In October, Everett’s music class put on a little show. They acted out and sang the African story of Abiyoyo, a monster-like creature who plagues the villagers in a small town.
I didn’t get to see the play, but I heard about it. Everett told me the story. The villagers, as I said, are plagued by Abiyoyo. In fact, it appears that the creature will be their doom until– to their relief– they are saved by a man and his son who live on the edge of town.
I’m pretty sure that this duo is able to save them because of some magic skills they possess, but I’m not certain. I’m also under the impression that their living on the edge of town has something to do with their usefulness in this endeavor. What I do know for certain is that they live on the edge of town because the villagers do not approve of them. No, the villagers are, for some reason or other, unhappy with the magic skills displayed by this father and his offspring. In fact, the villagers decide they must ostracize the man and his boy because of them.
Everett learned the word “ostracize” because of this play. I was Most Pleased.
One morning as we drove to school, he talked through how we might handle having a dreadful monster invading our territory. Rather than talking about how the community might band together and use diverse talents to dispose of such a creature, Everett thought we should go ahead and ostracize someone– maybe two people– and have them waiting in the wings. Yes, just force them to live on the outside of town so that, when the monster came, the ostracized pair could save us.
He definitely understood the plot of the play, but I’m not at all convinced that he got the message.
