I think it’s absolutely criminal to neglect a young person’s education. Especially when the young person shows such obvious promise as my dear, intrepid Baby-G. As such, I make it my business to plan a variety of enriching and stimulating activities for the young prince. In addition to our regular adventures in cookery, we also take frequent trips into the city. He is young, strong and loves to ride the metro. I am young, strong and hate suburbia. We are a perfect match.
These trips are more than just crucial investments in my sanity, folks. They are also key opportunities for his precious highness to see the world. And to hear my constant commentary about it. He particularly enjoyed a recent trip to visit a friend of mine who teaches at the Studio School. Strapped to my back in the Ergo, he offered a great deal of praise for the children’s artwork that lined the walls, pointing and crowing with gusto, and listened intently as I expounded upon the virtues of a community lead, child-focused educational system. Several weeks later, as we were sharing a sandwich at Busboys and Poets, I could have sworn that he nodded sagely when I exclaimed, “And this, tiny one, is how the bohemian bourgeoisie do capitalism”.
It’s something of a joke between myself and Mama and Papa G that I am attempting to make Baby-G into a tiny anarchist. It’s one of those jokes that I always find funny, while they are at times amused and at other times a little weirded out by the whole thing. The other day Mama G came home and asked what her son and I had been up to. “Oh, well, we made that wheat bread you see on the counter,” I said. “Then we took the metro to the national mall and looked at the Kermit puppet in the Air and Space Museum. On our walk there I pointed out the Capital Building and we dialogued briefly about our current socio-political organizations, and the more sensible and humane alternative of a localized, non-hierarchical power structure”.
“Um, Oh.” said she.
The truth is that my description was perhaps verbal longhand for what was really said. Baby G is small, and I like to keep things simple. Rather wasting my time with the whole localized, non-hierarchical blah blah, I just say “smashing the state”. He gets the picture. Similarly, when the dome of the Capital came into view, I pointed to it and said “Boo-Boo, there are lot of people in that building who are going to try and make you think you’ve got to do what you say. Now you just take it from me, you are smarter than all of them put together. Nicer, too.”
He got the message. At least, I think he did. Truth be told, he was unable to offer a response because he was very intent on the more crucial task he had at once identified for himself– trying to catch and eat a bird. That’s my baby!
