Eating Air and othe glorious ponderings..

"Mom" 

Yes Ittie

"mom"

Yes Ittie

MOMMMMmmmmm

YES ITTIE..

My Tooth is loose .. look..  "she wiggles the front tooth bag and forth proudly"

Can I eat an apple, Will the tooth fairy be able to find my tooth if it got stuck in the apple and we threw it away.  

Yes Ittie we would get it out of the apple before we threw it away.

"what if you didn't mom"

Well .. The tooth fairy has magic and would find the tooth Ittie..

"Would I get money for it"

Yes Ittie the tooth fairy is in charge of tooth collection and she pays for any tooth.

"What if a dog ate the apple before we got the tooth out of it and it was in the dogs belly."

(note refrain from going through where the tooth will come out of)

Harriet pipes in at my ponderment of dog digestion and says.. The tooth fairy's magic wand brings the tooth up and out of the dogs tummy through the mouth while the dog sleeps so she would still get it..

(Thank God for Harriet because all I had was well she will do what mommy has had to do when the dog has eaten other valuables wait on nature .. all things pass)

Ittie goes back to waggling the tooth..

later at friends house>
"Diane look my tooth is loose"

We have some string and a doorknob.. wrap it around there all said with a smirk..

Avery looks at Diane suspiciously moves to the other side of the counter just for good measure..  "no"  waggle waggle waggle with the tooth.. But look it wiggles.

"Do you have and apple"

"mom'
Yes Ittie
"mom"
Yes Ittie
"Mommmmmm"
Yes Itttttttieeeeee

"When I have no teeth will I be able to eat"

(no teeth is she talking in senior citizen years.. nah.. OK>>> um how to answer)

Ittie your teeth aren't going to all fall out at once.. Some will fall out as others are growing in.

"MOm"
Yes Ittie..

"So when I have no teeth it will be hard to eat apples.. "

(OK well that one didn't work.. I look over to see her making the lips over teeth "gum face" smacking them together and making verbal like sounds.. trying to figure out what it will be like.. Yep she's lost in this ponder for a bit)

Yep Ittie you will have to eat it as Apple Sauce.
"HMMM"

 

Mom..
Yes Ittie
Mom
Yes Ittie.
MOm
Ittie..

If the ground caved into a big hole and the train with people crashed into it.. and no one was hurt but they lived underground and never came back up..

(What has she been watching at her fathers!! ) OK Ittie??

Except to eat catch and eat people .. and if it was for real not fake what would you think..

(WHAAAT.. channel calmness..) Well Ittie I would be happy that everyone was initially safe from the wreck but would find it gross and hope that they would stop eating people.

"OH..  What if they grabbed me and took me in the hole.."

That's easy Ittie I would have to dive down in the hole.. fight them and get you to safety because I am a mama bear and will protect you..grrrr (since we are talking about reality here)


<Ittie smiles>< yep that was what we were going for >

"AHHHHHHHH...."

What are you doing Ittie

"Eating Air.. .... AHHHH... It's good you should try it.. AHHHHH"

<two different >AHHHHH .. Yep Ittie this is Pretty good air.

This is my life right now.. an imaginative world full of adventure.  Secret questions of safety and worth built into stories. 

The world around me has become big again as clouds become the shapes of creatures named and in the imagination.  Stories waiting to be told.   The Pond on the farm I hear has a big sea creature sometimes nice sometimes not.  Avery seems to be the only one who has spotted it so far. 

There are wood sprites and water fairies. Angels and monsters.  Wee People and giants.  Magic and sparkles.  Pirates and Mermaids. .. All in the land of the Mighty Pink Princess.

This brief moment in our journey is a glorious one..I bathe in it's energy and challenge of the ordinary.  

Grit it's whats for dinner..

"Ittie it's not just about you, it is about everyone that is in this house"   a phrase heard from time to time.  When the I wants and why can't I have and but that's not fair... pop up. 

I grew up believing in statements like provide opportunity for all, protect the weak, go for the WIN WIN,  be a humble winner and a noble looser.   Bullying and my or the highway isn't OK.  Everyone has a voice.   Don't go for what is popular.. go for what is right.

