How To Talk To Your Kids About Bowie
Parents, have you gotten the look of concern? The interrogation, “what’s with the crying all day? And are you going to take that lightning bolt off your face?” If not, it’s probably time to prepare yourself for The Talk (About Bowie)™.
David Bowie touched us all, and he meant something special and unique to anyone who heard his music. So how do you explain that to a kid?
Relentless creativity
In his genre-busting music and gender-bending personas, his aggressively chic fashion and impressively well-developed forays into visual art, David Bowie was quite possibly the most creative person of his generation. He pushed himself and he inspired others. He wasn’t just the best at what he did, he was also the most interesting, the most thoughtful. Tell your kid the lightning bolt on your face is war paint, and that we’re battling the forces of boredom.
Originality is the key to identity
To love Bowie is to love originality, to value it in others, to instill it in your children. His gleeful and seamless reinvention didn’t undermine his sense of identity, it was the foundation of it. He was many things, but he was always only David Bowie. You can’t have a true affection for Bowie without appreciating the fearless grace with which he inhabited a fluid persona. To love David Bowie is to assure your kids: I will…
