Mean.

“You, with your words like knives

And swords and weapons that you use against me

You have knocked me off my feet again

Got me feeling like a nothing

You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard

Calling me out when I'm wounded

You picking on the weaker man.”

Recently I was talking with a friend, and a certain person came up who brought back some very bad memories from when I was growing up; in other words, he was never a friend of mine. In life, I try to “like” as many people as possible (not Facebook “like,” I mean those I really enjoy being with or want to get to know). Sure there are some people, where no matter how hard you try, it just doesn’t seem to work. But in general, even those who are not very kind, have some redeeming values. Usually.

Unfortunately we all have memories---or perhaps that’s a good thing. I guess it all depends. When I attended my first high school reunion it had been 20 years since I had seen the majority of the people who at one point I saw each and every day. There were the groups who made up the jocks, social sets, and those who fell into many other categories. If you were in the “many other categories”, you knew where you stood---on the outside looking in. Some of the people I was hoping to avoid, were the ones who I spoke with and they have actually changed---others, there was no hope.

But things are changing and that’s what today’s “Snap.Shot.” is all about.

Recently, we went to one an open house for one of our daughters, and the next morning we went to a meeting for another one of our daughters. What has impressed me about today’s educators is how they are real people and really want to help make a difference; it’s not like they were robots. When I was growing up, I will never forget seeing a teacher out of her environment at McDonald’s; I kept thinking, “What is she doing here?” (I had never thought about them eating or having a life outside of school.)

For some reason the topic of bullying came up at the open house and how the school has a very strict policy to address any situation that comes up. I mean “any situation.” The next morning, as I was dropping off a forgotten notebook at high school, I could not help but notice the 5 uniformed police officers who are there everyday. I think the only time we ever saw a police officer when I was in school, was when they came to tell you about the dangers of whatever the topic of interest was back then. (Like the dangers of crossing the street at the light on your bikes---things have changed.)

Bullying and fights happened in school, and we all knew who to stay away from if you wanted to remain in one piece. I am really happy they address this now, as these fears still hide in the memories of when I was growing up. The person we were discussing recently, was one of the meanest people in our school. What is he doing now? I think “time.” As in jail time.  No High School reunion for him in the near future.

No one can possibly want to be mean; at least I hope they don’t want to be. For today’s generation, the ones who are in school, they are going to run into some very competitive people who feel they are better than others---I think it’s important to remind those who are effected, that no matter how “mean” they come across, it may not be what the “mean” to do.

The photo above is from a recent photo shoot we did for one of the football teams we shoot. Because we take more than one photograph, I said, “Give me a mean look.” The above is the result. Looks like schools are helping out on bad behavior----  because if this is mean, we have a lot of good that’s happening for our future.

Thanks for stopping by.