I started this blog on November 11, 2008. and for the first month and a half I was getting bupkiss. I despaired. I had put a lot of time into creating and writing my posts and it wasn’t for the purpose of mere self-gratification (although self-gratification has a lot to be said for it.)
NO! I wanted to share my life and my views, my creativity and foolishness with others!
I am a SOCIAL animal. (saints preserve me . . . )
So at the end of the year I decided to see what it took to get views here. I went for the lowest common denominator — sex. And it worked. I started doing satiric homages to female body parts that I have known and loved. I got bunches and bunches of views. And it was kinda funny because I don’t know what people thought they were going to get when they clicked on my tags, but it definitely wasn’t X-rated. And except for the last one, they weren’t even R-rated.
Then I started doing some other things. I started regularly visiting one or two (or three) other blogs and leaving appropriate comments. When I saw one I liked I linked it here under “Word Press Blogs I Like.” People started linking me in their blogs.
I got one reader Unknown Nobody from Dummies of the Year who I enjoy a great deal and he helped me out on some technical matters–such as learning how to use “Arbitrary Text” to create my page navigation links. Visit his site. But not until you finish here. please.
Dan, from United Architects Art, gives me a great deal of support and we have become email friends. He also provided me links to some other blogs that I have visited and garnered me even more good friends and acquaintances. Ditto as above.
Kennedy, from kennedy’s run is a Communist but I love him anyway. He posts a lot of political stuff.
I’m just kidding about the Communist part.
No, he’s not.
Yes, I am.
Nope!
Will you just shut up and let me finish?
O.K.
Anyway . . . Visit him too . . .
Up until now, these three have been my core. Thanks to Dan, I have begun to spread out.
A recent post, Freezing Europe — Old School, was inspired by a post written by Carolyn in Karolinka In & Around Bulgaria. I think my post inspired by Carolyn’s is perhaps one of the best news and politics commentaries that I have done since coming to wordpress. (I’ve done better just not here. I also do serious polisci research and history commentary.)
Carolyn and I haven’t spoken yet. She’s a Fullbright Scholar in Bulgaria and used to be an Americorps worker here in the U.S. just as I am now. even though we haven’t spoken yet, I suspect she’s a pretty good person. But, I wouldn’t give her money until you know her better if I were you.
Now I’ve lost my train of thought.
Oh, yeah . . .
So I stopped doing the lowest common denominator stuff. Perhaps you noticed. Perhaps you didn’t. Perhaps you noticed and don’t care. perhaps you didn’t notice and still don’t give a . . .. (Sorry.)
I’m having fun. I plan to continue to have fun. I thank everybody who comes in and looks at my stuff. I thank everybody who has contributed to my growth. And to everybody who comes in and looks at my stuff and DOESN’T comment:. I’ve seen the links and searches you used to come here and I know where to find you.
(Don’t you just love writing parenthetically? I know I do.)
And We Thank You For Your Support
c.e.s.
Gryphon
Dr. Spots
The Fedex man (baby-face boy actually) just delivered my new laptop. It’s a 
Getting Mushy
Posted by Gryphon on February 18, 2009
I’m going to get a little mushy here. You are forewarned.
When this happens it is not my duty to supervise their after-school activities, but it is my duty to protect the property from vandalism and the ministry from civil liability. Balancing these responsibilities sometimes makes me appear to the children as “mean.” Because of my necessary segregation from concerned programs I do not get to offset that with positive interaction. One child told
me, “You’re the Mean Old Man at the Prospect [Avenue] house.”
That hurts me a little, I must admit. The reason it hurts is because I love them so much. Every one of them is younger than my oldest grandchild and I haven’t seen my grandchildren (or children for that matter) for several years. I love and cherish the youth and innocence I see in their actions and in their faces.
I don’t like their teasing and meanness toward each other, but I realize that it is part of being a child. I realize that it needs to be trained out of them, because there is nothing quite so ugly or potentially criminal as an abusive adult bully. The adult kind don’t become that way overnight. They grow up that way. Somewhere along the line as a child they came to believe that it is an acceptable way of behaving and
socializing. It is much too complex a subject to be dealt with here and at this time.
The point is I get the “Warm Fuzzies” when the children are around. I got a good dose of it today.
I tutored a young man to whom I have become very attached. He is a young man about 12 years old, musically inclined and active in sports. He has a sharp sense of humor and an inquisitive mind. Occasionally I am reminded of the son that was taken from me by illness and death, but it does not make me sad! Oh No! In this young man that I tutor, God allows me a glimpse of what might have been for my son under other circumstances and I am happy that this child is blessed.
Oh how I do love the children.
When I got back to my work site from tutoring there was a large group of elementary age children on the front porch. I walked up to them and asked, “O.K. Who’s here for what?”
Some of the boys raised their hands and one said, “We’re waiting here to be picked up for basketball.”
I looked at one of the girls and said “Are you going to be playing basketball?” I knew she wasn’t.
She said, “We’re going to watch.”
It sounded fishy, but I let it pass for the moment. I then walked around behind the house and found a middle-schooler standing in the secluded outside basement stairs talking on a cell phone. I ran him off. I then walked back around to the front porch and while standing among the kids I called a staff member on my phone and so the
kids could hear me asked him if the girls were going with the boys to basketball. The staff member told me they weren’t.
So I turned to the girls and told them, “OK. You’re not going to basketball. Take off.”
Among much grumbling and VERY slow walking, they headed off the property. I followed them halfway across the yard and cheerfully said goodbye and “see ya later!” More grumbling but they barely perceptibly quickened their pace. I went on in the house and began preparing to leave. I looked out the window and noticed that the girls had crossed the street and were teasing the boys from that distance. I shook my head and went on about my business. Five minutes later I noticed that the boys had joined them across the street and less than five minutes after that I saw the group walking up the street.
O.K. so I was the Mean Old Man at the Prospect House, but I did good.
Almost time to leave I looked out my back window and saw two middle-school age girls in a sand pile we have behind the house. They had a snow shovel and were moving the sand around lightly. Just kind of scraping and shoving it more than actually shoveling it. One of them had a stick and was making geometric designs in the sand. My heart
lightened and I leaned against the window and watched these two young girls playing in the sand.
No, I wasn’t going to go out and run them away. You see, I am not REALLY a mean old man. I was charmed and enchanted by the innocence of children engaged in nothing more complicated as playing in a sand pile. These were young teenage girls. You might think that they were too old to be playing in the sand, but you would be wrong. It only goes to prove the absolute goodness of children of any age.
There is no such thing as a bad child. Of that I am convinced.
I would have loved to stay and secretly watched them at their innocent play but it was time to catch my bus. I locked the house and walked out, stopping by the sand pile for just a moment to say hi and “see ya later.”
Walking away, my step was light and my heart was full. I felt the love of God in me and for me. I am convinced of the Love of God for His children everywhere including His Love for MY children who come to play at MY house on Prospect Avenue.
gryphon
Posted in Gratitude | Tagged: children, commentary, God, Journal, Love, playing, Spirituality | 4 Comments »