And what is your name?

I always hate when I find out something about my friends that I don't like. What I dislike even more is the fact that when I find this stuff out, I tend to feel let down. I think it's because I really put a lot of trust into my friends, and when I find out they've been lying to me, or just leaving out information that would be nice to know, I feel disappointed. I shouldn't. I mean, it's not really my place. People have the right to act however they like and do whatever they want. But as much as I know this is just how life is, it bugs me.

I'm not a normal teenager. I'm much less curious about normal teenage things, like alcohol and drugs for one, and I tend to focus on the good in people, and completely ignore the bad. It needs to change, but at the same I don't want to change because I like the way I am. I want to mature, yes, but I don't want to lower my standards or expect different things from my friends, even though I know I'll be let down.

So here is my goal: Find a way to mentally accept the decisions my friends make without lowering my standards of what friends I choose. And without doing what my friends do in order to accept them. It's going to be hard, I think, but sometimes I feel like I'm not up to speed on what people do these days. I guess I'm just not sure. Hmmmm.

"What happened?"

"You know how it feels. . . when all your teeth are falling out? And at first you don't notice, but then you do and you find out that they're really far apart. . . And then one day. . . You don't have any teeth anymore. Yeah, it was like that. . ."

~Carol, a Wild Thing~

Whale Wars

I was watching "Whale Wars" with my dad earlier today, a show about a group of Anti-Whalers, who sail international waters look for the Japanese whaling boats, throwing rancid butter and booby traps on the whaling boats in an attempt to stop whaling. Now, I'm not too sure about the rules of this show, per se. It seems like the Japanese have all the right in the world to whale if they want to, but the Anti-Whalers, let's call them contras ;), feel that it's barbaric and inhumane, so they try their hardest to stop their opposition.

On the last few episodes, the contras had caught up to the mother ship of the Japanese whaling fleet, the Nise Maru, but were having trouble keeping the ship in sight. So they sent a very small, very fast ship, The Ady Gil, to follow the Nise Maru and try to hinder it going any further. After a few tricks by the Ady Gil, it seems they have slowed down the mother ship, but have exhausted their fuel in the process. Now they must wait 3 days for a friendly ship to arrive and refuel them.

But as they wait around, recalling their wins and watching the other Japanese ships pass by, they realize that one of the recon ships is sailing dangerously near to them, and eventually it crashes into the Ady Gil, slicing the ship in two. The crew is fine, but now there are only two ships left in the contra fleet. Now, for some reason I can't seem to understand, in the next episode the captain of the sunken Ady Gil is going to try and board the Japanese Recon ship for what reason? We don't know, but we have to watch to find out.

What I don't get is, why? I understand the whales are important, but does one really feel the need to fight so hard for their cause that they want to put human life in danger? It would be one thing if the cause was about humans, but it's not, it's about whales. When does a cause become too ridiculous to fight for? When does retaliation become too much? When human life is at stake? Or do we have to wait until a life is actually lost? Or maybe it gets to be too much when the human emotions just can't take it anymore?

I'm not sure. I think that it's much more complicated than that, but right now I think I'm done with this post. Sometimes, a cause is just too much to fight for. The question is, what cause is worth going through hell to fight?