Skip to main content

Who Are You - Marie Antoinette??

Talking poverty with an affluent 3 year-old can be difficult.

Me: Some people don't have very much money, so they don't have a house.
C: Yes. That's why they have cottages.




Other ridiculous moment of the day - holding the hands of two 3 year-old boys, waiting to cross the street. One starts singing Waving Flag by K'naan. The other joins in.

Comments

  1. too cute!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't even know what to say. How could he respond any differently? It's what he knows so I'm glad you're there to teach him something new. My coworker just bought a 7000 square foot house which in and of itself isn't wrong or bad or sinful. Her children will likely respond the same way one day. I fear that as we become increasingly affluent, ALL OF US, we will lose sight of the rest of the world. And maybe not only the rest of the world, but those who are right next door, down the street, at the next cubicle. Ah, wealth! So intriguing and tempting yet so possibly sinister.

    ReplyDelete
  3. laura - you're right in saying that he responds from what he knows. also, he's 3...so his comprehension on world issues is limited :) but i agree that the more affluent we become, the more important to make sure our eyes are open and our hearts soft to those who aren't. and that our kids see that in us.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simone Weil: On "Forms of the Implicit Love of God"

Simone Weil time again! One of the essays in Waiting for God  is entitled "Forms of the Implicit Love of God." Her main argument is that before a soul has "direct contact" with God, there are three types of love that are implicitly  the love of God, though they seem to have a different explicit  object. That is, in loving X, you are really loving Y. (in this case, Y = God). As for the X of the equation, she lists: Love of neighbor  Love of the beauty of the world  Love of religious practices  and a special sidebar to Friendship “Each has the virtue of a sacrament,” she writes. Each of these loves is something to be respected, honoured, and understood both symbolically and concretely. On each page of this essay, I found myself underlining profound, challenging, and thought-provoking words. There's so much to consider that I've gone back several times, mulling it over and wondering how my life would look if I truly believed even half of these thin

Esse - Czeslaw Milosz

I'm on a bit of a poetry binge this week, and Monday afternoon found me lying on the luxurious shag rug of a friend's tiny apartment, re-reading some of my favourite poets (ee cummings, William Carlos Williams, Czeslaw Milosz). It is an adventure to re-open a collection and wonder what will pop out, knowing something you've read before will strike you afresh, or you will be reminded of a particularly moving line that you had somehow forgotten. Like this piece from Milosz, which floors me. Every. damn.* time. The first time I read it, I lay in a park with a friend (this same friend who offered me her rug as my reading burrow) and demanded that I share it with her. I spoke it carefully, and then, into the post-reading silence, I slammed the book shut, and dropped it as loudly as I could onto the grass. "I'm never reading anything again," I declared, "What else is there to say?" Esse I looked at that face, dumbfounded. The lights of métro st

I Like to Keep My Issues Drawn

It's Sunday night and I am multi-tasking. Paid some bills, catching up on free musical downloads from the past month, thinking about the mix-tape I need to make and planning my last assignment for writing class. Shortly, I will abandon the laptop to write my first draft by hand. But until then, I am thinking about music. This song played for me earlier this afternoon, as I attempted to nap. I woke up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 this morning, then lay in bed until 8 o'clock flipping sides and thinking about every part of my life that exists. It wasn't stressful, but it wasn't quite restful either...This past month, I have spent a lot of time rebuffing lies and refusing to believe that the inside of my heart and mind can never change. I feel like Florence + The Machine 's song "Shake it Out" captures many of these feelings & thoughts. (addendum: is the line "I like to keep my issues strong or drawn ?" Lyrics sites have it as "stro