The girl who sat behind us at church folded a paper swan for Gracie. Gracie looked at it and immediately started poking me with it. I couldn't figure this out and so just ignored her. After a while she asked me "what do swans do?" I thought of the traditional romance that is paired with swans, but before I could answer, she said: they bite people. (Which is what her paper swan was doing to me, not being intriguing and beautiful and REVERENT which is what the folder intended. It may as well have been a folded dinosaur). This should not be surprising since Gracie's only experience with swans is from her Great Grandma Spencer's house. They had a pond with two swans--the father swan was particularly territorial and my younger girls were really scared of them. I remember that one time we couldn't find Gracie and Rachel anywhere, we were calling for them and looking for them to no avail. Finally they both came out of the car (in St. George where it was over 90 degrees-yes we've talked about this since) with red faces and tears streaming down their cheeks, obviously having been crying for a long time. They retold of trying to cross the bridge but they knew the swan was going to get them and bite them, so they hid in the car, still convinced that the swan was looking for them. Anyway, it's just interesting that experiences can radically differ from traditional thought. Swan lake may not be appreciated quite as much with this background.
