I feel almost like Seinfeld at times, "it's a blog about nothing!" and then I think about things.......I watched my daughters rolling down a huge hill in the park tonight. Truly, there are few acts that are more genuinely child. Not even childish, which implies that it's something that should never be done. On the contrary, everyone should TRY to do it, and SHOULD have done it at least once in their lives. You're almost not human if you don't. I didn't myself tonight, just because I didn't really feel like climbing the hill myself; but I've done it before, and enjoyed it, as every child, in the merest, should be allowed to. And I recommend it, as acts go, for the pure sense of freedom and joy it conveys. Grass stains be damned, that's what detergent is for.
In other unrelated things, conveying I-know-not-what, I've been in a new Young Adult classroom for the last two days, and am scheduled to go back again on Monday; a three-day sub run in June. Tell me that ain't good. Anyway, one of the young women in the program, who is graduating from the program next week, is of Asian descent. I asked her mother, who was in this morning, what, specifically her origin was. She replied that her adopted daughter was Korean. Further, the parents had spent time in 2001 working with Habitat for Humanity in Gunsan, 25 or so miles west of where I was in Iksan. From then I felt compelled to burn a couple of my Korean pop CDs, I suppose as a graduation present of sorts. I thought, perhaps if this autistic young lady LIKED this music, she might be just a little more akin to other Korean females her age. That much closer to the norm, and maybe a little more in touch with who she was really. And then I thought.....is MY armor cracking now? The burning was done with the full approval and consent of the teacher in charge, ergo I figure nothing in it could have gone unnoticed, big-picture. Damn, though....even if she's not crazy about it, in this little way, I CARED enough to do something like this, for a woman who doesn't speak Korean, and never has. In consideration of that which chooses you, I could offer more, but not a lot stronger. I have known the moments of being chosen for someone or something, but this is building. Building in a way I cannot possibly overlook. I also figured, maybe subconsciously, I was doing it for the sake of the mother in a way, because I felt that small kinship, too. But I told myself at the outset of working for Washtenaw in Special-Ed classrooms, that it was either going to be "me," or it wasn't. I guess I have my answer, and that I can proceed to a certain extent. Just leave it to me to find a niche so far off the beaten path.