Happy Saturday and happy weekend!
Today's question is: Do you make up stories to your kids? Or did your parents make up stories to you?
Many parents make up stories to their kids as a tactic to change their behavior. My sister and I are no exception.
We had this weird nasty habit of licking fire hydrants. "Don't do it, you'll catch bacteria and die," never seemed to work with us. So one day our mom told us that the Goddess of Mercy resides in fire hydrants (we were raised Buddhists). The conversation went something like this:
"Really?"
"Sure. You know what a fire hydrant does?"
"It puts out fire."
"Think about it. A 12-storey building catches fire, and a tiny fire hydrant is able to put out all that fire. How is the water from the hydrant able to reach 12 floors and put out such a huge fire? Because the Goddess of Mercy gives the water enough force to boost it to that height."
In other words, magic.
From that day, we began to revere fire hydrants. Not only did we stop licking those things, we started carrying pennies around whenever we go outside. Every time we pass by a fire hydrant, one of us would stop and place a penny on top of it, bow to it, and walk backwards away.
Of course, pretty soon Dad asked us, "Why?"
"We are giving offerings to Kwan Yin."
At least it's better than licking them, right?
Today's question is: Do you make up stories to your kids? Or did your parents make up stories to you?
Many parents make up stories to their kids as a tactic to change their behavior. My sister and I are no exception.
We had this weird nasty habit of licking fire hydrants. "Don't do it, you'll catch bacteria and die," never seemed to work with us. So one day our mom told us that the Goddess of Mercy resides in fire hydrants (we were raised Buddhists). The conversation went something like this:
"Really?"
"Sure. You know what a fire hydrant does?"
"It puts out fire."
"Think about it. A 12-storey building catches fire, and a tiny fire hydrant is able to put out all that fire. How is the water from the hydrant able to reach 12 floors and put out such a huge fire? Because the Goddess of Mercy gives the water enough force to boost it to that height."
In other words, magic.
From that day, we began to revere fire hydrants. Not only did we stop licking those things, we started carrying pennies around whenever we go outside. Every time we pass by a fire hydrant, one of us would stop and place a penny on top of it, bow to it, and walk backwards away.
Of course, pretty soon Dad asked us, "Why?"
"We are giving offerings to Kwan Yin."
At least it's better than licking them, right?