The mandate from heaven

One of the reasons I love National Public Radio is that their reporters give you a holistic approach to news, that gives you cultural flavor as well as the facts.

One of their stories on the killer earthquake in China is a perfect example of that.

Morning Edition offered a political analysis of the earthquake that included the concept of a mandate from the heavens.

According to Chinese culture, the heavens give a mandate to earthly rulers, but if the rulers fail in some way, then the heavens rescind that mandate and give an ominous sign in the form of a terrible earthquake or massive famine or another natural disaster.

So despite the official atheism, the Communists are a little worried about how the earthquake will play out.

As a student of Chinese culture, I find this fascinating.

And as an American frustrated with the current White House resident, that concept sure puts Hurricane Katrina in a new light for me.

Color code

The other day, I drove my son home as we discussed one of my imminent Mother's Day presents - a cake apparently destined for my home.

My son told me, "I'll eat this cake even though it's pink and pink is a girl color."

"Oh," I responded. "Who told you that?"
"It's just a rule I made up."

I continued to question him on this line of thinking, trying to figure out if there was something that specifically triggered it, or if he had simply absorbed the old cultural standard that pink is for girls and blue is for boys.

I was curious since I had never droned that into his head. He's had "girlish" toys before and it didn't matter for a long time. He had this wonderful fuschia polo shirt that I loved (though his dad hated it.) And I have tried my best not to instill any sexist stereotyping.

However, he has come to the age when he realizes that girls are different and that in defining himself as a boy, he likes to act tough and play with trucks and avoid all things pink. He'll say things like tell his grandmother that when she goes to China, he wants a "boy toy" as a souvenir. And all of his girl toys are now starting to pile up on my bedroom dresser, because rather than throw them away, he'll give them as a gift to Mommy.

Since Mommy should have all the girl toys.

Blogged out

I realize now that it's been months since my last blog post.

If you're still reading me despite that long absence, I'm sorry.

I guess I've lost the time and inclination to blog, though I still have funny stories that I like to share.

What I'll try to do is catch up on some of the more recent tales. Then I won't feel so guilty.

Origins

It's been months since the scandal over lead-paint tainted toys from China raged. I remember having to cull through the Thomas the train toys and track every new recall announcement to find out whether we had such toys.

I'm not sure who started it, but the strategy being taught in many local families was to discuss that you should never put toys from China in your mouth. Of all the discussions we had with our 5-year-old, that lesson seemed to stick.

Just last night, though, the subject of Chinese toys came up again. And there was a new element, the fact that my son can now read, and can therefore identify which of his toys was made in China.

At bathtime, he read the label on his squeegee dolphin. Made in China. Then the sleek bottlenosed dolphin. Made in China. Then the plastic crab. The lobster. The orange fish.

We were done with his bath so he stepped out and I started to dry him. But he was a boy obsessed.

He stepped away from me, still undressed, to the little toy bin under the bathroom sink containing his other bath toys. He wanted to read each and every label.

We quickly figured out all the normal hiding spots for the information. The bellies of the whales and fish. Sometimes their back fin.

But time and again, he recognized the word China.

Finally, I urged him to stop since it was getting late and I needed to get him dressed. He growled: "All these toys from China are making me grumpy."