Thursday 27 September
2007
After reading the original story of Iron John by the brothers' Grimm again, I decided to create "Language of the Birds and Beasts". The title of this work is a play on the original "Birds and the Bees". Older men need to tell the younger men the 'language of all the birds and all the beasts of the field', or in other words, younger men need an older mentor to initiate them into the 'male tribe'. Without this initiation most men feel disconnected and misplaced for the largest part of their lives. Some men never understand the 'language of birds and beasts'.
"The general assumption underlying all initiatory rites is that unless a young male is shown real power through a community of wise elders, he will always seek false power and will likely spend much of his life seeking prestige, perks, and possessions… The lack of personal and social exposure to real depth and breadth makes most young people vulnerable to cheap religion, cults, and crowds as a substitute for largeness, hoping for salvation from their jobs or companies, selling their souls for fame and fundamentalism."
Read more about male initiation:
http://www.male-initiation.net/
Indigo Boy, just like Iron John refers to a spiritual initiation and not the physical circumcision of young men. I personally believe the practice of circumcision is unacceptable, even for so-called "religious" reasons. I see circumcision as mutilation of the penis, and it takes away the choice of any man whether he wants his foreskin or not. The debate about circumcision is a heated one!
Read more about circumcision:
"Every 30 seconds a baby boy is circumcised. It is the most common surgery performed in America. It is usually done without anesthesia, and often without the consent of the parents.
"I never questioned it," says Kyle Joseph, the father of a circumcised boy. "The doctor took him away, performed the operation and brought him back. That's just the way it was done. I was circumcised; he was circumcised. I don't even remember signing a consent form."
That's typical, according to Craig Shoemaker, M.D., a North Dakota pediatrician and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) task force on circumcision. "Many doctors do not adequately counsel parents regarding circumcision—what the risks are, what the potential benefits are, how much it costs. Performing a circumcision without such counseling is inappropriate. Some people would call it criminal assault."
Most parents don't know what circumcision really is, and yet 65 percent of them still allow doctors to do the surgery.
America is the only country in the Western world that routinely circumcises newborn boys. Eighty-five percent of the world's men are uncircumcised.
"The practice violates all seven principles of the American Medical Association's code of ethics," charges George Denniston, M.D., a Seattle physician and founder of Doctors Opposing Circumcision. "By definition it's not even surgery. Surgery is removal of diseased tissue, or a repair of some kind."
Read more:
Indigo Boy, Thursday 27 September, Cape Town
www.chrisdiedericks.co.za/indigoboy/
copyright
2006/7
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