And now for something completely different, a bit of mid-month poetry. (No, no, I didn’t write it, I am merely republishing it.)
Beautiful without MoneySuddenly fatigued among French
women in the RomanEmpire rooms of the museum,
I fall out of circulationon a bench. Bronze
heads, helms, a Byzantinespoon, sixth century, engraved,
attributed to Virgil: O handsomeyouth, do not believe too much
in beauty; you cannot bebeautiful without money … women fall,
tucking skirts, onto my bench,being suddenly flesh and scent,
and do not speak to me.-=-=-=-
by T. Zachary Cotler
published in The Paris Review
Spring 2009
Paris review?! WOW! Is there anyone in your family who’s not wildly talented?
Cotler parents: I want your secret. How did you make your children this way?
Keira: Thanks for the compliment. I’m no expert. In addition to pointing my children toward health and happiness, I selfishly hoped that one day they would lead me into new worlds of thought and adventures. And they have!
Here’s my recipe:
All children are born curious and unselfconscious. A parent should strive to keep these flourishing.
The former must be nourished.
• “Name me two things you can eat that have seeds and are neither green nor red.”
The latter never quashed.
• Encourage your six-year-old to engage in a dialog where neither parent nor child speaks a single intelligible word, with meaning coming from intonation and gesture.
Eliminate TV: A child’s creativity will be insidiously flattened by television’s bland pap. Disney is not Dickens.
Avoid commercial toys: A large, empty box, scissors, glue, and a packet of markers is better than a Barbie and a Luke Skywalker. Glitter is as good as garlic.
Tell jokes…and laugh when your child tells one of her own.
Steve, thank you for making the time to reply in such detail. You guys have certainly succeeded wildly. Thanks to you, I’m the lucky recipient of your children’s various talents.
Keira
That’s my brother! I love this piece… Couldn’t help myself.