How is Marge Simpson any different from the others?

While I do not read Playboy magazine, there has been a bit of buzz about the recent cover of this months issue featuring Marge Simpson.

If you have been under a rock for the past several decades, Marge Simpson is a cartoon character from the long running "Simpsons".

I have no idea why Marge Simpson was chosen for the cover of the magazine. I probably should do some research, but I have reservations of looking up playboy information on the church computer. Therefore, I may be uninformed and my take on this might be a common thread of thought in this conversation, however I wonder something about this?

How is Marge Simpson any different from the other cover girls?

Some would say this difference is obvious, Marge Simpson is a drawing of a woman. She is not real. And I would agree. But I would also submit the women who usually dawn the cover of Playboy also are so highly airbrushed that they are also 'drawn'. I would also submit the usual cover girl is not real.

So, while I do think it is weird that a fictional character is on the cover of Playboy, I am not surprised.

It happens every month.

"I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid..."

When I was a kid one of the best movies my friends and I watched was a movie with Tom Hanks entitled, Big. This movie was about a boy who made a wish and the next day he woke up looking like an adult. He was "Big". Reflecting on the movie as this point in my life, "Big" is a story about adolescents desire to be adults.

This narrative seems to have been a common theme throughout time - kids desiring to be adults.

That is until now.

My wife and I rented "17 Again". This is a movie about an adult who desires to be, well, 17 again.

This really got me thinking about the current cultural trend to extend adolescence. Graduates go to college with their high school clicks. Botox is still uber popular. Everyone desires to be younger than they are. Many movies, especially comedies, are sophomoric and geared for the teenage male.

Could this be the first time in history that we adults would rather be kids than adults?

If our culture idolizes our adolescent who are the adults going to be?

Thank you Nike and Wal-Mart, but we are more than that.

Our culture continues to impress upon me that what it means to be a human being is to be a consumer and a competitor. And while I am those things at times, I am more than that.

I am not always looking for the lowest prices. I am looking for meaning, I am looking for a cause.

Just doing it makes me into a mindless zombie. I desire to live my life with intention and purpose.

So thank you Nike and Wal-Mart, but we are more than consumers and competitors.

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