a movie's made, a war is won
I took them to the greasy spoon where I have my after-school job. I love that job, but that is a nonsensical quirk of being me. I do not need to work there but just cannot stop. My boss, the nicest woman in the world asked the children, �Is Mr. S* a good teacher?� Before they could respond I said, �Your whole future hinges on your response to that question.� L* said, �He thinks he�s funny, doesn�t he?� Which drew a great response from my coworkers at the job where I never talk, and she followed it with, �We don�t lie to the Principal for you and we are not going to lie to these people!� After everyone stopped laughing at her jokes she said, �He�s not too bad, he gives a ton of work and doesn�t let us wander the room but he takes us to the movies. No one else leaves the building with us.�
Then, in the line at the movies T* told some stranger unsolicited that I was his father and I was taking him and his friends to the movies. I said, �He is not my son� and before I could elaborate on the topic this oldster said, �Oh, I say that too about my kids! There are days you are proud and days you want to crawl under a rock.� I shrugged and said, �Today is that day.�
Then, we get to the counter and while I am ordering the tickets T* says, �Dad, you heard Mr. B* in Chapel, lying about my age the movies is stealing.� Then he looks at the cashier and proudly tells him that he had his Bar Mitzvah this weekend and going to the movies with his friends is my present to him, and in a mystery to everyone started to elaborate on the ins and outs of Bar Mitzvahs. Again, I shrugged and said, �I am just happy he is paying attention.�
Perhaps I did father him and am unaware of it, it takes a while to catch the resemblance. I will never have my own children but I am confident that the prophecy where our children are a punishment for our own childhoods is being brought to bear
The movie was great. I was shocked; I was appalled. I was ramped up to be bored. The movie is entertaining, but at parts so cute that you want to throw up. The kids really liked the movie but I think they enjoyed the night more.
Talking to the last parent at the last drop off, I said that as a teacher it is personally important that the students to know they are liked and believed in. It was not until I was in college that a teacher thought I had any potential or worth, and even then, it was just two people. For that, Dr. A* and Dr. G* have my enternal and fanatical devotion. My parents and Godparents believe in me, but there is something essential about people who do not love you immediately and unconditionally believing in you, to take a chance on you and occasionally stick their necks out for you because having me in your life is not an albatross but more like dragging a guillotine behind you just in case. I owe them a debt of gratitude; not showing the world that their faith in me is or was justified would have been a fate worthy of hara-kiri. Moving past my parents and Godparents, the Good Doctors have made the most profound, positive influence on my life. My best friend said the other day, �Just imagine how far we could have gotten, sooner, if someone had only believed in us.� It is my greatest conceit that someday, I will too.
To own the truth, I have gotten much done in my life through spite and stubbornness. Godmother, a venerable Irish woman, says that my stubbornness and spitefulness know no equal. My will is a powerful influence and motivator � but a positive force creates more momentum than a negative one.
In short, I am trying to be the change in the world that I wish to see.
The other note for tonight was that M* said, at Mc Donald�s, �Look! Barbara Bush is here!� Not unlike me saying, when out my mother when we encounter a white haired old lady, �I didn�t know Barbara Bush hung out here!� I nearly choked.
