Curious if other parents of a more animist disposition find themselves struggling to both explain phenomena according to natural laws and also encouraging, for lack of a better term, the innate magical thinking of their children? I have no idea how to navigate that.
@nathanlovestrees I think children are generally natural animists. One of the simplest things I think you can do, (which is my and perhaps your default, but can certainly be done with intention) is to just use person pronouns (in a wide variety of genders) and/or titles and etc. for things that are generally called "it" within settler culture (as "it" denies personhood and kinship). So, you know, "The tree used xylem to draw water from xir roots to xir leaves," e. g. 😊
@handmade_ghost@nathanlovestrees 100% this. I raised my daughter on "animal people" and "tree people" and "who is this?" when identifying plants or animals. Discouraging the attitude that humans are somehow different or special does a lot of work.
@Oozenet@handmade_ghost yeah thankfully this is something already on my radar (and he helps remind me because he has taken to this way of speaking and thinking quite readily!)... I also try to take it to the next level, which is admittedly trickier, and talk about the multitude of different ways that beings and persons can exist: there are tree ways to do things and tree ways to be, bird ways to do things and bird ways to be, human ways to do things and human ways to be, etc.
@nathanlovestrees@handmade_ghost You might read him The Sword In The Stone by T.H. White. It is about the education of King Arthur by Merlin. One thing Merlin does is turn Arthur into different animals to see the world through their eyes. Depending on the age of your son, if the book is too much for him yet there is a disney version.
@Oozenet@handmade_ghost I love that movie, probably ruined the VHS tape as a kid haha... And actually I've been reading the vita merlini and have been working on a blog post about this very thing!
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