“There is love, there is peace in this world.
So take it back; say it’s not what you thought
Grab a hold, take these melodies
with your hands, write a song to sing…
Isn’t such a bad, bad world!”
~ Guster, Bad Bad World
What a wonderful visit with Boo today. Lately he doesn’t want grandma to come with us to transfer station (our weekly recycling destination) so my mom stays at Andy’s apartment and watches Fox News. But just like last time, just like she said, he knew exactly what was for lunch. You could have given me a year and I would have never figured out there was a pattern, even one as simple as every other week. My mom even brought Jonah a surprise – potato chips and dip.
He was in heaven.
“chips n dips?”
He wanted mama to help him at bath time, and it was fun to watch him splashing around all goofy and happy. Kiss hand? was again an oft-repeated request, and we sang his new favorite song, which is actually an old favorite song my mom taught him years ago. We sing it to the tune of “London Bridge:”
Jooooo—na Russ is Grandma’s boy, grandma’s boy, grandma’s boy!
Jooooo—na Russ is Grandma’s boy, yes oh yes he i—is…
The care workers at his house know the song, as Jonah has taught it to them.
shaggy hair kid
with his lovey grandma
My mother really wants them to cut his hair. It think it’s cute all bushy and long on top, so I don’t push them to cut it.
Sorry, ma.
Jonah, leaning into grandma
And so it must be confessed that Jonah is a grandma’s boy. She’ll get to see him on her birthday, which I imagine will be her favorite present.
I feel a lot of love in my life right now. Thank you all for every time you express it toward me, or Boo, or Andy, or any of us. I’m putting it out there, too, consciously, engaging only in emotions which carry me forward along the river running through the world, which isn’t such a bad, bad world after all. I’m in a card-and-care package-sending-mood, and I’ve been doing things like writing letters to the people (and the bosses of the people) I encounter in the world who are awesome, who have gone above and beyond, whether they have helped me negotiate Jonah’s Medicaid system or just been really kind and friendly to me at the grocery store. I know I’d like it if someone wrote a letter of praise to my boss about me. I hope they all get raises. Perchance to dream…
When the terrible things happen, like the standoff in Alabama with that 5-year-old boy in the bunker with the Vietnam vet, I try to combat the awfulness with goodness, however I can foster it. If I don’t, I lose faith in humanity too easily, too frequently. I become hypnotized by all the anger…by the illusion that any of us is an other to be bullied, manipulated, hated, dismissed, captured, or even killed.
Boo restores my faith in humanity. It happens every Saturday when I walk into his house and he runs into my arms. It happens every time he re-directs himself without an intervention…every time he asks for hug from daddy and I see the beauty in the way they embrace…every time he laughs with his silly, uninhibited, pure joy.
I got some good video of his laughter today toward the end of this 40 second video – and a lot of his turning in circles:
I love how the video starts out with my mother admonishing him for something: That’s not funny… and then at the end how he comes right at me: more hug?
“Laughing brains are more absorbent.”
~ Alton Brown
I like to think Jonah’s brain is a laughing brain.
The Never Normal 