When i grew up, there was this skinny guy in the neighbourhood, a professional drunk. The supermarket where he bought his booze was my parents, so i know from which stuff he “livedâ€. I was wondering my whole life, how a body can survive just of of alcohol and some canned ravioli.
Well, it is now about 20 years later since i started to wonder how that living molotov-cocktail kept on going (his home was about 400 meters away from our supermarket, that was his only exercise i believe). He died last month. RIP.
These days i wonder how kids from today survive their childhood. Is it possible to do it without getting out, building a fortress in the woods (just to abandon it as soon as it is finished), collecting rotten animals because they smell so sweet (no Manuel, i can’t cook that one, it stinks. Clean up your room), jamming rusty nails into your skin (is it bleeding? yeah, totally! cool! let’s play vietnam!), doing weird colt seavers (the fall guy) inspired 15cm “high†bike stunts just to jam your spiked pedals into your shinbone (jodie, this is for you!), stay out all day in wet cloth in the middle of october (Pull yourself together, we are soldiers, you idiot! Stop coughing!)?
Maybe all they have to to is to start to re-air those Colt Seavers episodes.
Edit: I just stumbled over this TED video about Childrens safety. That’s what i am talking about (note the “could-be-inspired-by-Colt-Seavers style bed-jump picture in the video). Gever lists 5 dangerous things you should allow your kids to do:
- Play with fire
- Own a pocket knife
- Throw a spear
- Decontruct appliances
- Break the copyright law
- Drive a car
Gever Tulley said afterwards: My point is that kids are going to do all of these activities, and the best way to make sure they survive is to teach basic competence before they encounter them on their own. We’ll never teach them everything, but if we can teach them how to apply common sense to a new activity and the risks that is poses, then they can handle the new and mysterious when it presents itself.
Now i must quote one of my favorite comedians here, George Carlin, because it kinda fits in here as well:
Fuck the children, they are getting entirely too much attention. You gotta stop overprotecting them, ‘cos you’re making ’em too soft. Today’s kids are way too soft.
For one thing, there is too much emphasis on safety: Childproof medicin bottles and fireproof pajamas, child restraints and car seats and helmets! Bicycle, skateboard and baseball helmets! Kids have to wear helmets now for everythging, but jerking off. Grown-ups have taking all the fun out of being a kid just to save a few thousand lives. It’s pathetic! It’s pathetic! What’s happening is, these baby boomers, these soft fruity baby boomers are raising an entire generation of soft, fruity kids…
This George Carlin Video will auto-skip the first 29 minutes and will start at the part about Children, rewind it for the full show:
3 Comments
For the Colt fans out there: http://www.80stees.com/products/Fall-Guy-t-shirt.asp
Awesome vids, holding loads of wise words an many thruths. Nowadays, children are overprotected. They don’t play with their blocks anymore, don’t ride their bike anymore, don’t play some sportgame (which in all three they can break a leg!) but they are now pampered with sweet (?) care and “safe” computer-games.
Really, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a kid build a sandcastle and make a whole site out of it (with entrances, bridges, etc) … sad
Heh, you did that too? We teamed up, 3 kids, and build on it for 3 days straight (that’s like 3 weeks for kids) and had it photographed by dad because we aimed for the newspapers to feature it. It was so big with so many details… Like “middle earth†in sand