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| Photo by Emiel Molenaar on Unsplash |
Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once, and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now. My words are:
Cosmos ~ wonderous ~ fodder~ crotchety ~ sanguine ~ bully
They were submitted by: Climaxed - Thank you, Jennyi!
By the time this post goes live, it'll be five weeks that my car had an encounter with an innocent tree, and never in a million years would I have foreseen the consequences in terms of time, money and sanity this was going to entail.
Deferred deliveries of necessary spare parts due to Covid and bureaucratical hurdles to ship toll-able goods from EU countries into Switzerland and annoyingly slow processing of insurance forms, just to give you an idea.
Always looking on the bright side though. Whatever goes wrong, is blog fodder, right? I get a chance to up my exercise. Plus, by slowing down and walking more, I get a chance to have wonderous nature experiences like spotting raindrops on pretty roses. And smelling them, too.
What's more, first world problems always need to be put in perspective.
My friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer last September went through hell and came out strong and sanguine.
While other people might be taking their time to regroup and improve their golf handicap or sip Cosmos at the beach, she went ahead and landed herself a job in an organization that helps reintegrating handicapped people into the working world. Who's a hero?
Speaking of handicapped, as part of religion class, Colin and his friends get to choose from a variety of events and topics, and the other day I had a chance to accompany them to the unique Swiss paraplegic center. We were welcomed by Tim, who has been in his wheelchair for 30 years and works as a peer counselor. What this means is he talks to patients (and their relatives) and answers their pressing questions from his own experience and perspective.
I was very impressed by his positive attitude and approach. We were hestiant to ask questions about sports or travel, considering getting up, dressed and ready to leave the house in his everyday life, takes him a good two hours. He was super cool about it. Showed us a video of how he and his buddies play wheelchair rugby, aka murderball, and guys, let me tell you, much like the "regular" rugby players, they are not squeamish - at all!
Travel requires good prep work and more time and patience than for a regular tourist; nevertheless he and his wife have seen a good part of this world.
In non-pandemic times there would have been an actual guided tour through the different departments of the rehab facility. Since I have a friend who ended up there as a parachute accident survivor in 1999, I came into contact with his world back then, and I was very impressed by the level of multi-faculty care patients benefit from.
This time our guide and and us guests stayed in the newly built visitors' center where they set up an entire wheelchair accessible apartment for us to explore: smooth flooring, widened entranceways, lowered countertops and sinks, you name it!
The kids had fun racing each other test driving their wheelchairs, but they certainly got a glimpse of what it means to do every single thing sitting in that chair, day in, day out.
A week later it was track and field day at Colin's school.
He told me they had to call an ambulance for one of his classmates who clumsily fell as he tried to high jump. While I was shocked that his injuries must have warranted an emergency vehicle, I was not surprised. I never met him personally - darn pandemic keeps me from getting to know his classmates and their parents - however, I heard a few things about him, respectively his parents:
The boy has cool career aspirations that require for him to do well at school, and he's not athletic. The parents are enablers. They allegedly do his homework and drive him to school most days, (which in Switzerland is a big no-no, and the one day I do this, I wreck my car,) transporting his bike in the trunk, and drop him off around the corner.
Why the bike? The students need to shuffle all over town to different buildings and sports facilities.
So the boy is overweight, has a low self-esteem, no friends and in his desperation he seems to be somewhat of a class bully. On top of that, his grades are not all that impressive. Perfect homework and parent-made presentations are one thing, but everyday performance and tests taken in person, are another thing.
Turns out he not only fractured his tibia, but there were complications, so he'll be stuck at home in a wheelchair for as long as six months. How unfortunate. Now that Covid measurements are being lifted, life returns to normal, and summer break is four weeks away, that boy goes back to distance learning and invites his parents to helicopter him further.
I do hope his childhood, and especially the current situation won't cause him to transform into a crotchety old man down the road.
I'm always interested in reading studies about the influence of genes and environment when it comes to child development. If you are born to criminal drug addicts and brought up by loving adoptive parents, will you be OK? Will you actually do better than kids that were raised by, let's say, absentee, yet blood relative parents?
What do you think?
Let me know below, and please don't leave before checking out my blogger friends' posts:
Was the tree really the innocent party here or was your car?
ReplyDeleteFood for thought. lol
In terms of the question you posed, I was raised by a single mother who was addicted to drugs. I had a father that was there but kind of put me on the back burner to raise my stepsister. I think I turned out okay. My husband was raised by two parents in a Christian home and he's struggled with being an alcoholic for some time now.
When I broke my leg I learned how hard it is to navigate the world in a wheelchair. Simple things that we take for granted because so much harder. Poor bathroom designs really is a problem.
ReplyDeleteWhen my son broke his leg while away at college I had to rent him one of those knee scooters and navigating the school was a nightmare for him. How lucky he (and your son's classmate) is to only have to do it for a short time.
ReplyDeleteThe old 'nature vs nurture' argument.
ReplyDeleteI love that there are tours of facilities to give our children an idea of life lived by people with totally differing circumstances. It is the one opportunity for them to really find out what life is like for other people!
I feel for that boy!
At least it is summer so walking everywhere is much more enjoyable than if it had been a winter breakdown! Australia is the same with covid delays in getting parts for things :(
ReplyDeleteTrees like to get in the way of cars and such
ReplyDeleteOuch for the car. What a great learning experience for your son. I feel sorry for the boy who broke his leg. He is going to face some trouble in the real world when he gets older.
ReplyDeleteJanet’s Smiles