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liralenThe three of us spent the morning at a seminar on the spirituality of children. It was run by a lady in Colorado Springs who runs a nonprofit whose purpose is to lend spiritual help to any child who is hurting. And to do it for free for *any* child.
She is very cool in that respect alone.
But she won my heart when she laid out the three theories she had learned about how people approach kid's spirituality:
It was a pretty rough morning for me, though, as I was crying with just about every other story she told about the spirituality and depth of belief in children. A few other folks also talked about feeling that they'd missed out as kids, as most of us were from 1 or 2 types of *religious* experience. Told what was right and had to parrot it back or face the consequences.
Then she brought the kids in and started just asking questions. Asking them all to just draw God and she said a little prayer that they should ask God to give them something to draw that represented God to them, whether the picture was of a thing, a person, an animal, or anything else... and they all came up with something completely different, and explained it with surprising detail and depth.
Jet cheerfully talked about the Eye of God that watches over us and the Wind of God that surrounds us.
My.
We all had some lunch with everyone and then went home and played some Kingdom of Hearts II and then the boys went off to Home Depot to try and do a project, but it turned out that it was only for the morning. So John took Jet to Target so that Jet could get his prize for riding long distances without his training wheels. They bought the classical version of Stratego together, and brought that home. I stuffed my story writing in while they were gone and didn't get to go to Hobby Lobby to return some yarn or other things I wanted to do.
I played a round of Stratego with Jet, until he realized that I'd taken all his miners and I'd have to cook dinner, soon, so he wanted to do a little more Kingdom of Hearts. It's our one day of rest, so I went down after putting potatoes on to boil. John made Jet's pizza, steak for us, and some veg in the microwave. I played with Jet for 20 minutes + what it took to get us to the next save point, and then we had a very hearty dinner.
Just about Jet's bedtime, now, and he's now made six godseyes out of yarn and sticks of various sorts, given two of them away, and is digging through My Stash to find more yarn. I love the Yarn Harlot's meditation about her children looking through her stash for yarn for their projects, and saying something like even though I've given them food, shelter, and the best years of my life, I will not stint them my yarn... well... except for those skeins of cashmere... *laughter*
She is very cool in that respect alone.
But she won my heart when she laid out the three theories she had learned about how people approach kid's spirituality:
- Tabula Rasa -- all kids are blanks that have to be written on and *made* spiritual and filled with the "right" spirituality.
- Augustine's Original Sin -- all kids start out bad and they have to be covered up with the "right" teachings
- Original Blessing -- All kids start out with their own spirit and a rich spirituality that they need to have encouraged to explore, get feedback on, and make their own.
It was a pretty rough morning for me, though, as I was crying with just about every other story she told about the spirituality and depth of belief in children. A few other folks also talked about feeling that they'd missed out as kids, as most of us were from 1 or 2 types of *religious* experience. Told what was right and had to parrot it back or face the consequences.
Then she brought the kids in and started just asking questions. Asking them all to just draw God and she said a little prayer that they should ask God to give them something to draw that represented God to them, whether the picture was of a thing, a person, an animal, or anything else... and they all came up with something completely different, and explained it with surprising detail and depth.
Jet cheerfully talked about the Eye of God that watches over us and the Wind of God that surrounds us.
My.
We all had some lunch with everyone and then went home and played some Kingdom of Hearts II and then the boys went off to Home Depot to try and do a project, but it turned out that it was only for the morning. So John took Jet to Target so that Jet could get his prize for riding long distances without his training wheels. They bought the classical version of Stratego together, and brought that home. I stuffed my story writing in while they were gone and didn't get to go to Hobby Lobby to return some yarn or other things I wanted to do.
I played a round of Stratego with Jet, until he realized that I'd taken all his miners and I'd have to cook dinner, soon, so he wanted to do a little more Kingdom of Hearts. It's our one day of rest, so I went down after putting potatoes on to boil. John made Jet's pizza, steak for us, and some veg in the microwave. I played with Jet for 20 minutes + what it took to get us to the next save point, and then we had a very hearty dinner.
Just about Jet's bedtime, now, and he's now made six godseyes out of yarn and sticks of various sorts, given two of them away, and is digging through My Stash to find more yarn. I love the Yarn Harlot's meditation about her children looking through her stash for yarn for their projects, and saying something like even though I've given them food, shelter, and the best years of my life, I will not stint them my yarn... well... except for those skeins of cashmere... *laughter*
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 02:51 pm (UTC)Hiking in the woods yesterday, he asked me who was born first. Of everything.
"Well, there are a lot of answers - nobody knows for sure which one because nobody remembers anymore. Some people think that a man named Adam was made. Some people think that people used to be like monkeys and they changed into people over a loooong time, some people think aliens brought people to earth, some people think that people have just always been here... lots of people think lots of different things."
"You know what I think, Daddy? I think that first there were people, and they were wrong people. And there were wrong animals. And then they were gone, and then there were right people and right animals. And then the aliens brought some more people. And that's how it happened."
I nodded. "Well, that's another answer."
As creation myths go, I've heard much worse. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 10:30 pm (UTC)I like that one.
Jet's asked who gave birth to God... and we discussed it for a while and never came to an answer, but I tried to say that the real thing is to ask the question.
Hmmm... now I wonder how he felt when asking that?
no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 04:00 am (UTC)Respect Others
Respect Property
Respect Yourself
It's pretty amazing.