Dao of Bluey?

 "Bluey" is probably my current favorite show. 

I've seen most of the episodes at least a few times, but they're funny enough and comforting enough that I like having them on in the background even if I'm not actively watching. 

One thing I notice about the show: there's some philosophy there. There's no explicit references to religion (true of most mainstream kids' shows) though the Heelers do celebrate Christmas (entirely secularly, as far as I can tell). 

But there are references to some Buddhist teachings there! And there is an underlying moral framework ("It's not the done thing, mate" Bandit tells one of his kids if they want to violate the social norm, and since they're both (a) little children and (b) generally good kids who don't want to displease others, being told "it's not the done thing" seems to be enough). 

Some of the things: 

Don't take things that belong to you. Share. If you find something valuable, give it back to its owner. Don't tattle (or, "dob," in the Australian slang) unless it's a matter of safety. Hold back before speaking if people are already speaking. Be kind. 

And while some of these are perhaps more "good manners" than deep moral precepts, there does seem to be an underlying theme of treating others with love and kindness. (I once commented, somewhat sadly,  that the schoolkids in Bluey are a lot kinder to each other than I remember my own primary-school classmates being. Then again "The 80s were a different time," or rather, in my case, the 70s were a different time and I think there was less consideration of kids' feelings - and almost NOTHING done against bullying). 

I guess it is an educational show, but the education is a lot subtler and it's more of the emotional or relational sort. And yeah, maybe the kids who are into the show may be influenced to be just a little kinder as a result (I can hope)?

(Though also it's educational in other ways - there are new words - "dob," as I said before, and "wheelie bin," which I picked up for my own trashcart because I like the sound of it better, and "dunny" which is either any toilet or is specifically an outdoor toilet like at a campsite), and there are the different birds and flora mentioned on the show (and "Pippies! Pippies coming up for wee-wees!" - clams spouting up out of the sand). 

But I mentioned Eastern/Buddhist philosophy. And there are three instances I noticed, there may be more, but there are two stories and a quotation/reference.

The first one is a storybook that Chillie reads to Bluey, about a princess (who, like all the other characters, is a dog; in the book she looks like a spaniel). The princess steps on a prickle when she's out walking, and decides to try to cover the world with leather so that she or her subjects never have to step on one again. But that's a very hard thing to do (and impractical). Finally her joker asks her: Why not just cut smaller pieces of leather, and make yourself shoes, so you can always walk on soft leather without having to cover the whole world?

This is basically the same story that is recounted as a question-and-answer in Phörpa, or "The Cup" - a movie I really like and should be better known, about young Tibetan monks scheming to be able to watch the World Cup on tv. 

But the idea of always wearing leather sandals (the term used in The Cup) to protect your feet - and by extension, trying to hang on to your "peace" in your heart, because you can't expect the world to care about it.

It's a good philosophy, but really hard to put into practice, and more often than not I do wind up "walking on prickles" because I let the world steal my peace. 

(And even though these are originally apparently the Buddhist equivalent of a parable, they work in other worldviews: I'm a Christian and they seem like good lessons to me).

The second one is similar. And in fact, the original story was one the minister referred to in church a few weeks ago.

The Bluey-world version: Bingo is in the hospital. It's not specified why; apparently later in the series she eats gluten-free and I suppose it could have been getting the diagnosis of that. But to cheer her up, Bluey and her dad and the cousins (Muffin, who is my favorite secondary character because she's hilariously spoiled) and Socks make a video to send her.  It's called The Wise Old Wolfhound and it features Bluey having a "puppy" (Socks, her baby cousin) who is sick, and when she can't find any help or explanation, she goes to the Wise Old Wolfhound who tells her she has to "find a pair of purple underpants worn by someone who was never sick"

(in the original version of the story - or at least the one the minister used - it was getting a bowl of rice from a family that had never been touched by death)

The POINT of the story is that there's no one like that. Just as in human-world, everyone older than teenagerhood has had someone they loved die, in Bluey-world everyone's been sick (or is pretending to be: Bandit claims he has "bum worms" and Muffin exclaims "I was sick last week! I had WABIES!" which is a line I find funny every time, even if real rabies isn't funny at all)

But the underlying idea that tragedy is more or less handed out equally, and no matter how righteous you may try to be you are still going to have difficult times to go through - well, that's also a Christian idea (and I suspect most if not all other religions or worldviews hold it). That you just kind of have to roll with the punches in life, and everyone's suffered, not just you. 

