"Television and movies do not influence behavior." I'm sure you have heard this before, probably in the context of the entertainment industry's culpability for the moral decline in society. If you're old enough, you will recall when this mindless assertion completely disintegrated secondary to the shrewd advertising acumen of a few people over at Hershey Chocolate Company. Remember when Elliot lead E.T. around with a trail of Reese's Pieces? Immediately following the film's release, the sale of Reese's Pieces skyrocketed 65%! Advertisers rule the world. A few weeks ago, Javan stumbled across a short video on the Internet featuring "Free Runners." This activity was invented by jobless young Frenchmen trying to perfect ways to escape and evade authorities - and the responsibility of becoming a productive member of society. What did you expect? They're French and they're socialists. Free runners flip, dive, twist, leap, roll, and bounce off almost anything in the urban environment (actually, their acrobatic skill is pretty amazing). Javan was very impressed. A few days later, Emily made this video (above) of him "free running" around our property. Wait, there's more to the story...
Then, he parts with some of his hard-earned cash (Javan is a tightwad, so these developments bear some scrutiny) and buys special "free running shoes" and a trampoline, and begins to teach himself gymnastics. To his credit, he has learned to do a back flip and is currently working on other aerial maneuvers. Interestingly, Moriah and Emily have noted a correlation between the frequency of Javan's acrobatic exercises and his proximity to groups of young women at social gatherings. This observation lends itself to the behavioral debate concerning the relative influence of biology v.s. environment; which begs the question: Were unemployed, socialist French girls present when free running first began?
1 comment:
I have to say I pretty impressed! :)
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