The Meat Prop
An odd thing happened to me last night, I got a Facebook Friend Request from myself. Apparently someone went on my profile, took one of my pictures, made a new “Tracy Lorenz” profile, and started looking for friends. Surprisingly, 22 people have taken him up on the offer so far.
What I can never figure out is what good does this do him (or her)? It’s not like they can get access to my bank accounts, credit card, or my social security number. But that’s another thing I could never figure out, even if they did get my bank account number, how do hey get the money? You could give me your number right now and I’d have no idea how to go about transferring the money into an offshore account in Bolivia.
But that’s beside the point.
The picture they ripped from my profile was from the time I starred as “Cop #4” in the horror film “Offspring”, easily one of the top five experiences of my life.
The great thing about being an extra in a movie is you get to take advantage of all the good stuff without having to memorize lines. Me and the other three cops were what they call “meat props” which is the term for living background, if it’s a lamp it’s a prop, if it’s a person or a dog it’s a meat prop. We’d be sitting around waiting for our next scene and the production assistant would say “Send in the meat props” and it was go time.
The cool part was even though we were meat props we still got custom fitted cop uniforms AND we got to hang out in the craft services tent where we were supplied with unlimited food and drinks, it was like an all access pass to the snack bar in your hotel room only with real food next to the twelve dollar cashews. “Oh, our scene is in an hour? Looks like I better carb up on some lasagna and Peanut M & M’s.”
We also had these assistants that followed us around and misted us with water if we got hot (our scenes were all outdoors in the middle of summer) or spray us with deet if the mosquitoes got too bad, you could just say “Bug spray” and next thing you know you’re tasting Deep Woods off.
Sadly, one day the shot sheets came out and my name was mysteriously absent, the other three cops were listed but not me, apparently I’d been killed off or exceeded my tuna salad allotment, either way they dusted me and my two week stint as a meat prop came to an end without any fanfare. On the plus side I now have an IMDb profile and at the end of the movie I was listed in the ... credits.
Printed by permission of the author. Email him at Lorenzatlarge@aol.com.
Get Tracy’s latest book at BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com, or download it from www.fastpencil.com.
Only $3.99, cheap.
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The Effects of Cohabitation on Children
Talking about what WE don’t talk about: COHABITATION -“What about the children?”
Children are not the primary factor in cohabitation. Some couples living together would like to say thal their motivation in part is to create a more secure environment for their children.
What decent parent does not desire security for their vulnerable children? Anyone in opposition to such protection does not have the best interest of the children at heart.
Now that we have to a small degree established a common interest for the safety and security of the children, why not define the word for clarity.
The definition of security is, “freedom from danger, risk, etc.; freedom from care, anxiety, or doubt; well-founded confidence.” With this understanding, it is critical to ask a significant question at this point: does cohabiting offer security according to the definition of the word?
Before we go any further, let us also usher in some degree of clarity to the concept of cohabitation. Cohabitation is “the state of living together and having sexual relationship without being married” (The Gospel Coalition). Cohabitation offers the relational benefits of a marriage without the commitment.
A relevant question one may ask is, is it possible to find true security outside of commitment? Well, it may be possible, but before taking a position, let us define one more word, commitment. A commitment is defined as, “the act of committing, pledging, or engaging oneself; a pledge or promise; obligation.”1 Now that we have defined commitment, we must ask ourselves once again, is it possible to truly find security outside of a commitment?
It appears that the answer is clearly a no. Thus, we must now ask the question, where does the security of a child fit in to the state of cohabitation? According to Wildox in the book, Why Marriage Matters, “From a purely sociological perspective, children raised in cohabitating relationships have a higher potential of struggling with drugs, depression, dropping out of school” (2011, p.1).
If this research is correct, it suggests that the security that cohabitating couples are seeking does not in reality include their children because the
research does not support this assumption. While a couple may share in the finances, the pressing question before us asks, is the energy bills savings worth the children traveling down the road of incarce-ration?
Another question is, in the end, is there really a savings? What are our children worth? And, here is another piece of information worthy of our attention for those who care about the security of their children.
In response to increases in cohabitation in the United States, researchers have recently focused on differences between cohabiting and marital unions. One of the more consistent findings in this emerging literature has been a higher rate of domestic violence among cohabiting couples.2
Couples will often excuse violent activity as if it were an isolated incident. However, these isolated incidents are traumatic to the spiritual, physical and mental well-being of the child for whom you seek security.
1. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/commitment?s=t
2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23551228_Sara_S_McLanahanAre_Cohabiting_Relationships_More_Violent_than_Marriages
Contact Dr. Abiade at abiadeandabiadeassociates@gmail.com
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