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The University of Animated Characters


Followers of my wife on facebook may have noted a few days ago (epiphany to be exact for reasons that will become obvious) a comment concerning the sources of information drawn on by our youngest son and a question as to whether she should be encouraged or despairing... What happened was that we were having a discussion about the 12 Days of Christmas, Twelfth Night and Epiphany, whilst taking down the Christmas decorations (we often have such high-brow conversations in our house). Our 15 year old son asked "What's Epiphany mean?" to which Ciaran, our 10 year old said "Epiphany - a sudden realisation..."

"Where did you learn that Ciaran?" I asked, only to be told "The Simpsons Movie."


On Saturday we had a second episode - I came into the kitchen to find him discussing Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's 5 Stages of Grief with his mum... The source of this bizarre conversation - a section in his "Spiderman Handbook" entitled "How to Deal with the Death of a Loved One". This, apparently is important since the "Bureau of Superhero Statistics" suggests that the friends and relatives of masked do-gooders are 61 times more likely to suffer tragic (and bizarre) deaths than the general population. Hence Kubler-Ross's much misunderstood stages of grief were translated into the webslinger's words of wisdom as follows:

1) Denial: "She can't be dead. She'll turn up and everything will be fine."

2) Anger: "How could this happen to me? It's not fair!"

3) Bargaining: "If she comes back I promise never to wear the costume again."

4) Depression: "The world is an ugly place full of shape-shifting villains and psychotic robots."

5) Acceptance: "Wow. She really is dead. Well... on to the next one."

Also, super-heroes have an added layer of guilt... the feeling that "if only I'd been there sooner, she'd be alive."

All very amusing... but I wouldn't recommend passing this on to anyone coping with actual grief, unless of course they too are complete Spiderman addicts.


In the meantime I look forward with anticipation as to where Ciaran's next nugget of knowledge comes from...
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Comments

jools said…
surely we should get a new blog now? 'The world according to Ciaran?!?' Looks like he's got your reflexive traits - hope he's got his mum's looks ;)
Monday, January 10, 2011 5:31:00 AM
Virtual Methodist said…
In a word often used by Ciaran "Oi!!!"
Monday, January 10, 2011 10:59:00 AM
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