Jennifer

Caitlin Flanagan makes fun of Juno when she says she wants to "kick it old school" with her adoption, just leaving her baby on her surrogate mother's doorstop. Flanagan writes: "As any woman who has ever chosen (or been forced) to kick it old school can tell you, surrendering a baby whom you will never know comes with a steep and lifelong cost. Nor is an abortion psychologically or physically simple."

Huh? The movie showed Juno's guilt, fear, pain as well as showing her strong personality and sense of humor through crisis. It was hardly a one-dimensional view of teen pregnancy, nor an overly liberal one.

In judging art, too often people see and hear what they want or expect to see and hear. Sadly, I see the same pattern in my own conversations. Rather than listening to what the other person is saying and leaving my mind open to the possibility that I will change my mind, I too often prepare what I'm going to say in response or what intelligent tidbits I have to add to the conversation. It's hard for me to mix giving opinions with listening.

It's like Flanagan didn't see the movie, but fixated on a few sarcastic lines that suggested that pregnancy is "not a big deal", so that she could make some points.

The other day, I was thinking about how hard it would be to get inside the head of someone more intelligent than I, how that would be like running and writing at the same time. Maybe I should start a blog called, "written while running"? Anyway, I don't blame Caitlin Flanagan for writing her editorial while sitting at a computer, but I do blame her for thinking about a movie, but not really watching it.