S is headed for Austin

[bunrab]

And I don't really know what to do with myself.

On an entirely unrelated note. Last week the across-the-street neighbor - mother of the toddler who plays in the street unsupervised - saw that we were carrying books (we were headed out to supper) and asked what church we went to. That says so many things wrong about contemporary society I don't know where to start.

Comments

20-20 hindsight

[fritzsmomma.livejournal.com]

Alas, my best responses come waaaay after the fact.

It might have been fun to say: "We go to the Church of Supervised Children. This Sunday's sermon is to be: 'Don't let your children play in the street.' Can you come as our guest?"

Smiles!

Re: 20-20 hindsight

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't know that she would have recognized that as sarcasm, or that it was aimed at her and at the three-year-old.

Who was, incidentally, at this point far down the street on her trike, with the neighbor's 6-year-old who is finally off training wheels on his bicycle. Both kids are fascinated with our motorcycles. And every time I ride back up to the house on the bike, first thing I do when I get off is push/nudge/lift Caitlyn and her trike back onto the lawn and tell her that her mommy doesn't want her to play in the street.

[unless-spring.livejournal.com]

Just curious, what did you answer and what was their reaction to your answer?

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

It sort of got surreal from there. I said "oh, we don't go to church" and she said "but I thought" and pointed at Steve's bookbag, and we told her that we were just reading, for fun, and she said "oh, my parents read. They were both teachers." Which left me wondering, how exactly does the child of two teachers wind up not recognizing that people might read something other than the bible and for some reason other than that their church told them to> What kind of teachers could they have been? How did teachers produce trailer trash? None of which I said. Instead, all I said after that was, "I have a lot of children's books, too; maybe I could read to your daughter some afternoon" and she said she'd like that.

It was just mind-boggling. But after many years of snappy comebacks and sarcasm, I have finally learned that it's easier to "nice" strange and ignorant people to death, and once in a great while it's even productive, where sarcasm rarely is, fun though it might be. MANY years of experience with trying sarcasm and wit. It takes a WHILE to recognize that even though it's fun, it's not adding anything to the sum total of intelligence and civility in the world or doing anything to improve the situation at hand. I wind up being boringly earnest sometimes as a result. I know that's no fun, but there you have it: I am so old, I'm actually being mature.

[elfbiter.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of people who swore off books after they finished their studies. Reading is work and therefore tedious and boring to them....