Nature & Nurture: Beauty and Strength

 My mother often asks me: "Has Bow said anything clever lately?" She is used to the frequent anecdotes from an earlier era, when Bow had just had his breakthrough, and there were daily stories of something new and unexpected that he had said.

As Bow arrived in his late teens, stories like that became few and far between, and now that Bow is in his twenties, he has become quite laconic. But today was an exception.

At lunch, a Jordan Peterson conversation with Frans de Waal popped up on my feed. I guess YouTube knew I would be interested. They were discussing the nature/nurture contribution to gender differences as well as what it takes to socialize males to show deference to females.

Bow, sated from his main course, made occasional grumbling agreement sounds to concur with what Peterson and de Waal were saying. From his own experience, he knew girls are less into rough and tumble play than boys are. After all, he'd had to go easy on his older sister, Sword, to get her to play with him at all. 

The discussion between Peterson and de Waal, which centered on the statistical backdrop to gender stereotypes, reminded me of the playful interactions between Sword and Bow depicted in the video clip embedded above. Bow, too, enjoyed the nostalgic view of days gone by. He watched the clip twice. Then he took my hand and spelled: 

"חרב יפה. זה טוב. רק קשת חזק."

"Sword is beautiful. That is good. Only Bow is strong."

So now I have another anecdote to share with my mother when we talk on the phone tomorrow.

Bow Turns Twenty

 Yesterday, Bow turned twenty. We celebrated with a cake which Bow's grandmother bought, a card from Bow's friend Charla, and a gift from me: a back pack stuffed toy.

Bow always gets excited every time the birthday song is sung, whether in Hebrew or English. He loves the can of Crush that he is served with his birthday cheesecake. He chose the plain cheesecake to eat this time. He had great fun opening his birthday card.  The birthday backpack was also a big hit!

He took it with him to bed when the day was over.

But he also enjoyed trying it on.

In fact, he tried it on in more than one way.

Bow used to have big parties attended by many guests. But the cozy, snug and private parties are the safest during a pandemic. And Bow still knows that many people all over the world are wishing him well on his birthday. 

For now, this is good enough, and we are happy.