An article flashed by my eyes the other day. The title said, 10 fun things you can do to be healthier. Something like that. And the list went like this: exercise, eat well, sleep more, play more, relax more, drink red wine, eat dark chocolate, have more sex, laugh more, make art.

That's the list, approximately. All, we have heard many times. But the simplicity caught me off guard. More than that, the permission of it, caught me off guard. Here is a list of permission.

Sleep More. Work Less. Have More Fun. Eat and Drink The Good Things. Isn't that a little bit amazing? Isn't that an odd challenge? Doesn't it give you a small thrill to contemplate? I should SLEEP MORE? Like nap? Like now? When? I will be a better person if I sleep more and eat more chocolate and drink more red wine and then go for a long walk? Simply put, yes. Yes.

Homeschool has the same thrilling odd feeling. Imagine yourself sitting in class when you were 9 or 10 or 11 or 12 or 13 or 14 or 15 (you get the idea.) Imagine if a grown up walked in and said, you are free. Go forth. Take a nap, eat some deliciously good food with some wine and chocolate, take a walk, and then get to work making seriously fun art. Does that not blow your fucking mind? Can you imagine the liberation of it? Really, put yourself right there in the seat and try to set yourself free.

Because, you know what? I think most of us never really get out of that seat. Not really. We live there, no matter where we are in life. We live in the mental state of drudge, in which we were schooled so ruthlessly. At least, I do and more completely than I care to admit.

A friend just had the privilege of going to a workshop with a very famous successful well paid contemporary artist. He began the workshop by walking in the room and writing one thing on the black board. "No Fucking Rules."

Yes, homeschool is kind of like that. Not, no fucking rules. But certainly, make up your own rules. Make sure they involve a natural working rhythm of life that is relaxed, happy, full of good food, and heavily skewed to the artistic side of life. Skewed to what is creative, productive, and what actually works in a sustainable and reasonable life.

At least, our homeschool is like that. And its good to sit here this morning, contemplate what it might have felt like to have been given permission from the beginning, and to make these ideas very conscious. To carefully, wisely, and certainly choose permission. I like that. Maybe I'll nap on it this afternoon, just to be sure.

But just saying "I'll nap on it" racks me with guilt. What about everyone who can't nap on it? What about the entire frantic and relentless way our society grinds? What about hurry? What about more work? What about my exhausted husband?

It is really difficult to silence school mind, that perpetual teacher pushing you to sit down, shut up, and produce pages full of computation (more money, a cleaner house, a billion favors oddly due to an endless stream of people.) We don't even need the building. We have habitualized the mental formula. My school mind is very industrial, seeks relentlessly to improve, and does so I should add, in a generally ineffective way. What more could we expect from an industrial and governmental formula?

I'm sorry, dear industrial school mind, but your way doesn't seem to get the children raised up so good. It seems to stress them out, teach them to whine, encourage competition and divisiveness. And its is dangerously difficult to escape. Yes, I had better nap on it right away. And maybe serve wine and chocolate and fresh home made bread for dinner and then we had better go take a walk and get to bed early and see if we can't wake up a bit freer, a bit happier, a bit healthier.