As folk grow up, mature and leave youth behind, conventions across the continents celebrate with rites of passage marking the journey. A Number are holy of course, baptism and bar mitzvah, are obvious examples. Many though are family rites of passage to do with transferring on some kind of knowledge from one generation to the next. The next one I am looking forward to is demonstrating fishing to my boy.
In ancient periods, it would have been a survival desire to be able to pass on the knowledge to one's children to be able to hunt lunch. I suppose that what passed for going to a fishing tackle shop in Neanderthal periods would have been to peg some type of spear and executing a dance to honour the gods and persuade them to make the catch a good one.
In our times, such customs will be different depending on civilisation and geography. Not all are as peaceful as fishing. I suppose that a notable moment in the life of a growing boy in Afghanistan would be to be presented with his first AK47 as soon as he is strong enough to hold it, and shown how to fire it by his papa, always supposing his father is alive and in a physical condition to conduct the lesson.
Not all rites of passage are a family ceremony of course. Where a dad will take his son to the fishing tackle shop, maturing city sophisticates will call a dealer suggested by a chum or media colleague and get their first line of cocaine. And how exciting it must be to be involved in a world of such glamour! Sniffing deeply on a powerful powder which will have passed through the digestive passage of a West Indian woman at least once! The knowledge that you have been paying to fund the quest to supply it which funds arms deals, killings in Mexico and Afghanistan. Other products are available of course, and these can have the extra excitement of buying the bombs which maim and kill UK and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. It must be really thrilling to be part of all that.
Naturally to those of us who want a simple life, hunting or finding food helps to play a vital part of the family journey where the 1st truffle hunt in Italy, the first fishing trip anywhere there may be a body of water, helping a child to sow a seed and see it grow and give fruit are as vital as the tales told and games played through childhood which fire the mind and aid development and education.
For me though, it's the adventure to the fishing tackle shop to buy my boy his first rod and reel and then on to the canal towpath and showing him how to piece them all together to catch his first fish, and then hoping that he enjoys and continues to want to go fishing with his father, and later with his mates.
20110328
In ancient periods, it would have been a survival desire to be able to pass on the knowledge to one's children to be able to hunt lunch. I suppose that what passed for going to a fishing tackle shop in Neanderthal periods would have been to peg some type of spear and executing a dance to honour the gods and persuade them to make the catch a good one.
In our times, such customs will be different depending on civilisation and geography. Not all are as peaceful as fishing. I suppose that a notable moment in the life of a growing boy in Afghanistan would be to be presented with his first AK47 as soon as he is strong enough to hold it, and shown how to fire it by his papa, always supposing his father is alive and in a physical condition to conduct the lesson.
Not all rites of passage are a family ceremony of course. Where a dad will take his son to the fishing tackle shop, maturing city sophisticates will call a dealer suggested by a chum or media colleague and get their first line of cocaine. And how exciting it must be to be involved in a world of such glamour! Sniffing deeply on a powerful powder which will have passed through the digestive passage of a West Indian woman at least once! The knowledge that you have been paying to fund the quest to supply it which funds arms deals, killings in Mexico and Afghanistan. Other products are available of course, and these can have the extra excitement of buying the bombs which maim and kill UK and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. It must be really thrilling to be part of all that.
Naturally to those of us who want a simple life, hunting or finding food helps to play a vital part of the family journey where the 1st truffle hunt in Italy, the first fishing trip anywhere there may be a body of water, helping a child to sow a seed and see it grow and give fruit are as vital as the tales told and games played through childhood which fire the mind and aid development and education.
For me though, it's the adventure to the fishing tackle shop to buy my boy his first rod and reel and then on to the canal towpath and showing him how to piece them all together to catch his first fish, and then hoping that he enjoys and continues to want to go fishing with his father, and later with his mates.
20110328
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