We needed tough lessons as children. An occasional playground fight was expected as the norm, and if we complained to our mother that we were being teased, we were treated to this glorious aphorism: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” My mom used to say that all the time, one of the seemingly endless adages she had at her disposal to deal with any of life’s problems. To this day I think long and hard about the practical application that dogma had on my life.
The idea that you could actually choose whether or not to be hurt by words: that was huge for me. Even though it has been repeated ad nauseam for generations, “sticks and stones” really is a powerful bit of philosophy to a kid. That’s one of the great things about being a parent: you can spout nothing but clichés, and yet, to your child, you come off as one of the great thinkers in Western culture.
–from MEAN DADS FOR A BETTER AMERICA, by Tom Shillue
I find this woman’s response to be ridiculous enough to dismiss but interesting enough to discuss
Thank you for reminding me. I wanted to talk about our post-show hangout in Memphis and here it is:
“Salmon Fishing”
On ‘The Russian River’.
It was hot for a late June Alaska morning on the Russian river.
The mosquitos were out, and his cigar stump went out…
The smoke was effective in keeping the bugs away…
So he told himself.
His four year old son was playing on the bank behind him.
He was standing on a ‘spit’ of mud, and the king salmon were thick.
The ‘rule’ was, you couldn’t just snag the fish, you had to ‘hook’ them in the mouth, or in front of the gills.
Just then he felt a ‘nibble’ on his fly, so he gave his rod a little flick with his wrist to set the hook..
Damn it!!
The hook set too far back…
“James Michael!!” He called to his little boy.
“Yes Daddy?”
“Get over here and land this fish…”
Another ‘rule’ was there was a limit of three salmon a day per person, based on who ‘landed’ the fish.
So, he brought all four of his kids.
His oldest son fished for himself now that he was 13. His two daughters would land theirs early and would walk the banks of the Russian, selling his hand tied...
