Killing Monsters

My friends and I played cops and robbers when we were kids, and cowboys and Indians, and commanded regiments of little green soldiers and read comic books where eighteen of the twenty pages were hero and villain beating the crap out of each other. So far, most of us have lived relatively normal lives. It seems to me that if a kid brings a high powered rifle to school and blows away students, teachers and himself, there's a lot more going on there than one too many video games.

I happy to report that I'm supported in my intuition here by the book Killing Monsters, a review of the real need kids have for violent play and super heroes and all that. Turns out that, as common sense would tell us, we really have nothing to fear.

I can hold my head up now when fretful parents roll their eyes at me letting my six year old Leroy watch all that cartoon violence which is supposed to fold, spindle and mutilate his soul. I mean, if the Teen Titans can beat the bad guy into next week, won't Leroy want to do the same thing too?

"Killing Monsters" says that kids do understand the difference between fantasy and reality. I think it's right.

Leroy loves the big Star Wars media blitz. He loves the lightsabers and the action and says he wants to see the movie. He's interested in who's the Good Guy and who's the Bad Guy. This is important to him. He knows that there's difference between protecting someone and hurting someone, that there are Heroes and Villains. This is what fantasy is all about, even the fighting part. Kids want to be Heroes, and as small, powerless people, they intuitively understand how Villains can work. So they naturally want to imitate and emulate Heroes, larger-than-life characters able to chase the bad things away. Which children understand that they really can't do.

Leroy also likes living things. He loves animals, nature and the outdoors. He's fascinated by how plants and animals work, how they live and how they make more of themselves. This morning he and I came across a snail which was making its way along the sidewalk near school. It was crawling about six inches off the walk.

This worried Leroy. "We have to get him out of the street or a car will hit him," he said. I agreed. Leroy gently picked up the snail, and we found him a nice grassy place to drop him where he'd be safe and moist. A day later, we came across a worm wriggling on a hot sidewalk near another patch of grass by the school. This too demanded immediate response. Leroy worked for a long minute to catch the maniacally tossing slimy thing. Once he did, he dropped him into the grass and watched as the worm eased down into the green and dirt.

"He's back in his house now," Leroy stated quite matter-of-factly before going on into class.

I feel good. Even better, I feel safe. Leroy seems to understand that being bigger than the snail and the worm means that you have a responsibility to protect them when you can, not hurt them. Best of all, he feels good doing it. So tonight, we're curling up in front of several episodes of Cartoon Network's "Clone Wars" series. Leroy and I will both be rooting for the Heroes to win.