As usual my son awoke at just before 6:00 to two sleepy parents who on a Sunday would’ve liked to probably stayed in bed past the 7:30 mark but I guess we had our chance to lie-in when we weren’t parents, so be it. Considering I was supposed to be climbing either in the alps or Scotland and had no gigs I was the one to get up and escort him downstairs where I got him his favorite morning drink, equal parts of apple juice and warm water and settle him down in front of his new favorite thing, an iPad playing some Netflix animated series about a girl living out in the American west who befriends a wild horse. I have no idea why he identifies with this being a black kid born in London and only seeing horses ridden in Richmond Park by privileged white women and their offspring but there it is. He also likes watching a cartoon called Clifford and another called PJ Max and we watched the first Harry Potter film and he liked that so I guess it all evens itself out in the end. I guess the fact he can operate the iPad and load up what he wants speaks to his generation and those before who have never known a life where there was only 3 channels and your favorite cartoon was only on one time every Saturday morning. People my age or thereabouts talk about those times with some nostalgia like it was better then but time has filtered out reality. Warner Brothers cartoons i.e. Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and the lot where great and violent but it was only on for 30 minutes so when it was done it was either hope the next Johnny Quest was one you hadn’t seen or go outside and look for friends and hope you weren’t kidnapped or run over I guess. Also more of the cartoons on offer these days have characters who are not just white with white sounding voices. This is something you begin to notice when your son is not white. I think back about what I watched and how you would never hardly see a minority in a cartoon and if you did it was so racially stereotyped it bordered on being called out as blatantly racist. The only ones that come to mind are Johnny Quest Indian friend Hoji (sic) who wears a turban and is apparently orphaned so just tags along and does rope tricks (in hindsight, creepy) and the maid from Tom and Jerry who makes Hattie McDanie, the Mammy from Gone With The Wind sound almost not as racist. Burn Hollywood Burn says Chuck D. It’s amazing what we’ve encountered having this little man in our lives and the questions that need to be answered. I have no doubt it’ll never stop. The big question on hand now? It’s snowing, he’s got the right clothes and he wants to get out on the sled so why aren’t we sledding? Lucky for me I have clothes that’ll keep me warm on a frozen waterfall so I think I can stay warm while he does his best to sled in an inch of show covering the ground. Also it’s fun to watch the white parents give us side glances and when I catch them doing it they smile and nod. Poor bastards.