"awko-taco," part one, getting ready to say good bye to Cookie

As I have written before, I love the term "awko-taco" (sp?). This is a neologism (new or invented word) my daughter discovered at school this year. It isn't a soccer term yet but I am trying to work it in before Cookie's Purple U12 Force Blog officially closes on June 18, 2012 -- the times and coaches for 2012-2013 Force Tryouts will be posted soon (I am sure).

Awko-taco is a variant of the word "awkward," and can refer to any socially awkward situation that presents itself to 12 year old girls. When I tell jokes in the soccer Flex, for example, my daughter will say, "that is so awko-taco, Dad", meaning my social interaction with her teammates feels strange or awkward to her. Translation: Dads should drive, produce cash, lift and carry things, and talk with other Dads. Period. Signs of life beyond that can be, from her perspective, "awko-taco" -- socially unsettling. Please shut up before my friends notice you.

Awko-taco, then, points, with clever, ironic critical distance, directly to the developing self-consciousness of the 12 year, a self-consciousness that will guide and determine how one learns to interact with others.

An overdeveloped self-consciousness can lead to the restricted affect of the standard, middle class, white Midwestern American female who is so petrified as to how to interact socially without giving off the wrong signals that one learns to walk around with a zombie like blank stare, broken only by the presence of immediate family members or childhood friends. Indeed, think of the moment in the zombie movie when the zombie -- walking blank eyed -- suddenly springs into "life" in the presence of fresh meat! ("Did you got to Seaholm? I did, too!!!")

Alternately, and more troubling than an overdeveloped self-consciousness, an undeveloped self-consciousness can lead to the obnoxious affect of the standard, middle class, white Midwestern American male who believes every conversation he has is either with great, life-long friend who thinks just like him OR a fierce enemy who must be shouted down or insulted to the point of speechlessness. The locus classicus is still Archie Bunker but this fellow can now be found in modern form on most golf courses irritating the 3 others in his group or making public comments at a school board meeting. ("Those teacher benefits are killing the economy! First, let's kill all the teachers! Then we can back to REAL education")

So, I love the term awko-taco because it reveals my daughter identifying her own self-consciousness and developing it. Like most parents, I hope to help her develop in a way that avoids the "Scylla" of overdeveloped self-consciousness and the "Charybdis" of an under-developed self-consciousness.