Last link no work...

Huh--the newspaper article link seems to have gone away. Here's the same article in another location.

Thanks! :)

last link still no work, but I wanted to jump in anyway and recall how, when we lived in Copenhagen in the fall of 1999, my kids (then aged 10, 10, and 12) took public transportation alone wherever they felt comfortable (usually along routes they knew well). They loved having that freedom, and I must say it was convenient for us. Wanted to go to the Games Workshop store after school that was in the downtown area? Okay, just be home by 6. Obviously this was Copenhagen, and I wouldn't have felt the other cities, but I do absolutely feel we cocoon children too much in our risk-averse society.

It works now. :-)

In Iceland kids as young as seven bussed and biked everywhere. Even in Iceland people said that's because they felt they knew it was safer there than many places, but you know, every time I see statistics, they say this country is no more dangerous than it was 20 years ago, not that it's easy to convince anyone of this.

The one point made to me once that did make sense is that there are maybe fewer adults at home in the neighborhood quietly keeping an eye on everyone, which is true. But still, I think learning to navigate the world successfully really does require at least some completely independent time.

Hi Janni!

Love that poem. Do you know this one?

Rebecca (Stead)


We Who Are Your Closest Friends
Phillip Lopate

We who are
your closest friends
feel the time
has come to tell you
that every Thursday
we have been meeting,
as a group,
to devise ways
to keep you
in perpetual uncertainty
frustration
discontent and
torture
by neither loving you
as much as you want
nor cutting you adrift.
Your analyst is
in on it,
plus your boyfriend
and your ex-husband;
and we have pledged
to disappoint you
as long as you need us.
In announcing our
association
we realize we have
placed in your hands
a possible antidote
against uncertainty
indeed against ourselves.
But since our Thursday nights
have brought us
to a community
of purpose
rare in itself
with you as
the natural center,
we feel hopeful you
will continue to make unreasonable
demands for affection
if not as a consequence
of your disastrous personality
then for the good of the collective.

Heh, on the poem. Thanks for sharing that! (I have a sneaking suspicion I've been on both sides of that one.)

And hey, I just read First Light a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. :-)

Edited at 2008-04-29 06:05 pm (UTC)

I think I've been on both sides of that one, too--I guess maybe we all have!

thanks, Janni. I'm glad.

R.

Love the men who explain things article. Sheesh! I've forwarded that link to several explainers in my life.

I heart Billy Collins. :-)

"Men Who Explain Thing"--someone on my women's poetry discussion list linked to that a week or so ago, and there were many (virtual) nods of recognition (I'm doing one right now, in fact); is there any woman who hasn't experienced that?

I haven't read the nine-year-old-riding-the-subway article, but heard its author on Talk of the Nation--she was very articulate, as well as completely flabbergasted by the amount and type of attention her piece and her actions have received.

Yes. I think it was when I heard Billy Collins read that poem (back before anyone had really heard of him, in 1997) that I fell in love with his poetry.

Yes--it says interesting things about our society that simply letting a 9 year old have a few unsupervised hours so terrifies people. And not about it's dangers, IMHO, but about the folks who react to them.

Some of those zoo pictures really must be made into animal lols. ;) (The other links are more profound and require thought digestion rather than quick commenting. *g*)

I especially love the arctic fox picture. (Though I'm still bummed none of the foxes were in evidence when I was at that zoo--I was wanting to watch them for a bit as research! And also because they're adorable, of course. :-))

For you:



Edited at 2008-04-30 08:33 pm (UTC)

LOL!

Also, awwwwwwwwwwwww. :-)