I <COSTANZA> NJ: Imploring Toddlers to Embrace Home Sweet Home & Society Simultaneously

This is not the blog I intended to write today:

I tried to write something inspired by my failed attempt to teach Margo that the next time someone at daycare pulls her hair, she should channel her inner-George Costanza and yell, “we’re living in a society!!”

She’s a midwest princess living in a late-stage capitalist democracy

Margo had fun shouting the phrase a few times, but ultimately rejected my lesson and told me, “we no live in society, we live in home sweet home!!” That made me realize that too many Americans adults today think the same way as a toddler.

This weekend Margo also enjoyed playing a game where I was banned from the porch and she crushed me in the screen door whenever I tried to get back in.

We’ve been trained to focus on building up the comforting walls of our home sweet homes, dig our heads in the cozy sands of our customized digital backyards, and ignore that we also live in a society and there’s a lot of messed up shit going on right outside our window. We’re letting our communities become more divided and hateful, when what we really need is more unity and empathy.

But the Packers almost lost to the Cowboys Sunday night before eventually tying around 12:10am and then I had to get up less than five hours later to get Margo ready for school and go to work, so as I tried to synthesize my thoughts, I found my typing descending into judgmental incoherent ramblings.

Margo happily holding court amidst the society she’s so quick to reject.

So I scrapped that draft and I don’t think I have anything to say that I can eloquently articulate at this point, and I’m not sure how long it’ll take my two-year-old to accept that she lives in her home sweet home and society simultaneously, but I hope the grownups who claim to want to lead us realize it before she does.

…and she’s a fast learner, so they better hurry up.

My Song of the Day: “Don’t Worry About The Government” by Talking Heads

At Italian Fest, Margo was mad when I only gave her one $20 bill, but ecstatic when Tara gave her two singles because it was more… perhaps another microcosm of life today?