I’ve been listening to so much sad and melancholy music this year, but I think I’m pulling out of it. Not that I will ever stop, because I love the sad and melancholy beauties more than any of the others, but I hear variety is also supposed to be good.
A few things have been a catalyst for this . . .
So, today, I was kind of sad, and I was driving home, and I saw a white man sitting on the side of the road. He had pulled his truck over, and there was a stray dog, the kind of brindled pitbull mix that you find so often, loose by the side of the road. The truck had its blinkers on, and the man was sitting, legs wide apart in a v-shape. I think he was trying to get down on the level of the pup, and coax him over to him, away from traffic. It was obvious he had pulled his truck over, just to help the dog.
I saw a black man with dreadlocks walking towards the other man. He was dressed in a mishmash of stuff, and I guess he was just walking along and came across the guy with the truck. I was sitting in stand still traffic, so this all took place in about ten minutes. The man with the dreadlocks walked up to the man sitting on the ground, and said something, and the man on the ground smiled up at him, and the man with the dreadlocks sat down, too, with the same v-leg position, and they were both talking and occasionally raising a hand towards the dog, and both watched the dog. I had the urge to get out of my car and go sit with them. And I smiled, and the light changed to green. My heart was full.
And tonight, I saw a comment on a friend’s facebook post. It read simply: “It is time for ethnic cleansing.”
And my heart shattered.
Edited to add: My friend’s original post did not say this, but a friend of theirs made the comment ON my friend’s post. Hope that makes sense. I would have zero tolerance for that within my friends.
I know I already posted the snake thing, but this requires it’s own discussion, because kids starting middle school is like some kind of hyperspace/warp speed shit. . . all of a sudden all this kind of serious stuff starts whipping by and it’s all a blur.
Dinner table subjects tonight included:
– How babies are made
– Sperm (with interpretive dance by Rollie)
– Todd: “Tiller, time for your shower.” Me: “Tiller, let me know if you ever have questions about what we all talk about.” Tiller: “I don’t even know what sperm means, but it sounds creepy.” [Exeunt Tiller]
– Drugs (weed, coke, meth, addiction, withdrawal, chewing tobacco, big league chew, oral cancer, and symptoms, medicinal weed, plant-based drugs vs. synthetic, “if you do meth, i will punch you in the face, it is really, really bad.”)
– STDs, communicable diseases, and “how” they are spread
– Rollie: “Tony said he’s in sex ed and some kids started thrusting and Ms. Furr said, ‘Stop gyrating like you are in a sex club.'” (Who the hell, is Ms. Furr?)
So, then we talked about whether or not he knows what she meant by sex club, and he said, “a club where you go to have sex?” and I said that I think that she meant “strip club” when she referred to it as a “sex club” and that you just go there to watch people take off their clothes while dancing to bad music, and they might ruffle your hair or something. (R: “They have poles, there?”)
And then Todd tried to break up our very serious sex club discussion by doing his own interpretive dance, taking off his flannel shirt and whipping it about his head. I’m pretty sure he was hearing Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” in his head.
Me: “And you never put your hand down on anything at a strip club and then lick your fingers.” [‘Yep,’ I thought. ‘I just said that out loud.’] He wanted to know why and I said, “well, they are kind of dirty.” And Rollie looked judgy/disgusted and I said, “Well, they are not bad. It doesn’t make you bad if you go there. Mama and daddy have been to them before. They’re just kind of dumb.” Pause. . . “Maybe don’t tell all your friends mama and daddy have been to strip clubs. [Oh god, plural. Why did I make it plural?] “But other people’s parents probably have too.” R: “I doubt that.” Me: “Well, maybe you’re right. Not all the parents have.”
And then I told him this is all very serious stuff, and that the important thing is to be safe, and respectful, and that he can always talk to us about anything, or ask us about things he has questions about.
This is about where Todd send him off to bed, which is for the best, because obviously I am fucking this whole parenting thing up to hell and back, because I have a hard time not being honest about stuff.
(I originally put this on Facebook, but wanted to document this one here, because one day the kids are going to think this is very, very funny, OR they will need it to hand to their therapist at that initial appointment.)