Ahhhh….. It’s March!  Daylight savings time (this coming Sunday) and the Vernal Equinox (March 20) all in the same month.  And yes, we will lose an hour, but it will be delightfully light longer in the day.  We can feel the new life of Easter approaching, for the season of Lent began last Wednesday with a community service and luncheon.   It is a time of introspection as well as awakening activity.

My process of cleaning out is continuing; it might continue on into infinity!  “Yet occasionally we discover in the folds of an old handkerchief, a shell or insignificant stone that had once embodied our happiest of afternoons.”* I did find some items that brought back good memories.  And I found an old essay from 2014.  Considering the current controversy around books, I think this is an appropriate time to re-share my thoughts.   

There is a tired, old saying; “Sure, I approve of censorship ---- as long as I can be the censor.”  Censorship has cropped up regularly though out history, usually at the behest of an autocratic ruler who fears anything that might make people think.  The first thing an autocrat does is to imprison or execute professors, artists, librarians and writers; they are dangerous thinkers and distributors of materials that make others think. Currently, Putin has shut off the internet and declared independent reporting a “war crime”!

To censor or not has always been a problem for parents who are reluctant for their kiddies to process what their parents might consider alien to their thoughts or beliefs ---- or maybe even just because it’s not quite nice.  Many of us have tried to shield our sons and daughters from anything disagreeable, frightening or crass.  There’s a fine line between what is sensible precaution and what just keeps us, the parents, comfy.

Through-out history, people have been killed for their beliefs and teachings (Jesus, Socrates, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy…….).  And this continues today.  There are those who think eliminating the person, will make the issue will go away.    The problem is that neither killing people nor burning books will erase the ideas.  Other people will continue to think.  And kids will find a way to learn about all sorts of things that their parents wish they had not.  There was no TV in our house for several years as our children were growing up.  They, however, managed to know all the characters on kids’ programming even without TV, and wanted the latest Scooby Doo or Spider Man lunch boxes.    A parent may try to hide The Hulk or Harry Potter, but it just won’t work.

Of course, there’s my very own personal book burning!  Those of you who know us, and who are aware that we have hundreds of books of all genres, may find it hard to believe that I burned a book.  But it is true.  One of our sons was home at the time and was visibly astounded, annoyed and also, I think, a bit amused.   “Mom’s Book-Burning” might be a story to go down in family history.  I didn’t burn the book because I thought it was inappropriate reading for the general public; or even for my kids.   I had realized ---- after reading a few chapters --- that it was not a good reading for me.  And I knew if I disposed of it in the usual way (library book sale), I’d finish reading it. It was a well-written, compelling story.  But the violence was exceedingly graphic and was going to give my mind a severe  case of memory indigestion.  That’s the down-side of the way our brains are designed; they store things away forever.  And memories may crop up at 2 AM, that we’d rather not have in our heads.

 We each have different tolerance levels.  I’ve absorbed a wide variety of writing, from novels to non-fiction; from fantasy to historical fiction; from philosophy to nature and from biography to poetry.  In fact, slipping into an alternate universe via a good book is often a blessing.  But some things etch themselves so deeply into my brain that the aftermath is damaging to my peace of mind.  There are a couple of books that I read in my younger years ---- classics they were too ---- that I shouldn’t have cracked open.  The depth of evil described in those stories has haunted me forever after.  The same is true of some TV programs and movies.  In addition, there is no end to the perverted, smutty, crass materials available if one looks.  Would I like to see them gone forever? Definitely!  But where does the censorship stop?  Who decides?

I have never repeated my book-burning escapade, but for sensible self-care, I think that we all should be a little careful about what we put into our minds.  Just as we try to limit salt, sugar and poly-unsaturated fats, we should try to avoid things that might give us disturbed or calloused emotions.  This includes frequent watching of certain movies, TV programs or reading, that dulls our senses or leaves us with a creepy feeling that we’ve been invaded by evil.

