Kid Nation

It's 2:00am on Wednesday night. I should be asleep. I have work tomorrow. Well, I'm not asleep. Instead I'm typing here. I'm too tired to really make any significant sense. Zoe is asleep. She's out like a light. Her grandma spent the day with her. She'll be doing the same tomorrow and Friday. My mom really loves spending time with Zoe. They play with every toy. They lay a blanket down in every room. They sing every song. They read every book. Zoe will probably be asleep for an entire week after all the stimulation she got today. By the time I got home, Zoe was in a trance. She was sleep-squawking and waving her arms in every direction. She finally calmed down. I held her, walked her around a bit. Calmly, she drifted to sleep.

She's 3 1/2 months old now. She really looks like Jess and Jess' mother. Her forehead looks like me a little bit, but that's it. She's kind of a watcher. She studies people. I think she's gonna be pretty outgoing. That's the vibe I get. She'll be kind of wild. She has ringleader potential, but it's too early to tell.

Jess and I watched "Kid Nation" tonight. It's really funny to see all the kids competing in these challenges, and trying to communicate rationally. The show is kind of wild. Some people feel that it's unethical. I don't think that. I think there's potential for great danger and disaster (if it weren't secretly chaperoned). Ultimately, I think it 's kind of inspirational. It really champions all the different personality recipes that the human race is comprised of. One episode, the hero is a calm orator. In another, its the diligent dishwasher. In a third, it's the courageous cowboy wild-child that becomes the hero. I see these kids do things that I couldn't do now, let alone when I was 8-13. They have their struggles no doubt. They really fight and argue and gang up on each other. The drama of the confrontation always seems to give way to a somewhat reasonable approach to their dilemma. It can seem like their society is a slippery slope (sound familiar). One catastrophe, and all is lost. But that's not likely.

They do a good job of selling the concept of the show. They sell the question, "Can kids be responsible and skillful enough to make a small town work?" The question is cute in itself. The show isn't necessarily true to the question. The show introduces separate working-classes, and frames out a new problem to be solved each week. That's obviously unnatural. I accept it though.

I tend to hate reality shows in general. Because people are hip to them. I like sincerity. Sincerity is interesting to me. Adults are usually insincere in the front of the camera (whether they mean to be or not). But these kids, even though they possess really impressive social intelligence. They're still young enough to not have a very concrete identity. And so they have less to lose, and they put it all on the line. I'm impressed with their leadership ability, and often with their ability to stand up against a large group with an opposing opinion. Anyway, I'm just rambling now.

What I was really saying was, I like to daydream about how Zoe would act if she were on the show. I like to meditate on that question. It's fun. You daydream about how you would want her to be. And in that daydream, you can learn a lot about your personal concept of a hero. You can learn about your concept of social responsibility. Despite its obvious caveats, the show really does a great job of paring down the challenges and conflicts that take place in the larger world.
It's good fun.