When I was a young girl, I remember sitting on the passenger side of the car while my mother was driving. I was looking out the window and I said, “Mom, when I grow up I want to marry an Italian so we can eat pasta every day.” My mom laughed.
If only life were that easy. If only we could remember all of the simple statements we made as children about what we wanted life to be like when we got older and then stuck to them. (Well…aside from wanting to be Cinderella and wearing big colorful dresses everydayJ) I wonder now, as an adult, if my mom was laughing because what I said was funny or at what she knew about life and what I didn’t. Perhaps it was a little of both.
The irony is…now, my mother makes homemade chicken soup when I am sick and tells me to have a bowl before bed because it will make me feel better. It’s not that I don’t believe her, but when did life become that simple again? Chicken soup…eating pasta everyday…this simplicity goes beyond “food is love.” There is a contradiction of time from when I was a simple child watching my mother go through life times to me going through life times and my mother being simple. It all happened so fast – I feel blindsided.
After completing college, becoming a science teacher and marrying a great guy, my sister spent 5 years trying to conceive a child. Finally…she had one. He was a preemie born at 1 pound, 6 ounces. My cousin has three children with different fathers and lives on welfare. Now, my husband and I face the same battle conceiving as my sister did and my cousin is pregnant again. The absurdity is not in the struggle, but watching the ease at which others attain goals that are difficult to attain by others. Will eating the chicken soup really make me feel better?
I mention this experience in child conception in the same text as child thought processes being simple because there seems to be a deeper correlation that goes beyond small quirks of fate. The innocence…simplicity…uncomplicatedness of pure life experiences all leads to the creation of something beyond the logical order of things. Who wants to eat pasta every day? A simple child. Why have children? To understand simplicity. The same simplicity that is a distant memory as we get older.
Fate…choices…simple…complicated…does it really matter? A number of people believe in fate, several don’t. Some spend their lives making simple choices that turn out complicated and others make complicated choices that turn out simple. Life does what it does without our control but it doesn’t make it any easier. We hear trouble-free, poignant life statements from children every day. Are these the riddles adults spend their lives trying to figure out?
Last week, I was watching my formally preemie nephew walking backwards on my mother’s linoleum kitchen floor in red slippers with a smile on his face. Wasn’t he afraid of falling? No….I was afraid for him. With his eyes fixated on three people he trusted, his blind, backwards adventure on the slippery floor was of no consequence to him. He was safe as long as he kept his eye on what he knew.
Perhaps that’s the trick…or lesson. As adults we are pulled in so many different directions…our paths get confusing….and our eyes taken from what’s really important…complications arise and simplicity is lost. Walking forward is scary enough most days. Walking backwards with only our sights on what is real…well…that’s just too simple. Pasta anyone?
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In honor of my husband the Navy Man
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, 'Whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'
You could have heard a pin drop...
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'
You could have heard a pin drop...
Teachers and Educators
According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.Every night the maintenance man would remove them, and the next day the girls would put them back.Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses).To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.There are teachers .... and then there are educators.
He Would Not Stay for Me, and Who Can Wonder?
He would not stay for me, and who can wonder?
He would not stay for me to stand and gaze.
I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder,
And went with half my life about my ways.
A.E. Housman
He would not stay for me to stand and gaze.
I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder,
And went with half my life about my ways.
A.E. Housman
Small Moments
From John F. Kennedy
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
1 comment:
It's actually nice to know that someone who had as many doubts and as much confusion as I do now ended up being pretty content. My plans for a career--though not for a spouse--also started out simple. I think I was in second grade, in Mrs. Gulius's class (the best teacher ever) when I started telling anyone who'd listen that I wanted to be a writer. I liked ghost stories at the time--actually I still kind of do.
Then college time came and I thought I was being realistic when I signed up for an Anthropology major, you know, because of all the job opportunities in the field. Then it was psychology. Then it was back to creative writing. Then I kind of stopped trying to figure it out, just tried to be a normal guy working at a restaurant.
Anyway, it's good to hear teaching can be fulfilling to people like us. I hope I get the chance to soon.
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