Silly season

I case you managed to miss it, there was a particularly rude and offense action take by a BYU-Idaho Testing Center employee Tuesday.. The semester ends in 10 days, lots of students are taking tests and studying for finals.

A young woman completes her studying and heads into the Testing Center for her test. She is told she can't come in. The problem? Her jeans are too tight.

There are women in skinny jeans in sight, taking their tests, why can't she? Jeans too tight.

You see this woman is "curvy", meaning she is blessed with ample hips. Her hips just don't fit the standard pants sizing model. She either buys them the right length and a little tight in the hips or loose in the hips and too long and baggy.

Despite appealing to a Center supervisor (finds her jeans acceptable) she is denied admission.

Next day she goes to explain missing the test to professor, in the same jeans. He finds no problem and gives her permission to test late without penalty.

No problem, right? No there is a problem and its more than a jerk working at the center who is rude and disrespectful. You see, this particular dress code only applies at the Testing Center. Apparently tight jeans are a hazard to test taking. Really? No so in Provo or Laie.

The standard appears to be if you can discern the true shape of the leg, shoulder or torso under the clothes you pose a distraction to the community. And boys will be boys. Every rational thought will fall out of their over heated heads because they finally figured out what a woman looks like. Apparently this happens all the faster with women with Rubenesque figures.

Folks, let this 60 year old tell you a secret. At 18 I already knew. I'd seen Rubens, Titian, Gaugin and Bottecelli nudes in the museum. We don't lock them up. I think that today the vast majority of young men know what a female leg looks like. Likewise a shoulder or belly. Wrapping them in denim and sending them to Idaho is not going bring an epiphany to an 18-22 year old man.

We don't blow circuit at the thought of a feminine thigh. We have a bit more control than that. You sisters are indeed beautiful but (sorry) you're not that devastating.

Let's all be adults shall we. Chose your clothing responsibly. If you dress provocatively to get a man's attention, how long are you going to keep his attention? Try attracting us some other way that is lasting: brains, skills, humor, empathy.

Young men, be adult. That woman who is showing all that eye candy is not terribly selective or subtle, probably emotionally clumsy as well. Not worth your time.

University - we'll be adult if you promise to be adult too. Stop with the silly make a rule game. It's not productive or instructive. The message you send is that we can be childish and stupid as long as we stay in the box. What happens we are out in the real world with no boxes? Let's both grow up.

Our phobic life

When entrepreneurs tell their stories a common thread is that they didn't start businesses to get rich. The successful do gain wealth but they say it was never their goal. In fact, many sell their newly successful businesses to other more mundane managers just as they are growing quickly. They have found that what really gets them excited is creation of a new thing or a new relationship.

We're not all entrepreneurs, they are an uncommon skill set but we are creative in unique ways most of which won't make us rich, powerful or famous. That bit of wisdom is merely a comment on how screwed up our economic lives are, not on the value of the creations. After all, if you create a song, a poem, a painting, a decoration, a bauble or a curious mind in just one person isn't that success?

In six decades of more or less regular breathing, a few lessons have penetrated; one being that almost everyone is born curious and creative. Tragically the majority have it trained out of their active lives by inflexible parents, jealous peers, an eduction system that values uniformity, socialization and a work world that wants to determine ones value by a short list of qualities. A few persist with the motivation, courage and originality they were blessed with and make our lives the better for it. How much better would it be if more did?

What is it that kills the curiosity and creativity? Mostly an abundance or fear and risk avoidance. We live our lives as we would walk through a mine field. We carefully consider every step, searching for anything unexpected that might be a threat. We carefully step only where others have already stepped. It's called risk avoidance behavior. It comes from fear, the message of our primitive lizard brain. In simple animals it keeps the animal alive, but how many creative lizards do you know? It  may control their lives but should it control ours? We live in a world where we are extremely unlikely to become prey or starve to death because we don't find our own food.

Keeping in mind that our inner lizard has some vestigial usefulness such as keeping us from walking in front of buses or falling down manholes, we need to put the fear out to the center of our views and stop living like phobic neurotics. Be creative. Take risks. Be curious. Live.

Palliative for Adrenal Fatigue

1

Speed. Moving rapidly through the environment can be either terrifying or invigorating. You don’t need to drive a car which accelerates from 0 to 100 mph in a few seconds to experience it. Just join the cycle race in your area this year or hire a buggy and go dune bashing. Learn to skate. Go biking. Go skydiving. Ride a roller coaster. Go bungee-jumping. If you live near the coast learn how to surfboard.You get the triple benefit of working that flab away, learning a new skill, and feeling the adrenaline coursing through your veins.

4

Confront your fears. Take stock of your fears and make a pact to conquer them today.Do you fear flying- take that first flight to freedom, do you fear heights- bungee jump your way to see the world as you never have before, if you fear public speaking, join a toastmasters club in your area.

5

Imagine. Imagine yourself in the most difficult of situations, like being in a zombie apocalypse with machine guns, chainsaws, and machetes. Imagine the thrill, the excitement, the experience of going through something so difficult, yet so exciting. The power of being strong also gives you adrenaline rush.

6

Music. A key factor for feeling an adrenaline rush. Play fast music and dance to it. This does actually give you adrenaline rush. You just got to "feel" the music and the vibe to it. It also motivates you to do things at a faster pace. It can also get you pumped up for an important event, like a track competition.