Summer was great. A wonderful, sometimes tedious, summer with lots of activities - although never as much as you anticipate in June, or want for in August. This past week Doug and I took off work and the three of us camped near Rochester where we "visited the Mayo brothers," as Ollie put it, hiked, and hunkered down for one out of two nights due to rain, Ollie's loose bowels and torrential thunderstorms. For the rest of the week, we went to the Children's Museum, National Eagle Center, Red Wing Shoe Museum, Lark Toys, Minnesota's Largest Candy Store, Minnesota's Renaissance Festival and swimming. We walked Roxy in a million different directions, ate on the front stoop, at picnic tables, in the grass and on the back deck. We've laughed and joked, ran and biked, danced and sang and fought like lions. It's been glorious.
Now we're back to school tomorrow. Doug and I are excited - Ollie got the teacher he wanted and he's not in the classroom with any of his friends so he doesn't have a ready-made audience to entertain. Ollie's nervous - his bully is in his class. He's actually had a hard time falling asleep since Open House, when he met his teacher, found his locker, and saw his bully again.
Poor kid has struggled with bullying this year. Last year he oscillated between being bullied but having a best friend, and bullying his buddy so that the bullies would be kinder to him. His best buddy finally stood up for himself and now Ollie doesn't have that child as his BFF any longer. To make it more confusing, however, one of the bullies actually did become a good friend. This summer, older kids were picking on Ollie and just when they got tired of their bit, other kids his age started in on him. These kids even made him smell a peanut (he's allergic, but he's fine). So Ollie's anxious as hell to be in the same classroom with one of his bullies from first grade.
Tonight, after Ollie and I read a few chapters of "Ramona the Brave," we listened to a new song. An Ages and Ages song, "Divisionary (Do the Right Thing)," goes like this:
Do the right thing, do the right thing
Do it all the time, do it all the time
Make yourself right, never mind them
Don't you know you're not the only one suffering
It's quite beautiful, intense and inspiring. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIShuV7_KVw.
We talked about what the song meant by "never mind them," and "suffering." We talked about always being kind and doing the right thing - what that means.
The first day of school can be a fresh beginning and a clean start, not only for the kids but also for the parents, too. As long as I'm prodding my child to be the best he can be, to do the right thing all the time, to be compassionate and helpful and loving and good...I have to expect it of myself. And you. And you. And you!
So let's do the right thing, do the right thing.
Let's do it all the time, do it all the time.
Make ourselves right, never mind them.
Remember that we're not the only ones suffering.
Goodnight. Happy school year. Love you.
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