Come join me in the celebration of children

Tonight we had a Girl Scouts meeting. I know this might shock some of you, but I'm the troop leader. Yup, I have been entrusted to shape the minds of young girls. ;)

I had this really sappy idea: we would give each girl a paper sack with an ingredient to trail mix in it. Then we sat in a circle and talked about how special each of the ingredients were, how each of them had their own unique goodness and flavor. By putting them all together in a bowl, we were going to make something even better. Then we talked about each of the girls... how Lauren loves horses and Sarah likes to read... and how everything about them is unique and special. We hoped by having so many wonderful ingredients in our troop, that we would also end up with something even better.

Well, when you do something so sappy with 5-year-old girls, you aren't ever really sure how much of it will sink in. As the girls sat around munching their trail mix one looked at the group and says, "Hey, we are really good together." Another said, "Just wait until next week."

My heart melted then and again at the end of the evening when I got all the great hugs, "Thank you, Miss Lyn" and "Night, Miss Lyn" in high-pitched, sing-song voices.

If you ever wonder why we work so hard to elect good people into office, go visit your local school, church or library. Volunteer to help with children. Once you look into their eyes and see the pure excitement and trusting goodness of childhood, you'll understand.

I don't have any ponies to offer those who muddled their way through my mushy sharing, but trail mix to you all.

I posted this on my little blog that nobody reads, but I'll share it here again:

My 8-year-old daughter is profoundly autistic. She is very different from normal children and has little in common with her peers at school.
Like many people with autism, she has sensory integration disorder--in a nutshell, she sees the world in a way which probably very alien to most "normal" people.
She can be a real challenge to care for at times--constantly wanting to play in the sink, the bathtub and the toilet, trying to eat cleaning supplies, or wandering off--all things that most people don't have to deal with once a child gets past 2 or 3 years of age. Teaching her even the simplest things can take months. Yet in spite of everything, she is a sweet, wonderful little person. She will probably never dislike another human being because she disagrees with his or her religion or lifestyle choices. In some ways, she is superior to all of us "normal" people.

Since ancient times, we have always tried to change people who are "different" from everyone else--whether this would entail healing or education for the disabled or culturally inferior, or through less altruistic means such as warfare and genocide--we have always tried to enforce conformity.

As I sit here watching her happily splash water all over the kitchen countertop, I wonder whether, in our attempts to "cure" her, if maybe we sometimes go too far. Is her way of seeing the world any less valid than everyone else's? Are our attempts to help her a reflection of our own ethnocentrism? I will be the first to admit that I don't think it is possible to truly answer that question. Nothing in the world would make me happier than to be able to sit down and have a conversation with her (she is completely nonverbal) and to see her function on a level that would make it possible for her to function independently. Yet I feel it is my duty to protect her from those who would, in their desire to "cure" her push her too hard and too fast in the wrong directions. But when do you go too far? When does an attempt to help her infringe upon her rights as an individual?

FWIW, I think many of the world's greatest minds had some sort of "disorder." Those who really change the world are often able to to view things from a different angle than the rest of us.

Those are really excellent questions... I think you can take those ideas and expand them to societies as a whole, and be no closer to an answer. But I think the very process of asking and analyzing ourselves that way is good for all of us. Best wishes to you and your daughter :hug:

Those questions aren't that different for "normal" children either. You always are balancing how much to encourage conformity (so that they can move through society) vs allowing them to be truly free individuals - encouraging thier viewpoints and creativity, impulses etc

those girls, we had very good times and learned a lot of new things.

They had me twisted around their fingers the first night. This Saturday, I'm taking all 12 of them to a museum... which might be proof I am insane.

for about 18 years. In addition to being TPD, service unit chair, trainer and the Wider Op consult. Was even co-director for a Wider Op we held here and went to Center West before they closed it. I miss it.

with them. I am certain you are all the better for it. The blessings go both ways.

I am a full-time stay at home mother, so I know the richness children can bring to one's life. On the other hand, thank god they go off to school everyday. I like to say, "It helps when they're cute!" :evilgrin:

Seriously, kudos to you for taking on troop leadership. :thumbsup:

Shine