it always takes me a few days to get used to oscar when he gets shorn like a wee sheep. i imagine that in the top photo i captured him thinking, "i can't believe all of that fur came off of my little 20 pound body!"
okay, now for the rant...this weekend rob and i went to see v for vendetta at our local multiplex. we both enjoyed the movie--though the graphic novel on which they based the film was written 20 years ago about thatcherite england, its messages about fear-mongering and "patriotism" are pretty darn relevant today. anyway, we were watching the credits, as we do, when we saw a family of four--mom, dad, and their two kids under age 5--leaving the theatre. that's when i got angry. v for vendetta is rated R and deservedly so--lots of blood is spilled. it's not the most violent film i've ever seen, but the thought of those little ones sitting through nearly two hours of characters being beaten up, tortured and killed positively turned my stomach. when i was in the airport a few weeks ago, i read a column in the trib by mary schmich on the very topic of adults taking young children to rated R films (you have to register to the tribune online to read it, but it's pretty fast and painless) and at the theatre i remembered the study cited by the column which explains that kids can't distinguish fantasy from reality until age 6 or 7. this experience made me think about the fact that there are millions of parents around the would who wish they could shield their kids from everyday violence (war, genocide, street crime, hunger, etc.) but can't due to circumstances beyond their control while here in middle-america, parents are actually paying to expose their toddlers to violent images. i've done some web searching, looking for a petition to sign or some kind of grassroots action to remedy the misguided logic at work here (a 13-year old can't see a rated R movie without a parent but parents can take their 5 year olds to that same movie), but haven't turned up anything. i know that worse things can happen to a child than seeing a frightening movie, but when this form of emotional trauma is so easy to avoid, i think it just should be.
alright, rant's over. my next post will have a sunnier topic, i promise. i'll head in that direction by posting two photos of rob in his beloved yosemite sam cap (at left with siblings and benfer cousins
, at right in our kitchen), which jean found and gave to him for his birthday along with an old wooden treasure chest full of legos--jackpot!
Can't say as I remember the hat from when I lived with the little tykes...(but I had a Yosemite Sam t-shirt...loved it!). However, I DO remember the treasure chest. VERY COOL!!! When Russ was a wee lad and visiting Jean's place at Lake McBride (some Decker graduation I think), he built a boat from the legos in that very chest and took it to the lake with some uncles and cousins. It floated too far out and someone (I think it was Uncle Bill Pilger)had a great idea that if he threw a rock just beyond the boat, the waves created would send the boat back to shore. Well, as you might expect, the rock hit the boat, sinking it! Russ came running up to the house saying, "guys, guys, we need a plan!" I guess he thought we could somehow raise the boat from the bottom of the lake. Jan Brown has been known to still quote Russ ('guys, guys, we need a plan!). She thought the whole thing hysterically funny!
ReplyDeleteI love the look on Rob's face (new photo with hat). One can tell he is in love with the hat and with the fact that it is back on his head, and perhaps with his Mom for saving it!
thanks for sharing that story, Joyce! the remaining Legos include some of those floatable boat pieces and seeing them again brought that same memory back to Rob and Jean :)
ReplyDelete-c