Geek Parenting by Stephen H. Segal

Author:Stephen H. Segal [Segal, Stephen H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-59474-871-4
Publisher: Quirk Books
Published: 2016-04-04T16:00:00+00:00

Peter and Meredith Quill teach us:

SHARING YOUR LIFE’S SOUNDTRACK WITH YOUR KIDS IS AWESOME.

It is often said that children are like sponges. At birth, most of the brain’s one hundred billion neurons are not yet connected. But as children grow and learn, those connections are formed and reinforced at an astonishing rate. Everything we share helps shape who they are and becomes a part of our family’s common culture. The movies we watch, the books we read, the expressions we use, and the music we listen to: kids soak it all up, reflect it back, and it’s all woven into our collective memories and stories.

Peter Quill, the “Star-Lord” of the Guardians of the Galaxy 2014 film, knows just how important that kind of familial interconnection is. For twenty-six years in space, the only connection Quill has with his family or home planet is the “Awesome Mix” tape of his mother Meredith’s favorite pop songs from the 1960s and ’70s. The night she died, Peter was abducted from Earth by space pirates; that selection of music is his only link to the world he left behind. Peter calls upon the soundtrack throughout the film, from dancing to Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” among the ruins of Morag to challenging his enemy Ronan to a dance-off while singing the Five Stairsteps’ “O-o-h Child.”

Peter risks his life to recover the old Sony Walkman his mom’s mix tape lives in. When his companion Gamora asks him why, he explains that the device is for listening to music and dancing. Gamora scoffs, prompting Peter to recount the plot of a famous eighties movie as a fable: “On my planet, there’s a legend about people like you. It’s called Footloose. And in it, a great hero named Kevin Bacon teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that dancing—well, it’s the greatest thing there is.”

When Gamora finally gets Peter’s point—“We’re just like Kevin Bacon”—she shows how the Footloose story has become part of their little group’s common culture. Which is to say: when we take the time to share our favorite cultural touchstones with our children, we reveal some of what shaped who we are. They won’t realize it right away, and there will likely be lots of eye-rolling. Yet they can’t help but absorb some of our faves and mix them into their own ongoing soundtrack. That’s what heritage is all about.

Doctor Evil and Scott Evil teach us:

AT LEAST FRICKIN’ LISTEN TO THEM, OKAY?

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