Letter to my children: Indoctrinating Capitalism and Driving Lessons

“Dragon, I am not paying for you to play with the digging tool. I am paying you to weed.” Argh, I do not like that sentence. Boss Woman Hat doesn’t feel good. But - I am paying him and he is faffing and he needs to learn this.

“Okaaaayyyy.” Halfhearted swipes recommenced.

I looked over at his pile. Corinna, he is 7. Do not compare his pile with your pile. “Dearest, if you want to do something else. I understand.”

“No! I want the sword! We figured it out. I work an hour for four days and I will have enough to buy it with my own money.”

This is the world we live in. “Okay, but then you actually have to weed otherwise I am not going to pay you. Do you understand?”

“Yes Momma.”

Oh beloveds, me paying you to work in the garden is educational on so many levels and on the face of it - it is useful for me (the weeding gets done) and useful for you (you get your sword, dope slime, Taylor Swift song, etc).

I joke that our human history of -isms (capitalism, imperialism, colonialism) can be summarized very easily: “I don’t want to dig up my own potatoes.” Whether by slavery, indentured servitude, or the wage economy - humans have perfected many ways (often horrific) to have someone else sweating in the sun.

In our capitalist exchange - someone with means (your parents) compensates someone without means (you two) to do something you don’t really want to do, so you can purchase something you don’t need.

Obviously, you can be paid to do what you love. But all of us have had jobs where it is a means to an end - where you are working for food and shelter, not swords.

I guess home is a good place to first learn these lessons? I tell you though, I have much more fun doing the driving lessons - especially when there is just one of you in the car.

Recently we pulled into our road to get the mail.

“Can I drive?”

Wait for it…

“Dragon, you drove last time?!”

Right on cue! Take a deep breath Corinna.

“Bean, are you saying that you would like to drive?”

I took a breath.

“Yes! Dragon always...”

I interrupted, “Dragon, you drove earlier with me today. It is Bean’s turn.”

“Fiiiiiinnnneeee.” Dragon’s eye roll hit my neck.

Bean climbed onto my lap to steer and off we went the 1/2 mile back to the house.

Teaching you two to steer large heavy machines was not a deliberate decision. It was born from an emergency. On the return trip from dropping Bean at the school bus, the cart ran out of electricity. I pushed and Dragon steered. In my fervor to plug in the cart and get started with our lessons that morning I did not grok I had opened the door to driving lessons. And here we are.

I started driving the old farm truck around the field when I was about 13 or so. I can remember Baba sitting next to me slamming his foot down on the passenger side as I would take a corner too quickly. Right now, I am in charge of the pedals - and will be for the forseeable future. The next step of this teaching will be deliberate.

I love you both - growing so fast.