Happy First Day of Spring Playlist

Flower Face saying "Hello, Spring!"

Music to listen to while out for a walk, soaking in the spring sun, or to dance around to while doing some spring-cleaning!





Spring Playlist

1. The Paper Kites - Woodland
2. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Janglin
3. Gotye – I Feel Better
4. Ra Ra Riot – Boy
5. She & Him – In the Sun
6. Phoenix – Girlfriend
7. Tennis – Origins
8. Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)
9. Gomez – Little Pieces
10. Miike Snow – Animal
11. MGMT – Kids
12. Passion Pit – Moth's Wings
13. Vampire Weekend – Holiday
14. Band of Horses – Islands On The Coast

Image courtesy of http://facesinplaces.blogspot.com/

A Plea to Ursinus (or Any College) Students

What would you do if you were no longer able to afford to buy food, toiletries, and laundry detergent at Redners, Wawa, or Wegman’s?


No problem, right?


Because there is always Wismer, Zach’s, and the Convenience Store to consistently supply two or three meals a day.


But what would you do if you were not able to afford going to a grocery store...and then Wismer suffered a food shortage?


You begin to wonder where your next meal may come from, laundry detergent becomes the equivalent to “liquid gold”, and items such as toiletries and cookies become mere luxuries.


This is the situation that many local families are currently facing. Faced with unemployment and salary cuts, more and more families have been turning to food pantries in order to be able to afford to buy food and other necessities. Unfortunately, the pantries themselves are facing difficult times and are no longer able to meet the demand for food.


Due to rising fuel and food costs, the demand for items at food pantries, such as thePottstown Cluster Outreach (just 20 minutes down the road from Ursinus), is increasing, while the number of donations is decreasing. In response to this food shortage, a local newspaper, the Pottstown Mercury, has organized a food drive to benefit all of the area food pantries.


The Mercury’s goal is to collect 20,000 nutritious, non-perishable food items and 1,000 containers of laundry detergent by April 8. The need for containers of laundry detergent came to The Mercury’s attention when a worker at a food pantry in Boyertown shared the story of a young girl who was more excited that her family was getting laundry detergent, which they could use to make their clothes “smell nice”, than she was about getting some cookies.


Ursinus College has pledged to help The Mercury reach their goal, by trying to collect 100 food items to contribute to the overall goal of 20,000 items.


Almost every student on campus has a small collection of food in their dorms rooms, typically consisting of Ramen noodles, macaroni and cheese, soup, cereal, etc. If every student on campus could donate just ONE of their non-perishable food items, it could have a tremendous impact on Ursinus College’s local community and in the fight against Hunger.


Donations can be dropped off in the UCARE office from now until April 6.


For further information about the food drive and its progress, go here.

Why Spread Hate?

Last month was Black History month; a time to remember and celebrate all of the individuals who fought to make sure that every individual in the US has equal rights, regardless of one’s race.

At the end of this month of recognition, I was shocked to learn that my former high school had instated a policy of searches and “see-through backpacks” for its students in response to “threats mixed up with racial intimidation (which) has created a very tense environment.”

Students line up outside Daniel Boone HS
Photo courtesy of Pottsmerc.com

I attended Daniel Boone High School from 2003 – 2007. During my time there, there were the standard fake bomb threats and graffiti that unfortunately have become common in high schools today, but there was never any racial tension or specific threats made, at least not that I was aware of.

Where did this hatred come from and did it grow to this magnitude in our very own community? But it’s not just here in Berks County, lately it seems as if sentiments of hate and disrespect are ever more prominent everywhere I look.

While last month was one marked for recognition of the fight for civil rights, March, Women’s History month, is meant for recognizing those who fought for women’s rights. Yet at the very start of the month, and one week before International Women’s Day, a day meant to celebrate and show respect for all women in the world, Rush Limbaugh delivered a slap in the face to all us ladies. By proclaiming that Sandra Fluke, a third-year Georgetown University law student who testified in front of Congress for the need of contraceptive coverage by student health insurance, is a “slut” and “prostitute” he sent an ignorant message of disrespect and hate to women everywhere.

