Meg and I attended the Unitarian service on Sunday. The preacher spoke about the contemporary psychological model and how it shapes our culture. She spoke about how normally something happening in your childhood explains your adulthood. And how quickly we jump and blame our parents for any problems that we have as adults must be a direct result of some short coming we had in our childhood.
She asked us to reverse the paradigm. Have adulthood explain childhood.
Interesting for me. I remember walking up to some barking dogs in my childhood and using sign language to say f#%k you. They were obviously too loud and need to be told to shut up. Or as a child while we were on vacation in Tortola, I chose to play with the donkey and the mule, rather than being at the beach. I was certain we needed one in our back yard when we got home. I think the convincing arguments were quite humorous but I cannot remember what they were. The first cows I saw were at Sunny Field farm on the way to Kinder garden. I also remember running out of gas.
I know that often times the animal population in our house growing up was comparable to the human population. ( blueberry the parakeet, two gerbils, a guinea pig, a dog and a cat.) Not to mention Newton the floppy eared rabbit that roamed freely in our house and the attempt to have rabbits live outside in a fenced in area.
Getting bit in the face by a golden retriever wasn't enough to force any animal love out of me. Ducking Aunt judys fence to go pet Beth's horse, which resulted in a swift nip or knock in the face, did not result in a terror of horses but rather a drive to understand how it is that people work with horses and keep their faces intact.
One of the most distinct memories is bacon at Judy's house. I knew that bacon came from the pigs out back. And it was different. It smelled whole, round, complete and delicious. Explaining my current mantra that everything is better with bacon.
I know I rode a horse at happy valley, and sang to it, and I can remember the smell of every barn I played in as a kid visiting Aunts and Uncles in Vermont.
We attended many animal funerals as kids, and even went to our close family friends dogs funerals. The fish went down the toilet bowl, and I am not sure where the gerbils went. Thats the way it is. And of course it is all normal for some one who is going to grow up, and get bit by the farm bug along the way, and then life a life dependent on cows, veggies, birds, and the occasional black bear the lives on the back forty. Happy be lated fathers day, and happy mothers day.
No comments:
Post a Comment