Making Room for Pirates In Our Pluralistic Society

Sometimes things click into place for Daniel when I least expect them to.

The other night, we were looking at the cable service's schedule of  shows to watch, and I noticed that The History Channel was showing a program called "Vikings."  I mentioned it, and suddenly Daniel was interested; he remembered that Vikings were kind-of like pirates, so of course he wanted to watch the program.  A few minutes of viewing what turned out to be more a soap opera than a documentary convinced me that it really wasn't for children - at all! - but Daniel still wanted to keep watching it.

Then this afternoon, Madeleine wanted to play "Princess and Pirate Ship," in the back yard.  When Daniel asked me if I'd play with him, I broke the news that I was going to be busy playing Princess and Pirate Ship with Madeleine, but I hadn't realized that there was something in the title for young Daniel as well.  He eager volunteered his services as a pirate, and soon the three of us were playing nicely together.

But it turned out that Daniel wasn't completely your run-of-the-mill pirate:  "Madeleine, sometimes I'm gonna be a ninja, and sometimes I'm gonna be a pirate."

I had made the silly assumption that we were actually pirates of the princess, so to speak, kind of like court rogues.  At one point, Madeleine had complained that the kiddie pool was a shark who was threatening her, so I eagerly jumped off the Princess-and-Pirate-Play-Structure-Ship and attached the pink, plastic villain, scaring yonder scurvy shark away from the princess.  But according to Daniel, this wasn't exactly part of my mission:

"We're both supposed to get Madeleine.  You're not supposed to protect her, but we still are battling for me."

Meanwhile, Madeleine clarified that her character, too, could not be conflated with the villains playing across from her:  "Daddy, Princess Pink is not a real pirate; she's just a normal princess, and she's good!"

So somehow these contrasting pink-and-black-hued character types found a way of carving out a place for each other in their colorful, polarized worlds.

(April 7, 2013)