Feline violence

This week, a randomly selected 9-year-old and I will discuss
the Warriors series by Erin Hunter.
The books are a recent discovery in our household and seem to be catching on at
school.

What made you start reading these books?

I did this summer reading thing and you could get a free
book if you read eight books. I read eight books and they had the first
Warriors book and some other books that weren’t so cool. I didn’t think the
Warriors book was going to be so cool, but it was. If you want to know, it’s
called Into the Wild. After I read
that book, I kept looking for the other books since I liked it so much. The one
I just finished was the third book: Forest
of Secrets.

Why are the books called Warriors?

They’re about warrior cats that hunt and protect their
clans. A clan is a group of wild cats who live together.

So there’s lots of violence?

Well, a lot of violence if you consider tons of cats
scratching, shredding, biting, and tearing each other to pieces.

So you don’t think that’s a lot of violence?

Nope, compared to some things that I’ve seen.

Exactly what have you seen?

Well, on some kids shows.

What kids shows?

Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited… and that’s it.
But you don’t have to worry about the cats using bad language. They only use
semi-rude words. And some parts are sad.

Who do you think would enjoy the books?

People who like cats and adventure.

— Craig Brownlie

Lather, rinse, repeat

Who is free of the
underbrush, but attached to the forest? Who, set free from the forest, runs
back to the forest? Come, see that person, who, released, runs back to bondage
itself. — The Dhammapada XXIV.11

The issue is junior high and high school — a particularly
nasty pit of demons and snakes that I narrowly escaped, into which I now throw
my daughter five days a week. My first impulse is to minimize her trials and
tribulations. This is a most cowardly approach. It speaks of some unpacked
baggage of my own.

Parenting is most difficult when my children are treading on
ground I remember covering myself, especially the terrain over which I stumbled
and fell. I search in vain for wisdom attained in time spent out of my mind. I
seldom come up with anything they find the least bit helpful. Often we sigh,
shrug, and give up talking about it, exhausted.

I spend so much energy trying to wash myself clean of my
past. I often refuse to honor previous experience as full-time traveling
companion and sometime pilot.

Attention teens! Here’s our nasty adult secret: We vowed
never to revisit the stage you are enduring right now! Hey, tortured one: We
know these are not our wounds, but yours. Still, somehow, it’s not your pain…
but ours together.

He, truly, is supreme
in battle who would conquer himself alone, rather than he who would conquer in
battle a thousand, thousand men. — The Dhammapada VII.103

— Rev. Corey Keyes

This week for families

The Rochester City School District’s Parent Leadership Academy is on Tuesdays, October 4 through 25, at
the Parent Center, 30 Hart Street, Rm 126, 6 to 8 p.m. Free, but registration
is required. 324-9960

This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 4, 2005.