Sticking Up for The Little Guys

Ian had a bit of a confrontation today, with some of his peers.

He and his brother and sister were attending the "Recreation Center" - really  kind of hours-long de facto recess held at one of the elementary schools in our town, with not much structure and very modest fees.  The kids like this place, and it sounds pretty interesting - the children pretty-much make up their own activities with a little bit of structure from the teen- or twenty-something "teachers" in the program; sometimes that's the best way to have fun.

In any case, Ian was horrified to find a couple of the girls killing ants in the recess yard.  He confronted them about it (quite perplexed), and somehow he and some other children devised a strategy to save the ants (I didn't quite understand what they did, but apparently it was something of a rescue.)

I have been accused of harboring Hinduistic tendencies when it comes to not-killing insects, but years later, I found out that my (Russian Orthodox) godfather, Serge Conus, had some of the same impulses.  His son told me that if there was a bug - spider perhaps - in the house, Serge would do whatever he had to, to scoop it up with two pieces of paper and take it outside intact.  So I figure I must have "inherited" that tendency from my godfather, and while people might assume that Ian got it from me, in fact, Ian is partially (middle-)named after Serge himself, so the "gene" could be even more direct.

In any case, I was proud of the lad.

(July 29, 2013)