I was driving with my son (aged 3 and 1/2) today, on our way to playschool, oohing and ahing as only kids do at the sight of the frosty fields near our house. One of the only things I really like about where I live right now is the setting. Drive one way and it’s bustling town and suburbia, drive the other and it’s rural. Anyway, Max asks “Where did the frost come from?” And I open my mouth to answer the usual way you would to a 3 year old, blame Jack Frost. But then a thought struck me. Really, as an atheist, a skeptic and a man with certain convictions about the corruption of children’s minds at an early age, what way do I want my son to start out in life? As a believer in myths, magic and spook stories? Surely he’d appreciate the real and profound beauty that is the real story of how frost is formed, through frozen moisture? I could link it to his previous curiosity about the dew in summertime. This is fantastic. What an opportunity to spread seeds of inquisitiveness his mind! I can already see the Nobel Prize being presented to him, with me in the front row kept alive by way of his invention. ( a cure for syphilis perhaps?) So I begin.
“Do you remember the dew in summertime?”
“Yes”
(flying start)
“Ah, well the frost is that dew, but because it’s cold outside, it has frozen”
*silence*
“and now all the fields are covered in frost”
*silence*
“Eh? Isn’t that cool?”
*silence*
“Eh?”
*more silence, I glimpse in the rearview mirror and he actually looks a bit depressed*
“Aw, no wait. Jack Frost came and put it there!!”
“Oh yeah Jack Frost!”
Damn. I suppose the science lessons will have to wait. I can’t decide whether I’m ruining his childhood or enhancing his life to come. Maybe those two aren’t mutually exclusive. I’ll have to ask others of the same mind, like Serena and Venus’s Dad…
Saw this last night and had to share:
That’s not to dismiss people who want to just hit pads and are honest about it. I’ve got plenty of people in the gym who have come to me and said that they’re just here to get fit and have a bit of fun, and have no interest in getting punched and kicked. That’s understandable, (I actually don’t have too much of an interest in that either) and I would say that probably 80% of people in the gym will never fight or compete. You still have to spar though! It doesn’t have to be hard but sooner or later, everyone should have a test of what they’ve been learning in the gym where it’s safe and comfortable and you can ask your partner to stop.
Barry Oglesby's Blog: Grappling, MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Strength and Conditioning and more 
Discussion
No comments yet.