Yesterday's post caused a crisis in Hell. My old relative, Satan, discovered that his formal attire closely resembles the Jabberwocky's. Now he has to be re-fitted with all new duds. Sadly, he doesn't like to stand still, and he doesn't trust the tailors in his satellite office. They might jab him with a needle. Just by accident, of course.
Remember these guys? No? Geezer Annie does. They're the Village People. Bet you've heard that song, "YMCA," huh? Well then, here's the group that sang it! (Hey, don't pelt me with rocks. I didn't write that stupid ditty!)
What could these fine young men possibly have to do with Senator Rick Santorum? Other than he'd like to make sure they never get married?
I'm using them as counter-spokesmen for Rick's bestseller, It Takes a Family.
Right now, everyone else is making a big deal about how Rick is a senator from Pennsylvania, but his Pennsylvania home has two bedrooms and one bath, and no furniture. Well, of course! You couldn't house 6 kids in a two-bedroom shack! That hasn't been done since the 1930s!
Rick's a good daddy. He wants to come home from work at night to be with his family. Ergo, he has a million-dollar shack in the Virginia suburbs of DC that has plenty of shelf space for those well-thumbed copies of Of Pandas and People.
Anyway. To the point. I took deep offense at Rick's suggestion that the nuclear family is paramount in raising kids. Of course it's optimal if you think historically and not geologically. But we're geologic thinkers on this site!
How long would Homo sapiens last as a species if families lived in isolation and didn't interact with the wider world? How would the species have developed in the first place. The ape model is community-based, even if most members of the community are related somehow. We go in groups. Always have, always will.
I think of this often because once my daughter The Spare was in a really bad automobile accident. She was carpooling in a van driven by another mom and coming home from dancing class, where a teacher was showing a bunch of little girls skills that Anne doesn't have.
The accident was not the mom driver's fault. But it was a whopper. Because she was sitting in the back seat and securely buckled in, The Spare was not hurt. A few dings. Same with her little gal-pal sitting next to her. The people who caused the accident were injured in a gory manner, not something you want your little 8-year-old to have to see.
The mom got injured but managed to call me on the cell phone and tell me where they were. I dived in my car and went ripping over, but still it took me about 8 minutes to get there, especially since the accident tied up traffic on a very busy artery.
In that 8 minutes, some complete stranger stopped her car, got out, and wrapped The Spare in her arms so The Spare wouldn't have to see the worst parts of the gore. When I arrived, this woman, whose name I didn't even think to get, was hugging my child. As soon as she saw me re-united with The Spare, she got back in her car and drove off.
I would do the same thing in similar circumstances.
And that's what epitomizes to me the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child." We should look out for other people's children as if they were our own. Not just at church on Sunday morning, but every minute.
One wonders how prepared these isolated, home-schooled kids will be to enter the wider world of making a living, volunteering for community service other than in a church setting, and most importantly, interacting politely with folks who don't agree with their views and values.
We at "The Gods Are Bored" endorse The Village People and the village model for nurturing youngsters. It's all part of our big, broad, flexible outlook.
One last note: I call my daughters The Heir and The Spare (with my usual sick humor of course) because the European royal women were supposed to have at least two male children: an Heir and a Spare. I learned this watching a tv special about Princess Diana. Remember her?
FROM ANNE
THE MERLIN OF BERKELEY SPRINGS
AREA 14, STAR 14
3 comments:
I don't know about Santorum's kids, but in general homeschoolers are out and about in the community, interacting and volunteering to an extent not possible for the kids chained to their desks for 6 hours a day.
One needn't worry about our kids. They'll do just fine.
As usual, you rock. Santorum and the fundies -- not so much. The trailer for An Inconvenient Truth is up at my blog.
Hi- just found your blog. . .I'm a big fan of the Fairie Festival. . .
I really like your musings. Rick Santorum is a personal dis-favorite of mine. The story of your child's accident should make it to his inbox, that's for sure. However, the note about homeschoolers raises an eyebrow in my opinion. I am an art teacher in Central PA. I have been teaching art to homeschoolers for 5 years now, (and overall for 16 years)and the hundreds of homeschooled kids that I have had the pleasure of having in my classroom (sometimes 15 at a time!) are by no means lax in social skills, secular community service, and connections with humans in general. I find them to be compassionate, open minded and ready to dive into conversation about important topics. Their parents are often Christian and are not always as open minded, however, the children are taught to think for themselves. I am a pagan myself, and find joy in interacting with my students. I actually prefer my time teaching them to teaching kids in public schools who are shuttled from one class or subject to the next and are not allowed to challenge information or ideas. Thanks for listening to my words. I hope you do not take offense at them, as none was intended. Just observations from my own personal perspective. I look forward to reading more of your blog!
Patti
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