But I’ve got to admit that I’m a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sure, like anything, I’ve lost interest and the guys have certainly had their share of drama. But who doesn’t love Blood Sugar Sex Magik? They played from the gut terrifically tapped into the primal. And now as they age, they play with a softer edge buttered with insight.
This year, I have a burning desire to see them in concert. I booked tickets to my husband’s delight this
November. I can’t wait to see Anthony
Kiedis and Flea and expect an unforgettable show.
I have so many memories attached to these guys; high school
parties, broken hearts, Southern California surfing, college road trips, unforgettable
odysseys , mountain camp outs, ferris wheels, rich evergreen forests, red canyons and deep swimmable springs.
And now, parenting?
As I drove Dana, Snow
played on the radio. Anthony Kiedis sang:
The more I see the less I know, the more I like to let it go.
Dana exclaimed, “What! That’s not right. The more I see the less I know? It should be the more I see the more I know.”
As in many parenting moments, many things went through my mind.
·
Crap, my
daughter is really listening to the lyrics of songs. I’ve got to edit some of our favorite Pandora
playlists that stream through the house and get rid of songs like Lily Allen’s
“Fuck You”
·
What? My daughter is really listening to the lyrics
of songs! I shudder to think about what
is she learning from pop media's cultural bombardment and misaligned values. How can I get the funds to
buy that island we will live on until she is 21? Please help.
·
What? My
daughter is having a conversation
with the lyrics of songs? Not only
is she listening, she is processing and aligning those lyrics to her own
meaning making and amazingly her own meta-cognition, she is thinking about how
she is thinking. And if it doesn’t
align, she resists it and attempts to correct it. Anthony Kiedis got the lyrics wrong and
broadcast them publically. Shame on
him.
·
Dana is
right. In her world, the more she
sees the more she knows. That is the way
a six year old learns. The sponge
analogy is accurate. She absorbs every
experience and extracts the learnable moments in the instant. She is building a knowledge bank filled with
writing, reading, vocabulary, math, geometry, science, history, culture, love.
·
Anthony
Kiedis is right. The more I see the
less I know. Adulthood is a process of
unlearning all the assumptions and habits of mind we acquired in
childhood. Personally, I have unpeeled an
unknowable number of layers of assumptions.
When I learn something new it simultaneously uncovers that I know very
little. I’m learning how to let
assumptions go and just be open to the world.
It is a process with an unwinnable goal.
I told her that she was right. But It will
happen when she is an adult. The more
she sees the less she will know. It is a way
adults learn.
I wonder when that happens? When do we switch from acquiring
knowledge and assumptions to unlearning them?
There can’t be a singular moment. But can it be identified?
Likely, it is like the ebb and flow of the ocean waves. As the tide rises we acquire knowledge and as
the tide lowers we unlearn and deconstruct meaning. Then the tides of acquisition rise again and
we create new buildings of meaning only to be wiped away by another tide. We take two steps forward and one step back. Learning is a process of construction and deconstruction.
Dana had a conversation with Anthony Kiedis and it opened up
her understanding of the world and how she interacts with it. Maybe it widened
her understanding of her learning, meaning, adults, songs, and her mother. It certainly
deepened my understanding of the learning process.
And I have a new memory of the Red Hot Chili
Peppers.
