Teku or Metal Maniac?

I say this not to brag, but to make myself feel better about what I will say after I ask this question. How many of you can say you recited from memory the story of Jesus' transfiguration at the breakfast table this morning? Well, I did. And it makes me feel less disturbed by the fact that, right now, Henry's primary life narrative seems to spring up not from Sunday school Bible stories, but from a movie series called AcceleRacers (I still rue the day I said we could check it out from the library). You can learn more (than you ever wanted to know) about AcceleRacers here. So, anyway, a frequent topic of conversation in our house is whether a certain Hot Wheels car Henry is "driving" is a Teku or a Metal Maniac car. To give you a sense of the differences between the Teku and Metal Maniac aesthetics (and this is just my uneducated opinion), the Tekus dress in sleek, spotless jumpsuits and drive what may be Japanese- inspired concept cars, while the Metal Maniacs wear Harley-type gear and eat greasy meat with their bare hands. I googled Metal Maniacs and someone on Facebook (I think it was) said the Ford Mustang is undeniably a Metal Maniac, which is to say rugged and muscular, car.

This morning Henry asked me if I think he is a Teku or a Metal Maniac. I didn't know how to answer, but I could recall loving to ask this same type of question as I was growing up. I went on to talk about attributes of his that seem more Teku or more Metal Maniac. Truth is, as off-putting as I find the Metal Maniacs, I still find them more endearing than the Tekus, who are just a little too snooty and trendy for my taste. Further reflection on this subject helped me to see that Joel and I spend a lot of our time encouraging Henry to adopt metal maniac ways--to make the most of existing resources and not to throw things away until they are used up. We give him the whole spiel about how television and tv commercials try to convince us we need things that we don't really need. But here our family is in a consumer culture, enjoying the things we get to buy and visiting The Et Cetera Shop frequently so we can consume things other consumers have discarded. And this whole excursus isn't even addressing the question I was really getting at: is it okay for me to tell Henry "who he is" instead of encouraging him to discover that for himself? And in saying this, I'm not asking, "should I be explicit about the values I wish for him to adopt?" No, I'm wondering...how do we become who we are? Is it by starting with simple dualisms like Teku or Metal Maniac and then working our way into the more ambiguous scenarios of life (hopefully well after we're five years old)? That must be one of the ways... But I would like the heart of the matter to be healthy relationships, not Hot Wheels stories that rely so heavily on the good old narrative of redemptive violence.

I guess what I want for Henry is one of the things I want for myself. I hope he will know himself to be in relationship with One who loves him and yet is mystery. I do think of Peter on the mountaintop with Jesus. "Lord, can we build three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah?" "Er, no, Peter," responds Jesus. "We've got to go back down the mountain. But thank you for asking. I like you, too, and I'm glad to have spent time with you up here on the mountaintop. I bet you'll be chewing on the meaning of this for a long time to come. I hope so."

And so, with gratitude for getting to consider the merits of Tekus and Metal Maniacs, I continue to chew.