kibbles and bits

(warning: stream-of-consciousness pointless and only nebulously connected ramblings ahead)

"He's welcome to come visit any time," said Marco's dad as I picked Daniel up from Marco's house yesterday. This is so much nicer to hear than "Is he always like this?" Not that we've heard that in a while, but still ;)

Part of why I love kids is that they're so free of the bullsh*t we adults pick up and carry around in ever-thickening layers as the years go by. This means that occasionally they're shockingly callous or dumb, but it also frees them from a lot of needless stupidity and automatic assumptions. E.g. Marco, who had insisted to his dad that the kid in his class picture with long hair and the name 'Danielle' (French pronunciation of Daniel) was a boy. And his dad had not believed him until yesterday. And it had taken a bit of effort on his dad's part to accept that Daniel was just like any other kid, long hair aside - an effort that Marco had never had to make.

There's also Matthew, whose birthday party Daniel attended on Sunday, and who used to refer to Daniel as 'the girl-dude' when speaking of him to his mom. Not in a derogatory way at all, she said, just as a quick handy description. Matthew simply hadn't learned yet that insinuating any kind of femininity in the character of a man or boy was a deep, deep insult.

Driving with Justin the other day, for some reason we started talking about beliefs. And I said that I didn't believe in something or other (Heaven, I think), but many people did. "And that's fine. Canada's a free country, you're allowed to believe what you want."

"Why?"

I explained how Canada and the US had been founded and settled in large part by people who were persecuted back home for their beliefs. What was persecution? "Well, for example, if there was somebody who didn't believe in Jesus, because they were Jewish, they couldn't own land, they couldn't do certain jobs, they couldn't vote-"

"But that's TERRIBLE!!" said Justin, utterly shocked. "Jesus would HATE that!!"

Um, yeah. Yeah, he would. Why is that immediately obvious to a four year-old child, but invisible to most adults?

I'm musing about kids today because yesterday I didn't have my regular childfree Tuesday, wherein I clean and tidy our downstairs and then read till my eyes bug out. Yesterday Justin had his DPTP shot in the morning and I decided to just keep him home the rest of the day. We cooked, walked to Guy's and back, and generally just hung out. Very nice :)

Today is a different day. Had Env class in the morning and now I'm working on my Drafting final project and my ADR annotation. Should be interesting; Drafting consists of re-writing the affirmative defence of self-defence for murder, and ADR involves reviewing an article on the place of apology in dispute resolutions. I also have some hefty Env readings on the Biodiversity Convention. And, geek that I am, I'm cheerfully looking forward to all of the above ;)

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Ha-

Still high from our first Christmas choir rehearsal, I check my mail and find that Dubya will be infesting invading fouling visiting our fair city on November 30. Talk about bathos (the sudden fall from the sublime to the profane). Eeeyuck. I must remember to stay away from the news that day, or risk puking when I hear Martin kissing Dubya's ass like he wants to marry it spout that "our two nations, two good friends" crap. Which is odd, because I always felt pretty comfortable with Canada's close relationship with the US before Bush. Now, though... if it was up to me, I'd be petitioning for us to join the EU.

So I'm thinking I'm gonna hurl anyway just on principle, and I come across this:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/mcee/

Oh yeah, baby. This is why I love my f-list :)

***
So, my good cheer restored: choir was amazing. I'd felt such green-eyed jealousy at snarkhunter, who got to go to a Messiah singalong - and now I don't have to be jealous, 'cause we're doing it too! Parts of it, anyway.

There's nothing quite like singing the Messiah. It's just... ::trying to word it right:: nope, can't describe it. I've been singing it since 1986 (just saw the date on my book and boggled - I was fifteen the first time my choir sang it at the NAC!!) and have never been able to express how it feels.

I've also never gotten tired of the delight that comes every single time a choir rehearses the Hallelujah chorus for the first time, and everybody knows that somebody will be caught on the final "HA!" - and then it happens. And the whole choir laughs. Somehow, like the Messiah itself, that never, ever gets old :)