And for what? Cause he thought might get a chuckle out of it? Since when is personally attacking and slandering someone’s character and actions funny? I think it’s safe to say that you have gone way too far when the President himself speaks out against comments you’ve made.

The most upsetting thing about incidents such as Limbaugh’s blatant disrespect for all the women in this country and the up-cropping of racial tension at Daniel Boone is that they are certainly not uncommon.

Women have been referred to as “sluts” and “prostitutes” simply based on the way that they dress, their use of contraception (both women who do and do not use contraception), and other behaviors, since the very beginning (see: Mary Magdalene).

No one is safe...

Racism and prejudice, in all forms, has been consistent in society throughout history (once again, see: The Bible). The most recent form seems to be discrimination and harassment of individuals of the LGBT community, an issue that is visible in the media every day.

But, again, my question is why? Why is it necessary to call a woman a “slut” or “fat”, to use racial slurs, to make threats, or to bully and humiliate?  In a time when acceptance, respect, and love for others should be growing and celebrated in our society, why do we continue to hate and discriminate against others based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.? What does any one person gain from spreading hate towards other human beings? The only thing that comes from that is more hate.

We should all demonstrate respect and love for everyone every single day. It’s the only way we will be able to continue grow as a community, nation, and society.

Let Love In.

Unless you want to go back to how everyone was treated in Biblical times...

The Media Lab Still Needs to be Filled!

The Community Media Lab in The Pottstown Mercury is (virtually) filling up! 

Look at all the laundry detergent!!

The efforts of a few are making a big difference.

Individuals from communities far outside ours are even getting in on the action and contributing.

But we still have a long way to go to reach our goal!

You can donate items from now until April 8 by bringing them to any of the locations on the map below.

Communities Coming Together to Give Back

I'm a member of The Pottstown Mercury's TownSquare blogging community. All of us TownSquare bloggers are part of other organizations and communities as well. But overall, we are all members of the Pottstown-area community, and now we are all teaming up in order to give back to our central community.


The Mercury announced last week that it would be collaborating with the TownSquare bloggers on the Fill the Media Lab Challenge.


The challenge is to collect enough food items to "virtually" fill the Community Media Lab, located at The Mercury's offices, with the food then being donated to local food pantries. The goal is to collect 20,000 (nutritious) food items as well as 1,000 containers of laundry detergent between now and April 8.


Why "virtually" fill? Well, we want to make sure that the food is getting to the pantries as quickly as it comes in, so the donations will be counted and then "pinned" to a Fill the Media Lab pinboard on Pinterest.

Let's (virtually) fill this space!

But The Mercury is not the only place where donations can be dropped off. Donation points have been set up at multiple locations throughout the area. Many of the drop-off sites are being featured by the different TownSquare bloggers, such as Positively Pottstown, 52 Ways to Wake Up a Week, and The Sanatoga Post. This handy-dandy map is also a great way to keep track of the locations where you can drop off items.







I'm also very happy to say that another one of my own communities, Ursinus College, has also pledged to take on the challenge and is a collection site.

Ursinus students have been asked to bring non-perishable food items to the UCARE (Ursinus Center for Advocacy, Responsibility and Engagement) office by March 16. They hope to collect a total of 100 items to contribute to The Mercury's overall goal of 20,000. Ursinus has a strong history of giving back to the local community and so it is only natural that they would take on this challenge and wish to help the area food pantries.


The idea for the Fill the Media Lab Challenge came from an article in The Mercury focusing on the fact that this winter has seen shortages in food pantries as a result of increasing food and fuel prices. When food pantries, such as The Cluster and the North Coventry Food Pantry, are not able to offer the food provisions and "luxuries", like laundry detergent, that many families have come to rely on, these families have very little to fall back on.

Let's show these families that they can fall back on their community in times of need. Individual communities, like Ursinus College, can come together to make a small contribution that will have a large impact.


