Oliver was watching the news this afternoon with our house guest, an old friend who is visiting from D.C.. The friend is only twelve years old, but he's more than precocious -- he's brilliant -- and he is completely and utterly "up" on all things political, environmental, etc. It's amazing. We NEVER watch the news in this house, and aside from the occasional newspaper lookover, my sons are usually only exposed to sports on television. This is what Oliver said when he sat down for dinner:
Mom! So much has happened today! It's like a world record or something. Listen! William and Kate are in town; Betty Ford died; that girl who was kidnapped had a baby in the backyard; a person died at the stadium in Texas, Jaden Smith turned thirteen, a lot of people have been arrested!
As I stir-fried the Trader Joe's dumplings, I told him that it was a usual day and then I thought about how insular the life of a child can be. I felt happy about that, actually, happy that it seemed highly unusual to Oliver that "this is a momentous day!" well, maybe except for the royals who were spending the night down the street from our house in the British consulate. As the helicopters began to descend on the neighborhood, the boys ran outside and onto their bikes to catch a glimpse.
She's pretty, they said when they came back home, breathless.
And that's all the news of the day.
It's like a world record or something!
ReplyDeleteI love that child so much.
I was working all day down in Playa Vista, and missed Will and Kate! Very depressed. Tonight, Jimmy had the news on and something about Casey Anthony came on. When Jude asked him what that was all about, Jimmy started trying to explain that this woman had been accused of killing her daughter. Jude got the most horrified, but fascinated look on his face, that Jimmy quickly said "I think Jeopardy's on." and changed the channel. Maybe we shelter him too much. I distinctly remember watching the Vietnam news every night when I was little. Scary stuff too.
ReplyDeleteHe left out the last launch of the Space Shuttle. Sad news indeed.
ReplyDeleteI love it! The day the news broke through. Such a reporter he is. You may have a future journalist there.
ReplyDeleteWe don't watch the news, either, although I do have NPR on constantly. It's pretty easy for the girls to ignore after a while, though. I think it's just so much information-overload and, while I do worry about them not knowing anything about current events, the world is so much bigger (or smaller) these days. Too much to know!
ReplyDeleteI used to watch the news a lot more than I do now. Lately I just try to sort of catch the main events and not listen overlong to the details.
ReplyDeleteToo distressing.
"/
This was one of my favorite posts ever.
ReplyDeleteOliver is a doll.
I love this post.
ReplyDeleteI love that :)
ReplyDelete"she's pretty"
Does anything else really matter?
My girls have funny things to say about politics ... They instinctively are suspicious of the whole business