Starchild-
Sometimes I know I must seem the contrarian ready to disagree with everyone...
(okay, I plead guilty... hail Eris!)
But seriosuly, I feel a little mixed feelings here. I think it's wonderful that a 5th grader
showed the spunk, independence, and courage you mention, not to mention the
talent for activism and outreach. I admire her greatly, and wish more were like her.
I don't remember amy of her spirit when I was is school, much to my sorrow. That part
was wonderful, though 'heartwarming' isn;t the emotion I personally would describe.
But I feel far less enthusiastic about pride that a child followed in her father's
footsteps. Certainly, there's no harm in the accident ofone's parents having good
ideas. But if one is to live a worthwhile life, one should not accept anything one's parents tell
you juse because of that accident of genetic relation. The nut should not fall far or near from
the tree, but walk where it chooses. The wierdness of this metaphor serves to underscore the
fact that human beings have excellences other that those of vegetables.
I don't think that if you (or the author of this article) knew *my* father, anyone would
advocate that I should have stayed "close to the tree". But I say that foolishly... plenty
of people have said as much to me. Anyway, the point is it that the insistence of practically
all cultures on keeping close to the values of one's parents is a slap in the face of reason.
I don't think it will change, because there are sociological pressures that will likely keep this
pattern going more or less forever. But I wouldn't celebrate it.
Please, Starchild, I too love your example, but I feel a pang of dread when I think of the
poison folded into the leaf here. Isn't it the independence of the child vs. the political
mainstream rather that her concurrence wua concurrence wich the views of her father?
My father was a neoconservative, Should I therefore have been a neoconservative?
(I gaurantee being a transgendered female prostitute and a feminist libertarian was not
something on his agenda for me.)
Jeanie
"If their lives were exotic and strange...
they would likely have gladly exchanged them
for something, a little more plain;
maybe something, a little more sane...
We each pay a fabulous price
for our visions of Paradise
but the Spirit...
of a Vision...
is a Dream..."
- Rush, 'Mission'