And there are other philosophical things - a trip to the dump/recycling center obliquely references reincarnation, and at one point one of the kids was told "you'll figure it out" when they ask where they were before they were born (There's also a funny line in one episode where Bingo responds to Chilli's gentle "you weren't born yet" about something she wasn't present for happening with "Oooh! I was invisible!")

The last one is something I looked up last night, after seeing a re-run of the Musical Statues episode - at the end Chilli makes some comment about how "life isn't about getting to the weekend, or the "forever weekend*" but it's about the journey" and I thought "huh, I bet that comes from somewhere" so I looked up the episode, and yeah - she is paraphrasing an Alan Watts essay. 

(*which I suppose one could either take as having enough money to quit work, or going into retirement or reaching The Afterlife, depending on how you view things)

Here's a version of it. It's called You Play the Piano, which refers to the "you don't call it "working" the piano" in the essay.

 And yeah. That's true. And I think maybe one of the ways I'm not as great at it as I could be; sometimes I DO try to work the piano, and I rage at myself when I don't seem to be getting better, or if I have a day when either my eyes are bad and I can't see the music as well (I need to get some kind of small focused light, I think) or if I'm having a slightly clumsy day and can't play as well as I think I should. 

And I admit, perhaps in some ways I DO work at things too hard, and push myself out of enjoyment I might have of them because I become too goal oriented:  "you have to Git Gud" and sometimes the push to Git Gud means I don't enjoy the process of learning, and I can only see how I am not good enough yet.

And Watts' comment on education made me cringe a bit, because I see myself here:

"We have a system of schooling which gives a completely different impression. It’s all graded and what we do is put the child into the corridor of this grade system with a kind of, “Come on kitty, kitty.” And you go to kindergarten and that’s a great thing because when you finish that you get into first grade. Then, “Come on” first grade leads to second grade and so on. And then you get out of grade school and you got high school. It’s revving up, the thing is coming, then you’re going to go to college… Then you’ve got graduate school, and when you’re through with graduate school you go out to join the world.

Then you get into some racket where you’re selling insurance. And they’ve got that quota to make, and you’re gonna make that. And all the time that thing is coming – It’s coming, it’s coming, that great thing. The success you’re working for.

Then you wake up one day about 40 years old and you say, “My God, I’ve arrived. I’m there.” And you don’t feel very different from what you’ve always felt."

And yeah. One of the things I realize at midlife (or perhaps now I'm a bit past the true midpoint, I fear) is that I missed out on a lot of things because I was grinding and swotting to get to the next level with "good enough" grades - get good enough grades in junior high so I could escape that hell to go to the prep school in town that was (fortunately true, as it turned out) what I thought of as a nicer place than the local public high school. And then work hard there to get into a good college. And then graduate school. And then achieve to get a good job in academia. And then keep pushing for tenure, then for promotion. And now I worry about continuing to "carry my weight" lest I either fail at a post-tenure review (little known fact: you CAN have tenure revoked for "failure to achieve," although you're given enough chances to straighten up and fly right)......and sometimes I do look at it all and go "is that all there is?" And yes, I don't feel very different from how I always felt, and it seems like almost every achievement is followed by "okay, what do I need to do NEXT." And I don't know how to break free of that (or weirdly, if I even want to). And sometimes I wonder if I stop pushing long enough to really LOOK at my life, if I won't find it emptier than I hoped.....so thinking about it too much isn't good.

At any rate: there's a lot to consider in what simply looks like a cute show with funny talking dogs. And I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere someone was doing a Ph.D. thesis on philosophical principles in Bluey, and if there isn't a book going to come out (like the Tao of Pooh or the Te of Piglet) about the Buddhist ideas in Bluey....