Hergest Ridge

“Researchers have linked authoritarian childrearing with children who withdraw, lack spontaneity, and have lesser evidence of conscience.”[1] If you ask me, “unbalanced, unhappy, and guilt ridden” are other common side-effects of the strict father parenting method. Guilt of course is the main foundation of major religions.

Religion provides the young adult (now out in the real world) another strict father - this one has a direct line to anything you may otherwise deem private. Having developed a need for totalitarian authority, life without the strict father often leaves the offspring with the perpetual feeling ’something is missing’. Enter God.

With God at side, and a long list of commandments committed to memory, off to the voting booth it is. Obedient, faithful in the rule, and never strayed, one more never-ending task remains: to impose the wants of the big brother up in the sky, on all that are.

 
Sources

[1] Wikipedia - Strict Father Model

Somewhere around the second or third time listening to My Number by Tegan and Sara, a dissonant mutter began to drown out a line of the song. This of course has no real life significance to anyone but me, and for the longest time I let it go without a mention. I now break my silence, for the mutter turned to a chant and has since amplified exponentially.

It’s a silly time to learn to swim when you start to drown

It’s a silly time to learn to swim on the way down.

But it’s the perfect time! Of all the times, places and reasons to learn how to swim, drowning would be the best occasion. The payoff is at max. Even if you’re convinced that mingling with Death on your final homecoming parade is really just a start of something more beautiful, by the time you’ve taken a ride in the death cab, pushing up the daisies becomes a full time occupation. You’re an ex-human, and that’s that. Unless of course you can learn how to swim before the sirens make their delivery.