Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Prioritized Problems

I seem to have stumbled across a problem.  Mind you, it's not a bad problem.  On the contrary, it's quite definitely a good problem.  Some will argue that, "good problem" is a completely contradicting statement, and I'm sure those people will come out with a completely convincing argument.  Good for them.

I like to write.  Someone who doesn't fully understand love might say that I love to write.  Sometimes I say that I love to write.  And whenever I feel an overwhelming plethora of emotions all centered around the same core of emotions start to build up, I do my best to let them out through writing.  Other times I get this tingly energy that travels from my brain to my fingertips, and the moment I sit down to clack away at computer keys it's like an addict getting their fix.  Those are the moments I hear myself saying, "I love to write". 

The problem is, I only get those moments when I've had plenty of quality time with my mind.  Some people call that, 'day dreaming' but I long ago decided that, 'day dreaming' is a prejudice term and so I call it, "thinking".  The problem with thinking is that I need a solid several hours of thinking about similar things in order to even contemplate writing any of it down.  Up until the past 7 months or so, I've had that.

I've had time to sit up until the late hours of the night analyzing grammar and all its silly rules.  I've had time to realize ridiculous paradoxes about writing.  I've had time to talk to myself about the insults hidden in terms such as, "You are a Gentleman and a Scholar".

But lately, I haven't had time.  I haven't had time because I recognized a very simple fact: I love people more than I like to write.  There most certainly are certain people that I certainly love more than certain others, but in general, I love people.  I love spending time with people.  I love laughing with people.  I love being with people.  I love learning from people.

And I've been learning lots.

There was a time in my life when I would have frantically gone to incredible efforts to write about all that I was learning.  I would listen for key phrases and come up with comparably deep metaphors in relation to all my musings, and then place them as neatly as possible on paper sheets and computer screens, hoping that someone else in the world would enjoy them.

It took me a while to learn that I learn much more as a sponge, not a filter.  I learn better when I listen rather than passing the message on.  I learn better when listening to people I love and loving people I love.  So naturally, I've been spending all my free time with people I love instead of writing.

The problem is, I like to write, and it's distracting.

Monday, February 4, 2013

The Speech

Today's post isn't written by me.  It's written by an 10 year old boy who I have done part-time respite care/work with on and off over the past year or so.  He had to write a speech in school, and this is what he wrote:

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Today I am going to talk about Isaac.  Isaac is my best friend in the whole world!  one of the things I love to do with Isaac is spend time with him.  The first time I met him was when we got the tav from him.  This was five years ago.  I remember how fast my dad went on the road.  Guess how fast he went?  I am not going that speed ever…well not in fields.  He went 60.  My dad did have his helment on.  I was too young and too afraid to ride on the tav then.  Now every Monday Isaac picks us up around six o'clock and we go to his house to do some activities.

Isaac is fun to play with in free time.  We like to scare Isaac by making him think there are ghosts in his car.  We go for mud drives in the woods.  Isaac is cool because we can wrestle with him.  Isaac is cool because we can have snowball fights with him.  Isaac is helpful when he has time to shovel our driveway.  Isaac is helpful when he can fix our T.V.  Isaac is helpful when he can help out with the A.T.V.  Isaac is just a friendly guy.  Isaac is friendly he is never grumpy or upset.  Isaac is always making me laugh.  Isaac is always happy and always talking.

Me and Isaac go for rides in the woods.  I like to go fishing with Isaac.  Rock climbing is an adventure with Isaac.  A favourite past time is hiking in the woods with Isaac.  My brother and I like to jump on the trampoline at Isaac's house.  Biking in the rain is messy but fun with Isaac.  AS you can tell I have so much fun doing fun things with Isaac.

When it is raining we play chess or video games.  I like playing chess and video games with Isaac because he goes easy on me when we play chess…and I usually win.  I can't think of one game that I lost!

It is nice to have an adult friend.  Isaac has his own car now and license so he can drive me over to his house.  Sometimes Isaac picks me up from school.  Isaac can fix our T.V. and that is one thing my other friends can't do.

Do you want to have an adult friend?  If you do have one what do you do with him?  I have quite a few adult friends.  So many that I can't name them all.  But I'll try: Isaac, George, Uncle Wally, Layton and Jacob…Isaac's little brother.  I don't know him as well as Isaac...