The Boy Teacher and the Man Student 22 (Head to Head to Provoke)

Funny that word provoke. It is like rebuke and repent. The real meanings get lost in the PC dogma of the times and situations. Keep in mind that in the U.S.A. school children do not learn meanings of words until about 9^th grade or high school. We dummied them down since the late eighties or even nineties. Unless they have an outstanding teacher, they only learn definitions. If you do not learn the etymology of key/important words you simply do not understand the word. Of course we know “and”. But words like derogatory or energy are lost to a half a line sentence.

So to provoke. How about “stir it up”? Cool concepts in a closer look. The real core of provoke is to elicit a response. Or kind of, to create a situation that calls for a response. Who does not like the term provocateur? The essence of social stirring it up comes from Paul of the Bible. Which is very positive in its usage.

So my young son and I provoke each other. We like to stir it up. We are not allowed to use the words stupid or fool to describe anyone. So we use other words to say the same thing. Yes I am the thought police around here ;-)

B: Why do you always grunt and sigh, it sounds like you are kind of sick.

D: First off you little pin head, I don’t always do it, do I? Use your words properly. I should do the grunting and sighing more silently. But in fact they are breathing tools a lot like deep breathing to calm down.

B: That sounds like an excuse dad.

D: Go for it, make a big sigh.

B: Oh I get it, you have to breathe in deep to sigh. And that is really good for you. But it sounds like you think the person talking is full of bull. Hey it is ok to say bull if you do not say the rest, right?

D: That is a great question and really important. When we get excited or startled or hurt we blurt out the words in our head. So if you say bull but think the full word, that full word will come out. And that is bad ju ju in front of women and in places like church or school. So I would not get into a thought habit of saying bull.

B: But you said not to let others tell you how to think. Only learn about how they think.

D: You are so right but don’t you think I was just telling you my opinion and I am entitled to that.

B: I hear you cuss. You should get those thoughts out of your brain.

So be it. Another slightly opaque using of “say as I tell you not what I say”. I am such a hypocrite. Thank goodness I have the boy to call me on my “bull” ;-)

Yes I know about the above, not cussing in front of women and not using stupid and fool about someone are kind of arcane and in a backward slight way misogynistic. Sometimes respect for a class of people is just another form of prejudice.

So we move now to the elder son and a conversation while backcountry backpacking at a time when the son’s physical prowess is just starting to overtake the Dad’s. About 19 years old and 45 years old.

B: Dad I was thinking that you used to hike slow so I could keep up.

D: No I hike slow because I love where I am at and am in no hurry to end the journey.

B: Sounds like one of your boring lectures. So really you walk slowly because you are too weak to hike fast.

D: Well duh! Of course that is part of it. But smartass do you know you just brushed up against Toxicodendron radicans.

B: OK I will bite; what is that?

D: Don’t worry I will tell you in about an hour at about where the Stromatolites are visible.

B: Oh so I can’t beat you hiking so you fall back on fancy words that no normal person knows?

D: Go with what you know kid. Now get the heck out of here and go at your own pace.

About two hours pass.

D: So son did you even check out the stromatolites or did you just breeze by them.

B: I figured it out, now I remember about those fossils, slimy shallow sea deposits.

D: Did you figure out about Toxicodendron radicans?

B: No I did not get into the Poison Ivy enough to get a rash. Easy to figure “Toxic” and “Dendron”.

D: See I taught you well.

B: Sorry dad try 12^th grade botany and 11^th grade geology. I bet you do not remember what KPCOFGS

D: Really you think that I forget everything I knew? Kingdom, phylum, classes, order, families, genus, and species . And that is old school wrong. It is DKPCOFGS.

B: You say that because I have no way to check down here.

D: No you forgot on purpose because you don’t like me having dominion over you.

B: Damn! I know I left out Dominion.

B: See you at the river old man. Maybe I will make some Mormon tea for you for your aching muscles.

About four years later with the elder son, kicking back enjoying some of his homemade Kamchatka.

B: So dad, if souls aren’t born and souls do not die what do they need a host for?

D: What?

B: Souls exist without a human body. So why would they take up with a human body?

D: You make souls sound like a parasite.

B: Kind of the point dad.

D: You are trying to trap me in that area of where science ends and faith begins. What? Just another excuse not to attend church?

B: You are the most evasive SOB I know.

D: You do know that in the good old days if you called me a SOB it meant I could punch you for free.

B: Again? Ya ya it meant the guy was calling your mother a bitch. Get over it. And now answer the question.

D: You do know that not all questions have a black and white answer.

B: Yes and that is at the core of theories. Answer the damn question and don’t try that answering with a question crap like some kind of guru.

D: Alright instead of calling it a Holy mystery I will give it straight up. Souls, aside from living inside and outside, are benevolent. Aside from not dying or being born they are creatures of love. Love needs to manifest in order to be true love. And without a soul there can be no love. So like an angel taking a human form, so do souls use a human body. You really cannot believe there is a soul without there being an energy of alpha and omega, omnipotence and omnipresence. Otherwise it makes no sense that a soul is eternal. So it hops in a living form to fulfill the one energy that fits all – love.

B: I thought you said “straight up” your answer is faulty on so many levels. It does not logically flow from premise to conclusion.

D: Love has its own logic and love trumps logic.

B: I don’t buy it. Let’s go for that hike now.

When does the rule that dads are supposed to have answers end and the rule that children should have the answers begins?