The Beauty of Life

Had a day of contrast - sat in the doctor’s office with my oldest son for several hours only to be mostly told in the most middle of the road way, “DO NOT EVER RETURN!” Even my son thought the doctor’s comments “seemed like she was talking to us like we were computers” in his words. Then we came across this gentlemen fully dressed up and basically doing a concert at the 72nd St. Q train station.

Later in the day I was delighted to teach the last session of a storytelling workshop for kids K-5. It was great—9 of the 12 students told personal stories live without notes. They weren’t the best stories in the world, but to see so many of the kids be brave enough to stand in front of their schoolmates was quite impressive to me. I wish I could share some of their stories, but their kids and not my own for that matter so I won’t do that, but I will say we heard stories about a kid being struck by a car while on a bike with his dad, a birthday party that filled a kids heart, a tale of accomplishing a creative act against the odds, a story that show the great contrast between stomach bug that tormented a girl’s whole day and the following morning the beauty that was felt when the stomach bug had past, and about a boy that realized his dad was his real life superhero. There were certainly a lot of, and umms, but considering these are 5-10 year old kids standing in front of 11 other kids and three adults I would say it was a major success. I plan to do it again with a similar focus, but making sure to emphasis the importance of surprising the audience with the idea that its a day like any other until something out of the ordinary happened.

As for me, the experience made something extremely clear—I am my father’s son. Like my dad (who is, among other things, a high school English teacher), I find myself teaching young people how to communicate effectively. We’re certainly not the same person, but its fun to see the similarities while also appreciating the differences.