The Why People

I love the little people. My dad didn't approve of the word, "kids." If I said something about the kids at the day care center where the Service Club volunteered, he would correct me with a rejoinder including the word, "goats." Luckily, I think "children" is a beautiful word. And children are beautiful people. I was behind a child on the M15 bus going up Manhattan from the Staten Island ferry. This was one genius of a kid goat! He couldn't have been even three years old but he talked steadily to his nanny (I guess my dad would have made another goat reference on that word) about the excursions they had been on. He said, "Oh, that was when we went up to 77th Street for the frozen yogurt." At first, I thought he was referring solely to special occasions and consequently would know the addresses but, no. He was a running commentary on all sorts of streets. I noticed he did all the talking and never once asked, "Why?" "Why" is one of my favorite expressions from the Little People. They really want to get to the core of whatever they are investigating. I volunteered with children from the time I was in high school and the Why's tickled me better than a sunny day with an ice cream cone. Children can be very courageous, too. Like the two youngsters in DRUMMERS OF JERICHO. This is the story of a 14 year old Jewish girl, Pazit, in band at a Texas high school in a town which  has no Jews."'People get mean when they're afraid they might be wrong. Or afraid they're gonna lose something. So they end up blaming you for what's their own fault.'" It would be hard for me to imagine what she goes through if I hadn't spent some of the Civil Rights years in  Louisiana where I was told I might have to leave school if I didn't drop my "Outside Agitator" posture. The interview with the dean was on account of my having praised a photo of JFK shaking hands with Nat King Cole. Unreal, right? I throw my lot with the ones who speak out and I started young. I told my second grade teacher that I wouldn't write, "Examination" on the top of my test paper because I considered it too difficult for someone my age. I had been a child advocate before but this was the first time I had shown my true colors in public. My reaction to Paola in Donna Leon's book, FATAL REMEDIES, was, "Go Paola!" when her husband, the Commissario says, "'Why does everything have to be filled with such meaning....?'" I like characters like Jane Eyre and Billy Elliot who stand their ground, or in his case, soar in the air, with their convictions. Opinionated? Self-righteous? Judgmental? Take your pick. I stand accused but I don't mind. When I'm told that I should act my age, I have to ask, "Why? And what age are we talking about?" I'm very willing to be kid-age if I'm "The Emperor's New Clothes" kid-age. Often, the going get rough. Nobody cheers. Things get ugly. But there is something wonderfully freeing about trying to right wrongs. There is no failure grade for doing one's best. As my brother put it, "I can't do everything. I can do something."

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...may you speak up today and receive the blessings of tranquility...