Having said that --- how do I feel about the recent book-burnings in the news and the attempts to censor school libraries?  Who do I think I am --- or you are ---- to decide what books should be in a library??!!  Yes --- a parent does have a responsibility and a right to speak for the welfare of their child.  Not all children are ready to read the same material at the same time.  There should definitely be alternative books for those parents who don’t think their 8^th-grader is ready for the horrors of Nazi-ism or the adolescent muckiness of Catcher In The Rye.  A parent should know their child and what that child would find palatable.  But no parent has the right to censor the entire library, making that judgment for all kids.  Too, I think some parents are over-ready to shield their kiddies from anything distasteful or hard to hear.   Covering up events or issues enhances the crime.  Kids are incredibly alert to spot parental shading of the truth or hypocrisy.  Parents need to be honest and open with their kids and discuss difficult things.  Ignorance is seldom bliss!

I am constantly amazed at how frightened some adults are of education hat treads beyond the borders of their own experiences.  The philosophy seems to be “If I don’t know about it, it must be bad and I don’t want my kid to be exposed to all that weird stuff.” When Kerm and I taught Sunday school back in our Pennsylvania years, one of the things we told the teens we had in class was “God has no grandchildren.” It actually was a poster available in a Christian bookstore.   Basically, we were telling them that just because their parents believed in God and had brought them up in the faith, that didn’t make them God’s children by inheritance.  They needed to think on their own and find their own faith.   WELL --- such a hullabaloo we created!  Parents went clamoring to the pastor ---- who wisely asked us to meet with the parents and explain ourselves.  And we did.  And eventually, all was well.  But fear drove the initial reaction as fear often does, and, in this case, perhaps just a little indignation that their parental faith wasn’t enough to cover their children forever.

The bottom line is: we all need to stop trying to censor other people’s choices!   If one of our kids had wanted to read a book that we thought inappropriate, we would have read it along with them and talked about it.  If it was a book that I actually thought would be detrimental for them, I’d have explained why I felt that way and asked them to trust us and put it off a couple of years.  We often loan books to our granddaughters.  We’d like to contribute to their education and enjoyment, not to their disillusionment, so we are careful about what we offer.  We have a couple of series that are well-written stories but would be inappropriate for their current ages and life-experiences.  Maybe when they are forty … 😊!   They are good readers and mature thinkers, and have read and discussed things widely --- with no discernable harm.

Censorship nearly always creates more trouble than any protection it might give.

“Some like to drink in a pint pot. Some like to think.  Some not.  Strong Dutch cheese, Old Kentucky Rye, Some like these, Not I.  Some like Poe, and others like Scott.  Some like Mrs. Stowe.  Some not.  Some like to laugh, some like to cry, some like to chaff.  Not I.”  RLS

Meanwhile, regardless of all our human foibles, we are in March and life is looking up.  We can, and probably will, get snow and mud and gusty winds.***  But--- the daylight hours are longer, more days are sunny, and the geese are flying north.  I even think I can hear some stirring in the garden; of course, it could be the weeds we didn’t pull last fall but maybe it’s the daffodil bulbs.   I expect to see purple-green skunk cabbage popping up in the swamps any day now.  The cats are walking the fence pickets, showing off and pouncing on anything that moves.   My spring memories, among the “happiest of afternoons” memories, are   watching pollywogs in vernal pools, and the shining gold of marsh marigolds at the edge of small streams.   I’m wishing I could be walking down the lane toward the wooded acres on the farm where I grew up, experiencing those very things soon.   Happy Spring --- and pleasant journeys to you this week!

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Carol may be reached at: carol42wilde@htva.net.

*Patti Smith ---- American rock poet laureate at age 75.  Quotation is from her first book of prose, a memoir: “Just Kids”.

**Robert Louis Stevenson --- Scottish writer, poet, novelist and travel writer.

***--- See the weather for this Saturday!!