First and formost, I want to say a big "YEAH!" to all the radical parents out there....I've been spending a lot of time with some amazing radicial parents who have taught me the difference between "power over" and parenting, between oppression and guidance. Sometimes, there seems to be a very thin line, and of course, like any parents, sometimes mistakes are made, but the folks I know, who follow the "natural consquence" parenting philosophy which basically allows the child to explore his or her surroundings in an unlimited way, within the bondries of safety, but also allowing the child to feel pain, cold, wet, to touch the fire, to go without lunch if he or she refuses to eat at mealtime, etc. It is a philosophy which has been borrowed from basically all indigenious tribes around the world, where babies are allowed to touch the fire, to play with machetes, to play with bows and arrows, and adults will warn them of what will happen (for example, "that fire is going to burn you Red Wolf, but you can touch it if you want...") and is amazingly effective at making more mature, less babyish children. Andrew, for example, is mature way beyond what the average four-yr-old in our culture would be expected to do...and not only that, but he's smarter as well (he was showing off his knowledge of plants to me yesterday and I discovered he can correctly identify almost as many plants as I can!)
So I've discovered lately how necessary it is, when doing "primitive skills" to have others around you, since as relaxing as "prim skills" are, they are also endlessly repetative; I've been spending a lot of time lately cracking black walnuts and tanning roadkill squirrel hides, both tasks take a long, long time. It is hard, in this culture, to have an entire tribe working with you, gathered in one spot, also cracking walnuts or tanning hides (someday, my dream is for this to be my reality.) In the meantime, it is useful to invite a friend over to read subversive poetry to you, or maybe something Kafkaesque. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in a world full of sirens, alarms, clocks, time, buses rushing hither and yon, I'm still having a really difficult time slowing down to the speed of the primitive...losing all sense of time (or prehaps, seeing time as seasons, rather then as dates and hours,) and not judging an activity as worthwhile or not by the amount of "output" or "gain" I get in a certain number of hours, but instead, enjoying every activity for the creative life it adds to me.
Let us pray for a revolution based on love and childish play....
Love ya,
Carrot
My dad was a little like that when I was little. Of course, it was more along the lines of, "Go ahead and touch the fence," referring to the electric one. I learned that lesson well. ^^; I don't remember much else from before he started working out of state, but I know he let me get myself into trouble quite a few times.
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
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Ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me!!!
My mom especially liked to make up rules and enforce them, just to give herself power sometimes, I think. She was always a stay-at-home mom with very little power in the world, so she like to have as much power as possible over her offspring.
I have some cousins who where raised more with the "natural consequence" model..my aunt let them do what some parents would call "dangerous" things, and then, if they'd get hurt, she say something like "don't cry, that's what happens when......."
I thought back then that she was being super-harsh, but her children have all grown into some of the most amazing people I know, so I suspect her model of parenting actually worked pretty well. My mom's kids, including myself, on the other hand, are super neurotic, shaky, high strung people...we are always waiting for brutal punishment to reign down on us from above or something.
Love ya,
Carrot