I am raising Ittie with the same sayings same ideals because I believe they show integrity and grit.  I don't believe that these attributes come from  "my way or the highway".. "We need people that make hard decisions".     I believe the latter are cliches,  slogans for the "tough guys" but not grit.   Grit is sitting down in the muck and figuring out how to rescue everyone.  Grit is leave no man behind.   Be him Muslim, Christian, Jew,Hindi,  straight, gay, black, red, yellow, white.. etc.. Grit is weighing down and going against the tantruming force that says I want it this way.. I have to have it this way and pulls for a process that brings people together. 

Grit is being an individual that understands the world before them, the country, state, county, city, township they live in is more diverse and full of life and difference then they can every understand and that through this diversity comes growth, discussion.. movement and humbling themselves to that.

I want to teach Ittie to have grit.. The stay in the saddle, get dust on your jeans, work hard, enjoy the sun. Hang in there..Use your head, know when to hold them, know when to fold them (thank you Kenny Rogers, Gambler) type of Grit..

So why is this so important such a hot topic in my mind.  I find myself ever increasingly thinking about the actions I and my fellow citizens take today and how it will impact not just the next year or four but the next 20-60.  I have a walking investment.  A beating.. breathing, imaginative walking investment in this world. Actually I have one directly and the other 5 my brother and sisters did the hard part. The current rhetoric that they are hearing and exposed to:  The Attitude of Might is right, Me first.. Quick solutions to long term problems that will take some time to fix are being address with non answers, or red herrings.

 It's everywhere, "Educated Liberal"  so are we saying education is a bad thing, that gaining knowledge and learning to discuss makes you liberal.  I just thought that education broadened my perspective, helped me problem solve with creative solutions.. "We need to stop the bi-partisanship" AKA stop working with the people on the other side.  We need people who can make tough decisions.  While I absolutely agree with this.  I believe it has been misconstrued  as if to say its tough to do it my way..verses  the flip side of this belief must be its the easy that it is to sit down with a person or group of people with all different ideas and work to come up with a good solution that isn't group think"  Which one do you think is harder.   

Ittie hears these slogans, bumper sticker sayings on the air waves, TV, from adults around us or her little friends mimicking what they hear from their family and she asks and or repeats what is said.  "mama.. why does he have a tough decision"   We a family value.. At I sit and think about the future for her ... my family .. what the elections hold for direction of truly making a difference in our society.  I want thinkers and negotiators .. I want mom in office that cut coupons and can run a household budget on nickels and dimes but still understand how important it is for music, art education, play to be part of life.  I want Avery to have a world that the basis to life is protected.  The slogan's i would like to here.. JUST because we can .. Doesn't mean we should.   Personal commitments to work together to resolve big issues. I want people with grit that will work hard, stay in the saddle.. I want dusty hard work..
This is not be picking a side of Republican, Libertarian, Democrat.. I believe extremism within any group is scary.. They offer quick easy solutions that work for sometime but lets look at the outcomes:   Marxism that became (Stalanism and Lennonism), Nazi's, al-Qaeda, Kach, Kahane Chai, the Taliban.  All began as a belief and discussion as solutions to issues.   Strict solutions for unjust, hard economic times.   They promised fixes, order, a certain level of safety and a greater society.  They all blame other groups for the problems in society verses looking at themselves, and the diversity around them and working for the harder solutions. They all were my way or the highway. 

When I think about grit.. Ihave the traditional image of the Lawman who would stand alone at first to the "outlaws'.  He didn't want to be there.  He could have road away but someone needed to stand up against tyranny for everyone.  There he is . in the dusty street, leathery skin.. shadow of his hat over his eyes, duster flapping in the wind and his hands ready for action.. flexing.. Grit.

I also think of Movies like Family Stone, Dead Poets Society, Eat Pray Love, Under the Tuscan Sun, Finding Forrester, Good Will Hunting. The character's in these movies have grit.  They are not flawless but they have courage to stand, to make change.. to move and teach us something in their wake. They have grit to face life and make a change to themselves to others.

While the character's may be fictional in the movies the values and lessons are not. Nor is the ideal or what we can aspire to.  The real life gritty characters are even more astounding including a few off the top of my head: Queen Elizabeth 1, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Victoria Woodhull, Aung San Suu Kyi, Jeannette Rankin, Colin Powell and many more. 

I head into this election with Ittie in hand, voting for people hoping to continue to employ smart decisive and cooperative  public servants. My daughter looks to me to keep her world secure, safe, creative and free and diverse.  Tonight at my house as we listen to the news and discuss politics and attitudes in society, we will be having Grit for dinner.. What are you having at yours.