Why are we doing this?

There is a lot of reflection going on the Grit household right now, like why are we studying scientists when we could be making chocolate cake and lounging about in the front room watching day-time TV. Specifically, suggests Tiger, why are we reading about Humbolt wandering about South America, and Charles Darwin chucking up his breakfast over the side of the Beagle when there is a particularly nice looking chocolate cake recipe open in the kitchen?

Well, says mummy Grit. We are studying Darwin not simply because mummy Grit wants to visit Tierra del Fuego or the Galapagos Islands, and intellectual displacement is the only way she can do it, and neither is this because on Monday we went out of our way to see a lizard.


Neither is it because Shark keeps asking how many species of dolphins there are, or that Squirrel says she has observed that some lizards have long toes, nor that you, Tiger, now say you know about several kinds of horse. Not one of these reasons: all of them. And more. Like how religious fundamentalism in any form pisses mummy Grit off, and how creationism is a cop-out argument based on faith rather than observation. That too. We are studying Darwin, I tell Tiger, because I want you to grow up as a sophisticated woman aware of different opinions and arguments around you and capable of articulating and contributing your own. Now draw us a picture of Darwin and I'll shut up.

And, in answer, Tiger has drawn a picture of Darwin for the project book. And here he is. As you can see, he has been either been chucking up his guts again over the side of the Beagle, or he has been told he cannot make chocolate cake until Thursday and is pissed off about that, or he has been drinking heavily and has his neck in plaster after a particularly heavy session down the Queen Vic. In this liberal-minded household of ours, you may pick your own opinion.