Friday, July 27, 2012

Transmitting Our Values

KT and I have been having great discussions about passing on our values and sharing our roots with our children. We know that we can't rely on them learning by osmosis, although at this point in their childhood we want them to have a childhood and not be burdened by the fact there is racism, rape, genocide, hatred, gun violence not far from their home, and that according to our beliefs that our Savior was betrayed, beaten with shards of glass and pottery and chunks of his flesh were ripped from him then he was nailed violently on a cross and left to die by gurgling and drowning in his phlegm, snot, and blood.So I guess a lot of what we transmit is muted or we hope is transferred by osmosis through living life with our family and giving them experiences that smack of the values we hold true at this point in our lives.
We are excited by the prospect and the possibilities of not leaving our children to make sense of this world on their own, we want, at an age appropriate time be able to transmit our values and an understanding directly, and be able to walk through hard questions with them, being able to have black and white answers on some and others, be willing to say I don't know. hopefully they'll have questions already and some later on like who do you love more, Liam or me, why do you focus more time online than with mom, why did we live at Keystone, why did we move, why am i part Puerto Rican or Irish and I don't eat that food or speak those languages, why do we live around lots of black people, but my other family members don't, why can't i pretend to shoot this gun in Ava's face, why do we have to go to church, why cant I sleep over at my friend Ella's house I'm 10 years old, why does my friend have two dads, I saw them kissing and called them gay, my friend cried, why should I read the Bible when u don't, why do my friends get to play Grand Theft Auto 6 or watch Paranormal Activity 8, what is sex,Jesus is cool, but my friends say he's lame, they say I'm lame, how do we know this is the only truth?
We want to be ready.