To donate, visit any of the collection sites on the above map or bring food to The Mercury Community Media Lab, Hanover and King streets in Pottstown.

Beauty Standards Changing

One of my favorite things that I have had time to do this year is watch old movies. And by “old movies” I don’t mean ones like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (although that is pretty excellent).

I mean going back to the days of black and white and musicals; films like Casablanca, Sabrina, Roman Holiday, Some Like it Hot, An Affair to Remember, How to Marry a Millionaire, etc. The list goes on and on.

Being a girl who has often felt like I was born in the wrong era, I love watching movies such as these when holding hands and a simple look said it all.

This being the case, you would think I would be completely captivated by Cary Grant, Humphry Bogart, and the other leading men in these movies, but instead I always find myself utterly spellbound by the leading ladies: Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Deborah Kerr, Greta Garbo, etc. To me, these women seem to radiate with a pure kind of beauty that one just doesn’t seem to see nowadays.

   

These breathtakingly gorgeous women did not wear the marks of a society that is constantly searching for the next cosmetic product, treatment, or surgery that promises the restoration of youth. They embraced their curves, their natural figure. They exhibited sex appeal by simply accentuating their shape and femininity. They aged with grace and elegance. Their beauty was humble and untainted.

This is certainly not to say that I think the women of Hollywood today are not stunning, or that the women from past generations faced just as much pressure to look beautiful, but there are more options available to women today to alter themselves and they are taking full advantage of it...and then asking for more.

Leading ladies today go to great lengths to try to hold onto their youthful beauty rather than simply embracing natural beauty. And even if they can’t make something “perfect”, then there is Photoshop, which has become an all too prevalent tool, to erase any slight imperfection, making their beauty even less natural-looking. As a result, this transfers over to the rest of women in society.

For the most part, being an attractive woman in our society today means always maintaining a super-thin figure by any means possible (do celebrity moms race to see who can get back to pre-baby weight the fastest?), fighting against the tiniest sign of wrinkles or lines (shouldn’t you be happy to have a lot of laugh lines?), having a nice tan (what is so wrong with pale skin anyways?), and on and on and on.

I obviously do not mean this as a blanket statement. There are many gorgeous women in Hollywood and everyday life that love and show off their curves and natural beauty. Ultimately, I believe that being healthy and happy with your appearance is all that matters. But when did women go from being happy (more than happy actually) to look like this:

To this:

Oh, hey look...Marilyn is in both pictures

To me, wrinkles and curves say that you have lived and that you enjoy life. You have laughed and cried, you have had your fair share of worries and made mistakes, you have had adventures and known joy, maybe you have gotten to know the delight of motherhood, or you weren’t afraid to indulge yourself now and then.

Why would you want to erase that?

Audrey Hepburn looks even more stunning with her lovely laugh lines

When did the standards for beauty in our society change, and how far will it go?

I'll keep studying these unaffected beauties and let you know if I figure it out. In the meantime, I hope you accept your naturally beautiful self for all of it's perfect imperfections.

Yarn-Bombing

Remember You, Me, and Charlie? Well, guess what? They published a contribution of mine yesterday!!

I was so happy that I thought I would share on this space too the small, fun little item that I contributed.

Here you go! :

Yarn Bombing

I imagine this is what a Truffula Tree would look like in real life

Hello there You, Me, and Charlie! Do you know about yarn bombing? If you have never heard of it, I can guarantee you will love it!

Yarn bombing, or knit graffiti, is a type of street art that has emerged within the last few years and is currently popping up in cities all over the world.

It may be something as simple as decorating a pole or parking meter,or dressing up a statue. It may be on a pretty large scale, such as a bus, group of trees, or even a tank. It may serve to brighten and spice up ordinary places like the subway or a telephone booth.

While obviously not permanent, yarn bombing is becoming a more frequent form of street art, done by people from anonymous individuals to organized groups. Whoever thinks that knitting and crocheting is only for little old ladies obviously does not know just how radical fiber artists can be!

Just keep your eyes peeled, because you never know where and when you might see something yarn bombed!