{"id":5719,"date":"2023-03-24T12:49:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T16:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=5719"},"modified":"2023-03-24T13:12:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T17:12:15","slug":"what-to-do-about-an-itch","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=5719","title":{"rendered":"“What to do about an itch?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bacon Scrapins<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 \u201c<\/strong>What to do about an Itch?\u201d<\/h4>\n

by Barry S. Wolfe<\/p>\n

Bacon Scrapins<\/em><\/strong> are the little bits of meat left in the greasy fry pan. They\u2019re tasty, but the \u2018nutrition\u2019 needs searching for. This tale is a<\/em> bacon scrapin<\/em><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen does a child become an adult?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

Dan and I were doing what most of our neighbours do regularly \u2013 walking around our \u20189-stop-signs\u2019-sized community. A long weekend had recently passed with lots of families getting together to celebrate their faith and a much-awaited opportunity to see each other in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat brought this up?\u201d he asked instead of venturing an opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you remember whenever the family got together and there was a lot of adult conversation? The youngest ones tended to whine for attention and the older ones butted in with stuff out of left field? Nothing to do with the topic of conversation?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYup! I\u2019ve got grandchildren. Nothing\u2019s changed.\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just wondering.\u201d I continued, \u201cAt what point do children stop whining, interrupting, stubbornly sticking to their own viewpoint, and start listening to others?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHmm.\u201d he considered, \u201cMaybe sometime after they no longer self-isolate with their electronic devices, stop hiding in an echo chamber of social media sites, and come out to interact with others who have different perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe,\u201d I said indecisively. \u201cHow do we account for all those of adult age, but still seem distant and unable to connect? Kids sometimes act out because they are frustrated by being unable to express themselves. They don\u2019t have all the words yet to be able to explain to themselves why they fell how they feel, and can\u2019t express themselves to others.<\/p>\n

So, they scream, whine, throw watercolour paint on walls, and wave their arms aimlessly. We need words with meaning to be able to understand ourselves and others. Not enough common words. Seems to be a pattern throughout history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout history? Like what?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been reading a book called, \u2018Loyal till Death\u2019<\/em>. It\u2019s the story of the rebellion in the North West in the 1880s, written from the natives\u2019 point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd?\u201d he probed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, adults didn\u2019t listen to each other then, either. The Indian tribes, after the buffalo had disappeared, had signed treaties to move onto reservations and farm, in return for government promises. The government promised to provide land in places of their choosing, farm tools, seeds, instruction on how to farm and food for the first several years when they were hungry if the crops failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd?\u201d he pushed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, the government in Ottawa reneged. It forced the tribes onto reservations where they didn\u2019t want to go. It didn\u2019t supply farm equipment and refused to provide food when crops failed.<\/p>\n

20% of some tribes starved because the Indian agents working for the John A. Macdonald government were trying to please their masters in Ottawa to get promoted and didn\u2019t tell the truth to Ottawa.<\/p>\n

They refused to provide food in an attempt to save money. The agents didn\u2019t listen to the natives, they didn\u2019t recognize starving people when seen with their own eyes. The agents insisted the Indians work for any food. Something about a Victorian value system is that \u2018everyone must work to survive, or starve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, was this unwillingness to listen to just by the agents, or was it also the government in Ottawa?\u201d Dan asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the sentiment of all easterners, regardless of a political party or language group. Government policies reflected voters\u2019 desires. The commonly held value system at that time was, \u2018You work or starve! They didn\u2019t want to pay to support someone else, just themselves. At that time, it was a moral ethic, a belief,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what are you saying?\u201d Dan pushed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I\u2019m answering my own question. When children become adults?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow so?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe, some children never become adults. Maybe they just get older and never become able to look past their own opinions, biases, and noise. Maybe some folks can never compromise, share air time in conversations or put themselves into others\u2019 situations, sensitively. Maybe they haven\u2019t found the words to understand each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see that a lot!\u201d Dan contributed. \u201cThey feel there\u2019s something not quite right but don\u2019t understand why. Misunderstanding is like an itch that you can\u2019t scratch!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat might be it!\u201d I exclaimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s it\u201d?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t reach the itch, you can\u2019t scratch! Discovering the itch can teach us how to scratch. Maybe, we could create a shared language to describe our values and find understanding.<\/p>\n

Talking with each other, describing the significance of historic symbols, could create common understandings about the past, and bring folks together in the future.\u201d I pontificated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds heavy,\u201d Dan put in. \u201cMaybe we\u2019re just trying to reach the places we haven\u2019t been able to scratch, yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAn itch we can\u2019t reach to scratch. There\u2019s a word for that.\u201d I concluded. \u201cWe have to get past our acnestis!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cItchy spot. Google it!\u201d<\/p>\n

As our path turned toward the lake Dan was mumbling softly about itching to deal with all the Canada Geese that loved our pond and refused to stop squawking and crapping on the pathways.<\/p>\n

NOTE: The characters\u2019 names in this Bacon Scrapins tale are fictional. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>You may send appropriate email comments to the writer at thisiswilmot@gmail.com<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bacon Scrapins \u2013 \u201cWhat to do about an Itch?\u201d by Barry S. Wolfe Bacon Scrapins are the little bits of meat left in the greasy fry pan. They\u2019re tasty, but the \u2018nutrition\u2019 needs searching for. This tale is a bacon scrapin. \u201cWhen does a child become an adult?\u201d I asked. Dan and I were doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4072,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5719","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5719"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5724,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5719\/revisions\/5724"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}