The Voice of the Boa Constrictor

Shortly before bed last night, I read the news that Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul & Mary had died. Sigh.  Not only did we grow up on Peter, Paul & Mary but I still love listening to them.  I have even seen them in more recent years in concert and on PBS, of course.

I’ll probably get killed for this, but even my big brother has a soft spot for Peter, Paul & Mary… I don’t know when this started but every night he sings the “Boa Constrictor” song to his boys before bed.  And they love it!  The Minnesota nephews asked me if I knew the Boa Constrictor song when we were visiting a couple of weeks ago. They love it too.

Peter, Paul & Mary have thus bonded the generations of our family, which is what I imagine an artist hopes to accomplish when they set out to create – that their art will be appreciated and live long beyond them. I don’t know if that is true in the larger world (although I imagine it is given their enduring following) but it is in our families.

And, so “the years have gone by too quickly it seems,” and here we are… Rest in Peace, Mary, and thank you for the sweet melodies of my youth. You will be missed.

Pre-Dawn Rant

(I have no idea why, but I was wide awake at 5:30 this morning, and for some reason had this rant on my mind. I thought writing it down might help me get back to sleep; it didn’t, but I present it here, nevertheless, with only light editing.)

One of the things that drove me a little nuts during a large chunk of the Bush administration was the seemingly-constant refrain from the right that vocally disagreeing with the president during a time of war was inappropriate to the point of bordering on treason. Now, of course, there is a different person in the White House, but we’re still at war, and yet many of those same people are complaining as if their lives depend on it. To them, I have two things to say:

1. It doesn’t feel like treason, does it? It feels like you’re exercising a very important constitutional right, doesn’t it? Yeah. I thought so.

2. Keep it up. I don’t agree with you, and oftentimes think you’re plain-ass crazy, but we were right about the dissent thing. It is important, it is your right, and it is your duty.

And now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I have just one thing to add:

All this squawking about the President’s planned address to students? It’s just, well, childish. This is a pep talk, not a policy speech; the President of the United States is merely taking time out of his busy schedule to tell kids that education has value and that staying in school is important. This is, as far as I know, pretty much the same message most parents try to send, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum. Hearing it from as many people as possible, including the President — the holder of an office they should respect, even when they (or you) don’t like the person in it — can’t hurt. It might, in fact, help.

Brain, Athlete, Basket Case, Princess, Criminal

I think it’s fair to say that most people have a few defining moments in their lives, where something changes irrevocably in an instant. One such moment — when my adolescent psychology professor wheeled a VCR into our classroom and told us we were going to learn about the archetypes of American teenagers — came to mind today.

He turned the tape on, and I knew with absolute certainty that I would be quitting graduate school.

The movie was The Breakfast Club.

It was 1994, I was 22 years old, and I knew that any professor who had so badly missed the message in The Breakfast Club about the pitfalls of stereotyping didn’t really have anything to teach me about teenagers.

Now, I have never regretted dropping out of grad school — a career as a high-school teacher could not possibly have been more wrong for me — but the fact that a movie put me over the edge seems so… arrogant. So impossibly 22.

As it most certainly was, but it’s also a testament to the impact of John Hughes’ movies on the lives of those of us who were teenagers in the 1980s — an influence that has a chicken-and-egg circularity that’s hard to figure out: Were we the kinds of teens we were because of the characters in his movies? Or were his characters the kinds of teens they were because they were us?

Either way, the movies John Hughes made perfectly captured white, straight, suburban teen life in the 1980s, from the dopey way we dressed, to the New Wave music that was way cooler than we were, to the angst caused by hormones, social standing, and parental expectations. They weren’t perfect films, and certainly not high art, but they were so earnest and emotionally honest that they still hold up.

And so, thinking of a few favorite lines from his movies, I say farewell and thank you to John Hughes.

“You see us as you want to see us… In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain… and an athlete… and a basket case… and a princess… and a criminal… Does that answer your question?” — The Breakfast Club

“That’s why they call them crushes. If they were easy, they’d call them something else.” — Sixteen Candles

“Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Updated to add: This is the best article ever about a John Hughes movie. I read it years ago and just googled around until I found it. (Three cheers for journalists with blogs!) If you loved Sixteen Candles, it’s a must-read.