[00:01.72]Peeling Away Artifice for the Pure Original
[00:05.55]Sarah came running in. "Look what I found.
[00:10.10]"Over the top of the paper I was reading came a crispy,
[00:13.55]crumbling long object that caused me to jump.
[00:17.05]It was a snake skin that had been shed by one of our many garden snakes.
[00:21.10]"Isn't it beautiful?" said my wide-eyed seven-year-old daughter.
[00:26.02]I stared at the organic wrapper and thought to myself that
[00:29.30]it really wasn' t that beautiful,
[00:31.27]but I have learned never to appear nonchalant or jaded with children.
[00:35.65]Everything they see for the first time
[00:37.72]is elementary to their sense of beauty and creativity;
[00:41.22]they see only merit and excellence in the world until educated otherwise.
[00:46.47]"Why does it do this?" Sarah asked.
[00:49.42]Robert, ever the comedian, said:
[00:52.27]"We have a naked snake in our garden!"
[00:54.67]I also try to customize every opportunity to teach my children that
[00:59.16]there is almost always something beyond the obvious;
[01:02.11]that there is something else going on besides
[01:04.41]what they see in front of them.
[01:06.16]"Snakes shed their skin because they need to renew themselves.
[01:10.42]"I explained. As is so often the case in my family,
[01:13.60]the original subject leads to another and another,
[01:16.98]until we are discussing something quite different.
[01:20.05]"Why do they need to renew themselves?" Sarah asked.
[01:23.54]Robert quipped:"Because they don't like
[01:26.50]who they are and they want to be someone else."
[01:29.02]Sarah and I politely ignored her brother.
[01:31.86]I suddenly remembered an article on this page many years ago
[01:35.36]where the writer was expressing her concept of renewal.
[01:39.08]She used layers of paper over a wall to describe
[01:42.36]how we hide our original selves,
[01:44.88]and said that by peeling away those layers one by one,
[01:48.48]we see the underlying original beneath.
[01:51.77]"We often need to shed our skins,
[01:54.17]those coatings and facades that we cover ourselves with.
[01:57.45]"I said to my now absorbed daughter.
[02:00.19]"We outgrow some things and find other stuff unwanted or unnecessary.
[02:04.99]This snake no longer needs this skin.
[02:08.06]It is probably too stiff and crinkly for him,
[02:11.01]and he probably doesn't think he looks as smart in it as he once did.
[02:14.62]Like buying a new suit."
[02:16.81]Of course, I'm sure this explanation won't sit well
[02:20.20]with bonafide naturalists.
[02:21.95]But Sarah was getting the point.
[02:24.03]As we talked, I knew that she began to comprehend, albeit slightly,
[02:28.84]that renewal is part of progress;
[02:31.47]that we need to take a good look at ourselves,
[02:33.76]and our rooms and schoolwork and creativity and spirituality,
[02:38.57]and see what we need to keep and what we need to cast off.
[02:42.40]I was careful to point out that this is a natural process,
[02:45.90]not one to be forced.
[02:47.98]"Snakes don't peel off their skin when they feel like it.
[02:51.80]"I explained.
[02:53.01]"It happens as a natural consequence of their growth."
[02:56.72]"I see, Dad." said Sarah and jumped off my lap,
[03:00.12]grabbed the snakeskin, and ran off.
[03:02.20]I hoped she would remember this.
[03:04.16]That often, in order to find our real selves
[03:06.79]underneath the layers of community and culture with which
[03:10.29]we cloak ourselves year after year,
[03:12.36]we need to start examining these layers.
[03:15.76]We need to gently peel some away,
[03:18.38]as we recognize them to be worthless, unnecessary, or flawed;
[03:22.86]or at best, store the discarded ones
[03:26.37]as mementoes of our promotion to a better vitality or spirit.
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