Friday, July 8, 2011

Rock On, Baby

Yesterday, a friend of Hubs called and invited Hubs to pull an all-nighter driving to, attending, and driving home from a Toad the Wet Sproket concert. It was completely last-minute notice, it was a work-night, we shouldn't really afford the ticket, and Hubs is, you know, not a college student. He's a real-live adult with kids and responsibilities and a department to supervise. I told him he absolutely must go.

I wanted him to go because if he, a 30 year-old man with three kids and a nine-to-five job could hop in a car and drive 2 and a half hours to attend a rock concert, there's still hope for surprises in our world.

I don't know about you, but I feel like I can see the next 30 years unspooling in front of me pretty predictably. I know right where things are going, and they're not bad, they're just . . . predictable. It's nice to know that it's still possible to wake up in the morning and have that day turn out differently than we thought it would in big and positive way. Not a my-child-got-abducted-way or a I-thought-we'd-have-tacos-but-instead-we-had-spaghetti way, but a real, surprising, still-making-fond-memories-for-when-we're-old-way.

So rock on, baby! Rock on!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Can We Talk About THAT?


"In 6th grade I read something about father's [sic] molesting their daughters. So, I stopped hugging my dad for over a year. I love my father. I can't imagine how much I hurt him." (Warren, Frank. MY SECRET. 2009.)

Did #yasaves her?

"We used to have these “Scholastic Book Fairs” in elementary school. They gave me a book for free. The girl gets raped! In detail! I was nine! I was not prepared for that!" (kaylen. Commenter on "Think of the Parents" from the blog SCOTT WESTERFIELD. July 7, 2011.)

What about her? Did the supposed "catharsis" the reader achieves by reading about evil make it worth the harm she feels that book did to her?

There are ideas and realities that young readers are not yet ready to face. When they're exposed to those ideas too early, it does real, demonstrable harm to their lives. Can we talk about that?