Tuesday, February 20, 2007

A search for truth

I was at the grocery store this morning. This in and of itself is not unusual. But while there, I was struck by an amazing thought. About Britney Spears. I usually only think about her as often as I am forced to, and the whole head shaving thing has forced her upon my notice again.

But for a moment, just a moment, something occurred to me. Maybe she isn't just doped up, drunk, or crazy. Maybe shaving her head was a bold existential statement. Maybe she had found, finally, the place in herself where she faced all that happened in her life. She could have been using the moment to make a statement, create a separation from the pop-tart, Mouseketeer part of her life. She could have been saying that she was a child no more, but a mother, and an artist, fully in charge of her life, and ready to move on, clean up the mess, and forge a new path for herself. Maybe it was her Victoria Jackson "I Am Not A Bimbo" moment. (Obscure SNL reference...look it up)

Maybe from this moment on, she will work to be a fulfilled, fully fledged member of the adult community, and her hair was like waving a signal flag from the highest hill...

WHO THE HELL AM I KIDDING! I am not sure why she shaved her head. I know that I don't care. What does bother me is that between Anna Nicole and Britney, real news from the war or anywhere else is hard to come by. And you can only look at so many train wrecks. Can we leave it alone now? good night and good luck...stimp

Monday, February 19, 2007

An Inconvenient Question

Tonight, my son asked me how to avoid the draft.

Leaving aside the facts that there is no draft, and the fact he is NINE, he wanted to know how to avoid going to war.

He had asked me about going to war before. In this day and age, there is almost no avoiding it. The war is everywhere. Especially for a bright, aware child who sees the news and watches Countdown with his mom. (He's got good taste!)

But he never asked how to avoid it in detail before. I asked him why, considering the above mentioned facts, he was concerned about it. He said he didn't want to go and be blown up by a car bomb.

I was floored. I was unsure how to answer. I wondered if it was a good idea for him to see the news, if he was going to worry about things like that. But there is no real way to protect him from what is real, and the truth is preferable to false comfort. So I told about how it works, and the options to avoid it. My nine year old son chose jail rather than the draft. Clearheaded. Just about broke my heart. Because I had a hard time telling him convincingly about honor and service to your country when needed. There are members of both sides of his family who answered the call when their country needed them. But my son knows that the government lies sometimes, and that they don't always have his best interests at heart. He is a cynic at nine, not a patriot. In one way, I am glad that his eyes are wide open, that no one will take advantage of his youth and inexperience to send him off to war. But I am more than a little sad that he never had "America, the Beautiful". The trust that he was safe, and that everything was going to be all right. He was 4 on 9/11, and it has colored even his world. He never even got a chance to be innocent of the dangers. Or the opportunity to be proud to be an American. Just lies, and danger, and war that even he knows was wrong. I hope I can teach him to love this place, and work to make it the best it can be. But I wonder if he, and kids like him, are going to give up hope. Or if they ever got to have any. good night and good luck...stimp