Field Notes from the Culture Lab
Description
Coming fresh off of Christmas, we’re able to mull over findings of our latest experiments in crafting culture and forming new traditions, as our kids are finally getting old enough to engage with lore! Join us for some reflection on this front in this special VIPs-only weekend episode. :)
Some top-level takeaways:
Kids LOVE lore and seem a lot more interested in chaotic / evil characters than in do-gooder characters
AI music generation makes it super easy and fun to make custom holiday songs (here, for example, are songs we made using Suno around a “magical Christmas llama” tradition that kind of organically emerged in our household this year—it took all of two minutes to make each song)
Just as “magic” is a word often used to describe processes people just don’t yet fully understand, mystical / mythical / folklore figures work really well for distilling/educating kids about complex concepts, like addiction, that they are not yet mature enough to comprehend
It is surprisingly easy, logistically sustainable, and fun to take leadership in your kids’ moral upbringing and it is all the more important for parents to take full responsibility for it, as going to church weekly and/or hoping that school (private and religious or otherwise) will actually make a difference.
Our magical Christmas llama experiment this year was NOT intentional—we just kind of “yes, anded” a llama figurine that was gifted to us and that our kids asked about and it turned into a growing body of family lore to which both we and the kids contributed. That said, it goes to show how easy it is to turn random events into lore and lessons that make life more colorful while also imparting important values.
Here’s Octavian, who is telling us in this photo how he used candy and teamwork to lure out the llama from hiding:
Here is Torsten after finding the llama following a period of being a great kid and thus being rewarded by the llama’s beneficence:
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