Explaining "One Tin Soldier" to my Babies...

[IdaBriggs]

My twins (who came five weeks early) are now 5 weeks and 2 days old. Naturally, I'm not on a lot of sleep (since they have to be awakened every three hours for feeding!), and hopefully that will explain why I found myself singing "One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack)" to them during "breakfast/diaper change" time this morning.

Its one of those songs I've known "forever" and I'm not sure why I was singing it to them. I sing and talk while I'm feeding them, and some of what I say is really a lot of loving nonsense -- you know what I mean: where I explain to them how wonderful, and beautiful, and amazing they are. They probably won't remember any of it, but I tell them anyway, and who knows? Maybe some of it will stick, and help them to have "healthy" self-esteem in the future.

So, there I am, groggy and exhausted, and I find myself singing those famous words:

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven,
You can justify it in the end!

Woah! Wake up! Is this REALLY the message I want to be conveying to my newborns? I hastily began an explanation about how this is SARCASM, and NO, they aren't supposed to be doing those things. And then I sang them the rest of the song, partly because its a good song, and partly because I wanted them to hear the end of it....

Now the valley cried with anger,
"Mount your horses! Draw your sword!"
And they killed the mountain-people,
So they won their just reward.

Now they stood beside the treasure,
On the mountain, dark and red.
Turned the stone and looked beneath it...
"Peace on Earth" was all it said.

Well, THAT is certainly a lesson for impressionable young minds, isn't it? So I explained to my babies killing is BAD, and being greedy and coveting other people's possessions is WRONG, and the mountain-people were willing to share their treasure, which was really wisdom, and they died because the valley-people didn't understand.

And then, because I am a fair minded person, I explained that the mountain-people were also in the wrong because they had a really good idea ("Peace on Earth") but didn't have the strength to back it up, and they should have defended themselves (maybe "better?"), because getting wiped out in the name of "peace" isn't wisdom; one can only assume that innocent children died in that slaughter, and they depended on their families to protect them.

Wisdom, I told my son and daughter, isn't just KNOWING "peace on earth" is a good thing, but having the strength to back it up.

I'm not sure they will remember this morning; I'm hopeful their developing young minds aren't traumatized by a song about greed and slaughter that their mother sang to them in an exhausted early morning moment. I hope I am able to teach them the tenuous balance between "right" and the "might" that allows one to live in peace.

It just seems to me that the lesson also applies to our Democratic leadership. It isn't just "knowing" the right thing, and then automatically expecting everyone else to join in on doing "the right thing;" sometimes, its about displaying the courage to ENFORCE it. Not everyone will automatically behave correctly just because they OUGHT TO, or we want them to. Sometimes, you have to MAKE THEM BEHAVE, and that means enforcing consequences for bad behavior (like impeachment and jail time).

If we don't stand up and fight back effectively, then we are pretty much going to be slaughtered with some nice words on a stone for our epitaphs. Democracy is a treasure, but not everyone gets that whole "of the people, by the people, for the people" concept; some just think its all about them and what they can get for themselves (and screw anyone who stands in their way).

It really is up to us to stand up for ourselves, and our children. If we don't defend ourselves effectively, then we are dead, and frankly, we almost deserve it.

Heavy concepts for newborns. Tough stuff for grown ups.

I'm going to go take a nap!

[Buzz Clik]

1. They'll discover hate and cynicism soon enough.

I'd stick with "Mommy wuvs you" for a while.

[wakeme2008]

2. My favorite one on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t47jYrMn8Wk

:)

[revree]

3. That song is always in my head...

and yes, the words are just as relevant today as they were when the song first came out, what, back in the 1970s...
Perhaps even moreso. I try to tell my six year old what is going on, in terms he can understand. Sometimes music really is a valid way of sharing knowledge, when we don't quite know how to choose the right words...there are so many songs that can tell the story for us.

How sad that the wisdom the song imparts just doesn't seem to sink in with our world leaders, though...How sad.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

4. Great lyrics...

... and the thundering melody hooks you, too. I have loved this song from day one and wish that it's anthem like qualities were utilized more often by thinking people. I have thought that for DECADES!

It is a great example of GREED destroying diversity and independence for the sake of a homogenized society where everyone thinks the same.

Make sure you show the kids the movie "Billy Jack" when they are able to comprehend it. As a kid (about 10 years old), one of my best friends attended the movie with his mom, and he talked about it for weeks. So when I got the chance to see it on the tube a couple of years later, I was very interested and it left it's impression indelibly imprinted in my mind, to this day, 30 years later. That plus we sang "One Tin Soldier" in my junior high music class, too.

My point in this post? To remind all that if society gets rid of all diversity, no new ideas for solving future problems will be possible.