As humans age, mature and leave youth behind, ceremonies across the globe celebrate with rites of passage marking the journey. Many are sacred of course, baptism and bar mitzvah, are usual examples. Lots though are family customs to do with conveying on some type of understanding from one generation to the next. The next one I'm looking forward to is demonstrating fishing to my boy.
In prehistoric periods, it would have been a survival desire to be able to pass on the skills to one's progeny to be able to fetch lunch. I think that what went for going to a fishing tackle shop in Neanderthal ages would have been to peg some sort of spear and doing a dance to praise the gods and persuade them to make the catch a bountiful one.
In these times, such customs will be different according to civilisation and geography. Not all are as passive as fishing. I imagine that a notable event in the life of a maturing boy in Afghanistan would be to be given his 1st AK47 as soon as he is strong enough to carry, and taught to fire it by his dad, always supposing his father is alive and in a decent condition to conduct the lesson.
Not all rites of passage are a family practice of course. Where a father will take his child to the fishing tackle shop, budding urban sophisticates will call a dealer suggested by a chum or media colleague and score their debut line of cocaine. And how thrilling it must be to be part of a world of such glamour! Sniffing deeply on a powerful powder which will have passed through the gastric tract of a West Indian woman at least once! The knowledge that you have been paying to sponsor the quest to supply it which sponsors arms deals, killings in Mexico and Afghanistan. Other substances are available of course, and these can have the extra thrill of paying for the mines which maim and kill UK and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. It must be terribly exciting to be part of all that.
Of course to those of us who require a simple life, getting or making food helps to play a vital part of the family journey where the first truffle hunt in France, the first fishing trip anywhere there may be a body of water, teaching a child to plant a seed and observe it grow and bear fruit are as important as the tales told and games played through childhood which stimulate the brain and help development and education.
For me though, it is the visit to the fishing tackle shop to purchase my lad his 1st rod and reel and then on to the pond side and instructing him how to piece them all together to catch his first fish, and then hoping that he takes to it and carries on to want to go fishing with his dad, and later with his mates.
20110328
In prehistoric periods, it would have been a survival desire to be able to pass on the skills to one's progeny to be able to fetch lunch. I think that what went for going to a fishing tackle shop in Neanderthal ages would have been to peg some sort of spear and doing a dance to praise the gods and persuade them to make the catch a bountiful one.
In these times, such customs will be different according to civilisation and geography. Not all are as passive as fishing. I imagine that a notable event in the life of a maturing boy in Afghanistan would be to be given his 1st AK47 as soon as he is strong enough to carry, and taught to fire it by his dad, always supposing his father is alive and in a decent condition to conduct the lesson.
Not all rites of passage are a family practice of course. Where a father will take his child to the fishing tackle shop, budding urban sophisticates will call a dealer suggested by a chum or media colleague and score their debut line of cocaine. And how thrilling it must be to be part of a world of such glamour! Sniffing deeply on a powerful powder which will have passed through the gastric tract of a West Indian woman at least once! The knowledge that you have been paying to sponsor the quest to supply it which sponsors arms deals, killings in Mexico and Afghanistan. Other substances are available of course, and these can have the extra thrill of paying for the mines which maim and kill UK and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. It must be terribly exciting to be part of all that.
Of course to those of us who require a simple life, getting or making food helps to play a vital part of the family journey where the first truffle hunt in France, the first fishing trip anywhere there may be a body of water, teaching a child to plant a seed and observe it grow and bear fruit are as important as the tales told and games played through childhood which stimulate the brain and help development and education.
For me though, it is the visit to the fishing tackle shop to purchase my lad his 1st rod and reel and then on to the pond side and instructing him how to piece them all together to catch his first fish, and then hoping that he takes to it and carries on to want to go fishing with his dad, and later with his mates.
20110328
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