I can’t help it, it’s funny.
The first few days littlefirefae and real_pochacco spent in the Bay area with their mother were unseasonably hot. In their first conversation with sambear after arrival, real_pochacco couldn’t stop complaining about it. Of course, the apartment there doesn’t have air conditioning—apparently it isn’t a standard thing there at all.
Well, now it’s even hotter. When Sam called, he was told that littlefirefae had to be fetched from where she was just sitting in front of a fan. When he spoke with real_pochacco, though, the boy just went off on him about how environmentally irresponsible it is to use air conditioning at all. He was claiming that they were *choosing* to live without A/C because they didn’t want to cause “all that heat pollution.”
This is the child who was very unhappy when we even suggested that we might consider maybe sometimes possibly going camping as a family—because it would be too hot and sweaty and gross.
The boy really believes that he thinks for himself. In fact, he absolutely refuses to read books we recommend to him, for fear of being too heavily influenced by us. In the past, we’ve pointed out that always refusing to do what someone suggests, or what is popular, is to allow yourself to be controlled every bit as much as always doing what that person suggests or is popular. He didn’t like that conversation at all. He became an NPR addict over the last year and was very offended by my suggestion that he vary his information sources so as to get a more balanced view of what’s going on in the world.
He frequently acts as his mother’s mouthpiece to us. It’s very obvious when he does so because his speech patterns change. His mother seems to be painting us as some sort of radical right-wing fundamentalists* in conversations with him—she was appalled that Sam turned down her offer of some yard sign protesting the war in Iraq.
So to hear the boy who absolutely cannot stand one second of physical discomfort getting all self-righteous about the environmental damage our A/C is doing was simply too funny to ignore. Even second-hand.
So how should we honor his newfound environmental consciousness when he returns? Maybe by not buying any of those convenience foods (which he used to love) because they use too much packaging? Hey, we want to respect his choices as much as possible!
*Yes, that would be us, the polyamorous bisexual pagan Unitarian Universalists. But we must be conservatives, because we homeschool and I do have a concealed carry permit, ya know?
