Welcome to L.A.

I finally made it down to California a few days ago. We have been staying in LA for Maddy's doctors appointment, and tomorrow we are going to Disneyland for a few days. Then after that I go to school for the next three months.

Other than quick trips through LAX I haven't been to LA before and it has been a bit of a culture shock. I expected the smog, and noise, and rude people. But the advertising, that I didn't expect (though perhaps I should have).

I have only spent time in three major cities, Portland, Seattle, and Chicago. In all three there are billboards everywhere, advertising movies, shows, products. But here in LA, specifically Hollywood everything is advertising. The other cities pale in comparison. It also seems that from one billboard to the next they are just trying to out do each other. By this I mean they need more beautiful people, a better catch phrase, and more sex appeal. And when they can't do anything more than that they become just plain offensive. To the point that it makes me embarrassed just to see them.

I suppose if you lived here you would just ignore the billboards. You would become immune to them, and they wouldn't bother you. But it makes me wonder: why as a culture are we taking our cues from the people that come up with these offensive billboards? Do we really have to become desensitized to things like that? I certainly hope not. But that brings up another question: is it really our choice to become desensitized to these things? Sure, we can stick our heads in the sand and just ignore everything that is going on around us, but as Christians can we Biblically do that? I don't believe so. But how can we live in this world and be a Christian of conscience? I suppose this all comes back to being in the world but not of it. It just seems so much harder in Southern California than in Oregon.

Cheers!

Laura

Amendment 1: Does anyone besides me wish at times you could just be a small child again, and not have to worry about all these complicated matters?

Amendment 2: Maddy's doctors appointment went really well, finally finally we got some good news. We really needed that.

Amendment 3: Disneyland tomorrow!!!