"Theagenesis" sets forth a theory of the planet and the interconnectedness of all life on it. It shows us how religion and science are one, how worshipping deities is treating well our environment. "Bouquet of Lovers" is a brief practical piece on polyamory. The worldview I gathered into my heart then has crafted my boy's life. No, gathered in is not right. The worldview was there when I was eleven, in seeds of feeling. What I gathered in from those writings was the sunshine and water necessary to grow those into a worldview, an orthodoxy, a lifestyle lived in accordance with those values of open-heartedness towards people and nature. Every choice I have made since then has been weighed as for or against those truths, truths about love and truths about Gaia.
When* the Scientist reads those works, will he see that? Will he recognize his childhood in them? Will he feel the same way I did and resonate? Or has his heart different seeds, dropped from a life of reacting to, reflecting on, a Neopagan parent?
*Some part of me even wants to wait to let him see them -- especially "Bouquet of Lovers." Sure, I was reading Heinlein and drooling over line marriages when I was eleven. But the Scientist, though eleven, is just a baby.
Not one of the books that was important to me as a child has had a similar impact on my son. I had so much emotional investment in some of them that I had to steel myself against hurt when I gave them to him, reminding myself that just because they wouldn't have the same impact on him as they did on me didn't mean that he wouldn't become an adult I could relate to.
ReplyDelete(I might consider an alternative or addition to "Bouquet of Lovers" just because it is so prescriptive in what polyamory should look like.)
He's a bit young for anything, really, and I'm not sure I'd ever be comfortable giving him, say, The Ethical Slut. But now is the time to have something like that casually laying around the house for him to find. Do you have any recommendations?
ReplyDeleteWhat were the books that were important to you as a child?
E. Nesbit, Chronicles of Narnia, Harriet the Spy, Tom Sawyer, The Hobbit, Anne of Green Gables, The Borrowers, Behind the Attic Wall, The Twenty-One Balloons, Wizard of Oz, All-of-a-Kind Family, Katie John... none of which he's had much interest in.
ReplyDelete(Sorry, no recommendations; I've done very little reading on the subject myself. Given your kids' exposure to various alternatives to monogamy I don't know that a "this is how you do it" guide would be more helpful than general lessons in ethics and how to treat people well.)