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other thoughts

Impressionable

[Today’s run: 1 mile with the dog]

The other day I was remembering an LP record that I used to listen to when I was a child.  Remembering the plot of the thing, I did some googling and found it.

The story is a combination of music and  reading.  The main character is a kid named Sparky.  He is supposed to be learning a musical instrument.  But he gets tired of the first selected instrument and goes on to another, then another.  He never sticks with one and in the end he doesn’t learn a thing.

The recording is called Sparky’s Music Mixup.

I thought of this from long ago because I was reminded how children pick up on events in a different way than adults do.  Looking back, I remember that I overreacted to the Sparky story.  I was genuinely worried about being flighty and not concentrating enough on one thing at a time.  But I also saw the implication that you might pick the wrong thing at the beginning and be stuck doing something that was not a good fit.  Wow, talk about pressure!

So I think back now to my children’s younger days and wonder what things they remember, what off-hand remarks found lodging in their mind or what nap-time story in kindergarten (something I never even knew happened) may have been pivotal in forming the way they operate.  It’s a daunting prospect.

Well, maybe its only a daunting prospect from the aspect of control. Things happen that a parent cannot control.  Most things that happen a parent cannot control.  So you try to keep events below the level of life-danger (“Don’t run with scissors!”) and do a lot of praying.

Oh, another lesson from the Sparky record?  A lot of commercial stuff  “made for children” really hasn’t been well thought out.  Poor old Sparky’s life was ruined by being flighty.  Look out kids or you will also destroy your life beyond redemption.  Looking back, I think the thing was mostly a vehicle for the music with a bit of half-baked morality tale added on.

(You too can listen to Sparky ruin his life.  It is a few minutes into this.)