Part One (of three)

"The advantages of sorority life are not only immediate but can also reach far into your future. Who knows? You might meet your future husband on a blind date arranged by your big sister." -Ready to Rush: the Must Have Manual for Sorority Rushees, 1999


So this is my first of 3 posts involving books that I have currently read. The first "Pledged", is a sordid insiders look at the sorority system at a prominent southern State University. In the book the author, Alexandra Robbins, infiltrates the greek system to portray an impartial view on the positives and negatives of sorority life. Kind of like a guide to parents about what really goes on so that they know whether to encourage their high school daughters to pursue the lifestyle. She follows the lives of three girls who were willing to compromise EVERYTHING involving their membership to tell her what really goes on behind the scenes. (After several incidents involving underage pledges dying of alcohol poisoning, hazing incidents etc, the National Panhellenic Council banned any sister from talking to the media. They wanted to protect their reputation)

As I would have guessed, the book tells stories of girls standing naked in lines during the pledge process while frat brothers came in and used lipstick to circle "fat" areas of their bodies that were "piggish" and stories of girls forced to drink far more than reasonable during the rush period. That stuff went on at my school I'm sure. What I wouldn't have assumed, were the many stories of drug abuse (marijuana and cocaine) and the multiple "date rapes" that she discussed with the girls. Apparently if a sorority girl is raped (by a frat boy) there is an incredible amount of pressure (from her own sisters) on the girl to not report because it would first look badly upon the sorority and fraternity and then of course involve an extensive investigation that would usually shut one or both of the groups down. Surely that didn't happen at my school! But maybe...

After reading this book, I must say how grateful I was to not be involved in this system. My friends from college are my biggest fans (to this day) and the relationships COULD NOT have been forged in the kind of high pressure, image concentrated society that is created within the greek system. The author wraps the book up nicely by claiming how negative the system as a whole is, but how much potential there could be. What if the system were to make efforts to be service oriented rather than a social organization? So much money is poured into these girl's parties, clothes, and gifts. What if the money was directed into something constructive? They would surely impact the community surrounding these groups for the better and probably forge much stronger relationships and lifelong bonds in the process.



"What sorority girls do in their spare time: Watch soap operas, go to happy hour...go to the library -not to study...shop for clothes, bake their boyfriends cookies, make presents for their big or lil sister, paint their nails. What sorority girls don't do: Watch the news - it's too depressing and boring, read the newspaper - for the same reason....do extra credit projects, do laundry - it goes to the cleaners." -Rush: a Girl's Guide to Sorority Success, 1985

Mobile Man of the Month

I was watching Letterman last night (because he is by far the superior of late night talk show hosts) and he interviewed Michael Douglas as his first guest. In the conversation Douglas mentioned some awards that he had won like oscars or something and also an award as "Mobile Man of the Month" when he worked at a gas station in his early twenties. Letterman made some sarcastic remark about how far Douglas had journeyed from "Mobile Man of the Month" to now being awarded in Hollywood. First that conversation made me laugh, because sometimes I cant believe that I live in a society so wrapped up in awards and recognition. Then it made me cry because there was probably some guy sitting at home watching the same Letterman episode I was, with his "Mobile Man of the Month" award proudly displayed as one of his finer accomplishments, feeling a sense of loss as that award was publicly demeaned.

It is a sad truth that we live in an American society that seems determined to tangibly represent a person's value to society in awards, money, publicity, and decoration. It is also true that as a Christian I am called to live according to a different plan. The fruits that I hope to bear throughout my life will never be recognized on the Letterman show. I'll probably never receive a golden statue or trophy for living the life I feel God has planned for me. That is certainly ok with me because the recognition from my peers seems rather meaningless in the actions that I take which are truly for Him. I just wish that our society as a whole could move more towards that system of operation. Then maybe we wouldn't have to worry about homeless people dying because of hunger on the streets or sick children unable to receive medical attention because their parents cant afford the monthly premiums. I'm not saying I have the solution to poverty in the United States. I'm just saying that this system of valuing only the ones who have the biggest wallets or the most decorated trophy cases is truly misguided.

Living for God After 20 Years

I watched about fifteen minutes of Oprah's 20th anniversary show yesterday. That's about all I could stand. An entire hour of television devoted to praising the accomplishments of one person seemed rather mind-numbingly dull for some reason. Of the fifteen minutes that I did see however, there was a short segment where Oprah read an entry from her journal 20 years ago on the eve before her first show. It was rather shocking. The entry spoke of how she could sense a big shift in her life and of something big about to happen. She didn't know the details, but felt like something great was about to occur. Certainly anyone who knows anything about our culture, knows that she certainly was correct in that assupmtion. Something big was about to happen in her life. I couldn't help but notice though, as she spoke praises to her own accomplishment, that producers edited out part of the segment. They removed her verbally reciting the phrases in her journal that alluded to living her life fully for God and doing all through the power of Christ. (You could read these parts of the entry that she wasn't reading aloud on the screen). The shocking part of this segment is not that Oprah knew in advance that she might see success in her endeavors, but more that somewhere along the way, she has lost focus on the One who truly instigates those paths in our lives. I knew she believed in a god....but THE GOD? Her show often refers to god in some sort of a third person sense. Someone who is nice to reference once in a while because it can be a quick answer to hard questions, but never someone who is deeply personal, loving, and fully entitled to all of the glory in any one person's accomplishments.

I think my question is, at what point did Oprah remove the true God from the context of her life and success? The easy answer would be when she started to make money. While partially true and fully biblical for that matter, I think there must be something else attributing to her own self-righteousness. There must be some place even outside of financial reward in the journey to worldly success that causes many a believer to compromise their complete reliance on the One who created them. I think that there is something internal that would serve as the better answer. Something about man's fallen nature and inherited ability to always elevate his own ego when things are good and blame others when they are not. To say the "good" that we do in life is because of God and for Christ alone, takes away that sense of self-elevating joy in accomplishment and breeds true humility which is probably why so many like Oprah fall victim. The world lifts up those who can "pull themselves up by the bootstraps" and succeed, not the truly humble at spirit.