Kids Online

Blessings Darlings!

I was reading my friend Daniel's blog this morning http://sayencrowolf.net/2011/09/rules-of-the-road/ .  He really DOES post darn near anything.  He CAN be edgy at times, typically because he addresses important issues.

Reading that got me to thinking about how so many people work so hard to control what kids can see online.  And from there, on how my reading habits helped make me what I am today.

I was, shall we say, not the most popular kid growing up.  Socially awkward.  First to get boobs. I escaped into reading.  Library books at first ... not just the kids section, too, I edged into the Grown Up Books.  Then I got older, and started buying magazines at the drug store and grocery store check out.  Yes, "Young Miss" was one of them, but I also read my parent's subscription to Time, and bought those little 25 cent booklets on astrology, psychic skills, etc. 

High school, and I was more mobile, biking and taking public transportation where ever I wanted to go.  I discovered a HUGE used bookstore in Evanston.  More books on psychic stuff, into to Theosophy, etc.  And I subscribed to Ms. and The Village Voice.  TVV was perhaps on odd choice, since I lived in Chicago, but whatever.  I totally would have lived reading stuff on the internet if I could have back in the day.

I'm sure that my reading choices we not ones that made my mother happy.  She totally freaked at an article on masturbation in Ms.  But she never tried to control what I read.

I took that same approach with my Spawn, who had the advantage of the the Internet.  Okay, ONCE I didn't let him look up something online.  He was in grade school, and was to write about an animal.  He was assigned the beaver.  I kind of figured that Google would give him a whole lot of results that would be about twats, not the animal.  I had him use an encyclopedia.

In middle school, some of his friends got in trouble with their parents for trying to access porn online.  If he was doing it at that age, I'm unaware of it - which means he was good at keeping it private.  His computer access was in our home business office, sitting 10 feet from his father.  I THINK that if we had found him looking at porn I'd have done a quick evaluation and let it alone.  He didn't have a credit card, after all, and that was over a decade ago.  He'd have seen boobs, maybe full frontal nudity, and that was all. 

At any rate - one the whole, I let the Spawn travel the internet at will, reading everything he wanted to, from a very young age.  I figure it encouraged reading skills, search skills, and exposed him to more ideas than he'd get from being overly supervised. 

I think that's a good thing.

Frondly, Fern

Challenge

Blessings, Darlings!

This post is for my Pagan readers.  Foodies, preppers, and snark-addicts - read it if you want, but the challenge is not for you!

Modern technology has made information virtually free.  You're reading this via the internet in some form.  You can get this from a terminal at your local library for free.  While there, you can pick up books on neo-paganism, or witchcraft, or herbalism, or astrology, or whatever - for free.  Most of you are accessing this in the convenience of your home.

Many of us spend our time accumulating not just things, but information.  Can we ever get enough of either?  Yes.  In fact, most of us here online have TOO MUCH of both.

So....

Stop the accumulation of "Pagan information".  Use - WORK THROUGH - what you already have, at least until Lughnasadh, preferably until next Imbolc.  No new books until you're read and done all the exercises in the ones you've already got.  No downloading new rituals to try out.  No new tarot spreads until you've mastered the decks and spreads you already have information on.  Do every meditation/visualization you already have in your possession. Master every tarot deck. Become intimate with the Nature Spirit of every herb/spice/resin you work with before getting more information on how to make potions or incenses.

Use, rather than consume/amass/hoard.

If that means not reading my blog, I'll understand, altho' I post rather less on Pagan/magic/worship/Gods/power than I'd like to be, and I always think I'm rather light on adding to the information overload in general.  Still, if you have to decide whether to read a blog or work a book you own - read the book, not me!

Work it.  Internalize it. There is no 'Wicca 400' level books/blogs - there is introduction and then the working, the making your path manifest in the challenges of life.

Frondly, Fern

Vaguely related links:  Altars, an Alternative View