Wow. It has been ages since I posted anything. Probably getting married, settling into a new york routine and teaching at an insanely rigorous school had something to do with it.
I spent last weekend with report cards and assessments and notes from parents spread out all over the kitchen table. I was glued to the chair for hours typing comments, cramming, doing research for this "paper" due in 48 hours. Which child is curious? Which one is kind? Which one is funny or sweet or thoughtful or insightful? Which one is quick thinking, has a huge vocabulary, is empathetic, knows how to spell?
I frequently think about children and how they develop...how these articulate, healthy children from wealth-filled Brooklyn change into proper adults. Are they more insightful and more developed than the charismatic, cherubic children from bilingual Chicago? Do they know more going into adulthood? Do they feel an advantage?
Life is filled with times when you put on the brakes. Wait, stop...your father and I are getting a divorce. Wait, we need to move. Wait, we don't have money for new school clothes. Wait, I can't stop and talk to you because I need to make dinner and get lunches ready and do the laundry and feed your sister. Wait.
I think that the children in Chicago might have to stop more often. Things might not be as consistent or smooth or predictable. They need to stop and wait...then start back up again and keep going. Each time you stop, it's harder to catch up.
Today I didn't have to do any report cards. I actually didn't have anything to do...which was weird. I opened up an old tin box of recipes and pulled out one from college...really from my mom, when I was a little kid. Deep dish spinach pizza, direct from Chicago. I spent almost three hours making deep dish pizza. It feels good to catch up.
i miss chicago. and you. and im glad you started this again. and it's nice to remember to stop. and maybe just breathe. look around. and the weirdest conclusion of all, someone just asked me about spinach stuffed deep dish chicago pizza 5 minutes before i read this. you're in my head :)
ReplyDeletelots of lovee from bostonia
Huh?
ReplyDeleteI think that rich, healthy families still stop for stuff like divorce and food. Maybe with even more severe consequences than those low income folks suffer through. You can't split up three BMW's and a summer home if you don't have one to begin with. Speaking on behalf of all inner city cherubic children, we all have a chance. What we do with it is up to us.
easy, f.d. not saying that all wealthy children have simple lives or all fortuneless children have difficult lives. just making a comment about hectic lives, including my own.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this - good food for thought these days. And by food I mean deep dish pizza. As in I need more of it. In the figurative sense. Also the literal.
ReplyDeleteThis deep dish pizza was so good that I ate almost all of it. Literally. Luckily, we are both ok with that. Figuratively.
ReplyDeleteyum - recipe, please?!
ReplyDelete