The Meanings of Life
Posted by Well Read Hostess at 3/28/2008 2:33 PM and is filed under WRH,What I Know About Your Teenager That You Don't,Celebutaunt 
Today in one of my classes we had a discussion about the difference between connotation and denotation. The examples we were using were varations on the word "skinny": thin, slim, scrawny, and svelte.
Conversations regarding weight and body type in a high school classroom always feel a bit to me like running through a mine field blindfolded and in heavy boots; it's inevitable that I'm going to mess something up real bad. I just don't know when and I'm just not sure how it's going to go down.
So...I was proceeding carefully. Tiptoeing in slippers with sodium lights aimed at the turf, more like. And I realized that I'm usually apprehensive about these kinds of discussions because I'm worried about the girls. Today I was worried about the boys. Ninth grade boys, especially early in the year which it's not but work with me here, come in two types (she said, generalizing big time). Skinny or soft. By the end of the year, they come in three types: skinny, soft, or 27. The ones who turned 27 while the rest of us weren't paying attention do fine. The skinny ones and the soft ones are still much more like boys than young men. This distinction is instantly recognizable in their skinny or soft status.
It's tough stuff, this navigating of life and our genetic packaging. So this weekend, appreciate what you are. Skinny, soft, 27, or otherwise, but mostly, not so messed up in the head that you are willing to do this to your own face. This from someone who would love to have about $15,000 worth of work done in strategic locations around the old chassis. But still...I hope I'm more sensible than Gene Simmons or LeToya Jackson. A lot.
Conversations regarding weight and body type in a high school classroom always feel a bit to me like running through a mine field blindfolded and in heavy boots; it's inevitable that I'm going to mess something up real bad. I just don't know when and I'm just not sure how it's going to go down.
So...I was proceeding carefully. Tiptoeing in slippers with sodium lights aimed at the turf, more like. And I realized that I'm usually apprehensive about these kinds of discussions because I'm worried about the girls. Today I was worried about the boys. Ninth grade boys, especially early in the year which it's not but work with me here, come in two types (she said, generalizing big time). Skinny or soft. By the end of the year, they come in three types: skinny, soft, or 27. The ones who turned 27 while the rest of us weren't paying attention do fine. The skinny ones and the soft ones are still much more like boys than young men. This distinction is instantly recognizable in their skinny or soft status.
It's tough stuff, this navigating of life and our genetic packaging. So this weekend, appreciate what you are. Skinny, soft, 27, or otherwise, but mostly, not so messed up in the head that you are willing to do this to your own face. This from someone who would love to have about $15,000 worth of work done in strategic locations around the old chassis. But still...I hope I'm more sensible than Gene Simmons or LeToya Jackson. A lot.
And what about the ones who aren't skinny, nor are the soft, nor do they turn 27 even when they are 27? Ahhhh...to be that young and naive again.
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My Youngest just went from soft (actually, I prefer "dense") to skinny without me noticing it. Wahhhh.
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