALLY think that will do any good. This vindication probably makes more of a difference to me and even YOU than it will to any of them). Now let me just say before I get attacked by any of my wonderful youth companions, I am not saying LG IS in any of these cults or things. I am just saying she does her homework and gets her ORIGINAL ideas from a lot of these places, but the average Joe does not know who the heck Marianne Williamson is or what she said back in 2008 about pretending to be reborn out of an egg. She did not go on TV and say it or ride in her egg to her doctor's appointment or something and have cameras tape her doing it. While she probably also stands up for animal rights, maybe even more than Lady Gaga, she did not schedule herself on the a morning talk show and sew a dress made out of meat. She probably spent her money in a more practical way. Therefore, no one really knows much about HER egg idea unless they already knew about her and had picked up one of her books or read her blog, so when people saw LG and her golden spectacle in 2010 or 2011 or whenever it was, they thought SHE was the original one.
And maybe, some may argue, LG had an idea about an egg and meant it to symbolize something DIFFERENT. Well, not according to her very own words. IF you read all the articles published in which Lady Gaga gives her short and trite explanation about her 'vessel,' her reason for being 'born' out of it is the EXACT SAME as Williamson's, to symbolize the birthing of a new person without prejudice and racism. Don't believe me? Check it out! Or just Google: Lady Gaga egg. (Yes, I just used 'google' as a verb).
(http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-02-15/entertainment/28619642_1_monster-ball-tour-love-and-complete-support-grammy-performance )
So there it is, my two-week-procrastinated post proving that Stefani Germanotta's golden egg was more than likely not an original idea but one that she got from a New Age spiritualist named Marianne Williamson. Are you so excited that you are losing your Pilates pose? Is your core loosening? Are your toes losing point? Okay fine. I admit. It's not nearly as exciting as it was to me in the moment. In the moment, it seemed VERY exciting. I really did lose concentration. I really did want to tell Jesse, but he was busy with crunchy frog. Oh well. And for those of you who feel a little duped for believing LG thought of the egg thing on her own, give yourself a break. You probably didn't know about Marianne Williamson and her egg concept. I know I didn't, but you know who did I bet? Stefani Germanotta, that's who. OOops. I mean, Lady Gaga, that's who :)
So a few weeks ago while reading and doing Pilates (remember when I mentioned that I'd perfected that art??), I came across a quote from a New Age spiritualist named Marianne Williamson. When I read it, I nearly lost all concentration on my core and keeping my legs extended and toes pointed because I wanted to run to scream to Jesse about my new discovery that was now going to change my life entirely. Ok, well maybe not change my life entirely, but at least make me feel so vindicated about something, and that's always a nice (somewhat sinful when felt in large amounts) feeling. But Jesse was doing his jumping jacks and toe wiggle thingies with his P90x friends, so I stayed inside my bedroom and kept my excitement to myself and my med ball (and Jirem, who licked me as an expression of his co-joy).
What could this woman have said, you ask, to make me so roused? After all, I am a not a New Age spiritualist, am I? No, I am not. You are correct, but I am reading a somewhat apologetic book about some New Age spirituality, and in this particular chapter, this woman, Ms. Williamson, is speaking on the topic of terrorism and racism, sexism, etc. This is what she says, and I quote: (Be prepared; it's long, but important. Also, be prepared NOT to be astounded. For until I EXPLAIN to you the entire POINT, the response evoked from your reading will remain a lesser degree of titillation than that which I have previously described).
- "With your thoughts, you can help build a system of spiritual quarantine for terrorists and would-be terrorists. You don't have to know who they are. The Creator does. Just do this. For a minimum of five minutes every day, meditate in the following way: Pray that anyone even thinking of commiting a terrorist act...be surrounded by a huge golden egg. The eggshell is made of a spiritual equivalent of titanium...impenetrable. Any malevolent, hateful, or violent thought that emanates from the mind of the terrorist cannot get past the confines of the eggshell. Before the violent though can turn into violent action, it is stopped by the force of this meditative field. Energetically, the terrorist is quarantined. On the inside of the egg, see a shower of golden light pouring from the eggshell into the heart and mind of the terrorist. Pray for your lost brother. See him or her healed by the force of divine Love, wrapped in the arms of angels, reminded of who he truly is. Five minutes. Every day. Tell everyone you know."
Marianne Williamson, "A Spiritual Response to Terrorism," December 17th, 2008, http://blog.marianne.com/journal/archives/2008/12/a_spiritual_res.php
1.egg 2.music 3.PROOF OF UNORIGINALITY (ok that's not a word).
You see, a while back, a trend developed with some of the kids at GFC. They started getting REALLY into Lady Gaga, listening to her music a lot, and some even became somewhat obsessed with her. As a good over-protective youth leader would, I did my research about Lady Gaga, even though I figured I already knew enough about her to be able to make an educated guess about the type of influence she would have on the kids. Nonetheless, trying to respect them, I did do additional study and inquisition, but I didn't come to any conclusions or find anything to assuage my doubts about Ms. Gaga. In fact, I kinda ended up disliking her more. I am careful not to use the word hate because that is the thing of which I was accused many times. Students: "Ms. Megin you just HATE her. You think she's EVIL. You think she worships the DEVIL. She believes in God you know. She loves JESUS!" .............. Me: "I didn't say that. Or that. Or that. Okay that's good, but what does she believe. Oh she does? Ok, well that's fine. That's actually not that important; I'm talking about her behavior and how it-" interupted by students, "But she's just being free. She says be yourself! Express yourself! You can't NOT be who you are! It's a free country. God created you who are you! Everyone sins. If you sin, God still loves you. He created you, and you sin. It's ok." Me: "Ok, you're not getting my point, let's back up, and I'm not trying to argue...."
...and it would go around and around and AROUND....
Probably one of the parts about the whole shebang that agitated me the most was that many of the kids would come back around to praising how original LG was and how THAT was such an inspiration. No matter how heinous her behavior was or how blatantly and obviously wrong it was (like being practically naked on stage or nearly having sex with a guy supposed to be Jesus in her music video), the kids would say they were encouraged because she accepts everyone and judges no one, and there has never been anyone like that. She helps everybody. She's so original. SO WORSHIP HER!!!!
And maybe, some may argue, LG had an idea about an egg and meant it to symbolize something DIFFERENT. Well, not according to her very own words. IF you read all the articles published in which Lady Gaga gives her short and trite explanation about her 'vessel,' her reason for being 'born' out of it is the EXACT SAME as Williamson's, to symbolize the birthing of a new person without prejudice and racism. Don't believe me? Check it out! Or just Google: Lady Gaga egg. (Yes, I just used 'google' as a verb).
(http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-02-15/entertainment/28619642_1_monster-ball-tour-love-and-complete-support-grammy-performance )
So there it is, my two-week-procrastinated post proving that Stefani Germanotta's golden egg was more than likely not an original idea but one that she got from a New Age spiritualist named Marianne Williamson. Are you so excited that you are losing your Pilates pose? Is your core loosening? Are your toes losing point? Okay fine. I admit. It's not nearly as exciting as it was to me in the moment. In the moment, it seemed VERY exciting. I really did lose concentration. I really did want to tell Jesse, but he was busy with crunchy frog. Oh well. And for those of you who feel a little duped for believing LG thought of the egg thing on her own, give yourself a break. You probably didn't know about Marianne Williamson and her egg concept. I know I didn't, but you know who did I bet? Stefani Germanotta, that's who. OOops. I mean, Lady Gaga, that's who :)
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