 |
| Let it be known that I do not respect the snow... |
Probably the most significant concern my baby mama and I have regarding our daughter is that she get... And demand, respect. For our son, we want to make sure he grows up having a healthy respect for women. That all starts with how he respects his mother and his sister.
If there is a hard part to this, it is trying to make sure that our daughter ALSO shows proper respect. As it is due, anyway...
Teaching both kids that respect, above and beyond all else, is one of the most important things to give and receive. It should not be given lightly - and that it has to be earned...
In this maybe my girl and I are a little old-fashioned (at least, for sure, I am). I was raised in the old ways about respect and the like. The idea of it. The up-on-a-pedestal version. But, in a way, that ideal does not really exist. Here's my example:
Like when the FBI used to investigate the Italian Mafia, and said they were, effectively, a bunch of track-suit wearing losers who would happily role over on each other for hardly a deal - all until Francis Ford Coppola's THE GODFATHER came out... After that it was all suits and silk ties, ring-kissing, and playing the movie soundtrack so loud that the FBI's bugs in their clubhouses were no longer effective.
What does that mean? It means that the whole idea of "loyalty" in the mob is a Hollywood creation!! Just like the ideals of the "biker culture" (made up for THE WILD ONE), as well as serial killers, truckers, and samurai.
But does that mean this ideal is any less worthwhile? Less important to strive for?
I would say no.
Most importantly - respect. People question respect all the time. Sometimes, I do not think that the regular civilians in this confusing white-trash culture foisted upon us by popular television culture (i.e., Jersey Shore, The Fast & The Furious, and so on) get to have any idea what that means. Instead, respect is often confused with fear.
Fear is not the same thing as respect.
 |
| This is how much I have respect for your horrible music choices when I'm driving. |
Ah respect... It's a hard one because we only have one word for it, but there are different levels. There's a level of human decency where everyone should have respect for each other, but then people take that as expecting way more respect than they've earned. Truly, though, fear and respect are two entirely different things.
ReplyDelete