I recently read the autobiography of the Scottish comedian, Billy Connolly. It is called, “Windswept and Interesting”. Connolly recommends living your life as a windswept and interesting person, rather than as a neat and ordinary one. If you are windswept then you look untidy after being exposed to the wind. Perhaps your hair has been blown into a chaotic state. For Connolly this is one sign of an interesting person.
Connolly grew up in a working-class area of Glasgow. He tells an interesting story about the parenting style of one of his neighbors.
A family who lived near Connolly when he was a small boy had nine children. In those days the children were left to play outside by themselves, or with the other children of the neighborhood.
“I’m going to the pub for a drink,” said the father of the nine children.
“Oh, no you’re not,” said his wife. “Not until you bring our children in from playing outside and put them all to bed.”
Annoyed at being delayed from going to the pub, the father goes outside and picks up the first nine children he sees, brings them into his house, and puts them all to bed. Then he goes off for a drink. The nine children included seven of his own children, and Billy Connolly and his sister, who just happened to be playing near the man’s house.
When Connolly’s family went looking for him, they found two children crying outside the house. “We can’t get in,” they wailed. “The bed’s full of people!”
This is a windswept and interesting style
of parenting.
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