Another Nightmare This Morning

This is one has to be one of my worst ever.

I woke up this morning convinced my tongue was covered in leeches. I had so many in my mouth I could not talk. I tried scraping them off but then had success at pulling each one. When I could finally talk, my mouth was too bloody.

Worst Lesson Ever: Good vs Evil

My coworker quoted his son, "Daddy, shoot that bad guy." As I was listening to him talk of his regrets for letting his young boy play violent video games, something hit me. No, I didn't walk into a pillar. I realized that one of the worst lessons I learned from my parents was the idea of good & evil. I think today I would be far better off had I been taught that the concept of good & evil is unreal. I wish my parents would have never introduced me to Christianity. I wish they had told me that absolute judgments (good & evil) are lazy and over-simplified models of a very complex world we live in. I wish I had never been allowed to carelessly boil down the complexities of tough issues into binary categories like good and evil.

Late in life, we adults realize that good and evil are entertainment tools for comic books and Hollywood. The wisest of us clearly understand the only accurate binary categories are, "better options" and "worse alternatives". For a child introduced to religion early, realizing the fallacy of good & evil is a difficult passage into adulthood; an incredibly unnecessary amount of confusion during the teenage years. Adults know there are no easy answers in life. Don't mislead your child into believing there are. Every judgment has context. Every decision has unique trade-offs.

Raising children is surely harder than it appears. I don't have children so I can't preach on proper parenting. Let's revisit the original thought stimulant. How might the conversation continue?

Timmy: Daddy, shoot that bad guy!
Dad: How do you know he's a bad guy?
Timmy: 'Cause he has a gun!
Dad: But I have a gun too. What makes him bad?
Timmy: I don't know but you get points for shooting him.
Dad: Oh, so he's a target but may not be bad?
Timmy: I guess so. Let's play something else.

The new hottness ...

Chopin - Impromptu (Fantasie) in C minor sharp