Rasa Ardys-Juðka, Editor
Perspectives
My children have entered that gloomy state of the “ethnically-challenged” or, as my husband says, stubborn and narrow-minded.
You see, when children cross the threshold into “teenager”, they don’t get particularly enthusiastic by what seemed exciting when they were kids. For example, when Easter came along, the Easter egg dyeing phase used to last at least two weeks. Every day they would run to the kitchen determined to paint an Easter egg for their aunt or cousin or the 15th one for dad. This year, it was “You’ve got that under control , mama.” Enthusiasm at a severe teen low.
When my eldest started to exhibit the first symptoms of this dreaded disease, I took evasive action. One way that worked was to identify his focus at the time and translate it into Lithuanian. He was into fishing — so I showed him (in a casual way, of course) the Lithuanian names of the fish that most interested him. (The emphasis here is “casual” — and painstakingly so). It worked and he spun out to other categories.
Now, the younger one was a little too quick and intuitive. He watched my techniques from afar and chose interests that seemed untranslatable. For one, his hobby of freestyle biking with a special bmx bicycle is a real tough one. I’ve been searching high and low for something corresponding to this in Lithuania. The closest I’ve gotten is the Lithuanian bike club in Klaipéda, which sponsors tours around western Lithuania and ecologically-motivated runs through several Baltic nations. Interesting to the more global-minded person, not the teen with instant gratification in mind. At least he’s not dismissed it.
The latest and only triumph I can claim is rock music. It seems that the fact that Lithuania has a Frank Zappa tribute statue scored big. My son said that he wants to take pictures of it from every angle and blow up the best shots into poster-size.
At least we know that the ethnically-challenged can be conquered — granted, devious ways do work the best.