Written several weeks ago, but withheld from publishing until I could reread it to make sure I really wanted to put it out there. Perhaps it just needed to be saved for a time when the world is worried and preoccupied...to give us a chance to laugh a little.
I wasn't going to write this post. It's really not at all what this blog is about. It really is imprudent since the next few minutes you spend reading might end up feeling like squandered time. But I really can't help myself. There is nothing to be learned here, no new insights, no reflection on children or education or best practice. Nothing of value whatsoever. In fact, this is the first time I am posting with the simple thought in mind that sometimes we just need to have some fun. But don't worry, I am not going over the deep end of absurdity and I am not breaking out of my regular personality. Quite the opposite, really. This post is so me that I really couldn't help but be here in front of you. But if you don't feel as though you have five minutes to spend on frivolous optimism, you might want to move along. Go ahead, I'm not insulted. I'll see you next week when we do more educational type stuff together.If you've decided to stay, but are not in the mood for a little mindless humor...you know, real-time gotta-just-laugh-at-what-life-brings-sometimes kind of humor, you can go ahead and join those that left in the previous paragraph. I get it. I'm not always in the mood to laugh at life and beg for more of what it has to serve.
And if you're still here, this is your final warning: This post contains a huge spider cricket, some indoor dog poop and ridiculous optimism that just comes naturally but is so incredibly annoying to many, that they might want to shove me when next we meet...I'll be waiting to see if my hallway neighbor read this one. :) And so, for those of you still here and in need of a break from news of the corona virus and all its fanfare:
A Short Reflection on Spider Crickets and Puppy Poop...
Late last night as I was brushing my teeth, there was a huge cricket in the bathroom. I am not one to flinch at bugs, unless they are on the ceiling above my head...that gets to me. (I just checked. Did you?) But I'm talking about a Spider Cricket, also known as Camelback Crickets. These are not "get a tissue" crickets. They are more like, "get the hammer" crickets. So there I was, brushing away, keeping one eye on that monster cricket, when Mocha, our dog, came in and started to play with the cricket. Let me repeat, those things are ginormous and jump farther than one would expect! Look up a video if you're not familiar. And so while I brushed, Mocha, in her puppy playfulness, played with the cricket. As I rinsed, she picked it up and tossed it to the point that it was laying on it's side. It clearly appeared dead and so I picked it up and put in in the toilet, closing the lid and flushing as I left the bathroom before proceeding to get into bed.
This is where I would normally stop my oration to invite my students to make predictions...go ahead...see if you know where this is going. I'll wait...……………...
So....when I awoke this morning I went into the bathroom to do what people do in the bathroom. As soon as I walked in, I knew something was wrong...the smell was familiar in this house of "puppy". Mocha has gotten better, but she must have had a hard time making it through the night because she left a pile of poop in the middle of the bathroom floor. And so, instead of blindly doing what people do in the bathroom in the morning, I instead, blindly lifted the lid to dump in what puppies do in the bathroom in the middle of the night. No sooner did I make the deposit that the cricket, remember the cricket?...let itself be known by jumping up at me.
Now, I know you are likely wondering what the hell I am going on about and why. Well, here it is. My first thought was, "Thank God Mocha pooped in the bathroom!" Wait. What? Yes!!! If Mocha hadn't done what she had done in the bathroom in the night, I would have gone to do what people do in the bathroom in the morning, and might have had a different feeling (quite literally) about spider crickets! But you see, it doesn't end at gratitude for Mocha's indiscretion. I am even grateful for the cricket. Why? Because due to the cricket suprising me and making me jump and then laugh this morning, I was not as annoyed with the dog as I would have otherwise been. In fact, I was grateful to her.
In the end, I took this as a sign to go ahead and take some chances. As a result, I had a wonderful meeting with a friend in the aisle at Wegmans, I had the blessed opportunity to help an elderly man find his car in the parking lot, and I had a wonderful spontaneous outing to Barnes and Noble with one of my favorite people...all because of this morning's happenings giving me the go-ahead to take control of the day...I mean really, how much worse could it have gotten?
There is always something for which to be grateful! Sometimes you just have to think through things differently to find it, but it is there, of that I am certain! Thanks for reading! Find the positive in everything you do today and all week...it is there. In the stress, in the fatigue, in the you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me moments, it is there! Even in the news...think about it...look how much we are all connected to each other all over the world!! That's an amazing gift! Give optimism a try...it's just a perspective change away.
