Being Human

I have noticed that some of our discussions have mentioned discrimination. Steven mentioned the use of words like "handicapped". In our local Deaf Community there is much talk about the use of words and discrimination. This reminded me of a film done for PBS by Frontline. A teacher (Jane Elliot) in the 70's decided to conduct an experiement with her young students. She seperated them by the color of their eyes, blue vs everyone else. The blued eyed children were then told that they were better than the other children, they were given extra attention, extra time at recess, extra drinks of water, and so on. The way the children acted by the end of the day interesting. The next day the teacher reversed the roles. If you have time check out the video. In the last segment they interview the original children now young adults.

www.pbs.org/frontline/shows/divided/

On my lunch break today I went to have one of my tattoos embellished. While there I had a interesting conversation with the artist "T". We first talked about how men act getting tattos alone vs with their girlfriends. This lead to talking about why people do things like get tattoos. I found it very interesting to hear T's observation on the first subject and thought I would share it.

He has been tattooing for 10+ years and has always found it interesting that men who get tattooed alone or with other men act tough or just get their tattoos without fuss. But when women are around they, (and I am just generalizing here) fuss and moan and whine. Why is that and wouldn't you think that it would be the opposite?

Now about why we do the things we do. Why is it that some people live to ride a roller coaster over and over again? What was it in our development that gave this person the need to bungy jump off a bridge that another person can not even walk on? Where does our need for these adreanline rushes come from and why do we develop them?