Tannishblog

Tonight is Rosh Hashanah. This week also marks the beginning of the celebration of Ramadan. These things I remained ignorant of until recently.  Zen, of course, was unheard of. Having been a recipient of the typical white, Christian upbringing in the sixties and seventies, knowledge of other peoples and their cultures was ignored. I feel the loss.

There is much in life denied those who keep to their own set of ideals. Insular communities lose much in their solitude by not sharing in the joys of others, the wider expressions of humanity available through intimacy with other cultures. Sometimes, even individuals, focused on their aspirations or troubles miss the bounty of earthly life, as is depicted in this Zen parable:

A man walking across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger chasing him. coming to a cliff, he caught hold of a wild vine and swung himself over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Terrified, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger had come, waiting to eat him. Two mice, one white and one black, began little by little to nibble away at the vine. The man was a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!

Zen reminds us of the necessity of tasting that strawberry in every moment, to savor life no matter what it brings. One way we can do this is to open our houses and our hearts to people of differing cultures, learning about differences and sharing similarities. As hatred and fear are bourn of ignorance, so love and acceptance are bourn of knowledge. Celebrate the holidays of others, maybe they’ll help you celebrate yours with you.

Happy Rosh Hashanah to all those inclined that way. Happy equinox for everyone, whether you care or not. For all others, TGIF.

Children have always amazed me. Contrary to my upbringing of "be seen and not heard," today’s version of parenthood is more inclusive. Maybe I speak only of myself, but it seems to me that if a child is encouraged to excel, reinforced with positive rewards for positive behavior, then that child will succeed. If a parent also allows the child to chose what to excel at, neither pushing nor resisting, then that child will exceed expectations in many areas. There is no limit on human capacity that a child cannot surmount - if allowed. Limits are enforced. The natural response is to first become defiant, then to give in. Thus many of my generation have learned to cave in to the status quo because humans like to take the path of least resistance.

In our current hyper-connected world, our teenagers are putting themselves on display through the Internet. Much has been pondered as the the relative safety of social networking sites like My Space, Xanga, and Faces. That’s because the establishment (read: old people who make rules) cannot understand them. Concerns abound regarding predators without the acknowledgement of how these agents of ill-will are from the very same group of old folks who cannot fathom the new technology. What we are afraid of, essentially, is our own generation’s hangups.

Parents should know their children’s web presence as they would any other aspect of their offspring. Your children’s blog or My Space profile page should be bookmarked and visited often. That said; I sometimes forget to check my daughter’s blog for weeks on end. Bad Papa! When I do visit, however, I’m always amazed. Unlike many, she chooses (wisely, I think) not to publish personal episodes of her life, but instead showcase her vivid imagination and her love of words: hers is a fiction site wherein she experiments with prose, and other forms of verbosity. Here’s a recent example that blew my socks off.

Enough of the proud parental boasting, already! Do you know what your kids are blogging? Do you encourage them to explore themselves through the medium that defines their lifestyles as much as television defines ours? Or, are you taken in by the scare tactics of media know-nothings and hold your children back? Their involvement in Internet culture cannot be held back; they will do so with or without permission. That is the world they live in, the world we made that they will inherit. Know who they are online. Embrace them, guide them without force as you would do with any other aspect of their upbringing. Let them shine.

Do all this and your children will amaze you, too.