Chatting with my co-worker on Saturday, i used the phrase 'I believe that the academy and pop culture aren't mutually exclusive,' pointing out that I want to bring the two into the same orbit (where they aren't already). Later in the night, while doing my rounds, one such connection came to me, that between the work of Avril Lavigne and social psychologists on the relational self. Avril's first hit song, 'Complicated,' focuses on seeing someone change identities in different relationships, and the frustration caused by such changes.

excerpted from the 1st verse through the chorus

I like you the way you are
When we're drivin' in your car
and you're talking to me one on one but you've become...

Somebody else round everyone else.
You're watching your back like you can't relax.
You're tryin' to be cool you look like a fool to me.
Tell me

Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
I see the way you're acting like you're somebody else gets me frustrated.
Life's like this you
And you fall and you crawl and you break
and you take what you get and you turn it into honesty
and promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it
no no no

Nothing more to say at the moment, other than that I hope someone somewhere before me have pointed out that, like Don Hagner and I on certain exegetical issues, Avril and the social psychologists are on the same wavelength, if using different terms.