In Praise of Innocent Dependency
Or, why my favorite Narnia story is A Horse and His Boy
His eyes are grey and newborn blue, and when the light hits them just right flash iron green. His hair is red and that's by choice; if he didn't dye his color would be dark butterscotch. Either way his hair stands up in a Woody Woodpecker brush, and his beard, when he doesn't take time to shave, is curly.
He's like a wall; if I were to lean up against him my head would rest in the middle of his back. He's a black belt in Tae Kwon do, working hard for his second degree.
Nicholas always brings me to mind of a lion.
I remember the first lions I saw at the Staten Island Zoo. They spent the whole day pacing back and forth, periodically roaring, and the male lion on occasion would attempt to pee on you if you stood too close, or at least that's how I interpreted the behavior. I talked to the keepers often enough, who were experts on lions. They told me all about how they interacted, what sorts of needs lions had, and how tricky they were to control, how hard to outwit. The lions, you see, never went off duty. They had their ball, and their iron bars, and their cement cage, and the keeper to outwit, and that was about it.
The keepers had not only to match wits with the lions, the keepers also had to leave work, go home, do so many other things. Too often in the battle of wits the lion could get the better of the humans who kept them.
Nicholas isn't a caged lion, and doesn't have captive habits and problems. He's never even seen the Staten Island Zoo lions -- now there's a glass panel over an enclosure of mock wilderness. He can't even walk to the other side of the building and see the alligators. This mostly involved a whole lot of dark green ridges in a smelly swimming pool. Every now and then you would see one of them get up and go lie down on somebody else.
When I visited my grandparents whose house backed the lion cage, every morning they would wake me up with their roaring.
We raise free range chickens. Nicholas has read Summerhill. He's been a free range child all his life.
http://www.spinninglobe.net/freerangeintro.htm
When explaining zoos to children I use a Carol Gray Social Story model -- in the free range animals work for their social group -- animals work for their friends, their family, their pride, their flock. Inside the zoo they do not depend on the other lions, they work for the zoo. Once inside the zoo they might love, or fear, or disrespect their keepers, but that's where their life resources come from.
It's hard to reintroduce animals to the wild who have grown up in captivity. The outside world is one of personal responsibility and group dependency.
My favorite book on the subject ishttp://www.lfb.com/index.php?stocknumber=PP8660
Personal character and National Destiny. It's awfully hard to do right but doing so is its own reward. Finding people to whom you can be accountable and hold accountable is important.
And it's scary; true. Nicholas on his own decided to work for himself, to rent space from which he can sell the drawings he makes. He's already finding people he already knows to vouch for his character, even though he is so young. On beyond burger flipping. He may fail this time; a business failure in your mid-teens is recoverable. It hurts, but it's bearable. And -- if he succeeds he will have the benefits of taking the risks himself.
We also talk about what happens when you give over the risk to someone else, either by capture or birth in captivity like the lion, or by volunteer -- with or without understanding.
http://www.lyttonpublishing.com/historyofforce.html
In short -- Nicholas knows that debt is an invitation to coercion. Do not borrow from people to whom you cannot hold accountable. Do not borrow for today's expenses while pledging away tomorrow, especially to those you cannot hold accountable.
"Do not borrow short and commit long. Friends do not let friends borrow short and commit long." Nicholas knows. He tells his friends. I pray he will always remember and the wisdom of the post easy credit generation will spread. Not only do I hope that he never spends more than morbid-curiosity time learning the rules of being a good caged lion, I hope his freedom with encourage others to look beyond their keepers and to the open sky.
Protecting his innocent dependency, his confidence in others, is precious to him. Social interconnectedness is the new virginity.
Debt bondage -- it's so over, don't you know?
Somewhere, back in my earliest childhood memories the Staten Island lion, frustrated, does to his food bowl what rude dogs do to anyone they can. The keeper, wary, watches over him.
