Why Be Normal?

[ciroccoj]

• Went on date to all-you-can-eat Chinese Buffet. After months and months of dieting? Ouch, says my tummy.
  
  
• Had such a strong desire to fast-forward Daniel through to university today.
  
  He tries so hard to share his interests with the neighbourhood kids, to so little success. Today it was "The Music of Elfquest," a CD full of songs inspired by the Elfquest graphic novels. He played two of them to Khoi and Ricardo before Khoi declared "That's so weak!" (today's 'weak' is yesterday's 'lame', BTW) and while I don't think Daniel's feelings were hurt, I know he was deeply disappointed. Again.
  
  They like Yu-Gi-Oh, you see. And Lego Bionicles. And video games. Anything else - Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, Elfquest, science, making your own Halloween costumes - is weak.
  
  I remember that feeling through most of elementary school and high school - the feeling of knowing that maybe two people in the world were interested in what I was interested in, and the rest would be sure to look at me askance if I mentioned anything that hadn't yet been approved by the larger consumer culture.
  
  I yearn for Daniel to see that his interests will not always be scoffed at and dismissed. That some day he too may find people who either already thrill to what interests him, or are willing to explore new possibilities. To read books he recommends (or to read at all), to listen to non-Top 40s music, to explore hobbies that aren't the norm for people of their background/age/culture.
  
  
• I'm ever so glad my kids love new experiences. Yesterday, it was MC Escher. My mom had a large book of his drawings, and I'd looked one over with Justin in a book store once, so I asked Guy if I could take the book and I showed it to both kids.
  
  They were totally drawn in. Discussed each picture and its various impossibilities. At one point, we even played "Escher" ('sitting' on the sofa with our backs on the seat and our feet pointing towards the wall, as if the wall was the floor). So much discussion and interest and imagination and laughter, spurred by one little book that was never meant for kids in the first place.
  
  BTW, if you want to see why we were sitting on the chairs weirdly, go to the Escher link above, click on Gallery (left hand side of the site), "Back in Holland 1941 - 1954", and click on the picture of "Relativity" at the bottom left hand side of the page.

Must go wake up Chris now.

Comments

[snarkhunter.livejournal.com]

::sigh::

People suck. Baaa.

[tobiascharity.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Oh, boy, I wish I could take Daniel with me to Interlochen and point at everything and just say, "See?" Reading about him reminds me so much of myself.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

I wish I could take Daniel with me to Interlochen and point at everything and just say, "See?"

Hee - yeah, I get that feeling from your Interlochen posts. It sounds like you fast-forwarded to university too, and that's a very, very good thing :)

[tobiascharity.livejournal.com]

How old is he, again? My brain says "twelve!" but I know that's not right.

(Meaning, "Dude, it would be SO COOL if Daniel somehow came to Interlochen for school!")

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Heh, no, not yet twelve. He'll turn eight in January. Poor little guy - he's still got a ways to go in the vast wasteland of Blessed Is The Norm.

This is part of why I'd like to homeschool him - homeschooled kids are far more likely to be quirky themselves, and to have much more patience with and curiosity about folks weirder than themselves.