I have a confession to make. Tonight I watched Glee with my daughter and I kind of liked it. I enjoyed how they handled the Rocky Horror Show (despite a couple of cringe worthy auto-tuned moments). I decided to comment about it here because it said something pretty important to the kids who watch it. It told them that they are not stupid. The whole episode was a commentary on how ridiculous society is for dancing around obvious themes in the arts in the name of protecting children. It’s because children are more likely to openly deal with and possibly accept these themes without the venom that is eventually forced down their throats by uncomfortable adults who would rather piss on things they don’t fully understand than accept them that makes the parents of today so damn scared. Wow, that was a mouthful.

Last week, Glee posted a preview of their rendition of Time Warp on YouTube and my daughter caught it. She asked me about it and I started to give her a little history lesson. I told her how it was a play that was made into a movie that is still shown in movie theaters around the world over 35 years after it was made. She wanted to know more, and more importantly, she wanted to see it. I didn’t think much of it – heck, I saw it when I was a little kid too! I queued it up on Netflix and the girl must have watched it a dozen times throughout the weekend. She re-watched the musical numbers over and over and sung along. She even made me learn Time Warp on guitar so we could sing it together. Needless to say, she gets into things head-over-heels.

She did pop a question about one of the more adult themes of the movie. “Dad, what’s a transvestite?” she asked during the first on-screen appearance of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. I explained to her that it is someone who cross-dresses, “Usually it’s a boy who wears girls’ clothing or vice-versa.” “Oh, OK. I think I get it. So, does he like boys or girls?” she asked. “I think he likes both, but it might make more sense when you realize just what he really is” I told her. I didn’t want to spoil the big reveal of him being an alien from the planet Transsexual, in the distant galaxy of Transylvania. That was it. No heart pumping, how do I explain this to a 5th grader flop sweat formed on my brow. She’s an extremely smart kid and she knows when we’re anything but straightforward with her. I couldn’t tell you exactly what she has taken from the movie, but I do know that she loves it dearly. And what’s not to love? The music is awesome and it has such an awkward cast of characters – it paved the road for guys like Tim Burton!

This takes me back to tonight’s episode of Glee. The main plot line is about whether or not Rocky Horror is inappropriate for high school kids. What I saw was clearly a commentary by the writers of Glee on their own restrictions of making a broadcast TV show about it. They made it quite obvious that they had their hands tied, and the only way they would get this cast to sing these classic songs on TV was make the show about the fact that they couldn’t do it. I thought it was brilliant – another case of taking your restraints and exploiting them to make something fresh and energetic.

I also thought it was sad. Kids are really smart and truly innocent, yet we as a society treat them like idiots and rob them of their innocence by filing their open minds with fear and hate. The vicious cycle of hatred of people who are different keeps living on because we not only allow it, we encourage it by avoiding uncomfortable conversations. We say we need to protect our children. From what? Sexuality? Faith? I think every parent needs to stop every once in a while and think about how they learned about life and who that knowledge first came from. I know I had a shithead of a brother who made up stories about how women got pregnant. He told me guys with chapped lips would kiss girls and the girls would swallow the skin flakes which would grow into babies in their bellies. What a dick! If I was told the truth in the first place by the right people I wouldn’t have such a hard time kissing family members on the lips to this day.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is one of the most famous lines from the Declaration of Independence, and I truly believe what I wrote about yesterday – that happiness is the wonder and joy of discovery. Let kids discover life and if you’re uncomfortable with how they are exposed to certain things, join them so they can have the proper context for the stuff they don’t understand (and maybe you too can discover new things that might bring you happiness). The best part of raising kids is watching them grow – not just physically, but mentally as well. Celebrate their passage into maturity, don’t repress it. What better way to spark those “uncomfortable” conversations than through art? Make the experiences cool and interesting and your kids won’t have weird hang-ups because some jerk fed them misinformation.

Now that my daughter has seen the movie and Glee’s take on it, I’m taking her to see Rocky Horror live at the Charleston Ballet this weekend. I know how excited she is for it, and because of that I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Today my wife and I picked up some new lighting effects for our upcoming Halloween party that we’re throwing for our kids. I’ve always wanted a plasma ball, and today I finally got to live vicariously through my children and actually purchase one. As my kids played around with it this evening it got me thinking, is the secret to happiness the wonder and joy of discovery? I’ll pause for a moment here and let that one sink in.

OK, here’s what I mean; children live life every day with their eyes wide open, and these gullible little people soak in everything without doubt. It’s those joyous feelings and experiences that get wrung out of people as they pass into adulthood and become cynical and sarcastic members of society. I still have brief moments where I feel those feelings of wonder when I learn a new trick with my camera, or figure out a way to fix a problem on a computer. More importantly, I feel that feeling when I experience an original piece of artwork – whether its a photo, a song, a movie, etc. I remember being let down by the movie Avatar because I was so excited at the promise of seeing this beautiful world that nobody has ever seen before only to be completely let down and distracted by the rehashed Pocahontas storyline. I’m sure a child would be much more engaged by this movie because they wouldn’t recognize it’s rehashed plot. As we grow older, it becomes more difficult to experience joy from new experiences when there are fewer new ideas in our sphere of influence to surprise us. Maybe that’s why so many older folks get the “grumpy” label thrown at them.

What to do to avoid this vicious downward spiral of grumpiness? I think that it’s easy – you need to expand you sphere of influence to include new experiences. Sure, the world has gotten much smaller since the explosion of the Internet, but for me it has made the access to new information, art, and music much broader, and no single person could explore it all in a single lifetime. The key is to step out and open your eyes. Look at a kid’s ability to soak in the world and try to relearn that lost or forgotten skill. If you asked me five years ago how much I cared about photography, I would have told you that I didn’t even think of it as an art form – it was just a way to freeze memories and that was all. Why would someone take a picture of something other than a person? My Grandfather was an amateur photographer and I used to snicker at his pictures of squirrels and birds and rocks – I didn’t understand why he took those pictures! Now that I’ve opened that door a bit wider, I completely get it.

What thing out there has you baffled or disinterested? Is it a type of food? Go to that Indian restaurant and try something new! Is it a style of music? Look in the local paper and find a punk rock show and experience it live! There are tons of things in life that I don’t even know if I truly like or dislike yet. You just gotta make sure to leave your prejudices at the door and go out and find something new… you crotchety old curmudgeon 😉