Okay, fine. Thanks to some passive-aggressive comments, several from people who NEVER COMMENT ON THIS BLOG ANYWAY, I will post. I just kind of haven't felt like it lately, maybe because my layout is wonky, or because it's so effin' hot that even writing a blog post saps me. Who knows? Anyway, here's this thing I've been stewing about:
When Michael Jackson died, more than one of my self-righteous, dim-but-trying-to-be-intellectually-Christian Facebook "friends" posted a status update to the effect of "It's too bad that the whole world cares about MJ, but no one cares about North Korea."
OKAY FIRST OF ALL: Michael Jackson was a person. A singular individual who, love him or hate him, had *a* personality and *a* face. (Fine, several faces, but work with me here.) It's a logical fallacy to expect people to have the same attachment or relationship to a nation, especially a nation which we have learned about mostly from Team America: World Police, as we do to an entertainer who has been on the radar longer than most of us have been alive. I mean, come on.
SECONDLY: Since when are certain people more worth our grief or attention than others? If we're working the Jesus Loves the Little Children angle here, then last I checked, He loves "red and yellow, black and white" equally. Aside from the whole Asians are not, in fact, yellow, thing, and MJ was arguably all of the above yet none of the above, the principle applies. If you are a Christian, you are called to LOVE people, the lost, the saved, everyone on the continuum, so much that you would lay down your life for them. Even if they have a chimp as a life partner and claim their African-American father has blue eyes. Even if they live under a dictator who is ronery and physicary fit. It doesn't matter; we are supposed to love and care about them, and if they die and probably go to Hell, IT'S OKAY TO BE SAD ABOUT THAT.
There is no hierarchy of prayer-worthiness in the Bible. I'm sorry if your Chaco-wearing, filigreed-ESV-Bible-reading, awkward-humor-loving little brain can't grasp that, but it's true. You are NOT A BETTER CHRISTIAN because you care more about Darfur than Farrah Fawcett. You're just not. Sorry. For one thing, I don't see you giving up your precious latte-drinking time or latte-buying money on behalf of ANY of these people, even the brown ones. I see you pontificating on Facebook about how you are SO ABOVE ALL THIS POP CULTURE CRAP except wait, you are FACEBOOKING ABOUT IT SO I GUESS NOT.
Since we can all, as hip young Christians, agree that John Piper is basically our living prophet, let's recall how he handles pop culture events. Oh wait -- he rarely does. And when he does mention these things, he does it with compassion and class. You're not going to see Pastor John tweeting about how he is TOO BUSY DOING THE LORD'S WORK TO CARE, because he probably is, in fact, too busy doing the Lord's work, yet I would wager he does care, because he has shown himself to be a man of maturity and insight, enough so that he doesn't operate out of a desperate need to fight the Battle of Who Could Care Less.
John Piper is also much more patient and kind than I am, for the record, and almost never YELLS HIS WAY THROUGH ENTIRE BLOG POSTS. So there's that.
AND ANOTHER THING: Why are the two mutually exclusive? Are we too retarded to simultaneously care about Michael Jackson AND North Korea? I really don't think so. I always have at least two windows open in Safari, which I think is proof that I can mentally multitask.
So my point is, it's not holier or cooler to cherry-pick your "causes." I think God wants us to have concern and mercy for all people, not just those to whom 1% of your next RED t-shirt purchase from the Gap is allegedly donated.
If you are not a Christian, then you're exempt from the above rant since you don't claim the Bible as your moral authority anyway, so don't take this personally.
Another unique thing about this school was the playground setup. Instead of the usual playground equipment, Hewitt Elementary had only two blacktops, separated by a small hill. Part of the concept of the school was that children should use their imaginations more, and traditional apparatuses less. 
