Naked Girls Jumping in a Pool

What really sucks about living in Guangzhou for me is that I have to spend such long periods of time away from my nephews. They were born back in 2002 in Jakarta. I was with my sister throughout most of her pregnancy and then for the birth as well, playing shit loads of reggae music for them along the way. They are triplets. I was away from them for about 6 months after that but pretty much since then till I moved to China I was never away from my nephews for more than a month at a time. Having the boys in my life forced me to reevaluate myself and my priorities. They have also taught me a lot about love and understanding. Like now I know what true love is, it is absolutely selfless without the desire for reward or appreciation. I know what it feels like to love someone so much that it really fucking hurts, not because of what YOU feel but because you are afraid of what the person you love is feeling. Although I speak to them nearly every day, nothing can replace the time lost when I am not there in person. I realize these are the most valuable and impressionable years of their lives and it fucking kills me that I can’t be there to contribute anything. But then again I tell myself how much worse things could be and that in time this too shall pass and we will be together again. In the meantime I try to be there for them, support them, and help them grow into well centered individuals.

Like for example, last year the boys got a pet rabbit. And as children do, they loved the poor bastard to death. Literally. They hugged the life out of the poor, white, fluffy, son of a bitch. They came home one day and the fucker just lay there dead in his cage. Now ever since the boys were babies I always wanted to keep them as far away from religious dogma and the concept of God until they were old enough to be a little subjective about the idea. I think even until the age of 5 years would have been enough. But my Mom is Hindu and she prays every morning with her fire, bells, and songs to all her little golden idols perched on silver trays. And although I tried to stop them I could see how much they enjoyed the whole show. It was like a game to them. Plus my Mom was so happy to share that experience with them that I could not bear to rob her of that either. But every now and then she does fill their heads with some crazy stories about good and evil that I have to bust my ass brainwashing them out of. I guess in the end it might just give them some balance having 2 polar opposites trying to fill their minds with mumbo jumbo. So when the rabbit kicked the bucket they naturally had lots of questions about life and death. I had been looking forward to questions like this since before they were born. My sister told them to go out and bury the rabbit in the garden like we did with all our pets growing up. When they asked where the rabbit would go my Mom answered heaven. The quickly retorted that when she dies they would bury her next to the rabbit so she could go to heaven too. I don’t think Mom was very impressed, and they were not satisfied with the response either, so they called me. I was in China at the time when I got the call and Zubin asked me where the dead rabbit would go once they buried him. I was caught off guard for a second but then remembered the circle of life and told him how the dead rabbit would feed the soil; make more grass grow that rabbits and other animals would also eat. A more lengthily version of course. They seemed satisfied with this answer.

So why is this post titled ‘Naked Girls Jumping in a Pool’? Well yesterday one of the lads goes over to my sister and asks her how to spell the word ‘naked’. Of course she asked why. He replied that a friend is school told him to Google ‘naked girls jumping in a pool’… The child is only 5 years old! My sis is a smart girl and did not freak out or anything. She talked to them and asked what they were trying to find out and if she could help but they got shy and started giggling. Is this normal at that age? Is it the fault of the internet or just the pace of the world these days? I always wanted them to be exposed to art so that they would never find the naked human body intimidating or humorous. I have showed them pictures of paintings with naked women in them when they were young, but somehow it was not enough. So what should I tell them now or show them to make this nakedness issue seem normal. I know if I show them a picture of a naked person they will say something like, look at her boobies, and they will start giggling then I will probably start laughing too. Or should I hire a stripper so they see the real thing first hand? Maybe they are just shy because they don’t want to talk about it with their Mom. So I am thinking of putting together a power point presentation with various art works containing naked women and I can even do a voice over in the background to make it more personal. Once again technology will save the day. Maybe now when they type ‘naked girls jumping in a pool’ they will get directed to this post. Suckers.