Parenting with Purpose

April 3, 2008 1 Comment


What is a parent supposed to be doing . . . as a parent? My friend Mike Austin is author of a book called Conceptions of Parenthood (Ashgate, 2007). In an excerpt on his “Morality and the Good Life” blog, Mike suggests that parents should endeavor to train their children in skills that will result in their well-being over the long haul. This, he says, encompasses the goal of preparing them to live autonomously. Mike interacts briefly with William Irvine (author of Doing Right By Our Children), who stresses the value of freedom.

I concur with Mike, and would argue that the best kind of freedom depends on being rational, and is experienced as a result of making consistently wise choices. So educating children for freedom is educating them in a tradition of wisdom. And that involves guidance through experiences of choosing wisely in comparatively safe situations when they’re young, and in increasingly challenging circumstances as they get older. This would surely empower them to be even more effective in using their freedom to achieve the best and highest goals as they enjoy greater autonomy.

If we who are parents succeed in this endeavor, our children may be our own wise counselors some day.

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Two Film Noir Icons Die Within a Week of Each Other

April 1, 2008 Leave a comment


Director Jules Dassin has died at age 96 today. Actor Richard Widmark died Monday, March 24. He was 93. Dassin and Widmark were major contributors to the film noir era. Their careers are recapitulated in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/movies/01dassin.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/arts/27widmark.html

http://movies.nytimes.com/person/76135/Richard-Widmark?inline=nyt-per

Richard Severo writes, “In 1962, with his best films largely behind him, Mr. Dassin told Cue magazine: ‘Of my own films, there’s only one I’ve really liked — ‘He Who Must Die.’ That is, I like what it had to say.” The film, released in 1957, is set on the island of Crete as locals prepare for their annual Passion Play performance. Things go wrong between two priests.

Widmark worked in over 60 movies and was one of my favorites. Two of his credits include Kiss of Death (1947) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Under the direction of Jules Dassin, he played in Night and the City (1950).

Aljean Harmetz recounts Widmark’s explanation, in a 1995 interview with The Guardian, for forming his own production company in the 1950s. Widmark said, “The businessmen who run Hollywood today have no self-respect. . . . What interests them is not movies but the bottom line. Look at ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ which turns idiocy into something positive, or ‘Forrest Gump,’ a hymn to stupidity. ‘Intellectual’ has become a dirty word.”

Harmetz adds that Widmark “vowed that he would never appear on a television talk show, saying, ‘When I see people destroying their privacy — what they think, what they feel — by beaming it out to millions of viewers, I think it cheapens them as individuals.’”

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