Thursday, January 05, 2006

Brokeback Mountain: Gene Shalit is Way Off

Dear Today/NBC:

I have never been compelled to write, although I have watched the show since my teens.

Gene Shalit's review of Brokeback Mountain demonstrates how little he understands about the struggle homosexual men and women endure psychologically in small towns -- even today.

I recently moved to San Francisco from New York, so I take my freedom for granted. It's not like that in small towns, however, and it is rarely depicted as eloquently and accurately as it was in Brokeback Mountain.

For Mr. Shalit to say Jake Gyllenhaal bordered on being a sexual predator is irresponsible -- at least -- and I was sorry to see his opinion nationally televised. Regardless his opinions on gay people -- I suspect he is open-minded and balanced -- his review came across as bigoted.

What a shame.

Jared

posted by Jay @ 11:23 PM 2 comments

Monday, January 02, 2006

Sticking The Needle In

My twelve-year-old nephew was diagnosed with Type I diabetes on Christmas Day. Beyond the near coma and possible death -- had my sister not taken him to the hospital when she did -- I was struck by two things that reflect his sense of humor and love for life.
  1. When the nurse asked him where to stick the needle on his fingers, he pointed here and there. The sticking happened many times as she and the CCU doctors experimented to determine the type of treatment he would assume. In time, the nurse noticed that he was directing her to make a pattern out of the pin pricks -- the patterns of smily faces on each of this fingers.
  2. While on a breathing machine, he learned a new trick. In time, he called to my sister's attention the picture of a castle he had drawn using the green line on the breathing machine screen. He had accomplished it by huffing and puffing -- learning just the right sequence needed to draw a picture out of that green glowing line. (He also held his breath until the line was flat and the machine started beeping. Yikes!)
In her 30 years of experience, the nurse related to my sister that she had never encountered a youngster with such a vigorous curiosity, sense of self, and humorous approach to a life altering condition.

This New Year's, I am thankful for his safe diagnosis and that he is still with us. But I am also grateful that somewhere in the world there are kids growing up who know how to take bad news in stride -- and to march to the beat of their own drummer.

Happy New Year 2006.

posted by Jay @ 5:56 PM 0 comments