Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tuesday, October 23, 2012 -- Mattie died 163 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2006. Mattie was a Calico cat and he and I designed his costume together. However, this costume has a story to it. When I reflect on Mattie's life, I sometimes forget the fact that he did not celebrate Halloween in 2005. In fact, I made this costume for Halloween of 2005, but that year, Mattie developed a terrible infection which brought us to Virginia Hospital Center (VHC). Mattie and I stayed together at VHC for several days as they tried to determine why he was SO ill. However, one of the days in which we were in-patient was Halloween! Unlike Georgetown, VHC has no child life department and at the time it was truly not child friendly. So there were NO Halloween activities in the Hospital of any kind for Mattie to participate in. Needless to say, I packed away the Calico cat costume and fortunately because it was made out of sweat suit material, Mattie was able to wear it in 2006. If you have been watching the progression of costumes over the last couple of nights (through blog photos), you most likely see a trend. Every costume was made out of sweat suit material!

Quote of the day: Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don't want it. What appears bad manners, an ill temper or cynicism is always a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen. You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone. ~ Miller Williams


I started my day with going to zumba. I find when I exercise, I have more energy to take on the various components of my day. It was a glorious weather day in Washington, DC, so after class my friend Heidi and I had lunch together outside. While at lunch, Heidi invited me to a lecture tonight by an organization called, Rachel's Challenge. Not having a child in school anymore, I am not up to speed with the various programs offered to children and parents. However, I went to the Rachel's Challenge website (http://www.rachelschallenge.org/) and learned that Rachel was one of the first students killed in Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. The website is very touching and meaningful and clearly this dedicated group has put together a traveling outreach program to help teens, in order to try to prevent another Columbine from happening. So this evening, I will be attending a Rachel's Challenge event and I will report back tomorrow about this experience.

In light of the lecture I am going to, I think tonight's quote is quite meaningful. Because we truly do not know what is going on under the surface of children, teens, and adults we interact with. We come to our own conclusions based on how people treat us, but there is always an explanation for the behavior we see. It is just how patient and compassionate are we going to be to understand this behavior? I realize this is easier said than done. Yet, I am deeply saddened to see the video on Rachel's Challenge website which talks about the significant number of children and teens each day who have an actual plan for suicide. Which is why I think the role of a teacher is far more complicated today than it was when I was growing up. Teachers in many cases are the first responders to the issues they see with children in their classrooms. These are issues most teachers are not trained to contend with, and in our litigious society, I suspect many of the issues spotted get swept up under the rug by administration to avoid confronting the issue. Unfortunately when issues are not dealt with, they only grow bigger not smaller, and as Columbine illustrated to us some issues can implode and take down an entire school.

May we all find the time, energy, and desire within ourselves to stop and listen to those in our lives, even occasionally. Listening is by far one of the greatest gifts we can give another human being.