I think maybe "come clean" was not the best phraseology. I don't mean that we have to admit wrongdoing to our kids, but tell them what we value and inform them that the wider culture not only does NOT value that thing, but that it actively fights against those values.
I think it does make sense to teach these values to our kids, because if we don't teach them what we believe, sooner or later, someone else will teach them what THEY believe. My wife's parents are really conservative Christians, but her dad has social anxiety issues, so they never went to church and they never bothered to teach my wife anything about their social values, so then she met me, who is an over-the-top liberal (at the time) Pagan tree-hugging vegetarian... Guess what she is now? Not a conservative.
One of the guiding principals of liberal parenting, it often seems to me, is to not really teach your kids a lot in terms of black and white and what we believe about the world because we don't want to impose our views on them. But I stand firm in Terence McKenna's vision of an "archaic revival" and I wonder how we can ever get there if we don't value our own opinions enough to think that they're worthy of being passed on to the next generation? The shamans in the jungle don't live their lives as if ayahuasca is a non-issue and just let the kids figure out what's going on on their own. Traditional cultures have initiation ceremonies and coming-of-age sacramental rituals which bring young people into the adult culture. These are the kinds of things we need, I think. One of the strong points made in "DMT the Spirit Molecule" movie is that there is no mechanism for us, the modern shamans to bring our knowledge into the wider culture where it can be incorporated and mainstreamed the way there is in traditional cultures. This isn't true, though. We DO have a route, and that is us teaching our children about these things, teaching them that they are not only OK, but something that the human race NEEDS in order to evolve. We also teach them that while we hold this to be true, we must also be weary of those who seek to destroy these states of mind. Also, your kids are GOING to try most of this stuff sooner or later. Would't you rather they do mushrooms with you under the right set and setting rather than trying to buy MDMA at a club and actually getting PCP and ending up in jail, or getting Roffies and having your daughter get raped by some creeper?
The reason why young Evangelicals and Pentecostals are so passionate about their faith is because they are taught there is a war going on where Christians are a persecuted minority and that the wider culture is diametrically opposed to Christianity and a Christian way of life. This is, of course, a stretch to say the least. While I would agree, that from their perspective, American culture is increasingly secular. However, one of the beefs they have against Obama is that they believe he is actually a secret Muslim. I have regularly tried to point out the contradiction of thinking BOTH that a Muslim had to pretend to be Christian in order to get elected in the USA AND ALSO believing that Christianity is a persecuted minority in said same country... But I digress....
If we are to mainstream our values in a way that will change hearts and minds, we HAVE to teach our values to our kids in more than just an "osmosis" kind of way. We also have to develop ways of bringing them into the mysteries at appropriate ages. My son cannot wait to receive his first communion next year. Wouldn't it be great if he had hyperspace to look forward to in the same way... "OK, son, when you're 15, you can meet the elves."
If that were the kind of society we developed in our home, then I could share with him the magical fascination of the first primordia growing in my jelly jars, so seeing the way DMT crystal precipitate out of the naphtha in the freezer. He LOVES science. He'd adore this just as much as I do. And it would give him such a HUGE heads-up when he finally got to organic chem in high school, then what a head-start he'd have on me!
We can only expect to make strides in these culture wars and in the very evolution of consciousness if we are able to pass on knowledge from one generation to the next in an effective way.
One of the arguments I've heard, and used myself, is that if I told my kid what I'm up to, that he'll be convinced to unwittingly ratting you out to a DARE cop at school. I don't know if they still have DARE or not, but you know, conservative Christianity has an answer for us here, as well. Homeschooling or private schools. If your kids' school is not just teaching your kid values that contradict your own, but actively encouraging them to subvert the values you hold dear and turning them into agents against your way of life, it isn't US that needs to change, it's the place we're sending our kids to school.
Someone shared a Terence talk with me recently that I'd never heard before:
and
One of the many things covered in the hour-ish of talking here, is he says, if (paraphrasing), "I hate it when I go over to someone's house and they say 'we have to wait for the kids to go to bed to smoke' [cannabis]. If you can't tell your kids about your use of plants, you're a fucking coward"
I felt VERY convicted by this statement. It was hard to hear, but hard to hear because, ultimately, he's right. I can drink a beer in front of my kid and nothing bad happens. He understands that alcohol is a "grown up drink". And I consider alcohol, on the "good drug/bad drug" scale to we WAAAAYYY over on the "bad" side when compared with cannabis, DMT, mushrooms, salvia.... things which my kid has never even SEEN before (with the exception of some DMT I was scraping off a plate and described as "crumbs I'm making for your uncle's birthday present." ) So... How do we actually LIVE and SHARE our values while still raising kids inside the culture?
Discuss....
