Californication

I wasn't quite sure what the issue was. My roommate Scott and I were driving back from the grocery store, and we passed by (idled by, more like it. Ridiculous traffic.) a billboard for Shotime's program "Californication." We got into a discussion of all the trash that is on TV now a days, and somehow it shifted to the word itself, Californication. Those of you with word processors will note that the "word" Californication has one of those bright red squiggly lines beneath it. "Squiggly" doesn't even get one of those. It was my understanding that Californication isn't even a real word. Its the title of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's 1999 album, the title track, and also of David Duchovony's tv show on Shotime. Scott, however, had a completely different perception of the word and its meaning.

He is from New York, and recently moved out to California to attend Talbot seminary. He insisted that Californication was, in fact, a real word. More so, it held reliable and consistent meaning and connotation universally. Such a thing blew my mind. "Californication" has never held any real context or meaning. After Scott pulled up some definitions off of urbandictionary.com, he seemed to have a point. The word did in fact have some loosely understood definition. I had to know - was I just ignorant, or was this a cultural thing? In order to figure this whole conundrum out, I inquired of twenty friends what their understanding of "Californication" was. I made sure to get as broad a spectrum of friends as possible; Christian and non-Christian, male and female, those groudned secularly and those raised in the church, those raised in California and those who weren't, as well as those who are currently living outside of California and within.

Before moving on, let's clarify one thing: urbandictionary.com is by no means an authority. However, it is a conglomoration of ideas from across the globe at defining slang terms. In this particular instance, it happened to show support for Scott's concept of what "Californication" meant.

From the twenty-two individuals surveyed (we included Scott's opinion and my own), only three people came up with a definintion similar to the one presented online. There was Scott, one friend of his from New York, and Justin Griffin. Everyone else who responded to the question came back with very little input, ranging from "gay sex" to "the things you do that would only be accepted in California." Several individuals came back with comments to the effect that they didn't feel that the word had any definition, or that they had never really considered it a word. One individual referenced it as nothing more than the song and album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The most debaucherous of the responses ws "It means that our states is getting screwed so much that its very name is becoming synonymous with getting screwed."

Urbandictionary.com had this to offer:

Californication	385 up, 58 down
	Western society's pop culture and media encroachment and spread all over the world. In particular, the negative aspects of media and culture originating from within the United States' 31st State: California.

Californication	252 up, 40 down
	The spread and influence of western memes and culture, esp. that of California, across the world. Especially focusing on the selling of sex. Made of the words "California" and "fornication"

The "up" and "down" comments are signs of agreement or disagreement. From the numbers, it looks like about 85% of urbandictionary users can agree that the term Californication has something to do with the spreading of western culture and the obsession with sex, hollywood, and celebrities.

Based on the responses, Californication is not a real word, nor a term. But it does have a somewhat accepted idea behind it, and a disgusting one at that. We can't deny that the entire world is getting caught up in the disillusionment of Hollywood. People are overly-obsessed (that's right overly obsessed) with celebrities and their goings-on. The paparazzi, magazines like US Weekly and tv shows like TMZ are all culprits in this debacle, liquifying the minds of their viewers and readers, feeding the presumed importance of movie stars. Even worse, they are creating in the minds of today's youth the importance of being famous, important, becoming some kind of celebrity. I'm guilty of having had daydreams in my youth of becoming someone famous, but this is something different - we're being fed these thought from every side. Its being treated as something crucial. Something that we should all be wanting.

Californication: our world becoming obsessed with fame, fortune, and celebrities to the extent that we're loosing touch with who we are as a people. We loose ourselves to this faux world of glamor and stardom. I can see now why we don't have any real context for the word, we live within the definition. It is only by living in another culture that is being drowned out by Hollywood's onslaught that such a thing can be seen. Perspective is everything.

*special thanks to Adam de laRiva, Gloriann Boni, Anna Cofman, Leigh Cara Hussman, Ken Shrout, Thomas Ariston, Rad Beauton, Joshua Castleman, Abel Gutierrez, Patrick Grafton-Cardwell, Cody Griffin, Justin Griffin, Scott Ahern, and his friend from New York whose name I've completely forgotten.

Living Life Between the Margins

Eight-and-one-half by eleven. A full sheet of paper with which to craft your works. But that's where you're wrong - you loose a bit on every side. One inch on the sides, and inch and a half on top and bottom? Guides so that we don't get too close to the ends of the paper. Put everything you have neatly inside these prescribed lines and everyone will go home happy. What happens when we start ignoring those margins and claim all of the paper for ourselves?

I'm working with a new piece of paper myself. About five or six weeks ago, I moved down to southern California from Visalia. Its been a refreshing reboot of my systems. There was so much in Visalia that was tied to my past, tied to hurt, memories, and hopes that I was grateful to leave behind. We never leave those things behind, do we? Some of it will linger and reshape our new existence. Nevertheless, we take the good with the bad, and love the life that is lived today. I have so much to be grateful here in my new home. I have four great housemates - Patrick, Matt, Doug, and Scott. I enjoy the times that I get to share with each of them, as they're all polar opposites of one another. Its like going in to Baskin Robins, and getting four scoops of different ice creams - you love it because its ice cream. They don't mix perfectly, but individually they're all great flavors. That kinda makes me wonder what flavor of ice cream I'd be. Hmmm. Outside of the house, I'm still at Starbucks. It is a new feel at every store that I work with. At first things were quite odd because they don't do things quite right there, and it has the tendency to frustrate me to no end. I'm a bit of a legalist and structuralist, and I feel that we do things for a reason because it works best that way. Not to say it doesn't work the way we do it in my new store, but I digress. There's also the friends who live down here already. Megan GC has been down here for years, and so has Justin Griffin (and his new bride, Carrie). Carrie's sister is also down here, Christy, as well as her roommates who are all a lot of fun.

That all barely scratches the surface of what is going on in my life now - for the rest you'd have to be reading between the lines to all the unmentioned people who are dear to me and the phone conversations I've had that continue to shape my perspective and bolster my hope in the ideals Christ spoke of. I'm still writing on this new page I've found, and I like the work that I have done so far. I can see a day in the not-so-far future that I'll have filled up my page with words, works, and self-proclaimed wonders. I can only pray that God sees fit to fill me with more and to make use of all those margins that I'm levaving Him. I suppose that's the metaphor there - I want to be sure to always give God room to work in my life, so that I won't fill it up with me, me, me; that the page can be perfected in Him.