Dying/broken/forgiven.... now I begin

Born: 17-06-56....gemini.... monkey
re-born: 3-09-80
born again\found: 14-04-08
other notable dates: 10-03-68; 03-09-87; 23-03-96;
1-05-98; 31-01-02; 5-04-04

Interests: movement, stressed/transgressive embodiment, lived experience (body\space\time\relation)
expression ( word, dance, text, image, story, music, poetics)
learning, yielding......

Hopes for the blog:
offer up the wild intersectedness of lived experience and engage others in creative, expressive, perhaps irreverant, hopefully playful, and respectful encounters....
enact kindness
create moments of pause for disclosure, discovery, stillness

Saturday, September 12, 2009

show and tell

Sebastian is 12 years old. An old child. He has been attending summer movement camp since he was 8 and has mixed feelings about being here. His first summer he asked me why his mom had dropped him here in the middle of all these retards, and assured me that he was not one of them.
At the time I had said to him that whatever he thought about the other folks at camp, he was not to engage in that kind of disrespectful language. Seb will take that from me because I will also tell him why his mom dropped him off at my camp. You see, Seb, I would say, you have enough going on with how you act in the world that you have earned yourself a diagnosis of high functioning autism. What do you think, he would ask me. I am not qualified to diagnose, I would tell him. But since you're here, how about giving some of the activites a try.... it could help with some of your games and fitness skills.
Seb is a strategic fella, so he knows the currency for being included in activities with his same age peers, whose approval he craves and whose disdain he does not quite comprehend. He is puzzled about why some of his bizzare responses are not met with high fives from the gang in the school yard.
He is, however, quite the little magician with word manipulation. The young gal who worked with him this past summer made the somewhat dubious decision to wear a tiny little camisole that left very little to anyone's imagination. Seb figured he'd died and gone to heaven. When I introduced them to each other (her name was Chantal) I did notice a little gleam in his eye....
at first I thought it was to do with the magnificent display before him. But, no; he surprised me.
By the end of the day he was working on how he will introduce Chantal to his buddies
Hello, everyone, this is Shoawantelle.... ( get it? show and tell... Chantal... )
I give him a little smirk and shake my head, yes, Seb, I say ... I get it.
He smiles and asks, do you think she will get it
I don't know, I say. What do you think??
I hope not! he says....
Sebastian: adolescent wordsmith extraordinaire.

9 comments:

  1. what a pleasent read. I'm with Sebastian, high fives buddy. It would be nice to meet him and Showantelle. Oh and you too.

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  2. Seems to me to be an age appropriate response to the uhhh presentation presented.

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  3. maybe he'd like finnegans wake - or john lennon's litle books

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  4. Ah, a lad after me own heart. My mouth has always been my downfall.

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  5. Hey Harlequin, thanks for this description. Brightened my day :)

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  6. thanks, y'all. I tried my best to be deadpan and appropriately unimpressed with Seb after that word-play, but I was made almost immediately! -- he knew I was impressed... quite clever, I had to give it to him.

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  7. Ha ha ha ha ha oh lovely jubbly; you. Lovely story and a smile will stay on my face all day now.

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  8. SarahA-- thanks for this great laugh... he is a funny little guy!
    glad you dropped by.

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  9. Hilarious! Your life must be very rewarding. Jeeze, is mine ever boring. Came over from View From The Northern Wall.

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