The Lucky Charms

One morning in my college dining hall, I had a Revelation. Yes, with a captial 'R'. I was reared in a non-religious home, had been to church with friends, but certainly had never taken communion. Or had I?

As I ate my bowl of Lucky Charms cereal, I thought about how the marshmallow "Lucky Charms" had changed over the years, introducing new "marbits" such as the Purple Horseshoe and oddly a-lucky Red Balloon. But then I noticed something I'd never thought about before: sitting there amid the brightly colored Yellow Moons and Green Clover was a little innocuous piece of grain cereal... in the shape of the lowercase Greek "alpha".

Weird. Who'd choose that for a cereal shape? Not that it was any more incongruous than a balloon, though clearly more challenging to manufacture than a round thing. I started looking through the other cereal pieces, and I discovered:

a cross
a bell
a tree
a three-leafed clover
an alpha

What did all of these pieces have in common?

a cross: the Crucifix
a bell: a church bell
a tree: a Christmas tree
a three-leafed clover: St. Patrick's symbol of the father, son, and holy ghost
an alpha: the symbol of early Christians, a fish shape, now seen most often on the trunks of cars.

Then came the Revelation: the marshmallows weren't the "lucky charms" -- the cereal bits were.

Cloaked in the simple mythology of "charms," symbols of the moon, star, four-leafed clover, diamond, and horse shoe, were Christian "charms".

I don't know specifics about the person who designed the cereal bits while the marketing department was testing out all of their different marshmallow shapes, but in reading the wikipedia article, I have a theory:

Originally, Lucky Charms was prototyped as having grain cereal with uniform white marshmallows. Only after some testing did they determine that (they could create, and that) people really wanted colored marshmallows in fun shapes. So I believe what happened is that Lucky Charms was, in fact, designed with the grain shapes as being the actual charms. But these Christian charms were eclipsed by the more popular (and non-sectarian) marshmallow shapes. However, they didn't change the grain shapes to uniform pieces -- so Lucky Charms has always retained its Christian, and generally overlooked, roots.

In this sense, Lucky Charms has followed the same path as many holidays -- St. Patrick's Day is a celebration of St. Patrick, the man who Christianized Celtic Ireland -- but nowadays, we just pinch people not wearing green and get drunk. Same fate for Christmas and Easter -- Santa and the Easter Bunny are the marketing marshmallows that steal the spotlight from Jesus' whole-grain goodness.

the political extremes

I just finished Barack Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope." His politics seem liberal, but with an expressed understanding of why people disagree with him. Reading his book made me reconsider some of my own political views -- views that fall into the category of "culture war."

Obama believes that although church and state are separated by our constitution, it should not have to mean that the two are completely severed. If Alcoholics Anonymous is the most successful way of treating alcoholism, even though it requires surrendering yourself to a higher power -- shouldn't the government consider supporting it? Or if all of the public schools in an area are failing their students, yet the local Catholic school is succeeding, are vouchers for private parochial education really a bad idea for those students?

These issues that hinge on constitutional interpretation -- separation of church and state, the right to an abortion, the right to bear arms -- have greatly polarized our political society. The reason? I believe it's because our constitution is the fundamental guide to our government, yet as a living document, it is always being reinterpreted in the courts. And because of the power of legal precedent, not to mention the focused power of the Supreme Court, each side of a constitutional argument is fighting tooth and nail not to give any ground, for fear of a landslide and a complete erosion of their position.

Virtually no one wants late-term abortions. If you've already spent six months carrying a baby and now you decide you want an abortion, it's really too late. But the legal argument makes abortion advocates afraid to support such a ban.

The NRA vehemently opposes any piece of legislation, however sensible, that restricts access to guns. Again, in defending a principle, they refuse to give any ground.

People have a right to their own beliefs and their own principles. Let's say you like Thai food. Great. But if every time you get together with your three friends and you demand that you all go out for Thai food, even though Brendan is vegan and they put fish sauce in everything, and if your friends don't go out for Thai, you just ditch them and go reheat yesterday's panang curry, you're just being a phenomenal pain in the ass.

But forget your three friends -- we live in a society of three hundred million people. Try getting them all to eat Thai for every meal.

Helping other Americans is more important than defending your principles to the death. I know you know in your heart that you're right, and you probably are. But acknowledging that your principles can't fix every situation will go further towards making the country better in the end.

Your Crazy Family

"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well." - Joe Ancis

One of my favorite quotes, and one which may start other future articles.

And true, with one exception:

Your crazy family.

Now, if your family is truly crazy, then you may have become aware of the fact at a very young age. But if you're lucky enough to have a standard-grade crazy family, it may not be until you get married or close to it that you realize the truth. Your family is crazy.

It's not your fault. The part of your brain that hears the word "Sprite" and thinks immediately of the soft drink, not the little fairy it's named after, is the same part that doesn't even blink your eyes when your mom ducks as she walks past the microwave because she doesn't want to get exposed to death rays.

You grew up with these crazy people, and for all you know, they're just normal. Then you bring your new significant other home to meet your family. And then they tell you the truth.

And then you realize, gee, it is kinda crazy that your mom never actually says what she wants but always seems to somehow get it. Or that your dad has never stopped cleaning his gun.

Or that (if you're a man) you've never used someone's toilet standing up because your mom would not approve of the (potential) mess.

Or that (if you're a woman) you've never flushed a tampon because your mom (why is it always mom?) didn't want it to get clogged in the pipes, because then dad would have to crawl under the house to open the pipes, and what would come splashing out onto him but your used tampon, now is that what you want to have happen, Miss I-flush-my-tampons-into-my-father's-face?!

See? No need to worry. You're just as crazy as they are.

The Religion Gene

In "What We Believe but Cannot Prove," edited by John Brockman, the essay by U Mich psych professor Randolph M. Neese, M.D. begins:

"I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure that people gain a selective advantage from believing in things they can't prove."

Religion is an inherently human trait. Even for the most committed rational thinker, the axiom that "There are no atheists in foxholes" still applies. This faith, the belief that we cannot fail because God is on our side, or that we do not need to fear death because we will be cared for in the afterlife, enables acts of great bravery and comforts us in times of great need.

While the universe of human understanding continues to grow, aiding the atheist's argument with each passing year, atheists will always be in the minority. Scientists will never disprove the existence of supernatural force -- precisely because it is just that, super-natural, outside the purvey of the science of nature.

Humans will always find strength and perseverence through faith. Do you agree?

The Hedgehog

The business book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins contains a chapter, "The Hedgehog Concept," about how the "great" companies found what they could be world-class at and ran with it. This "one big thing" comes at the intersection of three questions:

1. What you can be the best in the world at
2. What drives your economic engine
3. What you are deeply passionate about

The author applies the concept to an individual's career as an analogy, one which resonated strongly with me, as I and many of my gen-X/Y peers are struggling to find our (individualy tailored, of course) "one big thing." The author discusses the difference between a Hedgehog Concept and a "core competence":

"You can have competence at something but not necessarily have the potential to be the best in the world at it.... [M]any people have been pulled or fallen into careers where they can never attain complete mastery and fulfillment. Suffering from the curse of competence but lacking a clear Hedgehog Concept, they rarely become great at what they do."

I haven't formed my own Hedgehog Concept yet, suffering the exact curse that Mr. Collins has defined. But I'm working on breaking it.

What's your Concept? How do you focus your strengths and minimize your weaknesses?