Today was a DJ day at Summer Seminary Sampler. A "P"-day, finally. We had a number of "J"-days which had "P" elements such as being at a place at the wrong time. But nothing made me feel better than this morning. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the orderliness and all that it provides, but sometimes, darn it, you gotta live in the chaos. Oh, and by the way, if you want a different perspective on the event, see Dave's Blog.
Enter Franklin County MRDD Center, Stage Right. This is a center (possibly could be labeled a resort because it was amazing inside) for children with some kind of mental or physical retardation, which gets bonus points from me just for the thought. In addition to a GIANT Connect-4 board, and countless other rooms and games that made me want to stay an entire day, we got to take part in the most brilliant idea I have ever come across:
One of the teachers told her students where pizza sauce comes from(tomatoes, of course), but one of the kids answered back, "No, it comes from a jar." So the dilemna is that these kids have no clue how food gets made. What better solution, then, to see something get made from beginning to end. Unfortunately, the garden was not quite bearing fruit(read: vegetables). The geniouses(and I mean that term completely sincerely) thought up the idea to get vegetables from the store, and "plant" them in the garden so the children could come pick them. Wow, what a freakin sweet idea!!! We spent the morning pointing out vegetables to the kids so they could harvest them and put them on plates and in baskets. Eventually a chef came in and made a salad out of the things that we gathered. They officially win every award I've ever even thought of handing out.
These kids absolutely loved the whole idea of it. There were many kids encapsulated when the chef began chopping the vegetables, some of them saying things like, "I picked that carrot." With kids running around everywhere today, it felt a little bit like the crowded home I grew up in, which is probably why it felt so good. The only thing that would have made the morning better would be a nice long soak in the ball-pit.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Reflection on July 4th, 2006
A couple of things popped in my mind:
1) Watching the third Terminator movie is kind of ironic on the 4th of July.
2) Mucho thankso to North Korea for celebrating Independence Day with us...jweks. They are so on the punch-in-the-face list it's not even funny. The next few days should be exciting to watch quick slingin' Bush Cassidy from the podium (or is it a lectern?).
3) Fireworks are exciting because they burn, and flash brightly, and make big bangs; three things which every youngster should not take part in, but they get exposure to every year. Maybe we'd have less burn accidents if we celebrated the Fourth of July by tying our feet to the bumper of a car and trying to do a handstand on a skateboard behind it. I admit, I blew my hand up with a bottle rocket once, and it wasn't because I watched fireworks the night before, but because burning, flashing, loud things are cool (thank you beavis and butthead); but i still have a right as a geezer to complain about how kids were smarter in my day and how they had more productive things to do than throw fireworks at eachother (don't take that as a suggestion).
4) How can we celebrate when our *snicker 5th ranked soccer team got annihalated by two, shall we call them, non-superpowers. We should be suspended from celebrating our nation in any way until we can at least tie the fourth graders from Iceland.
I've said my piece, Happy Fourth!
1) Watching the third Terminator movie is kind of ironic on the 4th of July.
2) Mucho thankso to North Korea for celebrating Independence Day with us...jweks. They are so on the punch-in-the-face list it's not even funny. The next few days should be exciting to watch quick slingin' Bush Cassidy from the podium (or is it a lectern?).
3) Fireworks are exciting because they burn, and flash brightly, and make big bangs; three things which every youngster should not take part in, but they get exposure to every year. Maybe we'd have less burn accidents if we celebrated the Fourth of July by tying our feet to the bumper of a car and trying to do a handstand on a skateboard behind it. I admit, I blew my hand up with a bottle rocket once, and it wasn't because I watched fireworks the night before, but because burning, flashing, loud things are cool (thank you beavis and butthead); but i still have a right as a geezer to complain about how kids were smarter in my day and how they had more productive things to do than throw fireworks at eachother (don't take that as a suggestion).
4) How can we celebrate when our *snicker 5th ranked soccer team got annihalated by two, shall we call them, non-superpowers. We should be suspended from celebrating our nation in any way until we can at least tie the fourth graders from Iceland.
I've said my piece, Happy Fourth!
Saturday, July 01, 2006
The Declaration of the Jubilee Week
Samplarian has ended, and the score is: DJ - 12, everybody else 0. If you want an explanation, you're asking the wrong person.
It occurs to me that aside from feeling very old at times (which has made for the declaration of the Jubilee Week), this group that has just packed up and left has given me great hope for the church of the future. We had a full cross-section of the fruits of the spirit represented: those well versed in scripture, those with the gift of speaking very very quickly (some might say in tongues), the jokemakers, the scholars, and those with the gift of smelling badly.
I now prepare to pack as the summer has almost come to a close for me, and I am tired, but I trust that all necessary energy and strength will be given to me, when a lack of time and rest demand that I go with the pull of the spirit.
It occurs to me that aside from feeling very old at times (which has made for the declaration of the Jubilee Week), this group that has just packed up and left has given me great hope for the church of the future. We had a full cross-section of the fruits of the spirit represented: those well versed in scripture, those with the gift of speaking very very quickly (some might say in tongues), the jokemakers, the scholars, and those with the gift of smelling badly.
I now prepare to pack as the summer has almost come to a close for me, and I am tired, but I trust that all necessary energy and strength will be given to me, when a lack of time and rest demand that I go with the pull of the spirit.
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