I read avidly and as a child the brothers Grimm were responsible for nightmares that terrified me. The cruel witch poking Hansel to see if he was fat enough to eat, still SHOCKS me.
I am scarred for life!
I prefer Roald Dahl’s spin on Little Red Riding hood’s story.
Instead of a defeated little girl, little Red is portrayed as a successful business woman who has apparently inherited granny’s money and invested wisely on the stock exchange. She travels widely and she carries her fashionable wardrobe in 3 pigskin suitcases!
Two traditional horror stories treated as one with a very different ending. Hilarious…..my style of writing with a seasoning of ‘black’ humour.
I have my own selection of GRIM tales. I’m thinking that they probably teach us more about real life than the sugary ‘ends well at any cost’ popular best sellers.
My friend Jude Tate found a little bird which had fallen from its nest in a strong wind.
She nursed it carefully back to health under the watchful eyes of her 3 little children. They were so excited as little Charlie bird ate well and eventually began to fly in his clumsy baby way.
The day dawned when he was officially going to be set free. They would continue to put food out for him but he was free to forage for himself and socialise with the other small pink pigeons.
The 4 of them stood under a small well developed tree that happened to be near the fence dividing their garden from the neighbours’. With a bit of ceremony they opened the box and Jude carefully put him on one of the branches of the tree.
After a bit of preening and showing off, the kids cheered as he fluttered off his branch, over the fence and losing impetus flew straight into the jaws of the neighbour’s large cat.
Jude and the children were prevented from saving him by the fence. In spite of screaming and bashing it they had to watch in horror and many tears, the last feathers of Charlie disappear down the cat’s throat.
Pixabay
‘I hope you choke, you horrible animal,’ yelled Jude. Caesar just licked his lips, spat the last feather out, blinked his golden eyes slowly and settled down for an after lunch nap.
I have a nature loving friend Karin who once collected several beautiful shells from an Eastern Cape beach. She put them in a small bucket and drove half an hour to the caravan park where they were staying.
She was horrified, while sorting them, to find one with a live and active hermit crab in it.
She got back into the car and drove all the way back to the exact beach where she had hi jacked him. She walked to the rocks and found the exact pool where she had found him. Tired out but enormously relieved she put him tenderly into the shallow pool.
She was horrified when a really big crab scuttled out from under a big rocky overhang. It seized the big claw of the hermit crab, yanked him out of his shell home and also made a crunchy scrumptious meal of the smaller crab.
Is this not another real life lesson?
A long ago popular teacher of mine made her bible story for the class more interesting by telling us a side story about a poster which she had in her classroom. It was in truth rather gruesome.
It showed the arena in Rome where Caesar watched the Christians being fed to the lions. It was there to illustrate the story of Daniel in the lion’s den.
Her small nephew came with his mother to fetch her after school one day and stood in front of the poster studying it avidly. My teacher was horrified when he burst into copious tears.
‘There there,’ she tried as a comfort. He cried harder. Eventually she asked, ‘what is it Billy Bob? Is it just too cruel and horrible?’ She had explained simply what was going on when she saw him totally absorbed in the detailed pencil sketched scene.
He tried to quieten his cries and hiccupped and pointed,’ yes, it’s just not fair, THAT lion is the only one without a Christian for his lunch.’
The debate rages on. What is the best way to educate our children and prepare them for real life?
Is it better to tell kids grim, true tales to give the practicalities of life that is often harsh?
Or do you fill their heads with saccharine sweet unrealistic stories that keep them feeling warm and fuzzy inside.
Then real life takes over and there are grave consequences often involving ‘murder and mayhem’.
What is your opinion?
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As always, a great post, this time with vignettes of great simplicity and depth.
I'm all for full disclosure with kids, except on some probably too private and sensitive issues, but from my experience, kids are clever enough to get as much as their particular intelligences allow them to.
If they can't get it at a given time, we wait until they seem to be ready, but I am against shielding them from the facts of life and some of those facts are as simple as the bird and the cat.
Incidentally, my cat ate a bird yesterday and the "funny" thing is that the neighbors, the same of the mango tree i've been writing about, were shocked, as if they really care about anyone but themselves. All of a sudden they want to contest nature's food chain.
Some things are just the way they are. Darwin is more current than ever.
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Always a comment of great perspicacity Hlezama. I do appreciate your thought processes.
Jesus taught in parables so that each person could get his own revelation.....the same with simple life stories.
I grew up in an era when children were 'protected' by the facts of life and death. Suddenly my beloved grandmother was gone. We were not allowed the simple procedure of closure.
I love your comment about kids taking in as much as they are able to grasp from an explanation or situation as what they are capable of understanding at the time. (a wandering sentence, haha!)
Neighbours like that are a regular 'pain in the neck'...........always on their high horse of morality when their lives speak differently.
Good to chat, thanks for the visit.
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Thank you for the insightful and beautifully written posts.
Always a pleasure
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