Questions

I'm sitting here by my parent's wood stove, typing, while they watch a Joan Baez documentary. Watching Joan's involvement during the Civil Rights Movement, Dad spews: "God, this was the 60's, just YESTERDAY, and people were so RETARDED. Disgusting." (My dad is a weird mixture, both very accepting and completely un-PC with his language at the same time. Am I glad he's not a bigot? Yup. Am I glad he uses words like 'retarded'? Nope.) Mom goes to get a history book to confirm the actual date of the Civil Right's Bill. Now they are moving on to Joan's pacification efforts. Ira has wandered in from the kitchen where he was happily sailing little bowls in the sink, and Mom is attempting to answer Ira's questions about why the singer got thrown in jail for standing at the draft induction line and telling men they don't HAVE to go. Mom is trying to explain that people occasionally go to jail for doing good things because sometimes the laws are wrong, not the people. Interesting to see what a four year old naturally perceives as right or wrong. Interesting also to see my mother explaining these things. If my mom had more balls, she'd have been a kick-ass activist. (See that? I am my father's daughter after all...I just sounded exactly like him right there.)

Although they have no idea of this, watching my folks watch movies is wicked funny, usually more entertaining, in fact, than the movie itself. They never just sit and WATCH like other people do. Movies are entirely interactive. They stop them occasionally to clarify things, take notes, look stuff up, and discuss it all. They have now pressed the pause button to argue about how long Joan's husband David Harris was in jail, and trying to recall how they felt about it back then.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't write you a review on this film because I don't know if I'd be writing about it, or about the behind-the-scenes commentary from my parents, which is practically a movie in itself. Anyway, I forgot the name. THEY, however, appear to be enjoying it very much, as both are still in their long johns this morning, transfixed by a high pitched warble singing of peace and equality. They have amassed, on the sofa's end table, several books, a magnifying glass, and many questions, which is always a good thing, I think. Questions. At four OR sixty, questions are good.