Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM)

Thumbing through Bill Bennett's The Moral Compass for suitable Llama-ette bedtime reading last evening, I settled on the story of Pocahontas. I forget now who the adapter was, but I was pleased to see that there was no flinching away from the clash of cultures between the Indians and the English settlers in Virginia. Rather, it was explained in reasonable, clear and non-judgemental terms.

The story also laid out what might be called the un-Disneyfied version of the facts: that Pocahontas was ten or twelve when she saved Captain Smith, that by the time she had grown he was gone away, that she married John Rolfe instead and had a son with him, and that her last few years were spent in England, ending rather sadly.

The gels, despite being exhausted from an afternoon of swimming, were agog. At the end, though, they asked a lot of inevitable questions about why things were different in the movie. I said, "Well, sometimes Disney likes to change stories to make them seem happier."

The Seven Year Old's response: "Boy, those people at Disney are a bunch of idiots."

That's my girl!