JulieB
Or, why my favorite Narnia story is A Horse and His Boy
His eyes are grey and newborn blue, and when the light hits them just right flash iron green. His hair is red and that's by choice; if he didn't dye his color would be dark butterscotch. Either way his hair stands up in a Woody Woodpecker brush, and his beard, when he doesn't take time to shave, is curly.
He's like a wall; if I were to lean up against him my head would rest in the middle of his back. He's a black belt in Tae Kwon do, working hard for his second degree.
Nicholas always brings me to mind of a lion.
I remember the first lions I saw at the Staten Island Zoo. They spent the whole day pacing back and forth, periodically roaring, and the male lion on occasion would attempt to pee on you if you stood too close, or at least that's how I interpreted the behavior. I talked to the keepers often enough, who were experts on lions. They told me all about how they interacted, what sorts of needs lions had, and how tricky they were to control, how hard to outwit. The lions, you see, never went off duty. They had their ball, and their iron bars, and their cement cage, and the keeper to outwit, and that was about it.
The keepers had not only to match wits with the lions, the keepers also had to leave work, go home, do so many other things. Too often in the battle of wits the lion could get the better of the humans who kept them.
Nicholas isn't a caged lion, and doesn't have captive habits and problems. He's never even seen the Staten Island Zoo lions -- now there's a glass panel over an enclosure of mock wilderness. He can't even walk to the other side of the building and see the alligators. This mostly involved a whole lot of dark green ridges in a smelly swimming pool. Every now and then you would see one of them get up and go lie down on somebody else.
When I visited my grandparents whose house backed the lion cage, every morning they would wake me up with their roaring.
We raise free range chickens. Nicholas has read Summerhill. He's been a free range child all his life.
http://www.spinninglobe.net/freerangeintro.htm
When explaining zoos to children I use a Carol Gray Social Story model -- in the free range animals work for their social group -- animals work for their friends, their family, their pride, their flock. Inside the zoo they do not depend on the other lions, they work for the zoo. Once inside the zoo they might love, or fear, or disrespect their keepers, but that's where their life resources come from.
It's hard to reintroduce animals to the wild who have grown up in captivity. The outside world is one of personal responsibility and group dependency.
My favorite book on the subject ishttp://www.lfb.com/index.php?stocknumber=PP8660
Personal character and National Destiny. It's awfully hard to do right but doing so is its own reward. Finding people to whom you can be accountable and hold accountable is important.
And it's scary; true. Nicholas on his own decided to work for himself, to rent space from which he can sell the drawings he makes. He's already finding people he already knows to vouch for his character, even though he is so young. On beyond burger flipping. He may fail this time; a business failure in your mid-teens is recoverable. It hurts, but it's bearable. And -- if he succeeds he will have the benefits of taking the risks himself.
We also talk about what happens when you give over the risk to someone else, either by capture or birth in captivity like the lion, or by volunteer -- with or without understanding.
http://www.lyttonpublishing.com/historyofforce.html
In short -- Nicholas knows that debt is an invitation to coercion. Do not borrow from people to whom you cannot hold accountable. Do not borrow for today's expenses while pledging away tomorrow, especially to those you cannot hold accountable.
"Do not borrow short and commit long. Friends do not let friends borrow short and commit long." Nicholas knows. He tells his friends. I pray he will always remember and the wisdom of the post easy credit generation will spread. Not only do I hope that he never spends more than morbid-curiosity time learning the rules of being a good caged lion, I hope his freedom with encourage others to look beyond their keepers and to the open sky.
Protecting his innocent dependency, his confidence in others, is precious to him. Social interconnectedness is the new virginity.
Debt bondage -- it's so over, don't you know?
Somewhere, back in my earliest childhood memories the Staten Island lion, frustrated, does to his food bowl what rude dogs do to anyone they can. The keeper, wary, watches over him.
JulieB
posted by JulieB at
2:43 PM
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